Chapter 20: A Taste of Their Own Medicine

Li Xiao immediately submitted manual appeals for all of his videos that had been flagged for violations.

At the same time, he quickly posted a new video.

"I’m very sorry, but this account has been maliciously attacked and mass-reported by a water army hired by certain individuals. As a result, I can’t currently go live."

"I’ve already requested a manual review, but I estimate that the account won’t be back to normal today."

"However, the prizes I promised everyone during yesterday’s stream will be distributed on time."

"Tonight at 8:00 PM sharp, the 100 lucky viewers from yesterday who post a related video will each receive a 50-yuan red packet. The one with the most likes will receive a 1000-yuan red packet. Everyone is welcome to participate and share."

He clicked "Post."

As expected, the video didn’t post directly but instead went into the review queue.

Li Xiao felt a bit helpless. He could only hope that the manual review team would be efficient.

Otherwise, the popularity he had worked so hard to build for this account would probably be completely wiped out by this wave of reports.

He glanced at his account’s current stats.

Account: Brother Li Talks Food

Followers: 4,260

Likes: 4,214

Not bad at all. His follower count had increased by over 2,000 in just two days.

Considering his original follower count was less than 2,000, this growth rate was quite impressive.

Since he couldn’t stream normally today, he temporarily set aside his plan to find a new restaurant and instead focused on how to deal with Yun Ji Wonton Noodles.

However, he soon discovered that trying to take them down through official channels would be extremely difficult.

After all, their biggest offense right now was just substituting authentic bamboo-rising noodles with lye water egg noodles.

While this was clearly a case of suspected fraud, he didn’t even know where to report it.

After all, under the current laws of Xia Country, it was unlikely any department would even accept a report on such a vague issue as the definition of a food’s name.

Even if a department did take up the case, the most severe punishment they would likely face would be, at most, having to change the name on their menu.

But he quickly realized that since they were the first to play dirty, he didn’t need to stick to honorable methods.

An idea quickly formed in his mind.

He immediately opened the search bar, selected "Usernames," and typed "Foodie Reviews."

Thousands of food bloggers popped up, all of whom specialized in restaurant reviews.

He immediately sent private messages to some of them and soon got the current market rate sheet for restaurant reviews.

Streamers with 5,000–50,000 followers: A one-minute review video generally costs around 200–500 yuan.

Streamers with 50,000–100,000 followers: A one-minute review video generally costs around 800–1,500 yuan.

Streamers with 100,000–500,000 followers: The price is a bit steeper, with a one-minute review video costing around 5,000–8,000 yuan.

Li Xiao didn’t bother asking about streamers with even more followers.

After all, it was clear from the current rates that the prices for bigger streamers would increase exponentially.

He checked the balance in his bank account and on WeChat. Very good. He still had over 200,000 yuan.

A cruel smile touched the corners of Li Xiao’s lips. This money was more than enough to carry out his plan.

He didn’t delay. The incident still had some heat online.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, he could blow the whole thing up.

If he waited too long, the audience would likely forget all about it.

Li Xiao used another phone to create a burner account and then began contacting these local food streamers one by one.

Soon, he had contacted 50 streamers with 5,000–50,000 followers, 20 streamers with 50,000–100,000 followers, and 10 streamers with 100,000–500,000 followers.

Don’t be fooled by the fact that he hired 80 streamers; in total, it cost him just under 110,000 yuan.

Of course, he didn’t have all the streamers review the restaurant at once. Instead, he divided them into three waves.

The first wave would visit the restaurant today and post their videos tonight and tomorrow morning.

The second and third waves would then post their videos three days and five days later, respectively.

As the saying goes: the poor use precision strikes; the rich use overwhelming firepower.

With his system, it was impossible for him to be short on money. Whenever his funds ran low, he could just find a decent-tasting shop, complete its entry in the codex, and restock his ammunition.

These 80 streamers were all active in Yangcheng and its neighboring cities.

Any viewer interested in food would more or less be a fan of at least one of these streamers.

There’s truth to the idea that a lie told often enough becomes the truth. If one streamer said Yun Ji Wonton Noodles was bad, people might not care or would quickly forget.

But if 10, 20, or even 80 streamers were all saying Yun Ji Wonton Noodles was bad, then every viewer would surely remember that name.

To be honest, after finishing yesterday’s stream, he hadn’t planned on bothering with the shop anymore.

But since they wanted to use underhanded tactics to mess with him, he didn’t mind giving them a taste of their own medicine.

What Li Xiao didn’t know, however, was that even if he hadn’t hired these streamers, Yun Ji Wonton Noodles was already in for a rough time.

Zhao Min glanced at her WeChat. A high school classmate she hadn’t spoken to in two years had actually sent her a message.

She found it a bit strange. They had only been nodding acquaintances in high school, so why would this person suddenly message her?

Curious, she tapped on the profile picture.

The first thing she saw was a video link.

’Hey Zhao Min, could you help me out and like this video? And leave a comment if you can. Thanks a million.’

Below the message was a sticker of someone kowtowing in gratitude.

Her curiosity instantly vanished. But since it was a classmate and the request was so simple, she had no intention of refusing and tapped the video link.

Her high school classmate was sitting in front of two bowls of wonton noodles.

The broth in one bowl was completely gone, while the other was only half-eaten.

"I want to recommend an amazing streamer to everyone, Brother Li Talks Food! He’s the one I @’d below my video."

"These two bowls of wonton noodles? I won them from his livestream, didn’t have to spend a single cent!"

"Of course, that’s not the most important part. The most important part is that the shrimp wonton bamboo-rising noodles this streamer made are super, super delicious!"

"I swear to God! This is the best shrimp wonton noodles I’ve ever eaten!!!"

"If he ever opens a restaurant, I’ll definitely be there every day, waiting in line to eat!"

"By the way, this other bowl of noodles is from a place called Yun Ji Bamboo-Rising Wonton Noodles. Honestly, it’s not bad, but it’s a far cry from the bowl the streamer made."

"Lastly, I’m also participating in a contest from his stream, and I really need everyone’s likes, because the person with the most likes gets a 1000-yuan red packet. Please, everyone, help me out!"