Chapter 89 Curry got swindled, didn't he?

Today's lunch was curry rice.

Curry rice is nothing special; it's an affordable, convenient, and delicious meal. But it's quite strange that Wen Qingke makes curry rice.

Wen Qingke is the kind of parent who is very traditional and not fashionable. He usually buys vegetables from the market and cooks them every day. Occasionally he buys some braised dishes to change things up. How could he possibly make curry rice?

Wen Han hesitated for a moment before taking a bite. Surprisingly, it tasted quite good. Unlike the monotonous curry rice on the market, this curry had a rich flavor and you could tell that good spices were used.

Since it tasted good, Wen Han didn't care about anything else and finished it off in a few bites.

Wen Qingke breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that they didn't say it was bad, so Wen Han was able to eat curry pork and curry fried rice that night.

The next morning was curry fried noodles, lunch was curry rice, and dinner was potato and cauliflower curry with shrimp curry. Although she was annoyed, Wen Han ate it anyway because it tasted so good.

"What's going on?" Wen Han had no idea how long he'd been eating. He slammed down his chopsticks. "Why is it curry again? Are we immigrating to India? Are we eating curry every day?!"

It was one thing for her to eat curry stew on ordinary days, but even the side dishes she ate with white porridge in the morning were curry bean sprouts and curry boiled beans. Wen Han really couldn't stand it anymore.

Wen Qingke whispered, "It'll expire if we don't eat it..."

"What's expired?" Wen Han had never seen any curry powder or curry cubes when he opened the refrigerator to get food. He went into the kitchen and sure enough, he found a bunch of curry packets in the cupboard.

It seems there's no need to refrigerate it in this weather, especially since there's so much curry that it wouldn't fit in the fridge anyway.

"Why did you buy so much curry?" Wen Han asked curiously, "This curry, with its texture and color, must be expensive. Is it on sale at the supermarket?"

Wen Qingke explained, "It was issued by the company."

The company benefits are pretty good. Wen Han and the others used to get to eat something nice from the company, like fruit and snacks. But I've never heard of any company giving out curry meal kits to its employees.

Based on this amount of supplies, they would have enough to last for at least another week. Wen Han simply took several packs to send to Fang Songxia, since he really liked curry rice.

*

"Wen Han, why are you carrying things when you come to play?" Aunt Fang complained. "What's this, curry?"

Aunt Fang smiled and said, "It just so happens that Songxia likes curry rice. He's playing in his room. Why don't you go find him?"

Wen Han pushed open the door, and to her surprise, Fang Songxia was actually studying during the winter break. Seeing Wen Han, he quickly bent down and covered his notebook.

"What are you writing?" Wen Han felt betrayed. "Let me see... Math 53, Fang Songxia! When did you become so studious—"

After some playful banter, Fang Songxia lost interest in doing her homework and turned on her tablet to watch a movie with Wen Han.

Aunt Fang brought over a bowl of fried shrimp, accompanied by curry and tomato sauce, which Wen Han had brought.

Wen Han was so sick of the curry that she only got tomato sauce.

"I think I've had this curry before," Fang Songxia recalled. "Ah, I remember now!"

"Do you remember when Xingyan and his group were going to be the spokespeople for Gujia's products?"

Wen Han nodded.

“It’s this curry. I even tried it back then. It was pretty good, but you’ve already gone back to Linjin,” Fang Songxia said. “The deal was going well, but it fell through as soon as Gu Cheng came to be the spokesperson.”

Why?

"I suspect Gu Cheng doesn't like my Xingyan," Fang Songxia snorted. "Guess who they replaced him with in the end?"

"who?"

Fang Songxia said a name that sounded familiar to Wen Han: "Isn't this your ex-boyfriend?"

It's that guy who you thought had only talked to one person, but then another one popped up the next day, and another the day after that, it just never ends. Wen Han asked in surprise, "Didn't you say he was a flop? Why did you still let him be the spokesperson?"

"He doesn't admit to cheating at all. Plus, he used to have a group of die-hard fans who didn't leave him, and his online presence was quite intimidating, but his public image was already ruined."

"Gujia must be in a hurry to launch this product. They finalized the deal after only three days of talking with the other party's team."

"Then what?"

"He didn't make much noise, did he?" Fang Songxia still felt resentful when she thought about it. "If he had strong sales ability, his fans would have been posting big posters everywhere. The fact that he didn't say a word means that his sales were dismal."

Wen Han opened her phone and searched for the celebrity's super topic. The general sentiment was that a certain company was mistreating her brother by making him endorse such a lukewarm product, which was a curry meal kit, and that it had no class whatsoever. She urged everyone to save their money and wait until a high-end luxury endorsement came along before supporting him.

A group of fans even went to the official Weibo account to complain about the poor treatment they received. Wen Han didn't quite understand: "Do they have any valid points?"

"It's just fan culture rhetoric," Fang Songxia scoffed while eating fried shrimp. "This brand is backed by the Gu family, after all. Do you think you can just offend them? And they're still foolishly attacking the official Weibo account. Think about it, this curry meal kit is more expensive than a regular curry kit, but it's still cheaper than high-end perfumes and jewelry. They can't even buy much curry, which proves that most of the fans are just talking and still dreaming about high-end luxury."

Upon hearing this, Wen Han searched for the brand on a shopping platform and found that its sales were indeed low.

"But the price is indeed very high." Wen Han scrolled through the page, and there were big-name but cheap curry cubes next to it for comparison. Gu's curry was three times more expensive than theirs.

"It seems like they use very good ingredients," Fang Songxia said. "The taste is quite authentic, and they also advertise that the factory is very clean and tidy, so the cost is naturally higher."

But the point of buying curry cubes is to make cooking easier. As long as the taste is decent and generally acceptable, it's fine. At this price, it's better to eat out.

"If we're going for the high-end market, people don't eat curry anyway." Wen Han shook her head. The Gu family had no experience in the food industry, and Gu Zong probably wouldn't even consider it; he'd go straight into the medical field.

Those two idiots, Gu Cheng and Gu Yuan, were probably tricked into getting into the food business by someone.

——

"How did they come up with the idea of ​​making curry pre-packaged meals?" Wen Han asked Jing Yu while scrolling through her phone.

“There’s a lot of buzz online,” Jing Yu laughed. “Many people think it would be great if there were convenient, clean, and tasty ready-to-eat meals that didn’t involve any high-tech or greasy ingredients. Didn’t food hygiene issues make headlines before? That’s how they advertised themselves, but unfortunately, it didn’t work very well.”

It's delicious and clean, but since it's made from pre-packaged meals, the final result is that the cost remains high.

Without advanced technology and meticulous processing, the shelf life will naturally be pitifully short.

Subconsciously, people expect pre-made meal kits to be cheap and affordable. However, the price of Gujia meal kits did not meet their expectations, resulting in dismal sales.

It seems that Gu Yuan has been misled by online opinions.

"No wonder my family has been eating curry every day lately, it turns out we can't sell it." Gu Yuan probably thought his product would be in high demand once it hit the market, but the overproduction meant it would just expire if things continued like this, so he decided to use it as employee benefits to at least recoup some of his costs.

“However, he doesn’t need to worry about funding now,” Jing Yu said. “After all, there are still billions of yuan left by the An family.”

The money An Jia received was not like emergency water in the desert, but rather a death warrant.

Jing Yu lowered his eyes thoughtfully: "At this rate, it will probably be exposed even before the lab incident."

Wen Han stroked Fei Nai'er without saying a word. Actually, he thought it was fine this way. The Gu family was conducting those kinds of experiments; who knows, some unlucky people might get infected. His only goal was to make that bastard Gu Cheng suffer a lot.

*

After moving to a new house, Wen Han finally had her own room. This room was next to the front door, and Wen Han chose it because it had a large wardrobe that could hold a lot of things.

Tomorrow is the first day of the Lunar New Year, and this time they invited their grandparents over. Wen Han even brought Fei Nai'er back from the Jing family's house, planning to show her cat to them tomorrow.

Wen Han was fast asleep when Fei Nai'er woke him up again.

Wen Han sighed. Could it be that the cat thief has come again?

He carefully turned on his phone's flashlight and slowly moved behind the door, but there was no movement. After a while, he heard a faint knocking sound, so faint that Wen Han wouldn't have heard it if it weren't for the cat's keen hearing.

Who's knocking on the door in the middle of the night? Is it a neighbor?

The cat's eye was blocked by the Spring Festival couplets, so Wen Han couldn't see who it was. She could only ask, "Who is it? It's so late?"

There was no sound from outside the door. Wen Han frowned and prepared to go back to sleep, but before he could get to his room, there was another knock on the door.

"Who is it!" Wen Han lost her patience and raised her voice, waking Wen Ruan and the others.

Wen Qingke opened the door and exclaimed in surprise when he saw the person in front of him, "Haohao, what brings you here?"

Wen Hao, wrapped in a cotton-padded coat, was shivering. He slipped in as soon as Wen Qingke opened the door.

Wen Qingke asked, "Why did you come alone? Where is your grandfather?"

"I'm not living in that house anymore!" Wenhao said clearly, running straight to hug Wenruan, making her shiver from the cold. "I want to live with you all!"

Wen Han crossed her arms, and Wen Hao was restless while talking, constantly scratching his body. It could be due to dry and itchy skin in winter, or it could be a symptom of uremia.

His face was also a little swollen and his lips were chapped. It seemed that he still hadn't listened to the doctor's advice to eat a light diet. I wonder if his grandfather had taken him for dialysis on time.

Wen Qingke poured him a glass of hot water, and Wen Hao whispered, "I want to drink soda."

Wen Qingke frowned and said, "You can't drink soda anymore, didn't the doctor say that?"

Seeing that Wenhao's condition was even worse than when he was in the hospital, Wen Qingke hesitated and asked, "Did your grandfather take you for dialysis and make sure you took your medication on time?"

Wen Hao's eyes darted away: "I'm going, I'm going."

He definitely didn't go. But Wenhao didn't want to go to the hospital anyway, and his grandfather's actions suited him perfectly, since his symptoms weren't obvious yet and he could still cause trouble.

Wen Han was too lazy to expose him. If he didn't take his own body seriously, he shouldn't expect others to.

"Haohao, did you come and talk to them by yourself?" Wenruan asked. "We'll take you back tomorrow."

Wenhao exclaimed excitedly, "I'm not going back!"

“School is about to start, and there’s no one to take care of you if you come,” Wen Ruan comforted her. “Didn’t you say that Grandpa can still take you to the hospital on time? No one else has that kind of time.”

"No!" Wenhao cried, "I don't want to live there! Grandma won't buy me anything!"

"That's for your own good. You can't just eat whatever you want right now." Wen Qingke had been hesitant, but after hearing what he said, she made up her mind. "We're not home, so no one will be watching you. What if you can't control yourself?"

"No! Why should I live in that shabby house? You all live so well! I want to go back to my old house!"

"The original house has already been sold. You can sleep on the street if you want." Just then, Fei Nai'er heard the commotion and ran out. Wen Han sneered, "You'd better get back here obediently, or you'll be getting beaten up by my cat every day."

“Yes, Hao Hao,” Wen Qingke said, “this cat is quite fierce.”

Wen Hao already hated Wen Han intensely. He was used to being lawless and forgot about Fei Nai'er's power. He tried to stomp on the cat, but Fei Nai'er scratched off half of his cotton-padded coat with one claw.

Wen Ruo said, "I'll send him back tomorrow." Keeping Wen Hao here would only give Wen Han another punching bag.

"That would be best." Wen Han liked to sleep in, so he snorted lightly, his tone indifferent. "If I can still see him when I wake up tomorrow, I'll bring him to the Gu family. Gu Zong has a bunch of vicious dogs that need live people to train them."

Upon hearing that Wen Han was going to feed him to the dogs, Wen Hao had no choice but to shut his mouth.