Gourmet: The God-Level Culinary Tycoon

Li Xiao sighed inwardly as he listened to Zhou Yu’s explanation.

’This damned trend of keeping up with the Joneses... what has it done to college students?’

’A meal that costs several hundred yuan per person is way beyond what an ordinary student can afford.’

’Spending a whole month’s living expenses on a single meal... Li Xiao couldn’t fathom how such a warped mindset had come to be.’

However, Zhou Yu had a point.

It was an impossible dilemma.

’Her friends’ boyfriends all paid, so why won’t you? Are you unwilling?’

’If you won’t, then you must be a cheapskate. You must not love me.’

’That’s bound to lead to a fight, and maybe even a breakup.’

’But if you do treat her, you’ll blow through the next few months of your living expenses. If you can’t borrow the money, you might even have to take out a predatory online loan.’

Li Xiao looked at Zhou Yu with a touch of pity.

4,000 yuan was by no means a small amount for him.

Especially since he’d started dating, Zhou Yu’s expenses had skyrocketed.

Forget saving money—he was lucky if he wasn’t surviving on instant noodles for the last few days of the month.

If he wanted to pay back the 4,000 yuan within a few months...

...he would either have to skimp on his food budget or get a part-time job.

The course load at Zhongshan University was already packed. Sometimes there were even evening classes on weekdays.

That made it impossible to hold most part-time jobs. And even if he could find something for Saturdays and Sundays...

...the part-time job market near the university town was hyper-competitive.

The pay was only about 8 to 10 yuan an hour.

At most, he could only make a few dozen yuan a day.

Trying to pay off a huge sum like 4,000 yuan would be incredibly difficult.

Li Xiao:

"You’d better think this through. 4,000 yuan is no small amount. I can lend it to you, of course, but are you absolutely sure you can pay me back?"

Hearing Li Xiao relent, Zhou Yu’s face lit up with joy.

"Master Li, don’t you worry!"

"I’ll definitely be able to pay you back."

"I already found a job handing out flyers yesterday."

"I can work evenings and weekends."

"It pays 10 yuan an hour!"

"If I work for 400 hours, I’ll be able to pay back your 4,000 yuan, Master Li!"

’Li Xiao’s mouth twitched. Working 400 hours, rain or shine, just to pay for one meal... was it really worth it?’

He sighed lightly and opened his phone again.

"Alright, alright. If you think it’s worth it, then fine."

"And don’t rush to pay me back. I’m not hurting for 4,000 yuan."

As he spoke, Li Xiao transferred the 4,000 yuan directly to him.

Zhou Yu stared at the transfer notification on his phone, feeling a surge of gratitude.

"Thanks, Master Li! Don’t worry, Master Li, I’ll definitely pay you back as soon as I can!"

Li Xiao reached out and patted Zhou Yu’s shoulder.

"It’s fine. Pay me back when you have it. If you don’t, just pay it back slowly. I’m not just being polite; 4,000 yuan really isn’t a lot of money to me."

Zhou Yu’s eyes reddened slightly.

He wasn’t an ungrateful person. He knew that, at the end of the day, they were both students. Even if Li Xiao’s family was well-off, 4,000 yuan was surely not a small sum for him either.

"Thanks, Master Li."

When they saw the professor walk into the classroom, they both immediately fell silent and began to focus on the lecture.

The class ended quickly.

Li Xiao pulled out his phone, intending to decide which restaurant to livestream from that night, but he found over a dozen system notifications on his Douyin dashboard.

Seeing the glaring red dots, a sense of foreboding washed over him.

He immediately opened the system notifications.

His expression immediately darkened.

[Your video, XXXX, has been set to private due to suspected abusive language, in accordance with Douyin platform rule number.... Please address the violating content immediately. A review will be conducted within 24 hours.]

[Your video: .....]

............

[Due to a large number of violating videos, this account has been suspended from livestreaming for 24 hours. To appeal, please contact the Douyin Help Assistant.]

[Due to a large number of violating videos, this account has been suspended from livestreaming for three days...]

[Due to a large number of violating videos, all new videos you publish will now require manual review.]

There were more than a dozen consecutive system notifications, all of them about bans due to violations.

And finally, because so many videos had been taken down, his account was blocked from livestreaming altogether.

After reading all the notifications, Li Xiao’s face turned livid.

He clicked on the videos and quickly found the reason for the bans.

His old videos, which used to have only a handful of comments, had somehow been flooded with dozens of new comments and bullet screen messages.

Most of these comments and messages contained abusive language.

He clicked on some of the accounts that left the messages. Without exception, they were all blank burner accounts.

Seeing this, Li Xiao instantly understood what was going on.

Someone had hired a water army—paid online trolls—to flood his videos with comments that violated the platform’s rules, and then reported them.

According to Douyin’s moderation process, once a video is mass-reported, it’s automatically flagged for a machine review.

This automated review scans not only the video itself but also the comment section and bullet screen messages.

If the program detects any violations in that content, it immediately takes the video down.

This water army had exploited that very loophole, deliberately posting disgusting comments and messages and then reporting them to get his videos taken down.

Of course, getting the videos reinstated was, in theory, simple.

You just had to file an appeal, and Douyin would have a human moderator review the case.

Once the moderator confirmed that the video itself wasn’t the problem, they would delete the offending content and reinstate the video.

However, as anyone who’s ever dealt with customer service knows...

...agents love to pass the buck and give you the runaround.

If you got lucky and got a helpful agent, the issue might be resolved in a few hours.

But if you got an agent who liked to drag their feet, you were screwed. They’d give you the runaround, playing games with you, and the problem might not get solved for days.

Some of the more obnoxious companies might not even have human customer service at all.

He didn’t even have to think to know who was behind this disgusting move.

Yun Ji Bamboo-Rising Wonton Noodles!!!

After he posted his video, they had immediately found a couple of minor influencers to vouch for their restaurant.

Just yesterday, during his livestream, he had utterly crushed their product with his own homemade wonton noodles.

And today, they retaliated, hiring a water army to get most of his videos taken down and his account blocked from livestreaming.

’Fine, fine. So that’s how they want to play, is it?’

’They were the ones in the wrong, but instead of admitting it, they resort to these dirty tricks?’

’Then I’ll just have to see this through to the very end!’