Gourmet: The God-Level Culinary Tycoon

Li Xiao took out one of the black car keys and tossed it directly to Huang Zhiyuan.

"Brother Yuan, catch."

Seeing the key flying toward him, Huang Zhiyuan panicked for a second, fumbling for a moment before he managed to catch it.

Staring at the car key in his hand, Huang Zhiyuan looked utterly baffled.

He looked up at Li Xiao.

"Brother Li, why’d you throw this at me?"

Li Xiao jutted his chin toward the new car.

"Didn’t you say you wanted to try it out on the way here?"

"Go on, give it a spin!"

"I don’t know much about cars. You can check it for me, see if there are any problems."

Hearing this, Huang Zhiyuan’s heart skipped a beat. He asked in disbelief:

"This is your brand-new car, Brother Li. You’re really letting me test drive it?"

To a car fanatic like him, who loved cars as much as his own life, a good car was like a wife. Forget about letting someone else have the precious "first time"—he wouldn’t even want anyone touching it in day-to-day life.

So he’d never imagined Li Xiao would actually give him such a precious opportunity.

Li Xiao waved his hand dismissively.

"It’s just a car. It’s the same no matter who drives it."

"I remember you got your driver’s license back in your freshman year. Don’t tell me you’re scared to drive it?"

Huang Zhiyuan quickly shook his head.

"Of course I’m not scared! I drove my parents’ car all the time during summer and winter breaks."

"It’s just... this is a new car."

He said, looking down at the key in his hand again before asking tentatively:

"So, I’m really going to take it for a spin?"

Li Xiao rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"If you keep dawdling, I won’t let you drive it at all."

Huang Zhiyuan quickly clutched the key, afraid Li Xiao would take it back right then and there.

"I’m going, of course I’m going!"

Without another moment of hesitation, he pressed the button on the key fob.

Led by Yao Mingquan, the three of them soon got into the car and headed to the special test track behind the dealership.

Li Xiao had no interest in the test drive. He pulled up a random stool and opened the backend of his Douyin account.

Account: Brother Li on Food

Followers: 51,240

Likes: 98,700

After the difficult struggle to break 10,000 followers, his Douyin account was now experiencing a massive surge.

In just a few short days, his follower count had shot up from 10,000 to over 50,000, and the growth wasn’t slowing down. The reason was simple.

Every time he went live, a huge number of viewers would join.

Whether they were there for the cash giveaways or to participate in the subsequent food events, the vast majority of viewers who stuck around would become Li Xiao’s followers.

At the same time, the fans who participated in the food events were required to link Li Xiao’s account name when they posted their short videos.

This meant that viewers watching those fans’ videos could easily click the links and go directly to Li Xiao’s main page.

If only ten people participated in the food events, the ripple effect would be very weak.

But if the number of participants reached 1,000, or even 10,000...

...then the resulting chain reaction would be enormous.

So it was completely logical that his follower count was skyrocketing.

As his follower count exploded, so did the number of people sending him private messages.

However, aside from a few harassing messages, most of them were people just sucking up to him.

They were either looking for a sugar daddy or crying about being poor.

The flood of useless information had practically crashed his inbox.

The long string of red notification dots was giving Li Xiao a headache.

In his past life, he did have an ex-girlfriend who was a streamer, and he’d learned a lot about livestreaming from her, but he had never properly managed a streaming account himself.

When the numbers were small at the beginning, he could handle it casually.

But once the account’s followers started to increase, he was becoming overwhelmed.

Li Xiao rubbed his chin, thinking about his next move.

’I definitely need to keep the account going. Besides, I have to travel around looking for good food to light up the entries in my catalog anyway.’

’I actually quite enjoy the feeling of livestreaming. While I’m out finding food, I can bring a little happiness to more people.’

’Of course, the more important thing is this body’s lingering obsession with bringing good food to more people.’

’It seems like it’ll be too difficult to manage this account properly all by myself.’

He was willing to go live and share his experiences while tasting food—after all, it was easy enough to do.

But he wasn’t willing to spend too much time dealing with post-stream matters, like this mountain of private messages.

’It seems finding a professional assistant to handle these things has become urgent.’

After all, in his current situation, making tens of millions a month was just a matter of eating a few good meals.

At this rate, his daily income was already in the hundreds of thousands.

Spending a few thousand to hire an assistant to lighten his workload was perfectly reasonable.

Li Xiao was a man of action. Since he had nothing else to do right now, he downloaded a few job-search apps.

Li Xiao quickly registered a personal account and then posted a job listing.

Requirements:

Female, monthly salary 10,000, 6 days off per month, full benefits.

8-hour workday, remote work.

Job Description: Social media account management, video editing.

Li Xiao wasn’t some ruthless capitalist. He was just looking for an assistant to take some work off his plate.

So he didn’t make too many extra demands. As long as the person could get the job done, working remotely was fine.

Worried he might not find a suitable candidate, Li Xiao immediately paid for a premium membership on the app.

The premium membership was quite effective. For 108 yuan, not only would his job posting be ranked higher, but it would also be automatically pushed to suitable job seekers’ feeds every day, increasing its exposure.

However, his worries were clearly unnecessary.

He had just finished posting the listing on several platforms when his phone started buzzing nonstop. At the same time, red notification dots appeared on the job apps.

Li Xiao’s eyebrow twitched slightly. ’So the power of money really works.’

’It’s only been a few minutes and people are already sending in their resumes.’

He started opening the resumes one by one to look them over.

Zhang Jia, 27, from Kyoto. Master’s degree from Capital Communication University, majored in Media Studies. Previously managed the university’s official social media accounts and has extensive experience in social media operations.

Additionally, she interned at an internet company, where she was responsible for content editing and publishing.

Huang Yuerou, 28, from Modu. Master’s degree, graduate of Jilin University, majored in Marketing.

Previously worked at Aiwen Advertising Company, a Fortune 500 company, where she was responsible for placing and managing social media ads.

Currently runs her own WeChat Official Account and other social media accounts, having built a modest follower base.

Zhou Shishi, 24, from Yangcheng. Bachelor’s degree, graduate of Zhongshan University, Communications.

Previously worked at a public relations firm, responsible for media relations and social media operations. Possesses excellent communication and crisis management skills.

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