jdhmnovel Chapter 78 Running an Errand
Chapter 78 Running an Errand
Lin Ran went downstairs to buy breakfast.
Soy milk, steamed buns, tea eggs, and shumai—the portions were much larger than usual.
She had been running around in the mountains all day yesterday, and she must be hungry now. When she came back, Lin Ran had a thin layer of sweat on her forehead and placed the plastic bag on the bedside table.
Su Peixue held up her phone, turning the screen towards him. Her eyes were bright.
"The zookeeper is trending!"
The screen displayed Bilibili's backend data interface, showing the posting time as last night. The view count was 62. She scrolled down; the comment list was densely packed.
"Xuexue has appeared!"
"What a beautiful country girl's outfit!"
"Leaning against the door, she turned her head and smelled the green plums..."
"Isn't this the same Xuexue the Great Demon King from before? The one from the seafood station?"
"It's her! I've followed her new account!"
"Where's the sound? Why is there no sound?"
"There was no talking throughout, only natural sound effects, it was so soothing."
"The filming is very professional, and the camerawork is very skillful."
"That beauty mark under her eye in close-up is absolutely stunning. I took a screenshot."
"The green plums look so delicious..."
"Seal a jar of summer, and open it when the first snow falls. The copywriting is so beautiful."
Lin Ran peeled the tea egg and handed it to her. "You're good-looking, of course your viewership will be high."
Su Peixue took the tea egg and took a bite. A few crumbs of egg white stuck to her lips, which she licked.
My phone vibrated. It was a WeChat message from Song Yin.
"You didn't go back to your dorm all night last night."
"I saw that video. Plum wine. Xuexue, you look so good in that cotton and linen outfit!"
"Did you film this with Lin Ran?"
Su Peixue replied with "Yes".
The typing indicator on the other end flashed several times. Then a message popped up.
"After filming, did you go to a hotel?"
"Just filming videos?"
"Or did you film something else?"
"Xuexue, let me see, hehe."
Su Peixue's pretty face flushed slightly as she turned off the screen.
The weekend is over, and classes have started.
Lin Ran felt no pressure about his major courses. Having written code for seven or eight years in his previous life, listening to the teacher lecture on C language basics was like listening to a primary school student reciting multiplication tables. He opened the textbook to the first page, but his mind was already elsewhere.
In the past few days, he discovered something: the canteens of Luzhou University are scattered in various corners of the campus, some near the teaching buildings and some near the dormitory area.
The boys' dormitory is a seven- or eight-minute walk from the nearest canteen, the fourth canteen. On a hot day at lunchtime, nobody wants to walk those extra steps. The school's courier point is at the school gate, a twenty-minute round trip from the dormitory. Food delivery is only allowed at the school gate, not inside the school.
The need for errand running is a basic necessity.
So Lin Ran spent two days writing a mini-program, which was then embedded into a WeChat official account and named "Run an Errand".
The function is simple: students can log in with their mobile phone number, fill in their department, dormitory number, name, and student ID to place an order.
The order options are three-fold: meal delivery, package pickup, and item delivery. The order-receiving platform is the same; only students of this school can register to receive orders, and each student can receive a maximum of ten orders per day.
Pricing is based on weight. One dollar for up to one kilogram, two dollars for up to two kilograms, and two dollars for every additional kilogram over two kilograms. For meals, the default is one kilogram or less.
The price is clearly displayed when the order is placed, so the person placing the order knows how much it will cost, and the delivery person knows how much they will earn, with no commission taken in between.
Yao Ziwen was dragged to the sixth canteen and squatted there for two whole lunches, taking notes on the cuisine and prices of each stall.
At the stir-fry stall, vegetarian dishes are 6 yuan, meat dishes are 10 yuan, and rice is 1 yuan for all you can eat. At the noodle stall, beef noodles are 10 yuan, noodles with soybean paste are 8 yuan, and hot and sour noodles are 7 yuan. At the mala tang stall, meat and vegetables are the same price, and the price is calculated by weight.
Li Yifan was sent to the school supermarket and made a price list of all the items he could buy for others: mineral water was 1.5 yuan, cola was 3 yuan, potato chips were 6.5 yuan, instant noodles ranged from 3.5 yuan to 5 yuan, and ham sausages were 2 yuan.
Wei Min was in charge of the off-campus food street, and she took photos of the prices of each shop, from grilled cold noodles to fried chicken cutlets, from milk tea to jianbing guozi (Chinese crepes).
Lin Ran entered all these price lists into the backend. People placing orders can directly select them in the mini-program without having to manually enter them, minimizing errors.
In its first week, the number of registered users exceeded 2,000. In its second week, daily active users surpassed 10,000.
It's not just Luzhou University.
The neighboring Anhui University, medical university, and teachers' college have all started using it.
After a student registered and found it useful, they shared it in the dormitory group chat. People in the dormitory group then used it and shared it in the class group chat, and the class group chat shared it in the grade group chat. The rate of viral spread was even faster than Lin Ran had anticipated.
Immediately afterwards, GG called.
It started with a driving school next to the school, who said, "Hi Lin, we'd like to post a picture on your WeChat official account, it'll cost 20,000 yuan a month."
Then there's the milk tea shop, a chain brand, which wanted to put a banner on its mini-program homepage and asked for 50,000 yuan.
Then there are the campus agents from China Mobile and China Unicom, who offer phone cards for 80,000 yuan.
The highest offer is from a local chain restaurant brand that wants an exclusive partnership, offering 150,000 yuan a year for a three-year contract.
Lin Ran refused them all.
Yao Ziwen nearly fell off his chair in the dorm. "A guy worth hundreds of thousands! You're just going to throw him away like that?"
Li Yifan counted on his fingers. "150,000. 450,000 over three years. Adding those previous ones, how many can you take on a month?"
Wei Min sat on the lower bunk, hugging her knees, and unusually spoke up: "Ran-ge, do you have other plans?"
"I have other uses for this wave of traffic," Lin Ran said without further explanation.
Yao Ziwen lay sprawled on the bed. "It doesn't matter if you don't accept my invitation, it won't stop you from treating me to dinner."
"Okay, what do you want to eat?"
Last time, Lin Ran originally said he would treat everyone, but Yao Ziwen wanted to be taken advantage of and ended up paying instead.
"Hunan cuisine. A Hunan restaurant run by people from Hunan."
A new Hunan cuisine restaurant has opened outside the south gate of the school. Its name is very straightforward: "Xiaoxiang Renjia".
The storefront wasn't large; a string of red chilies hung by the entrance, and a menu was pasted on the glass door. When the four of them went inside, most of the tables were already occupied. The aroma of stir-fried pork with chilies wafted from the kitchen, making Yao Ziwen sneeze.
Lin Ran sat down next to the partition against the wall, picked up the menu and turned a page.
Stir-fried beef with yellow peppers, fish head with chopped chili peppers, minced pork with pickled cowpeas, and Youxian dried tofu.
These were all dishes he often ate at home. He ticked off a few and handed the menu to Yao Ziwen. Yao Ziwen flipped to the meat page and pointed at the prices.
"Stir-fried pork with chili peppers, stir-fried pork with farm-style vegetables—aren't these two the same dish?"
"One is a green bell pepper, and the other is a long bell pepper."
"What's the difference?"
"The long green peppers are spicier."
"I want both."
Someone sat down on the other side of the partition.
Lin Ran didn't notice; he was replying to Su Peixue's message on his phone. The girl had asked him to have dinner, and he said he was eating Hunan cuisine outside and told her to go to the cafeteria by herself.