Chapter 128 Self-inflicted trouble
Cheng He came here today with a mission. He no longer hopes to steal the secret recipe of braised food. He just wants to buy one more pot of braised food every day.
The relationship between the two broke down. According to Cheng He's original idea, he didn't want to continue buying braised food from the Gu family, but the braised food business of Deshenglou across the street was booming, so he was forced to follow suit.
Even because Deshenglou put up a sign that sold original-cut braised food, he didn't dare to continue mixing the food with other ingredients, let alone sprinkle a bunch of seasonings that would confuse the taste on the braised food. He could only sell the braised food at the original price like Chunfenglou.
Although Deshenglou just started selling braised food, Chunfenglou has been in the braised food business for a long time.
The braised food at Chunfenglou has changed several times in just a few months, from being sold at three times the price in the beginning, to mixing real and fake food together and giving them away, to now selling at the original price. The frequent adjustments in price and taste have caused old customers to start getting annoyed.
The diners just want to have a bite of delicious food instead of being constantly tormented by Chunfenglou. The quality of Chunfenglou’s other signature dishes is similar to Deshenglou’s mid-range dishes, but the prices are more expensive than those of Deshenglou.
Gradually, old customers began to turn to Deshenglou.
Seeing that the business of Deshenglou was getting better day by day, Cheng He became so anxious that a large blisters appeared at the corner of his mouth.
Chunfenglou still looks prosperous on the surface and has quite a few customers, but in fact most of them come to Chunfenglou to buy Gu's braised food because they cannot buy it elsewhere.
Perhaps only one out of ten of these guests would be attracted to stay at Chunfenglou for dinner.
Cheng He saw it and was worried, but Chunfenglou's business was heavily dependent on Gu's braised food. In order to enhance its competitiveness, he had no choice but to come and pester Liu Xiaoru again, wanting to change the daily pot of braised food to two pots.
There is no profit in selling at the original price, so he can only hope to attract more new customers through the gimmick of braised food. In order to increase revenue, he rarely lowered the price of his signature dishes to the same level as the mid-range dishes in Deshenglou.
However, this desperate attempt to find a cure had the opposite effect. Old customers felt they were being taken advantage of, while new customers did not feel they were getting any advantage.
As the Dragon Boat Festival is approaching, Cheng He is getting anxious. Now he can only rely on Gu's braised dishes to attract more customers during the holidays.
It happened that Niu Niu was not injured because of his push at this time, but it aroused Liu Xiaoru's anger.
Liu Xiaoru raised her hand and took out the knife used to cut meat from the counter, and said viciously: "If you dare to show off in our shop again, and dare to push my baby, I will fight you!"
Cheng He had never seen Liu Xiaoru's ferocious side, nor did he expect that she would actually draw a knife when cornered. He was so scared that he ran away on the spot and soon disappeared.
For Cheng He, that day was a day of bad news one after another.
Not only did he fail to repair his relationship with Liu Xiaoru, but his braised food business also failed on the spot.
That same day, Liu Xiaoru sent Mrs. Feng to deliver the message, saying that Cheng He had injured someone and directly cancelled the contract between the two parties. All the deposit previously paid for the braised dishes was also returned.
"Fortunately, Guaibao is fine. If Guaibao was injured, I would definitely go to the government to sue him!" Liu Xiaoru said viciously.
Niuniu snuggled in her arms and asked softly, "Aunt Liu, who should we sell the extra pot of stewed food to?"
Liu Xiaoru didn't take this seriously and said, "Even if the restaurant doesn't buy it, we can still sell it to individual customers. We don't have to worry about sales now."
She spread the word that day that Cheng He had deliberately hurt someone in her shop, and she had no choice but to cut off all ties with Chunfeng Tower.
Originally, Liu Xiaoru was reluctant to break the contract due to the lack of trust, but now that someone had been injured and there were several eyewitnesses at the scene, the matter was resolved naturally.
"Niuniu is really my lucky star. All my worries were solved as soon as you came. From now on, I don't have to do business with this Cheng guy anymore!" Liu Xiaoru said with a smile.
Niuniu raised her little face and said, "It will be the Dragon Boat Festival in two days. Mr. will give us a holiday. I will come to the store to help Aunt Liu then."
Liu Xiaoru nodded immediately and said, "Okay, when the stewed food is sold out on the Dragon Boat Festival, I will take you to watch the dragon boat race."
Niu Niu's eyes suddenly lit up.
Everyone was having fun here, but Cheng He suddenly felt a darkness before his eyes.
Without Gu’s braised food, he didn’t know how long it would take to attract a new customer.
"Boss, without braised food, what are we going to do during the Dragon Boat Festival in our shop?" the shopkeeper was worried.
When opening a business, the most frightening thing is that business is slow during holidays.
Cheng He gritted his teeth and said, "Let's send out stewed food for Dragon Boat Festival! I don't believe that business will be bad!"
The shopkeeper was very surprised: "What kind of braised food are you sending?"
Cheng He rolled his eyes at him and said, "It's not like we don't know how to make our own braised food even if we don't have the Gu family's braised food anymore."
The shopkeeper thought that the difference in taste between the two was not so easy to bridge.
"If the customer orders dishes worth more than two taels of silver, we will give him a free braised dish," said Cheng He.
In order to celebrate the Dragon Boat Festival, Chunfenglou’s slogan is to give away premium braised food.
Because Deshenglou classifies dishes into grades, many people immediately identified themselves with the dishes when they heard this, and thought that the dishes that Chunfenglou was going to give away were also Gu's braised food.
Cheng He's business really attracted many customers by doing this, and his business became booming the next day.
But his act of passing off inferior goods as genuine ones would eventually lead to the truth being revealed.
In fact, if other dishes were used, I'm afraid it would really scare people.
It just so happens that Gu’s braised food has a strong aroma and unique taste. In the past, even if they were mixed with real and fake products, they still couldn’t fool people. Now that they are all fake, they naturally can’t fool diners.
After a short day of good business, Chunfenglou’s customer base was cut in half the next day.
There was a big pot of braised food left in the kitchen, and I couldn’t even finish giving it away.
Everyone in the kitchen was also worried about what to do with the leftover braised food.
"What's there to worry about? Just leave it for tomorrow." Cheng He said without thinking.
This was not the first time he had done this, and by covering it up with all kinds of sauces, no one could notice anything was wrong.
But the problem this time was, firstly, there was too much leftover, and secondly, the weather was hot during the Dragon Boat Festival, so the food was extremely easy to spoil.
Most of the leftover braised food was left in the kitchen.
The next day was the Dragon Boat Festival. As soon as everyone entered the kitchen, they found something wrong. Their noses were very sensitive and they smelled a faint sour smell on the spot.
"This braised food cannot be sold and needs to be thrown away. I will cook another pot, or buy some from other braised food shops in the city to replace it." The chef made a prompt decision.
But no one knew who was so nosy as to bring this matter to Cheng He's attention.
Cheng He stopped him and said, "Why are you pouring it? Pour more sauce on it. What's so delicious about it? If you really want to buy something else, then pay for it yourself. Do you really think my money came from the wind?"
"What if you get an upset stomach?" the chef said with a frown.
Cheng He said casually, "It's impossible for them to get sick from eating. I often feed rotten rice to pigs at home, and I've never seen any pigs get sick from eating it. Anyway, it's free food, they can eat it if they want!"
Second update
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