The day she was kicked out of the mall, Shen Qingci took just three things with her: a jar of old dough starter, a secondhand oven, and 1,824 customers' WeChat contacts.
The new shop owner laughed at her. "You don't even have a storefront sign. You really think you can run a shop?"
She got up at four in the morning to knead dough. By four that afternoon, her bread had reached five districts.
Later, half the mall stood empty, and the leasing manager called her personally to beg her to come back.
Shen Qingci stood in front of her old shop and took a photo for the group chat. The caption read: Just passing by.
More than two thousand people replied at once: Don't go back!
She smiled. That shop she'd occupied for six years? She wasn't giving it back.
