章節 245: The Challenge (20)
Since Zao Ming and Lee Mu had said that, and all the equipment had been set up, as embarrassed as Xiu Ling was, she was not going to ask them to stop the operation. Therefore, all she could was to allow them to continue.
As the director promised, the crew finished everything around noon, just in time for Xiu Ling to open for business. The advertisement took a few shots of the outside view and Lee Mu enjoying the meals. Thankfully, Mrs. Xiu was already in the kitchen or else they would have no food to be served. In essence, everything went smoothly.
...
Later in the afternoon, Xiu Ling who stood in the restaurant felt like something was wrong. She looked at the restaurant filled with customers and there was a deep frown on her face. Mrs. Xiu who was on a break since Auntie Xiao volunteered to take over for her for a while wandered out to stand beside her daughter.
When she saw the frown on Xiu Ling's face, Mrs. Xiu asked with concern, "Xiu Ling, what's wrong with you? Is there any problem? Why do you look so concerned all of a sudden?"
"Mom," Xiu Ling leaned in closer to her mother and whispered, "Mom, look around the room. Do you discover anything that's weird?"
Mrs. Xiu did what she was told. The place was packed, there were even customers waiting at the door for an empty seat. However, Mrs. Xiu could not tell if there was anything weird about this situation and that was what she told her daughter.
"Mom, pay attention to how they're dressed," Xiu Ling replied. Mrs. Xiu did and she realized half of the customers were dressed in formal outfit while the rest were dressed casually. Since they had been serving the employees from Lin Kang's company, Mrs. Xiu was used to seeing suits and dress shirts among the customers. However, that day there were families with children and couples. Yes, they were not their usual clientele but these were their intended audience so Mrs. Xiu couldn't really tell there was anything weird about them.
"Xiu Ling, what are you talking about?" Mrs. Xiu asked.
"Mom, we've missed out on an important step before opening this business and that is advertisement," Xiu Ling started to explain but Mrs. Xiu cut her off, "But didn't they just shoot a commercial this morning?"
"That they did but the effect wouldn't have been so immediate because while the director promised to release the commercial as soon as possible, it was ludicrous to think that the commercial could be shot in the morning and released in the afternoon. So far, our customers have been employees from Lin Corps but today there has been a constant influx of casual customers. So how exactly did they find out about our shop?" Xiu Ling wandered openly.
Mrs. Xiu was confused. She did not consider as many things as Xiu Ling did. As long as there was customers, she was satisfied.
Xiu Ling, who needed to get to the bottom of this, wandered over to a table with two ladies. They had already finished their meals and were chatting while eating their desserts.
"Ladies, how are you enjoying your meals?" Xiu Ling asked with a polite smile.
"The food is delicious and this red bean soup reminds me so much of home. My mom used to make something like this when I was young," One of the ladies answered with a smile.
"I'm so glad to hear that." Xiu Ling paused for a while before asking with a embarrassed smile, "This might sound like a weird question but do you mind telling me where did you hear about this establishment? Did someone recommend you here or?"
The two ladies looked at each other with befuddlement in their eyes, they did not expect such a question from Xiu Ling. However, considering it was no harm to reveal that information, they decided to humour her. One of them reached into her purse and pulled out a copy of newspaper. She placed it on the table and showed it to Xiu Ling, adding, "We saw the feature on this paper and we decided to try it out today. The article is not exaggerating. The environment and food are really amazing."
"Thank you so much for the compliments," Xiu Ling said off-handedly because her attention was on the newspaper. She could not remember conducting any interview for the newspaper. She asked the customer, "Do you mind if I borrow this copy? I'll bring it back to you when I'm done."
"Of course." Then, Xiu Ling left the customers to their peace.
Xiu Ling went back to Mrs. Xiu and flipped through the newspaper to look for the article that the lady mentioned. Eventually, she found it in the lifestyle section. There was a full-page feature on Jia Jia, complete with pictures of the interior decor and food.
The article praised the restaurant for combining the traditional and the modern and this could be observed from the decoration to the menu. It was a really positive review of Jia Jia but Xiu Ling could only frown.
Mrs. Xiu who was reading alongside her daughter asked the question that was on Xiu Ling's mind, "Xiu Ling, when did you give this interview? Has there been a reporter that has been in here?"
Xiu Ling shook her head. To her knowledge, she had not been interviewed about Jia Jia before. However, the fact was laying before her eyes. The pictures of the food featured were not picked from the internet either, they were close-ups of the meals. Therefore, the person who wrote this article and snapped these pictures must have been in the restaurant before.
Why would someone do a positive feature on Jia Jia but not reveal themselves when they arrived? Xiu Ling would understand the reporters hiding their identity if they were going to write an undercover piece, but this was a positive article so she did not get it... at least until Xiu Ling's eyes wandered over to the byline.
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