Chapter 319 Capital Doing Evil
Early morning, Wuxi.

As the sun rises, a high-speed train roars into the platform, the trembling rails and the bright morning glow awaken the entire city.

"Where are you from, brother?"

"Jinling, what about you?"

"Magic City!"

Two groups of young men in blue clothes greeted each other cheerfully across the platform and walked out in a steady stream.

They are the elite in the food delivery industry. This is what the manager said during the mobilization. They were transferred to Wuxi to support the main battlefield. The success or failure of the decisive battle in the food delivery industry will be decided by you.

The young men in blue don't understand the pig and cow positions, they only know that their counterparts in Wuxi are making a lot of money, and they will kill anyone who doesn't let them make this money!
The young men in yellow clothes who got off the train not far away in the opposite direction also felt the same way. The two groups stared at each other from a distance, and before sparks flew, a group of young men in red clothes rushed out like a tide and dispersed the opposing camps.

Ordinary passengers all looked sideways, watching hundreds of food delivery riders from three companies walking away in a mighty procession. The riders in red, blue and yellow clothes were captured on camera and then uploaded to the Internet, where they spread rapidly and caused a stir.

"Did Baidu's riders change into red clothes?"

"This group of people came from Beijing. The green train rattled all night long, and they changed into new uniforms to distinguish themselves from Ele.me."

"Hello, I'm from Shanghai, and I'm from The Paper." The well-mannered man pushed up his glasses and introduced himself.

The middle-aged man with slightly dark skin and messy hair smiled with yellow teeth: "I'm from the Beijing News. I took a train with a Baidu rider last night."

"Do you have any plans? Do you want to travel with someone?" The man with glasses from The Paper was immediately enthusiastic.

"We came here in a hurry and didn't make any specific plans. Let's go have breakfast first and see what's around."

The Beijing News scribbled man casually revealed: "It feels like Baidu Waimai is just here to join in the fun and advertise. Along with the delivery riders, there is also a local sales team who need to temporarily negotiate subsidy activities with merchants."

"So what is their subsidy activity today?" The bespectacled man from The Paper asked puzzledly.

The sloppy man stroked his greasy hair and said, "The platform will cover all the costs."

The man with glasses had a distorted expression and opened his mouth but no sound came out. Not to mention how much money this would cost, there are huge loopholes in the rules of such subsidy activities alone, and merchants have plenty of ways to take advantage of them.

Of course, looking at the current situation, the merchants probably can’t even produce enough food, and have no time to study how to make the most of the products.

This shows even more clearly that Baidu was in such a hurry that it only cared about the beginning and not the end. This operation is so abstract no matter how you look at it.

"The subsidies are paid with the investors' money, and the performance belongs to Baidu's food delivery division. It would be embarrassing if we don't get involved in such a war," the sloppy man said sarcastically.

"800 million. I heard that Ele.me burned 800 million in Wuxi yesterday. Roughly speaking, there should be 40 to 50 transactions."

As the two were talking, a middle-aged woman wearing black-framed glasses approached them like a ghost and said, "Hello, I'm Jiang Jing from 'First Financial News'."

"Burning 800 million a day, 50 transaction volumes... Even if Meituan's revenue is less than Ele.me's, it's not much less. Wuxi has a permanent population of 100 million, and they consume million takeout orders a day? This data is a bit exaggerated, right?" The bespectacled man from The Paper instinctively questioned.

Jiang Jing smiled but said nothing. The sloppy man tried to smooth things over and said that one would know after seeing it with one's own eyes. After a few words, the three of them walked out of the high-speed railway station as a group.

I didn't rush to the city center, but walked to a breakfast shop near the station to fill my stomach. As a result, I saw that the entrance of the shop was surrounded by three-colored delivery riders.

The uncles and aunts who live nearby and come here every day for breakfast no longer go into the store. Instead, they put on their reading glasses and study their mobile phones to place orders for takeout.

"Hello, hello, yes, your phone number ends with 5357, right? Here, here, this is yours."

The delivery rider shouted loudly and handed a portion of steamed buns and soy milk that he had just received from the breakfast shop owner to a woman who looked like a white-collar worker. With a swipe of his finger on the screen of his mobile phone, the order was delivered and the delivery fee was credited to his account.

The white-collar woman hung up the phone and walked leisurely towards the Lianjia agency store less than a hundred meters away across the street. In a blink of an eye, another of her colleagues came over and repeated the same thing.

“…No one in the whole city is cooking anymore.”

Qi Qiran, a bespectacled man from The Paper, admitted that there is nothing wrong with the one million takeout transactions a day, and that today, with Baidu and Meituan increasing their subsidies to tie with Ele.me, the transaction volume will inevitably go to a higher level.

Jiang Jing from China Business Network pretended not to hear. She took the initiative to inform the data of Ele.me. The big brother of Beijing News also talked about the situation of Baidu Takeout. Everyone shared their information with each other, but you are the only one who took advantage of it and still complained.

The man with glasses was very embarrassed and raised his camera to record the crazy and absurd scene before him.

"Hey, boss, what I want is three baskets of steamed buns, three tea eggs, and three cups of soy milk with sugar. You gave me four cups of soy milk, which is too much." The sloppy man from the Beijing News kindly reminded.

The boss was so busy that his face turned red and his voice was hoarse: "Forget it, forget it. I'll give you the extra cup."

"It's not a question of whether you want to deliver it to me or not. There are side dishes here. Did you pack the wrong ones? You gave me someone else's order. What if you gave me the wrong other orders?" The sloppy man couldn't tell what was going on.

The lady boss, who was busy packing the food, was impatient. She suddenly reached out and snatched the takeaway bag from his hand and threw it into the foam box at his feet: "If you don't want it, then don't. I'll pack it for you again. Don't make trouble!"

"How can this be considered trouble? Look at your box, it's full of wrongly delivered takeouts. Isn't this a waste?"

The sloppy man frowned as he looked at the foam box at the feet of the proprietress, which contained more than a dozen takeouts. The riders were used to it and looked at him like an idiot, throwing the wrongly packed takeouts in their hands into the box and waiting to get new ones.

Or they would just go with the flow, grab a takeaway order regardless of whether it was right or not, run to the street, ride their electric scooter and deliver it to the customer.

"Okay, okay, okay, if you want these takeouts, I'll give them to you. I'll even give you the boxes. I beg you not to mess with me, okay?" The boss shouted at the top of his voice, anxiously and angrily.

The sloppy man thought about it, then picked up the foam box and turned around and ran. Jiang Jing from China Business News followed suit and ran very fast. The man with glasses from The Paper not only ran fast, but his handheld camera was more stable than a gimbal.

They are all journalists who are often on the front line. It is difficult to judge their professional abilities, but their skills in preventing being beaten are definitely top-notch.

After running a hundred meters in one breath, the sloppy man stopped panting and said, "Come on, brothers, it's free hot breakfast, eat as much as you want, it's my treat."

"Brother, we can't finish this breakfast." Jiang Jing asked with a respectful look on his face.

The sloppy man took a breath and said, "Eat first, eat when you are full. We will give the rest to the beggars later."

"Brother, you really have some ideas!" The man with glasses came to his senses and gave a thumbs up to show his admiration.

The sloppy man shook his greasy bangs in a cool way and said, "Look, you should set up the camera today and learn from me. Once you learn it, it will be a job!"

The chatty Beijing accent sounded extremely familiar at this moment. Jiang Jing and the man with glasses had bright eyes and felt deeply identified with this senior colleague from Beijing.

After the three of them had a simple meal to fill their stomachs, they took turns wandering around the street holding the foam boxes. After walking for two hours, they finally saw a beggar with no lower body, lying on a flatbed wooden cart.

"What the hell is this? They just give me steamed buns and tea eggs to fool me. If there's no coffee or milk tea, a cup of hot milk will be fine. Even dogs won't drink this crappy soy milk."

The beggar turned up his nose at the foam box and squinted at the man with glasses and the camera in his hand.

The sloppy man cooperated and said, "Hey, your kindness is taken for granted. Are you a professional beggar?"

"Nonsense, I'm so disabled, what else can I do if not be a professional beggar?" The beggar lying on the flatbed cart raised his head and said confidently: "If you give me a steamed bun and soy milk normally, I will kowtow to you three times respectfully. Now you give me this box, it's better to give me a penny!"

"How do I give one cent?" Jiang Jing was confused.

The beggar nodded and picked up the QR code on his chest with his teeth and said vaguely: "WeChat or Alipay? By the way, you can get extra discounts by using WeChat payment at Ele.me."

“Meituan doesn’t have it?”

“Meituan has discounts for using bank cards.”

The sloppy man was stunned, and he looked at Jiang Jing, each of them having his own guesses in his mind.

It is obvious that Ele.me has tied Tencent to a blood alliance. The rumor that Meituan wants to develop its own mobile payment system seems to be true. Their relationship with Alibaba is intriguing. So how will this takeaway battle go?

While the two were still lost in their thoughts, a man with glasses from The Paper quietly moved his camera towards a dessert shop on the street not far away.

"Do you understand first come first served? You push, then you push me!"

A young man in an ill-fitting cheap suit was drooling and thrusting his chest against another young man in the same attire. Neither of them intended to start a fight, but neither was willing to give in.

"I beg you, if you want to have a quarrel, go somewhere else. I'm busy enough, don't make things worse." The dessert shop owner was extremely anxious and clasped his hands together, begging for mercy.

"Don't pretend to be a good person. Did Meituan give you too little support? Did I force you to choose between the two? How have I treated you badly? If I hadn't come here today and had bumped into you, you wouldn't have even told me that you had signed an exclusive contract with Ele.me, and you're stabbing me in the back?!"

"The fact that you, Meituan, secretly changed the prices on the merchants' menus in the middle of the night has been exposed online. Which boss would dare to trust you? The reputation of the food delivery platform is ruined by you, Meituan bastards!"

"Who are you calling a bastard? Not only can I sign contracts with my hands, I can also beat dogs!"

During the dispute, no one knew who started the fight first, but the two men immediately fell down, screaming and pulling each other's shoulders. A dozen takeaway riders who were waiting for orders at the door of the dessert shop stepped forward to break up the fight, and passers-by gradually cast their eyes.

"Everyone is out here to make money, there's no need to fight!"

"That's right, there's no need to fight, just pull them apart quickly. No, why are you only pulling his legs?"

"Hey, hey, hey, what do you mean? Let go, and try to pull our little brother by the collar again!"

"Fuck, whoever hit me on the back of the neck with an elbow, fuck you, let go first!"

"Let go, if you don't let go, I'll kill you!"

"All the people in Ele.me are dead, let's fuck the bastards from Meituan!"

Someone roared and raised his fist, and a dozen delivery riders immediately started fighting, with muffled groans and collision sounds rang out.

The young man who had been hit several times while lying on the ground gritted his teeth and got up, leaving several large footprints on the back of his suit, and ran towards another store on the street with a ferocious look on his face.

In just three or two minutes, more than a dozen people in cheap suits rushed out of the shops on the street and joined the battle. Then a passing delivery rider in yellow stopped, his electric bike fell to the ground, and he pounced on the nearest rider in blue.

After that, there were more people in cheap suits, blue and yellow. A passing man in red was drowned by the battle, and then more and more people in red rushed in, dyeing the entire street red.

“Can this still be reported?”

Jiang Jing asked expressionlessly from a distance. The man with glasses holding the camera began to tremble with excitement.

The sloppy man put away his glib words and said, "Our Beijing News... if you want to read it, take a look first... if I have the final say, I will definitely publish it!"

"If your leader dares to send it out, please inform me in advance and I will apply for the report to our leader." Jiang Jing said softly.

“Capital is doing evil. It’s crazy. It shouldn’t be like this.”

The sloppy man shook his head faintly, his bangs drooping and sticking to his forehead, not looking elegant and graceful at all.

…………

[The first crab noodle I ate in my life. I ordered minced meat topping from Ele.me, but the driver delivered it to the wrong place and gave it to me for free. I'll order another one tonight to see if there's another surprise (dog head emoji).]

[I got up from the bed in a hurry, walked around the living room twice and drank a cup of Xiangpiaopiao. When will my great city of Hangzhou fight back? When will I be able to eat takeout for one cent? ]

[As a Wuxi person studying abroad, I am overwhelmed by the 20-euro milk tea and 2-euro delivery fee for four cups. I want to go home.]

[My mother bought a high-temperature grill online specifically to cook steak at home. She has returned it today. I will happily order steak from takeout tomorrow.]

[In our entire neighborhood, there is no smell of cooking fumes at night. I declare Xie Jingxing to be the eternal god. Before the one-cent takeout service stops, we in Wuxi will not cook.]

[Got it, go play, it will stop tomorrow. My friend circle is full of messages, this afternoon, hundreds of riders from the three companies, Red, Yellow and Blue, fought fiercely, Wuxi has become the number one knife fighting area in Asia. ]

[No pictures, just words, brother, if there really is a war involving hundreds of people, it is not called a war but a rebellion. Please believe in our ability to control the situation.]

[Really, I was at the scene. I took a video but can’t upload it. The explosion-proof vehicle has arrived. You’ll see the news tomorrow.]

Online public opinion began to brew in the afternoon and ferment in the evening. In the late night, with the release of two videos on Kuaishou, public opinion broke out completely out of control.

The Beijing News and China Business News respectively released special reports in the early morning. The former targeted various crazy chaos, while the latter interpreted the dangers of malicious money-burning competition in the Internet industry from a financial perspective.

One stone caused a thousand waves, which formed a storm on the next morning, blowing through the beacon smoke and making the fire burn more and more vigorously.

…………

"Don't bargain, you three must stop immediately, and I mean immediately!"

In a conference room in Wuxi, a leader wearing an executive jacket had a firm expression and a cold tone, and he pounded the table with his fists.

The local city managers of Ele.me, Meituan, and Baidu Takeaway all listened with bashful eyes, probably because they were exhausted from the past two days, not because they were moved by the leader's speech.

"Don't try to play tricks. You have brought a very bad influence to our city. We don't care who is behind you or how powerful you are. We don't welcome you to do business in this way!"

The leader continued to scold and forced the three city managers to call their superiors on the spot and immediately stop the one-cent takeout activity.

At noon that day, the decisive battle on the main battlefield came to an abrupt end after only three days, leaving the ground in ruins.

Users are still unsatisfied, the warring parties are licking their scars, and the storm of public opinion is still sweeping across the country.

You don't have to come to Wuxi, I'll find you.

——At three o'clock in the afternoon, Xie Jingxing's Weibo account released a blue poster to officially announce that the decisive battle would continue and sweep across the country.

(End of this chapter)