"How about starting with an apology?"
"What?"
"An apology," Ma Lu said, taking a bottle of cola out of the chilled box.
"Why should I apologize... It was you who started it," Yu Yitong said discontentedly, "Hmm, last ti I was wrong, I shouldn't have had Mike buy the braised large intestines from you and then show it off in the car, but that was because you wouldn't sell them to before, and I did it out of anger..."
"No, I'm not talking about last ti," Ma Lu interrupted Yu Yitong.
"You left a comnt on my Steam account's activity feed saying you wanted to break up with , I replied to you saying we should discuss it face to face, you could choose the place and ti, but then you stood up after choosing... And by the way, what kind of weirdo breaks up with soone over Steam?"
"It was my first ti, I didn't have any experience," Yu Yitong muttered, "and that day I just happened to run into so trouble."
"Oh really, what could be more important than breaking up?" Ma Lu opened the cola and took a sip, "Let's hear it."
"......"
"Forget it, if you don't want to apologize then just move aside, don't delay my business."
Ma Lu put down his cola, "Next."
"No, wait." Yu Yitong took a deep breath, adjusted her emotions, and quickly said.
"I'm sorry, is that okay now, can we talk about serious matters next?"
"What, what did you just say? You spoke too softly, I didn't hear you." Ma Lu dug at his ear.
"Heh, you're totally taking this opportunity to settle personal grievances!" Yu Yitong's face changed slightly.
"That's right," Ma Lu admitted very straightforwardly.
"Don't get wrong, I have no feelings for you now at all, but the things of the past still bother a lot. I'm fine with talking business, but it's always been my principle not to work with enemies.
"You're talking nonsense, when did you have that principle?" Yu Yitong said angrily.
"Just now, I added it especially for you," Ma Lu said, taking another sip of his cola.
"And for an interview, you first have to find a way to cheer up the interviewee, so they are willing to cooperate, and answer your questions as earnestly as possible... You're a journalism graduate, you don't need to teach you that."
Ma Lu intended to make Yu Yitong give up by saying this, no one knew her character better than him, this woman was stubborn to the core, getting her to bow and scrape was even more difficult than stopping the Russia-Ukraine war.
So after saying his piece, Ma Lu didn't pay attention to Yu Yitong anymore and turned his head to continue selling his Giant Horn Viper stir-fried noodles.
But what Ma Lu didn't expect was that after standing there for two minutes, Yu Yitong didn't leave but spoke up again.
"I'm sorry, I was wrong about what happened before... I shouldn't have stood you up because I didn't know how to face you, and of course, the most important reason was that I was worried I'd be persuaded by you.
"I was too panicked at that ti, and as a result, I chose the worst way to handle it, which made our relationship completely deteriorate.
"By the ti I realized it was too late, and then I was afraid of being scolded by you, so I just deleted all your contact information. But that only caused you deeper harm. You're right, I do owe you an apology."
After saying this, Yu Yitong also bowed to Ma Lu.
Ma Lu was surprised and stroked his chin, "Honestly, I still prefer your defiant self from before."
Upon hearing this, Yu Yitong maintained her bow, not picking up the conversation.
"Although I know you're just saying that for the interview, fine, I'll grudgingly accept your apology."
Yu Yitong waited a while longer before looking up again.
Ma Lu noticed her eyes were a bit red, "Your eyes."
"It's nothing, just got so sand in them." Yu Yitong sniffed, downplaying it, "Can we talk about the interview now?"
"Sure, but as I've said before, accepting your interview doesn't seem to offer any benefit to and my snack stall." Ma Lu continued drinking his Coke.
"What kind of benefit would you like?"
"Let think, a direct transfer would be most convenient, how about 2000 per session, you can apply with your boss."
"We don't have that kind of budget, and even if I applied, it wouldn't be approved."
"Without money, it's difficult for too, how about we manipulate things a bit, boost my ranking, you're a food critique platform, aren't you?"
"We indeed do food critiques, but there is a strict scoring process in place, we can't just arbitrarily raise or lower soone's rankings, and besides, our scores are for restaurants, and this is just a snack stall."
"Who says that, I'm about to open a restaurant soon, I have already chosen the location, the rent is paid, now it's just renovation and licensing underway, and I will be open for business soon." said Ma Lu.
"You're opening a restaurant?" Yu Yitong was taken aback upon hearing this.
"I can't be selling snacks outside the school gate forever, can I?" Ma Lu continued drinking his Coke.
"Congratulations, but we can't just alter the scores, it would ruin our credibility, and then the users wouldn't trust us anymore," Yu Yitong said.
"Ah, what a hassle," Ma Lu frowned, "then how about you advertise my new place, tell your readers about opening a new place and the address."
Yu Yitong thought for a mont, "Although the website has ad spaces, they are quite expensive, but if it's just to ntion about opening a new place and its location, I think I can add that in at the end."
"Is that so... All right then," Ma Lu finally relented, "ask whatever you want for the interview, but if it relates to our trade secrets, I won't tell."
"Of course, if there's a question you'd rather not answer, you can skip it," Yu Yitong also breathed a sigh of relief, taking out her recording pen and notebook.
The whole interview lasted nearly an hour, mainly because Ma Lu had to serve custors and could only take a mont to answer Yu Yitong's questions when he was free.
Yu Yitong had only seen The Universe's Number One Snack Stall's popularity in short videos on platforms before, but this close-up observation truly shocked her.
Stir-fried noodles for 36 yuan a serving seed absurd no matter how you looked at it.
Yet people were buying, and more than half of those who ate chose to buy another serving to take away.
The repeat purchase rate was alarmingly high.
Although there were many students complaining about the high prices, after tasting the food, without exception, they all shut their mouths.
The business at The Universe's Number One Snack Stall was unimaginably booming; Ma Lu had prepared 600 servings of stir-fried noodles, and by dusk, he had sold down to double digits.
The crowd in front of the snack stall kept growing, and Yu Yitong heard that soone had lazily left ho at noon and, surprisingly, many diners preferred to wait here hungry rather than eat elsewhere.
There were people who drove over from the suburbs just to eat, and so wealthy individuals bought 30 servings in one go, claiming they had many mouths to feed at ho, and any leftovers would be frozen in the fridge.
The sights before her completely overturned Yu Yitong's perceptions of street stalls, and she could finally understand why Ma Lu had not been overly concerned about the interview before.
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