After dealing with Wang Meina and her son, Jiang Ning returned to the villa. When he opened his Huayin account, he was stunned—the number of followers had skyrocketed to over 3 million.
The rapidly rising number left him somewhat numb. He thought to himself, “Damn, that many? I guess the platform backend must be boosting it, pushing my video into a larger traffic pool.”
Jiang Ning had majored in computer science and was well-versed in platform mechanics. He understood that relying solely on organic traffic wouldn’t result in such explosive follower growth. Even with the support of the culinary institute, it wouldn’t be this fast.
On Huayin, once you reach 50,000 followers, you can start livestreaming. His follower count had far surpassed that threshold.
The comment section was filled with people urging him to start a livestream. Everyone promised to shower him with gifts as soon as he went live.
Jiang Ning thought that if he livestreamed once a week, he might earn as much as a full month’s salary. However, this was just wishful thinking. He wasn’t sure if things would go as he hoped. After all, many viewers came to watch and learn about cooking, and most were watching with their families. They might only be looking to gain experience and not willing to spend money on gifts.
Besides the comments, he also received countless private messages. Many left their contact info, hoping he would call back. Most of them were hotels and restaurants offering him chef positions. Some culinary schools even invited him to be a mentor.
Jiang Ning thought that once he had time, he could start livestreaming. But since he had just registered the account today, there was no rush to make money. It would be better to shoot a few more videos before making a decision.
An hour later, he suddenly heard Mengmeng crying upstairs.
Hearing the sound, Jiang Ning immediately rushed to her bedroom.
Mengmeng was sitting on the bed, rubbing her eyes with her little hands, crying sadly.
Jiang Ning hurried forward and comforted her gently, “Mengmeng, what’s wrong?”
Sniffling, Mengmeng said, “Uncle Jiang, I wet the bed…”
Jiang Ning gently coaxed, “It’s okay, Mengmeng, don’t cry. Bedwetting is completely normal for kids!”
Mengmeng cried while explaining, “I haven’t wet the bed in a long time. But today I dreamed I went to the bathroom, and then…”
Jiang Ning chuckled and reassured her, “Don’t cry, don’t cry. When I was little, I still wet the bed even at six years old!”
“Really?” Mengmeng looked at him with teary eyes, a bit skeptical.
“Really!”
Upon hearing that, Mengmeng burst into giggles, her eyes curving like little crescent moons. “Hehe, Uncle Jiang is so embarrassing. I definitely won’t wet the bed when I’m six!”
Kids were like that—once they had a comparison, bedwetting didn’t feel so shameful anymore. You are reading on g.com, the official source.
Seeing Mengmeng’s mood improve, Jiang Ning let out a sigh of relief and said, “Alright, Mengmeng, let’s get you out of bed. Uncle will help you change your clothes.”
Mengmeng obediently nodded, “Okay.”
Jiang Ning helped her change into clean clothes and also replaced the bedding.
Mengmeng looked at him with sparkling eyes and asked expectantly, “Uncle Jiang, I want to go to the playroom and play with the new toys. Can I?”
“Of course! Uncle will go with you. But we can only play for half an hour, okay? We still have to draw, write, and study math afterward.”
Mengmeng nodded vigorously, “Mengmeng knows. Just play for a bit.”
The two of them went to the playroom, where two big bags of toys were waiting.
Mengmeng looked left and right, touching everything. She liked every toy and seemed like she wanted to play with them all right away.
“Which toy do you want to play with, Mengmeng?” Jiang Ning asked, watching her torn expression.
“Let’s go with the Barbie doll.”
After some hesitation, Mengmeng chose the Barbie dress-up set. It included a Barbie doll, various clothes, pants, a wide range of hair accessories, a comb, and hair ties.
Jiang Ning smiled and said, “Alright, Uncle will open it for you.”
He was puzzled. Most little girls loved these kinds of toys, yet before, Mengmeng had chosen things like airplanes, tanks, and guns—the kind of stuff boys usually liked. Maybe she’d seen them at the orphanage and was curious, wanting to try them herself.
“Mengmeng, let’s dress up Barbie and do her hair, okay?”
“Okay, okay!” Mengmeng clapped excitedly.
The whole point of the Barbie dress-up set was to mix and match outfits and hairstyles.
Five minutes later…
[Ding! Congratulations, Host. You’ve acquired Top-Tier Fashion Design Skills.]
In an instant, a massive influx of fashion design concepts, aesthetic knowledge, fabric material data, pattern-making techniques, and even historical evolution of global fashion rushed into Jiang Ning’s mind like a tidal wave.
His gaze became sharper, and his every movement carried a faint air of an artist. However, this change was subtle. Only people who were familiar with him could vaguely notice the shift in his demeanor. It wasn’t like martial arts improvements, which caused obvious physical transformations. This chapter is updated first at novelping.com.
“System, no way… I reached top-tier just like that?” Jiang Ning was both surprised and delighted, still in disbelief.
The system responded, [Host, stop being so paranoid. You already possess drawing skills and your own sense of aesthetics. It’s not strange at all to gain top-tier fashion design skills.]
Jiang Ning said helplessly, “Alright, maybe I was overthinking it.”
In his heart, he was still hoping the system would just grant him a Divine-level skill straight away—but clearly, that was unrealistic.
After digesting the knowledge in his mind, Jiang Ning asked, “System, how does my current design ability compare to those world-famous designers?”
The system replied, [There’s definitely a gap. They are Master-level. You’re just at Top-tier, which places you among second-tier designers. Globally, there are only a dozen or so at the Master-level.]
Jiang Ning asked again, “So my design rank is somewhere around the top ten?”
The system didn’t hold back, [Host, are you dreaming? There are 300 to 400 second-tier designers in the world. You’ve just entered the Top-tier level, so you’re ranked around 300-something.]
Jiang Ning was speechless. “…”
Seeing Jiang Ning a bit discouraged, the system added, [But don’t lose heart. As long as you keep playing with Mengmeng, your design skills will improve quickly. The system will continuously feed you relevant knowledge. Just like your cooking skills, they’ve already reached mid-stage Top-tier. You just haven’t realized you’ve been upgrading the whole time—unlike when you directly receive a skill level and the information rushes in all at once.]
“Oh, I see. No wonder when I’m cooking, I sometimes instinctively know things I hadn’t considered before. Turns out it was the system quietly pushing skill knowledge into me.”
The system said, [What did you think? That you just magically figured it out?]
Jiang Ning grinned, “Hehe, my bad, my bad. System, you’re awesome!”
[…]
Jiang Ning continued asking, “System, but I’m only with Mengmeng for three months. After that, when I leave her, will all these skills be taken back?”
The system replied, [No. What’s been given to you is yours to keep. The system doesn’t take anything back.]
Jiang Ning patted his chest in relief, “Phew, that’s good. That’s really good.”
Seeing Jiang Ning patting his chest and sighing, Mengmeng looked confused and asked, “Uncle Jiang, what’s wrong?”