And so, another long line quickly ford.
The sight of a crowd standing around, each person holding a bowl with a satisfied expression, was even more eye-catching than before. It quickly drew in yet another group of passersby.
About an hour later, the queue had cycled through, and people were starting to co back for a second round.
The person trying to get food was the sa old man from the beginning of the line. The young boy running the stall shook his head. "You’ve already followed us, so you can’t get a second one."
"...I can’t?" the old man said with a soft "Oh." He imdiately pulled out his terminal. "Then I won’t take it for free. I want to buy it."
When the boy didn’t reply, he added, "I’ll buy it no matter the price." His tone was firm and resolute—the very picture of a domineering CEO.
"No, no, no, you’ve misunderstood, sir," the boy said quickly. "We aren’t charging for it."
As they spoke, the people behind them in the queue pricked up their ears to listen in.
"You can get a free portion up to four tis. The first ti, you just have to follow our account. The second ti, you need to share it on your Star Network feed. The third ti, you have to private ssage ten of your friends. And for the last one, you need to bring three people here to follow us."
None of those tasks sounded too difficult, except for the last one.
After all, anything that could be handled instantly on a terminal wasn’t considered a problem.
So, the old man agreed. Sharing to his feed was quick, but ten friends—
"I’m sorry, sir, but you have fewer than ten friends on your terminal."
The comnt sent a ripple through the crowd. ’Holy crap, fewer than ten friends? Who in this day and age has fewer than ten friends on their terminal?’
No one ant any harm—they were just curious—but the chatter was still hurtful. The boy realized he shouldn’t have spoken so loudly and apologized to the old man, who just shook his head. "It’s fine. Just give a portion."
"I’ll have this one." He pointed to the fried tofu, which he hadn’t tried yet.
Tatami was also in the crowd. Hearing the people around her muttering about how reclusive and strange the old man was, she felt a pang of discomfort and called out loudly, "How many friends are you short? Why not just add so right now?"
Before the old man could speak, the boy, feeling a bit guilty, answered first. "He’s just two short!"
"Well, that’s perfect."
"Would you like to add us as friends to make up the number?" You could tell at a glance that the old woman, Tatami, was a frank and open person.
The old man hesitated for a mont before walking over.
After he walked away with two portions of food, the people behind him followed his lead and took two portions at once as well.
So people wanted to go find three friends imdiately to complete the final task, but the two running the stall turned them down. "It’ll take a while to go and co back," they explained. "We’ll probably be out of tofu and gone by then. It’s better to wait for tomorrow." They announced they would be back with their cart at nine o’clock sharp the next morning.
Everyone thought that made sense. It would take ti to round people up, so waiting until tomorrow was a perfect solution.
Tatami and Wang Chichi were already wondering which of their old friends they should invite to co along tomorrow.
As the sun climbed higher in the sky, the tofu on the cart was visibly dwindling. In the end, they had to call a delivery bot to "recharge" their stock before they could finally serve everyone in the queue.
The two of them pushed the cart and quickly vanished down the street.
「An hour and a half later.」
In a conference room for the "Surprise Project - Haiyun Star Branch," hundreds of young people were gathered.
Wanxing was leading the eting.
"Alright, everyone, please report today’s results in order."
"This is designated area one, stationed at the Qiufeng University cafeteria. Today, a total of 9,324 people scanned the code to follow Juju. Of those, 7,933 completed the second step of sharing and the third of private ssaging, and 311 completed the fourth step of bringing in new followers."
"This is designated area two, stationed at the Ruonan University cafeteria. Today, a total of 8,111 people scanned the code to follow Juju. Of those, 5,901 completed the second step of sharing and the third of private ssaging, and 309 completed the fourth step of bringing in new followers."
As they reported one by one, the most impressive numbers ca from the teams stationed in the university cafeterias.
The next highest numbers ca from malls, public squares, and residential areas. The lowest numbers ca from more specialized locations, such as elderly activity centers or universities for seniors.
"This is designated area 104, stationed at the bus stop next to the Sea Treasure Elderly Activity Center. Today, a total of 190 people scanned the code to follow Juju. Of those, 173 completed the second and third steps. We ran out of ti, so no one completed the fourth step of bringing in new followers."
At that mont, no one could have predicted that the Sea Treasure Elderly Activity Center, despite attracting what seed to be the fewest people, would end up generating the biggest news of all.
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