Chapter 133: Debut Livestream

The next morning, Bai Renjun was awakened by Han Jiayi as usual.

“Getting up already…” Bai Renjun mumbled as he sat up.

Han Jiayi immediately threw herself into his arms and wrapped her arms around his waist.

“What’s wrong?” Bai Renjun asked, stroking her hair.

Han Jiayi merely smiled happily. “Hehe. I like you.”

“You silly girl…” Bai Renjun yawned. “All right, I’m going to wash my face and brush my teeth first.”

“Mm!” Han Jiayi answered brightly. “I’ll make you breakfast.”

While eating breakfast, Bai Renjun checked the responses to the previous episode on Red Fort Handmade Burgers.

Just as he had expected, Red Fort Handmade Burgers had already finished improving its products on the very day the video was uploaded. Quite a few fans had gone there to try them out and left their feedback beneath the video. The response had been remarkably positive.

“The cod burger is unbelievably delicious! They put potato chips inside, so it’s wonderfully crunchy!”

“The classic beef burger is great too. The aroma of the cheese and beef is incredibly rich.”

“I love the shrimp burger. How do they make the shrimp flavor so intense?”

The fans had all sorts of opinions, but the most popular item was not one of the four standard burgers Bai Renjun and Han Jiayi had developed.

“The do-it-yourself mode is the most fun part. I made myself a Family Feast burger with seven whole layers! My mouth nearly split open trying to eat it…”

“Exactly! DIY burgers are so much fun. I made a cod-and-beef burger myself. It turned out to be insanely awful!”

Seeing those comments, Bai Renjun could only laugh helplessly. “In the end, people still prefer messing around on their own. Whether it tastes good or not, having fun is what matters most…”

After all, who would dislike a burger they had made themselves? Even if it tasted terrible, they could only blame themselves.

It was a truly amusing idea—and Han Jiayi was the one who had come up with it.

“Let me see.” Han Jiayi suddenly leaned over, pressing her little face against Bai Renjun’s.

Bai Renjun turned and kissed her cheek. Han Jiayi smiled sweetly at him, then lowered her head to look at the comments. She immediately giggled. “So the burgers we worked so hard to develop together still aren’t as popular as the ones the fans made themselves. What you like yourself is always the best.”

“That’s right.” Bai Renjun smiled at Han Jiayi. “What you like yourself is always the best.”

A faint blush spread across Han Jiayi’s face, and she smiled with happiness. But she knew Bai Renjun was still looking at her, so she suddenly leaned over and kissed him on the lips.

“All right, hurry up and finish your breakfast!”

The remaining days of September were rather hectic. Bai Renjun formally signed a contract with Cat House, and his first broadcast was scheduled for October 2.

Before then, he prepared all the videos he would be making next.

The two upcoming gaming videos would be reviews of Green Hell and Control, both outstanding titles.

However, the videos would not be released until early October, because he would be traveling out of town to visit restaurants later that month.

Since he had already signed with the streaming platform, Bai Renjun planned to begin with livestreaming. He would wait until late October before traveling to visit restaurants, by which point his livestreams would hopefully have built up a certain following and he could try streaming outdoors.

In October, most of his energy would be devoted to helping Han Jiayi’s restaurant earn its next star, so his video output would decrease. Commercial partnerships would also become less frequent, causing his video income to drop sharply.

Fortunately, his older videos were still generating revenue. The studio’s overall video income remained above one hundred thousand yuan, with most of the decrease coming from the loss of commercial sponsorships.

On the night of October 1, Bai Renjun finally gathered all his livestreaming equipment.

He had spared no expense, replacing his computer with a high-end model costing more than twenty thousand yuan. Along with a PS5 and other consoles, a capture card for recording console games during livestreams, a high-definition camera, and a microphone, the entire setup cost more than thirty thousand yuan.

Adding the more than ten thousand yuan he had spent dining at Han Jiayi’s restaurant in September, nearly half of the one hundred thousand yuan he had earned from videos in August had vanished in an instant.

He had barely saved any money, but he was certainly quick to spend it…

At two in the afternoon on October 2, the time Bai Renjun had arranged to begin streaming finally arrived.

However, the National Day holiday was the busiest season for restaurants, so Han Jiayi could not stay home to accompany him during the opening broadcast. She would return in the evening and appear on camera with him then.

Bai Renjun opened the streaming software and entered his account.

By that time, the livestream room was already filled with fans urging him to start. There were quite a lot of them.

Bai Renjun took a deep breath and clicked “Start Streaming.” The software began broadcasting.

“Good afternoon, everyone.” Bai Renjun greeted the audience in front of the camera. “Have you all eaten yet?”

The chat immediately began asking where Han Jiayi was.

“Where’s Jiayi?”

“Why is it just you today? We were waiting for some couple affection!”

Bai Renjun explained with a smile, “Jiayi went to the restaurant. The National Day holiday is the peak tourist season, and her family’s restaurant has just reached two stars, so business is exceptionally good. But don’t worry. I’ll stream with you all from now until Jiayi comes home tonight. I guarantee you’ll see her on camera, all right?”

Only then did the fans settle down.

Bai Renjun opened his Steam account. “What game would everyone like to watch today?”

“Blasphemous!”

“Blasphemous! I got stuck after watching you play it last time. I’ve been waiting for your livestream!”

“Exactly! I watch you for the walkthrough!”

“All right, then. The new DLC for Blasphemous has just officially been released—and it’s free. If you’re interested, go buy the game and give it a try. It’s discounted these days too, so it won’t cost much. Consider it a way of supporting Jiayi, all right?” As he spoke, Bai Renjun flexed his fingers. “Then today, I’ll start a new file and do a full-collection speedrun walkthrough. How does that sound?”

At that moment, a gift notification suddenly appeared amid the scrolling comments:

User “It’s Jiayi” has sent a “Deluxe Cat House.” Hurry and claim the treasure chest!

The Deluxe Cat House was the most expensive gift on the Cat House platform. Each one was worth two thousand yuan.

Bai Renjun froze for a moment before smiling despite himself. In a gentle voice, he said, “Thank you to my adorable girlfriend for sending me a Cat House. But you really shouldn’t have. We’re practically family—why be so formal?”

At that moment, Han Jiayi was smiling faintly at Yijia Pavilion.

“It’s only right. I can’t be there with you at the restaurant, so I’m sending you a gift to make up for it.” Han Jiayi typed on her phone.

Her message flashed by amid the teasing comments, but Bai Renjun still noticed it.

He made Han Jiayi a moderator and smiled. “The lunch rush should be over by now, right? Have you eaten?”

“I have, but there are still quite a lot of people in the restaurant. Many of them came for dessert,” Han Jiayi replied in the chat. “I’m going back to work in a moment. Do your best!”

After that, Han Jiayi sent him two more Deluxe Cat Houses.

“All right, all right, stop sending them.” Bai Renjun frowned. “Go take a break. See you tonight.”

But then gift notifications began flooding the livestream room without end.

The next person to send a gift was an account called “Sunshower.” It belonged to Yu Yang, the Cat House representative who had negotiated the contract with them.

After all, Bai Renjun already had a substantial following as a content creator, and the platform naturally wanted to show its support now that he was joining Cat House. Sending gifts would boost the livestream’s popularity and help promote his debut broadcast.

Yu Yang was quite generous. He opened with five Deluxe Cat Houses—a gift worth ten thousand yuan.

“Good grief, thank you for the gifts, Brother Yang. Thank you, thank you. I hope we have a pleasant cooperation.” Bai Renjun smiled and greeted him.

Next came a gift from the user “Little Bei Is Here”: one Deluxe Cat House.

“Little Bei, you’re right downstairs. You don’t have to be so formal,” Bai Renjun said with a bitter smile.

But the gifts continued to flood the screen one after another.

User “Old He, Brother Guang” has sent a Deluxe Cat House.

User “Little Black Wang” has sent a Deluxe Cat House.

User “Red Fort Handmade Burgers” has sent a Deluxe Cat House.

“Thank you, Old He. Thank you, Little Black Wang. And thank you to the owner of Red Fort. May business prosper.” Bai Renjun thanked each sender in turn, then said anxiously, “All right, all right, that’s really enough. I only came here planning to stream quietly. This is far too grand. You’re making me embarrassed.”

Yet even more gift notifications came from the livestream room.

User “A Fish Is Not a Fish” sent ten Deluxe Cat Houses at once, while user “Strawberry Jam” sent five.

“Wait… are those Brother Xing and Sister Xiaoxiao?” Bai Renjun asked in surprise. “No, please! I haven’t spent this much money eating at your place over all these years. How can I let you spend so much on me? Really, don’t do this…”

User “Bai’s Best Friend, Yang Hua” sent fifteen Deluxe Cat Houses.

“Oh, Yang Hua is here too! Stop sending them, stop sending them! I’m going to get angry if you keep it up!” Bai Renjun said in a panic.

Before the livestream, he had told everyone they were going to fleece the platform. How had it turned into the platform fleecing everyone instead?

He had originally intended to start the broadcast quietly and stream peacefully until Han Jiayi came home that evening. Although he was a content creator with over a million followers on Bilibili, he had only been making videos for a little more than two months. In the livestreaming world, he was even newer than new.

Moreover, with Yang Hua and the others leading the charge, the atmosphere gradually grew heated. Bai Renjun’s Bilibili fans also began sending small gifts.

Under the barrage of gifts, the popularity of Bai Renjun’s livestream skyrocketed, climbing to more than ninety million. It instantly surpassed every other streamer and shot to number one across the entire platform.

Although the popularity had been artificially propped up by the gifts and would only last temporarily, it nevertheless conveyed a message to the entire livestreaming world:

Old Bai has arrived.

Yet the outpouring of gifts left Bai Renjun red-faced with embarrassment. He genuinely felt bad. They had agreed to fleece the platform, but in the end, everyone else was the one spending money.

“All right, all right, let’s stop here with the gifts, okay? You’re all spending too much.” While making Yang Hua and the others moderators, Bai Renjun tried to dissuade them. “Please stop. Really. If you keep sending gifts, I won’t be able to stream properly. We still need to do the actual content, after all. I can’t spend the entire broadcast thanking people for gifts.”

After saying that, Bai Renjun finally composed himself and smiled.

“All right, then. Let’s continue with the walkthrough.”

(Thanks to Somewhat Plump and Seven Kinds for the two monthly passes, and thanks to Bladecross for the monthly pass.)

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