Gourmet: The God-Level Culinary Tycoon

Seeing Li Xiao livestreaming on his phone, the chef held up his cleaver and clasped his hands toward the camera in a gesture of respect.

"It’s nothing special. My knife skills just come from cutting up a lot of kidneys. It’s all muscle memory."

"If you asked me to cut anything else, I wouldn’t be nearly this quick."

While he was chatting with the chef, the auntie beside them had finished picking out the ingredients.

"Okay, so that’s 20 yuan worth of kidneys, half a pound of ribs... making it a pound and a half of mixed offal in total."

"Will that be enough? Should I add a little more?"

Li Xiao looked at the stainless steel basin heaped full in the auntie’s hands and nodded.

"That’s enough. There are only four of us. This will be more than enough."

"Also, we’ll have an order of Sizzling Plate Offal, a Chive and Pig’s Blood, and an Offal Fried Noodles. That’s all for now."

The auntie quickly wrote down the order by hand.

"That’ll be 220 in total. You can just scan the code."

Li Xiao took out another phone to scan the code and pay, then returned to his three dorm mates.

He had just sat down when Wang Zhiyuan asked curiously,

"Brother Li, what good stuff did you order for us tonight?"

Li Xiao replied,

"None of you ate dinner, so I ordered a little extra. I got a pot of congee and a pound and a half of mixed offal."

"I also got the Sizzling Plate Offal, a large Offal Fried Rice Noodles... oh, right, and a Chive and Pig’s Blood."

"Is that enough? If not, I can have them add more."

’These three clowns from my dorm didn’t even eat dinner tonight.’

Huang Zhiyuan waved his hands frantically.

"Enough, enough! The pound and a half of offal alone is probably enough for all of us."

The other two quickly agreed.

Since the other three had no other requests, Li Xiao didn’t bother asking further.

’We can see if it’s enough once all the food arrives. If it’s really not enough, we can always order more then.’

The service at Sister Hong’s Pork Offal Congee was quite fast. The food started arriving before Li Xiao’s seat was even warm.

Of course, the main reason it was so fast was the limited variety on the menu.

A charcoal stove, glowing red-hot, and a clay pot of plain congee, steaming furiously, were brought to the table.

The waitress carefully placed the copper charcoal stove in the middle of the table, then set the clay pot on top.

Seeing the plain congee bubbling away, the viewers in the livestream chat grew curious.

"Wait, wasn’t this supposed to be pork offal congee?? Why did they bring out plain congee? Did they get the order wrong?"

"I think that guy’s idea from earlier was pretty good. With a big pot of plain congee like this, you could probably get full just by ordering 10 yuan worth of offal."

"Drag this poor bastard outta here! This is Brother Li’s stream! A comment like that totally ruins Brother Li’s clout!"

"Yeah, how come Brother Li isn’t giving out cash prizes today? Is the rich-guy persona falling apart?"

"No way, no way. You don’t actually think a real rich kid would livestream for everyone, do you? It’s all just an act!"

Seeing the viewers’ teasing in the chat,

Li Xiao slapped his forehead. He had been so focused on picking the offal that he had completely forgotten to check on the stream.

He glanced at the current viewer count. A full ten minutes had passed since he started streaming, and the number of viewers still hadn’t broken a thousand. The number of likes was even more pathetic, only a few thousand.

Li Xiao rolled his eyes.

"Calm down, everyone. This is a food stream, not a cash giveaway stream."

"But fine, if you want a prize, hit that free like button for me."

"Once the viewer count breaks a thousand, and I’m in a good mood, I’ll send out a big cash prize to make everyone happy."

Li Xiao’s words were incredibly effective.

In less than half a minute, the number of likes on the stream had already surpassed 100,000.

The flood of likes and interactions instantly drew in more viewers.

Seeing the online viewer count break 1,000, Li Xiao gave a thumbs-up to the camera.

"I’m a man of my word. When I say I’ll give out a big cash prize, I give out a big cash prize."

"There are 1,050 people in the stream right now, so I’ll send out a 1,050-yuan prize."

Hearing the amount of the cash prize, many people practically jumped with excitement.

Many viewers in the chat were working-class people earning two or three thousand a month. Winning this prize would be like half a month’s salary.

Li Xiao’s fingers tapped rapidly, and he quickly set up the cash prize.

He gently pressed the confirm button, and a password-protected cash prize with a two-minute time limit was sent out.

The next moment, the stream lagged for an instant.

Over 1,000 viewers simultaneously vied for the prize, and the chat interface was instantly flooded with "Brother Li is mighty!"

Two minutes passed in a flash.

As soon as the time was up, the winner’s name immediately appeared on the screen.

Li Xiao clapped his hands lightly.

"Congratulations to our friend, [Fish That Steals Offerings], for winning the cash prize."

Seeing the winner’s name, everyone except for the ecstatic viewer named "Fish That Steals Offerings" looked dejected.

The chat exploded with howls of despair.

"Why wasn’t I the winner?"

"Crying in the bathroom, just missed out on a 1,000-yuan prize!"

"There aren’t enough prizes! Bro, there are 1,000 viewers here. How is one prize enough to go around?"

"Exactly! Next time, split it into 100 prizes so more people have a chance to win."

Li Xiao rolled his eyes helplessly.

"Fine, fine. Next time I won’t send one big prize, I’ll send out a bunch of small ones, okay?"

He ignored the requests from some people for more cash prizes.

He had already picked up his phone on its stand and walked over to the vegetable section.

Calling it a "vegetable section" was a bit of a misnomer.

Unlike the rich and dazzling variety of pork offal, there weren’t many types of vegetables. You could see all of them at a glance.

There were only four types in total: shredded lettuce, goji berry leaves, baby napa cabbage, and bok choy.

However, there was plenty of each vegetable, and the restaurant didn’t mind you taking more as long as you could finish it.

Li Xiao wasn’t too greedy.

Adding a few vegetables to the congee could add more layers to its flavor, but adding too many would just overwhelm the main ingredients.

So, he didn’t take much, just filled two of the smallest stainless steel bowls with some shredded lettuce and goji berry leaves respectively, and then returned to his seat.

Before long, the cleaned and prepared pork offal was brought to the table.

The different types of offal were arranged on separate stainless steel plates.

As the auntie placed the offal on the table, she explained the required cooking times to the four of them.

With each plate of offal she set down, she announced its cooking time.

"Pork ribs, 8 minutes."

"Pork kidney, 5 minutes."

"Crispy intestine, 3 minutes."

"Small intestine, 4 minutes."

"Pork heart, 2 minutes."

...

By the time all the offal had been set down, the large round table was already covered with stainless steel plates.