Mixue Group, the Chinese beverage chain that has quietly built a store network larger than McDonald's, finds itself at a familiar crossroads in the story of global expansion: the moment when growth in reach outpaces growth in return. Reporting from Hong Kong this week, the company revealed that first-half profits fell nearly 15% even as revenues edged upward, a divergence that sent shares tumbling across two consecutive sessions. The squeeze comes not from a failure of demand, but from the compounding costs of ambition — higher payrolls, steeper marketing outlays, and the infrastructure requir