Chapter 143: The Bright Avenue

After finishing their midday meal, Bai Rinzong bid farewell to Zhang Yunhui, and then set off on the journey home alongside Han Jiayi and Wang Bei.

This trip to Chengdu could truly be described as remarkably fruitful. Not only had he recorded six episodes' worth of culinary footage that would sustain his uploads for an entire month, but his relationship with Han Jiayi had also progressed further, making his development path for the future much clearer.

At the mere thought of this, Bai Rinzong was in exceptionally high spirits.

As the saying goes, a golden nest or a silver nest can never compare to one's own humble kennel. The moment he stepped back into his home, Bai Rinzong finally felt his entire being relax completely.

"Ah... finally home." Bai Rinzong collapsed onto the sofa in a state of utter limp exhaustion, completely devoid of any desire to move.

Han Jiayi sat down beside him, leaning against his chest while gazing at him with deep affection. "Old Bai, won't you help me move my things upstairs? From now on, I'll be sharing a room with you."

"Won't you regret it?" Bai Rinzong gently tapped the tip of her nose.

"Never!" Han Jiayi laughed merrily. "It's just that... ever since I got together with you, I've felt so at ease. There's no need to put on a facade, and spending time together brings genuine happiness. No matter what I do, I never have to worry about you looking down on me."

"That's because I've always loved the real you," Bai Rinzong chuckled. "Well then, shall we go move your things?"

In truth, there weren't all that many belongings to bring over. Most of Han Jiayi's items remained in her own room, and she only needed to bring her pajamas, undergarments, laptop, and other essentials she used on a daily basis.

"Hehe!" After taking a shower, while Bai Rinzong was helping her blow-dry her hair, the silly girl watched him through the mirror and giggled happily to herself.

Bai Rinzong merely smiled faintly and continued drying her hair.

"All done." Bai Rinzong switched off the hair dryer, then lowered his head to place a kiss upon the crown of her head.

"I love you the most," Han Jiayi turned around, embraced him tightly, and gave him a hearty kiss. "Come on, it's getting late. Let's get to sleep early, because tomorrow we start dealing with serious business."

The two of them lay down in bed, sharing some gentle intimacy for a short while.

"Oh?!" Bai Rinzong widened his eyes in astonishment. "You girl, you usually seem so calm and unflustered, but you've actually got quite some substance to you?!"

"Hmph, only noticing that now..." Han Jiayi shot him a sideways, dissatisfied glance. "I'll have you know I'm a C-cup! Above the average standard!"

"Yes, yes, yes, it was my oversight," Bai Rinzong said, unable to hold back a chuckle. "Isn't this quite an unexpected harvest, though?"

"Oh, alright, that's enough..." Han Jiayi feigned annoyance. "You've practically fondled every inch of me, you should be satisfied by now, shouldn't you? This is only our first night, you know?"

"Mm, I'm satisfied," Bai Rinzong nodded with a smile, thinking to himself that there was no need to rush—one step at a time, and they could take things further tomorrow.

"Good night." Bai Rinzong pressed a kiss to Han Jiayi's forehead.

"Love you..." Han Jiayi smiled sweetly, wrapped her arms around his waist, propped one of her pretty legs over him, and drifted off to a deeply content sleep.

Actually, haven't I just replaced that toy bear? Bai Rinzong mused inwardly. I suppose you could call this a wish come true?

Thus, Bai Rinzong and Han Jiayi officially began their cohabiting life.

However, the two of them did not have much leisure time to enjoy the sweet bliss of living together, because the days following their return from the business trip were simply overflowing with tasks to manage.

Although the content gathered from this business trip was extensive enough to yield eight videos, they constituted a single series. It would be unsuitable to release them every two or three days, as viewers would quickly forget the preceding context; therefore, a daily release schedule—one episode per day—was optimal.

The first video Bai Rinzong published was the dual collaboration with Zhang Yunhui at "Yunmengze," while the remaining restaurant-review videos would be rolled out one per day, spanning precisely an entire week.

During this week, he could livestream some gaming content and subsequently use the broadcast footage as material to be edited into gaming appreciation reviews.

As for Han Jiayi, upon returning home she devoted herself entirely to the research of "Kiss," attempting to recreate this novel culinary creation.

On October 14th, the day after the release of the "Yunmengze" restaurant review video, Bai Rinzong skyrocketed to widespread fame across the entire internet.

Because the "Yunmengze" video possessed exceptionally high quality and featured a joint collaboration between two content creators, it naturally secured a spot on the homepage of Station D immediately after its publication.

Simultaneously, Zhang Yunhui also published a special dual-collaboration video on his Station D account "Grey Wolf." In it, he juxtaposed the segment where Bai Rinzong guessed the ingredients at Yunmengze against the attempts of other content creators visiting the same restaurant, showering Bai Rinzong with high praise and declaring, "Now that is what a professional gourmet looks like."

The vegetarian restaurant "Yunmengze" was actually quite famous within the circles of content creators and live-streamers. Numerous creators had previously filmed reviews there, making it virtually a mandatory pilgrimage site for food vloggers, much like the "Eating Lemons Without Expression" challenge.

Those creators and streamers visited "Yunmengze" not genuinely to review the establishment, but rather to ride on the coattails of its trending popularity.

Even though the vast majority of creators went there simply to make fools of themselves... generating clout was all that mattered.

Just as Head Chef Chen Bin had remarked, their establishment's nickname was practically the "Some Kind of Mushroom" restaurant.

While countless creators visited, the number of individuals who could accurately identify all the ingredients used was vanishingly small. Most of them simply settled on "some kind of mushroom," whereas Bai Rinzong was the very first creator to guess every single component correctly, rendering his expertise unmistakably evident.

Naturally, not everyone became a follower of Bai Rinzong immediately.

A multitude of viewers believed that Bai Rinzong had colluded with the restaurant to stage a performance. However, upon investigating his previous videos—including wine tasting at the red wine exhibition and various earlier restaurant reviews—they finally realized that Bai Rinzong possessed genuine, highly sensitive taste buds and was even a member of the International Gastronomes Association, prompting them to transform into loyal fans.

Put simply, Bai Rinzong's formidable strength earned him a massive wave of new followers.

Within a mere two days, the view count for the "Yunmengze" review video soared to ten million. Meanwhile, Bai Rinzong's subscriber count skyrocketed, surging by five hundred thousand within forty-eight hours, bringing his total follower count to an impressive one million nine hundred and sixty thousand!

Due to the cross-platform migration of fans between Station D and Cat House, Bai Rinzong's livestream followings experienced an explosive growth as well. Although the live broadcast sessions during his three-day trip had been relatively brief, his follower count surged past four hundred thousand.

Achieving four hundred thousand followers after just two weeks of streaming, coupled with the "Yunmengze" review that propelled him to internet-wide stardom, meant that even the most obtuse senior executives at Cat House now realized that signing Bai Rinzong had been an absolute stroke of immense luck.

Capitalizing on the momentum generated by the "Yunmengze" wave, Bai Rinzong engaged in a round of negotiations with the Beichang Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism.

In this society where results dictate one's standing, a creator wielding such formidable influence as Bai Rinzong naturally secured a promotional partnership with the tourism bureau without a hitch. Furthermore, this collaborative promotion even included a share in "Beichang Economic Television Live," the highest-rated broadcasting channel in Beichang.

What Bai Rinzong needed to do was periodically submit video footage and promotional copy to the television station featuring restaurants that embodied local specialty culture. The station would then dispatch personnel to compile these into professional video segments for broadcast on television, thereby promoting local tourism.

In other words, Bai Rinzong now possessed the most powerful backing in the entire world: the State.

Before this colossal backing, what on earth were the illusions of the Phantom World Group?

From this moment onward, Bai Rinzong had completely widened the path of a content creator. Stretching out before him was a radiant, golden avenue, and he would never again need to fret over filming permits or the dilemma of speaking the absolute truth.

On October 16th, having completely wrapped up the concluding tasks of their Chengdu excursion, they gathered at He Guang's residence to properly celebrate their triumphant success.

"Cheers!" the group chorused excitedly, clinking their glasses together.

"This is wonderful!" Wang Bei exclaimed happily, draining her glass of fruit beer in a single gulp. "Our Old Bai is truly a renowned content creator now! That 'Yunmengze' review video has exploded across the entire internet, getting frantically reposted by major websites!"

"Yet a good portion of those are unauthorized, illegal reposts exploiting legal loopholes..." Bai Rinzong sneered. "Once next month's video revenue comes in, we'll need to hire a legal consultant. These bastards who steal videos are getting entirely too rampant; we need to make an example of a few of them and crack down hard. Stealing other people's property to line their own pockets while hypocritically calling it 'helping with promotion'—what absolute nonsense! These pirating animals have completely abandoned all shame."

"Next month's video earnings should be remarkably high," Wang Bei said with a proud smile. "This 'Yunmengze' episode has drastically increased Old Bai's popularity, so our commercial endorsement rates will naturally have to rise accordingly. If we secure two commercial deals this month, combined with our livestreaming revenue, our studio's earnings this month should easily break the half-million mark!"

However, livestreaming revenues were distributed on a quarterly basis—disbursed only once every three months—so that portion could not be collected just yet.

At that moment, He Guang looked at Bai Rinzong with a serious expression and said, "I have something to discuss with you. I know content creators generally prefer editing their own videos because they understand best which parts to omit and which to keep. But from now on, please hand the editing work over to me as well. After watching so many of your videos, I have a deep understanding of your style. I can do it well, trust me."

"No problem," Bai Rinzong replied with a hearty laugh. "That will give me more time to hunt for material, which is fantastic."

"Mm," a rare trace of a smile appeared on He Guang's face. "Let's keep pushing forward; things are only going to get better."

Li莫涵 (Li Mohan) cheerfully chimed in, "Come, come, come! Everyone is in high spirits today, so eat up and drink up!"

"Hmph hmph..." At that, Bai Rinzong could no longer suppress the excitement surging within his heart. He clenched his fists and chuckled, "From now on, I can finally speak the unadulterated truth without a single reservation! Starting tomorrow, we're going to review every single shop in Beichang City, one by one. We'll unearth all those scam establishments just like that Ge'an Sushi place and expose them online for everyone to see their true colors! Hahaha!"

"Honestly..." Han Jiayi poked his cheek with a mixture of exasperation and amusement. "You—I never even saw you look this happy on the day you asked me out..."

"Don't talk nonsense," Bai Rinzong caught her little hand and planted a kiss upon it. "The day I got together with you was the happiest day of my life. As for my mood right now... to put it accurately, it's just sheer, unadulterated thrill."

A faint blush crept across Han Jiayi's face. She lowered her gaze to her wine glass, suppressing her laughter as she muttered, "There are so many people here, and there's even a child present. Have you no shame at all?"