162: The spotlight

As more and more people tasted the delicious beggar's chicken, the queues for the stall grew longer and longer over the next three days.

Especially on the fourth day, the line even stretched onto the main road, causing traffic jams and alarming both urban management and traffic police.

Yinhua City had not seen such a lively scene for a long time, so both authoritative official media and tabloids focusing on gossip news immediately dispatched reporters.

Some reporters, eager to get first-hand information, rudely pushed into the flower bed and tried to interview Lu Chuan, who was setting up his stall.

But this rash behavior immediately drew public anger, and under the indignant condemnation of everyone, the reporter scurried out of the flower bed, not daring to linger.

Other reporters, learning from their colleague's lesson, did not dare to disturb Lu Chuan's stall and instead turned their attention to his Regular Customers, trying to piece together a vivid image of the stall owner from their fragmented descriptions.

The Regular Customers, having nothing else to do, and with small gifts for being interviewed, plus the questions being about the young boss, were all incredibly enthusiastic.

Good heavens, they almost started from Pangu creating heaven and earth, talking so much that it was dazzling and sparkling, practically describing Lu Chuan as a contemporary God of Cooking.

Faced with such exaggerated and eye-popping interview content, the reporters almost laughed their teeth off.

If only one person had praised him like that, they would never have dared to send it back to the main office.

But now, every customer was praising him like this, so no matter how exaggerated it sounded, it had to be true, truer than pearls!

Many reporters, after gathering enough material, couldn't wait to return to their offices, but instead immediately ran to the side, opened their laptops, and excitedly began to draft their interview reports on the spot.

When the last period was typed, they quickly checked it and immediately sent it to their respective organizations.

"Boss, hurry, quick, breaking news fresh out of the oven! Go, go, go!"

"Leader, this is a live report, please expedite the review!"

"Editor-in-chief, this news is definitely going to go viral across the entire internet!"

The reporters couldn't even wait for a reply from their organizations before calling to urge them to publish it immediately.

This is the era of short videos, and with everyone able to be a video blogger, the media's hunger for trending news far exceeds any previous period.

Now that they had finally stumbled upon one, how could they possibly hold back?

Therefore, while Lu Chuan was still engrossed in setting up his stall and making money, news reports about him had already spread online.

Although there were no direct interviews with Lu Chuan, the interviews with the Regular Customers also left netizens marveling.

Especially upon hearing that Lu Chuan changed his stall location every week and that Regular Customers spontaneously formed groups to find his stall, they exclaimed in disbelief.

With the prevalence of stall culture in recent years, in cities big and small across the country, as long as it's not a deserted area, you can find a stall within a few steps.

Especially when out for a stroll at night, rows of night market stalls are a common sight.

People have long been accustomed to all kinds of snack stalls, and this has almost become integrated into their lives.

When they don't feel like cooking, or want a change of taste, going downstairs to wander through the snack street is also an option.

But when had they ever heard or seen such a "willful" stall owner, and such "unswervingly loyal" Regular Customers?

Faced with such unprecedented and amusing news, everyone was delighted, exclaiming "holy crap," "oh my god," and "666" before forwarding it to their friends and family to share the fun.

Netizens from other regions viewed it purely as entertainment, but deep down, they didn't take it too seriously.

After all, the internet is a colorful world, with new and exciting news appearing every day, and they would forget about it in a few days.

However, many residents of Yinhua City and neighboring cities, upon hearing that the stall was at Citizen Center Square, immediately couldn't suppress their curiosity to come and investigate.

Therefore, on Friday of this week,

Lu Chuan encountered a difficult problem with his stall.

Because there were too many people, he found that he couldn't even squeeze into the square.

"Why are there so many people today?"

Lu Chuan, having spent the entire day making beggar's chicken, had no time to scroll through short videos, so he had no idea what had happened.

"What should I do? It's almost six o'clock!"

Today, the traffic around the square was completely paralyzed, and the Jinbei minivan was stuck outside the parking lot, unable to get in.

Just as Lu Chuan was sweating profusely with anxiety, realizing that if he didn't set up his stall soon, he would miss the system's allotted time, and the mission might fail, a savior suddenly appeared.

"Young boss, I finally found you!"

Mr. Li's voice, at this moment, sounded so pleasant.

As Lu Chuan looked at Mr. Li outside the car, about to say something, Mr. Li had already begun directing the employees he brought with him.

"You guys, hurry and help unload the stuff, and you, help the young boss watch his car."

Then, Mr. Li turned to Lu Chuan and said with a smile,

"Young boss, time waits for no one, shall we go?"

Lu Chuan quickly thanked him, then, along with He Jingrui, Mr. Li, and the employees Mr. Li brought, pushed the large boxes and hurried towards the square.

On the way, Lu Chuan looked at the people filling the entire square, at the dense mass of heads, and at the police maintaining order, and couldn't help but swallow.

How many people must there be!

He had never seen so many people gathered together in his life.

"Brother Li, why are there so many people today?"

Lu Chuan couldn't help but ask Mr. Li, who was beside him.

Mr. Li, hearing this, looked at him strangely.

"You don't know?"

Lu Chuan was stunned, then quickly reacted, pointing to himself with a look of surprise.

"Is it related to me?"

Seeing that Lu Chuan was genuinely unaware, Mr. Li couldn't help but shake his head with a smile.

So many people came because of Lu Chuan, yet the person involved had no idea. How could this sound so novel and interesting?

"Young boss, you really are an interesting person."

Mr. Li chuckled softly, then began to explain the whole story.

Lu Chuan listened, dumbfounded, and couldn't help but click his tongue.

He looked at the dense crowd in the square, and thinking that all these people had gathered because of him, his heart was filled with complex emotions.

Walking and pondering, Lu Chuan soon reached the flower bed.

Then, he was spotted by sharp-eyed Regular Customers.

"Young boss! It's the young boss!"

"The young boss is here! Everyone, make way!"

"The young boss has arrived, everyone clear the path!"

"Hahaha, I'm going to win ten today! This is the last day! I'm going to eat my fill!"

"Everyone, pass him along, get the young boss inside, don't let anyone bump into him!"

The excited shouts of the Regular Customers turned into a torrent of sound, instantly overpowering the noisy clamor around the square.

This made everyone nearby look towards Lu Chuan.

Then, their eyes lit up simultaneously, and many video bloggers among them raised their phones or cameras high, rushing towards Lu Chuan.

This scene truly resembled a zombie-themed movie.

And Lu Chuan was that plump and delicious piece of fresh meat in the eyes of the zombies.

"Oh my god!"

Lu Chuan's scalp tingled, and he didn't dare to stay put, turning and rushing into the flower bed.

The Regular Customers also cooperated, actively making way for Lu Chuan and his companions to pass, then immediately blocked the entrance to the flower bed.

Just one step away, they missed the opportunity to interview the young boss face-to-face and gain huge traffic.

This made the video bloggers who had just rushed close gnash their teeth in hatred, yet they were helpless.

The local citizens and netizens from other regions who followed closely behind these video bloggers, however, did not feel much regret, but rather discussed it with great interest.

"I can't believe the young boss who made it to the trending topics is so young!"

"Yeah, he looks even younger than my high school brother, yet he's already gained so much attention, it's unbelievable!"

"He's so handsome, he really captured my heart, not to mention he has such great cooking skills! I wish he could be my future husband!"

"I'm late, I don't know if it's still possible to get in line now, sigh! Let me tell you! I heard that the line now wraps around the outside of the square five times, and there are a lot of scalpers mixed in! What, you ask why there are scalpers? Don't you know that the beggar's chicken the young boss sells has become the best financial product? Selling it for a few thousand or tens of thousands in profit, far, far ahead!"