Su Tingbai had over ten million followers now, and his traffic had actually begun to stabilize. His follower base had settled into a fixed pattern as well.
One advantage he had over other food bloggers was that he was tall, rich, and handsome, which drew in looks-focused fans.
Looks-focused fans only cared about the face and did not ask much else of him. They were very indulgent.
But no one's face could possibly transform seventy-two times, especially since Su Tingbai was a food blogger who did not rely on his looks.
So after breaking ten million followers, his traffic gradually leveled off. When he occasionally invited friends to appear with him, his videos did better, but overall the difference was not huge. Shen Rui'an's addition alone was like a fresh spring, sending his traffic to new heights.
Meng Meng secretly glanced at Shen Rui'an, who was playing on his phone nearby. In her opinion, Shen Rui'an only needed to start an account of his own. He would not even need to do anything—just filming his face every day would gain him followers.
He was simply too beautiful, nothing like a real person.
Standing beside him, they seemed like they belonged to entirely different art styles.
"An'an, have you considered making an account too?" Meng Meng suggested. "You wouldn't even need to do much. Just share bits of your daily life now and then. It'd be even better if you showed your face. Maybe you could even earn Baisui some spending money!"
Shen Rui'an was a little tempted by what she said. He lowered his head to look at Baisui, who was whimpering and fussing, but the moment he thought about having to work, he lost all motivation.
He had money and did not particularly want to work. His current life was already quite comfortable.
Shen Rui'an did not have any grand ambitions.
"Forget it. It sounds kind of tiring." He shook his head, reached out to tease Baisui, then recorded it. Without editing it, he simply had the system add music and posted it directly to Douyin.
His account barely had any followers. He did not even know whether the few followers he had were bot accounts gifted by the system. Whenever the mood struck, he filmed Baisui, a flower, or a book, treating it like posting to his Moments.
His videos received very few likes. Other than photos of Baisui getting a few likes, he was the only one liking everything else himself.
Still, he was not surprised by that. It was perfectly normal. He was merely one ordinary person among the masses.
As soon as he posted the video, he stopped checking the backend and began replying to Father Shen, Mother Shen, and the others on WeChat.
His family kept in touch with him every day. When they had time, they even called before bed, so Shen Rui'an was never bored.
"Fine." Meng Meng had nearly forgotten that Su Tingbai and Shen Rui'an were different from them. They were both damned rich people, sob sob sob!
In my next life, I want to get rich too!
Meng Meng watched the computer for a while, deleted several harsh and unpleasant comments, then stretched. "An'an, every video with you in it gets incredibly good traffic."
Because people were arguing, the view count had gone up.
Shen Rui'an did not know about that. Hearing Meng Meng say so, he could not help feeling a little pleased. "Really? Oh, that's because your videos are filmed so well."
Shen Rui'an could not handle praise. The moment he was complimented, his tail quietly rose.
Watching him, Ya-ya thought he looked like a tsundere cat. His face clearly said, "Praise me more," but his mouth said, "It's not that big a deal." He was rather adorable.
Ya-ya thought of how the comments she had just deleted had all speculated that Shen Rui'an must look hideous, which was why he kept himself hidden. Little did they know that if Shen Rui'an truly showed his face, these people whose values followed their facial features would be stunned senseless!
Ya-ya could already predict how those netizens would react once they changed their tune.
"Then, An'an, do you mind showing your face? I don't mean that we have to make you do it, but we'll be livestreaming after all. People are bound to make mistakes. What if we accidentally film you one day?" Ya-ya asked tentatively.
Shen Rui'an did not particularly care, as long as it did not affect his life. He was not very interested in things online. "It doesn't matter, as long as it doesn't disturb me."
Hearing that, Little Zhu and the others seemed to have received a preventative shot and breathed a sigh of relief. That was good.
Trying to avoid filming Shen Rui'an's face during livestreams would have been too much work. They sometimes set the camera in place and ate. Livestreaming was not as easy to film as videos; videos could be edited and blurred, but livestreams could not.
"That's good. We were worried that if we made a mistake at work someday and accidentally filmed your face, you'd get angry."
"I wouldn't. It's not like I have anything to hide." Shen Rui'an was confident in his looks.
He knew far too well how advantageous his appearance was. He had been this spoiled since childhood because he was good-looking, and his family did not hold it against him too much. Oh, the medical staff at the hospital had been the same.
Whenever he had been ill and hospitalized, the nurses who changed his dressings were usually different each time. After a while, he learned that they had been taking turns out of curiosity to see what he looked like.
Once, he had pretended to be asleep and overheard the nurses quietly discussing it during their rounds. That was when he learned the reason.
Of course, doctors' rounds were different. There would be a huge crowd of them, looking at him as if he were some rare specimen.
Fortunately, he had not been hospitalized for long. Otherwise, he really would not have adjusted to the feeling of being forced into the role of a giant panda, especially a "giant panda" in a hospital. That truly had not been a good experience.
Shen Rui'an spaced out for a while before Su Tingbai finally arrived late. He seemed to have taken a shower and changed into a new set of clothes.
"Boss, why did you shower?" Little Zhu looked baffled. It was not particularly hot today, and they had not done any work that morning.
A flicker of awkwardness crossed Su Tingbai's face. He cleared his throat. "Ahem. I suddenly felt hot, so I showered. I'm making fried chicken. Get ready."
The moment they heard there was work to do, Su Tingbai's team sprang into action.
Shen Rui'an also buzzed around him like a little bee, curiously poking his head around. He ordered directly, "You're finally making it? I want original fried chicken and Korean fried chicken!"
"Fine, whatever you want." Su Tingbai agreed helplessly, then took out the chicken to thaw.
Every day, he bought fresh ingredients to keep on hand, including ingredients for fried chicken.
After the chicken thawed, Su Tingbai remembered that it had been over ten days since his last livestream, so he simply started one.
A-Ming and Little Zhu each held a camera. One filmed video material, while the other used a camera for the livestream.
"I'm going live," Su Tingbai reminded Shen Rui'an.
"Mhm, go ahead." He would find somewhere to watch on his own!
Su Tingbai knew he was unreliable. He gave Little Zhu and A-Ming a look, and the two made OK signs. They would make sure not to film Shen Rui'an's face.
As soon as the livestream began, some people who had been waiting for it entered.
[Grandma! The streamer you're following has gone live!]
[You finally went live! What are you making today?]
Su Tingbai replied, "Making some fried chicken snacks today. Feeding a greedy cat."
[The greedy cat is here!]
[This greedy cat came uninvited!]
[Fried chicken? I love it!]
The real greedy cat, Shen Rui'an, quietly stood beside Su Tingbai and watched him work.
The most important parts of fried chicken were marinating and frying the meat. Marinating took a rather long time, and Shen Rui'an could not resist moving closer to ask, "How long does it need to marinate?"
After preparing the chicken, Su Tingbai sealed it with plastic wrap and took it to the refrigerator to marinate. A head popped up beside him, and he laughed. "If you want it to absorb more flavor, we'll have to wait two hours."
"That's so long!" Shen Rui'an complained.
Su Tingbai put the chicken into the fridge to marinate. "I'll play games with you in the meantime."
"Then that's fine!" Shen Rui'an was immediately comforted.
The livestream viewers only saw a slender young man suddenly appear beside Su Tingbai at the refrigerator. The moment that soft, gentle voice sounded, they knew it was Shen Rui'an.
It was Shen Rui'an's first time appearing on camera so much. Though it was only his back and his face was not visible, it was still much better than the usual partial glimpses.
[!!! Damn, you can't tell when he's sitting down, but Shen An'an is actually this tall? I always thought he wasn't that tall. Next to Su Tingbai, he looks tiny, like a little figurine.]
[And he doesn't look like a little figurine now? Feels like Su Tingbai could wrap him up and hide him completely.]
[The size difference is delicious!]
[He's really so pale. Next to Su Tingbai, he looks even paler—not saying Su Tingbai is dark or anything.]
[Damn, the skin-tone difference makes it even more shippable!]
[Veteran shipper!]
[He's really so skinny...]
[His voice is nice too. Where's that person who said this kind of voice sounded like popping boba? Come out and tell us whether your face hurts now.]
[What does the new guest actually look like? I'm so curious.]
[You can tell from his back that he's a handsome guy.]
[He's a handsome guy just from that? He hasn't even shown his face. Isn't he just a little better built and thinner? Aren't there tons of influencers like that?]
[LMAO, the contrarian is back.]
Before you continue