Chapter 4 – How to Fail at Failing
By the second month, Li Ming's "guaranteed disaster" fast-food joint was posting profits.
Not just small profits — real money.
The System report blinked smugly at him:
[Notice]: Net gain of ¥42,000 this cycle. Recommend increasing expenditure.
"This is ridiculous," Li Ming muttered, pacing his chandelier-lit dining room. "You're telling me people are paying extra for soggy bread and peanut milkshakes?"
He decided drastic measures were needed.
Step 1: Raise Prices to Scare Customers Away
If a sandwich normally cost ¥8, he'd price it at ¥38. The milkshake? ¥50. The soup? ¥60, and he'd serve it in a bowl so shallow that customers would need a spoon the size of a shovel to get any.
The result? The place was packed.
Apparently, raising prices made it "exclusive." Customers bragged about affording the "most expensive sandwich in the city," posting photos in front of the chandeliers like they'd just dined in Paris.
Step 2: Ruin the Menu
Li Ming swapped all the bread for stale rye imported from Germany. He added bizarre fusion dishes: curry ice cream, spaghetti with soy sauce, and "fermented tofu pie."
Instead of chasing customers away, it drew the city's food bloggers, who called it "avant-garde" and "a bold rejection of culinary norms."
Step 3: Make Service Miserable
He trained the waitstaff to act like aristocrats serving royalty — except the royalty was the waitstaff, and the customers were peasants. Orders took thirty minutes, water came in shot glasses, and the "background music" was a single violinist playing ominous movie soundtracks.
A week later, a TV program called the restaurant "a living piece of performance art."
Bookings surged. People lined up for hours.
Li Ming stared at the System interface that night, massaging his temples.
[Update]: Net gain of ¥86,000. Congratulations on your continued success.
"Success?" he grumbled. "At this rate I'll be on the cover of Entrepreneur Magazine by accident."
He poured himself a cup of tea and leaned back. There was only one logical next step. If sabotaging operations didn't work, maybe he could overspend the profits into oblivion. Massive expansions, overpriced equipment, custom-built stores…
And that's when the thought hit him:
Why rent a store… when you could buy it outright? That had to be a money pit.