Chapter 118 Cold Noodles Girl

November 29th, Tuesday noon.

The capital, the first store of Cold Noodles Girl.

From a distance, Li Shi and Xue Zhebbin could already see the long queue in front of the Cold Noodles Girl store.

Xue Zhebbin couldn't help but be a little surprised, "So many people are lining up? Just to eat grilled cold noodles? And it's Tuesday."

Li Shi was noncommittal, "Maybe it's because it's almost lunchtime, or maybe it's because the marketing is very successful, and people nearby are coming to eat something new. Let's go over."

Xue Zhebbin said, "Why don't we just call Meng Chang?"

Li Shi shook his head, "No need. Observing in secret can reveal details, and details determine success or failure."

Xue Zhebbin nodded and stood at the end of the line with Li Shi, like two ordinary onlookers.

Li Shi and Xue Zhebbin had recently finished dealing with the matters of the GOG club and rushed to the capital to check on the situation of Cold Noodles Girl.

Although many of Meng Chang's characteristics looked like those of a swindler, as Li Shi said, sometimes the difference between a genius project and a swindler project is just a thought. Moreover, even a swindler project is not absolutely uninvestable.

In any case, with its current momentum, Cold Noodles Girl is a very worthwhile investment project, worthy of further in-depth investigation.

The queue was quite long, but probably because Cold Noodles Girl mainly served fast food and grilled cold noodles could be mass-produced quickly, and most customers came to eat grilled cold noodles, the line moved very quickly.

Xue Zhebbin noticed that some customers chose to take away, some chose to eat in, and some delivery guys were waiting to pick up orders.

Everything was the same as those popular fast-food restaurants, confirming that Cold Noodles Girl was indeed as popular as the internet said.

After queuing for about ten minutes, the two finally ordered their food and found a place to sit in the store.

The two of them hadn't had lunch yet and were a little hungry, so they ordered some of the recommended signature dishes: Golden Grilled Cold Noodles, Fancy Fried Cold Noodles, side dishes, Traditional Cold Noodles, and health porridge.

Fancy Fried Cold Noodles and Traditional Cold Noodles were the main dishes.

Fancy Fried Cold Noodles seemed to be a special way of making fried cold noodles. The ingredients included eggs, tomatoes, ham, cucumbers, green onions, etc., all cut into small pieces, and then about six pieces of cold noodles were cut into wide noodle-like strips and stir-fried in a pot.

This kind of fried cold noodles felt a bit like ordinary fried noodles, but the difference was that the fried cold noodles themselves were very chewy, and the taste was much better than ordinary fried noodles.

The yellow ham and eggs, red tomatoes, and green cucumbers were mixed together and served in a dark blue porcelain plate, giving people a very good and appetizing feeling.

There was nothing special to say about Traditional Cold Noodles. The noodles were rinsed in cold water and topped with ham, cucumber strips, radish strips, lettuce strips, and other side dishes, and then drizzled with a special cold noodle sauce.

The Traditional Cold Noodles here weren't much different from those in some traditional Chinese noodle restaurants. The portion size was the same, but the side dishes were more generous.

As for the Golden Grilled Cold Noodles, it was the most standard grilled cold noodles style. The cold noodle skin was pan-fried with eggs, wrapped with onions, coriander, grilled sausage, and other side dishes, and then drizzled with various sauces and cut into small pieces.

However, unlike the roadside stalls that directly serve it in paper cups, the grilled cold noodles here were neatly arranged in a long porcelain plate like sushi, which looked much more attractive.

The side dishes were some common cold dish platters, and the health porridge was not much different from the porridge in some common steamed bun and porridge shops, divided into two small bowls.

Overall, the portion sizes were not small, the ingredients were good, and the main point was that the appearance was indeed much higher after being packaged.

The prices were not too expensive. All of this together was enough for two people to eat, totaling 65 yuan.

Compared to the generally cheaper steamed bun and porridge shops, it was a bit more expensive, but considering that this was in the downtown area of the capital and Cold Noodles Girl was a popular online product, this price was far from unacceptable.

As for the overall environment of the store, the service attitude of the waiters, etc., it was the same as any chain fast-food restaurant, and the waiters were quite pleasing to the eye.

Li Shi and Xue Zhebbin began to taste the dishes.

"President Li, what do you think?" Xue Zhebbin asked after taking a couple of bites.

Li Shi chewed the grilled cold noodles carefully and couldn't think of what to say for a moment.

Both of them were regulars at Wu Ming Restaurant and had eaten a lot of good things when traveling around the country, so although they couldn't compare with professional food critics in terms of taste, they could still tell the difference between good and bad.

But the reason why both of them were caught in a dilemma now was because the current situation touched their knowledge blind spot a little.

Are grilled cold noodles delicious... how do you judge that?

If the grilled cold noodles here were compared with those on the street, they would definitely be more delicious, after all, there were obvious improvements in terms of ingredients and the chef's cooking skills.

But the problem was, how much more delicious was this "more delicious"?

Were diners willing to pay the premium, and would they get tired of it quickly?

No one could say for sure.

Li Shi tasted all the dishes and said, "Actually... it's a bit better than I expected. Among the popular online brands, it's considered relatively delicious."

"But then again, grilled cold noodles themselves can't be that bad. And because people will subconsciously compare it with the grilled cold noodles on the street, they will invisibly lower their expectations for the taste, so they will feel that it seems pretty good..."

"As for the cold noodles and porridge, they are just average."

Xue Zhebbin asked, "Then... can this project be invested in? It doesn't seem to have any major problems at the moment."

Li Shi shook his head, "Not sure yet."

"What we are doing now is strictly speaking, mine clearance. We have to look for defects and problems that may lead to the failure of the project in detail. If we find them, we definitely can't invest, but not finding them doesn't mean that the project doesn't have other problems."

"From the current situation, although the Cold Noodles Girl project is burning money like crazy, the product strength is still passable. It's not outstanding, but it won't lose a lot of points because of the taste."

"To achieve this level, it means that Meng Chang's funds, in addition to marketing, have been spent in practical ways and he hasn't made any outrageous operations."

"The marketing is indeed successful. At least many people already know the Cold Noodles Girl brand. As for whether these people can recognize this brand and become loyal diners... it's hard to say."

Xue Zhebbin scratched his head speechlessly, "So troublesome!"

"We've been staring at this project for so long, and we still can't judge whether it can be invested in."

Li Shi smiled slightly, "Young people are easily impatient. Investment is a job that requires patience."

"Really experienced investors know that investment must not be afraid of trouble, otherwise they are going against their own money."

"Many investors, even if they are meticulous and strictly guard against all kinds of details, the project will still fail in the end and they will lose everything."

"As for those investors who are careless, impatient, and only want to invest money and quickly get a return, they will basically lose everything."

Li Shi paused and continued, "Why do you think I especially like to invest with President Pei?"

"Because following President Pei to invest, no matter what project you invest in, you can make money, it's just a difference between making more and making less, making it sooner or making it later. Compared to painstakingly and meticulously screening these investment projects yourself, isn't it more worry-free to directly copy the standard answer?"

Xue Zhebbin was full of admiration, "President Pei is indeed not a mere name as an investment genius."

"Hey, President Li, do you think that when President Pei invests in these projects, will he also conduct on-site inspections and repeatedly confirm them like us? He has so many industries, where does he get the time?"

Li Shi shook his head, "I don't know about that. President Pei is elusive. Who knows what he's usually busy with."

"As for the investment part, I think President Pei must have a more brilliant and time-saving method, but ordinary people definitely can't learn it."

"Just take the previous thing as an example..."

"Haven't you noticed that Meng Chang has almost stopped using Tengda's popularity recently? He has restrained a lot since that press conference."

Xue Zhebbin recalled carefully, "It seems that it is. Recently, Meng Chang has done a lot of marketing activities, such as driving sports cars to deliver grilled cold noodles, but he hasn't mentioned Tengda's investment anymore."

"Could it be that President Pei knocked on Meng Chang through President Ma at the last press conference and it worked?"

Li Shi nodded, "Yes. This shows that even if President Pei doesn't personally attend, he can still judge the truth behind some clues, and all kinds of details can't escape his eyes."

"And President Pei can use these details to see the big picture from the small and grasp and deduce the direction of the entire project from a macro perspective. I think this should be his unique investment method."

"It's just a pity that this kind of investment realm has a mysterious meaning, and ordinary people can never learn it."

After Xue Zhebbin's imagination, he sighed, "Hey, investment is too difficult. Sure enough, it's more worry-free to just follow President Pei and copy the correct answer directly."

Li Shi smiled, "It doesn't matter, as long as you slowly investigate and learn the projects that you invest in with President Pei, you will always make progress."

"After all, investment geniuses like President Pei who are young and have no omissions are one in a million. You are still young, you can learn these things slowly, don't think about becoming fat with one bite."

Li Shi stood up, "Let's go, the GPL is about to start, let's go back and arrange the new players we just poached. The GOG competition is much more important in President Pei's mind than this project."

"We have learned almost everything about this project. After observing it for a while, combined with President Pei's attitude... the final answer should be revealed soon."