Chapter 10: I’ll Make Noodles for You

With all the ingredients ready, Li Xiao turned on his streaming equipment.

Thanks to the early hype and his last video hitting over 400,000 views, viewers began to trickle in the moment he went live.

The number of viewers rose quickly, soon breaking 100.

However, after breaking the 100-viewer mark, the growth rate began to slow down.

Li Xiao didn’t just stand by. He got right to it and started splashing some cash.

He waved at the camera.

"Hello, everyone!"

"I’m so glad you could all make it to my stream!"

"I’ve said it on my stream before: I’m a rich kid. I’m not short on cash."

"I’m only doing this whole streaming thing as a hobby."

"But obviously, a lot of you don’t quite believe me."

"Of course, words are cheap. So to convince you all, I’ll just show you the real deal."

As soon as he finished speaking, his fingers were already tapping rapidly on his phone screen.

Ten password red envelopes were sent out.

Each one contained 99 yuan. In one fell swoop, he had just given away nearly 1,000 yuan.

The red envelopes were spaced two minutes apart, which meant that viewers who wanted to grab all of them would have to stay in the stream for a full 20 minutes.

While sending out the red envelopes, Li Xiao also casually dropped 100 yuan on a promotional boost for his stream.

With this two-pronged approach, the bullet comments instantly flooded the screen with messages like "Brother Li is awesome!"

Some viewers who had accidentally clicked into the stream and were about to leave immediately retracted their fingers.

After all, this was a 1,000-yuan giveaway. Based on the current number of viewers, each person could get at least 10 yuan.

Don’t look down on 10 yuan. Converted into small gifts, it was enough for many viewers to tip their favorite female streamers several times.

With the double traffic push from the promotional boost and the password red envelopes, the viewer count jumped from 100 to 300 within two minutes.

Li Xiao:

"Today, I’m not doing a restaurant review. Instead, I’m going to show you all how to make a bowl of authentic bamboo-pressed wonton noodles live on stream."

"After all, the bamboo-pressed wonton noodles I make today are going to be compared against a certain shop."

"To prevent a certain time-honored brand from refusing to admit defeat if they lose..."

"I’ll be streaming the entire process, so everyone can clearly see that I haven’t hired any outside help, nor have I bought another shop’s product to try and pull a switcheroo!!"

With that, Li Xiao took out the bamboo pole he had bought yesterday and began to make the dough.

As they watched Li Xiao methodically start kneading the dough, many viewers began discussing it among themselves:

"Can one of you guys fill me in? What’s going on here?"

"Is this the streamer who was trash-talking that 20-year-old brand, saying he was better?"

"Does this streamer even look 20? Can someone so young really make a bowl of authentic bamboo-pressed wonton noodles?"

As more and more viewers poured into the stream, someone quickly explained the whole story in the chat.

"Holy cow. So this is a showdown, huh? Someone’s about to get called out."

"It’s hard to say who’s calling out whom yet. I’ve been to that place, Yun Kee, before. Their food is actually pretty good!"

"I watched the stream that day, too. The streamer said their wontons were good, but the bamboo-pressed noodles weren’t authentic!"

"Stop arguing, everyone. I’m one of the 20 lucky winners. As soon as I’m done eating, I’ll post a video for you all!"

...

Making a well in the center of the flour, Li Xiao poured in all of the duck eggs he had beaten earlier.

"Since I’m making authentic bamboo-pressed noodles, the whole process only requires duck eggs. Not a single drop of water."

As he spoke, Li Xiao quickly began mixing the duck eggs and flour together.

Because he had chosen very high-quality duck eggs, the yolks were a more vibrant red than those of ordinary duck eggs.

In no time, the once-white flour had turned into a lumpy, orange-yellow mass.

In the live stream chat:

"Oh my god, you can make dough without water?"

"Duck eggs have liquid in them. He’s just using the liquid from the eggs instead of water!!!"

"Damn, the cost of these noodles must be so high. It’s all duck eggs!"

"I just looked it up. Authentic bamboo-pressed noodles really are made entirely with duck eggs!"

"Making noodles with duck eggs... the cost of just the noodles in one bowl must be several yuan!"

...

As Li Xiao continued to knead, the lumpy dough quickly became smooth.

Feeling the dough grow harder and harder, he immediately stopped kneading.

He flattened the dough on the tabletop, then retrieved the three-meter-long bamboo pole he’d bought yesterday from the balcony.

When he appeared on camera shouldering a bamboo pole, many viewers grew curious:

"The dough was coming along fine. Why’d he suddenly pull out a bamboo pole?"

"Are you stupid, person above me? It’s called ’bamboo-pressed’ noodles, so of course it involves bamboo!"

"Why does that dough look so hard? Did he mess up a step?"

...

Glancing at the bullet comments, Li Xiao gently patted the bamboo pole and explained to his audience:

"Because the dough was only made with duck eggs, its water content is much lower than regular dough. Normal kneading is no longer effective."

"The next step is to use this bamboo pole to repeatedly press the dough."

With that, he placed the bamboo pole on top of the dough.

Anyone who’s played on a seesaw knows that for it to go back and forth, you need enough weight on both ends, or it won’t bounce back up.

To allow the bamboo pole to rebound easily, he had already placed a 110-pound dumbbell on the other end—something he had bought at the mall just yesterday.

After tying the dumbbell to the other end of the pole, Li Xiao adjusted his position and sat down on it himself.

As he sat down, the straight bamboo pole began to bend, pressing down on the dough beneath it.

The dough, which had been too hard to knead by hand, was easily flattened under more than a hundred pounds of pressure.

Li Xiao lightly pushed off with the balls of his feet, lifting his weight off the pole.

As the weight was removed, the bent bamboo pole straightened out again.

He repeated this motion four or five times until the dough, which had looked like a small hill, was pressed into a flat disc.

In the live stream chat:

"Why does the sound of that bamboo pole sound so much like a creaky wooden bed???"

"Guys, who gets it?! I’m watching this on the subway without headphones!"

"I’m slacking off at work right now. Good thing I have my headphones, or I’d probably be handing my team lead my resignation letter tomorrow."

"Ah, what a nostalgic sight. The wonton noodle shop downstairs from my childhood home used to make noodles with a bamboo pole just like this, but I haven’t been able to find one since I grew up!"