Chapter 129: Trial Broadcast to Test One's Worth

Bai Renjun was not worried about Han Jiayi. She was an excellent chef, and sooner or later she would find her inspiration.

After leaving Yijia Pavilion, Bai Renjun waved to Wang Bei. "Little Bei, grab the camera. We're heading out."

"Where? What are we doing?" Wang Bei asked, her eyes widening in surprise.

"A follow-up visit," Bai Renjun explained. "We're going to Wang's Wraps to see how business has been going."

"Shouldn't we wait for Sister Jiayi?" Wang Bei asked hesitantly.

"That would be too exhausting for her. She worked all day and will already be tired when she gets home. Taking her out for a follow-up visit too would be cruel." Bai Renjun frowned.

"Oho, how considerate..." Wang Bei teased, covering her mouth. "All right, wait for me!"

The two of them took a taxi to Wang's Wraps. From far away, they could already see a long line stretching out of the alley. Bai Renjun was not particularly surprised. He had heard from comments on his videos long ago that business at Wang's Wraps had become explosively popular.

He therefore made his way through the crowd toward the shop.

Naturally, he was recognized along the way. After all, he had recommended the place, so quite a few of the customers were probably his fans.

"Old Bai... is that really you?" a young man asked in surprise while eating a wrap. "Can I take a picture with you?"

"Of course." Bai Renjun nodded and took a photo with him before asking, "What do you think of the wraps here? Are they good?"

"They're amazing!" The young man nodded excitedly. "They're just incredibly hard to buy. Every time I come here, I have to wait in line for more than half an hour. They used to run out of ingredients at around one every day. Now I've heard they've increased their daily supply and pushed back their opening time to eleven-thirty. Even so, if you come at three, they'll already be closed."

"All right, go ahead and eat." Bai Renjun nodded, then asked, "Would you mind appearing in the video?"

"Not at all!" The young man answered excitedly as he looked at Wang Bei. "So you're Little Bei?! You're even cuter in person! I really love your behind-the-scenes segments. They're hilarious, and so heartwarming!"

"Thank you." Wang Bei smiled politely and nodded before waving to him. "Enjoy your meal, all right?"

Bai Renjun and Wang Bei continued forward, passing through the crowd until they reached the shop.

At that moment, Old Wang's family of three was frantically busy inside. Old Wang was skillfully preparing the wraps, while his wife greeted customers at the counter. Their son, Wang Xiaohei, was in the back preparing all kinds of ingredients. The whole family was so busy they barely had time to drink water.

But the moment Wang Xiaohei saw Bai Renjun, his face lit up.

"Old Bai! What brings you here today?"

"I came to see how things are going for your family," Bai Renjun replied with a smile. "And I'm filming a follow-up video while I'm at it."

"Business has been insanely good lately!" Wang Xiaohei hurriedly washed his hands and came out to greet Bai Renjun. "Come on, come inside and sit down! We've stopped offering dine-in service because there are just too many people..."

"Oh, Old Wang, our benefactor is here!" The proprietress also smiled when she saw Bai Renjun.

"Oh! Our benefactor is here?" Old Wang came to his senses and called out, "Wait a moment! I'll make you two wraps!"

"No, no!" Bai Renjun quickly refused when he sensed the murderous gazes coming from the people waiting behind him. "I just finished lunch. I only came to take a look! Everyone is still waiting in line for their wraps!"

"All right, then I'll get back to work!" Old Wang did not stand on ceremony. After all, dozens of people were still waiting to eat.

"This is like heaven and earth compared to before..." Wang Bei exclaimed.

"It shows that Jiayi's and my campaign to save restaurants has been a success," Bai Renjun replied. "Once we release the results of this episode, it should attract more restaurants that want to work with us, right?"

After returning home, Bai Renjun immediately began editing. The previous episode, in which he had visited Red Fortress Handmade Burgers, was also finished, so he uploaded the video. All that remained was to wait for his fans to visit the restaurant and report back.

Including today's follow-up episode, Bai Renjun now had enough food-related footage for three videos. Next, he would make two gaming videos and one about a movie.

That would give him two weeks' worth of videos. After that, he could properly plan a trip to restaurants in other cities.

"Old Bai!" Wang Bei pushed open the door and asked, "I contacted the livestreaming representatives of the major platforms and explained our situation. Three platforms all expressed interest in signing you. Do you want to look at their offers?"

"Three?" Bai Renjun asked curiously.

Wang Bei nodded. "I asked D-Station, Cat House, and Doghouse. Their offers are all different."

She briefly explained the terms. D-Station offered two million a year, Cat House offered four million, and Doghouse offered five million. The figures looked high, but in reality, they were not quite what they seemed.

Those amounts were the "full salaries." To receive the full amount, a streamer had to meet a required level of gift revenue. Otherwise, the platform would reduce the streamer's popularity rating, and the actual salary would fall to the second or third tier. At most, he would receive around one million, or even less.

Bai Renjun earned far more than that from his videos every year. Livestreaming would also require him to spend at least four hours a day online. The investment and return were completely disproportionate. He might as well use those hours to make several more videos.

Bai Renjun naturally knew that his worth was far greater than this. The question was how to make the livestreaming platforms understand his "true value."

"Ah..." Bai Renjun thought for a moment, then suddenly had an idea.

That evening, Han Jiayi returned from the restaurant and called out as soon as she entered.

"Old Bai, I'm home!" she said cheerfully while changing her shoes at the door.

"Mumu." Bai Renjun came downstairs, opened his arms, and pulled her into a hug.

"Lately, you don't even call me by my real name anymore..." Han Jiayi complained pitifully.

"Let me ask you something." Bai Renjun stroked her head and asked seriously, "When will your family's new DLC be announced?"

"Probably within the next few days. At the latest, in early October," Han Jiayi replied. "But the DLC is free, so you don't need to help promote it."

"Free? That's awfully generous..." Bai Renjun said with a wry smile. "But I'm not trying to promote it. I want to livestream it."

"Livestream it? Have you already signed a contract?" Han Jiayi asked curiously, smoothing back her hair.

"Not yet. Their offers are too low, so I want to do a trial stream first and let them see how much attention I can attract," Bai Renjun explained. "Could you ask your studio to release the new DLC a little early? Then I could use it for my debut stream."

"All right, I'll ask them." Han Jiayi smiled. "It's practically finished anyway. There are only a few final tests left. It should be fine."

She tapped on her phone for a while before continuing. "They said there are still some bugs that need fixing, but they can release a test version for you to play. The effect should be about the same. Those bugs only happen in rare cases."

"Great!" Bai Renjun nodded excitedly. "I'll go tell Little Bei to post a livestream announcement. After we finish dinner and take our showers, I'll dry your hair, and then we'll officially go live."

"All right!" Han Jiayi nodded with a smile. Bai Renjun remembering to dry her hair made her very happy.

When they thought about it carefully, there were actually many ways for the two of them to help each other.

Take this game, for example. Bai Renjun could livestream it before its official release, making it exclusive content that could not be found anywhere else.

He would promote Han Jiayi's game, while Han Jiayi provided him with material capable of attracting viewers.

After dinner, Bai Renjun took a shower first. While Han Jiayi was bathing, he received the game files and downloaded the plugins needed for the livestream. By the time he was finished, Han Jiayi had also come out, so Bai Renjun went downstairs to dry her hair.

"Old Bai! Am I going to stream with you later?" Han Jiayi called loudly, trying to speak over the sound of the hair dryer.

"Of course!" Bai Renjun replied. "I feel more at ease with you beside me!"

"Heehee..." Han Jiayi felt a wave of sweetness in her heart. That was fine with her. After all, it was a game she had invested in and helped develop.

"All done." Bai Renjun switched off the dryer, buried his face in her hair, and took a deep breath. He kissed her lightly near the temple and smiled. "You smell like freshly steamed osmanthus cake. Sweet and fragrant."

Han Jiayi turned to look at him, her eyes slowly filling with tenderness. Bai Renjun could not resist giving her moist lips a quick kiss. Then he gently tapped the tip of her nose and said, "All right. Time to start the stream."

"Mm." Han Jiayi lowered her head shyly with a smile. She stood up, took his hand, and followed him.

The two of them sat down in front of the computer. Bai Renjun adjusted the equipment and checked the camera before formally clicking "Start Livestream." Immediately, notifications announcing new users entering the room began appearing one after another through the chat assistant.

Bai Renjun greeted everyone. "Good evening, everyone. Thank you all for coming to support me."

The chat, however, quickly filled with complaints that the camera image was too blurry and that they could barely see him.

Seeing this, Bai Renjun explained, "Oh, this is an old camera I used before, so the image isn't very clear. Today is only a trial stream. Once I start streaming officially, I'll replace it with high-definition equipment."

The viewers then began asking where he would stream in the future.

"That hasn't been decided yet. I'm discussing it with Mumu..." Bai Renjun began.

At that moment, Han Jiayi suddenly reached over and covered his mouth with her small hand, glaring at him warningly. Bai Renjun immediately changed his wording.

"I'm still discussing it with Jiayi."

The chat instantly began asking about Han Jiayi.

"She's right here. Look." Bai Renjun pressed down on Han Jiayi's head and pulled her into the camera's view. "Your adorable girl has made a surprise appearance."

"Hello, everyone." Han Jiayi pursed her lips into a smile and waved at the camera.

The chat erupted with exclamations.

"Jiayi is so beautiful!"

"They're so sweet together!"

"All right, enough chatting. Let's get to the main topic." Bai Renjun opened the game. "The game we're streaming today was invested in and developed by the lovely lady sitting beside me. It's the new DLC for Blasphemous, the game featured in my very first video. Unless something unexpected happens, this DLC will be officially released in a week. Right now, I'm playing a trial version provided by the development team. You can only see it here."

He then created a new save file and began playing.

"Let's see what new content the DLC has added. I personally love this game. Its art style and Soulslike gameplay are exactly what I enjoy..."

As Bai Renjun played, he began offering his assessments of the game. The stream therefore became an appraisal stream, and the popularity generated by the Connoisseur app was added directly to the livestream's popularity.

The major livestreaming platforms all manipulated their popularity figures. With numbers often reaching hundreds of millions, it was impossible to know how many genuine viewers there actually were.

The Connoisseur app, however, did not bother with such tricks. It distributed traffic according to the site's overall popularity and recommended Bai Renjun's stream to the appropriate users. As a result, the stream's popularity soared.

"Everyone, just watch for now. There's no need to spend money sending me gifts. This is only a trial stream," Bai Renjun explained as he played.

But there was no question about his skill. He had played the game for nearly two hundred hours, so his mastery of its levels and mechanics was absolutely top-tier. Combined with his lightning-fast reflexes, he could play while talking and still remain virtually unharmed.

This was simultaneously a game-appraisal stream, a walkthrough, a high-skill speedrun, and exclusive content featuring a beautiful woman that could not be found anywhere else. On top of that, it received the Connoisseur app's boost.

How could its popularity possibly remain low?

New viewers continued entering the room, and before long, Bai Renjun's popularity had surged to second place in the entire category.

Although each major livestreaming platform calculated its statistics differently, comparing Bai Renjun's numbers with those of other D-Station streamers made the scale of his popularity immediately obvious.

At that moment, Bai Renjun continued explaining while controlling his character.

"Taking down this boss is actually very simple. Watch for the right moment, then block!"

After executing a perfect parry, Bai Renjun unleashed a flurry of attacks before dodging the boss's skill.

"Block again!"

He performed another perfect parry, followed with another chain of attacks, and killed the boss without taking any damage. The chat immediately filled with messages of "666."

Bai Renjun continued forward and discovered a new area.

"Oh? A new storyline. This map wasn't here before. Let's go take a look."

Han Jiayi sat beside him and said indignantly, "So, viewers, look at this man. He plays the game incredibly well, yet he still complains that my game is too difficult and that the controls feel bad. Is that reasonable? It isn't!"

The chat followed her lead.

"Not reasonable!"

"Apologize!"

"You little rascal." Bai Renjun reached out to flick Han Jiayi on the forehead. "Are you really going to undermine me on stream?"

"Yip!" Han Jiayi covered her forehead in fear. Bai Renjun changed course and scraped a finger lightly over her nose instead, making her cover it with both hands. Taking advantage of the moment, he gently flicked her forehead.

"Ow!" Han Jiayi grunted and thumped him angrily. "You're awful! You even chained the attacks together!"

"Heh-heh..." Bai Renjun was amused by her reaction and gently rubbed her head. Unfortunately, he was distracted for a moment, and a monster in the game rammed him straight into an instant-death trap.

He died.

The chat immediately exploded with messages such as "hahaha," "rofl," and "2333," along with a steady stream of gift notifications.

(Thanks to Lonely Peerless Genius, X, Jason Maple, Sword of Heaven's Might, Corrupted Solid Ball, and LYH Tao Tao for the monthly passes. Thanks to Yibai Nong, Swordmaster Roaming the World, and Red Bean Matcha for the two monthly passes.)

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