After shipping out the fifty catties of potatoes, Yu Ci messaged the shipping number to the buyer. When exiting out of the chat system, Yu Ci found a small red alert signal towards the lower right corner and opened the private messaging tab-
Management 003 was still seeking his attention.
Management 003: Hello Mr. Yu. I really am Admin 003 for Beluga Live. If you don’t believe me, look at my work permit!
Management 003: [Image]
Management 003: Mr. Yu, we believe you have potential to be a great anchor. Don’t worry, the terms of contract are negotiable to your preferences!
Management 003: Mr. Yu, look at me, are you really not willing to consider our offer? Think about your potatoes, and reconsider please.
Yu Ci: ….
If Yu Ci were to claim that Admin 003 was mentally sane, then Yu Ci’s IQ must not be high. He has never seen a management officer beg someone for a contract. Furthermore, Beluga Live wasn’t a broadcasting platform that had just launched and had no need for signed anchors to gather attention.
Yu Ci contemplated the offer for a while and finally asked: Question, who is your boss?
Admin 003 blinked in shock and placed their fingers. They couldn’t help but feel that this person’s sixth sense was terrifying. However, their boss did say it was okay to tell the truth. They tapped a few times on the keyboard and sent a name to Yu Ci.
- Ai Xuyang.
Yu Ci closed his eyes and confirmed that there was indeed no such person that existed in his memory bank, then searched ‘Ai Xuyang” on the search engine.
Under the search result for the name clearly announced a title: President of Beluga Live.
Alright.
Yu Ci returned a ‘thank you’ message. The more he thought about it, the more 003’s words appealed to him. If his viewers were always in the single digits, then how long will it take for his potatoes to be sold? Once 003 who had received Yu Ci’s answer, they almost broke into tears and quickly sent over an electronic contract. They reminded Yu Ci to let them know if he disagreed with anything written.
This sort of attention was overwhelming.
Yu Ci read through the contract and found that some of the clauses were so outrageous that they would make anyone go crazy. For example, if the anchor chooses to change jobs or terminate the contract early, they do not need to pay a penalty.
Yu Ci: Another question, have you seen what I look like?
003 was confused by that question, but answered truthfully, “No.” Before today, they didn’t even know that there even was an anchor called “Yu” on the platform.
With a sigh of relief, Yu Ci shook off an unrealistic thought. That was good, it seemed like they didn’t want his face and only wanted him to play by the unwritten rules.
Everything is alright.
This Beluga Live Broadcasting Platform didn’t want neither money nor sex. So in summary, they may simply be too generous. Then he should give them some face.
After signing the contract with 003, he added them on WeChat. Then, Yu Ci finally logged off the software. However, once he logged off, 003 sent him a message on WeChat: Mr. Yu, if you want to livestream in the future, please let me know in advance. I will arrange for your room to be on the recommended page.
Yu Ci returned an ‘okay.’
There was no need to wait for another day, Yu Ci chose to livestream that night. This time, the title of his room was very straightforward: ‘Live cooking and potato selling.’
When 003 read the name, they resisted their desire to complain and prepared to push the room onto the homepage of the platform. Since Yu Ci did not provide any photos, 003 used a screenshot of his previous stream. But even that image was enough to move the viewers’ hearts.
The screenshot showed a young man’s waist was standing behind the countertop. His slender white fingers held a slice of peeled potatoes. His shirt cuffs were slightly rolled up, revealing a sliver of red string. The red against the milky white background was so dazzling it caused the audiences’ mouths to go dry.
Once 003 finished preparing everything, they messaged: Mr. Yu should do whatever he feels comfortable with. The most important thing about streaming is to be happy.
Yu Ci laughed, and when the sound of his laughter reached 003’s end, the admin blanked out for a moment. Although they had heard Yu Ci’s voice yesterday, the sound suddenly became unbearable. 003 rubbed their itchy ears and coughed slightly before returning to stare at their computer.
Today Yu Ci was going to make some cheesy potato balls along with fried potato pancakes.
Potato pancakes were very simple to make. Simply steam the potatoes with some water, mash them, then prepare a cup of milk with black pepper and salt for taste, and lastly mix the milk and potatoes together before frying.
Beluga Live had a lot of user traffic. When Yu Ci began making potato pancakes, there were many viewers that came from the homepage recommendation and clicked on his stream. Some were confused at first glance.
“Eh? A new anchor?”
“Wait, is there only 1 fan?”
“Who is this anchor? I’ve been watching this platform for a long time and this is the first time a newbie was so hyped up!”
“But whatever, the streamer’s hands look so pretty! Slim white fingers. I approve.”
“Are they serious about selling potatoes?”
Yu Ci washed his hands and glanced at the comments before starting on his cheesy potato balls, “Thank you for watching my stream.”
He then proceeded to answer their questions, “Yes, I am a new streamer. Yes, I only have one fan. I just started yesterday. I am also serious about selling potatoes. These potatoes are organic and planted by me. They’re very healthy and taste delicious. If you want some, you can buy it from me.
“F*cking awesome.”
“F*ck, his voice is so pleasant!!”
“I look at that wasit. I look at that hand. I then listen to that voice. Say no more, how do I buy potatoes?”
Yu Ci chuckled, responding, “Potatoes are 8 yuan per catty. The shipping fees depend on the situation, if you buy a lot, I’ll cover it. If you don’t buy that much, then you’ll have to pay.”
“If I buy 100 catties, would I get an anchor for free?”
“No.”
“Anchor is so blunt. I’m hurt!”
Yu Ci diverted his attention back to his potatoes–which had already been steamed–and mashed them into a puree with a spoon. He then stepped backwards to grab the milk powder from a cabinet.
As the young man moved away from the camera, the audience, who originally could only see his waist, now had a view of his back. The figure underneath the casual black clothes were thin, tall, and lithe, causing many viewers to fangirl.
“F*ck! This figure is f*cking amazing. That waist!!”
“Not going to say anything else, I’m ready to rush*!”
(T/N: I’m not sure whether this (我准备冲了) means, ‘I’m ready to confess’ or something else.)
“Lift up that camera I want to look at the face! Once I see the face I’ll buy the potatoes! Ahhhhhh!”
“After seeing his body, I now understand why this newbie anchor is on the homepage. It really is because of the unwritten rules.”
“Nowadays, newcomers are so impatient.”
“Yo, upstairs what are you trying to do? You even have your favorite streamer as a username, aren’t you afraid of blackening their reputation? Stupid.”
003 had just turned around to pour himself a glass of water when the chatroom started to riot. He raised the glass and took a sip. If it were any other anchor, he definitely would’ve pretended to not have seen it. After all, these matters were dealt with by the broadcasting house* management. However, Yu Ci was a special case. A newbie streamer who only broadcasted once with one fan… he definitely did not have a manager.
(T/N: In Chinese, the streams are called “rooms”)
There was no other way. He had to personally take action.
[Admin 003 has banned Sweeping the End of the World for a month.]
[Admin 003 has banned Wang DuoJie for a month.]
[Admin 003 has banned Cutest Annoying Super Fan for a month.]
Chat: ….
There seems to be something wrong!
The commenters took a minute to react, before flooding the stream.
“What’s this? The unseen dragon’s tail* Admin 003 not only banned a streamer, but also banned an audience account?”
(T/N: 神龙不见尾 means ‘not revealing oneself’/ ‘maintaining an air of mystery’)
“Ahhhh, new anchor, what’s your background?! Why does 003 treat you so well?! This doesn’t make sense!”
“I’m shook.”
“It seems that some things are really set in stone.”
…..
When Yu Ci came back after retrieving the powdered milk, all the unpleasant comments had been pushed down by other comments. Yu Ci didn’t seem to care. He mixed the powdered milk, glutinous rice flour, and mashed potatoes into a dough. Then he kneaded it while doing his best to advertise his potatoes.
The comments were full of laughter before the tone shifted again.
“Aiya, we know. Buy buy buy!
“Alright I’m going to buy it. For the sake of your finger, I’ll buy!
“Are the anchor’s potatoes really that good? I’m afraid that you’re going to scam us.”
Yu Ci glanced at the comments and opened the bag next to him, revealing the plump potatoes inside to his camera, “I’ll show you guys what they look like first. You’ve also seen the potatoes I just steamed. They are all home grown, so there won’t be any quality issues. If you don’t believe me, just buy a small amount to test. Then if it suits your tastes, order more next time.”
“Where do we order ah? Can’t find the link.”
Generally, when a streamer was streaming, they would link the products they were promoting, which was convenient for the viewers to place their orders directly. However, Yu Ci’s stream was not very high-end, “There’s no link. Just send me a private message. After the broadcast I’ll prepare the packages for everyone.”
“The anchor really isn’t trying to scam us?”
“I’m not.” Yu Ci arched his eyebrows. His hands kept moving while he talked, “I have signed a contract with Beluga Live, and they have all my personal information. If I lied to you, you can immediately call the police to arrest me.”
003 covered his face. This Mr. Yu was so straightforward—to the point of leaving others speechless, however, his honesty was quite refreshing. It may sound unpleasant hearing Mr. Yu talked about the police arresting him, but it carried his message across and gave his audience a peace of mind.
Yu Ci rubbed the potato-dough pieces into small dumplings, then wrapped them with cheese slices and breadcrumbs before frying.
With the oil sizzling away, Yu Ci glanced at the number of viewers.
Six hundred thousand.
For a new streamer, attracting that many people within half an hour was quite a feat. Afterwards, Yu Ci checked the number of subscribers he had. The pitiful one fan had grown into the hundred thousands.
Nodding in satisfaction, he then opened his messages to see there were already over 99 messages waiting for him.
It seems that selling potatoes through live broadcast was a feasible task.
Translator’s Notes/Comments:
I suddenly remembered that in Chinese livestreams, the comments are technically shown floating across the screen.
L'oeuf Reads 
thanks for the chapter! 🙂 ❤
LikeLike
Oh, that kind of makes sense since they read backwards and stuff
LikeLike