Chapter 221: Food Stories
The assistant was anxiously pulling at his hair. “Bro, what nonsense are you saying? You’re not even going to take the money? What are you trying to do?”
However, Zhuge Song showed no signs of backing down. He continued to focus most of his attention on Qing Yatou.
Xu Youyou shook her head and said, “Whether you can ask her for advice at any time depends on her agreeing to it. I can’t make that decision.”
Qing Yatou responded, “I cook however I feel like it. I’m not sure how to teach someone else.”
Zhuge Song didn’t press her but said, “A good student will find their own learning methods.”
Hearing this, Qing Yatou turned to Xu Youyou and said, “Youyou Jie, you can agree to it.”
Zhuge Song let out a breath of relief and said, “Since she has agreed, now you can negotiate the terms.”
The assistant was panicking, calling out, “Bro, Miss Xu hasn’t even said anything yet, and you’re already lowering your terms?”
Zhuge Song glanced at him and said, “These were the terms I agreed on with her beforehand, so I must stick to them.”
Xu Youyou could see the assistant was about to explode, so she didn’t tease them any further and directly said, “I’ll stick to my word, and I won’t change my terms. After all, it wasn’t me who convinced Qing Yatou.”
The assistant quickly said, “Miss Xu is so generous. We’ve found the right person!”
As for which contract terms to choose, Zhuge Song didn’t care much and casually tossed it to the assistant, “You pick. Once everything’s sorted, I’ll sign.”
It was surprising how casually Zhuge Song settled his contract, and Xu Youyou couldn’t help but admire it. She thought, Thank goodness the assistant is a good one, or Zhuge Song would’ve been sold off multiple times by now.
With that, Zhuge Song’s contract was secured without much fuss.
Shortly after, the system updated the task rewards.
Perhaps because this bargain task was so simple, the rewards were somewhat lackluster, offering Xu Youyou only five training hours.
Xu Youyou immediately used all the training hours to upgrade the jade stone.
Zhuge Song and Qing Yatou filmed a total of three food collaboration videos. The first episode focused on mushrooms, with black truffle as the key ingredient.
The second episode featured dried fruits, with chestnuts as the key ingredient.
The third episode centered on vegetables, with spinach as the key ingredient.
The first episode was released, and it immediately sparked a massive uproar online.
“Is my vision blurry? How did the goddess end up collaborating with the violent maniac? Isn’t she afraid Zhuge’s punch will come out of nowhere?”
“Unfollowed! I thought I found a treasure blogger, but it turns out they’re just cashing in. How could she endorse such a scumbag?”
“Qingqing is still too young, she’s fallen into their trap.”
Scrolling through the comments, the overwhelming majority were harsh criticisms, with only a few scattered comments saying, “Am I the only one who finds them cooking together strangely pleasing to the eye?”
Such honest comments were quickly labeled as spam by angry viewers.
Qing Yatou’s operations manager promptly reported the findings to Xu Youyou.
“Boss, our network team checked, and the people posting radical comments are mostly fans of other food bloggers, with half of them being fans of Chef Liu.”
Xu Youyou had already expected the internet to be a murky place. The self-media blogger industry was fiercely competitive, and seeing this result, she couldn’t help but think it was no different from the entertainment industry.
“How do you plan to handle it?” Xu Youyou asked.
The operations manager knew that Xu Youyou had signed Zhuge Song, and because the two bloggers lived close to each other, their management teams were essentially the same.
“I also asked Zhuge Song and tried to clear his name, but the investigation didn’t turn up anything. He doesn’t want to explain what happened back then.”
Xu Youyou frowned slightly. If the person involved didn’t want to clarify things, there wasn’t much anyone else could do.
She didn’t want to make things difficult for her subordinates and said, “In that case, let’s just keep it low for now.”
The operations manager hesitated but finally said, “If he still refuses to explain and the online comments continue to escalate, it might affect Qingqing. In the half day alone, she’s lost 20,000 followers. Should we hold off on releasing the remaining two videos?”
Qing Yatou’s follower count was solid and uninflated. Losing 20,000 followers in such a short time made the operations manager deeply anxious. He didn’t believe Zhuge Song had much commercial value, so he just wanted to protect Qing Yatou as much as possible.
Xu Youyou, however, firmly believed in the system’s decision and said, “No need. Let’s release the videos as planned. Don’t worry too much, things might turn around.”
Since the boss had spoken, the operations manager had no choice but to comply. Two days later, the second collaboration video was released.
This bold move immediately caused a stir, and many fans who had initially supported Qing Yatou couldn’t hold back any longer.
“I really liked Qingqing, thought she was a breath of fresh air in the self-media space. She hasn’t promoted any products in her videos, and I thought I’d support her forever, but I just can’t do it anymore.”
“Did Zhuge Song put a spell on Qingqing? Or are they dating? Why is she helping this scumbag?”
Along with these disappointed comments came a massive drop in followers.
The operations manager’s heart was breaking. The two videos had caused a loss of 150,000 followers, and there seemed to be no end in sight for the decline.
Meanwhile, Black Cat Fatty, a female food blogger who had once seen Qing Yatou as a competitor, was now smiling smugly.
“Miss, Chef Liu’s team reached out, saying they want to collaborate on a video with you,” Black Cat Fatty’s assistant said.
While Black Cat Fatty was known for her friendly image online, she had a bad temper in reality and required all her staff to call her “Miss” and use formal titles.
Seeing that Chef Liu wanted a collaboration at this moment, Black Cat Fatty immediately understood his intentions and agreed to the idea without hesitation.
In an effort to capitalize on the hype, the two quickly filmed a collaboration video and rushed to edit it.
They strategically planned to release the video at the same time as Qing Yatou’s third collaboration video.
“Black Cat is the kind of reliable, old-school food blogger who won’t backstab her fans by working with a scumbag,” Black Cat Fatty’s fans praised her.
Chef Liu’s fans also celebrated, “Our chef has great taste! The atmosphere when he cooked with Black Cat Fatty was so warm, like father and daughter.”
But their happiness didn’t last long, as a post suddenly appeared online.
“Chef Liu, the Cooking Enthusiast—Do You Really Know the Story Behind His Culinary Journey?”
Within an hour, the post skyrocketed to the trending list.
