“Harvesting wheat? Didn't Mom and Dad say it would be a few more days? Why are we rushing back now?!” Hearing Wang Hao say he was returning to his hometown, Wang Lan was extremely excited but also very confused.
Wang Lan truly couldn't understand why her brother suddenly decided to go home early; there had been no sign of it before.
“I think it’s time to say goodbye to street vending.” Wang Hao explained his thoughts to Wang Lan.
As Wang Hao's fried noodles became more and more famous, he clearly felt the overt and covert gazes from his peers around him.
Competitors are enemies; this saying applies to any industry, and street vending is no exception.
It was precisely because Wang Hao had previously pursued a leisurely life and had not deliberately sought to maximize daily sales that he had been able to pass so many days peacefully.
As the saying goes: misfortune and fortune have no gate, only people invite them upon themselves.
Competition at the grassroots level is often much fiercer than people imagine, and in the few years Wang Hao spent street vending, he had witnessed all kinds of people and strange occurrences; things like “the tallest tree in the forest is the first to be felled by the wind” were commonplace.
Wang Hao meticulously shared some of his discoveries and thoughts with his sister, Wang Lan.
At first, Wang Lan thought her brother was overreacting, believing there wouldn't be so many dark sides.
However, when Wang Hao recounted some of the details to her, Wang Lan couldn't help but feel a chill of fear.
“The owners of the fried rice noodles and fried noodles stalls diagonally opposite ours often gather together and then stare at us, muttering something in low voices. Not only that…”
“If one day we are falsely accused of a food safety issue and investigated, we could lose everything.
Now that there are other options available, there’s no need to take that risk.”
Although Wang Hao's words sounded somewhat like the thoughts of someone with persecution paranoia, they were not without reason.
After all, only by taking precautions in advance can one ensure a longer path ahead.
“I need to quickly check the tickets!” Wang Lan secretly sighed to herself: My brother is truly amazing; he can even detect such things. Compared to him, I am still too young.
As the siblings busied themselves booking tickets home, they were unaware that the wonderful chemical reaction between his Erh-hu playing and fried noodles, due to Ma Yang’s “catalyst” presence, was rapidly soaring on the internet at an astonishing speed!
Saturday, the sun was bright, and a gentle breeze was blowing—truly a refreshing day.
Unlike the expectant 'slacking off' atmosphere of Friday, there was no anxiety about the 'slacking off' that would begin on Sunday.
Ma Yang was accustomed to sleeping in on Saturdays, usually waking up around eleven in the morning to find something to eat.
However, this morning, when his phone automatically turned on, it began buzzing incessantly, making what should have been a peaceful and beautiful morning exceptionally noisy.
“Who is it?! Calling so early! You’d better give me a good explanation!” Ma Yang grumbled angrily, still groggy from sleep, as he hastily grabbed his phone, ready to curse.
However, when he looked closely, he realized his phone wasn't vibrating from a call but was being bombarded by a series of short video notifications.
Ma Yang mused to himself: Is this short video platform going bankrupt? To send so many notifications, aren’t they afraid I’ll sue them?
Clicking in, Ma Yang suddenly understood that the platform wasn't going out of business; rather, the video he had stayed up all night making had received a large number of likes and comments.
As he checked his phone, messages kept popping up endlessly.
Still a bit groggy from just waking up, Ma Yang stared at his phone screen, his expression gradually shifting from initial confusion to undisguised surprise. “I… I’ve gone viral!”
Ma Yang opened his profile on the platform. His pitifully small number of followers had suddenly surged by over four thousand, filling Ma Yang with a dizzying sense of overwhelming joy amidst his surprise.
He rubbed his eyes in disbelief, then checked several more times. Yes, and the follower count was still increasing little by little.
Opening the comment section, the screen was filled with praise, many people exclaiming:
“It’s already amazing to be proficient in one thing, but I never expected Chao Mian Ge to be so good at playing the Erh-hu too. At this rate, he’s going to dominate the street food scene.”
Watching their enthusiastic discussions, Ma Yang suddenly felt a sense of enlightenment, as if he had grasped the secret to traffic—Chao Mian Ge was his traffic secret!
A surge of excitement welled up in Ma Yang’s heart, making him completely forget his original plan to sleep until eleven.
He eagerly began replying to netizens' comments, continuing until noon when his stomach started rumbling, and he realized he should stop and rest to order some takeout.
Just then, another platform notification popped up on the screen.
His finger instinctively wanted to swipe up to close it, but his gaze was caught by the content of the notification:
“Look! Dawei Feifei and Chao Mian Ge are on a date!”
This damned clickbait successfully piqued Ma Yang’s curiosity. He couldn't resist clicking the link in the comments and entered the video to watch.
However, what he saw utterly astonished him. He widened his eyes, his face filled with surprise, as if he had seen something incredible.
In the video, Chao Mian Ge and two girls walked out of the Snack Street side by side.
One looked like Chao Mian Ge's sister, and the other was the beautiful and lovely Dawei Feifei. Undoubtedly, anyone with eyes could see that the three of them were walking together.
Ma Yang mused to himself: “Can having good skills really make one so reckless? Someone he just met during a live stream yesterday, and today they’re already strolling around, chatting and laughing together. What kind of magical logic is this?!”
An indescribable taste of bitterness welled up in Ma Yang’s heart.
After all, Dawei Feifei’s live stream yesterday was still vivid in his memory; at most, they had only nodded to each other as a greeting.
But who would have thought that by noon today, they would already be together?
The world was changing too quickly; Ma Yang felt he needed a good nap to calm himself down.
The images in the video shocked him, completely exceeding his expectations.
His heart pounded, his thoughts raced, and various ideas and conjectures constantly flooded his mind.
This unexpected discovery seemed to bring him new inspiration and insight. Perhaps this was a breakthrough point? Or a completely new direction for Chao Mian Ge's story development?
Ma Yang stared intently at the screen, not missing a single detail. He was immersed in this astonishing video, trying to dig out more information and possibilities from it.
This sudden event made him incredibly excited, and at the same time, filled him with anticipation for future creations.