Chapter 37: Jealousy Tears the Soul Asunder

After finishing breakfast, Bai Renzong began to deal with the private messages he had received. Many fans were recommending local eateries near their homes, hoping he would visit and try their food. There were also messages from restaurant owners inviting him to collaborate, most of the business proposals coming from alcohol brands.

But Bai Renzong had no intention of promoting alcoholic beverages, simply because he genuinely disliked drinking.

After filtering through the messages, he recorded the most famous snack shops recommended by fans from various regions in a document and noted down the collaborations he found promising.

Some of these were business partnerships, others were invitations from local restaurant owners who wanted him to taste their dishes, and the details would need further discussion.

Looking over these recommendations and proposals, Bai Renzong knew he had already carved out his own path in the “food” category.

However, he wasn’t merely a food content creator; he also needed to keep up with gaming and film reviews.

“Old Bai!” Just as Bai Renzong was replying to messages one by one, Wang Bei suddenly slapped his shoulder from behind and shouted loudly, “Congratulations! You’re completely famous on D Site now!”

“Hey, you startled me.” Bai Renzong frowned, “Why do you act just like your sister? Never bother to knock.”

“Sometimes I do knock!” Han Jiayi complained from behind, hands on her waist, “Come down and have breakfast!”

When he got downstairs, Bai Renzong saw a table laden with all sorts of dishes: a large plate of spaghetti, a whole chicken braised in red wine, salad, clam chowder, and some bread.

“Because we’re pairing with red wine today, I made Western food,” Han Jiayi explained with a smile.

“Then we need to open a good bottle,” Bai Renzong said, fetching the bottle of red wine worth over seven thousand yuan that Zhang Zhiyong had given him. He poured a glass for each of them, and the three clinked their glasses together.

“It really is a seven-thousand-yuan wine,” Han Jiayi teased. “Its aroma is truly unique.”

“I honestly can’t tell the difference between this and a two-hundred-yuan wine, but it feels so classy!” Wang Bei laughed triumphantly. “Old Bai, what’s your next plan?”

“The path for food content is already paved, so the next steps will be smooth,” Bai Renzong turned to Han Jiayi. “We’ll make a few videos together to boost your visibility. Then you can consider opening your own account as a creator, and we can collaborate from time to time until you have your own steady fanbase.”

“Why can’t we just make videos together?” Han Jiayi puffed her cheeks in protest.

“We can,” Bai Renzong replied, “But if we do, you can’t just collaborate with me on food videos—you’ll need to participate in gaming and film reviews as well.”

“That’s fine, I know what I’m doing…” Han Jiayi muttered.

Wang Bei, eager, asked, “When do we start filming together?”

“As soon as possible,” Bai Renzong thought aloud. “Right now my popularity in the food section is high. I need to release another video before the momentum fades.”

He turned to Han Jiayi. “Have you decided on a topic?”

“I want to show everyone my specialty, Wellington steak—it’s really difficult!” Han Jiayi said proudly.

But before she could finish, Bai Renzong interrupted her. “You’d better show everyone how to repurpose overly sour pineapples. If you make Wellington steak, people won’t be interested.”

“Why not?” Han Jiayi protested.

“Because it’s too difficult,” Bai Renzong explained. “Start with something simple and homemade; it’ll appeal to a broader audience.”

“Well, alright then…” Han Jiayi grumbled, choosing to compromise.

Meanwhile, the video’s explosive popularity had attracted the attention of various MCN agencies, all eyeing the creator known as “Old Bai.” In the current landscape of influencer economics, traffic is everything. Anything that draws attention, no matter how bizarre, will be monetized and exploited for all its worth.

That’s why even a petty thief stealing batteries could attract a bidding war for exposure.

But MCN agencies weren’t the only ones noticing “Old Bai.” Other creators on D Site were paying close attention to his unusual surge in popularity.

As fellow creators, they knew just how hard it was to reach that level of fame—it usually took at least a year of steady effort. Yet “Old Bai,” a newcomer, had achieved such high engagement from his very first video?

Something wasn’t right.

Although Xiyou streamed live and posted short videos on the You Ding app, the copyright for short videos belonged to the creator, so they could be published across all platforms. Naturally, any aspiring creator wouldn’t ignore D Site, the platform with the highest traffic.

Thus, Xiyou was also considered a creator on D Site.

“He must be buying views!” Xiyou angrily reported “Old Bai’s” videos to customer service.

Ever since the scandal at Ge’an Sushi had erupted, Xiyou’s days had been tough.

Before the Consumer Association released the results of their investigation, he had published a “restaurant review” video of Ge’an Sushi as required by his contract, giving it a positive rating. He had thought that, being under the Huanshi Group umbrella, the restaurant wouldn’t face any real trouble and the matter would be smoothed over.

But as soon as his video went live, the Consumer Association exposed the “fake A5 Wagyu beef” incident at Ge’an Sushi—an instant slap in the face.

As a result, Xiyou’s video was met with widespread controversy, and his fans began to question whether he was taking dirty money.

To address this, Xiyou released another video claiming to be a victim himself, saying he hadn’t noticed the beef was fake.

But right after his “victim” video, Bai Renzong posted his own.

Xiyou’s fans used Bai Renzong’s video to highlight Xiyou’s contradictions, because although Bai Renzong’s video didn’t directly reveal Xiyou at the scene, it did provide crucial information: someone at Ge’an Sushi had already pointed out the fake beef at the time, which coincided with Xiyou’s visit.

Xiyou was exposed once again, his fans accused him of taking dirty money and began to unfollow him en masse.

Although he wasn’t completely finished, he lost a significant portion of his following, making an already lukewarm career even worse.

And as for the so-called “rich kid” who didn’t care about followers?

That was a myth. The “rich kid” persona was just a fabrication by his agency to help him attract fans and deceive female followers. He was just an ordinary person, and after a year of hard work on D Site, he had only amassed around eighty thousand followers.

Meanwhile, Bai Renzong had uploaded videos for barely half a month and had already surpassed him in followers, igniting his jealousy. He reported every single one of Bai Renzong’s videos to D Site’s customer service.

But the reply he received was…

“After investigation, this creator’s data shows no abnormalities.”

Xiyou knew well that, since D Site required new accounts to answer up to a hundred questions to be verified, and only verified accounts could boost view counts, it was impossible for a studio to mass-produce enough accounts to artificially inflate popularity.

But he insisted on reporting all the same.

“Damn lower-class scum! Pauper!” Xiyou raged, switching to a secondary account to spam hateful comments under Bai Renzong’s videos.

After posting a few messages…

“What? My account’s been banned?” Xiyou muttered in shock, “I can’t believe this!”

At that moment, Bai Renzong’s phone chimed with a notification: “Defense breached, rewarded with 500,000 popularity points!”

“???” Bai Renzong was baffled. He couldn’t understand how the red wine exhibition video had provoked such a reaction, or who exactly had been triggered.

(Thanks to ‘Super Wants to Raise Cats’ for the reward and monthly ticket)