Chapter 10: Hitchhiking and Lying Down

No. 800, Dongchuan Road, Minhang District, Shanghai, Minhang Campus of Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

"Boss, can I order food for emergency delivery?" Li Zehua walked on the street near the school and found a popular restaurant and pushed the door open.

"Emergency meal delivery? Young man, you're here now, why don't you eat here?" The boss was a little confused. Afraid that he would misunderstand, he added, "If you eat here, the menu price is right. It's a few dollars more expensive to order urgent meal delivery. I didn't charge you more."

His words instantly made Li Zehua understand that after a year of development, the meal delivery business has become a popular business at least around the university town.

Because this was the fourth restaurant he had visited, three of them had reached outsourcing delivery agreements with Fanjisong.

"No, I'm from out of town. I heard there's a food delivery service here that can deliver food, so I came here to experience it."

As he said that, he pointed to the menu and ordered a slightly more expensive dish, "This is it. I'll eat here first. If you are free, can you talk about this urgent meal?"

It wasn't lunch time, so it wasn't busy. The boss seemed like a talkative person. He arranged for the kitchen to cook and asked about the taste. Then he turned around and said, "Hey, there's nothing special about it. Isn't it just taking over the delivery work that we used to do in our store?"

Seeing that he had a notebook to record everything, he asked curiously, "What are you doing?"

Li Zehua smiled and handed him a mosquito coil and lit it. "It's just a social survey, don't mind."

At the same time, he wrote in his notebook, "It has almost no Internet genes. In the eyes of ordinary people, it is just a middleman who centralizes the original restaurant delivery business. No wonder all venture capitalists turn a blind eye to it."

While copying, he did not forget to ask, "Then you guys are willing to do it? Will it not affect your income?"

The boss took two puffs and seemed quite satisfied with his attitude. He was not very old and his behavior and temperament did not seem like a student.

I was just guessing when I heard him ask, so I said, "What impact does this have? I originally hired a waiter in my store. He does delivery when he has nothing to do, but he can't stay idle when he's busy. He doesn't help with the store at all. The few orders he delivers are time-consuming and laborious, and he doesn't make much money. But when he's free, he has nothing to do. The money he makes is not enough to pay his salary. But if I don't hire him, he won't be able to handle the work."

Li Zehua recorded and read aloud at the same time, "It saves one redundant worker, is more professional and convenient, and covers a wider range. In short, it saves money and is more convenient, right?"

The boss nodded, "Yes, young man, you are absolutely right. Ever since a few of those students started this meal delivery service, I have handed over all the food delivery in and out of my store to them. Now we get orders even before mealtime. They deliver to anywhere, anywhere. They are not picky. Last time I heard they delivered from here to as far as the North Campus."

"How much is the commission? It's how much you charge them for delivering meals."

"It's not much. Usually it's one or two yuan per delivery. If it's far away, it won't be more than 8% of the total price. But we will explain it to the customer on the phone. It's much more cost-effective than hiring a delivery person. It's only three or four hundred yuan a month. Hiring a person will cost more than that."

"Have you ever been unable to receive payment for a meal? Or what if they collect the money and tell you they didn't receive it, and the delivery person pocketed the money?"

"That's impossible. These deliverymen are all part-time college students. How could they run away for such a small amount of money? Even if a customer doesn't give them money, they will just come back with the food. We won't deliver to that number next time. And sometimes the deliverymen will pay for the food and eat it themselves. At most, it's a bargain."

"Then how do you reconcile the accounts and know how many orders you have each month?"

"There is a special notebook here to record it. Every time they deliver something, they will record it here. They also have their own records. They check them once a day. If there are no mistakes, they will pay according to the order."

At this point, the boss took a mimeographed copy from the cashier counter and said, "Here, that's it. Every time you deliver an order, I'll sign it and tear off the small page of the copy and give it to them."

"Can I see it?"

"What's wrong with that?" Li Zehua looked at it carefully, and had a general idea in his mind. Recalling the interview he saw later, he asked again, "Didn't they say they would purchase computers at their own expense to take orders for you? Why are you still using a notebook to take notes?"

The boss shook his head when he heard this. "I can't even think about that. Computers are so expensive! But I heard that the big hotel across the street got one, and when it broke, a group of college students helped fix it. But how can a small shop like mine get that kind of treatment?"

Li Zehua thought to himself that yes, if they were really that rich, every merchant would sponsor computers, and a few entrepreneurial teams wouldn't have to suffer so much and participate in venture capital and college student entrepreneurship competitions to make money.

The question was how much prize money they could get for winning the competition? At most, 100 yuan. It was two years later that Jinshajiang Venture Capital gave them a US$ million Series A angel investment, and the latter was able to get on the right track from a makeshift team.

It has been out of control ever since.

"Two years is enough."

"What did you say?"

Li Zehua immediately responded, "Boss, your business will surely be booming and you will make a lot of money in the future. When the time comes, ask them to buy you a computer. Now is the Internet age, let's keep pace with the times."

The boss grinned and waved his hands, saying, "Thank you for your good words, but the computer is seven or eight thousand yuan. I have to give away a lot of food to make it back."

As they were talking, the phone in the store rang, and the boss quickly stood up to answer it, "Hello, Sichuan Flavor Home Cooking Restaurant, right~ How many dishes did the customer order? Okay, you tell me... I'll ask the kitchen to prepare it right away, and I'll come pick it up in about 15 minutes."

While the boss was on the phone, Li Zehua put away his pen and paper. He had asked all the questions he needed to ask. He glanced at the menu, put the amount of the order on the table, turned around and walked out.

"Hey, where is he?" When the boss hung up the phone, there was no sign of him. Just when he was feeling sorry for the waste of cooking a dish and wanted to scold Li Zehua, a well-mannered guy, for running away with the order,

Suddenly I saw the money on the table, so I quickly went up to count it, and it was exactly the money for the dishes.

Only then did he breathe a sigh of relief, and he just walked back a few steps, and suddenly called to the kitchen, "Don't take the twice-cooked pork you just ordered, pack up the braised spareribs, and the person who delivers the meal will come and get it later."

Li Zehua wasn't rich enough to spend recklessly, he just really couldn't eat any more.

The owners of the several stores I consulted earlier were difficult to talk to. He asked questions while he ordered his meals and ate, his stomach was already full.

I didn't walk far when I went out. I walked around the surrounding restaurants to help digest the food. After a while, I saw someone carrying out packaged meals and then going into another restaurant.

I thought that this must be a part-time deliveryman for Food Express, but I didn't see any means of transportation, let alone the uniform of the Blue Knights of later generations.

I thought this was the best way. If they were successful, then my trip would have been in vain.

I just couldn't make up my mind for the moment, whether to take advantage of the opportunity to invest or start a new business. "Anyway, I have nothing to do over the weekend, so I'll see what happens."

I simply continued to wander around, and after walking for a while, I suddenly couldn't help but exclaimed, "Are you sure? You're so pretty and you're working part-time?"

Just after turning the corner, I saw a beautiful and graceful figure appear in front of me. In the gap between turning around,
That inadvertent glimpse,
It actually gave him a feeling of first love...

(End of this chapter)