Chapter 14 notes exploded.
After Xu Yue and the other two posted the tweet at 8 p.m., they logged out and didn't look at it again.
These are all painful past experiences. Who understands the pain of a college student who, with lofty ambitions and dreams of becoming an overnight sensation, runs a social media account for the first time, only to frantically refresh the page after posting but not get a single like? In fact, the number of likes is only a few dozen, colder than the Arctic Ocean.
After being tormented by disappointment several times, they have learned to let go of the data, cough cough, just for a little while.
Even with three posts with a few hundred likes and one post with over a thousand likes, I still habitually refrain from browsing Xiaohongshu for at least two hours after posting, because without browsing, I can't see the number of likes that hasn't changed at all.
University students have a rich evening life, whether it's watching short videos, playing games, chatting, or doing crafts. Although the dorm is full of night owls, everyone tries to shower early and then do whatever they want afterward.
After Zhou Huilin finished showering, Xu Yue called Zheng Jiajia over: "Come here quickly, let's check the data from tonight's notes."
They were full of anticipation. Gu's private kitchen was so delicious that after some minor editing, the photos would be top-notch food pictures that looked incredibly appetizing. They thought they would get a good response when they posted them.
They also hope that more people can discover this hidden gem of a restaurant.
With trembling hands and a heart full of trepidation, Xu Yue opened Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book). The next second, all three of them exclaimed in unison, "My God!"
The message bar is filled with 99+ messages. Clicking in reveals 99+ likes, 99+ favorites, and even 99+ comments. The string of red numbers looks festive and eye-catching.
Xu Yue couldn't help but laugh out loud. She quickly clicked on the first post on the homepage that was pinned to the top and found that it had already received more than a thousand likes, more than three hundred favorites and more than one hundred comments in just two hours.
This directly surpassed their account's best score!
Zheng Jiajia was so excited she was practically going crazy: "Ah, I'm going to go mad! We're going to explode on the notebook! So many likes in just two hours, tomorrow it'll be several thousand, maybe even over ten thousand in a few days!"
Kelly Zhou was also delighted: "Gu's Private Kitchen is amazing!"
Now that the account is up and running and the course results are excellent, hehe, maybe I can even get some advertising deals in the future.
Xu Yue grinned from ear to ear: "That's amazing! Gu's Private Kitchen is great, and so are we!"
They started reading the comments in the comment section.
[Momo: This looks so appetizing!]
[Lucky Li: Oh my god, braised pork with preserved mustard greens and lemon shredded chicken are my favorites! The garlic prawns look so big, and even the fish head tofu soup looks delicious!]
[Silently: I remember Suli Street is an old street, I didn't expect there to be such a delicious restaurant there, I'll try it sometime!]
[One bite of a small orange peel: I just finished eating, but seeing these photos makes me hungry again!]
...
Many of the comments are so genuine that they don't seem like they were generated through mutual aid efforts. There are also quite a few locals who say they want to go to Gu's Private Kitchen for a meal when they have time.
Xu Yue and her two companions were overjoyed, scrolling through the comments and finding each one delightful.
The other three roommates, who were originally curled up on their beds or slumped in chairs playing on their phones, were also drawn by their excitement and came over to ask, "What's up? Did your notes explode?"
Even the usually quick-witted Wen Qingqing had already opened Xiaohongshu and clicked into their account. Seeing the latest post, she exclaimed in amazement: "So many likes on a post that was only posted tonight! Xu Yue, you're going to be famous!"
Seeing so many comments on Xu Yue's phone, Huang Yuezhu laughed and said, "And these comments seem so sincere, the activity level is super high!"
Lu Xiangyin, who has always been willing to spend money on food, browsed through the tempting photos on her phone, and even clicked to enlarge them to see the intricate textures of each dish.
"Wow! You guys found such a delicious restaurant and didn't say a word? Oh my god, what have I missed? I have to find a chance to try it!"
Xu Yue smiled and nodded: "Okay, let's go eat together sometime. I'm still savoring the taste of braised pork with preserved vegetables and lemon shredded chicken from lunch. You have no idea how delicious the fish head tofu soup was, it was milky white, rich and fresh, and even the tofu was incredibly tender."
She even slurped it up as if she were really drinking soup.
Wen Qingqing had just carefully looked at the food photos, and now she was a little provoked: "No, Yueyue, you're going too far! If this keeps up, I'll get hungry again. We have to go eat something!"
Huang Yuezhu laughed and said, "Yeah, your account is practically spreading poison late at night, it's unbearable!"
Zheng Jiajia and Zhou Huilin, who had personally tasted Gu's private kitchen dishes at noon, couldn't resist even more. Looking at those photos again was like returning to the time when they indulged in the food at noon, but now all that's left is longing.
The two agreed to the suggestion: "Let's find some time to go eat at Gu's Private Kitchen. We don't want to wait until Gu's Private Kitchen becomes popular and we can't even get a table."
The six-person dormitory happily accepted the suggestion to have a meal together.
Wen Qingqing and the other two were very loyal and gave this note a like, comment, and share.
That evening, Xu Yue and her two classmates received messages from their major, all asking if Gu's Private Kitchen was really that delicious. After receiving affirmative answers, many people said they would try it when they had time.
According to their teacher, students in the Department of Cultural Management should know how to have fun, and do so with curiosity, a serious attitude, and creativity. This fun naturally includes enjoying the various delicacies of Jiang City.
To avoid getting a bad grade in the practical part of the course, they followed each other on social media and agreed to like and comment on each other's new notes as soon as possible, helping each other out.
That's why these students saw the notes about Gu's Private Kitchen so quickly, and were attracted and tempted, and might go to eat at Gu's Private Kitchen someday.
That night, Xu Yue would check her account's backend from time to time. Whenever the number of likes reached 99+, she would click on it, and after a while, when it was 99+ again, she would click off the likes and start accumulating them again.
As the night deepened, the number of likes and favorites increased more and more slowly, and she eventually fell asleep due to drowsiness.
When she woke up the next day, the first thing she did was check her account backend and found that she already had nearly three thousand likes and more than a thousand favorites. It was truly an amazing number.
There was even a customer of Gu's Private Kitchen who shared their meat dish from the last time in the comments section. Their sincere words and vivid descriptions made the comment highly praised. Xu Yue also liked it, adding the "author liked" tag to the comment.
A new wave of traffic continues, and the number of likes and favorites for this note is growing rapidly again.
When the Media and Operations class started on Monday, Ms. Yuan, the teacher in charge of the course, praised them: "I discovered over the weekend that Xu Yue and her team published a note with very good data on their account. I'd like to ask, is Gu's Private Kitchen really that delicious?"
As the instructor, Mr. Yuan regularly checks the operation of each account, including update frequency, content posted, and daily interactions, in order to better monitor the students' progress in their practical activities.
The night before last, I happened to come across a post about Gu's Private Kitchen, and those tempting pictures made my mouth water for a long time.
The students majoring in Cultural Management in 2020 thought the teacher was going to ask about operations, but they were caught off guard and burst out laughing.
When Xu Yue was called on, she answered generously, "Teacher, Gu's Private Kitchen is really delicious, so delicious that you can swallow your tongue. Every meat dish is very substantial, the vegetables are stir-fried to be sweet and refreshing, and even the soup is delicious. Moreover, the owner will set the menu based on the ingredients purchased every day, just like opening a blind box."
“We’ve been craving it ever since we went there once. The photos on our account were just edited a little before we posted them. They looked and smelled delicious, and they were absolutely authentic.”
Teacher Yuan smiled and nodded: "That's good, I'll give it a try when I have the chance."
He then began to comment on the outstanding aspects of this note, introducing the main body of the course and what the user's pain points are.
On Suli Street, Gu's Private Kitchen was even busier on Sundays than on Saturdays. Gu Qingqiu was so busy that she was eager to find a helper to free her from cleaning and washing dishes.
The number of people decreased on Monday, perhaps because of the weekend's extravagant hospitality, which made Gu Qingqiu feel much more relaxed in comparison.
At noon, the male customer who had previously packed a lot of dishes came back and packed a lot of meat dishes, vegetables, soup, and six boxed meals to take home.
Then, her first customers after opening their business came to eat. There were also several girls with them, and they sat at two large tables. Gu Qingqiu overheard them while serving the dishes and learned that they were colleagues from the same company having a get-together.
Besides, there were some familiar old customers and new customers. Table after table ate happily, and Gu Qingqiu was also happy to be busy. The business was booming.
During lunch and dinner, she made sure to remind customers that the restaurant was closed on Tuesdays, and she also noted this on the menu so that no one would make a wasted trip the next day. There was nothing else she could do to remind customers.
After closing for the day at around 8 p.m., Gu Qingqiu breathed a sigh of relief, and couldn't help but smile at the thought of having a day off tomorrow.
She opened last Wednesday. Since the weekend is when the restaurant is most crowded, it's impossible to close. So she plans to open for six days and close on Tuesdays. If nothing unexpected happens, she will close on Tuesdays from now on.
This way, she can rest for four days a month. If she were working for a company, four days off a month would be considered quite hard work. But you can't calculate it like that when you run a restaurant. Currently, she is the main person in charge of cooking meat dishes, so Gu Qingqiu can only arrange her rest as much as possible.
She took a break and went to the kitchen to collect and wash dishes and various pots and pans. Then she cleaned the kitchen and the restaurant. By the time she finished, she was covered in sweat.
Gu Qingqiu went upstairs to her room, turned on the air conditioner, grabbed a set of pajamas, and went to take a shower.
After washing up and returning to my room, I picked up my phone and opened a job search app. There were a few messages asking about jobs, either asking if I could get a raise or from out of town asking if I could get accommodation included.
She sighed after clearly refusing, saying that a raise was not an option for the time being, and that she would post a job advertisement at the restaurant entrance tomorrow.
She logged out of the recruitment app and happily started browsing various gossip news on Weibo.
Meanwhile, Lao Wang's Home-Style Restaurant on Suli Street had just closed at nine o'clock. Some employees were washing dishes in the kitchen, while others were cleaning the dining area. At one of the tables, a chubby middle-aged man was settling accounts.
Wang Zhiguo is the owner of Lao Wang's Home-Style Cuisine. When he was young, he opened a restaurant on Suli Street with his culinary skills. The business got better and better, and even though the rise of two nearby commercial plazas took away a lot of foot traffic, the monthly profit was still good.
Now that the restaurant has hired a chef, he still cooks in the kitchen, which saves him the cost of a chef's salary, and he is also very confident in his culinary skills.
He has a habit of checking the restaurant's revenue every Monday night. Looking at the numbers on the books and thinking about the money in his pocket gives him an indescribable sense of happiness.
He was going through the accounts as usual when he noticed something was wrong. After reviewing this week's accounts, he looked at last week's accounts and compared them. He then discovered the problem: "Strange, how come the turnover dropped by more than three thousand this week?"
Business has been decent for the past year, though not booming. Weekly turnover has remained around a few hundred dollars, a rare drop.
The turnover dropped by more than 3,000 in a week, which means it dropped by nearly 500 per day. Considering that the daily turnover is only a little over 3,000, a sudden decrease of 500 is something that deserves serious attention.
Wang Zhiguo recalled the past week. No one complained about the meat and vegetables he produced, there were no negative reviews on food delivery apps or Dianping, and there was no extra tutoring or extra work. So why did his revenue suddenly drop so much?
Hearing the boss muttering, the employee mopping the floor couldn't help but lean over and say, "Boss, I heard from a friend who works at the noodle shop that Gu's Private Kitchen under the peach tree has reopened. The meat dishes they make taste so good that customers rave about them, and business is getting better every day. As a result, the noodle shop's business has declined quite a bit. Our shop's revenue has dropped, and it might be related to Gu's Private Kitchen."
"Gu's Private Kitchen has reopened?" Wang Zhiguo squinted upon hearing this.
During the day, he was either busy in the kitchen or serving customers at the front desk, so he really didn't have time to go out and discover the new changes on Suli Street.
Wang Zhiguo has been running a restaurant on Suli Street for many years. If there is any competitor, it is Gu's Private Kitchen from back then.
His family's home-style dishes and the other party's private kitchen dishes can be considered to be competing in the same type of catering industry. However, Wang Jianguo believes that his cooking skills are better than those of the person surnamed Gu, and that his own dishes taste better than Gu's private kitchen dishes.
Back when Gu's Private Kitchen was still around, Old Wang's Home-Style Dishes often outshone it.
After the Gu family couple had their accident and Gu's Private Kitchen closed down, his restaurant became the only home-style restaurant on Suli Street, and his business doubled, making him the dominant player.
"Unexpectedly," Wang Zhiguo asked, "who's opening the shop now?"
Since it's still called Gu's Private Kitchen, it means the owner hasn't changed.
The employee replied, "I heard she's the former owner's daughter. She's young but has excellent cooking skills. Some people say her meat dishes taste even better than those in four- or five-star restaurants."
Wang Zhiguo thought it was an exaggeration; he never expected that Gu's daughter would actually come back to open a restaurant.
He was embarrassed to say that the meat dishes he made were comparable to those of a four- or five-star restaurant, yet this young girl was so arrogant.
Just then, his good-for-nothing son walked in, looking like he'd been out gallivanting off somewhere. Wang Zhiguo called out to him.
"Xiao Chong, where have you been playing again? I sent you to a culinary school but you wouldn't go. I offered to let you learn to cook with me at a restaurant but you didn't want to learn. How much money do you have at home to keep you from going out and having fun?"
Wang Chong leaned back against the edge of the dining table, speaking arrogantly with an air of nonchalance: "What's it to you?"
"I'd rather not bother with you, but who told me to be your father? I'm so unlucky."
Wang Zhiguo said bluntly, "Alright, let me tell you something. Tomorrow I'll give you money to go to Gu's Private Kitchen for a meal and see how their meat dishes taste. Our shop's revenue has dropped a lot recently, and it might be related to their restaurant."
As for why he didn't go in person, Wang Zhiguo was also a little burdened, afraid that Gu's daughter would recognize him, and that it would be embarrassing for him to be there to find out about her family.
Wang Chong was particularly adept at spending money on food and drinks. Moreover, he knew perfectly well that he could only afford to play around if the restaurant was doing well and making money; otherwise, he would have to go to the factory to tighten screws.
He smiled and agreed, "Sure, I'll go tomorrow."
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