Chapter 1 Snack Market

The snack market near the GSD Club was still under construction, but nearing completion.

The original large agricultural market had been completely transformed. Although the construction wasn't entirely finished, the cyberpunk style was already evident.

Neon lights in contrasting warm and cold colors covered the outer walls. To complement these lights, the exterior of the building had been subtly adjusted. Some new structures with a strong sense of style were built to complement the original deconstruction.

Various advertisements also emitted light, creating a dazzling atmosphere. These billboards were intricately arranged, making the most of the space above.

Inside the snack market, the cyberpunk style was extended to every detail.

Although the architecture couldn't perfectly match the scenes in *A Beautiful Tomorrow* due to the original building's structure, Liang Qingfan tried his best to recreate several of the shops from the movie inside the snack market, including the scene where the male and female leads ate together.

Because the production team of *A Beautiful Tomorrow* had referenced a lot of cyberpunk aesthetics, Liang Qingfan could directly borrow elements from the film, which greatly reduced his workload.

The success of *A Beautiful Tomorrow* also gave the "cyberpunk food street" concept more confidence.

However, Liang Qingfan faced another very serious problem that needed to be solved urgently: the atmosphere of the cyberpunk snack street.

The movie used a combination of partial real scenes and pure special effects, so there was a lot of room for creativity.

However, some details were difficult to replicate in reality.

To improve this issue as much as possible and further enhance the immersive experience of the cyberpunk snack street, Liang Qingfan came up with many solutions.

The first was to customize props, like movie sets, and create a large number of decorations.

For example, the nearby lighting was all done with sci-fi-style streetlights, which were custom-made. At the entrance, there was also a sci-fi sports car model for customers to take pictures with. Some spaces were reserved as shops, selling simulated gun models, medicine models, or mechanical prosthetic models, further enhancing the immersive experience of the entire scene.

The second was to add some arrangements that could better enhance the atmosphere, such as fog effects.

Cyberpunk generally chooses a day-night-indistinguishable or gloomy and rainy weather. This is because the colorful neon lights can be displayed most perfectly at night, and the wet roads reflect the neon lights. In addition, the dark sky implies the criminal activities that are happening at any time in this high-tech city. Coupled with the fog in the air rendering the various colors of light, the entire atmosphere can be perfectly enhanced.

If it's a sunny day, and all the scenes are clear at a glance, then the cyberpunk feeling will definitely be weakened.

Jingzhou has normal weather, and there are not many foggy or rainy days, so the conditions for perfectly achieving the cyberpunk effect are relatively harsh.

Liang Qingfan couldn't possibly change the weather and climate of Jingzhou. If he had that ability, he wouldn't be just an architect, he would have gone to work in the meteorological bureau long ago.

If he wanted to achieve the best effect, he would definitely use a huge shell to cover the entire cyberpunk snack street and create a fake outdoor scene inside, including a dark sky and distant high-rise buildings with flashing neon lights. However, this plan would cost too much, and there was no need for it at this stage.

After all, the cyberpunk snack street has not yet officially opened, and it is still hard to say whether tourists will accept it.

It's not too late to consider adding investment when this snack market really becomes popular.

What Liang Qingfan came up with was a compromise: arrange a large number of nozzles inside and around the snack market to create spray. These nozzles would be slightly blocked and hidden by the surrounding buildings, but they would also leave the surrounding environment in a slightly damp state.

Corresponding lights would also be arranged around these sprays, visually rendering the sprays further, presenting a hazy feeling.

This way, at least at night, tourists can see a more authentic cyberpunk scene.

As for the daytime, the effect may be better on cloudy days, and on sunny days, it will be what it will be.

Like many scenic spots, it is only good-looking during a specific period of time, so there is a peak season and an off-season. It is not impossible to play in the off-season. Although the experience is not as perfect as in the peak season, there are fewer people and it is not crowded.

For the snack market, it is definitely best to come at night, but if you come at noon or in the afternoon, there will not be so many people, and you can eat at some popular stalls without queuing, which is also a good choice.

So far, the snack market has entered the final stage and is expected to open officially in about a month.

Zhang Yahui has already selected the first batch of excellent stall owners to be stationed in the snack market. These stall owners are good at different snacks. Zhang Yahui encourages them to watch more cyberpunk-themed content and try to make some similar foods.

Even simple meat skewers and hamburgers should try to make them unique. While trying to ensure that they are delicious, they should be as diversified as possible, so that they can stand out among many stall owners.

Of course, even if Zhang Yahui doesn't say it, these stall owners will definitely try their best to improve the taste, launch new products, and try to attract customers.

After all, there is also fierce competition between stall owners.

These stall owners all came from the original city. There, they were among the best snack stalls on the entire street, but after coming here, they will have to start from scratch and compete with those equally excellent stall owners. If they stick to the old ways, they may soon be eliminated.

For this reason, Bao Xu has also formulated a series of rules to guide healthy competition among stall owners. When the snack market officially opens, these rules formulated by Bao Xu with a game-thinking mindset will definitely play a very important role.

At this time, Bao Xu and Zhang Yahui were wearing safety helmets and inspecting the site.

Since the snack market started construction, Bao Xu has been running here every now and then, more often than he goes to Tenda Games.

His efforts are paying off. People at Tenda Games all thought he was performing an important task.

Obviously, during the next Best Employee selection, Bao Xu should no longer be sent abroad for reasons such as "because there is nothing to do, so he is a tour guide to accompany others to travel."

However, this obviously also has a side effect.

Bao Xu's active actions have also greatly mobilized Zhang Yahui's work enthusiasm.

Zhang Yahui did not expect that Bao Xu, as an employee of the game department, would be so concerned about the snack market. This kind of behavior of helping wholeheartedly between brother departments without considering the gains and losses made him feel the warmth of the Tenda family.

Seeing that the brothers who came to help were so serious and responsible, he, the real person in charge, must be more attentive!

The two were chatting when Liang Qingfan, who had left to make a phone call, came back.

"Guys, I have good news!"

"We have money, we can buy shops!"

Bao Xu and Zhang Yahui were stunned and did not react for a moment: "Shops? What shops?"

Liang Qingfan said, "The shops on the street from here to the GSD Club!"

The two then suddenly realized: "Oh? That's great!"

Because this matter was a bit far away, Bao Xu and Zhang Yahui have been paying attention to the internal affairs of the snack market, and they almost forgot about this matter.

As early as when selecting the site for the snack market and finalizing the details of the cyberpunk style, Liang Qingfan had proposed this idea: there is about one or two kilometers from the snack market to the GSD Club. If all the shops along the street could be bought or rented, and then slightly transformed, it could be transformed from a single cyberpunk scenic spot into a cyberpunk snack street.

The entire street can be built in a similar style.

Of course, this project is relatively large and cannot be completed overnight.

At present, the main part of the snack market is almost decorated, but the shops on this street are still in the negotiation stage. Originally, they were talking about a long-term lease contract starting at ten years, but currently only a small number of shops have signed the contract.

On the one hand, it is necessary to distinguish the primary and secondary tasks. The affairs of the snack market are obviously more important. As for these shops along the street, it is actually the same whether they are bought sooner or later. It is definitely necessary to slowly transform this street after the snack market is on the right track.

On the other hand, because the attitude of each shop owner is different regarding the specific rent issue, it has involved a lot of energy in the negotiation process, and it has also been a bit unpleasant.

This area was originally near the old industrial area, and there are actually not many young people anymore. The residences and shops are basically old houses, so whether it is buying or renting, the market price is not very high according to the surrounding area.

The conditions given by Zhang Yahui and others are to sign a ten-year long-term lease contract with these shops based on a 50% increase in the existing rent, and a penalty will be paid for breach of contract in the middle.

In principle, this condition is already very generous.

These shops were originally very remote, and they only did some small businesses before, with very low profits. The monthly rent for a fifty or sixty square meter shop is less than 2,000 yuan. Zhang Yahui also understands the difficulties of these shops and actively raised the price to about 3,000 yuan, which is quite sincere.

Some shop owners felt very satisfied, so they immediately decided to sign the contract, allowing Zhang Yahui and others to transform the shop at will.

Once this long-term contract is signed, they don't have to worry about renting out the shop.

However, some shop owners are not satisfied with this price, and even secretly communicated with each other, wanting a higher price.

Because they saw that the GSD Club had already been built and had a huge influx of customers from all over the country. Tenda was also starting construction on the original agricultural market, obviously working on a new project.

Now they want to rent all the shops on the entire street, and the lease is for ten years. This must be a big move!

As soon as they thought that Tenda was so rich, these people felt that a rent increase of only 50% was not enough.

After all, this long-term contract is to be signed for ten years. Who can say what will happen ten years later? What if the money earned by this shop doubles or triples in a year? They can't raise the rent, wouldn't that be a loss?

Therefore, some of these people either want to increase the rent price a little more, or they want to sign a short-term lease, such as only signing for two or three years, so that they can still think about raising the rent in the future.

Liang Qingfan and Zhang Yahui are definitely not happy about this.

Because in their opinion, the reason why this place can develop is all thanks to President Pei. If President Pei had not successively invested heavily in building the GSD Club and the snack market, the rent on this street would probably not only not increase, but would also decrease with the gradual loss of people.

The rent has already increased by 50%, and the sincerity is already sufficient. If other companies want to rent, these shop owners may have agreed without saying a word.

But just because they think that Tenda is rich and can make money, they are asking for a high price, which is really unreasonable.

What's more, it is still unknown whether this street can make money.

What if the snack market doesn't take off and there is no traffic on this food street? Wouldn't it be a big loss if they signed a ten-year long-term contract at a very high price?

President Pei trusts them so much and handed over such an important project to the three of them. If they ended up making it like this, they wouldn't be able to bear this responsibility.

Therefore, the two sides are at a stalemate. Except for a few more enlightened shop owners who have already signed long-term contracts, other shops are still watching.

Liang Qingfan said, "It just so happens that President Pei has given us a sum of money, and I think this matter can almost have a result."

"For these shops, we give them three choices: either, sign a long-term contract at the current price and rent for ten years; or, we buy their shops at a price that is 50% higher than the market price; if they don't accept either of the two, then we will simply let the food street bypass them."

"Don't even think about taking advantage of us!"

Although the Cyberpunk Food Street is called a food street, it is much longer than most food streets.

A distance of one or two kilometers is not something that can be reached by walking on one road. There are at least six or seven large and small intersections from one end to the other.

If a certain shop does not cooperate, Liang Qingfan can consider buying it next door, and then use some means to make tourists bypass this shop.

For example, make a route map to guide tourists to visit according to a specific route; or Tenda's own shops will have unified signs and guiding signs.

Those shops that have signed contracts are uniformly planned and arranged by Tenda, and the decoration style is clear at a glance. It is difficult for other shops to learn even if they want to.

What's more, tourists are naturally more disgusted with "fake shops" that try to piggyback on the popularity. As long as Tenda tells them that a certain shop is not a shop on the snack street, the vast majority of tourists will not go.

It is not so easy for these shops to take advantage of Tenda here.

Therefore, shops that do not cooperate with Tenda will most likely end up with nothing.

Even if they do business themselves, the stall owners on Tenda's side are all elites from all over the country. Why should these original bosses compete?

Liang Qingfan must make all the shop owners clearly know that Tenda will never be blackmailed, so don't get the wrong idea.

Otherwise, if you come to extort and raise the rent today, and he comes to make trouble and change the contract tomorrow, wouldn't it be endless?

As for buying and renting, the price fluctuation looks the same, but there are actually big differences.

As a second-tier city, the current rent-to-sale ratio of most shops in Jingzhou is about 1:300, which means that a shop with a monthly rent of 2,000 yuan will cost 600,000 yuan to buy.

If you spend 600,000 yuan to buy a shop, you need to collect 300 months of rent, which is nearly 30 years to get your money back.

While with the same premium of 50%, the monthly rent only increased from 2,000 to 3,000, but the total price of the shop increased from 600,000 to 900,000.

The difference in this number looks quite big.

An increase in rent, taking an extra 1,000 yuan per month is not a big deal, but an increase in the sale price of the shop can take an extra 300,000 yuan at one time. The higher the total price of the shop, the more money you get.

With this large sum of money, you can immediately invest or manage your finances, and the temptation is much greater.

Most of the shop owners on this street don't have much money, and for them, the temptation of hundreds of thousands of yuan is still very great.

What's more, the shops in this area have always been extremely difficult to sell. They can find people to do business if they rent, but if they sell, almost no one is willing to spend hundreds of thousands to buy them.

If you give up this opportunity to sell, you will probably not have the opportunity to sell it at such a high price in the future.

Of course, there is also a risk in selling. If the value of the shop increases by more than 50% in ten years, then it will be a loss to sell it. On the contrary, those long-term leased shops will still be in their own hands after ten years, and they can still collect rent, which is more cost-effective.

But not everyone can resist the great temptation of immediate interests, and no one can predict how much these shops will rise in the future.

Now Liang Qingfan is equal to laying his cards on the table with these shop owners, either sell or lease long-term, there is no third way. If individual shop owners want to play tricks, Liang Qingfan would rather spend more money to let the food street take a turn, and will not let them get a sip of soup!