Chapter 16: A Crushing Score Gap

Brother Li Loves Food: 10 points

Yun Ji: 6 points

A smile touched Li Xiao’s lips as the scores appeared.

"Excellent. It seems a viewer has already finished both bowls of wonton noodles and started scoring!"

"My thanks to this viewer for their approval!"

"Oh, by the way, if that viewer has time, you can post a short video on your account and tag me."

"In 24 hours, I’ll review them. The person whose video gets the most likes will receive a 1,000-yuan cash prize directly from me!"

He had barely finished speaking when the score on the screen jumped again.

Brother Li Loves Food: 28 points

Yun Ji: 20 points

The viewers in the stream stared at the score, finding it hard to believe.

"Holy cow! You’ve got to be kidding, right?"

"Only three people have rated, and there’s already an 8-point gap?"

"Is the streamer using paid shills?"

"Both giveaways used the platform’s built-in lottery system. There’s no way to cheat!"

"And after watching that delightful cooking process, there’s no way the final product could be bad!"

...

As the viewers debated, the previously static score began to change constantly.

: 20

: 26

...

: 54

As more and more people submitted their ratings, the gap between the two scores widened rapidly.

Seeing the increasingly ridiculous score difference, some of the viewers who had initially supported Yun Ji Wonton Noodles were getting restless.

"Wait, how is there a 20-point difference now? This has to be fake, right?"

"Brother Pang made a video at Yun Ji before, and he said their wonton noodles were super authentic. Are you guys just tanking the score?"

"Sister Juan’s food recommendations have never been a flop! I’m sure this time is no different. There must be something fishy going on!"

"I just checked. Yun Ji gets over 10,000 takeout orders a month alone. If their food was actually bad, how could they have so many sales?"

...

Seeing these skeptical comments, Li Xiao wasn’t too surprised.

After all, his opponent had been in business for over 20 years.

Plenty of people must have eaten there, and many of them must have liked it. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have survived for so long.

Besides, in an era where traffic is king, a streamer with over a hundred thousand fans definitely has more influence than one with only 2,000.

Frankly, Li Xiao felt a bit fortunate. His current opponents were just a couple of minor streamers with a few hundred thousand fans each, and those numbers were likely inflated.

If he had been up against a major streamer with a million fans, his stream would have probably been completely overwhelmed by their followers by now.

After all, those fans were accumulated one video at a time. It’s only natural for them to be biased toward the streamer they like.

Li Xiao couldn’t be bothered to argue with them. After all, food is highly subjective.

His words alone were no proof, and there was no way he could convince these people.

He simply gave a faint smile and said:

"Viewers who have seen my previous videos should know."

"I’ve visited Yun Ji myself to review it. As some have said, their food really isn’t bad."

"Honestly, if you ignore their marketing claim of ’authentic, freshly made bamboo-pole noodles,’ I would even give their food a score of 80."

"But unfortunately, what they make isn’t authentic bamboo-pole noodles. It’s just very ordinary alkaline egg noodles. More importantly, there’s no way the noodles are made fresh on-site. They’re a day old, or have been stored even longer."

"Based on this deception of their customers alone, I can only give their food a barely passing grade."

"Besides, has anyone considered the possibility that while Yun Ji’s food might not be bad, mine is simply better???"

"All the giveaways are controlled by the platform’s system. As a small streamer with only 2,000 fans, it’s impossible for me to influence them!"

"Since more viewers chose to give me higher scores, it simply means they think the wonton noodles I made are better."

Hearing Li Xiao’s statement, not only the neutral viewers but even some of the more emotional ones began to think seriously.

If only a few people had tasted it, they could have argued it was just a matter of individual taste.

But now, 10 people had submitted their reviews. Nine of them gave Li Xiao a higher score, while only one gave a higher score to Yun Ji.

Although the scoring wasn’t over, anyone who had been to middle school knew that, based on statistical probability, the vast majority of the remaining 90 people would also give Li Xiao higher scores.

Sure enough, over the next half hour, the remaining 90 people gradually completed their ratings.

The final score was fixed at 850 to 690.

The difference between the two sides was a staggering 160 points.

No matter how you looked at it, it was a crushing victory.

Li Xiao wasn’t surprised by the score, but he was still overjoyed.

After all, a score like this would be a huge slap in the face to all the haters in his stream.

He feigned helplessness and shrugged at the camera.

"Clearly, the vast majority of viewers felt that the wonton noodles I made myself tasted better!"

"Without a doubt, the authentic bamboo-pole wonton noodles I made have won this competition by a large margin."

"And with that, this stream comes to an end."

"Also, to the 100 lucky viewers, remember to post your videos on your accounts!!"

"Same time tomorrow, I’ll be giving out the 1,000-yuan cash prize."

Glancing at the viewer count, which had now reached over 800, he closed the stream with a smile.

’Not bad at all. The results of this stream were much better than I expected.’

This was only his second official stream, and the viewer count had already broken 800, even if many of them were haters deliberately trying to flame him.

But hater-fame is still fame. Sometimes, these so-called haters could actually bring him more traffic and exposure.

Li Xiao’s fingers tapped lightly on the desk. ’As long as there aren’t any major incidents in the next stream, breaking 1,000 concurrent viewers shouldn’t be too difficult.’

In stark contrast to his carefree attitude, Yun Hongquan was at his wit’s end, staring at the now-blackened screen of the live stream.

When Li Xiao was only halfway through making the wonton noodles, this second-generation wonton heir had already sensed that something was wrong.

Although he couldn’t taste it, he could see the fluid, effortless way Li Xiao prepared the noodles, even through the screen.

It would be impossible to achieve that level of skill without a wealth of experience. Combining that with his opponent’s earlier confident proclamations, he completely panicked.

’His opponent must have come prepared! That’s why he was talking so big before!’