Chapter 1: Rebirth

This story is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual events is not a coincidence.

Blue Star, Yangcheng, Zhongshan University.

Li Xiao, who had been slumped over his desk, suddenly shot his eyes open.

A flood of memories rushed into his mind.

’Did I transmigrate?’

Li Xiao felt a bit down. In his past life, he’d had both of his parents, and his father was the owner of the second-largest real estate company in the area.

Although he was in his thirties and unmarried, he never lacked for girlfriends. Life had been pretty sweet and carefree.

No matter how you looked at it, he didn’t seem like the protagonist of a transmigration novel.

But since he was here, he might as well make the best of it. Now that he had transmigrated, complaining wouldn’t change anything.

This world’s Li Xiao came from an even wealthier family than his previous self, though it seemed his parents were having some relationship problems. They weren’t divorced, but they had been separated for many years.

His mother owned a small pharmaceutical company, and his father was a major shareholder in a tech company.

Suddenly, a mechanical voice echoed in his mind.

[Host’s broad-minded disposition has been detected. System activating.]

[This is the Foodie Catalog System. You will receive system rewards for lighting up corresponding entries in the catalog.]

Li Xiao raised an eyebrow. ’It really pays to be open-minded.’

And just like that, he had a system right after transmigrating.

Just as he was sorting through the information in his head, the bell signaling the end of class rang.

The next moment, a heavy hand clapped him on the shoulder.

His roommate, Zhou Yu, asked in a low voice,

"Li Xiao, are you still streaming today?"

’Streaming?’

The next moment, the original owner’s memories flooded his mind.

It turned out he wasn’t just a sophomore in college, but also a food streamer.

Of course, his reason for becoming a food streamer wasn’t to make a living online.

His family gave him over 6,000 yuan a month for living expenses, which was more than enough for a single guy like him.

The main reason he became a food streamer was that there were just too many streamers out there getting paid for promotions.

As a Yangcheng native with a deep, passionate love for food,

he absolutely despised those streamers who would lie through their teeth, praising a place to the high heavens as long as they got paid.

That’s why he decided to become a food streamer himself—to promote food that was genuinely delicious.

At the same time, he could use his online platform to expose shops that were just rip-offs.

However, his streaming career had only just begun.

He had fewer than 2,000 followers on the platform, making him a complete nobody online.

He was very supportive of the original owner’s obsession.

Li Xiao thought to himself,

’Since I’ve taken over your body, I’ll help you fulfill this wish.’

Besides, he needed to taste different foods in different places to light up his catalog anyway.

Li Xiao said,

"I don’t have any evening classes today, so of course I’m streaming!"

"You want to come?"

Zhou Yu shook his head, his tone tinged with regret.

"I’d love to freeload a meal off you."

"But ’Daddy’ can’t go today. My girlfriend asked me to a late-night movie. And after the movie, hehe..."

At this, Zhou Yu gave Li Xiao a suggestive look, his intention to show off perfectly clear.

Li Xiao rolled his eyes helplessly.

"Get lost, get lost, just get the hell out of here."

"If you have a date, then go on your date! Don’t come here just to piss me off!"

"Remember to use protection. Don’t come crying to me for money later."

After some playful banter, the "father and son" with their completely messed-up seniority said their goodbyes at the school gate.

Li Xiao glanced at his phone. Not bad. The previous owner wasn’t much of a spendthrift.

He had over 20,000 yuan in his mobile wallet and over 40,000 in his bank account. Among university students, that was considered quite wealthy.

He glanced at the bus, which was packed to the brim with people. It looked like there wasn’t even room to stand.

’Forget it. It’s not like I’m short on cash.’ He turned and got into a nearby taxi.

Half an hour later, Li Xiao arrived at the place he planned to stream from today.

Yun Ji Bamboo-Rising Wonton Noodles

This was a time-honored noodle shop in Yangcheng, said to have been open for over 20 years.

Li Xiao checked the time on his phone. ’Holy cow.’

It was a Thursday, 5:30 PM, and there were already over 30 people waiting for a number from the ticket machine outside.

While waiting in line, he skillfully set up his streaming equipment.

He had two sets of streaming gear.

One was a high-definition pinhole camera on his glasses, and the other was his phone’s camera.

The reason for having two setups was simple.

In this internet age, many shop owners were very clever.

They knew exactly how powerful online marketing was.

So, many viral restaurants operated on a double standard: one for regular customers and one for streamers and influencers.

For the influencers, they would use the best ingredients the shop had to offer.

As for regular people, they’d just be given whatever. After all, it was incredibly difficult for an ordinary person to make their voice heard online.

He logged into the app and started the stream.

Soon, a few viewers trickled into the stream.

"Brother Li, good afternoon! What are you showing us today?"

"The pork trotter rice you recommended the other day was really good, Brother Li!"

"Why does a great stream like Brother Li’s have so few viewers?"

...

Watching the sparse bullet comments, Li Xiao chatted idly with his viewers.

Looking at the pathetic number of viewers, he shook his head helplessly.

The original owner’s idea was a good one, but it was obvious that, as a university student, he was still a bit too naive.

In this era where traffic is king, trying to slowly build an account on your own wasn’t impossible, but it was extremely difficult.

He opened the app and looked at the account. Besides regular streams, it also had videos edited from stream footage.

However, as an amateur, the view, like, and comment counts on these dozens of videos were all low.

Trying to attract traffic with such lukewarm content was practically impossible.

He also saw that two videos in the list had been reported and taken down.

The reason for the takedown was simple: copyright infringement and invasion of privacy.

He clicked on them and watched the content, shaking his head helplessly.

It was just as he’d thought. Both videos were critiques of a certain shop.

The shop’s name appeared multiple times in the video, as did its service staff.

Clearly, the owner didn’t want others to see the shop’s true face and had immediately filed a malicious report.

And since the original owner only had a half-baked understanding of video editing rules, the videos were easily taken down.

Li Xiao had once dated a girl who was in the streaming industry, and they had talked about this kind of thing before.

Fixing this kind of violation was actually very simple.

You just had to blur out key information in the video.

However, it wasn’t easy to do on a phone, so Li Xiao suppressed the urge to edit it on the spot.

Since Li Xiao had taken a number for a single seat, he didn’t have to wait long before being shown to a spot inside.

He glanced at his stream. The viewer count was still in the single digits.

He went straight to the app’s settings and quickly found the option to add funds in a prominent spot.

With livestreaming, there were ways to play if you had money, and ways to play if you didn’t.

’Since I have money now, I can’t just wait around for the account to grow organically.’