[If I don’t receive your reply today, I’ll have to report this situation to customer service.]
After sending the messages, he wanted to open Weibo to check the feedback on the live stream variety show. But although he was long accustomed to online insults and slander, he still wasn’t strong enough to actively go read the vast amount of negative comments about himself.
In the past, being obedient and extra cautious hadn’t spared him from being trashed online. Now, with him constantly butting heads with the production team, he didn’t need to look to know there’d be no sweet fruit to eat. He had wanted to see the comments about Ao’ao and Han Cheng. His own situation was just a matter of sooner or later, but he didn’t want to implicate others before leaving.
But seeing the cub sleeping so sweetly, Ji Nuo hesitated inwardly for a moment, then followed his heart and chose to lie down and take a twenty to thirty-minute nap with the child.
Ji Nuo carefully lifted a corner of the blanket and lightly slipped in. The cub, sensing the mattress vibration, furrowed his little brows. As his small nose twitched gently and his brows relaxed, the sleeping little dumpling, as if drawn by some attraction, softly snuggled up close into Ji Nuo’s arms. The little paw clutching his hem shifted to Ji Nuo’s collar. The entire cub clung to his chest like a small octopus.
Ji Nuo looked down at the fluffy little head so close to him, that stubborn tuft of hair still defiantly standing up. He felt that even the back of a child’s head could be exceptionally cute.
What kind of parents would be willing to give up on such a treasure?
He had already heard that no matching blood sample for the little dumpling was found in the missing persons system, meaning the child’s parents, after losing Ao’ao, hadn’t searched for him… Every time Ji Nuo thought of this, his heart ached especially for this little kid.
He sighed softly and covered them both properly with the blanket. Placing a hand under the little dumpling’s bottom, he held him more securely and soon followed him into dreamland.
In fact, Bai Yong was among the first to see the forum slander post. Having navigated these circles for so many years, a sharp sense of smell was a basic operation.
Thus, Bai Yong was also the first to explode with fury. Before the slander post detailed everything, he hadn’t realized how badly he’d been slapped around. But after the detailed summary, a careful look showed the father-son trio had repeatedly smacked his face.
Could his hard-won titles of “Number One Variety Show Producer,” “Ace Variety Show Director,” and “Mangosteen Ratings Guarantee,” gained through years of trials and tribulations, still be preserved?
And this was only damage to his personal reputation. The main issue was that this slander post exposed Lu Ao’ao’s background, essentially blowing up one of his biggest hooks. Many viewers had been planning to get a Mangosteen Video VIP membership just to learn about the family background of the currently hottest adorable kid, Lu Ao’ao!
Even if he hated the Ji Nuo trio with a gnashing passion, the back-and-forth battle of wits between both sides was also a major highlight of the show. The popularity of Ji Nuo’s live stream room was beyond what the other three families combined could reach. Ji Nuo being in trouble was equivalent to cutting off his own financial prospects.
So at the first moment, Bai Yong, along with Xu Li, immediately held a remote meeting with Cui Xiaoxue, the key figure in this reversal. The subsequent developments were also largely satisfactory.
But Bai Yong always thought one step ahead and watched the next two steps. The Xu Chengyi father-son pair were the biggest suspects. In future recordings, this conflict was likely to escalate further.
Of course, he hoped both sides would stir up trouble to create viral moments, ensuring high ratings for both the live stream and the edited version. But Xu Chengyi clearly didn’t just want to cause trouble; he wanted to destroy Ji Nuo.
Now, with Han Cheng’s side striking back, Xu Chengyi, with his needle-thin level of petty-mindedness, probably wanted to destroy Han Cheng too. Bai Yong was very worried that when the city gate catches fire, the fish in the moat would suffer. So even though the reversal of the slander post delivered massive hype for the weekend’s highlight reel, he still felt somewhat uneasy.
After pondering for a long while, Bai Yong couldn’t think of a foolproof “riot-prevention measure.” Sure enough, there’s always a pit before the mountain, and the boat naturally sinks before reaching the bridge. But he’d weathered plenty of storms over the years. After stewing for a bit, he simply let it be, turned his head, and urged his assistant to hurry and request the guests’ daily vlog entries.
The live stream continued from Tuesday until they boarded the plane, and it would resume on Friday noon. The live stream room users’ newly formed habit of watching couldn’t be broken on Wednesday and Thursday. The so-called daily vlogs were meant to fill the gap for these two days.
Each group’s vlog would be edited down to fifteen minutes, two groups per day, to whet the fans’ appetites and, incidentally, further solidify the hook for next week’s “Island Trip.”
True to Bai Yong’s usually sneaky style, groups with conflicts would normally be placed together to facilitate drama. But now he didn’t dare. He adjusted the videos of the Ao’ao and Ruirui families to Wednesday’s daily vlog, and the other two groups to Thursday’s.
Bai Yong had just sent his assistant to inform the guests when the team member responsible for business negotiations walked in, beaming: “Brother Bai, it’s done! We’ve got another sugar daddy! No, this one is ancestor-level!”
Bai Yong was somewhat allergic to the word “ancestor” now. His worried frown remained: “What thing?”
The team member waved the plan in his hand: “Bairun Dairy has sent over their advertising placement plan!”
As luck would have it, the audience for live stream variety shows was inherently limited. Not many people had the money and free time to squat in a 24-hour live stream every day. But likewise, due to these very drawbacks, live stream variety shows were a blue ocean market under development, where opportunities and challenges coexisted. They were also the ceiling-level gimmick for reality shows. And once a variety show became a hit, it was like opening a huge new income stream.
But it couldn’t be denied that, even though Ji Nuo’s live stream room had far surpassed the other three groups in traffic and popularity thanks to various hotspots like scandals, slander, and his Best Actor boyfriend, it still couldn’t compare to his past blockbuster recorded variety shows. Thus, the promotional focus remained on the weekend highlight reels.
The embedded advertising placements in the initial live stream segments attracted only a few small fry. He’d estimated a small peak around the third episode of the highlight reel. The ads for the highlight reel were already packed full, and the huge remaining void in the live stream segments would then be filled in.
He hadn’t expected that even before the highlight reel officially went online, the uproar over the scripted Ji Nuo slander post would draw the attention of Bairun Dairy’s VP for Greater China to the kid variety show. The VP happened to see a short video online of the cubs drinking milk in various cute ways.
This was also thanks to Bai Yong’s black-heartedness in only providing free milk powder to the parents. This caused the children’s snacks during the live stream, after-dinner desserts, late-night snacks, breakfasts… all to turn into milk.
The price tag for such high-frequency product placement shots was extraordinarily high. About to receive a huge sum, Bai Yong lit up with glee.
Not only that, Bairun Dairy was also interested in finding one family from the guests that best matched their brand image to be a spokesperson. According to the original contract signed between the four guest groups and the production team, the production team also got a cut of such endorsement deals.
Bai Yong immediately instructed his assistant to add a new requirement for the vlog recordings: Regardless of what the children originally drank, the vlog could only feature the best milk in the world—Bairun!
Ji Nuo’s group’s vlog was originally scheduled to air on Thursday, so there was no rush. But with the time suddenly moved up to Wednesday, the production team immediately started urging them, hoping they could submit the video tonight. This meant they’d have to film something during dinner time.
Xu Li provided suggestions based on live stream data: the segments of Ji Nuo cooking and the cub devouring food were always audience favorites. As for Han Cheng, with his massive fanbase, just showing his face on camera was enough to make fans happy.
Learning the production team’s urgent new requirement for them to drink Bairun milk, Xu Li immediately had Qian Lei use connections to discreetly inquire. Upon learning that Bairun, known as the number one dairy company, was interested in finding a spokesperson, she absolutely couldn’t let such a golden opportunity slip by.
Thus, the vlog content was quickly decided: the family of three cooking, eating, and drinking milk together. The entire structure was designed like a long-form commercial, with the guiding theme being to present a loving, harmonious family with a kind father and filial child.
Because little Lu Ao’ao had been muttering all afternoon that he wasn’t eating fish, but the pre-ordered pufferfish had already been processed and delivered. Ji Nuo’s original plan was to personally cook it, ensuring the cub wouldn’t taste a hint of fishiness. This also happened to perfectly align with the vlog’s content.
Xue Xiaoshan, who also handled Han Cheng’s publicity and was a photography enthusiast, had the task of shooting the vlog fall to him.
The camera first focused on the spacious kitchen. Xue Xiaoshan, putting on a director’s act, began guiding the scene: “Xiao Nuo, are there any ingredients that need washing or peeling? Distribute them to Brother Cheng and Ao’ao to do. Then you walk in from the doorway, putting on your apron as you come.”
Ji Nuo thought for a moment and, according to difficulty, assigned the cub a bunch of scallions and Han Cheng a head of garlic.
Lu Aotian looked at Ji Nuo, then at the big useless lump, in utter disbelief: “You actually dare make me peel scallions!”
How dare you?!
Ji Nuo crouched down and was just about to explain to the child how, for a delicious dinner, every participant has the responsibility to contribute a bit of labor according to their ability, and so on…
Han Cheng, already peeling garlic nearby, cleared his throat softly. Lu Aotian pursed his lips, inhaled deeply, puffed out his little cheeks and gave Han Cheng a deep look. Then he snatched the scallions and stomped over to the trash can.
Ji Nuo picked up the ochre-yellow apron printed with “Celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the Opening of Great Prosperity” and was about to start performing, but Xue Xiaoshan stopped him: “Don’t you have any other aprons? This one counts as an unintended product placement, and besides, this color looks terrible on camera.”
Ji Nuo thought of the other eye-searing aprons in Han Cheng’s house and his mouth twitched. He badly wanted to tell Xue Xiaoshan this was the best-looking one here. He’d noticed Sister Li used this one for cooking too.
But Han Cheng suddenly put down his garlic clove, pointed to a side cabinet, and spoke calmly: “There are two inside that are pretty good.”
By Xue Xiaoshan’s understanding of Han Cheng, “pretty good” was a considerably high compliment. He stepped forward, opened the cabinet door, and took out the two neatly folded aprons inside.
Hearing the commotion, Lu Aotian also looked over. He’d originally wanted to seize any opportunity to mock Han Cheng a couple of times. However, when he clearly saw the aprons, his own eyes couldn’t help but light up. He nodded in approval: “These two are nice.”
Xue Xiaoshan looked down at the eye-searing fluorescent red in his left hand, then at the equally eye-searing fluorescent yellow in his right, and fell into a deep, profound silence.
Ji Nuo drew a deep breath. For a moment, he wasn’t sure which to be more shocked by—Han Cheng’s aesthetic sense, or the cub’s aesthetic sense that was shockingly, perfectly aligned with Han Cheng’s twisted taste…
