Chapter 15 Thursday, March 15th

Pei Qian arrived at Mo Yu Internet Cafe. After finishing his breakfast, he sipped coffee while pondering the situation of his other businesses.

"Hmm… it feels like it's been a while since I heard any news from Lengmian Girl."

"I wonder how things are going lately."

Pei Qian's impression of Lengmian Girl was still from a month ago when Tengda's various physical businesses began to advance into the capital. Pei Qian had specifically instructed Rui Yuchen to open a Mo Yu takeaway store directly across from the Lengmian Girl branch.

Judging by the timeline, that store should have already officially opened for business.

Actually, Lengmian Girl had always been a key project that Pei Qian paid attention to, but after all, his main energy had been focused on Tiewei Live these past few months. Moreover, the capital was too far from Jingzhou, so he couldn't go there often to inspect, which resulted in some information lag.

However, Pei Qian wasn't worried. Only a little over a month had passed, and there hadn't been any major news about Lengmian Girl circulating online.

If Meng Chang was still the boss of Lengmian Girl, he would have to be much more vigilant, since Meng Chang was too good at stirring things up. But now that Meng Chang was no longer in charge, the original employees of Lengmian Girl should have lost their fighting spirit and be living a life of drunken stupor, right?

However, as a precaution, Pei Qian still searched for the keyword "Lengmian Girl" online using his phone.

However, a video that had just been released on the Aili Island website last night appeared prominently.

"Street Food: Episode 1"!

This video had the keywords "Lengmian Girl" in it, and its popularity on the Aili Island website seemed to be quite good, so it was brought up in the search.

Among the many miscellaneous self-media articles piggybacking on the news and saying that Lengmian Girl had flopped, this video was so fresh and refined, so out of place.

Pei Qian was stunned.

What the hell was this?

He hurriedly clicked on the video to watch it.

The video began with an old city wall. The blue bricks under the wall were covered with moss, and a drizzling rain fell. The sky was getting dark.

The pedestrians on the road were in a hurry, but in the streets and alleys of the ancient city, there were many small shops that were packed with customers. Even the drizzling rain couldn't extinguish the vigorous atmosphere of everyday life.

Accompanied by the video, a steady male voice narrated.

"Everyday life is the soy milk and fried dough sticks at the corner store, the roasted sweet potatoes on the stove, the lamb skewers in the barbecue restaurant, the grilled cold noodles at the street stall…"

"The food of all directions is just a bowl of everyday life."

"Chinese food culture has a long history, and the fame of many night markets has spread throughout the country. Night markets are a gathering place for food, and also a good place to set up stalls."

"Every night, the streets and alleys are bustling with people, and the city streets are the favorite environment for many people. Only in the embrace of everyday life can many people relax their tense nerves, forget the fatigue of the day, and fully release their emotions…"

This video was not short, lasting about 30 minutes.

The video was filmed in Chang'an, and it was basically divided into sections of ten minutes each. The first part was a brief introduction to the local food culture of Chang'an and some of the more famous local delicacies. The second part focused on a certain street, mainly introducing some small shops and vendors with good taste, and introducing their life experiences and hardships. The third part introduced their exclusive delicacies.

The entire video highlighted the atmosphere of everyday life. The shots were all taken at night, in the most popular times for street stalls, with various diners coming and going. When filming the food, close-up slow-motion shots showed the color, aroma, and taste of the food to the fullest extent.

In the beginning, the tone of the video was relaxed and leisurely. The diners at the street stalls laughed heartily, infecting the audience. But in the second part, when the content talked about the life experiences of the shop owners and vendors, it carried a bit of sadness. Finally, when it came to showcasing the food, the previously suppressed emotions were finally released, and the audience's emotions were pushed to a climax.

At the end of the video, the logo of Lengmian Girl appeared on a black screen, with a line of small words below: "Lengmian Girl Food Lab, takes you to taste the authentic local flavors!"

…

Pei Qian looked at it. This video was released yesterday, and its popularity had already exploded. The number of views had already exceeded one million!

The dense barrage of comments in the video demonstrated its popularity.

"I'm drooling!"

"I'm a local in Chang'an, and I didn't even know there were these delicacies…"

"Some very famous shops are actually not that good. But some nameless stalls in the streets and alleys are very delicious!"

"The production team is dedicated. This film is made with sincerity."

"Everything looks so delicious, I must try it when I have the chance!"

"I always thought that these stall owners must be making a lot of money since their businesses are so popular. Now I know that most of them started setting up stalls out of desperation. It's not easy for them."

"It's quite touching. This kind of down-to-earth film is especially easy to move people!"

"I'm so hungry after watching it, but I'm not in Chang'an, so I can't eat it!"

"Is this a film made by Lengmian Girl? What's going on with Lengmian Girl? Did they switch from a restaurant to making documentaries?"

"I remember that Lengmian Girl used to be a trending topic every three days. I thought they had completely flopped after being silent for a few months, but I didn't expect them to release such a documentary!"

"Lengmian Girl's image is much better now, or is it just my illusion?"

"What does this line of small words at the end mean?"

"I checked it. It seems to say that Lengmian Girl is preparing to build a food lab, to search for food from all over the country, poach people, buy recipes, and turn these local delicacies into Lengmian Girl's products."

"Really? That's great, when will these new products be available? I'm in the capital, I must try them when I have time!"

The netizens' attitude was very positive, and even their attitude towards Lengmian Girl had improved significantly!

Although news had previously been revealed that Tengda Group had taken over Lengmian Girl, Lengmian Girl had disappeared from the news after the Street Food Competition and gradually faded from the public eye.

The heat of the internet comes and goes quickly, and most netizens have the memory of a fish.

Many people's impression of Lengmian Girl was still stuck on "Meng Chang", "trending searches", and "unpalatable grilled cold noodles." Seeing this video, they were naturally refreshed!

Strictly speaking, it was difficult to define whether this video was a promotional video or a documentary.

On the one hand, it was to promote food and the Lengmian Girl Food Lab, but on the other hand, it was filming various details using documentary techniques, giving people a strong sense of authenticity.

On video websites, food has always been a topic that easily accumulates popularity. Many lifestyle big UPs with millions of followers have started their careers with food-related content.

Therefore, this well-produced and sincere video immediately accumulated extremely high popularity and sparked widespread discussion!

And the various details shown in the video made people feel a pragmatic attitude, which naturally made them feel more favorable towards the "Lengmian Girl" brand, which had already been partially whitewashed.

The video was a hit, but Pei Qian was dizzy.

When was this video filmed!

The video was posted using the official account of Flying Huang Workshop. It was obvious that Huang Sibo and the others had filmed the video.

More importantly, what was this Lengmian Girl Food Lab?

Pei Qian instantly felt a sense of crisis.

He had suffered from food labs before!

In order to allow Mo Yu Takeaway to burn more money, Pei Qian also had Rui Yuchen build a food lab to regularly develop new products.

He thought that it wouldn't improve the taste of Mo Yu Takeaway by much, but he never expected that this food lab would research and develop many specialty products, including fitness meals and "Shi He," which made an indelible contribution to turning Mo Yu Takeaway from losses to profits!

People can't fall twice in the same place.

The Lengmian Girl Food Lab was obviously similar in nature to the Mo Yu Takeaway Food Lab, and it was even more dangerous!

Because the Mo Yu Takeaway Food Lab basically relied entirely on its own exploration, and the failure rate of developing new dishes was very high.

But the Lengmian Girl Food Lab was more special. It sent teams to search for food all over the country. After searching, they would film videos to promote it, and then poach people or buy recipes and directly copy them!

This efficiency was definitely much higher than researching it themselves!

And judging from the reaction of the barrage in the video, most people were very receptive to this approach.

The reason why Lengmian Girl was so criticized was mainly because the taste was not good.

If Lengmian Girl could really reproduce the taste of national specialty foods, even if it wasn't exactly the same, as long as it was about 80% similar, there would definitely be many people who would go to eat it!

This promotional video was ostensibly promoting street food and the food culture of various regions, but in reality, it was advertising for Lengmian Girl!

Pei Qian suddenly had a strong sense of crisis.

The failure of Mo Yu Takeaway was still vivid in his mind. What if Lengmian Girl repeated the same mistakes!

The thought of Lengmian Girl opening stores all over the country like Mo Yu Takeaway made Pei Qian feel like a mouthful of old blood was stuck in his throat, ready to spew out at any time.

"Calm down, calm down."

"Think carefully about how to deal with this food lab."

"It's definitely not appropriate to ban it directly. There's no suitable reason at all. Maybe… I can change my thinking and turn big profits into small profits?"

"Even if I can't maintain losses, earning less is not a way to solve the problem!"

In fact, Pei Qian wasn't too worried about a single store.

Like Wuming Restaurant, although it was very popular, it could only accommodate a limited number of customers.

As long as he couldn't open a chain restaurant and couldn't expand and replicate it indefinitely, the profit it generated would be limited.

Unfortunately, Lengmian Girl was a fast-food model, and it could be expanded and replicated indefinitely. Once the new dishes of the Food Lab were successful, and Lengmian Girl's stores began to make profits, then new branches would inevitably be opened. There was no doubt about that.

So, could he find a reason to interfere with Lengmian Girl's current model?

Pei Qian pondered for a long time, and suddenly his eyes lit up.

"I've got it!"

"Split up Lengmian Girl!"

"As long as I open a new project and let it and Lengmian Girl check and balance each other and compete for resources, wouldn't that perfectly limit Lengmian Girl's development?"

"Establish a 'Snack Market' in Jingzhou and poach all the stall owners from various places that Lengmian Girl has worked so hard to poach to come here and continue to set up stalls."

"Provide them with the best stall environment and the best treatment."

"As long as the treatment here is better, they naturally won't follow Lengmian Girl to do silly things and research Lengmian Girl's new dishes!"

"Even if this snack market becomes popular, it won't open chain stores, and the number of customers it accommodates will be very limited, and the money it earns will be completely within a controllable range!"