The Fine Food Broadcaster

Ye Fei had not imagined that he would have to buy the ingredients from the System when not live broadcasting. This was too much, ah. However, there was nothing he could do about it.”

“You’re too cruel. Fine, whatever, give me a potato,” said Ye Fei a little depressedly.

DCB System, “A single potato costs HX¥300. Host only has HX¥250 in his account. The amount is insufficient.”

“… …” black lines covered Ye Fei’s head. Just what kind of bandit is this System? It even knew how much money he has in his bank account. Also, [1] 250 is such an unlucky number…

Helpless to do anything, Ye Fei ended up running downstairs and bought himself 2 packets of instant noodles.

Once he was full, Ye Fei sat in front of the laptop and opened up his PP Account. (Author: The PP account is similar to our QQ instant messaging software)

While Ye Fei was busy doing his own thing, the viewers left in his channel were frothing like waves, threatening to turn the whole channel upside down. The chat section was filled with strongly worded reviews and outright insults about Ye Fei’s abrupt departure and people were calling him an ‘Irresponsible Broadcaster’, an ‘Uncouth Host’ and a ‘Broadcaster who would never make it in the business’.

While they were raging against this person, someone suddenly popped into the channel. The viewers looked at this newcomer curiously. Clearly, [2] the broadcaster’s name had already greyed out meaning that the live broadcast was over.

What was odder still, right after this person popped in, even more people entered the channel. In the end, there were 20 or 30 extra people with them

Weirdly enough these extra people all came in and did… nothing. Their names appeared on the list of viewers but none of them said anything.

Tasting Everything Under Heaven and the rest of the viewers wondered what these people were up to, “Brothers, you are too late. Today’s live broadcast is over. There’s nothing to see here.”

“That’s right, you’re too unlucky. That show just now was really incredible, ah.”

“You guys are too pitiful,”

“Too pitiful +1,”

“Too pitiful +2,”

“… …”

Back in the offices of the QQ Broadcasting Platform, the statisticians collectively rolled their eyes.

These rascals still dare to pity us? Do they know who we are? Speaking of which, just what was that ‘incredible show’ just now? Was it really that good?

Finally, one of the newcomers, username Little Ping Ping, said, “I say, everyone, was that show really that amazing?”

Tao Tie tsked and said, “It was beyond exciting, it was too exciting.”

Liu Ping recognised this Tao Tie character. As FF Section’s statistician, he knew all the most popular broadcasters as well as the most influential viewers. This Tao Tie was a great lover of food and a well known local tyrant. He had no idea that he would encounter this guy here.

To elicit praise from a jaded local tyrant like Tao Tie, that show must have been quite unique.

“Tao Tie Bro, could you tell us more about it?”

Tao Tie replied, “No words could describe the show. To properly understand its stunning charm and unique execution, you must witness it with your own eyes. Want me to describe it with words? All I can say is that words are too lacking.”

This made the QQ employees itch with even more curiosity. They wondered: Just what kind of amazing show could it be to elicit such high praise from Tao Tie, ah? Also, if words lacked the power to describe, how are we to know what happened, ah?

Little Ping Ping, “Is it really that great?”

Tasting Everything Under Heaven, “A divine level show that is hard to find in the human world. Go and experience it yourself.”

After throwing down that cryptic remark, Tasting Everything Under Heaven logged off.

Liu Ping and the other QQ statisticians were tempted to leave swear words in the chat. Wei, what is this attitude? To disappear after leaving that mysterious remark. Might as well not say anything. Now I’m even more curious, ah.

Tao Tie also logged off. The names of the rest of the original viewers in the channel also winked out, leaving only the 30 or so people in the channel, most of them employees of the QQ Platform.

Since there was no one left to question, the employees also began to leave the channel.

At the Fine Food Section office, after logging out of the channel, Liu Ping leaned back and scrubbed his hair in frustration.

“If I had known, I’d never have gone there and asked. Not only was I unable to learn anything useful, but these guys really piqued my curiosity, ah. I say, just what kind of show did Ye Fei put up that was so amazing?”

Dii~~ dii~~

It was a message from the company group chat. Liu Ping opened it up and saw that it was from a fellow colleague from a different section.

“Liu Ping, are you there? Liu Ping, are you there? Liu Ping, are you there? Important things should be said three times. Putting out a search for Liu Ping, ah, that is, any statistician of Fine Food Section will do. Come out, come out quickly!” The person who was putting out the message from the Outdoor Sports Section, a statistician by the name of Fearsome Metal. However, because of his unusually large head, most of the people in the company just call him Metal Head.

Liu Ping sent up a smiling emoji, “Metal Head, what’s up?”

Metal Head, “Your Rookie Star Ye Fei, just how many fans did have in his channel, ah? Why is the reward amount so frightening?”

This time, Liu Ping sent up a bitter smile emoji, “I also don’t know, ah. When I went to his channel just now, the guy had already gone offline. Not long after that, everyone else just left.”

Metal Head launched a whole line of eye-rolling emojis, followed by a line of contemptuous face emojis before sending up texts to say, “Is your brain broken from the happiness of getting a Rookie Star? Are you a statistician or not? Why would you need to go to his channel when you can just call up his data? What happened to your brain?”

Liu Ping slapped his forehead, “Aiyo, you’re right! Why didn’t I think I think of it? Metal Head Bro, you’re so brilliant, ah.”

“F*ck you, this is just common sense, okay? Are you trying to flatter me? Whatever, go and check the data now. I want to know how many fans this guy has. I bet it has to be at least 5,000 people, ah. Otherwise, that kind of result is just not possible.”

A statistician from the Fitness Section said, “It can’t be just 5,000. How could he achieve this kind of reward with just 5,000 fans?”

Others began to chime in.

“My guess is 6,000 fans.”

“6,500 fans.”

“I’m guessing 8,000.”

“10,000. To earn so much is so short a time, he needs at least 10,000 fans.”

Right now, many people from the Fine Food Section had noticed that Ye Fei’s reward count had stopped at HX¥32,000. Moreover, his name had greyed out, meaning he had already logged out. Everyone had stopped staring at the monitor, but their energy level was still high.

A young man with a good relationship with Liu Ping saw that he was still working frantically at his computer. He approached and asked, “Liu Ping, what are you doing?”

Without turning his head, Liu Ping said loudly, “I’m checking to see how many viewers Ye Fei had on his channel just now.”

That caught everyone’s attention. They all crowded around Liu Ping’s chair, eager to check out the numbers.

When the figures finally appeared on the screen, the people around him wobbled and nearly collapsed. Liu Ping himself nearly fell out of his chair.

“F*ck, no way?”

“Aiyo, my titanium alloy eyes, ah. I must have gone blind, how can this be?”

“Hasn’t this joke gone a bit too far?”

“That’s right, how could he gain so much reward from so few people? That’s HX¥32,000, ah. Even an established deity with over 10,000 fans can’t guarantee this kind of result.”

“My heart… my liver… m*therf*cker, this is too much excitement for my internal organs. Just how did he do it?”

“He managed to gain so much reward with only 60 plus people. What if he has tens of thousands of fans? Someone prop me up so that I can make the calculations.”

“You can make your calculations on your own, why would you need me to prop you up?”

“I might faint…”

“Just what did he do? Why did they give him so much reward?”

“Well, if we want to know, we can watch the reruns later. The technical team should have uploaded the video by now. Let’s go and watch it, ah.”

[Gumihou: Lol, the fans don’t want to look bad and gave mysterious replies before disappearing from the screen.]

[1] 250 (二百五), pronounced as Er Bai Wu, is a Chinese slang for ‘half-wit’ or stupid idiot. Because this is a slang, it is not in most language dictionaries.

By the way, it has a long and not so illustrious history…

https://www.move-to-china.com/blog/why-ist-250-considered-a-bad-number-in-china-2/#:~:text=In%20daily%20life%2C%20%E2%80%9C250%E2%80%9D,will%20be%20regarded%20as%20impolite.

[2] Added Details so things made sense