Chapter 9 – Who Cares About the Competition
Translated by Prosperousfood.com
Rehosted by Gumihou at kitchennovel.com
Because ‘Superior Roast Lamb Skewers’ had lowered the prices of their mutton skewers by half, some of the customers that seek to grab a good bargain immediately made their way to that stall.
In a short span of time, the two stalls seem to have an equal number of customers.
Looking at this result, Cao Kang was slightly appeased, and Fang Tao also relaxed. This is the first time that he had worked with Fang Tao. If this did not work out, in future Cao Kang would not work with him anymore.
But the two men did not feel at least for long. They quickly discovered that the number of customers that purchased from ‘Superior Roast Lamb Skewers’ started to dwindle in numbers. Although ‘Superior Roast Lamb Skewers’ were much cheaper, the taste of the lamb skewers was vastly inferior to that of Ye Chui’s.
There are only a few that seek to take advantage of the price. But the majority of the customers are regular ‘foodie’ that frequent Ye Chui’s stall for its great taste. After all, they were spoilt for choice of what to eat in the night market, and they still chose Ye Chui’s stall because of the taste of Ye Chui’s food.
Slowly, the numbers of customers in each stall changed, and there is a long queue of customers at Ye Chui’s stall again. In contrast, the number of customers in the new stall had shrunk a lot.
The whole thing did not take more than 20 minutes.
Cao Kang who was seated in his car and observing everything immediately turned green. He glared at Fang Tao in anger, and shout, “Continue to lower the price, I do not believe that I could not steal his business!”
“All right….” Fang Tao felt that it is not good to continue to lower the price. But Cao Kang is in charge, and he could not refuse Cao Kang’s orders. He immediately took out his mobile phone and made a call.
After less than 20 minutes since the last offer, ‘Superior Roast Mutton Skewers’ again slashed the prices of their mutton skewers into half. The two men manning the store immediately shouted out to attract more customers.
“Special offer, our mutton skewers cost only 50 cents for one stick. This is super cheap! Do not miss this offer!”
“Buy 3 get 1 free! Guarantee to make you full!”
The stall had already lowered the original price by more than ¾. But this time, nobody was attracted to their offer.
“Just now it was $2 for 1 stick. How come it becomes 50 cents for 1 stick so quickly? Don’t tell me that the mutton there had expired?”
“I also felt that the taste of their mutton skewers taste funny. They must have used expired mutton!”
“Good stuff is not cheap! We better eat the authenticate mutton skewers here. Eating the bad quality mutton skewers there may cause stomach-ache.”
The crowd begin to gossip and pointed at that stall. Even the customers who had purchased some sticks of mutton skewers suddenly lost their appetite and tossed away the uneaten portions of their mutton skewers. And those few customers that were queuing up in the ‘Superior Roast Mutton Skewers’ stall quickly walked away without purchasing anything.
There are some customers that like special offer and save some money. But when the price of the food is too cheap, what happens is that everyone will suspect the food to be contaminated or had expired. Nobody would dare to buy such food.
For example, in a supermarket, you notice that there is a 10% discount on your favourite chocolates. You would be very happy and purchase it. But when you discovered that the same chocolates were half priced, you will check the expiry date and make sure it is not expired or expiring soon before you purchase it. If it is expiring soon, you do not want it anymore. It is the same concept here.
Ye Chui was busy roasting the mutton skewers and serving his customers. When he noticed the situation, he just smiled and continued to roast the mutton skewers in his stall. From the beginning, he had never considered that they could affect his business.
Cao Kang, who was sitting in the car and watching this, could not control his anger anymore! He was just displeased that Ye Chui had made him lose some face in front of Lin Wei yesterday, and decided to come up with this plan to hurt Ye Chui’s business.
But never did he expect that his plan was like throwing an egg against the rock – it did not even put a dent in Ye Chui’s business, much less snatch his business.
He placed the blame squarely on Fang Tao. Fang Tao is really useless! As a chef in the top restaurant – the famous ‘Wan Lai Fu Restaurant’ in the city, he could not even come up with mutton skewers that could compete with a night market stall!
Cao Kang’s face looked very cold and very scary. He picked up his handphone from a pocket and immediately made a call. The call quickly goes through.
“Tiger Brother [1]. I need your help…..” Cao Kang coldly stated.
……
“Boss, I like to purchase 5 sticks of mutton skewers, please!” A clear and sweet voice rang out.
Ye Chui expertly picked up 5 sticks of mutton skewers that were ready from the grill. When he was about to hand over these mutton skewers, he suddenly paused. He felt that this voice seemed to be familiar. He turned around, and while turning, he had already guessed who the lady was.
As expected, the voice belongs to none other than Lin Wei, the girl of his dreams and the girl whom he could not forget. She was standing there, right in front of him.
Her big, lovely eyes seemed to look at him with interest, and her mouth is smiling.
“You… you have come?” Ye Chui felt as if he had returned to his teenage years, as a shy boy speaking to his first love, as he stammered. “If you want to eat mutton skewers, just inform me. There is no need to queue up.”
“There are so many people queuing up here, how could I just walk up and ask you for mutton skewers?” Lin Wei gaze jumped from Ye Chui to the mutton skewers in his hand. Ye Chui could have sworn that she swallowed her saliva and was practically drooling.
She is really a kitty that loves to eat!
She looked at Ye Chui and with a mischievous smile, and said, “Hehe, yesterday after I finished the food, I still craved for more.”
“If you crave for more, just come over and take. There is no need to queue up.” By this time, Ye Chui had recovered his wits somewhat. He smiled and asked the customers who were queuing at his stall, “If a pretty lady like you want to cut the queue, the rest of you would not mind, right?”
The one thing that this world does not lack is people who like to agree with others. Especially if it is in front of a pretty lady like Lin Wei. Hearing Ye Chui’s words, the crowd enthusiastically responded.
“That’s right! We will not mind!”
“If a pretty lady wants to cut the queue, just queue up in front of me. I do not mind giving up my place in the queue and go to the back of the queue a well.”
“This is what you said. Quick, give me your spot in the queue!”
“Darn fatty! Go away!”
“Boss, I felt that you should have a rule: In future, if a pretty lady wants to buy mutton skewers, they need not queue, and also they need not pay as well.”
Listening to these words, Ye Chui just smiled as he asked Lin Wei, “See? They agree with me!”
Lin Wei’s face turned red, she took the five sticks of mutton skewers and handed over a $10 note to Ye Chui.
But Ye Chui would not hear of it, “Didn’t you just heard what they said? They said that if a pretty girl comes over, I should give the sticks of mutton skewers for free. So how can I accept your money?”
The person next in queue immediately jumped in, “Yeah, pretty lady! Since the boss is not willing to accept your money, you should not put him in a difficult position. But if you really must pay for the food, then we can help the boss to accept the money. “
Lin Wei had never encountered such a situation in her life before. Her face turned even redder. When she looked at Ye Chui, she discovered that Ye Chui eyes were fixated on her, and his eyes seemed to burn with passion. She immediately tried to avoid Ye Chui gaze and panicked. The hand that was offering the monies took back the money and she wanted to turn around and leave immediately.
But at this moment, a group of men suddenly rushed towards this store. These men were very fierce and looked like they were here to create trouble. The leader of this group of men happened to collide against Lin Wei.
Lin Wei screamed and almost fell down. This is a rare chance to have a ‘hero save a beauty’. Not one to let go of an opportunity to create a good impression on Lin Wei, Ye Chui immediately took action. Ye Chui rushed forward and grabbed Lin Wei, and use his body to shield her from the fall.
The man who collided against Lin Wei was not as lucky. The sharp end of the mutton skewers in her hands happened to stick into his shirt, and may have pierced his flesh. Just now, Lin Wei was in a panic, and she had grabbed these mutton skewers fairly tightly.
Cao Kang, who was observing from the sports car and looking forward to a good show, was stunned, “Lin Wei…. Why is she here?”
……
Notes:
[1] In China, if you place a name in front of the word ‘brother’, it means the triad society (or thugs). So Tiger brother is referring to a thug named Tiger.
Dragon brother is referring to a thug named Dragon. etc
Real brothers usually use numbers. E.g. eldest brother, 2nd brother, 3rd brother etc.
Good friends who refer to one another as brothers also use numbers and avoid the above-mentioned way of calling one another.
^_^
Translated by Prosperous Food dot Com
Rehosted by Gumihou from kitchennovel dot com.
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