Xibei Denies Reports It Will Close, Says All Stores Operating Normally

This episode is less about Xibei's actual operations than about how quickly unverified claims from a single blogger can force a company into public denial, and how the specific rumor — founder absorbing debt, surrendering equity, and retaining profitable stores for employee ownership — maps onto real distress patterns in China's restaurant sector. The denial settles nothing about the underlying pressures that made the story credible to readers. Whether Xibei pursues any restructuring, and whether platforms act against such posts, is the open question.