I'm Starting to Ship You Two

Was it bitter? He thought it was all right. If he savored it carefully, it even seemed a little sweet.

Su Tingbai took another sip, not noticing Shen Rui'an staring at him wide-eyed, his gaze full of admiration.

It took some skill for someone to get so hooked on this Western medicinal brew.

Shen Rui'an took a vicious bite of his croissant and began questioning his life.

Could there be something wrong with his taste buds? Why did Su Tingbai look so intoxicated by it?

While Shen Rui'an and Su Tingbai enjoyed a peaceful moment, Little Zhu and the others, who had spotted them from another building, were so shocked their jaws nearly dropped.

"If I didn't see wrong just now, did Young Master Shen drink the boss's coffee?"

Meng Meng and Ya-ya wore knowing auntie smiles. "You saw right."

Something was definitely off about those two!

"Doesn't the boss have a cleanliness obsession?" A-Ming scratched the back of his head and said innocently. "How could he accept Young Master Shen touching his cup? I remember he bought that cup specifically for making his own coffee."

"You remember correctly." Little Zhu stared blankly, because he had once taken Su Tingbai's cup by mistake. Su Tingbai had simply given it to him and bought himself a new set.

"Then the boss is..."

Little Zhu and A-Ming exchanged a look. "Smitten by a pretty face!"

With Young Master Shen looking like that, they would not have found it strange if anyone treated him specially.

Even if that person was their boss!

Tsk. Men.

After gossiping inwardly for a while, Little Zhu and the others got back to work.

As the operations manager, Meng Meng needed to check the performance of the newly posted video on Su Tingbai's account and adjust the next shoot based on the results.

Su Tingbai's account had over ten million followers, making him one of Douyin's biggest influencers.

Some followers could be bought. Su Tingbai did not know much about the specifics. In any case, he had never bought any, though he had no idea whether the platform had bought followers for him.

Some influencers had huge follower counts but few active fans. Once they posted a video, the likes and traffic conversion made it obvious that they had bought bot followers.

The numbers on Su Tingbai's main account looked excellent. Every video received hundreds of thousands of likes, with many surpassing five hundred thousand. More than half had over half a million likes, and the comment counts were impressive too, usually exceeding ten thousand. Videos with a million likes had over 100,000 comments.

For his follower count, the engagement shown by his video likes was exceptionally good. Some major influencers with tens of millions of followers did not necessarily get as many likes as he did.

For an influencer with over ten million followers, their video likes and comments had to reach a certain threshold to be considered qualified. Roughly speaking, that meant four to five hundred thousand likes and thirty to eighty thousand comments.

Clearly, Su Tingbai's main account was more than qualified. It could even be called outstanding.

Since he did not have an especially large number of works, every video received considerable traffic. After becoming a ten-million-follower influencer, nearly every video he posted later received close to a million likes, with well over a hundred thousand comments in the comment section.

That was extremely impressive for an influencer. Of course, celebrities were another matter entirely.

Sure enough, less than half an hour after the new video went up, it already had three hundred thousand likes and over ten thousand comments. Its popularity was still steadily rising.

The top comments had already received seventy or eighty thousand likes.

The bullet comments above the video streamed by in a flood.

[Finally decided to update.]

[Man, how long has it been since you last updated?]

[That apron is still so damn sexy.]

[Did you all come to watch the food or the man?]

[Can't we watch both?]

[I missed the livestream. I heard there's a new guest?]

[Yep. Go check out the hand on Su Tingbai's alt account. Seriously, the new guest is so pale!]

[Seriously. Ya-ya and Meng Meng weren't dark to begin with, and Little Zhu has cool-toned fair skin, but compared to the new guest, they somehow look a little dark.]

[Is it really that outrageous? Does the new guest show their face in the new video?]

Su Tingbai's new video was about five minutes long. At the beginning, he used footage from his alt account of picking wild vegetables in the mountains. The rest featured scenery around the estate as transition shots, intercut with some footage filmed before Shen Rui'an arrived.

The shot gradually zoomed in on Su Tingbai's back as he returned to the estate in a hiking jacket with a basket on his back. Voices from the team greeting him could be heard, followed by Su Tingbai saying, "I picked some wild vegetables." The scene immediately switched to the vegetables being washed in a basin.

Those were Su Tingbai's hands—strong and powerful. When he exerted force, the veins on them stood out slightly. They looked as though they could lift someone with one hand, making him seem particularly manly.

Against the vivid green vegetables, his wheat-colored skin somehow even looked fair.

The bullet comments immediately burst into laughter.

[Green really does make you look fairer.]

[If I remember right, Su Tingbai deliberately tanned his skin to that wheat color, but he still looks fairer than me.]

[Actually, Brother Tingbai has fair skin too...]

[Us dark-skinned folks are jealous...]

The camera shifted, and Su Tingbai drained the washed Indian aster and red pine mushrooms before carrying them into the kitchen.

[Every time I see Su Tingbai's kitchen, I'm amazed all over again!]

[After watching his videos, I chose a natural style for my new home too. It looks great, but it's such a hassle to keep clean.]

[Anything with lots of greenery is a pain to maintain. Forget fallen leaves—even just the mosquitoes attracted by plants are enough to drive you crazy.]

[Does Su Tingbai's house not have mosquitoes?]

[It does, but he's rich and uses high-tech mosquito-control equipment. Oh, and some of his plants repel mosquitoes too. I remember he has a little link for mosquito-repellent incense. It's the only thing I can afford from his shopping cart, and it works pretty well.]

[Ordered one in a frenzy.]

In the video, Su Tingbai set the vegetables aside. The camera focused on giant river prawns jumping about in a basin, their turquoise-blue claws especially eye-catching on camera. They were huge and looked wonderfully plump.

Su Tingbai swiftly removed the prawn heads and veins, heated up the wok, and began making oil-braised prawns. His every movement flowed smoothly and was pleasing to watch, and the final dish looked mouthwateringly delicious.

[Oil-braised prawns! My favorite!]

[Holy shit, those prawns are so fat!]

[June is exactly the season for giant river prawns. If you're lucky, you can even find roe and prawn paste!]

[The prawns Su Tingbai bought must have cost a fortune. Ones this big cost over fifty yuan per jin where I live.]

[I'm drooling to death!]

In the video, Su Tingbai wore an apron as he quickly chopped fresh ribs into small pieces. The ribs were clearly top quality. In just a few moves, he put them into the refrigerator to marinate, then added the words "Marinate for one hour" to the video.

After a while, the words "One hour later" appeared. Su Tingbai then coated the ribs in salt and pepper, dredged them in flour, and slowly pan-fried them in hot oil. Before long, the salt-and-pepper ribs were ready.

The video had just passed the one-third mark. As more time passed, the screen showed him preparing the other dishes as well.

At last, the finished four dishes and one soup appeared.

Every dish made the people watching outside the camera wish they could buy phones that let them taste the food and feast to their hearts' content.

The others began appearing on screen, and things grew lively.

Su Tingbai could be heard saying, "Sit here."

Su Tingbai was usually quiet and reserved, with a hint of coldness in his voice. Thus, his recorded voice was deep and slightly magnetic, pleasant to hear but lacking much warmth. Yet this "Sit here" was noticeably gentler.

[? Did his voice crack?]

[Su Tingbai, act normal. Spit out the flip-flop stuck in your throat.]

[I'm not used to hearing him speak so gently.]

[Who's opposite him? Why is Su Tingbai talking so gently?]

Before the viewers could find the answer, Su Tingbai began currying favor with someone in the video—pulling out a chair, serving him soup, and even putting food on his plate.

Scene after scene left his fans utterly stunned.

[Is this really Su Tingbai?]

[Why won't the new guest show his face? But he's really so pale, and his hands are gorgeous. Compared to Su Tingbai—damn! The skin-tone contrast!]

[And the size difference! I'm starting to ship you two.]