Chapter 421: Chapter 341 Nationwide Outbreak

On the afternoon of December 29, Youu Tea announced several measures to boycott scalpers.

That very night, Shen Minglang posted a moment in his friend circle with a picture of a milk tea and wrote, “I’m a part of Youu Tea now.”

Given his personality, that was pretty low-key for him.

Not even posting the words “Milk Tea Overlord” was not bad.

What was funny was one of his jocular friends even left a comment.

“Brother Lang? You’re going to work at a milk tea shop now?”

Shen Minglang let out a furious tirade, “Get lost, get lost, get lost, I’ve joined them!”

Actually, he was well aware that whenever he got involved in some business venture, many people around him were just waiting to have a good laugh at him.

There was no helping it, he had produced too much amusement on his entrepreneurial journey.

But this time was different.

“Just you wait and see, my cousin told me tomorrow I can put on a big show!” he cursed inwardly.

As night fell at the Shen family’s home.

The young stepmother, Wang Yushan, was chasing dramas in the living room again.

Mr. Shen was rarely home and often traveled on business, staying out all night was normal for him, and Wang Yushan had long grown accustomed to it.

Such a big villa, if Ningning and Shen Minglang were also not home, then it would be just her and the live-in housekeeper, which felt rather lonely.

She was the kind of person who didn’t really concentrate when watching TV, playing with her phone while watching dramas.

Soon enough, she stumbled upon Shen Minglang’s WeChat activity.

Although Shen Minglang didn’t like her, this stepmom who was only a few years older than him, and sometimes even spoke harshly, Wang Yushan never held it against him.

At this moment, Wang Yushan thought for a while and finally got up from the living room sofa to go upstairs, knocking on Shen Qingning’s room.

“Ningning, it’s me.” she said.

The young stepmother also felt quite puzzled; it wasn’t the weekend, so logically Ningning wouldn’t stay at home but would go to her apartment with Little Lu; but these past few days, she hadn’t gone out and didn’t even attend classes today, having asked for sick leave.

After a while, the door finally opened.

As Wang Yushan looked at Shen Qingning, she immediately asked with concern, “Ningning, are you feeling unwell somewhere?”

She felt the other looked a little haggard and pale, her whole presence lacking energy.

“No, just didn’t sleep well.” Shen Qingning obviously tried to avoid the topic.

But not sleeping well was also true.

“You don’t have a cold or fever, do you?” Wang Yushan wanted to reach out and touch her forehead.

“No.” Shen Qingning said.

“Ningning, have you… encountered some trouble?” She was still somewhat worried.

“Really, I haven’t.” Shen Qingning replied instantly.

Wang Yushan sighed inwardly.

After all, a stepmother is still a stepmother, and she spent more time interacting with this “daughter” as a friend.

Ningning was very headstrong; if she didn’t want to talk about something, no amount of questioning would make a difference.

“Auntie, is there something you need?” Shen Qingning asked.

“No, I just saw you locking yourself in your room all day and wanted to have a chat. Oh right, I just saw on the friend circle that your brother posted about Youu Tea; have you seen it?” She looked at Ningning, adding, “You know, your friend, Little Cheng, he’s the one who started that Youu Tea.”

Upon hearing Cheng Zhu, Shen Qingning couldn’t help but purse her lips.

A sense of sourness spread within her at that moment.

These past few days, Cheng Zhu had completely stopped looking for her.

There used to be contact every day at least on WeChat, but since they had that meal and he drunkenly said those things, and she didn’t respond at all, he hadn’t contacted her since.

The only indirect contact was when her brother came back after signing a contract and told her, “My cousin especially asked me if I had shown the contract to you. Goddamn, does this kid think you’re more reliable than I am?”

It seemed like he was cursing Cheng Zhu, but he was actually boasting about his sister.

What Shen Minglang didn’t expect was that Shen Qingning immediately looked up and asked, “He specifically asked?”

“Yeah, why?” he replied.

“Nothing.”

Now, she looked at her young stepmother and nodded slightly, her tone calm, “I know about this, I helped review the contract as well.”

“Did he take a lot of shares?”

“Not many.”

“Is that so? Then it looks like a small operation, just Shen Minglang is joining in for fun?” Wang Yushan said.

“I don’t think so, the shares may not seem much, but it depends on how big this venture will be in the future,” Shen Qingning replied.

“Qingning, are you so optimistic about Youu Tea?” Wang Yushan was a little surprised.

Shen Qingning shook her head.

“I am only optimistic about him,” she said to herself.

…

December 30, 1 p.m. sharp.

This article about the interview with the scalpers started to be released online.

Aside from this media outlet, several marketing accounts were also taking action, leading the charge on Weibo.

Cheng Zhu had definitely spent money on this.

But he hadn’t paid for a place on the trending search of Weibo.

For one thing, Weibo was booming at the moment, and it was freaking expensive to buy a spot near the top of the trending search list.

On the other hand, he felt it wasn’t necessary.

What’s our strategy?

Of course, it’s to spend little money for a big result!

With the current momentum, it was entirely sufficient, just waiting for it to slowly ferment online.

At 2 p.m., Cheng Zhu received a WeChat message from Shen Minglang saying he would host a meal for friends today to celebrate his involvement with Youu Tea.

After thinking it over, he declined.

On one hand, he needed to monitor the direction of online public opinion today and respond accordingly.

On the other hand, he was not interested in the friends who hung out with Shen Minglang.

These people were very contradictory.

They desperately wanted to break away from the shadow of their parents’ generation and succeed on their own.

But they looked down on people like Cheng Zhu who made a milk tea shop successful because, compared to their family wealth, that was nothing.

High standards but low skills, with an air of undeserved superiority.

Admittedly, many second-generation kids were actually very competent, but such people were busy working earnestly, not hanging around idly partying every day like them.

Shen Minglang probably hosted the meal because of their badgering.

When Cheng Zhu said he had to monitor the situation online, Shen Minglang naturally didn’t force him to come to dine and drink.

Now he began to feel guilty.

“Damn it, I really should die!”

“My cousin is still working hard, and I am going to eat and drink today.”

“Alright, today is just to celebrate, from tomorrow on, old man will cut ties with them!”

“What the hell, all they do is eat and drink all day, are they pigs in a pen?”

At 6 in the evening, with his self-deprication over, Shen Minglang arrived sprightly at the restaurant he had booked.

After ordering the dishes, the waiter asked if he wanted some drinks, and Young Master Shen perked up immediately.

“Whoa, I came in such a hurry today, I should have arranged for ten cups of Youu Tea inside!”

Time for a bit of gentle bragging.

At the dinner table, Liu Hongjing and Wang Wei, who had been at Shen Minglang’s birthday gathering, were present.

In addition, there were the usual bunch seen at their meals: a few online celebrities.

Before, Wang Wei was unimpressed by Cheng Zhu, but after learning the owner of Persistent Visit was Shen Minglang’s good friend, he pleaded several times with Shen Minglang to arrange a meeting; he really wanted to seek advice from him.

But according to his agreement with Cheng Zhu, Shen Minglang never told him that the person he wanted to “learn” from was Cheng Zhu.

He made fun of Wang Wei quite a few times in his heart over this.

“At your birthday party, my cousin made you drink a few extra glasses, and you held it against him, didn’t you?”

“Hilarious! If I really arrange this meeting, when you see him, you’d have to lower your wine glass three notches to him!”

“Damn, you’re supposed to hold your toast glass with both hands!”

Wang Wei’s family spends a lot of money for him to take e-commerce courses every year, look at my cousin, he leads a category, he’s the top dog!

At this moment, Liu Hongjing and Wang Wei exchanged glances, Liu Hongjing asked, “Brother Lang, why didn’t Cheng Zhu come?”

“He’s busy, the milk tea shop has a lot to deal with, what do you think?” he sniped.

“What a big deal could a milk tea shop have? There’s a manager to take care of it, then just have the staff make milk tea.” Liu Hongjing retorted, “He’s the boss after all; he should learn to delegate and let the people under him handle things. How can he do everything by himself?”

“Do you really think my cousin is just opening a milk tea shop on any street corner? You think it’s the same as those milk tea shops near school campuses? We’re branding our own thing, he’s busy every day, you don’t get jack!” Shen Minglang laughed and cursed.

He glanced around at everyone and started his second wave of bragging for the night.

Young Master Shen let out a light cough, “You know, after dinner today, I’m going to start getting busy too, so we probably won’t have much time to gather in the future. Let’s all eat and drink well tonight!”

“No way, Brother Lang, you’ve only opened such a store, can it really be that busy?” Wang Wei couldn’t help asking.

“Yeah, Cheng Zhu is too busy to come to dinner, and he even assigns you work, so you’re too busy to join our dinners too?” Liu Hongjing immediately chimed in.

Shen Minglang glanced at them, “You know nothing. I’m going to fly all over the country soon; there are many places to go, mainly to take a hands-on approach. My cousin will be stationed in Hang City, overseeing everything, operating the brand.”

Joking aside, my cousin just told me today that our Youu Tea will make it onto the Weibo hot search list.

There are fifty spots on the Weibo hot search list, Cheng Zhu said he had only invested a little, but Shen Minglang was confident in Cheng Zhu’s capabilities; getting into the top fifty would be no trouble!

“Are you going to open branches in other cities?” Everyone got curious when Shen Minglang said he would be flying all over the country.

“He said there’s no rush, he wants to build up the brand’s nationwide recognition first.” Shen Minglang spread his hands, saying the truth, which wasn’t a secret and could be discussed openly.

“That’s impossible, man. You only have one store in Hang City now, what do you have for building nationwide recognition?” Wang Wei was the first to voice skepticism.

“He says he can do it, then he definitely can,” Shen Minglang believed the biggest fool was Wang Wei.

Every time he saw Wang Wei clash with Cheng Zhu, he found it amusing.

Damn, if there’s ever a chance in the future, I’ll make sure you find out who the e-commerce god you’ve been so eager to learn from really is!

“No way, Brother Lang, do you hold Cheng Zhu in such high esteem?” Wang Wei began to flatter and belittle at the same time, “If you said it’s because of your family’s resources boosting Youu Tea to quickly gain national recognition, I’d believe you. But saying Cheng Zhu on his own will increase its nationwide recognition with a few efforts, isn’t that a bit of an exaggeration?”

Just as he finished speaking, Shen Minglang’s phone buzzed with a notification.

He received a two-word WeChat message from Cheng Zhu: “Up.”

It was to notify him that Youu Tea had made it onto the Weibo hot search list.

Already accustomed to Cheng Zhu’s showy ways, Shen Minglang started imitating him.

“Hear this, my cousin sent me a WeChat message, telling me that Youu Tea has hit the Weibo hot search,” he languidly announced.

He opened up his Weibo and then slapped his phone down on the round table, saying, “I’m not even going to look at what rank it is on the hot search, alright? Wang Wei, since you don’t believe it, you check it! Say it out loud, what rank is it!”

Shen Minglang started spinning the round table, slowly rotating his phone, facedown, toward Wang Wei’s direction.

…

(ps: First update, we are currently ranked first on the monthly ticket list, continue to seek double votes!)