Gourmet: The God-Level Culinary Tycoon

To be honest, Deng Dongyu had originally planned to just use some veiled language, subtly mentioning a few negative points about the wonton noodle shop.

After all, as a food vlogger, it wasn’t great to take too obvious a stance.

It could easily offend some potential customers.

However, that guy’s warning had thoroughly disgusted him. He decided to prepare a little extra dirt on him when writing his script.

One could only wonder how Yun Hongquan would feel if he knew his own warning had caused these vloggers to write even worse reviews of his shop.

「The afternoon classes soon ended.」

Li Xiao and his three friends took a Didi to their destination.

There was no traffic, and they arrived at Celestial Treasure Restaurant right on time at 5:30 PM.

Although they were quite early, the restaurant was already calling out queue numbers at the entrance.

Luckily, the line wasn’t too long. After asking, they were told it would only be about a 20-minute wait for a table.

The group took a number tag from a middle-aged waitress and sat on the benches by the entrance to wait.

Because making sizzling clay pots produces a lot of smoke and steam, the restaurant had set up the stoves for them right at the entrance.

Right then, a dozen or so clay pots were heating up over high-flame stoves, and waves of fragrant aroma wafted out from the cooking station.

Smelling the rich fragrance, Li Xiao couldn’t help but lick his lips.

’Putting everything else aside, the aroma alone is tempting enough.’

But Li Xiao wasn’t in a hurry. He’d be eating in 20 minutes anyway, so he didn’t rush to start filming.

Li Xiao took out his phone.

Seeing the red dot notification on WeChat, he immediately tapped it open.

[Hello, the video you requested has been filmed. The draft is below. If there are no issues, we’ll post this version directly!]

[Boss Li, the video is...]

[Bossman, ...]

He glanced at the messages; they were all from the vloggers he had hired that day.

Li Xiao was quite satisfied with their speed.

He opened the videos one by one.

’Good. They basically all followed the script I provided.’

They focused on minor issues and small flaws in the shop.

Things like poor hygiene, inauthentic flavors, bad service, the noodles having too strong of an alkaline taste, or the noodles not being fresh but taken from the fridge—all genuine problems.

Additionally, all the shop names and people’s faces were pixelated, but anyone with a sharp eye could tell which restaurant it was.

Even if the owner wanted to go after them, he couldn’t do anything. After all, what the vloggers said was all true.

Li Xiao wasn’t sure if these actions would have any real impact on the restaurant.

But he didn’t really care anymore. The main point was just to annoy the other party.

Since his opponent wanted to play dirty, he would play along to the very end.

After confirming that each video was usable, he sent the final payments to the vloggers.

Once that was done, he opened his Douyin account.

In just half a day, the stats on his latest video had climbed again.

Views: 300,000, Likes: 2,100, Comments: 650, Shares: 35

’My idea was right after all. Hype plus the power of money—a two-pronged approach that instantly more than doubled all the video’s stats.’

With the traffic from this video as a guarantee, he wouldn’t have to worry about a lack of viewers for his upcoming livestream.

He adjusted a few settings for his stream room.

Then, he changed the title for today’s livestream.

[Rich Kid’s Surprise Visit to Celestial Treasure Restaurant]

[Is It Genuinely Delicious or All for Show?]

Li Xiao casually greeted the viewers in his stream.

Just as he expected, the number of viewers in the stream room grew quickly.

In just two minutes, the viewer count had already reached 40, and the growth rate wasn’t slowing down, still increasing by 20 people per minute.

[Wait?! Didn’t your video say your account was suspended and you couldn’t stream? How come you’re suddenly live again?]

[I knew it was a lie!! You played with my feelings again!]

[Where are you, streamer? It looks like a food stall.]

[Doesn’t the title say ’rich kid’? Do rich kids eat at food stalls?]

Seeing the viewers’ confusion, Li Xiao quickly explained:

"It was indeed suspended this morning, but it was manually unbanned around noon, so tonight’s stream is happening as scheduled."

"Of course I’m a rich kid. Who says rich kids can’t eat at food stalls? Food stalls have plenty of delicious things, okay?"

"Since you guys joined the stream within the first few minutes, you must be my true fans."

"I can’t just ignore everyone’s support!"

"Empty words can’t express my gratitude to you all, so I’ll have to use red packets instead."

As Li Xiao finished speaking, he sent out five password-protected red packets.

Of the five packets, the first was instantly claimable, while the rest were set to be released at two-minute intervals.

This would ensure the stream maintained high engagement.

Seeing that there were red packets to grab, the skepticism in the chat vanished.

The screen immediately filled with a barrage of "Brother Li is awesome!"

He chatted idly with his viewers, and soon enough, their number was called.

The way this restaurant called numbers was very unique; unlike most places that used an automated system.

This place still used the traditional method of a person calling them out. What was even more unique was that the owner himself was calling the numbers with a big, red megaphone.

"A4, party of four! Welcome, valued guests."

Seeing it was their turn, he didn’t hesitate and walked into the restaurant, phone in hand.

Following the middle-aged waitress’s directions, Li Xiao’s group of four entered Celestial Treasure Restaurant.

The interior decor was very retro. The terrazzo floor had been worn incredibly smooth by the constant foot traffic.

Several TVs mounted on the white walls were broadcasting news from Hong Kong Island.

The wall by the entrance was covered with many photos and newspaper clippings of celebrities and dignitaries who had dined at the restaurant.

Even though it wasn’t peak dinner time yet, the restaurant was already bustling with activity and filled with the clamor of voices.

The four of them were quickly shown to a table by the window.

The middle-aged waitress brought over four menus.

Li Xiao glanced at the menu, then looked up and asked the other three:

"Do you guys have any dietary restrictions?"

Zhou Yu:

"I can’t handle spicy food very well, but other than that, I’m fine with anything."

Zhang Jiawen:

"It’s Brother Li’s treat. I’ll eat whatever Brother Li orders!"

Huang Zhiyuan:

"I don’t have any restrictions either. I’ll eat anything!"

Seeing that no one had any special requests, Li Xiao waved over a manager in a suit:

"Manager, we’re ready to order."

The manager walked over briskly.

"What can I get for you gentlemen today?"

Li Xiao:

"What do you recommend, manager?"

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