I've been possessed by a culinary genius, and I've turned Shaxian snacks into a rip-off!

Zhao Yunlong's Douyin (TikTok) ID is "Long Ge Tan Tianxia" (Brother Long Explores the World), and he has 28,000 followers.

To put it nicely, they're food bloggers; to put it bluntly, they're just street urchins who go around eating and drinking for free.

He's been doing this for almost two years and has filmed at least two or three hundred videos, but he hasn't made much progress. The number of views for each video is very stable, only three to five thousand. Occasionally, he might get lucky and break fifty thousand views by riding a trending topic, but that's about it.

The comments section was also sparsely populated, with only a few familiar faces appearing repeatedly; he could even recite their IDs by heart.

Where did Brother Long go for a free meal today?

This shop looks good; I'll try it sometime.

[Read.]

【……】

That's about it.

Zhao Yunlong also considered changing his career path. After all, the current food review scene is incredibly competitive. You either need to have the financial means to film in high-end restaurants where the average cost per person is several thousand yuan, or you need to film something unusual. Otherwise, normal food review videos won't get any views.

Or you need to have something special, like being able to eat a lot, talk a lot, or be good at creating funny stories, or simply have a face that makes people want to pay attention to you.

Unfortunately, he doesn't possess any of these qualities.

Last night, Zhao Yunlong was lying in bed scrolling through his phone as usual when he came across the official news video from Jiangcheng. He usually just swiped past these kinds of news videos, but this one was too interesting; someone had actually been arrested by "Uncle Hat" for eating at a Shaxian snack shop.

Zhao Yunlong almost burst out laughing.

Getting arrested for eating at a Shaxian snack shop? What an outrageous plot!

If he hadn't been certain it was an official title, he would have thought it was all an act.

However, the video successfully piqued Zhao Yunlong's curiosity, especially after seeing the video mentioning the exorbitant prices of Shaxian snacks and a meal costing 5600 yuan.

What does it mean to spend 5600 yuan per meal at Shaxian Snacks?

Shaxian Snacks, known as a national-level affordable fast food, is known to people all over the country. It usually costs only a dozen yuan per person, which is very cheap.

And you're telling me someone spent 5600 on a single meal? Even a pig couldn't eat that much!

But Zhao Yunlong's intuition told him that this might be a viral hit.

Although the netizens in the comments section didn't believe that there was such an expensive Shaxian restaurant, and even he himself initially didn't believe it, he still searched for the Shaxian restaurant on the review website out of curiosity and the need to find material.

Upon opening the link, wow, he seemed to have underestimated the extent of the Shaxian snacks' shady practices.

With a rating of only 1.8, it's probably the lowest rating ever recorded on review websites.

The comments were even more outrageous. Some people called the owner a Li hater, some said the owner was applying double standards, and some even said the owner added something addictive to the soup... It was very chaotic, and all the reviews were negative.

No, that's not right. There is still one positive review, but many people commented on it with things like, "This must be the boss's alt account," and "Let's make money together!"

It seems these positive reviews were probably faked by the boss.

Zhao Yunlong scrolled through the comments for a long time, and the more he scrolled, the more unbelievable it seemed. He was especially shocked when he saw the comment with the most likes.

This comment is a complaint about being scammed out of 17 yuan after eating a meal; the content is particularly tragic.

A meal cost 170,000 yuan! This is the worst kind of rip-off restaurant ever!

You know, even the most upscale restaurants in Jiangcheng might not cost this much for a meal, so it's outrageous that this Shaxian restaurant can cost this much!

After realizing that this store was extraordinary, Zhao Yunlong's heart pounded, and he had a bold idea.

Go check out this place! You absolutely have to go!

If this Shaxian snack shop, with its gimmicky atmosphere, could film the actual prices and dishes served, the video might actually go viral.

However, there are risks involved in doing this.

Success! He became a legend overnight, gained millions of followers, completely shed his lowly status as a food blogger, and from then on, his popularity and wealth soared.

If you fail, you'll lose everything, your restaurant exploration career will be over, and you'll go bankrupt and have to go home and live off your parents.

Zhao Yunlong made his decision almost without hesitation.

He desperately wanted to become famous, desperately wanted to carve out a path to success in this cutthroat world. Since fate had given him this opportunity, he was ready to take a gamble.

"Damn it, let's do it!"

"Take a gamble, and your bicycle might turn into a motorcycle; gamble again, and your motorcycle might become a Land Rover!"

..............

The following evening, Zhao Yunlong appeared on Jiangdong South Road with his equipment.

As soon as he arrived, he noticed the special features of this Shaxian snack shop. It was located in the Financial Street area, right across from a Michelin three-star restaurant. That was quite bold.

He then raised his phone, found the right angle, and started recording.

Hey everyone, guess where Brother Long is today?

"See that? Shaxian Snacks, but this isn't the kind of Shaxian Snacks you're thinking of. I heard that the average customer spends over a thousand yuan here, and I even heard that someone spent 17 yuan on a single meal!"

"You heard right, it's 17 RMB, not any other currency. That's enough to buy a domestic car, or even a down payment in a small city."

"Brother Long risked his life today to check out this place and see just how shady it really is..."

After finishing his opening remarks, Zhao Yunlong pressed the record button to save the footage, and then he mustered up the courage to push open the glass door of Shaxian Snacks.

The reason he said it took courage was because he was afraid that if he went in, he would become the next victim who would be ripped off and cry for his parents.

But he went in anyway.

Traffic is something that sometimes has to be earned through hard work.

Ding-a-ling~~

The wind chimes at the door rang.

Zhao Yunlong walked into the store with his phone in hand, and the first thing he did was point the camera at the menu on the wall.

Even though he was mentally prepared and knew that this restaurant was particularly expensive, he was still shocked when he saw the prices on the menu.

Fragrant Mixed Noodles: Regular version NT$128/serving, Deluxe version NT$588/serving.

.........

Bodhi Jade Studio: Standard version 288 yuan/serving, Deluxe version 1288 yuan/serving.

Braised pork belly with secret recipe: 99 yuan/piece.

"Awesome!!!" Zhao Yunlong couldn't help but swear.

But he quickly calmed down. Stay calm, stay calm. I'm a professional food blogger, I can't lose my composure.

I've really broadened my horizons; I never thought I'd see food priced at 1288 yuan a serving in Shaxian County.

And that braised pork, 99 yuan a piece, it's actually sold by the piece! He's never seen braised pork sold by the piece before.

"Hey guys, take a look at this price yourselves."

"I, Zhao Yunlong, have been exploring restaurants for almost two years. What kind of shady shops haven't I seen? Beef noodles at the high-speed rail station cost 58 yuan a bowl, and steamed buns at tourist attractions cost 60 or 70 yuan a basket... I've seen all of these, but this is really the first time I've seen a Shaxian snack shop selling for over 1000 yuan."

Zhao Yunlong then turned the camera to the customers in the dining area who were eating rice.

"And look at you all, the customers in this shop are eating so strangely! They don't use bowls, they eat from basins, and everyone has such a good appetite!"

Yu Shen and others: "......."

Password? Do you think we want to eat from a bowl?

Zhao Yunlong was holding up his phone, wanting to take some close-up shots of the food on the customers' tables, but before he could even move the camera, he suddenly felt a chill.

He noticed that the other diners in the restaurant had stopped eating and were all staring at him with hostile eyes, making him feel very uneasy.

Something's not right, something's really not right!

It feels like these people want to just carry him away.

He awkwardly apologized to everyone, quickly stopped filming, found an empty seat, and whispered to the camera:

"Hey guys, did you see that? The customers at this shop don't seem very welcoming to me."

"I don't know if I came in the wrong way, or if this store has some secret that can't be told."

"Anyway, from the moment I walked in, they started giving me weird looks..."

Little did he know that most of the people sitting in the shop were core members of the Shaxian Anti-Gang Alliance.

This group of people didn't want Li Heizi's shop to become popular in the first place. If it became popular, it would be troublesome to get a table. If they only served fifty people a day, there would be long queues, and they might not even be able to get a table. Who could tolerate that?

So when they saw that this guy was actually a restaurant reviewer, they naturally looked down on him. Why was he filming a video when he was just eating?

If your video goes viral, we'll have to queue all the way to France to eat out.

Zhao Yunlong felt uncomfortable under their gazes, and he even considered temporarily stopping his shop visits.

A young man wearing a white apron and sporting a bright smile came out of the kitchen and greeted us very warmly:

"Welcome, welcome! A warm welcome!"

When Li Zhibai saw his equipment, his eyes instantly lit up with a green light.

Restaurant review blogger!

She's a restaurant review blogger!

God knows how long he had been waiting for this day.

From the very first day he opened his business, he dreamed of having a food blogger come to his store to film a video and help promote it, so that he could attract all the rich, spoiled brats in Jiangcheng as quickly as possible and then slowly fleece them.

Unfortunately, the system blocked his online traffic generation privileges, so he had no way to promote his products online and could only wait passively.

Now that the food blogger has finally come to our store, it's truly a cause for celebration!

However, when Li Zhibai scanned the other party's financial resources, the enthusiasm on his face faded slightly.

Because this guy's financial rating is only green—, it seems he's just a small blogger with little influence.

But it doesn't matter, green is green, we can't be biased. As long as we can promote him, he's a good blogger.

Besides, his shop is so unique, it might actually become a huge hit!