Liu Zhaokang had just finished lunch and walked in from outside with a toothpick between his teeth. Someone immediately handed him a freshly brewed cup of Longjing tea.
“Brother Liu, you’re here! I know you like tea. I bought this tea from a friend in Hangzhou. Give it a try?”
“Brother Liu, our channels have collaborated several times before. A lot of our followers want to see us interact. When are you free to have some tea together?”
“Brother Liu, don’t forget your brother once you’ve made it big!”
……
Liu Zhaokang’s narrow eyes narrowed into slits as he smiled, feeling immensely pleased with himself.
Just thinking about the endless stream of commercial collaborations that would be coming his way over the next six months excited him beyond words. He had even already figured out how he was going to spend the money he would make from those collaborations.
Meanwhile, Mi Lai’s team would have nothing but the northwest wind to drink for the next six months!
He grinned.
“Of course, of course. Anyone who knows me knows that I’ve always been a very generous person. If there’s good food and good wine, I’ll definitely share it with everyone!”
“Everyone can rest assured, too. I’m definitely not the kind of person who would treat a fresh meat bun like some priceless treasure. I certainly won’t let you guys go without!”
Everyone immediately burst into laughter.
Someone beside Liu Zhaokang spoke up.
“Only some country bumpkin who’s never seen the world would praise a fresh meat bun to the heavens. Just hearing that is enough to make me laugh my head off.”
“Exactly, exactly. I heard that woman can eat five bowls of rice in one meal, and she can stomach anything no matter how awful it tastes. I bet she’s never even eaten anything good before!”
“And she can run a food channel like that? I think the boss who hired her must be blind.”
“Isn’t that just how their channel is? They love going to those little neighborhood shops to film. How many Michelin-starred restaurants have they even eaten at?”
Liu Zhaokang took a drag of his cigarette and chuckled as he nodded.
“You can’t put it that way. Young people naturally don’t have much experience. Everyone, don’t be too harsh on them. We should still give them some opportunities.”
“Besides, us old-timers have to try new things if we want to keep up with the times. We’re entering the age of artificial intelligence, after all.”
He chuckled a few times and pulled out his phone.
“I recently signed up for a training course and learned a little about how to use artificial intelligence.”
Everyone gathered around to take a look.
On Liu Zhaokang’s lock screen was a picture of himself surrounded by six beautiful women. In the bottom-right corner of the image was a line of text:
“Caibao AI-generated.”
“Wow! Brother Liu, you’re amazing! You even know how to use artificial intelligence!”
“I think the generated picture isn’t even as handsome as Brother Liu himself!”
Amid everyone’s flattery, Liu Zhaokang walked out of the pantry with his cigarette between his teeth, practically floating on air.
He hadn’t gone far when one of his subordinates came rushing over.
“Brother Liu, this is bad! This is bad!”
“What happened? Why are you panicking like that?”
Before his subordinate could answer, the elevator doors opened with a ding.
Mi Lai, Chen Chen, and Xu Meng hurried toward the office as well, but unlike the subordinate, all three had uncontrollable smiles on their faces.
Five minutes earlier, the Business Department’s inbox had received an email from Liang Xiuwen.
The first sentence read:
“Editor Xu, the fresh meat buns you gave me were absolutely delicious. May I ask where you bought them?”
The second sentence was:
“Let’s set aside some time next week to discuss this project in greater detail.”
By the time Mi Lai and the other two returned from lunch, the entire Steam Media office had exploded with excitement.
Many colleagues who normally had little interaction with Xu Meng had actually taken the initiative to greet her. Some stuffed her with snacks, others handed her milk tea, and the compliments simply wouldn’t stop.
Everyone shared the same question Chen Chen had had.
What they cared about naturally wasn’t Liang Xiuwen himself, but what special negotiation technique Xu Meng had used to pull this off.
With everyone gathered around watching her, Xu Meng, both nervous and excited, recounted what had happened that morning once again.
But the moment they heard the fresh meat buns make their appearance, bewilderment immediately appeared on everyone’s faces.
Wait. How was it still the fresh meat buns?
Could an ordinary fresh meat bun really have that much power?
Or was the fresh meat bun merely a smokescreen Xu Meng had deliberately used to mislead everyone?
This usually quiet girl, who always worked silently without saying much, suddenly acquired another label in everyone’s minds:
She’s actually quite calculating.
Although everyone still had their doubts, that didn’t stop them from showering Xu Meng and the other two with flattery and friendliness.
After all, everyone knew that for the next six months, most of the Food Department’s commercial opportunities would very likely belong to “Xiaomi Eats.”
Naturally, there were also some people who loved a good show and turned to look at Liu Zhaokang, who was silently sitting off to the side.
Liu Zhaokang sat not far away with an unlit cigarette between his teeth, coldly watching the three of them.
The scene from an hour earlier, when everyone had surrounded him in the pantry, already seemed like something that had happened in another century.
Under everyone’s gazes and whispers, Liu Zhaokang smiled.
“The collaboration hasn’t been finalized yet. Your team shouldn’t celebrate too early.”
Chen Chen replied calmly,
“As for what happens next, Brother Liu, you don’t need to worry about it. You’d better pay more attention to your own channel. After all, having to drink the northwest wind for six months isn’t easy.”
Liu Zhaokang pretended to remain calm and waved his hand.
“Ah, I was actually worrying about having too many commercial projects and not being able to film them all. This is perfect. Now I can finally relax.”
Under everyone’s scrutinizing gazes, he walked back into his office.
The moment the door closed, his expression darkened.
This makes absolutely no sense! How could Liang Xiuwen possibly be persuaded by a single fresh meat bun?
Seeing Mi Lai establish a connection with Liang Xiuwen made Liu Zhaokang extremely anxious. He urged his subordinates to continue sending emails to Liang Xiuwen.
But a week passed, and Liang Xiuwen still hadn’t agreed to meet with Liu Zhaokang.
This round…
He had lost.
Outside, Mi Lai was on the phone with Liang Xiuwen, discussing the details of their collaboration.
Inside the office, Liu Zhaokang sat with a dark expression on his face.
It’s not that retribution doesn’t come. The time simply hasn’t arrived yet.
One day, I’ll make these three people pay back everything I lost—double!
……
On Saturday evening, after returning from the food plaza, where she had spent the day running her stall, Xia Yongen collapsed onto a rosewood chair in the Xiguan mansion.
Several dozen shopping bags were piled on the chair beside her, all of them He Yuqiang’s spoils from the day.
“This set of pajamas is really comfortable. The mall had a buy-one-get-one-free promotion today, so I picked out a set for you. What do you think of the style? Not bad, right?”
“I bought this pair of shoes to meet the spending requirement, but the size doesn’t fit me. Do you want to try them on?”
“I only realized after buying this hand soap that I already have one at home. I have an extra bottle now, so why don’t you take it home?”
Xia Yongen watched He Yuqiang pull all sorts of things out of the shopping bags like Doraemon and hurriedly stopped her.
“Stop, stop, stop! How much stuff did you actually buy? Don’t tell me all of this is for me?”
“Who said it’s all for you? I wouldn’t be willing to give all of it away. The rest is mine.”
He Yuqiang put the shopping bags away and muttered to herself. Looks like I’ll have to give her the other gifts next time.
After the two of them showered and climbed into bed, He Yuqiang took out a tube of hand cream and moved closer to Xia Yongen.
“This one smells so good. Hurry up and smell it.”
Xia Yongen took the hand cream and rubbed some onto her hands. Beside her, she could hear her friend chattering away. The slowly turning fan spread the incense throughout the room, filling the thin blanket with a faint woody fragrance.
With every breath in and out, her entire body seemed to relax. Even her heavy limbs felt considerably lighter.
As usual, she opened the system and entered Boundless Space.
He Yuqiang tore open a sheet mask.
“Isn’t your school’s anniversary celebration next month? An alumnus I’m pretty close with said he wants to organize an alumni gathering in Huacheng. Do you want to go?”
After waiting for quite a while, she received no response.
When she turned her head, she discovered that Xia Yongen had already fallen asleep just like that, while the video on her phone was still playing.
He Yuqiang immediately felt sorry for her. She tiptoed over and wanted to pull the blanket over her, but the slightest movement soon woke Xia Yongen.
The two looked at each other.
Xia Yongen gave an awkward smile.
“Did I just fall asleep?”
“Yeah. If I’d known you were this tired, I wouldn’t have asked you to come sleep with me.”
Seeing the guilt on her friend’s face, Xia Yongen quickly said, “It’s okay. I’m not tired. I just… felt that closing my eyes like this was actually pretty comfortable. Why don’t you try it too?”
One minute later, the room was plunged into darkness.
From beneath the covers came Xia Yongen’s silent sigh.
All right. Looks like from now on, I’ll really have to enter Boundless Space only when I’m alone.
Early Sunday morning, He Yuqiang followed Xia Yongen to the food plaza to set up her stall, leaving Auntie Zhen behind to look after the shop by herself.
At first, Xia Yongen had still felt a little tired whenever she started setting up the stall, but after doing it for two months, she had long since gotten used to it. Now she could pull a whole cart loaded with supplies for two kilometers without even getting out of breath.
However, when He Yuqiang watched Xia Yongen pulling the goods and saw the large beads of sweat covering her forehead and face, her heart ached for her. She immediately offered to help.
It wasn’t long before she’d pulled the cart even a few hundred meters, however, before her arms felt like they were about to fall off.
How had Xia Yongen looked so relaxed just now?
“All right, I’ll do it. You carry these two red stools for me, and help clear the way up ahead.”
Today was He Yuqiang’s first time accompanying Xia Yongen to set up her stall.
She had originally come with the attitude that it would be fun. After all, wasn’t setting up a stall just a matter of selling things and collecting money? How difficult could it be?
But when they actually arrived at the food plaza, the bustling scene before her left her staring in astonishment.
Just calming down the customers waiting in front of the stall was already a challenge, let alone remembering what each person had ordered. Sometimes she even had to wrangle with unreasonable customers and match wits with them.
He Yuqiang had thought that after following her idols for so long and traveling alone through so many countries and cities, she had already seen plenty of the world. Yet when faced with a situation like this, she still found herself at a loss.
Xia Yongen, however, remained completely unhurried beside her. From time to time, she even comforted He Yuqiang.
“Are you tired? If you are, go take a break. I can handle things here.”
Sitting on the little stool behind the stall, He Yuqiang couldn’t bring herself to play with her phone at all. She simply rested her chin in her hands and watched Xia Yongen sell the pastries.
She had originally come to help, but why did it feel like she was only causing trouble for Xia Xia?
As she watched Xia Yongen skillfully hawking her food, admiration gradually appeared in He Yuqiang’s eyes.
Little Xia is amazing!
At some point, that slightly inexperienced girl from her memories had grown into someone who could stand on her own. Even when dealing with difficult customers, she exuded an imposing presence.
It seemed that although Little Xia wasn’t particularly skilled at cooking, she was quite experienced when it came to running a business. The teahouse’s business certainly wouldn’t be bad in the future.
It was only after they finally made it to around one o’clock that the crowds at the food plaza began to thin out a little. Xia Yongen and He Yuqiang immediately seized the opportunity to eat.
It was too hot in Huacheng during summer, and they couldn’t bring the dishes Auntie Zhen had prepared, so they decided to simply buy something to eat there.
He Yuqiang immediately spotted the barbecue stall across from them and dragged Xia Yongen over.
When the barbecue vendor saw Xia Yongen coming, he hurriedly greeted her enthusiastically.
“Little sister, take a look and see what you’d like. I’ll give you a discount!”
Over the past few weeks, the barbecue vendor had been eating extremely well. From malai cake to white sugar cake, savory water chestnut pastries to savory pancakes, salted egg yolk lava buns to fresh meat buns—he had tried every single one of them.
By now, his main reason for coming to set up his stall was to eat Xia Yongen’s pastries. Making money had become secondary.
It was still terribly hot in Huacheng in September. Xia Yongen didn’t have much of an appetite, so she picked a grilled eggplant and paired it with some chilled sour plum drink.
He Yuqiang, meanwhile, ordered the vendor’s specialty: fiery grilled squid.
While the vendor was grilling their food, Xia Yongen casually asked,
“By the way, did the couple next to me who used to sell savory sauce-flavored pancakes stop doing business?”
When she’d come over today, she’d noticed that the stall next to hers looked completely different. A sign advertising Chinese herbal milk tea had been put up.
The barbecue vendor flipped the squid on the grill as he answered,
“They haven’t come for the past few days. I heard the husband was hit by a car while making a delivery. He’s still lying in the hospital, and his wife doesn’t have the time to look after the stall anymore.”
Xia Yongen frowned.
“They got into a car accident?”
“Yeah. I heard the two of them have had it pretty tough, too. But I don’t know the details.”
They had been perfectly fine not long ago, and then suddenly an accident had happened. Xia Yongen couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.
She remembered that when she’d first started setting up her stall, the couple had helped her quite a bit.
Now that her own circumstances had improved somewhat, perhaps she could lend someone else a helping hand.
And just as Xia Yongen and He Yuqiang were busy running their stall at the food plaza, an unfamiliar figure arrived at the breakfast shop.
Lai Meizhen, who was busy frying savory pancakes with her head lowered, quickly looked up and greeted him.
“Handsome, what would you like to eat?”
“Do you sell fresh meat buns here?”
“Yes, yes! You came at just the right time. I just steamed a fresh batch.”
Lai Meizhen lifted the lid of the steamer.
“We make these fresh every morning, all by hand. They’re absolutely delicious!”
“Then I’ll have one fresh meat bun. Besides the buns, is there anything else you’d recommend?”
Lai Meizhen’s eyes lit up.
Looks like we’ve got a big customer!
She planted her hands on her hips and proceeded to introduce every pastry in the shop.
“Handsome, don’t think I’m being too long-winded. It’s just that every single one is really delicious! If you ask me to pick one, I honestly wouldn’t know which to choose!”
The man standing in front of the shop smiled.
“Then I’ll have a salted egg yolk lava bun as well.”
When the two steaming-hot buns were handed to the man, he first gave one a gentle squeeze. The bun wrapper had a certain springiness to it, rather than the soft, fluffy texture of some buns. Compared with the salted egg yolk lava bun, the fresh meat bun was also noticeably larger.
With just one bite, the man reached the generous meat filling inside. The piping-hot filling rolled around in his mouth, and as he chewed quickly, he could even taste the delicious juices released from the meat.
The filling itself was actually quite simple: a mixture of fatty and lean pork, combined with chopped scallions and shiitake mushrooms. But it also contained an ingredient that wasn’t commonly found outside the region—jicama.
The diced jicama was mixed into the meat filling. When he chewed, he could taste its crisp, naturally sweet texture. Jicama itself was also full of juice, and when its juices mingled with the meat juices, they made the pork taste even fresher and more flavorful.
The soft, springy wrapper brought out the fragrant aroma of the wheat, which was further enhanced by the meat juices. The two distinct aromas blended together perfectly through the steaming process.
His eyes lit up, and he couldn’t help exclaiming softly,
“As expected, fresh meat buns taste even better when they’re hot.”
Seeing how happily he was eating, Lai Meizhen felt quite pleased herself.
“I’m telling you, these fresh meat buns sell really well. Ever since we put them on the menu, we’ve been selling three or four hundred every day.”
The man stepped forward and asked,
“Auntie, the buns you make are really delicious. I think they’re even better than what many teahouses sell.”
“Oh, you’ve got it wrong! How could I have that kind of skill? These buns are made by our boss.”
“Your boss?”
A trace of confusion flashed through the man’s eyes.
“Our boss only just graduated from university. She came back and took over the family business. Look, look! All these pastries are made by her. She’s really amazing.”
Looking at the breakfast shop in front of him and the signboard reading “Rongxing House” behind it, the man fell into deep thought.
Rongxing House… Since when did it have a young pastry master?