Swollen from Spice

Shen Rui'an was drawn in by his words. He lowered his head to look at the dipping sauces, nodded, picked up a piece of grilled meat with his chopsticks, dipped it into the chili powder sauce he had longed for most, and copied the others by wrapping it in lettuce before stuffing it into his mouth.

The moment Su Tingbai saw him dip that piece of meat into the spiciest dry seasoning, his hand moved faster than his mouth. He caught Shen Rui'an by the wrist. He did not dare use too much force, afraid he might hurt him with even a little pressure. Feeling the sharpness of the wrist in his hand, Su Tingbai frowned. Why was he so thin?!

Shen Rui'an looked at him in confusion, his face blank. "What's wrong?"

"That one's really spicy. Are you sure you can handle it?"

Shen Rui'an lowered his head to look at the dry seasoning in his bowl, which was lighter in color than Little Zhu's and the others', and a question mark slowly formed in his mind.

"Is it spicy?" Shen Rui'an eyed the wrapped grilled meat suspiciously.

Afraid that the spice would overwhelm him, Su Tingbai had only put in the tiniest bit of chili when preparing it for him.

Shen Rui'an had some common sense. He knew that people trying spicy food for the first time should eat only a small amount, so he had not insisted on having the same as everyone else.

This was much lighter in color than the others', so it probably would not be too spicy, right? Shen Rui'an thought.

"I heard from your brother that you usually eat light. I figured you probably don't eat much spicy food, so I picked out a sweet-and-sour dipping sauce for you. Why not try this one?" Su Tingbai was still holding Shen Rui'an's wrist as he used his other hand to place a sweet-and-sour sauce in front of him.

Little Zhu and the others exchanged glances, then looked at the livestream that had already begun. They debated whether they should remind their boss that they were live now.

In Su Tingbai's livestream, the entire chat was flooding with question marks.

[That looks so good...]

[I'm dying of cravings, I'm dying of cravings! Bro, you finally went live! Do you know how I survived the days you didn't stream?]

[Whoa, sweet-and-sour sauce. I hereby declare sweet-and-sour sauce the most delicious!]

[Not allowed! Chili powder dip is the best!]

[I choose cumin dry seasoning wrapped in perilla leaves!]

As soon as the livestream began, Little Zhu first aimed the camera at the grilled meat still sizzling with oil, then slowly raised it toward Su Tingbai and the others. He remembered that Shen Rui'an did not appear on camera, so he positioned it so that only Su Tingbai's hand gripping Shen Rui'an's was visible, while his broad back completely hid Shen Rui'an.

As a result, everyone in the livestream saw what had just happened, and the chat abruptly veered in another direction.

[Hello? Is this really him? Has his account been hacked?]

[Did Su Tingbai get possessed by a ghost? It's not scientifically possible for him to be this gentle.]

[I'm a little unaccustomed to this. Su Tingbai was actually the gentle type??]

[No, who's on the other side? Why is Su Tingbai treating him so differently? Why isn't he this gentle with us, his esteemed viewers?]

[111 Go out and ask around—what food blogger lets someone else eat before the viewers? Why does he get to eat before us?]

[Is this a new member? Why not show his face? Su Tingbai, move aside, you're blocking my view of the newcomer!]

[@Su Tingbai Move over, you're interfering with my grilled meat!]

[Am I the only one who thinks Brother Tingbai is being really nice to the newcomer? I still remember how restrained Little Zhu and the others were when they first appeared on camera, and Brother Tingbai looked pretty cold back then too...]

[Am I the only one curious about the newcomer? @Su Tingbai Aren't you going to introduce him?]

Su Tingbai's personal account ID was "Tingbai a Cabbage." He had been in this line of work for a long time, and after his real-name verification displayed that name, everyone remembered it. It had originally been a homophone, but later his fans began jokingly calling him Su Tingbai.

Su Tingbai had originally run the account by himself. Later, after a team joined, the team members went from timidly showing only parts of themselves to appearing openly on camera. Little Zhu in particular had now become an unconventional eating streamer under Su Tingbai's account.

Because of this, Little Zhu had opened an account of his own and occasionally did eating streams. The money he made was extra income. Su Tingbai did not stop him; as long as it did not interfere with his work, he had always been generous.

Little Zhu did not want to give up his current job either. To him, it was far more stable than running an eating stream on his own, and the monthly income was considerable too.

The others were the same.

Because Su Tingbai had recognized their potential, he was no longer merely a boss or supervisor to them. He was also a friend and benefactor.

Su Tingbai occasionally did outdoor livestreams too, going fishing or visiting restaurants with friends, or inviting friends to his villa as guests. Those were all content as well. Some of his friends were willing to appear on camera and showed their faces in the videos; those who did not want to appear generally only showed a body part or their backs.

As the saying went, birds of a feather flocked together. The friends Su Tingbai invited to his villa were all especially close to him, with family backgrounds and social standing similar to his own, and many of them were handsome.

Therefore, most of his friends appeared on camera openly. Only those who truly found it inconvenient chose not to show their faces. But modern internet users were practically Sherlock Holmes; just from a few visible details, they could quickly guess who was in his videos. They might not be certain and the guesses might not be reliable, but that did not dampen their enthusiasm.

Now, the newly arrived Shen Rui'an naturally caught their attention as well.

And the most important thing was Su Tingbai's attitude.

Su Tingbai could not be bothered to hide himself in front of the camera. He was too lazy to maintain a persona; he was the same online as he was in real life. With friends, he was always in insult-each-other mode. He could cook for them, sure, but serving those bastards was out of the question.

So in any livestream or video where Su Tingbai invited friends over, viewers had never seen Su Tingbai this "gentle."

[If I remember correctly, when someone visited Brother Tingbai's place last time, his childhood friend Xing Ying asked him to make a different flavor. What did Su Tingbai say?]

[Your hands broken?]

[Your hands broken?]

[Your hands broken?]

[...]

The chat began flooding the screen, and longtime fans were laughing themselves silly.

[I'm dying. Has President Xing seen this? If I remember right, he's online twenty-four hours a day, right?]

[@Xing]

Amid the viewers' clamoring, Xing Ying entered with sparkling special effects.

[Xing: ...]

Xing Ying had just finished working when he picked up his phone and saw countless people tagging him. Curious, he opened it and found that Su Tingbai, that son of a bitch, was livestreaming. He just did not know how they had brought him up, prompting everyone to tag him.

Were they badmouthing him again?

Xing Ying did not dare waste a second. He hurried into Su Tingbai's livestream and happened to see Su Tingbai bringing Shen Rui'an a dipping sauce.

Xing Ying rubbed his eyes in disbelief. He even looked around to see whether the signal was bad. Why did he feel as if Su Tingbai had become a completely different person?

Xing Ying left a comment in the livestream.

[Xing: Whoever you are, get off my brother right now!]

"Pfft—" Meng Meng could not hold back and burst out laughing. She pointed at her phone. "Boss, Boss Xing says you've been possessed."

Su Tingbai took the phone and glanced at the screen. The chat had begun flooding with Xing Ying's line: [Whoever you are, get off my brother right now!]

"Heh." Su Tingbai raised a middle finger at the camera. "Xing Ying, if your skin's itching, why don't you come over and spar with me?"

He and Xing Ying had become friends through fighting as children. Later, when the two of them spoke, their mouths were like they had been coated in paraquat—they could poison each other to death just by licking their lips.

While Su Tingbai was not paying attention, Shen Rui'an tilted his head and directly shoved the lettuce-wrapped grilled meat into his mouth. After chewing once, his eyes lit up.

Delicious!

The heat slowly hit him afterward, and he could not stop himself from hissing. Su Tingbai immediately turned to look at him and saw Shen Rui'an's empty hand.

Su Tingbai: "? It's spicy and you still ate it?"

Shen Rui'an's lips had turned bright red from the spice, while his face remained pale, making him look like a little vampire.

Su Tingbai handed him the fruit tea beside them, then took away the chili powder sauce and pushed the sweet-and-sour sauce in front of him. "You're not allowed to eat that anymore. Eat this."

Shen Rui'an pouted, unwilling.

"I want it!" he said loudly, his voice unusually forceful.

"No." Seeing Shen Rui'an's lips already slightly red and swollen, Su Tingbai immediately moved the chili far away. They were already swollen from the spice. If he ate more, his stomach would definitely hurt.

Shen Rui'an pursed his lips, his watery eyes silently accusing Su Tingbai.