Curiosity

The number of viewers kept rising. Since it was the weekend, many people had free time to scroll through their phones.

Zhang Ding was also a loyal fan of Su Tingbai's food content. As a working stiff scraping by in the capital, he usually did not enjoy going out or attending gatherings. After work, his favorite thing was going to the market, buying ingredients, and going home to cook himself a delicious meal as a reward. That was why food bloggers and mukbangs were his favorite videos to watch.

It was the weekend, and he had no plans to go out. Instead, he had bought a pile of groceries and planned to make hotpot or something similar for a pleasant weekend.

Whenever he cooked, he liked to put on Tingbai Yibai's videos, turn up the volume, and start preparing ingredients.

He had been a longtime fan of Su Tingbai, following him since he only had tens of thousands of followers. Later, Zhang Ding had started filming videos himself. He mainly filmed himself eating delicious food, and over time, he unexpectedly gained a small following of his own. It brought him some extra income and improved his quality of life. He had moved from his old shabby apartment to his current two-bedroom place, and had even managed to save up some money.

That was why he was quite grateful to Su Tingbai. If not for him, he would never have suddenly thought of filming food videos himself. He had learned many of his filming and editing techniques from Su Tingbai as well.

At first, he had worried about whether he might be copying Su Tingbai. He had even sent him a private message. It was only after Su Tingbai replied and encouraged him that he truly let himself go for it.

Although their filming techniques were broadly similar, their content was different.

Zhang Ding had his own audience, which did not overlap much with Su Tingbai's.

That avoided a lot of trouble.

Still, he had not become arrogant because of it. He remained a die-hard fan of Su Tingbai and watched every one of his streams.

[ Ding-dong! Your special follow has started streaming! ]

The alert snapped Zhang Ding back to himself. He stopped handling the ingredients, wiped his hands, decisively entered the livestream, and sent a comment.

[ Beloved streamer, you finally went live! ]

His comment was quickly swept away by everyone else's, because he was not the only one who had noticed Su Tingbai had started streaming.

[ You bastard, you still remember how to stream? ]

[ Oh, isn't this Su Tingbai? You still know how to stream? I thought you'd forgotten all about us! ]

[ My luck's great today. I caught beloved streamer's livestream during my break! Now I have something to watch while eating! ]

[ Am I seeing this right? It's only eleven in the morning! You're actually streaming at such a normal hour? What are you streaming today? ]

[ Wow! It's my favorite, an outdoor livestream! Beloved streamer, what are you planning to eat today? ]

Su Tingbai was rather surprised as well. He had not announced this stream beforehand, yet more than two thousand people had entered in such a short time. He smiled, caught sight of that comment, and answered, "Today's an outdoor stream. Camping, barbecue, that sort of thing. Just have fun watching!"

As soon as he spoke, many people sent him gifts. Though they were all small gifts, they were still expressions of his fans' affection.

When Su Tingbai was in a good mood, he would read the comments and thank people for their gifts. Skipping over a few strange IDs, he thanked viewers one by one. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a hand slowly reaching for the bag of extra-spicy spicy strips on the table. With quick reflexes, he grabbed it. "You can't eat this! It's too spicy!"

"I can!" A clear voice carrying a hint of defiance reached the livestream audience's ears.

[ !!!! Such a nice voice! It's just a little faint. ]

[ Who is that? A new guest? It's the first time we've heard a new guest's voice this clearly. It sounds so good! ]

[ Damn, his hands are pretty enough, and now his voice is this nice too? ]

[ Seriously, are you all that worked up over one voice? Isn't this a pretty common young man's voice? I could fake it too! ]

[ Don't fake it, dude. If you've got a frog in your mouth, spit it out. If you've got phlegm, swallow it. ]

[ I'm dying, that's hilarious! ]

[ Why do some people start yapping everywhere the moment a new guest shows up? It really ruins the mood. ]

[ Even though the new guest hasn't shown his face, based on his hands, body proportions, and voice, I can already picture a beauty. The sickly type, because his voice sounds a little weak, but that just makes him even more appealing, hehehe~ ]

[ Before he shows his face, anything you say is useless. Imagining things is still just imagining things. Maybe he's really an ugly shrimp guy! Some influencers look beautiful with half their faces covered too, but once the filters come off, they're pig-faced. Voices like that have the highest chance of being catfish bait. ]

[ He's so skinny. He can't be a pig. ]

[ Then he's an ugly shrimp guy. Chop off the head and he's edible. ]

Zhang Ding frowned at the rabid dogs barking in the comments and sent a message.

[ This is a food livestream. If you want to fight, go somewhere else. Brother Tingbai hasn't said anything, so why are you the ones picking on people? ]

As soon as his comment appeared, the livestream moderators began taking action too. They kicked out those ruining the atmosphere and pushed the bad comments away. For a while, no one continued the previous topic.

The comments were moving too quickly, and Su Tingbai was busy watching Shen Rui'an to keep him from sneaking spicy strips, so he did not notice. The others were occupied with other things as well and did not notice either.

They were preparing barbecue. Some of the skewers had already been made, while others were still being threaded, so they had only set up one camera angle to capture Su Tingbai and Little Zhu behind him.

Shen Rui'an's eyes were glued to the spicy strips. They were Ya-ya's secret weapon for protecting her throat. Who would have thought that despite having such a cute name, she actually had a smoker's voice?

She said this was what she used to take care of it.

Shen Rui'an had grown curious about how spicy something had to be to give someone a smoker's voice. So while Su Tingbai was busy livestreaming, he stealthily reached toward the bag containing two remaining spicy strips.

But his great endeavor died before it could begin, and Su Tingbai seized the hand trying to steal food.

"I just want a taste! Just a tiny bit!" Shen Rui'an held up his pinky finger.

Su Tingbai shook his head firmly. "No. I'm about to start barbecuing. If you eat this now, will you still have room when the King Crab arrives?"

Shen Rui'an thought for a moment, then honestly shook his head. With great reluctance, he said, "Fine, then hurry up. I'm so hungry~"

He flopped weakly onto the table.

Su Tingbai laughed. He checked his phone and saw that Xing Ying and the others had already set off. They should be arriving soon.

He said to Shen Rui'an, "They'll be here soon. How about I grill you some skewers and sausages to tide you over first?"

Shen Rui'an nodded indifferently. Still unwilling to give up, he glanced at the spicy strips, then watched helplessly as Su Tingbai calmly finished them!

Finished! Them!

Damn it!

Shen Rui'an could only grab a dry towel, squat down, and angrily dry Baisui's fur.

After swallowing the spicy strips, Su Tingbai gave them a mental review. Not spicy.

Then he began preparing the sausages.

They planned to barbecue with fruitwood charcoal, since it would make everything smell better.

Meanwhile, viewers who had overheard their conversation were already flooding the chat.

[ ??? King Crab? ]

[ Holy crap? That's seriously extravagant? ]

[ Looking forward to it. Camping barbecue with grilled King Crab? ]

[ Why isn't there Australian lobster? I want to see it! ]

Just as Su Tingbai was grilling sausages, Xing Ying finally arrived with Huo Heng.

Huo Heng held his phone and watched the livestream with relish. "Tsk tsk tsk. 'How about I grill you some skewers and sausages to tide you over first?' Ew, why is Su Tingbai acting so cutesy? I have never heard such a voice before in my life!"

He let out a strange cry. Xing Ying focused on driving and rolled his eyes at him. "Enough. We should be grateful if we even get to order food. Don't compare ourselves to him. We can't compete. That's the Shen Household's young master."

At that, Huo Heng put down his phone. "I'm getting more and more curious about Shen Xiaoyao. We grew up in the same compound, but we barely ever met. I've seen the Shen Household's eldest plenty of times, though. He's a smiling tiger, just like my old man. Tell me, what does Shen Xiaoyao look like for Su Tingbai to have fallen for him?"

Xing Ying was curious too. The last time he had seen Shen Rui'an had been during middle school. Shen Rui'an had still been in elementary school then. He had been a rather pretty child, just sickly-looking and seemingly disinclined to acknowledge anyone. He had that cute blank-faced look.

"I don't know. After I skipped ahead to high school, I didn't see him for a long time either." Back then, he and Su Tingbai had been in their rebellious teenage phase. They had skipped ahead to high school, then gone on to university. Neither their high school nor university had been near the elementary school, and the distance meant they rarely met.

"He should still be pretty good-looking, right? It's not like he could have grown ugly?" Xing Ying said uncertainly. He recalled that everyone in the Shen Household, old and young alike, had exceptional looks. Even Shen Jing'an, that smiling tiger, was no exception.

Huo Heng did not agree. Child stars could grow up ugly, much less ordinary people.

"That's hard to say. Wasn't that one person from our compound famous for being adorable as a kid? Now he looks pretty average. If his family weren't rich enough to dress him up, he'd be no different from some blond-haired punk."

Huo Heng rubbed his chin. "I heard the old men at home praise Shen Rui'an for being cute all the time when he was little. Hey, if Shen Rui'an didn't hate going out, that title of cute kid wouldn't have fallen to that stupid White Household brat. I'm getting more curious now. If Shen Rui'an gets better and goes back, won't that White Household guy die of rage? There'll be another person better-looking than him."

Huo Heng smiled mischievously. "I heard he still hasn't gotten over Su Tingbai."