Yang Ruoqian disliked signatures.
A signature meant people could recognize something. Recognition meant memory. Memory meant repeat visits, casual recommendations, and the system developing strange feelings about things that had never made proper profit.
The old cinema's snack counter should not have had a signature. It had water, popcorn, plain crackers, and cheap soy milk. It did not have a mascot, a slogan, a cute cup, or a nostalgic bucket. Its greatest design feature was that nobody in the art department had touched it.
Somehow, that had become the signature.
The report summarized the problem with brutal calm: "The cheap counter reinforces non-exploitative venue perception."
Yang Ruoqian crossed out non-exploitative.
Lu Shuyuan changed it to "ordinary."
Yang Ruoqian crossed out ordinary.
Lu Shuyuan changed it to "price stable."
Yang Ruoqian stared at the final phrase and found no legal reason to be angry.
