Reborn in Japan as a Chef God
Chapter 306 - 305: Influence (Part 2)

Chapter 306: Chapter 305: Influence (Part 2)

Beep beep.

The landline on the desk rang, and Baishi Jianyilang picked up to hear a reporter dispatched by the magazine, out of breath, reporting back to him.

"He said he just found out about the existence of ’Food Review Conference’ today?"

Upon hearing this, Baishi Jianyilang was annoyed.

Although ’Taste Weekly’ has always been the mainstream voice in Neon, the ’Food Review Conference’ he started was also not to be overlooked in the Neon Food World!

This is the difference between the orthodox and the unorthodox.

Talking about cunning and so-called power, the ’Food Review Conference’ was even stronger than ’Taste Weekly’, because the conference had no concerns about rules and regulations—they only needed solid content, and the editors below could let their imagination run wild; once the articles passed Baishi Jianyilang’s review and were deemed acceptable, they could be published in the magazine.

"The VIP reservation section is going online tonight?"

Baishi Jianyilang sneered as he listened, then was shocked.

It was too sudden.

He knew that Xia’s Restaurant had an official website; he had browsed it a few times yesterday while writing his draft. It was neatly made with no faults to criticize, so he had immediately forgotten about it. But just a day later, Xia’s Restaurant’s VIP section was going online, catching him off guard.

"Releasing a month’s worth of dining slots at once?"

After listening, Baishi Jianyilang was stunned for a while before he said with a forced laugh, "Haha, that really is sudden news!"

"Yes, Baishi Editor-in-Chief, he’s asking us to help promote."

The dispatched reporter on the phone eagerly echoed.

"Alright."

After hanging up the phone, Baishi Jianyilang shook his head. They really were young and impatient, unable to stay calm. The restaurant had been in the hotspot of criticism these past few days, and they couldn’t wait to open up VIP reservations, hoping to slap faces with real booking numbers? Too naive.

Who would know your VIP booking section went online without any promotion?

Even Baishi Jianyilang himself sat for quite a while before he could digest the news.

He glanced at the time on the bottom right of his computer screen.

Unknowingly, it was almost midnight. Baishi Jianyilang squinted his eyes and involuntarily controlled the mouse, clicking on a website from the favorites, "Let’s go see the situation first."

Hm?

Unexpectedly, under Baishi Jianyilang’s astonished gaze, instead of Xia’s Restaurant’s website in 2D style appearing, a pop-up indicated:

"Website unresponsive."

Beep beep, continuing to click, another pop-up appeared:

"The page you are trying to access does not exist..."

His bewildered expression gradually stiffened.

Check carefully!

"The URL is correct!" Baishi Jianyilang muttered nervously to himself, tried repeatedly a dozen times without success, then sat silently in the chair for a few minutes before finally opening Twitter and typing in keywords to search.

Pop.

A bunch of tweets popped up, some from just a few minutes ago, others from a dozen seconds or just freshly posted, steaming hot. Scanning quickly, the similar content of complaints and curses made Baishi Jianyilang’s pupils constrict.

The situation seemed different from what he had expected.

...

In a location in Tokyo, the residence of a British diplomat.

In the hall, the Ingerley family of three, each with a laptop, was focused intensely on their operations.

"Oh no, I’ve lost response on my side!"

Ingerley, annoyed, exclaimed and vigorously shook her golden ponytail before turning to look at her mother sitting beside her. Sazama Yuriko, dressed in home attire with a beautiful face tense and a fair forehead beaded with sweat, also seemed very nervous.

"Mum, what happened, what happened!" Ingerley asked anxiously.

With a click.

Sazama Yuriko looked at the screen which showed the response-lost notification, then helplessly smiled, "I had already picked the private room and dining time, and then at the last pre-payment page, it lost response..."

"The server crashed!"

Seeing the situation, Erin could only fiddle with her twin ponytails, inexplicably frustrated, "Why did so many competitors suddenly emerge!"

Erin was highly puzzled.

The online discussions about Xia’s Restaurant were all negative.

Moreover, Erin had only recently learned that the Xia’s VIP branch was going to fully switch to a reservation system. She followed Xia Yu on Twitter and the Xia’s branch homepage, making her one of the first to know.

"The internet age, the speed of information spread is too fast."

Sazama Yuriko said with a smile, "Don’t look at all the negative news online, but those gourmet experts and famous tycoons have their own judgments. Though Chef Xia is young, he is a genuine Far Moon instructor, officially recognized by Far Moon. People tend to follow the crowd. With endorsements from figures like Principal Mars, General Dojima Yin, and Minister Shinohara, too many professional chefs show up there. Their influence is not something that can be obliterated by negative public opinion..."

Before she could finish, Erin’s diplomat father exclaimed with a surprised voice,

"I’ve got a reservation!"

Erin and Yuriko immediately squeezed over. The family looked at each other and let out a sigh of relief.

Since visiting Xia’s branch the night before last, the family had fallen completely and become loyal fans of Xia’s Restaurant. In fact, if pressed, it was Erin who first became a fan and dragged the whole family into this deep pit.

...

"Boss, the server maintenance is done!"

"The explosion has been resolved!"

At one o’clock in the morning, in Xia’s shop, Xia Yu received a call from An Yilun.

This employee first fervently apologized, then reported the website situation. Xia Yu was sitting at the bar in his store, with a personal laptop open on the table to the Xia’s Restaurant official website page.

"Okay, you’ve worked hard, Yilun."

After consoling his employee, not just An Yilun was caught off guard. Xia Yu was stunned earlier by the news of a server explosion too. He had initially invested a substantial amount to build the website, leasing servers not from any countryside provider but set up to corporate website standards of major companies. He had not expected it to crash suddenly.

Logging into the admin panel, Xia Yu checked the reservations and soon wore a smiling face.

A month’s reservations, snatched up completely!

Moreover, the website’s message board was bombarded with comments.

"Just saw the message retweeted on Twitter, missed it, feel like crying..." An anonymous user posted, with a kneeling and crying emoji, quite comical.

"@￥￥#@#!@#￥#￥!#!!"

A client at level 3 vented with garbled text, followed by a sequence of angry emojis.

Seeing the client’s user ID and level, Xia Yu paused slightly and shook his head, "This is a regular."

"Offering a high price for meal slot transfer! Location in Qian Y County and there are buying inquiries."

Xia Yu found it hard to understand; he had just announced the VIP reservation going live, so how did these people get the news so quickly and swarm the website until it crashed?

"Are you friends with Miss Chiyoda and Miss Dubian?" A voice suddenly came from behind.

Tiqie Eriina had come from the next apartment building, pointing at her phone screen.

She followed Chiyoda Aichi and Dubian Yuuki, so the tweets they retweeted, separated by just a second, were right next to each other, both frightening in terms of reading and forwarding numbers.

"Snap!"

Slapping his forehead, Xia Yu came to his senses.

"I see..."

Despite following few users on Twitter himself, celebrity tweets were different. Xia Yu pulled out his phone to check, finding not only Chiyoda Aichi and Dubian Yuuki but also Dojima Yin, Shinohara Shigetaro, Aoki Motota, Liangzi Lina, among others.

Even ten minutes after his announcement, the Far Moon Commander and Tiqie Xianzuowen had also retweeted the news.

This retweet, like a bomb, had exploded the stagnant Neon Food World.

A barrage of @notifications aimed at him.

Xia Yu selectively checked them, not expecting the first to be from Mars.

When Mars retweeted it, he added a recommendation in English.

Seeing this, Xia Yu was shocked,

"This..."

He was at a loss for words for a long time.

The significance of Mars’ retweet and recommendation was huge, perhaps marking the first time Xia’s Restaurant had made a sound in a foreign land like the United States, or rather, in the global culinary world.