I've been reborn, I'm definitely going to become an internet celebrity!

Chapter 131 [We need to come up with a new plan]

Inside the tea room, several people sat around a glass round table. They all looked to be quite old, with the youngest appearing to be in his fifties.

"I don't know this young man."

An older woman held her teacup, examined it for a long time, then shook her head. "Young man, where are you from?"

"I'm from the old city area," Liu Zhuohao replied.

The elderly man next to him, his hair all gray, suddenly slapped his thigh. "Oh, it's you! The one who sells steaks, the one who got reported!"

He pointed at Liu Zhuohao, then suddenly realized, "What's his name again? His surname is Chen, right?"

Liu Zhuohao smiled and pulled up a chair to sit down. "Grandpa, it's true that I'm the one who made the news selling steak, but my surname is Liu. You have a really good memory."

"Oh, that's for sure!"

The old man had no concept of politeness; his voice rose several decibels. "Don't let my age fool you, I remember everything that happened thirty or forty years ago perfectly! You have no idea how poor this place was forty years ago," he said, pointing to the chair Liu Zhuohao was sitting on. "Right, right, right, this very spot where you're sitting now used to be a dirt road! And this whole area was fields; when it rained, your feet would sink up to half a leg—"

"Alright, alright."

An elderly woman from the teahouse came over with a teacup and interrupted him, "Stop talking about such old, trivial things. Times are changing. Every day, one minute you're saying that Chengdong Road is a dirt road, and the next you're saying that the central square used to be a pig farm."

She placed the teacup in front of Liu Zhuohao: "Here, have some tea to help you sober up."

Liu Zhuohao cupped the cup in both hands and took a sip.

"Good tea," he said softly.

The old lady listened without saying anything, and then added more hot water to the teapot.

Liu Zhuohao took another sip, put down the cup, and looked at her: "Sister, actually it's like this. I had some tea here last time, and I thought it was quite delicious."

"People here feel uneasy if they don't have a cup of tea all day."

He paused for a moment, then continued, "So I was thinking of getting some tea for the restaurant behind me. Since you've opened a tea room here, I was wondering if you have any connections, sister?"

"Do you know any reliable tea farmers? I want to buy some tea leaves to put in the shop for my customers to drink."

"The tea business seems to be quite complex."

Tea is an essential part of running a restaurant.

Although he also prepared daily soups, such as corn and carrot pork bone soup, yam and goji berry soup with lean pork, winter melon, barley, dried tangerine peel and old duck soup, and five-finger peach soup with chicken —

But guests may not necessarily order it.

Tea is a necessity; as soon as a guest enters and sits down, a cup of tea must be served.

The old lady sat there leisurely: "I do know some tea farmers, after all, I run a teahouse. If you really need anything, for business purposes, I can ask around for you."

She paused, her brow furrowing slightly. "But you're not planning to charge a tea fee, are you? We don't do that here."

"It definitely depends on the situation."

Liu Zhuohao explained, "I plan to make two kinds. One is the regular kind, which is free and served to customers as soon as they come. It's like the kind of rice noodle rolls sold at roadside stalls. It looks very strong, but the tea flavor is very weak."

The older woman nodded: "It's Pu'er tea, just some broken tea leaves."

"Put a spoonful into the tea container, and the resulting tea will be a rich, clear red color, and it can withstand many infusions."

"It can basically be steeped all day and still have some tea flavor, and the scraps are very cheap."

She knew very well what kind of tea was in the tea buckets displayed at those rice noodle roll stalls.

Liu Zhuohao added, "The other option is five yuan per person."

"Give them a pot of tea, put it in a teapot with a strainer, and serve it directly to the customer."

"One pot of tea can be enjoyed from before the meal to after the meal. Refilling the water is free, but the tea will not be changed."

"Five yuan?" The old lady frowned even more. "Five yuan can't buy you any good tea."

She counted on her fingers: "About how much is one brew? How many ounces? It's the most common honey orchid fragrance, low mountain tea, not much mountain flavor."

"Or we can go with Pu'er tea, but not the scraps or broken tea leaves. We can get some basic summer tea, which is more bitter, but it still has the flavor of tea."

"Or barley tea would be fine, but barley tea isn't really considered tea anymore."

As expected of someone who runs a teahouse, he immediately came up with several suitable tea names.

Liu Zhuohao smiled and nodded: "Okay, I'm just asking first. I'll trouble you to introduce me to someone later."

He finished the last sip of tea in his cup, stood up, and said, "I'll go check out the shop first, so I won't disturb you all any longer."

.

"Have a few more drinks!" the older woman urged. "It's late at night, and there's nothing much to do today, the Winter Solstice."

Liu Zhuohao waved his hand and walked outside, cupping his hands in a respectful gesture: "My colleague is waiting outside. I mainly want to ask my sister for some information, as I'm really not familiar with tea."

With that, he pushed open the door and went out.

If someone runs a teahouse and you've met them once before, it's only polite for you to come in and ask for a cup of tea.

But if you actually sit down and drink one, two, or three cups of tea without paying, that's just being impolite.

After all, some teahouses charge several hundred yuan per brew.

He doesn't appreciate those high-end goods; he's mainly here to discuss business.

At the entrance, Zhuang Zicong was squatting by the roadside, with a cigarette between his fingers.

"You know each other?" He exhaled a puff of smoke.

"We know each other, we'll be neighbors from now on." Liu Zhuohao walked over. "When did you learn to smoke?"

"I recently witnessed other people's editing skills, and now I feel the pressure."

Zhuang Zicong stood up, still holding a cigarette, and said, "In comparison, what Honghao and I edited was just cutting out the important parts and omitting the tedious ones. It didn't feel very technically sophisticated."

In other words, it's a job that anyone can do as long as they have a computer.

Study hard.

Liu Zhuohao didn't comfort him or say anything like "don't worry".

They are both veterans, and their editing skills certainly cannot stop at what they are now. Otherwise, he wouldn't know how to assign them positions or salaries in the future.

Should it be based on seniority or ability?

Have you contacted the editor from that photography team?

The two continued walking forward. Zhuang Zicong asked if their previous plan to recruit people at the school had been terminated.

When it comes to editing, it's best to find someone who is already experienced.

"Not yet," Liu Zhuohao replied. "We haven't figured out who in the team is capable yet, and we're also having some cash flow problems."

The wages for part-time jobs hired by the school are definitely different from those for hiring a full-time employee outside.

It's not just the monthly salary, but also the benefits, work environment, equipment, and so on, all of which are different.

When the topic of funding came up, Zhuang Zicong was quick to understand and didn't ask any further questions.

"Let's go, our shop is just ahead."

Liu Zhuohao led Zhuang Zicong across the road and stopped in front of a shop covered with a plastic sheet.

The roller shutter door has been removed, and it's pitch black inside; you can't see anything.

Just as Liu Zhuohao was about to go inside, he suddenly noticed the closed door of the clothing store next door, as well as another shop on the other side.

He clapped his hands suddenly.

"Hey!"

His tone was full of regret, "I forgot, I forgot. I've been so busy lately that I forgot to buy any gifts for my neighbors."

Zhuang Zicong looked puzzled: "A gift? Aren't we supposed to give it when we move in?"

"We're delivering now because of the renovations," Liu Zhuohao said, pointing to his shop. "The renovations here will definitely affect the business of the other two shops. I had thought about this before, but I've been too busy lately and forgot about it."

He took out his phone and checked the time: "We need to go back later to buy some tea, um, a lot, and also give you guys some employee benefits."

Besides them, his uncle and aunt had finally come back, so he had to buy them some tea and send it to them.

Oh, right, the Chen family needs them too.

Then—

As I get to know more and more people, I receive more and more messages during holidays and festivals. But this also means I have to deal with some social obligations.

As Liu Zhuohao spoke, he turned on the flashlight on his phone, lifted the plastic sheet, and walked inside.

The main renovation work was done on the kitchen.

The previous beef hot pot restaurant only had a small area in the kitchen. When making hot pot, they usually just cut the meat and arranged it on a plate, and the rest was for the customers to cook themselves at the table.

The dining area was quite spacious, with large tables that could fit big pots.

But he runs a family restaurant, so the business model needs to be changed.

The kitchen needs to be expanded, and those large tables need to be replaced with small to medium-sized tables suitable for family gatherings, including booths for four people, round tables for two people, and bar seats for one person.

The walls need to be renovated, the bathroom needs to be inspected, and the sewers, drainage, and electrical circuits all need to be checked.

"This is our shop?"

Zhuang Zicong followed him in, looking around curiously.

The two walked from the dining area to the kitchen and stopped at the warehouse entrance.

Zhuang Zicong scratched his head: "Why does it feel a little small?"

"It'll be big enough once it's renovated," Liu Zhuohao replied casually. "Right now it's a mess, so it definitely looks small."

"160 square meters, which is considered above average for a family restaurant."

If it really needs to look big, it needs to be at least three or four hundred square meters.

But a store of that size is beyond my current capabilities.

Moreover, rather than pursuing the size of a single store, Liu Zhuohao prioritizes setting up stores of the same size in different commercial areas.

He walked around the store and roughly checked the situation.

He can't tell whether the renovation work is meticulous or not; that's just an outsider looking at the spectacle.

He mainly looked at one thing: whether there were any signs of urinating or defecating indiscriminately.

This is what Liu Zhuohao cares about most.

From the very first day of the renovation, he had someone come over every day to keep an eye on things.

A restaurant, after all, is a place for people to eat.

Although it's necessary to deodorize, air out the smell, and disinfect mosquitoes after renovation, it's always best to avoid things that can be avoided.

The floor was clean and there was no odor in the corners.

Liu Zhuohao breathed a sigh of relief.

Okay.

"Let's go back."

Liu Zhuohao glanced at Zhuang Zicong, who was idling beside him. After all, the store was not yet fully renovated, it was dusty everywhere, and there was almost no equipment. He wasn't very excited.

Views: 451587.

Likes: 103189.

Coin: 151105.

Number of favorites: 73093.

Number of comments: 81181.

Number of bullet comments: 31001.

The next day, Liu Zhuohao sat at his computer desk, looking at the video data he had uploaded the previous afternoon.

It wasn't a big explosion.

When the comparison object is one's own other videos.

This data is actually quite good within the current state of Bilibili. Liu Zhuohao glanced at his ranking on the leaderboard: sixty-third.

Not too high, not too low, just right in the middle.

Is it because the project has lost its momentum, or is it because of the holiday season?

Liu Zhuohao opened the comments section.

"I couldn't stop smiling the whole time I watched it. The height difference between the two of them standing together made the cat look like a child next to them. (Just kidding.)"

"Boss Liu, you better tell me honestly, how did you manage to get Maomao to come out of retirement? I remember she never posts anything about her daily life except for dance videos!"

"A biting cat? It looks even better than in her own videos!"

"Who did the post-production work on this video? The background music for the final part about sharing the food was absolutely perfect, and all those hand-drawn illustrations are so cute!"

"I usually only see cats biting people in cosplay, and I don't think they're that pretty. But today, when I appeared in Boss Liu's video, with those pigtails, that hoodie, and that smiling face with crescent-shaped eyes, it gave me a bit of a first love feeling."

Many comments expressed interest in the collaboration video, indicating that Song Yinxuan has a good reputation on the platform and is currently enjoying a positive atmosphere with her collaboration.

Although, occasionally there are comments like "Liu Zhuohao get out of Bilibili", "This is not Taobao, go to Taobao to buy beef balls", and "With the boss gone, Bilibili is now a mess".

But these issues have always existed. Ever since my video first appeared in the top few of the charts, I've consistently received negative reviews from users in my comment section.

Sometimes Liu Zhuohao even wondered if they were really fans of that blogger; they seemed more like professional trolls.

These are trolls disguised as fans, who go to other people's videos to comment and stir up trouble, trying to bring up the conflict between the blogger and the blogger's fans. Oh, and this also applies to fandoms.

However, Liu Zhuohao had already skimmed over these comments, finding nothing particularly special about them.

As for the content of the video, there haven't been any negative reviews yet.

However, the data doesn't go up.

"Boss Liu, I've gained a thousand followers!"

"—This video that collaborated with me seems to be one of the worse ones among your past videos?"

"Boss Liu, have you gained any more followers?"

Song Yinxuan's message was still in the chat box. It was sent late last night, but Liu Zhuohao was already asleep at that time and didn't reply.

"That's normal. Maybe the audience is getting a little tired of this project."

Liu Zhuohao replied with a message, but perhaps because the heat of his previous rights protection efforts had subsided, the data didn't seem as explosive as before.

Have you gained followers?

He glanced at his account balance and saw that it had increased.

One to three hundred thousand followers.

To be precise, 301451 followers.

I've finally surpassed 300,000 followers.

From the moment he started making videos about protecting rights, Liu Zhuohao had a premonition that he would break 300,000 views by riding the wave of popularity. However, after the popularity subsided recently, apart from the local area where he would occasionally meet with his friends, there wasn't much attention on the platform anymore.

Furthermore, he continued to lose followers on Weibo, leaving him with only 48410 followers, falling below the threshold of 50,000 followers.

We need to think of a new plan.

Liu Zhuohao couldn't help but think of the "evaluation videos" he had mentioned before, but this type of video didn't really fit his actual positioning.

On Bilibili, his public image is not that of a "funny" persona.

Liu Zhuohao himself is not that kind of person.

He wants to focus on real businesses. If he tries to gain popularity by creating a quirky persona in the public eye, it will be difficult for him to do business with others.