Part 3
The person in front pointed to the plaque. “Barbecue skewers, I guess. The smell is just too fragrant. I saw them lining up, so I joined.”
The man was puzzled. “You’ve been lining up for so long, and no one has come out with the actual product?”
The person in front shook his head. “I don’t know. The line is moving forward, but no one is coming out.”
Inside the small barbecue shop that they couldn’t see, those who had bought five skewers and eaten them on the spot were squatting by the card machine.
They began a new round of bamboozling: “These skewers smell good but taste average. How about this? The limit is five per person. You buy five, I get four, you get one. I’ll pay you for the five skewers, treating you for free.”
The person looked at him with a “Do you think I’m stupid?” expression. “Do I look brain-damaged to you? If it really tasted average, would you be begging to treat me?”
Hao Yan and his friend drooped their heads for the umpteenth time: Wuwu, why are customers these days so hard to trick? They didn’t have any bad intentions; they just wanted to eat one more skewer.
The friend sighed, the two brothers leaning their heads together. “Forget it. How about we come early tomorrow to line up?”
Hao Yan and his friend left reluctantly, but the scene didn’t end there. Others, still unsatisfied, started a new round of bamboozling.
Unfortunately, the smell in the air was too fragrant. Those who wanted to trick people found no takers.
Early in the morning, the manager had people prepare about three hundred catties of exotic beast meat, skewering a total of about one thousand five hundred skewers.
The manager initially thought they would sell about ten skewers today.
As a result, before the morning was even over, they were… all sold out?
He looked at the empty box and told the remaining customers in line. None of them wanted to leave. Finally, after much persuasion, they reluctantly turned to the entertainment district.
Those who were reluctant to leave were the ones who had tasted it, staring eagerly at the manager. “Will there be more in the afternoon?”
The manager looked at Young Master Bai. “Will there?”
Young Master Bai: “Do you think there will be?” Good heavens, although I am a fierce rabbit, grilling over a thousand skewers in one morning, I’m about to be crippled, okay?
Fortunately, his uncle had the foresight to prepare an extra grill. Later, Bonnie and the manager took turns grilling while he was responsible for sprinkling the spices.
Otherwise, they couldn’t finish grilling. They absolutely couldn’t finish.
When the customers finally left the shop, the manager stared in a trance at the revenue of nearly 1.6 million star coins, including the extra tens of thousands from the spicy orders.
The manager had been in the Food District for so long, and it was the first time he had seen a daily revenue over ten thousand.
No, this directly surpassed a million.
And this was just one morning.
The Entertainment District’s auction house was the most profitable, with large amounts for each item, but the cost of acquiring items was also high. Adding manpower and losses during transport, a single auction item might only net a profit of a hundred thousand star coins or so.
Result! Their Food District had succeeded. A single morning’s revenue beat the profit of ten auctioned items.
Hanna, the head of the Food District, walked to the council hall in a trance. He felt it was necessary, absolutely necessary, to immediately convert the other five nutrient solution shops.
When he arrived at the council hall, it happened to be the time for the weekly noon meeting.
Originally, City Lord Xuan wouldn’t attend, but after dealing with Anselm and with the new City Lord taking office, he was afraid Mr. Bai couldn’t handle it, so he sat in temporarily.
The heads of all six districts had arrived.
The head of the Entertainment District saw Hanna arriving last and joked, “Your Food District is doing well today. I heard you changed a shop to sell some exotic beast meat skewers? It’s quite popular, attracting a lot of people to line up. How are the sales?”
The heads of the other districts laughed too, not taking it seriously at all.
Their districts were cold, but relatively okay.
They had stayed in the Entertainment District all morning helping out and hadn’t gone to the Food District to look. They had only heard mentions from subordinates.
After all, the other districts were too dead. Usually, they stayed in the Entertainment District when they had nothing to do, occasionally bidding on good items.
City Lord Xuan also looked over. “No harm. Just tell the truth. Today is only the first day; don’t put too much pressure on Mr. Bai. If there’s a loss, transfer it from my account. Don’t bother Mr. Bai with these things.”
The other heads exchanged glances and dared not say more. Clearly, City Lord Xuan was biased toward this Mr. Bai.
Hearing that City Lord Xuan would cover even the losses, it didn’t matter.
Unexpectedly, Hanna, with a dazed look on his face, swallowed hard to calm himself down. “No, no need.”
The Entertainment District head raised an eyebrow, asking instinctively, “Don’t tell me it was a gimmick and you got exposed and have to pay compensation?”
Hanna looked at the Entertainment District head this time, puffing out his chest. “No way! I want to propose converting the other five shops into barbecue shops all at once!”
Finishing in one breath, Hanna sighed with relief. He got more excited as he spoke, his hands and feet trembling uncontrollably.
Everyone present was stunned. “W-What?” Is he crazy? Just one morning and he wants to go crazy with the new City Lord?
City Lord Xuan realized something was wrong first. He thought for a moment. “What was the revenue of the new shop this morning?”
From the news, quite a few people went to buy and queued up, so it should be pretty good.
Exotic beast meat wasn’t cheap. He heard they bought three hundred catties. Even if they sold half at double the price, that should be tens of thousands of star coins.
Hearing this, Hanna rubbed his hands excitedly. He held up one finger, then seven fingers.
The Entertainment District head couldn’t help but chuckle.
City Lord Xuan looked over.
The other party waved his hand. “Sorry, I couldn’t hold it back. Hanna, it’s okay. It’s only been one morning. Selling 17,000 star coins is already an unprecedented revenue for the Food District. It’s not bad.”
But that wasn’t even one-tenth of the profit from a single auction item in his Entertainment District.
It seemed the converted shop wasn’t that great either.
But Hanna grinned foolishly. “It’s not seventeen thousand. It’s 1.7 million star coins.”
As his last few words came out, the entire council hall fell into a deathly silence.
Everyone looked over in disbelief. Some thought their ears were playing tricks on them and asked again, “You said… how, how much?” Did we hear wrong, or has Hanna been stimulated into madness?
Crazy, right? 1.7 million? Even if he’s exaggerating, it can’t be this exaggerated, right?
Hanna, however, waved his arms and legs excitedly, unable to control himself any longer. For so many years, their Food District couldn’t lift its head. He had bowed and scraped before the other heads, but today!
His highlight moment had arrived!
Hanna’s eyes were full of adoration. “You don’t know how amazing Mr. Bai is. The barbecue skewers are simply the most delicious thing I’ve ever eaten in my life. You don’t know how crazy the customers were today. They refused to leave after eating, standing by the card machine trying to trick customers in line just to eat one more skewer. In the end… tsk tsk, if Mr. Bai hadn’t had the foresight to limit it to five per person, every customer who came would have stood in front of the barbecue window eating until the end of time!”
Hanna rambled on, leaving everyone dumbfounded. But with this feedback, they swallowed hard. It didn’t look like madness; it looked like… the truth?
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