Shuangshuang: "..." These are all excuses. After the bloodline fusion, I automatically mastered my current strength. There's no need to adapt at all!
Ye Xu suspected that Shuangshuang, the system assistant, might have been secretly brainwashed and fed something by the system when she was created, which was why she was so keen on persuading the shopkeeper to spend points. However, considering the origin of the points, it was not unreasonable for the system to be eager to take them back.
While I understand, it's impossible for him to actually listen and waste money. Ye Xucai won't fall for it; the strength of his dragon body is already more than sufficient.
With a large number of employees filling the labor shortage, the remaining shops were finally able to open all at once. Just then, it was lunchtime, so Jiang Yuexuan followed the same method, arranging flower baskets at the entrance of each new shop and hanging pre-ordered banners outside the mall to attract passersby.
"It's a pity we can't display the shop signs on the exterior wall of the building now. It would be too conspicuous to suddenly have signs out in broad daylight. We'll have to wait until night." Jiang Yuexuan said with some regret. In fact, passersby can easily spot the advertising space on the exterior wall of the building at a glance. "Now we can only put up a few more promotional standees outside the mall."
With the opening of new stores, almost every shop was given suitable opening discounts, and the discounts were quite substantial. Jiang Yuexuan was an expert in this area; she knew exactly how to leverage the advantages of dimensional shops to run promotions.
Ye Xu initially seemed happy to be a hands-off manager, but after observing for a while, he suddenly realized that his mindset might be a bit off. The shop was his, he received the largest share of the profits, how could he really just ignore everything? Was he the one running the shop and completing the tasks, or was someone else doing it?
So Ye Xu rallied his spirits and followed Sister Xuan, eagerly absorbing her experience. And he did indeed learn quite a few useful business strategies.
After the initial preparations were completed and guests began to come upstairs to dine, Jiang Yuexuan's little tail stopped following her around. Ye Xu had prepared a lot of equipment for the mukbang that morning, and now that she had nothing else to do, she could officially start recording.
Jiang Yuexuan had seen Han Yingchen eating rice noodles at noon and praised him, saying, "Xiao Han's mukbang is really good. I think you shouldn't just film ice cream mukbangs anymore. You can do mukbangs of all the food in the building. That way, the two of you can work together, one as a full-time photographer and the other as a full-time live streamer. You can tell the outside world that you are a small team organized by the mall, members of the publicity department."
However, this would make them unsuitable to be store managers. It's essential to keep store employees separate from mall staff for better convenience.
If any shop runs into trouble, the blame can be placed on that shop, preventing the entire mall from being affected. Once the situation calms down, that shop can close down and open another one.
Ye Xu listened and felt more and more that Sister Xuan was a shrewd businesswoman, but he didn't dare to say it out loud, after all, the boss's aura was too strong.
There aren't a lot of shops in the mall, but fortunately, each shop offers a wide variety of food, enough for Ye Xu and his team to do many episodes of food review videos. Just one noodle shop alone could have its own episode dedicated to each type of sauce.
"Then let's start with the ice cream shop," Ye Xu suggested. "On such a hot day, that's bound to be the most popular."
Han Yingchen had no objection and nodded, saying, "I've just eaten and I probably can't eat anything else, so ice cream is definitely suitable."
Ye Xu said with some regret, "I should have taken a picture when you were eating the mixed noodles."
As it turned out, he was so hungry that he was so focused on eating that he completely forgot about filming. Ye Xu could only console himself that there were too many magical creatures present at the time, and he might have accidentally filmed them, which would have made editing difficult later, so not filming them wouldn't be a big loss.
“However,” Ye Xu suddenly became worried, “my photography skills aren’t very good, and my videography skills are just so-so. I probably won’t be able to shoot a very good video.”
In the past, when our department had group dinners, all the female classmates would take out their phones and start snapping photos, and quite a few male classmates couldn't resist taking a couple too, since they had nothing better to do. Ye Xu was one of them, but every time he took a photo, it was terrible, and it didn't look very appealing.
Ye Xu even asked a female classmate for help, but unfortunately he didn't quite understand. He only knew that he needed to use a filter. However, his old, broken phone was too difficult to use; adding a filter would cause it to freeze, so he had to give up.
You can't add filters to photos, can you? Ye Xu tried it out, and when he took a picture of Han Yingchen's face, it made him turn completely red.
Ye Xu: "..."
Sigh, a reddish filter can indeed make food look more appealing, but it's a shame you can't use it to photograph people, since you need to take pictures of people after you've eaten.
To solve this problem, Ye Xu sought help from the all-knowing Sister Xuan. However, even Sister Xuan shrugged, indicating she couldn't help, which greatly surprised Ye Xu, who had assumed that Sister Xuan, being a girl, would know a great deal about such things.
"Who said that? Girls are different from each other. I can't even tell the difference between lipstick shades!" Jiang Yuexuan said confidently.
Ye Xu, who also couldn't distinguish the color codes, suddenly felt a sense of camaraderie with Sister Xuan.
If even Sister Xuan couldn't do it, there was no point in counting on the others; most of them were natives of the Western Fantasy region and weren't very good at using cell phones. But Ye Xu wasn't entirely satisfied without asking around, so he went and asked around and was surprised to find that Miss Luna could actually shoot some pretty good videos.
Because Sister Xuan had previously filmed a video that made Ye Xu envious, Luna had asked her about it before and learned what filming videos meant. When Ye Xu came to inquire, she said she had never personally filmed one and wasn't sure if she was good at it.
Seeing Luna's eagerness, Ye Xu simply let her try taking some pictures. The equipment was too big for Luna to move, so she let her direct while Ye Xu adjusted the lens.
And so, the two of them worked together to produce a pretty good video. Jiang Yuexuan came over to check the results and was very impressed.
"Luna is an elf, and I remember that elves have always had a high talent for beauty and art, so it's not surprising that she can achieve this level in her first shoot," Jiang Yuexuan commented.
So the filming director was in place. Ye Xu had Luna sit on his shoulders pretending to be a doll, and provided him with guidance through voice messages in the system chat channel.
To prevent Luna from remaining tense and motionless all the time, Ye Xu bought her a large little cloak, so she could secretly move her hands and feet and relax a bit inside. Outside the cloak, as long as she didn't speak, it didn't matter if she turned her head or blinked; some dolls do that these days.
The head turning could be electrically controlled, while the blinking was caused by the gravity of the doll's eyeballs. Ye Xu was genuinely startled when he first saw a doll that could blink, almost thinking he had encountered a paranormal event.
To be honest, Ye Xu was speechless about his own easily startled nature.
With everything ready, the three-person team went downstairs to film. Jiang Yuexuan, on the other hand, took Xiaoyu to inspect the building.
Since the goal is to make Xiaoyu a signature internet celebrity cat, it's essential to attract as much attention as possible and make her more visible. The cat is small and pure white, so she's not very noticeable; having a beautiful woman in a black dress beside her would make a big difference.
Sure enough, before long, some diners who came upstairs to join in the opening festivities couldn't resist taking out their phones and snapping many photos and videos of the kitten and the beautiful woman.
At first, they took photos secretly, afraid of being caught by the person involved and the cat. Later, when they realized that the two didn't care and were still patrolling their territory, they immediately became open and aboveboard.
People love to follow trends. Once two or three people are taking pictures, others can't help but pull out their phones and start filming too. Gradually, Yu and Jiang were followed by quite a few followers, making them look like celebrities on an outing.
"What's going on up ahead?" A passerby stuck in traffic peeked out on tiptoe. "Is there an event going on, or have they hired celebrities for a promotional performance? Why is everyone gathered here?"
Driven by curiosity, many people squeezed to the front. Some left after watching, finding it uninteresting, while others took videos and photos and posted them on social media, thus spreading the news within a small circle of people in the mall.
At this stage, the situation is still under control.
WeChat Moments is a relatively private platform, so its reach isn't as wide. The number of people posting on Weibo isn't particularly large either; in recent years, as the atmosphere on Weibo has become increasingly chaotic, many people have given up sharing their daily lives on it.
Jiang Yuexuan guessed that if the mall wanted to trend on social media, it would probably have to spend money to promote it. Or it could promote the cinema on the fourth floor among the surrounding university students. There was no cinema in this area, and this was the first one, which would definitely attract a lot of attention.
If they come to the restaurant to watch a movie, they will inevitably be attracted by the food. At that time, a large number of students will spontaneously help promote it, and the popularity will be stabilized.
Ye Xu's prediction was similar to Jiang Yuexuan's; he also felt it wouldn't become a sensation so quickly. So he leisurely filmed videos on the first floor, not in a hurry at all.
However, life is always full of surprises. The hashtag #SuspenseWriterJiangYuexuanChangesCareers# unexpectedly overtook the expected hashtags #MallCatCEO# or #AffordableFoodInDimensionalMall# and went viral first.
First of all, it should be noted that although Jiang Yuexuan has traveled through multiple dimensions and served as a shop manager many times, the current dimension is indeed her original dimension. However, she has not been back for many years, and this time she has only been back for less than two months. In fact, she has long forgotten many things and has not had time to get back familiar with them.
What did this lead to? It led her to forget how much attention her identity as a "famous suspense writer" actually brought her.
All the staff: "..." Is this something you can just forget about??
Ye Xu heard the news while filming. At the time, a couple at the next table were sitting opposite each other, playing on their phones and waiting for their ice cream to arrive, when they suddenly saw it trending on social media. Both of them were fans of Jiang Yuexuan's books. The girl exclaimed in surprise, disregarding the quiet environment around her, and loudly told her boyfriend the news.
This shout drew everyone's attention in the store, and Ye Xu couldn't help but look over. Listening to the two of them talking excitedly back and forth, he finally understood what had happened.
Wow, Sister Xuan has quite a few personal fans. With that kind of talent, why does she even need marketing? She could just post a message on Weibo and drive traffic.
Established writers in the suspense genre already wield considerable personal influence. Many people might not be able to name famous writers in other genres, but they can readily name two or three from the suspense field. While most are foreign and have been deceased for many years, there are also emerging writers.
In this context, the promotional effect of the "beautiful female writer" gimmick was quite remarkable. This gave Jiang Yuexuan a level of fame far exceeding that of other writers of the same caliber, as well as a large number of male and female fans. It was even so absurd that some female fans called themselves male fans and male fans called themselves female fans.
Many fans initially came for her looks, but after learning about her abilities, they switched to being career-oriented fans who admired her intelligence, gradually becoming die-hard fans. Her fan base has grown daily, and now it rivals that of second-tier celebrities.
Of course, this is also related to Jiang Yuexuan's natural talent for management. Fans also need to be managed; how to retain fans and turn casual fans into loyal fans are all skills.
Now that people are hearing that their beloved author has changed careers and opened a shopping mall, countless fans are flooding the topic, crying and begging the author not to stop writing and to come back to writing novels.
Why open a shopping mall? Aren't your annual royalties and copyright fees enough? Waaah!
Book fans are always full of fighting spirit, otherwise they wouldn't be constantly clamoring to send razor blades to the author. Now that the author has opened a shop online, how could fans in the same city not go to urge him to write more? They immediately went out with their collector's edition physical books.
— Hurry up and get her autograph before she runs away! Goddess Jiang is so lazy, she rarely holds autograph sessions, and her autographs are extremely rare.
Jiang Yuexuan was suddenly surrounded by fans of her book, which was her first miscalculation since joining the company.
Oh no, it's been so long since she wrote a suspense novel that she'd completely forgotten about it.
It's all Jiang Yuexuan's fault. She had just finished publishing a new book through the contract system, and everything was finally over. She was supposed to have a long vacation to go on vacation. Little did she know the vacation would be much longer than she expected; she wouldn't be back for many years. Unfortunately, her editor felt she needed to give a great writer some time to cultivate inspiration, and hadn't called to urge her to write a new book for the past two months. Otherwise, at least there would have been a reminder.
Having finally escaped the fans' encirclement, Jiang Yuexuan rubbed her wrist and retreated to her fifth-floor dormitory. After bloodline fusion and physical enhancement, signing autographs wouldn't actually cause her wrist to ache, but there was another kind of ache called psychological.
Jiang Yuexuan sighed deeply and sadly informed the others, "I can't go out and wander around so much anymore."
I never expected that just this morning I would order magical creatures not to wander outside, and this afternoon the wheel of fate would turn and I would be forced to avoid the guests.
Fortunately, this incident wasn't entirely without its benefits. Since the fans had already come, it wouldn't be appropriate for them to just take the autographs and leave. Those who hadn't eaten could pick up a place to try something new, while those who had eaten could buy a milk tea, a dessert, or some ice cream.
Some fans had taken taxis from a long way to get here, and felt it would be a waste to go straight back, so they decided to explore the area. There are some indoor amusement parks nearby, which don't suffer from the high temperatures. They could spend an afternoon playing escape rooms or murder mystery games, and then have a meal in the evening.
The food in the mall was really delicious; everyone who tried it wanted more. They quickly planned their itinerary and decided to have a couple more meals. After dinner, they could go to the fourth floor to catch a movie, and then it would be time for a late-night snack.
Perfect.
The mall's consumption was boosted immediately. Even if the pleasant emotions brought by watching the movie could not be converted into points by the system, everyone was still very satisfied.
When Ye Xu finished filming the video and came out, he saw many people in the mall walking around eating cold skewers and other food they had bought from other shops, looking very happy. The key point was that these emotions generated by the food from other places could actually be absorbed by the system, and Ye Xu gained a sum of points for free, leaving him somewhat bewildered.
"So, if our building really can't handle it, we can turn it into a free cafeteria and let everyone bring their own food to sit and eat, right?" Ye Xu thought this was outrageous.
Jiang Yuexuan thought to herself, "What's so outrageous about this? I've actually done something like that before." At the time, she had already tried to open every possible restaurant. When there were none left, she simply set up a bunch of fun things and exhibitions in the store to attract people to bring food in to browse and eat. In the end, she successfully completed her mission.
Anyway, the system has plenty of vulnerabilities; it's just a matter of how you exploit them.
More and more book fans arrived at the mall, giving Jiang Yuexuan a real headache. She couldn't just leave them there, so thankfully, she responded to her fans on Weibo as soon as she was free.
Jiang Yuexuan stated that she will continue writing the book, but it will take some time. She owns the shopping mall and mainly wanted to experience its operation to gather material for her next book (this part is purely fictional). Finally, she cautioned fans who want to come that she won't be in the mall all the time, and even if she is, she might not agree to autographs or photos, so they should think carefully about whether they want to brave the scorching sun to come.
The online store itself is strong enough that Jiang Yuexuan doesn't need to pander to her fans to drive traffic to it. Furthermore, Jiang Yuexuan has always been a strong-willed author; even though she never speaks harshly or sarcastically to her book fans, they all know her personality—she's decisive and leaves no room for negotiation.
Many fans, who had been caught up in the excitement, calmed down and were a little disappointed that they wouldn't be able to get autographs or photos later. But having a chance to see their idol was still great, so after calming down, people from the same city still happily came over.
Fans from other cities were incredibly envious. After all, a shopping mall isn't a tourist attraction, and it's a bit much to travel across the city just for this. Those with travel plans can change their destination to this city, but those without plans have basically given up.
Given Jiang's efficiency, she'll likely figure out the mall's operations within half a month of opening and then immediately run off to return to writing. As for whether the mall will hire a manager to help it continue operating or simply be sold to someone else, that wouldn't surprise anyone.
In short, those who live too far away shouldn't expect to see the real person. Didn't you see what she said? She's not always around, and if you don't manage to catch her even after the deal is changed, that would be a huge loss.
These fans who couldn't come can only eagerly wait for other locals to share photos and videos of the mall, keeping up with all the related posts, photos, and videos.
At first, they only paid attention to the beautiful author, but then they spotted the little furball. The allure of cats is undeniable, and Xiaoyu quickly became the second most popular character among book fans, who enjoyed both virtual beauty and virtual cat-watching every day, living a blissful life.
After seeing so many of these two "mall managers," it's inevitable to focus on the mall itself. What shops are there and what kind of food they sell quickly became topics of conversation.
Their phones and computers were filled with photos of delicious food, making everyone drool with envy. They'd initially followed the photos because of the beautiful women, so why did they ultimately succumb to the temptation and fall into the food trap?
Those guys who write suspense stories are really despicable; they lure us in with one trick after another. This propaganda scheme must have been planned in advance!
Jiang Yuexuan: "..."
Well, even the wisest person can make a mistake, as long as the final result is good, that's all that matters.
Ye Xu was naturally happy about the surge in customer traffic, but he quickly realized a problem and anxiously approached Jiang Yuexuan to ask, "Does our shop have a business license? Is the cinema upstairs definitely allowed to operate normally? I think we need to contact a director or something to show movies, right?"
Ye Xu wasn't too worried about the operating license; the system should have relevant strategies. However, the cinema issue was much more serious. Home theaters could show whatever they wanted, since it was for private viewing, but publicly screened movies were a different story, involving many different interests.
Ye Xu didn't know much about the film industry. He only knew that a movie's box office revenue was split between the distribution company and the theater, with the production team only receiving a third. And that's after deducting costs, so many movies that appear to have high box office returns actually lose a fortune.
But what is a cinema chain? Ye Xu had no idea. At first, he thought a cinema chain was the same as a movie theater.
I frantically searched online, but the more I looked, the more confused I became. The cinema upstairs had already started selling tickets and showing the film. Ye Xu looked at Sister Xuan anxiously, afraid that she would say, "We haven't contacted the production company, so we're showing the film infringing copyright."
Jiang Yuexuan chuckled: "Isn't it a bit late for you to be worrying about this now?"
Ye Xu looked aggrieved; he didn't understand this and hadn't thought of it for a moment.
"Don't worry." Jiang Yuexuan shared half of her snacks with him and explained as she ate, "I used to learn a lot about the inside stories of many industries and build a network of connections for my writing. Even though it's only a few hours, it's enough to get everything done."