Chapter 2: Bamboo-Pole Wonton Noodles

Chapter 2: Zhushēng Wonton Noodles

He opened the Dou+ interface, and various options immediately popped up.

Li Xiao selected all of his dozens of previous videos.

In the section for what he wanted to increase, he chose likes and comments.

If a novice were making this choice, they would most likely have picked follower count.

After all, many people think that the more followers an account has, the better it is, but it’s actually the opposite.

The followers gained this way are often a mix of real and fake.

Some are even bot accounts automatically generated by the system.

Choosing to increase your follower count will make your total number of followers higher and make the stats look better.

But in reality, this will lower your account’s weight, which affects future view data.

Conversely, when casual viewers see a video with a good number of likes and comments, they are much more likely to stop and watch the whole thing.

In the price section, he directly selected the minimum option: the 30-yuan special package.

It wasn’t that he was unwilling to spend more promotion money on these videos.

The main reason was that the quality of the videos themselves wasn’t very good.

Even if he invested more money, the effect would be very limited.

After he finished setting up the promotions for all his videos, Li Xiao returned to his stream.

He glanced at the number of concurrent viewers. Very good. It had broken through from single digits to double digits.

Don’t be fooled by the small difference of just a few people; he had already surpassed 90% of streamers.

Clearly, the Dou+ promotion was working.

New users who saw his videos and were interested would click on his profile picture to go directly to his stream.

Naturally, Li Xiao wouldn’t let this wave of traffic go to waste.

"Welcome, new and old friends, to my stream."

"I’m thrilled today! The number of viewers actually broke into the double digits. To celebrate, I’ve decided to give out a lucky bag to my fans in the stream every ten minutes."

As he spoke, he tapped his finger, and a 99-yuan lucky bag was sent out.

Of course, this wasn’t an ordinary lucky bag that could be claimed directly. It was a passphrase lucky bag.

A so-called passphrase lucky bag is one that requires you to send a passphrase in the chat and then wait five minutes before you can claim it.

The reason for this is to ensure the stream maintains a decent number of viewers during those few minutes. Plus, viewer comments can further increase the stream’s popularity.

Seeing the 990-Doubi lucky bag, the originally sparse bullet comments instantly exploded with activity.

[Brother Li is awesome!]

[Brother Li is awesome!]

[Brother Li is awesome!]

...

After the passphrase spam, everyone in the stream started asking questions all at once:

[Brother Li, why are you so generous today, suddenly dropping such a huge lucky bag?]

[My god! This streamer with 2,000 followers is giving out lucky bags like someone with 2 million!]

[A 990-Doubi lucky bag with only 30 people here? That’s an average of over 30 Doubi per person!!]

[Thanks, streamer! I’m logging into my alt account to grab a lucky bag too. Later I can use it to tip my favorite streamer girl!]

Seeing this bullet comment, Li Xiao rolled his eyes helplessly.

"Oh, thank you so much! Big bro, some things are better done in secret. Saying it out loud hurts my poor, helpless heart!"

The 99-yuan lucky bag had an immediate, visible effect.

The stream, which originally had only a dozen or so viewers, instantly jumped to over 30.

Of course, it was impossible to know for now how many of them were real viewers and how many were bots just there to snatch the lucky bag.

However, his attention was no longer on the stream but on his other phone.

Although this restaurant was over 20 years old, it had kept up with the times.

Of course, it might also have been to save on labor costs, but all orders had to be placed using WeChat.

He opened the menu mini-program, which listed different kinds of wonton noodles.

They had quite a variety of wonton noodles.

Shrimp Wontons, Crab Roe Wontons, Scallop Wontons, Pure Pork Wontons...

All in all, there were over a dozen different types of wonton noodles.

Li Xiao went ahead and ordered the two best-selling types: the Shrimp Wontons and the most classic Pure Pork Wontons.

After confirming the payment, he turned his attention back to the stream.

In the short time it took to order, the viewer count had broken past 30 and was approaching the 40 mark.

However, the number of bullet comments hadn’t increased significantly.

He wasn’t in a hurry this time. After all, he had never planned to make a living off of streaming.

He adjusted his camera, aiming it in the direction of the open kitchen.

This time-honored restaurant had been renovated a few years ago, and its kitchen was now part of the "Open Kitchen" project, following government standards.

Customers dining in the restaurant could directly see what was happening inside the kitchen.

Li Xiao focused his gaze on two machines in the corner of the kitchen.

They were two noodle presses with very obvious DIY modifications.

A thick bamboo pole, as wide as a thigh, bobbed up and down with the machine’s movement.

Beneath this bamboo pole, a ball of yellow dough was continuously being kneaded and reshaped by it.

Seeing the two strange machines on screen...

...viewers immediately started asking questions:

"Streamer, what is that thing?"

"Why does that noodle press look so weird??"

"Why are they using bamboo to press the dough?"

Li Xiao explained to his viewers:

"It seems a lot of you aren’t familiar with this type of southern noodle dish, so let me give you a little introduction."

"’Zhushēng’ is the Cantonese word for bamboo pole. ’Zhushēng noodles’ are made using the traditional method of pressing the dough with one."

"The noodle master sits on one end of the pole, repeatedly pressing the dough until it reaches a certain thinness before cutting it into noodles. The process is very tedious, but the resulting noodles are exceptionally springy!"

"However, as you can probably see, because the process is so laborious, very few places still make zhushēng noodles entirely by hand anymore."

While he was explaining, two steaming bowls of wonton noodles were delivered to Li Xiao’s table.

Because he ordered small portions, neither bowl was very large. The small bowls of noodles looked quite delicate.

Li Xiao looked away from the kitchen and back at the table in front of him.

The small portion of wonton noodles had six wontons in each bowl.

Beneath the wontons were the translucent zhushēng noodles, and the broth was garnished with a sprinkle of chopped scallions and chives.

A rich, savory aroma drifted up from the wonton noodles along with wisps of white steam.

Li Xiao adjusted the camera’s focus slightly so everyone could get a clearer view.

[Whoa, those wontons are huge!! The ones where I live are so small!!]

[Wait, why are those wontons so meaty?]

[That bowl of noodles is tiny, isn’t it? With my appetite, I’d probably need to eat three bowls just to feel 70% full!]

Looking at the many questions from his viewers, Li Xiao picked a few that caught his eye and replied.

Then, he turned his attention back to the two bowls of wonton noodles in front of him.

When the server brought the wonton noodles over, the system didn’t show any notification.

This meant that to light up the entry in the Illustrated Guide, he had to personally taste the food.

Without hesitation, Li Xiao picked up his spoon, scooped up a wonton, and popped it into his mouth.