A medical check-up? Xiang Kun immediately recalled that night during the Mid-Autumn Festival when Xia Libing's house to cook. When it was just the two of them left, Xia Libing noticed that he seemed a little unwell all night, so he casually mentioned that he had a stomach problem.
Clearly, Xia Libing felt that he hadn't eaten enough today, and that he might still have a stomach problem.
"I haven't gone for a checkup, but I'm fine. I usually don't eat much for dinner."
Xia Libing nodded, not saying anything more about the topic, but instead asked, "Do you remember the first time we met?"
Xiang Kun's mind flashed back to the scene of his chance encounter with Xia Libing at Maan Coffee, but he pretended to be clueless and said, "I remember, that night we were playing cards at Nana's house."
Xia Libing shook her head. "Before that, I ran into you at a coffee shop, also called Maan Coffee. You should have seen me there too."
Xiang Kun pretended to be stunned for a moment, then suddenly said, "Oh right, I remember now, we seemed to have 'made eye contact'?"
Xia Libing looked at him. "What were you doing in the coffee shop back then?"
"I didn't do anything, just went over and sat there. I had just lost my job and was bored."
"From the moment I entered the coffee shop, you didn't drink a single drop of beverage. You weren't staring at anyone else, but I knew your attention was always on other people. I initially thought you were following that woman in the bank uniform, but then I realized you were focusing on me, so I assumed you were simply observing girls."
Hearing Xia Libing's words, Xiang Kun was genuinely surprised. He hadn't expected that during their first encounter, Xia Libing would think he was a pervert who fantasized about girls. But thinking about it, it made sense. At that time, he had just begun his training in collecting and analyzing other people's sensory information. When his attention was focused on others, he hadn't yet learned how to conceal his outward behavior, so it wasn't surprising that Xia Libing saw through him.
"However, after interacting with you a few times, I think you're just someone who's used to observing others," Xia Libing added.
Xiang Kun simply nodded slightly without saying anything. He knew that given Lao Xia's usual style, there must be more to this story if he suddenly brought it up.
Sure enough, Xia Libing asked, "Based on your observation, what kind of person am I?"
Xiang Kun thought for a moment, then said after careful consideration, "A... very calm person, sometimes even to the point of being too calm and indifferent."
He paused for a moment, then continued, "Sometimes your reactions remind me of the characteristics of Asperger's syndrome that I read about in a book, but after getting to know you better, they don't seem quite like it."
Seeing Xia Libing nod thoughtfully after hearing this, Xiang Kun asked, "And you, based on your observation, what kind of person am I?"
This was also something he was very curious about. He knew that Xia Libing, with her keen observation skills, must have seen more than others and must have noticed something, otherwise she wouldn't have paid so much attention to him.
Unexpectedly, Xia Libing answered without hesitation, "We're still observing; there are no results yet."
Lao Xia... do you have to be so slippery?
Xiang Kun said helplessly, "Then what do we say based on our current observations?"
Xia Libing shook her head again. "The more I observe, the more problems I find, and the less I understand."
Xiang Kun originally wanted to say, "If you don't understand anything, just ask me," but he hesitated for a moment and didn't say it. He was a little worried that Lao Xia would ask some questions that he really couldn't answer, and if he was forced to lie, then there would be no point in doing so.
Just then, Xiang Kun's phone vibrated with a WeChat notification. He picked it up and glanced at it, only to find it was from Tang Baona.
Upon opening it, I found a forwarded Bilibili video link, followed by Tang Baona's laughing emoji and text:
"I never knew you had such a talent for acting! Next time you cook, try doing that too. I guarantee my recording will be way better than yours!"
Xiang Kun was confused, so he clicked on the video.
"The bald guy's incredibly cool bamboo rat meat cooking process, filmed in one continuous shot!"
Upon seeing the title, his heart skipped a beat, and he immediately guessed what was going on.
Clicking on the video revealed him in the kitchen of "Youlong Restaurant," where he was preparing bamboo rat meat while simultaneously showing off and pontificating about how to make a food video.
The evaluation of cooking videos begins with the audio-visual content and continues until the bamboo rat meat is finally cooked.
The video, which was over ten minutes long, was entirely about Xiang Kun deliberately showing off. The comments section was filled with all sorts of random remarks, some positive and some negative, and there were a lot of them.
"2333333..."
"Lol..."
"It's silly but has a cool vibe!"
"Meng Fei has given up hosting to cook?"
"Even cleaning your glasses exudes a strange sense of sophistication!"
"New meme material √"
"I think food videos are about to have a new style."
"This video must have been rehearsed several times, right?"
"Didn't you guys realize this bald chef was trained in martial arts? He can lift a pot with such stability, even with just one hand!"
"I don't know if he's practiced martial arts, but the bamboo rat meat he cooked was definitely not cooked properly..."
"With this level of skill, you dare to make food videos and teach people how to cook?"
"Those who wrote it in red above, do you dare to say that to this bald man?"
"I think he would be more convincing if he were to teach people how to box."
"Why do I find it so enjoyable to watch? I watched more than ten minutes and it didn't feel slow at all."
"Where's the background music? Why isn't there any background music? Come on, give us some music!"
"Actually, what he said makes some sense..."
Xia Libing also walked curiously to Xiang Kun's side, watching the video on his phone with great interest, and even secretly picked up her own phone to search for it online.
Xiang Kun knew exactly where the problem lay and immediately called You Meng.
"Xiang Kun, I was having dinner with Director Liu and we were talking about you when you called. It's like speaking of the devil!" You Meng on the phone was clearly a little drunk.
Director Liu went to his shop again? Was he plotting something behind the scenes? But at this moment Xiang Kun couldn't worry about Liu Caifu for the time being, and quickly asked, "Where's your nephew?"
"He's in the store. Do you need to see him?"
"Let him answer the phone!"
A moment later, You Da's nephew, who was also completely bewildered, realized what the problem was after talking to Xiang Kun on the phone. He immediately called his classmate and asked him to delete the video.
Normally on Bilibili, if it's a regular video, not posted by a well-known content creator, and it doesn't ride the wave of trending topics or generate buzz, a few hundred or a few thousand views in 24 hours would be a lot.
But by sheer bad luck, this video was discovered and posted on Hupu Pedestrian Street, becoming a hot topic. Then, a short clip was taken, added with background music, and posted on Weibo and Douyin, attracting a lot of attention and making this newcomer's video go viral in a short period of time.
So even if the video is deleted now, it seems like it won't make a difference...
The related "derivative" videos are becoming increasingly outrageous, ranging from "Ip Man, the bald- Ip Man, commenting on various food videos" to "Shaolin Temple's 73 Ultimate Skills: Rat-Cooking Fist".
Some people even replaced his voice as he stylishly wiped the fog off his glasses with Tony Leung Ka-fai's line from the movie "Black Gold": "I've finished speaking. Who agrees? Who disagrees?" They then added a line in Tony Leung Ka-fai's voice, "Those who agree, sit back and wait to be served. Those who disagree, get ready to be cooked."
Xiang Kun didn't need to search for it himself; Tang Baona and Yang Zhen'er were forwarding the messages one by one from various platforms to their group chat.
Each time a message is sent, it's followed by an emoji of someone clutching their stomach and laughing hysterically.
The video title in Chapter 165 had a bug. As pointed out by readers, such provocative titles won't pass Bilibili's review process, so I've gone back and fixed it. The video title in this chapter is the correct one.