Same City, Chapter 1

The long queue at the food pick-up window continued to move steadily forward.

The pork belly in the large pot was steaming with a golden-red, caramelized aroma, while the fish bone broth next to it was boiling vigorously.

Every time a neighbor or a passing driver came in, Lin Fan would scoop up a large bowl of vermicelli, cover it with crispy pork belly on the left, and arrange snow-white and tender fish slices on the right. He would then pour hot soup over the noodles and steadily hand them over with a large spoon and chopsticks.

Aunt Wang stood by the window, holding a thick stack of red sticky notes and a pen. She handed over a note and then gave a word of advice:

"Write a few words after you finish eating, and give Boss Lin some feedback!"

The wooden wall next to the food pick-up window has been covered with colorful sticky notes without anyone noticing.

The handwriting on it is varied:

"The meat is tender and the broth is delicious—a perfect score!"

"My hands and feet have warmed up again, thank you Mr. Lin."

"The rice noodles are soft, the soup is delicious, and may good people have a peaceful and safe life."

"Please reopen soon! I'll come eat here every day!"

Lin Fan poured a full spoonful of piping hot, milky-white fish soup into a bowl behind the window, then looked up at the next passerby who had just joined the line, his tone calm and natural:

"Be careful, it's hot."

……

Meanwhile, in the mobile live-streaming room on the tripod, the number of online viewers is skyrocketing at an alarming rate.

Truth is often the most penetrating.

The number of viewers in the live stream jumped from the initial two thousand to thirty thousand, fifty thousand in less than half an hour, and then broke through the one hundred thousand mark!

The local algorithm mechanism in Jiangcheng was fully triggered, and tens of thousands of local recommendation streams were pushed out in a frenzy.

At the top of the screen, a golden system banner suddenly appeared:

This live stream has reached number one on the "Jiangcheng Local Hot List"!

[Real-time topic: #Linjiapuzi on Jinjie Street offers free hot soup in the snow# Tops the local trending search list!]

The entire internet instantly erupted in chaos.

"Wait a minute! Is this the overpriced, rip-off restaurant that everyone's been criticizing online this morning?!"

"On such a freezing day, the boss set up a huge iron pot in the kitchen, serving up huge amounts of pork belly with skin and freshly killed blackfish slices, free of charge to sanitation workers and delivery riders?!"

"Look at that fish soup, it's so thick and white, like milk! Is that gutter oil?! What kind of unscrupulous workshop would waste a whole pot of fish bones to make soup?!"

"I live just two streets away from Jin Street. I know Mr. Zhang, the owner of that hardware store! This is definitely not an act!"

"Holy crap! I want to go too! Even if I don't get the free one, I still want to buy a bowl and try it to see how delicious it is!"

The entire old town of Jiangcheng was in an uproar.

Many young people who originally worked in nearby office buildings grabbed their down jackets and ran out, riding electric bikes or taking taxis, heading straight to Phoenix Golden Street according to the map location.

……

Jin Street entrance.

The once quiet cobblestone path was gradually filled with the sounds of hurried footsteps and electric scooters braking.

Several men in private cars parked their vehicles on the curb, opened the doors, and jogged over, panting as they squeezed into the alleyway.

"Is what they said in the live stream true? Do they still have hot soup noodles?!"

"We're not going to eat for free! We'll pay by scanning the code! Please give us a bowl of braised pork belly with glass noodles!"

Several young women who had come from nearby office buildings were also stamping their feet in the cold, holding their phones and eagerly waiting in line.

"It smells so good... I can smell it from 200 meters away, it smells even better than it does on the live stream!"

Old Liu tucked his copper pipe behind his waist, stepped forward, and shouted at the top of his lungs:

"Line up! Newcomers, don't push forward! Boss Lin said we're closed today, so it's all free – free samples! Line up, everyone gets a table!"

Middle-aged patrolman Lao Wang, along with Xiao Chen, also maintained order beside the group.

"Everyone, watch your step! Don't slip on the snow and mud! Elderly people and those with children, please move to the front. Riders, please line up in the middle. Let's look out for each other!"

In front of the lobby, a young man wearing a woolen hat wiped the sweat from his forehead. When he looked up, he saw the phone screen fixed on a tripod.

When the young man saw the hundreds of thousands of online users displayed in the upper right corner of the screen, and the "Number One on Jiangcheng's Local Hot List" hanging at the top, he froze on the spot, almost dropping the empty cardboard box in his hand.

"Ten...ten thousand+?!"

The young man rubbed his eyes, his face full of disbelief.

He had been running his own media channel for two whole years, and usually only a few hundred people would watch his live streams on average. He had never seen such a terrifying scene of hundreds of thousands of people flooding into his live stream at the same time!

He's been struggling to make short videos, and people in the industry keep telling him that "creating conflict is the only way to get attention, and the harsher you criticize, the more traffic you get."

Today, he originally planned to shoot a few videos about "overpriced black shops" to ride the wave of online smear campaigns against Da Peng and gain some "black traffic" to increase his account by a few thousand followers and make some quick money to pay the rent.

In his past understanding, he believed that only by fabricating stories and stirring up emotions could one become popular in the self-media field; honestly filming serious content would get no viewers.

But he never dreamed that when he casually propped up his phone on the roadside, it was just to slap a black man in the face...

The live stream didn't flop; instead, it surged to the top spot in the city!

The comments on the screen scrolled like a rapidly cascading waterfall, densely packed with the voices of local netizens from Jiangcheng:

"Well done, anchor! You've revealed the truth!"

"Boss Lin is so generous! This is true everyday life!"

"Where are those marketing accounts that jumped on the bandwagon to criticize the 'black shop'? Where's Da Peng? Come out and show yourselves!"

"Dapeng's account has been permanently banned, that's hilarious!"

The young man took a deep breath, turned to look at Lin Fan, who was calmly and steadily cooking behind the food window, and felt a mixture of admiration and shame. He wiped his face hard and worked even harder.

At the food pick-up window, long ladles rise and fall, and soup simmers.

In the kitchen, Lin Fan's movements were fluid and effortless, aided by both the "Master Butcher's Skill" and "Multiple Fire Control Techniques."

Su Xiaoxiao moved swiftly at the window.

Large brown paper bowls are laid out, then rice noodles are scooped out, meat is arranged, fish slices are laid out, broth is poured over, and oil with roasted garlic and Sichuan peppercorns is drizzled on top.

Bowls of double-portion sour soup noodles, heavy enough to make your wrists ache, are steadily handed to each customer in line at a rapid pace of three to four bowls per minute.

A deliveryman who had just finished delivering six orders took the large bowl with both hands and sat directly on the footrest of his electric scooter to slurp it up.

After swallowing the scalding hot and sour soup, the young man broke out in a cold sweat, his eyes red, and shouted loudly:

"This soup is amazing! I was delivering takeout all day and it was freezing, but this hot soup warms me right up!"

A woman pushing a stroller nearby was feeding her baby a mouthful of clear broth blackfish noodles that Lin Fan had deliberately skimmed off the chili oil with a small wooden spoon.

The little one smacked his lips, kicked his short legs happily, and babbled as he reached out for a spoon.

As the team continued to advance.

More and more sticky notes were pasted on the wooden wall, starting from a few dozen notes and spreading across most of the wall. Hundreds of sticky notes with different handwriting fluttered slightly in the wind.