Chapter 246: A Restaurant Even the Promoters Didn't Discover?
"It's fine, just be honest with me. How many customers have come in these past two days? How many actually dined here, and how many made reservations?" Pei Qian asked patiently.
Lin Canrong replied truthfully, "A total of eight guests came in these two days. Three of them dined here, and one guest made a reservation for tomorrow night's dinner."
"Mm… wait, what?"
Pei Qian was pleased with the first two numbers.
So few customers—perfect.
Once Zhang Zuting's new Weibo post pushes the old one down the timeline, even these few new customers will probably disappear.
But… someone actually made a reservation for tomorrow's dinner?
So many rich people out there, huh.
Pei Qian thought for a moment, then asked, "What dishes did they reserve?"
Lin Canrong listed several rare dishes—tomahawk steak, caviar, matsutake mushrooms, and so on. The portions were small, enough for two or three people, but the total price came to over ten thousand yuan.
And the customer had already paid a 20% deposit.
Pei Qian fell silent.
The world of the rich was something he truly couldn't comprehend.
Sure, he himself often stuffed his face with luxury foods and even treated his employees to the same.
But that was only to burn money fast!
The more he spent, the more he could exploit the system's loopholes—and the system would even reimburse his expenses afterward. That's why he could splurge without feeling any pain.
But if he had to pay out of his own pocket, even a simple home-style dish costing three or four hundred yuan would feel outrageously expensive to him!
And now, here's this customer casually dropping over ten thousand on dinner.
Pei Qian had been optimistic—so far, Mingyun Private Kitchen had received fewer than ten customers in total. Things were looking perfectly bleak.
Who could've expected that out of fewer than ten customers, there'd be a hidden tycoon among them?!
For a moment, Pei Qian felt completely lost.
Seeing President Pei fall silent, Lin Canrong grew confused too.
Logically speaking, this should've been good news, right?
So why didn't Pei Qian look the least bit happy?
After thinking for a while, Pei Qian asked, "Could you tell where this person's accent was from?"
Lin Wan thought for a moment. "They spoke standard Mandarin, but there was a slight accent. Probably not from Jingzhou—sounded more like someone from Pingcheng."
A coal tycoon?
That was Pei Qian's first thought.
Still, on the bright side, since they weren't from Jingzhou, maybe they were just in town for business or a short trip—most likely not a local resident.
And if they weren't staying long-term, then that's fine.
Even a rich guy can't eat here every day.
At most, they'd come by for business dinners or to entertain guests.
So, in the grand scheme of things… this shouldn't make Mingyun Private Kitchen too profitable, right?
Thinking that, Pei Qian felt a bit more at ease—realizing he might've been overreacting lately.
After all, since the restaurant was supposed to serve his own employees, it was impossible to keep the whole thing completely under wraps.
If a few rich people came by to eat, that was within expectations. In the long run, the restaurant would still lose money.
Hearing that the guest wasn't from Jingzhou reassured Pei Qian even more.
The two chatted a bit more about the restaurant's day-to-day operations before Xiao Sun drove back.
"Alright, that's enough for now. Remember our core principle: even if they're rich, we don't break the rules. Have the staff serve them normally, as if they were any other guest."
"Oh, and one more thing—our restaurant's name must remain a secret."
After a few more reminders, Pei Qian got in the car and left.
Watching him go, Lin Canrong pondered deeply over the meaning behind his words.
"President Pei must mean that we shouldn't be nervous even when facing rich clients—because in the future, there will be many, many more rich clients coming to Mingyun Private Kitchen!"
"If we break the rules for one rich person now, then once more of them come, the rules will become meaningless."
"Hmm… makes perfect sense!"
"President Pei truly has great foresight. When he set the rules, he already foresaw Mingyun Private Kitchen's future success—he's really planning ahead."
"So what he's really telling me is not to get complacent. How could I get this excited just because one rich guy showed up? I'm a restaurant manager now—I have to stay calm."
"In the future, having rich people dine here will probably become the norm."
"I should go share President Pei's message with the staff."
Feeling optimistic about Mingyun Private Kitchen's bright future, Lin Canrong happily went off to spread the "good news."
…
…
August 21st, Saturday.
At Mingyun Private Kitchen, preparations were underway for that evening's dinner.
Meanwhile, Qiao Liang planned to stroll around Jingzhou in the morning, relax a bit, then pull a little overtime in the afternoon to keep working on Turn Back Before It's Too Late.
President Pei had been generous—he had to make sure to complete the task with top quality and efficiency.
Over at Shangyang Games, development for Blood War Anthem: Enhanced Edition had already been completed. All that was left was one final round of testing before they could officially launch the marketing campaign and go live.
Since it was Saturday, and following President Pei's long-standing policy, no one was allowed to work overtime on weekends or holidays.
At first, Lin Wan tried to persuade everyone to go home and rest, but with the launch date drawing closer, Wang Xiaobin and Ye Zhizhou couldn't sit still at home. They insisted on coming in to work overtime, and Lin Wan had no choice but to approve it.
Of course, Lin Wan herself couldn't relax either.
The game she had poured her heart into would finally meet players in just one week—the team felt both thrilled and nervous.
The final client size for Blood War Anthem: Enhanced Edition was 370 MB, far exceeding everyone's initial expectations.
The original Blood War Anthem was a browser game—instant play, no download required.
Most browser games kept their micro-client under 5 MB.
A few, larger ones might reach 30–50 MB.
Anything beyond that wasn't considered a "micro-client" anymore—downloading 370 MB would take far too long by browser-game standards. Most players would rather just go play a full-fledged PC game instead.
And the vast majority of browser-game players simply wouldn't tolerate downloading that much data.
But Lin Wan had no better option. Since the enhanced version upgraded the game from 2D to 3D with completely redone art assets, no matter how much they compressed and optimized, there was just no way to shrink it further.
370 MB was already the result of strenuous optimization efforts.
It was a huge risk—but at this point, there was no turning back.
On the bright side, maybe the game's superior quality and fair gameplay would help reshape traditional browser players' expectations.
Not to mention, they had President Pei's personally crafted advertising campaign.
Lin Wan wasn't entirely confident, but she believed President Pei surely had a plan.
Wang Xiaobin knocked softly on her door. "Director Lin, all the prep work for the marketing campaign is ready."
"At present, we're focusing on ad placements across multiple platforms—novel sites, video platforms, gaming sites, anime sites, and web directories."
"As discussed before, our promotional videos won't use forced pop-ups or those annoying floating banner ads. Players will only be redirected to the registration and download page if they click voluntarily."
Though it was still traditional online advertising, Lin Wan had firmly opposed the more irritating methods.
In truth, the browser-game ad scene was still chaotic—random pop-ups, persistent corner ads, and other intrusive formats were everywhere, ruining countless users' experiences.
But annoyingly, those shameless tactics were also the most effective.
Rejecting them meant the ad campaign's reach and conversion rates would drop—and players might not even notice or appreciate the restraint.
Lin Wan discussed it with the team and ultimately decided to move forward with that plan.
After all, Shangyang Games was no longer the same as before—it had to distinguish itself completely from those shameless, bottom-feeding browser game companies.
After hearing Wang Xiaobin's report, Lin Wan nodded with satisfaction. "Good work. The next step is to polish the game thoroughly. Maybe changing the players' tastes will be difficult, but at least we'll have given it our best shot."
Wang Xiaobin nodded in agreement.
Although Director Lin hadn't micromanaged every single detail during development, her positive and ambitious attitude was clearly inherited from President Pei—that kind of spirit was rare.
"Alright then, everyone get ready. We'll spend one more week on final testing. Let some veteran players in for early access so they can give feedback."
"In one week, the game officially launches—and the full marketing campaign goes live!"
…
…
That evening, at Mingyun Private Kitchen.
"See? I told you this place was amazing, but you didn't believe me. Now you do, right? Your so-called field agents really dropped the ball on this one!"
Xue Zhebin leaned back, crossing one leg over the other, a smug grin on his face.
The dinner he had booked yesterday was definitely worth it.
The moment he stepped into the room, he could tell the difference.
The entire private dining room—the décor, the tables, the utensils—everything had been changed!
When he came for lunch yesterday, Mingyun Private Kitchen didn't have any other guests, so he had chosen this same private room. But since he hadn't made a reservation back then, the décor was in its standard setup. The environment was nice, sure, but nothing particularly special.
Tonight, however, was a completely different story.
Since Xue Zhebin had made a reservation in advance, the room's decorations, the table, even the tableware had been customized to match the dishes being served. The overall style was perfectly coordinated—down to the tablecloth and table arrangement.
Everything clearly showed a level of thoughtful preparation that impressed him the moment he walked in.
Sitting across from him was a young man who looked a few years older, though still under thirty.
Unlike Xue Zhebin's flashy nouveau-riche vibe, this man was dressed in a crisp business suit, exuding the air of a professional elite.
At the moment, he was tasting the exquisite food while staring at his phone in confusion.
"There's such a high-end private kitchen in Jingzhou, and yet none of our field promoters have discovered it? How on earth did you find this place?"
On the map of the review app, the location showed up as a blank plot of land—nothing there at all.
Xue Zhebin grinned triumphantly. "Doesn't matter how I found it. You lost the bet, so dinner's on you!"
The young man sitting across from him was Wang Peng, one of the co-founders of "AllReviews", a nationwide restaurant and service review platform.
After surviving the brutal battles of the group-buying market, AllReviews had been rapidly expanding from top-tier cities into second- and third-tier ones—and Jingzhou was one of their key targets.
To expand their market faster and attract more merchants, Wang Peng had proposed setting up "promoters" in every city.
These promoters' daily job was to discover restaurants that hadn't yet been listed, and persuade them to become official partners of AllReviews.
The promoter system had proven to be quite effective. AllReviews was expanding rapidly throughout Jingzhou, and by now it had already covered the vast majority of local businesses.
In particular, promoters could earn generous commissions when they successfully partnered with upscale restaurants that had excellent dishes and strong reputations. Because of this, AllReviews' promoters were constantly scouring the city for exactly these kinds of places.
Even if a restaurant refused to establish a partnership, it would still be marked on the map of AllReviews' platform.
There was no reason for any location to appear as a blank space.
That was precisely why Wang Peng didn't believe what Xue Zhebin was saying—and why he was feeling a little competitive about it.
He simply couldn't accept that there could be such a high-end, refined restaurant in Jingzhou that AllReviews hadn't already discovered.
A waiter stood by with a pleasant smile, ready to serve them at any moment.
Wang Peng asked, "How long has your restaurant been open?"
The waiter replied with the same professional smile, "A little over half a month, sir."
Wang Peng was even more confused.
He couldn't make sense of it at all. AllReviews had a whole team of promoters stationed in Jingzhou—people whose entire job was to scout for undiscovered businesses every single day.
And yet, this restaurant had been open for over half a month… and not a single promoter had found it?
But Xue Zhebin somehow had? That made absolutely no sense.
Wang Peng followed up, "What's the name of your restaurant?"
He was already thinking it might be a good idea to connect the owner with AllReviews and set up a partnership.
The waiter smiled politely and said, "Sir, our restaurant doesn't have a name."
"We prefer that what you remember is our pleasant dining environment, our attentive service, and our unforgettable cuisine—not some empty name."
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