1: 1

I run a hot pot place back in my hometown. For three years it's pulled in a steady thirty to fifty grand a month.

Then the June numbers came in and I froze.

In one month, rent included, I was down a full hundred grand.

I couldn't make sense of it, so I drove out to the restaurant myself.

On the way, a friend sent me a livestream link.

In the stream, some food blogger was sitting in my restaurant eating hot pot.

"Guys, you have to come try this place. The food's good, but honestly that's beside the point. The two girls working here are just the sweetest."

The camera swung, and there were the two college students I'd hired for the summer back in June, smiling prettily into the lens.

The shot cut back to the blogger's own face. "As long as these two are working, you just follow their account, and the meat's free. Our whole spread here cost us under a hundred. Can you believe that?"

Her camera panned across the table in front of her.

I looked at that full table of ingredients, five hundred easy in cost, and I actually laughed.

I eat the losses, they collect the credit. Dream on.

1

The two summer hires were college-student sisters. Melissa Fox, the older one, and Gretchen Fox, the younger.

My place doesn't take on short-term staff, but they were working their way through school, so I made an exception.

In the video, the blogger explained to the camera, "Today all we ordered was the thirty-eight-dollar broth base and the twenty-five-dollar veggie platter. Every single meat dish here is free, just for following the two girls' account."

"Follow the older sister, get one dish. Follow the younger one, get another. There are four of us, so we got eight meat dishes free."

The second she finished, the comments went wild.

【No way. You'd go broke doing business like that. Has to be a marketing gimmick. They give the big streamers the deal, but a normal person walks in and it's a whole different story.】

【Right? Been scammed too many times. Not falling for it again.】

The blogger glanced at Melissa, a little awkward.

Melissa, unbothered, just squared her shoulders.

"We say what we mean. And this free-dish promotion has been running a good while now. Plenty of customers have already gotten the deal."

Not long after, people in the comments jumped in to back her up.

【It's real. Last time my bestie and I went, we followed Melissa's and Gretchen's accounts and got four plates of beef. I regret not bringing my boyfriend. We could've gotten two more dishes.】

【Melissa and Gretchen are honestly so nice. We went once and already followed them and got the deal. We came back a few days later, and they recognized us as followers and still gave us free dishes. They really take care of their fans.】

【It's true. Free stuff is free stuff, you'd be dumb to pass it up. Miss it and you'll regret it forever.】

...

Those few comments were enough. A lot of the others bought in fast and started asking for the address.

Melissa and Gretchen watched the comments pile up praise for them and their smiles turned even sweeter.

Melissa smiled and said, "Thanks for the support, everyone. Later I'll drop Gretchen's account and mine in the comments. If you like us, follow ahead of time. Fans who come to the store don't just get free dishes, they get a little drink too."

The whole stream was one big happy family.

The blogger's broth base came to a boil.

Gretchen thoughtfully started dropping food in for her.

Tripe and layered tripe stacked up into a tower. A big plate piled high with thin-sliced beef and spicy beef. A whole full bowl of shrimp paste.

Every plate was far past the portion size I'd set.

My prices already ran low. At this volume, I'd have to double the price just to break even.

And Melissa and Gretchen were giving it away for free.

The blogger watched her load the plates and made a big show of dropping her jaw into an O.

"Wow, that's a crazy amount."

She winked, playful. "Melissa, Gretchen, you're not just spoiling me here, are you?"

"Of course not."

Melissa answered right away. "Everyone gets the same."

"Except."

She paused.

"I'll be honest with you all. This hot pot place never used to give portions this big. About half of this, more like."

"The owner, for the profit... you all know how it is."

"It was Gretchen and me. We couldn't stand it, so we bumped the portions up."

"But Gretchen and I are only summer hires. We're only here two months. Once these two months are up, the free dishes and the big portions are definitely gone."

She winked at the screen. "So come while you can."

【Got it. Only supporting Melissa and Gretchen. The owner's no good.】

【I kept wondering how a hot pot place that's been open for years I'd never heard of. Turns out the good part is Melissa and Gretchen, not the restaurant.】

【Ate there, food's nothing special. Worth going for a promotion, but once the sisters leave, no point.】

I couldn't watch any more.

Before I closed the stream, I took a screenshot.

The next moment, I hit the brakes and pulled up in front of the restaurant.

2: 2

The place was packed and roaring.

Every table was crowded with plates.

Pamela Perry, the store manager, sat at the register.

I held up the screenshots. "Since when do we run a free-food giveaway? How is it I've never heard of this?"

"Oh, Frieda, you mean that promotion."

Pamela smiled and stood.

"That's Melissa and Gretchen's thing. Those two young ones, they're full of ideas. Traffic's been way up this past month."

She waved a hand behind her. "Look, Frieda. It's past the lunch rush and we're still slammed."

Watching her preen, I let out a bitter laugh. "And the profits?"

"We lost close to a hundred grand last month. You didn't know?"

Her face froze.

But she recovered fast. "Frieda, the books didn't look great last month, sure."

"But you can't just look at one month's numbers, can you? Isn't that a little shortsighted?"

"Melissa says you draw the customers in first, build the name, and after that the money takes care of itself."

I choked back my temper.

Build the name?

Build Melissa and Gretchen's name, more like.

I was done wasting words on her.

"I'll settle your pay for this month in a bit. Don't bother coming in tomorrow."

Pamela froze at that.

Then her voice shot up. "You're firing me? On what grounds? I've worked here four years, and you're throwing me out over this little thing?"

Her shout made every customer in the room turn at once.

Chopsticks hung in midair, hands stopped halfway to the meat, and all you could hear was the broth burbling in the pots.

Melissa and Gretchen came bolting out from the back.

Melissa spotted me, twisted her mouth, and got in first. "Frieda, Pamela's a single mom. You fire her, how's she supposed to feed her kid?"

"Her kid is nothing to do with me."

I said it flat and cold.

Then I pointed at the two of them. "You two don't come in tomorrow either."

"You run a giveaway that big and don't tell me. This place is too small a temple to keep two big idols like you fed."

Melissa's eyes went wide.

"You can't do that. You promised us two months, and summer break's already half over. Where are we supposed to find work now? You're setting us up to fail!"

Gretchen's eyes reddened, all pitiful. "Frieda, you're a big boss. How can you just go back on your word like it's nothing? You think students are easy to push around?"

Almost the second she finished, a man in a loud floral shirt at the next table slammed his chopsticks down with a crack.

"Ma'am, this is too much! Two young girls working hard, carrying plates, running your promotion, and look at how busy this place is. Fine if you're not grateful, but firing them just like that?"

A woman at another table chimed in. "Right. What year is it, and you're pulling this fat-cat routine? Two kids working their way through school, you know how hard that is? You bully people like this, word gets around, who's ever going to eat here again?"

"Melissa and Gretchen have a thousand times better attitude than you! All smiles, welcoming everyone. Not like you, sour-faced. Who's that for?"

The floral-shirt man got more worked up with every word, then turned to shout at the rest of the room. "A boss like this. You all coming back after this or not?"

With backup now, Melissa's spine straightened all at once. She lifted her chin at me. "Hear that, Frieda? The people can see clear as day. Our promotion pulled in a ton of customers. How can you only stare at that little bit of money?"

Gretchen sniffled and said, all injured, "Exactly."

Pamela wiped her face and stood.

"Frieda, I gave you four years. I built this hot pot place into what it is now, and now you're kicking me to the curb once the work's done. I won't stand for it!"

I looked at the three of them, each one more wronged than the last.

I looked at the customers, every one of them righteous with outrage.

And I laughed.

Be soft, and people walk all over you.

"Fine. In that case."

"None of the three of you gets paid this month."

Back then I'd promised the Fox sisters five grand a month each.

And as manager, Pamela made twelve grand a month.

Their pay was due in three days.

I'd meant to let it slide, given how hard up they were, and not dock this month's wages.

But now I'd changed my mind.

"And on top of that, I'm going to hold you liable for the financial losses your unauthorized promotion cost me."

3: 3

"A loss?!"

Melissa let out a scornful laugh. "Frieda, come on, don't joke around."

"We ran a couple of promotions. Worst case, you made a little less. What kind of loss is that?"

"Pamela already told us. This place clears fifty, sixty grand in net profit every month."

She turned to Pamela.

"Right, Pamela?"

Pamela lowered her head.

"Frieda, I'll admit it, the store did make a little less last month. But we still made money."

"You should give something back to the customers now and then. Don't be so greedy."

My head was buzzing with rage.

I never would have guessed Pamela could be so shameless.

A clean hundred grand in the hole, and she was still saying we'd turned a profit.

Ian jumped in the second he heard it.

"A hot pot place this big, and you'd keel over from making a few thousand less?"

A woman customer chimed in. "Never satisfied, always wanting more! You make a few thousand less and act like it's the end of the world. You people who run these places, how much is ever enough for you?"

Gretchen had already quietly pulled out her phone.

I watched her go live.

She sobbed straight into the camera.

"I'm so sorry, everyone. The hot pot giveaways might have to end. The owner says we didn't make enough running them, so she won't let us keep going, and now she's firing me and my sister."

"She won't even pay us last month's wages, and on top of that she wants us to cover the losses she says we caused her."

Listening to her twist everything upside down, I had a bad feeling and opened my own phone.

After a few days of the giveaways, these two sisters' follower count had shot up to over a hundred thousand.

She'd even paid to boost her stream, and with all that pitiful crying, the number of viewers climbed fast.

In front of the camera, Ian kept hammering away.

"I'll say it plain. Everyone knows how obscene the markup is at a hot pot place. How could giving away two dishes possibly put you in the red?"

"Exactly!"

Another man in glasses picked it up. "Hot pot places are the shadiest of the lot. They reuse the broth base over and over, freeze the ingredients in a cold room for half a year and never toss them, all dirty money. These two students help you draw in customers, and you complain you're not making enough? Greedy, the lot of you!"

I listened to them cursing and closed my eyes for a moment.

With the crowd egging things on, the live chat lined up solidly behind the Fox sisters.

【This owner's got to be sick in the head. Won't take the money, and drives out staff that good.】

【So greedy. Not scared of shaving years off her own life.】

【Melissa and Gretchen would be a catch anywhere they worked. Kick them out and there'll be a line of owners fighting to hire them!】

【Pay our Melissa and Gretchen their wages first. What gives you the right to hold them?】

Melissa watched from the side, a smug smile pressed at the corner of her mouth. "Frieda, if you really think you're running a loss, why not just make the books public and let everyone be the judge?"