Chapter 474: Secret Photography, Investigation and Punishment
Outside, it was drizzling autumn rain and the weather was slightly cool.
Perhaps it was because it had just rained, or perhaps it was past mealtime, the huge Fan Zhenxiang fast food restaurant did not seem busy. Seven or eight chefs and a dozen packers were chatting and drinking tea, looking leisurely and contented, without the panic and confusion of a few days ago.
From their eyes, one can seem to see their vision and expectation for the future.
When they saw Gao Yousi coming in, the employees immediately stopped talking, stood up, and straightened their clothes somewhat stiffly.
They had met Gao Yousi and learned from Xiao Longbo that this person was the investor and actual controller of Fanzhenxiang fast food.
"Mr. Gao."
"Hello, Mr. Gao."
Gao Yousi waved his hand, obviously not interested in this level of compliments at all.
He looked around, then frowned and asked gloomily, "Where are Xiao Longbo and Ji Feiyang? Where did they go?"
"I'm here."
Xiao Longbo walked in with a dark face, his body was wet, and it was obvious that he had just been caught in the rain and was in a very bad mood.
However, Gao Yousi was in an even worse mood than him. He snorted and did not intend to give Xiao Longbo face. Instead, he asked in front of the store employees: "What on earth are you doing recently? Didn't you agree to open two new branches? And now you are still spinning in circles?"
Xiao Longbo's face changed and he clenched his fists. He had never been scolded like this since he became the vice president of the Student Union. Suddenly, a feeling of humiliation filled his heart.
However, facing Gao Yousi, the financial sponsor, he did not dare to get angry, and could only quickly explain: "Mr. Gao, it's not that I don't want to open it, it's just that the situation has changed."
After saying that, he pointed across the street and said, "Didn't you see when you walked in just now? A new fast food restaurant called Zhen Xiang opened across from us, stealing a lot of our business. This Zhen Xiang fast food restaurant is really shameless. We are clearly not interfering with each other, but they opened a store across from us to steal our business. If they hadn't been causing trouble, the second store would have opened long ago."
However, Gao Yousi did not want to listen to Xiao Longbo's explanation. He invested in Fanzhenxiang fast food in order to make money. Now seeing that he made less money than expected, of course he had to ask Xiao Longbo for an explanation.
As for whether it was Zhenxiang Fast Food who was behind this, he didn't care at all.
"Zhenxiang Fast Food opened a store here and you have no business. Doesn't that mean you are rubbish? I don't care. You must do things according to the requirements of the contract. You must open ten branches within this year. In the spring of next year, you must go to Beijing and Baiyun to open up new markets. Come up with a gimmick for me!"
He doesn't care about the future development of Fanzhenxiang fast food, or whether the hidden dangers brought about by rapid expansion will affect the company's potential.
He had no intention of holding Fanzhenxiang's shares for a long time. Instead, he planned to cash out directly during the A round of financing and make the money first.
Therefore, what Gao Yousi needs now is a beautiful financial report and rapid growth in all the data of Fan Zhenxiang.
At this time, an employee was walking out with a bowl of leftover ingredients. Gao Yousi saw it and asked, "What is this?"
The employee answered honestly: "They are some leftover ingredients that were not used up."
"Where are you going?"
The employee's eyes became strange, and he said unhappily: "Of course it is poured out."
Gao Yousi's voice suddenly became a few degrees higher: "Why should we throw these ingredients away?"
Xiao Longbo quickly explained: "This is what Zhenxiang Fast Food does. Ingredients that are not used up on the same day must be processed to avoid damaging the brand image because customers eat stale food."
Gao Yousi scoffed at this statement and said, "What kind of food will go bad on the same day? Even if it's three or five days old, the food is just a little stale. Besides, even if the food is stale, so what? It won't kill people. Can't you marinate it with heavy oil and salt? And add more chili or something so that customers can't tell the difference."
He said very unhappily: "No wonder your expenses are so high. How can it not be low with such waste? The restaurant sells at low prices but sells a lot. It doesn't make much money to begin with, and you wasted all the money on this."
Although he was scolded, he was still a college student after all, and his conscience was not completely lost, so Xiao Longbo said hesitantly: "But will there be any problems if we do this?"
Gao Yousi looked at Xiao Longbo with disdain: "What a bullshit question! Who doesn't do the same thing when running a restaurant? Do you understand how to increase revenue and reduce expenditure? Anyway, just do as I say. They have already fallen to the point of having to eat boxed lunches to survive, so who cares about health?"
"If you don't spend the 1 million dollars invested in the angel round sparingly, you won't make it to the A and B rounds. And if you spend too much money and it doesn't work, you won't be able to get a high valuation in the A and B rounds. Think about it carefully!"
After Gao Yousi finished speaking, he left without looking back.
Xiao Longbo thought for a long time and finally made up his mind.
The clerk was standing with the ingredients, which was very difficult, so he had to ask, "Mr. Xiao, do we still need to throw these ingredients away?"
"If it doesn't fall over, put it back in the refrigerator. As for the meat, marinate it early tomorrow morning and then sell it normally."
"Okay, I understand."
The situation is stronger than people. If Xiao Longbo wants to make a lot of money, he has to do what Gao Yousi says.
In fact, the reason why there was a lot of waste was that he "knew the facts but not the reasons". He only knew that Lu Yiming's ingredients were not left overnight, but he ignored Lu Yiming's accurate statistics of the amount of raw materials used every day and made advance estimates. According to Lu Yiming's algorithm, the remaining ingredients every day were less than 5% of the total ingredients.
Moreover, these ingredients will not be wasted, but will be directly processed as special ingredients and sold to small vendors doing late-night snack business when people get off work in the evening.
For ordinary people, let alone in the 1990s, even in another 20 years, it would be impossible for the family to keep the food from being left out overnight. It would be good enough not to eat overnight meals, so these ingredients are actually still very fresh and fall into the category of edibles.
However, Lu Yiming did not dare to sell it to customers because of the brand image of Zhenxiang Fast Food.
But there is no problem selling to vendors, because they are not "customers", and the purchase price of Zhenxiang Fast Food's ingredients is low due to the large quantity, and if there is a discount, the small vendors selling midnight snacks will not be able to refuse .
After a few interactions, the cooperation between the two parties has basically reached a tacit understanding. After 9:30 every evening, Zhenxiang Fast Food will take out the ingredients that have not been used up that day and allow these small vendors to come and buy them. It is first come, first served, and they can always sell out completely with basically no waste.
But these things are not available in Fanzhenxiang fast food.
In fact, this is also the common problem of all copycats. They learn the form but not the spirit. Little do they know that details determine success or failure. This is why it is said that those who learn from me will live and those who imitate me will die. Learning requires one's own thinking. If you just copy and imitate without your own core, you will not go far.
A week later.
Xiao Longbo got up early. Since he had no classes in the morning, he went to the store to keep an eye on things.
"Mr. Xiao."
"Hello, Mr. Xiao."
"Well, hello, everyone."
Xiao Longbo enjoyed the feeling of being a successful person. When he walked into the kitchen, he looked around for a few times, then frowned and asked, "Where is Kong Ergou? Isn't it his turn to be on duty today?"
Ji Feiyang shook his head: "I don't know, didn't he come to work on time again today?"
Xiao Longbo said unhappily: "This guy is always late and leaves early. I have memorized his name. When this period is over, let him go."
Several employees nearby trembled when they heard this.
Will I be fired for being late or leaving early?
Doesn’t this boss really take his employees seriously?
In fact, Kong Ergou had come to the store more than an hour ago.
However, at this moment, he was sitting in a cafe near the door, his eyes staring straight in one direction, as if he was waiting for someone.
After a while, the person he was waiting for arrived.
He was wearing a neat dark blue suit, and his temperament was perfectly captured.
The valuable watch on his wrist shows his successful status.
The person Kong Ergou was waiting for was Lu Yiming.
"boss."
Kong Ergou greeted Lu Yiming immediately when he saw him come in.
Lu Yiming smiled at him and asked, "Did you bring what I wanted?"
Kong Ergou said hurriedly: "I have brought it! I have taken the photos. This time it is absolutely irrefutable evidence... But after doing this, I will definitely lose my job, so the compensation you promised to give me before, Mr. Lu..."
As he was talking, Kong Ergou handed over the black bag containing the camera: "Mr. Lu, I'll give this back to you first."
Without saying anything, Lu Yiming took out a large envelope and said, "Here is 50,000 yuan. Once I am sure there is no problem with the photo, I will give you the remaining 50,000 yuan."
He opened the black bag and found a camera and a stack of photos inside.
The photos show various evidences of Fanzhenxiang fast food using expired ingredients in the past three days.
This was the solution Lu Yiming came up with after hearing that Gao Yousi asked Fan Zhenxiang Fast Food to use expired ingredients.
He was originally thinking about fighting a protracted battle, but he didn't expect Gao Yousi to take the initiative to give him the assist.
Lu Yiming felt embarrassed to refuse such good intentions.
Immediately, he contacted Kong Ergou, and under the temptation of a huge sum of 100,000 yuan, he took these photos.
After Lu Yiming finished looking at the photos, he took out an envelope and said, "Here is the remaining fifty thousand."
Holding two bulging envelopes, Kong Ergou's hands were shaking with excitement.
He was just a farmer who came to the city to work. Even how to press the shutter of a camera was taught to him by Lu Yiming. How could he have ever seen so much money?
A full one hundred thousand dollars was enough for him to build a magnificent mansion in the countryside!
Seeing Lu Yiming turn around and leave, Kong Ergou said excitedly: "Boss, if there is such a good thing in the future, remember to contact me."
When Lu Yiming disappeared at the end of the road, Kong Ergou suddenly remembered something very important.
"What's this boss's last name? How can I find him in the future?"
As far as we know, Lu Yiming never revealed his identity, and Kong Ergou was overwhelmed by the advance payment of 50,000 yuan and never thought about these issues at all.
Now that I have the money and my IQ has regained its high ground, I only remembered this.
But Lu Yiming had already gone far away.
This made Kong Ergou very regretful, and he felt that he had missed a good opportunity to make a fortune.
At noon, Lu Yiming was looking at these photos in the dormitory, thinking about how to maximize the value of these photos.
Ni Cong had just come back from the cafeteria after eating. He was picking his teeth with a toothpick in his hand. When he saw so many photos in Lu Yiming's hand, he immediately asked curiously, "What are you looking at? Why are there so many photos?"
After leaning over to take a few glances, Ni Cong became even more confused: "What are you filming? Did you go to the store incognito?"
"That's not right. This isn't the kitchen of our store. How dare you secretly take photos of it?"
Seeing him startled, Lu Yiming said, "Stop shouting. This is the kitchen of Fan Zhenxiang. I asked someone to take this photo."
Ni Cong was shocked: "How did you take this photo?"
Lu Yiming said calmly, "Money talks. How else could they have taken these photos? I spent 100,000 yuan to bribe an employee of Xiao Longbo and asked him to take these photos for me. Fan Zhenxiang used expired ingredients and did not meet hygiene standards. These photos are not only irrefutable evidence, but also evidence against them."
Ni Cong was stunned by this operation and asked, "Is it really okay to do this?"
Lu Yiming said righteously: "It's just looking for a commercial spy. It's okay as long as he is not caught. And I'm not trying to spy on any commercial secrets. I choose to expose evil deeds based on my conscience. All this is for justice. Do you understand justice?"
Ni Cong: “…”
I have never seen such a shameless person!
After calming down, Ni Cong asked, "What are you going to do? Go straight to the media and expose the truth?"
Lu Yiming nodded slightly and said, "This is necessary. Not only the media, I will also report it to the market supervision department."
"hiss……"
Ni Cong couldn't help but take a breath.
"Isn't this too harsh? I'm afraid Fan Zhenxiang will be closed down, right?"
Lu Yiming said lightly: "The lightest thing they will do is to suspend business for rectification. Given the current situation of Fan Zhenxiang Fast Food, if they can't operate normally, they will basically be out of business."
Lu Yiming has no intention of letting go of this opportunity to kill with one blow. The business world is like a battlefield, and there is no room for softness.
Ni Cong felt a toothache just thinking about it. He was not used to this kind of life-and-death competition. After all, not long ago, he was just a student who had just entered university. Now he truly realized how cruel competition was.
Lu Yiming didn't have so many feelings. In his opinion, Xiao Longbo himself made a strategic mistake, so naturally he had to stand at attention and be beaten.
After school in the afternoon, Lu Yiming went to the Student Union to find Shi Qingxue.
There are a lot of people in the student union, and many of them surround Xiao Longbo and flatter him.
Although Gao Yousi was very dissatisfied with his actions, he had invested money after all, so he took it seriously and found a food newspaper to interview Xiao Longbo.
Xiao Longbo had just finished an interview and was accepting the compliments from the students with great enthusiasm.
When Xiao Longbo saw Lu Yiming coming in, his eyes suddenly lit up and he stood up and walked towards Lu Yiming.
For him, hearing ten compliments is not as good as showing off once in front of Lu Yiming.
"Hey, isn't this Junior Brother Lu? How come you have time to come to my student union today? It's a sin for me not to go out to greet such a great person as you."
Facing the arrogant Xiao Longbo, Lu Yiming was not angry at all. Instead, he smiled and said, "It seems that President Xiao has been doing well recently. Is he in a good mood because of good things happening to him?"
Although Xiao Longbo hated Lu Yiming to the core, he still smiled and said, "It's all thanks to my junior brother who showed me a way forward."
The two of them exchanged a few words in secret, and after a few rounds, neither of them was willing to give in.
Lu Yiming was too lazy to say anything more to Xiao Longbo, so he called Shi Qingxue and prepared to leave. Before leaving, he said to Xiao Longbo meaningfully: "While you can still laugh , laugh more."
Xiao Longbo felt unhappy and also a little uneasy. He asked with a dark face: What do you mean?
"Don't worry, you will understand soon."
After leaving the student union, Shi Qingxue defended Lu Yiming and said, "Xiao Longbo is such a shameless person. He plagiarized your idea and now he's showing off. Looking at his face, I really want to punch him twice."
Seeing Shi Qingxue clenching her fists and looking angry, Lu Yiming suddenly found it interesting. He reached out and held Shi Qingxue's fists, and said with a smile: "Forget it, there is really no need to be angry with such a person. Anyway, he won't be able to jump around for much longer, so just let him be."
Shi Qingxue asked curiously, "Hearing what you said, what conspiracy have you come up with?"
When Lu Yiming heard this, his face darkened: "Is this how you use idioms?"
With the interview published in the newspapers, Fan Zhenxiang's reputation has been improved to a certain extent, which is also reflected in the sales volume, which makes Xiao Longbo very happy. He thinks that this report card should be able to shut Gao Yousi up. As long as it can maintain for a period of time and recover the funds, it can open a second store.
In fact, Xiao Longbo had no idea what Gao Yousi was planning.
Gao You's idea was to open stores crazily, then tell stories to investors, attract venture capital, and cash out. He never thought about turning Fanzhenxiang into a business. So, he was so annoyed when he saw Xiao Longbo was slow to open branches.
However, Xiao Longbo naively believed that Gao Yousi just wanted to make Fanzhenxiang fast food bigger and stronger.
Xiao Longbo was thinking about making money from his clients, but Gao You was thinking about making money from his investors.
Xiao Longbo is still considering whether to start the B round of financing in advance. After all, there is still a blank in the market for mid-to-high-end fast food. Whoever acts fast enough will be able to grab the largest market share.
As long as the financing is successful, Fanzhenxiang’s stores will be able to increase rapidly.
Xiao Longbo is very ambitious. He is not satisfied with Zhonghai. He also wants to open more chain stores and even become a fast food giant in the mainland!
Just like McDonald's and KFC, when people mention Chinese fast food, they think of Xiao Longbo.
A quick ring brought Xiao Longbo back from his fantasy.
"Oh no! Our store has been closed down!"
