"Two hundred thousand! Did I misread it? Or did you send the wrong information?"
"It's two hundred thousand, Liu Chen didn't make a mistake. This is a seafood hot pot restaurant in Shanghai. Their most famous dish is fresh seafood, so to eat their signature dishes, the average cost per person is two thousand."
After someone explained, everyone immediately erupted.
"Boss is amazing!"
"Wow!!! I really want to eat it!!"
"..."
Liu Chen: "I've booked a table for 10:30 AM. Once we arrive, just say it was booked by Liu Chen. I'm about to leave too."
After sending this message, Liu Chen took Mi Zhuzhu and Sang Ling into a taxi heading to the hot pot restaurant. It was unavoidable, even if three people shared one car, they would need thirty cars from the hotel entrance later. To avoid the awkwardness of not being able to get a taxi, they decided to leave early.
Liu Chen had booked a table for one hundred people, which would amount to about thirteen tables. The owner had already opened the movable doors between several small private rooms and combined two tables together.
When Liu Chen arrived, she glanced at the menu provided by the owner. It was clear that for this large order of two hundred thousand, the owner wasn't being greedy, as seafood constituted the majority of the dishes, with some signature dishes even being served twice per table.
"Miss Liu, please take a look. Is this menu arrangement satisfactory? If so, we'll start serving the dishes?"
Liu Chen scanned the menu and noticed that the owner was quite honest. The dishes were mostly seafood, accompanied by drinks like orange juice and cola.
Thinking that two hundred thousand was still a long way from six hundred and sixty thousand, Liu Chen waved her hand generously.
"Boss, please serve a bottle of Maotai to each table, and two bottles of good red wine, or some sake. Whatever you think is best."
As soon as Liu Chen said this, the owner looked at her as if she had seen a beacon of light! He immediately smiled and said,
"Certainly, with your word, I know how to arrange it. Don't worry, I'll ensure you're well-hosted today!"
Thus, when the bloggers finally managed to get taxis and arrived, they saw tables laden with seafood, and a bottle of Maotai on each table. Beside the Maotai were bottles of red wine and sake. However, for most of the bloggers, the most striking sight was the Maotai.
After all, most of the bloggers were young people from ordinary families, and for them, Maotai was something they had only heard about, and most had never even seen it in person.
"Wow, by the time we finish paying the bill, won't our table alone cost more than two hundred thousand?" Fen Hong Nannan asked, marveling at the dishes on the table.
Xia Lian, sitting next to her, remained silent. She couldn't understand what was wrong with Liu Chen. This was hundreds of thousands, not tens of yuan, nor thousands of yuan. She was spending so much just to treat everyone to a meal?
She had been happy to dine at such a high-end restaurant, but now her heart felt heavy. She had always felt that being born in Shanghai and having a good family background, even if slightly less fortunate than Fen Hong Nannan, she wasn't far behind.
But now, looking to her left across the tables, seeing these more than ten tables of hot pot, Xia Lian knew that with her family's financial situation, it would take a wedding to treat someone to such an expensive meal, and perhaps not even then.
The thought of a girl from out of town, a girl who had only bought a house with a loan at the end of last year, now living such a lavish life within a year through her mother's new husband, made Xia Lian's chest feel tight.
Especially when she opened Weibo and saw that despite only a few posts, all promoting some "Mei Mei Chang," Liu Chen's Weibo followers had already reached three hundred thousand.
Looking at this number, Xia Lian couldn't help but mutter softly, "Newly rich."
Everyone else was chatting amongst themselves, and no one heard her remark. As she watched photos of the meal being continuously uploaded to the QQ group, Xia Lian lowered her eyelashes.
She opened her camera, took a few pictures of the dishes on her table, and also a picture of the Maotai. Of course, in these photos, Xia Lian had deliberately avoided the bloggers sitting on either side of the table.
After taking these photos, Xia Lian opened Weibo and began to compose a post.
'Thank you @Liu Chen beauty for treating us to seafood at Ji Le Hot Pot~~ So happy~~'
As one of the top 100 bloggers invited to the Weibo Night, Xia Lian had a considerable number of followers herself. While not as many as Mi Zhuzhu's more than 500,000, she still had around 300,000.
Xia Lian's Weibo typically showcased her sophisticated life in Shanghai, with photos from many expensive establishments. If you scrolled through her Weibo from the first post to the latest, there wasn't a single dining photo where the average cost per person was less than 300 yuan.
Therefore, many of Xia Lian's followers referred to her as "Little Princess of Modu" (Shanghai).
Late at night, when "Little Princess of Modu" posted on Weibo, many fans saw it. They noticed the dozen consecutive tables in the photos, and though blurry, they could clearly see the Maotai on each table, as well as the dishes on Xia Lian's table that she had photographed.
'Holy crap, Ji Le Hot Pot??? I went there with my boyfriend once, and two people spent almost four thousand... This table full of dishes, it must be at least twenty thousand.'
'Twenty thousand for a table of dishes??? Holy crap, is this still RMB?'
'Twenty thousand a table, and there look like more than ten tables in the photo... Doesn't that mean it's almost thirty thousand?'
'Heh, young people are too naive. There are also three bottles of alcohol on the table. A bottle of Maotai is over three thousand, a bottle of red wine is over six thousand, and a bottle of sake is over two thousand. These three bottles alone add up to over ten thousand... So, the above commenter, this meal, conservatively speaking, should be over four hundred thousand.'
'??? Four hundred thousand to treat someone to a meal? @Liu Chen, big shot, I'm kneeling before you.'
Xia Lian watched the comment count on her Weibo soar, but she waited in vain for the comments she wanted to see.
"Why isn't anyone saying she's being wasteful?"
In fact, Xia Lian had completely overestimated. Because she habitually posted about her high-end dining experiences, most of her followers were people who enjoyed such luxurious lifestyles. Seeing someone even more extravagant, they not only didn't criticize but even clicked on the names and followed Liu Chen.
Mi Zhuzhu, who was also browsing Weibo, stumbled upon this post. She handed her phone to Liu Chen and said,
"This 'Little Princess of Modu,' from the beginning, deliberately extorted you into treating us. Now she's intentionally posting photos of our meal. Although she's saying thank you, I don't think she's that kind-hearted."
Liu Chen glanced at it, chuckled, and shook her head.
"Don't waste your energy trying to guess what these people are thinking. As long as we know what we want to do, isn't that enough? Here, have some crab meat."
After picking up some crab meat for Mi Zhuzhu, Liu Chen then got up and walked out of the private room. Outside the door was the owner of Ji Le Hot Pot, holding a thick stack of spa gift certificates.
"Miss Liu, these are spa gift certificates from my friend's high-end spa. Because you purchased two hundred of them at once, I've given you a 20% discount, rounding down the total to one hundred and forty thousand."
Saying this, the owner of Ji Le Hot Pot nervously held out the POS machine to Liu Chen.
How to put it, the owner of Ji Le Hot Pot considered herself a wealthy person, with a net worth of tens of millions, and had met people worth hundreds of millions. However, she had never encountered anyone like Miss Liu Chen. Not only did she spend over three hundred thousand on a meal, but after eating, she also gave each person two 888-yuan spa vouchers!
My goodness, what kind of celestial friend is this!
Liu Chen took out her bank card, swiped it on the POS machine, entered her PIN, and the successful transaction began to spit out the receipt.
Taking the spa vouchers from the owner, Liu Chen glanced at the task progress in the lower left corner of her vision.
587657/660000
87min/240min
There was still nearly a hundred thousand yuan left to spend, and just over an hour remaining. But how could she spend this money without making it seem strange?
One hundred thousand yuan, divided among one hundred people, was only a thousand yuan per person. The spa vouchers were presented as a gift from the owner for the hot pot meal, but how to spend this hundred thousand?
Order more drinks? The owner had said she had little stock left. Food? Although it would cost money, Liu Chen didn't want to waste food. After much thought, Liu Chen suddenly had an idea.
Although Weibo had booked two nights of hotel accommodation for everyone, it only included breakfast, not lunch. And the Ritz-Carlton was located in Shanghai's upscale commercial district, with no affordable dining options nearby.
Of course, for the later Weibo bloggers, these might have been minor expenses, but for bloggers just starting out, a meal costing nearly a thousand yuan was still a luxury.
Having decided, Liu Chen was no longer in a hurry. After everyone finished eating and dispersed, Liu Chen took the rather tipsy Mi Zhuzhu and Sang Ling back to the hotel. After escorting both of them to their rooms, she took the elevator back down to the lobby and approached the front desk.
At this time, only two people remained at the front desk. After all, it was a five-star hotel, and they still greeted Liu Chen with smiles as she approached.
"Hello, is there anything I can help you with?"
"Hello, I'd like to purchase lunch vouchers. Can I buy them here?"
Ren Yun, who was in her third month of an internship at the Ritz-Carlton after graduating, knew that a large group of bloggers from a software called Weibo were staying at their hotel today. Her senior colleague had mentioned that most of these bloggers were young people.
But the girl in front of her had such exceptional气质 (temperament)!
Her voice was so gentle! And her voice was so pleasant to listen to!
Realizing she had been spacing out for quite a while, Ren Yun quickly blinked and shook the thoughts from her mind.
"Yes, you can. Ma'am, how many would you like to purchase? We have three different types of meal vouchers: one is a buffet, costing 388 yuan each; another is an à la carte Chinese meal, costing 688 yuan each; and the third is a New Year's set meal of Tomahawk steak with red wine, costing 1288 yuan each.
Which would you prefer?"
"I'll take two hundred of the 1288 meal vouchers."
"Two hundred!" Ren Yun looked at the gentle-spoken and beautiful young lady in front of her and shook her head.
"Ma'am, the number of vouchers you're requesting is quite large, and I can't make that decision myself. Could you possibly wait until tomorrow morning when our housekeeping supervisor is in to make the purchase?"