Chapter 6: Isn’t This a Piece of Cake?

As soon as the video was approved, he immediately spent 100 yuan on promoting it.

The quality of this video was better than his previous ones, and he even included a bonus for his fans at the end, which he figured could be a small viral hit.

However, since the account’s organic reach was low, he still needed to invest some money upfront to drive traffic.

With all that done, he went to bed early. He had a lot to do and prepare for the next day.

Although the nearest Wanda Plaza was only a two-minute walk away, Li Xiao called a Didi in advance.

This was because the things he needed to buy were basically impossible to find in a large shopping mall.

The place he chose this time was the Fangcun Agricultural Products Wholesale Market, which was relatively close to his apartment complex.

He turned on the pinhole camera on his glasses and began his filming for the day.

He hadn’t forgotten his promise to his viewers from yesterday: to post a video on the platform showing the method and process for making bamboo-rising wonton noodles.

The moment he got out of the car, he headed straight for the kitchenware section.

As expected of one of the top ten agricultural markets in Yangcheng. After visiting just two kitchenware shops, he found what he was looking for.

The bamboo pole was slightly thicker than his calf and about three meters long.

The pole was clearly freshly cut, its surface still a vibrant green.

He tapped and knocked on it to make sure there was no insect damage and that its resilience was good. Satisfied, he nodded.

Having bought the thick, long bamboo pole—something rather hard to find in a big city—his shopping for the morning was already half complete.

He then wandered around the market and quickly bought everything else he needed.

With a thick, long bamboo pole slung over his shoulder, a regular Didi would definitely not be able to take him.

He opened the map app on his phone, but quickly gave up on the idea of carrying everything back on foot.

The market wasn’t actually that far from his apartment complex, only about six kilometers.

However, loaded down with bags and carrying a thick, long bamboo pole, Li Xiao really didn’t want passersby staring at him like he was a monkey in a zoo.

After thinking it over, he decided to call a Huolala van to take him and all his stuff back.

Normally, Huolala drivers are reluctant to accept orders for such a short distance.

After all, loading and unloading wastes a lot of time, and more importantly, short-distance trips don’t pay much at all.

Of course, Li Xiao had considered this problem. He resorted to the power of cash, adding a 40-yuan tip and explaining the situation clearly in the order notes.

As a result, the short-distance order that no one would have otherwise taken was snatched up in less than twenty seconds.

Back in his small apartment, Li Xiao put away the ingredients one by one.

All sorts of seasonings, flour, duck eggs, free-range chicken eggs, dried flounder, dried shrimp, wild black tiger prawns, hind leg meat from a black-haired pig, chopped scallions, yellow chives...

The ingredients alone already took up a good portion of his kitchen.

Fortunately, bamboo-rising wonton noodles weren’t a particularly difficult dish to make.

Otherwise, this tiny kitchen of his probably wouldn’t have been able to meet his needs.

He got a tripod from his bedroom and mounted his DSLR camera on it.

Although many new phones could now record in high definition,

however, anyone who has uploaded videos before probably knows that the platform automatically compresses them.

So, to ensure sufficient clarity, Li Xiao chose to use his DSLR camera directly.

After adjusting the focus and angle, Li Xiao put on his headset microphone and started recording.

The recipe provided by the system didn’t just include the simple steps; the relevant cooking experience also appeared in his mind.

Since he now had the relevant experience in his head, the process was incredibly simple.

「Three hours later...」

Li Xiao looked at the bowl of beautiful, fragrant, and delicious bamboo-rising wonton noodles before him, a satisfied expression on his face.

"Alright, that’s the complete method and process for making traditional bamboo-rising wonton noodles."

"See? Just like I said, it’s very simple."

"I’ve said it before: anyone with hands can make these traditional bamboo-rising noodles. If a place can’t make them well, it’s purely because they’re cutting costs."

"During my last stream, I promised that in this video, I would use the system’s lottery feature to draw twenty lucky viewers from the same city."

"These twenty lucky viewers will each receive a serving of my handmade bamboo-rising wonton noodles, as well as a serving from Yun Ji Bamboo-Rising Wonton Noodles."

"After I send out the wonton noodles, I’ll immediately start a livestream."

"I’ll go live directly with these twenty random lucky viewers and let them share their thoughts."

"All viewers in the city who are interested in participating can click the link in the bottom-left corner of the screen to enter the drawing."

"The winners for this drawing will be announced this weekend—which is tomorrow!"

"I encourage everyone to participate."

...

He stopped the recording and happily devoured the entire bowl of bamboo-rising wonton noodles.

He had to admit, the cooking experience and recipe from the system were truly something else.

Even though it was his first time making it, the taste was already a cut above what Yun Ji Bamboo-Rising Wonton Noodles offered.

He imported the video to his computer and did some simple editing and speed-ups.

He reviewed the final video one more time to make sure there were no issues.

Li Xiao then uploaded the video directly. Half an hour later, it was approved.

Just like before, Li Xiao immediately spent another 100 yuan on ad promotion to drive traffic to this video.

However, since this event was limited to the local Yangcheng area,

this time, when selecting the target audience, he specifically chose to target users in the same city.

This way, the 100 yuan of promotional traffic would be pushed entirely to local users’ accounts, maximizing its effect.

After setting up the promotion, he glanced at his stats.

Account: Brother Li Talks Food

Followers: 2,790

Likes: 2,214

’Looks like the past couple of days have paid off.’ His follower count had grown from under 2,000 to nearly 2,800.

He did a rough calculation of his investment. He had spent about 1,300 yuan on driving traffic over the past few days.

He had gained nearly 800 followers. Assuming 80% of them were real, that meant an increase of 640 genuine followers.

This meant that the cost per genuine follower was about two yuan.

This was much more expensive than buying bot followers directly from an agency.

On the market, a single bot follower costs only 0.3 to 0.6 yuan.

But Li Xiao knew that no matter how many bot followers he had, they were mostly useless.

Bot followers only made the numbers look good. Gaining 100 bots wasn’t as useful as gaining a single real follower.

So, the 1,000-plus yuan he had spent was well worth it.

Additionally, all the videos he had promoted saw an increase in both likes and comments.

Even so, the likes and comments on most of those videos hadn’t broken into the triple digits.

But there was an exception: the video he had just released yesterday.

Thanks to its good quality and controversial, buzz-worthy content, its view count had already reached 20,000, with over 300 likes, more than 90 comments, and a dozen or so shares.