"Xiaolan, come on, say hi to everyone!"
"I'm Ah Qing, and this is Xiaolan. Thank you all for liking our Xiaolan. I'll be updating some daily content about Xiaolan, Lai Foo, and Big Black in my spare time outside of the livestream."
Seeing the flood of traffic, Ah Qing originally wanted to post a funny video to verify that the account was indeed hers, and to show everyone her pretty little fox at home.
But the more anxious you are, the less you can come up with good ideas. It turns out that when someone is pushed to a certain limit, they give up.
Ah Qing turned on the professional lighting, let Xiaolan jump onto her shoulder, faced Mo Yiqing, who was recording a short video with a phone, and started her introduction with a smile, slightly embarrassed.
Ansheng thought for a moment, then straightened his expression, faced the camera, and raised his little fox paw in greeting.
"Hey!"
Mo Yiqing, who was holding the phone, quickly signaled to Ah Qing with her eyes that she hadn't finished speaking.
Ah Qing paused, thought for a moment, and suddenly slapped her thigh and quickly added, "Oh right, right! Almost forgot the most important thing. If you all like us, feel free to follow us; you'll be the first to know when new videos are updated."
"OK!"
Mo Yiqing stopped recording the video, expertly forwarded the video to Tang You to help with editing, then sent it to Ah Qing's phone: "I'll boost the video's traffic for you; it's a rare chance, don't waste it..."
"Also, while you have time, think about whether you can insert a program into the livestream later that crazily humiliates the fishing guys for effect. On the Note platform, the Air Force fishing guys are quite popular."
"Fishing guys... isn't that not so good? The only fishing guy I know is my dad." Ah Qing spoke with a sheepish look after hearing Mo Yiqing's suggestion.
"What's wrong with it? It's great. If Old Deng knew the Air Force has traffic, and could help you earn money, he'd definitely be happy." Ansheng said cheerfully:
"If it doesn't work, I'll steal Aunt Momo's phone later and fish out Lao Yi. I'll fly over with a stun device and zap him."
The little fox, unaffected by its irresponsible talk, spewed out some harebrained ideas.
"Hmm?"
Mo Yiqing was topping up her account when she saw a bank call coming in on her phone screen. She blinked and took the call.
"Hello Miss Mo, may I ask if you've been the victim of fraud? We've detected unusual activity on your account in the past couple of days..."
"It's fine, just giving gifts for a sister's livestream, don't worry about the spending; it's all me." Mo Yiqing responded perfunctorily and hung up.
"Your dad's call?"
"A bank's risk alert. Oh, before, when I first got to Xia Dong, the moment I crossed the provincial border, the bank kept calling me not to go to some Xiao Village or whatever, is it famous around here?"
"The bank has that service?" Ah Qing looked at Momo in confusion and said, "Xiao Village? The bank was probably talking about Yunxiu Village, right? There's no natural resource there; they usually just gather small funds to invest in businesses elsewhere."
"I heard half the people from a village there ended up in big trouble due to financial crimes, but I don't know much about it, I've never been there..."
......
Time was approaching nine o'clock.
Ah Qing arrived at the farmers' market, started today's livestream with the little fox, and began walking towards the tea competition public review area.
[Streamer, please turn around! I, Huang, have never begged anyone in my life, truly, so please consider it as me begging you to turn around! I want to see the cheongsam sister!]
The screen in Ah Qing's livestream was filled with a barrage of requests asking her to turn around, with exaggerated pleas.
In Changxi Town's tea farmer direct sales area, beautiful girls were all seated at tea tables with joyful smiles, their graceful demeanor raising their long-spouted kettles as they expertly brewed tea like a flowing mountain stream.
The tea competition had just begun, with not many tourists or tea merchants present, so Ah Qing managed to capture this beautiful scene entirely when she started the livestream.
The audience in the livestream room was stunned, almost thinking they'd entered some sort of inappropriate broadcast.
One of the highlights of the tea competition, aside from the tea itself, was the diverse array of tea masters with outstanding temperaments.
Of course, the reason why there were so many beautiful tea masters present was because the tea farmers or local factories paid them to help attract customers.
Tea farmers do not only engage in bulk business with tea merchants but also in smaller quantities with individual customers.
And attracting customers and directing traffic became a battle within the tea competition direct sales area.
After a quick glimpse, half the audience in the livestream was begging Ah Qing to turn around.
"Ah Qing, don't listen to them, just hold them in suspense. Only when they're desperately clawing will we obtain the pure Wish Power points." The little fox was laughing heartily, as if seeing how frustrated the viewers were behind their screens.
You begging Ah Qing won't help.
Just quickly wish to Master Fox and say you want to see pretty ladies.
If Master Fox hears your wish, he'll take you to the direct sales area to meet the ladies, maybe, with Ansheng's looks, you could even snag a WeChat ID!
"Do you all want to see the direct sales area? We'll talk about that after we come back from the tea competition! I have a feeling talking about the direct sales area right now would explode the livestream." Ah Qing consulted the comments on the screen, then spoke after pondering for a moment.
Ah Qing continued walking forward; the tea competition public review area was right next to the direct sales area, where there was more foot traffic.
"In the tea competition area, tea tasting is free. You're welcome to visit and leave a review."
Upon reaching the entrance of the tea competition area, Ah Qing received an ordinary ballpoint pen from the hostess.
Due to the camera effect, the hostess, who was originally yawning, flashed a perfect smile as she watched Ah Qing enter the venue before reverting to a sour face.
"Xiaolan, what tea do you want to drink today?" Ah Qing turned to the little fox with a smile.
"... Can I not drink?" Ansheng said with black lines across his face, seeing Ah Qing's expectant gaze.
The venue for the village-level tea competition... Ansheng usually wouldn't come to taste tea unless there was something noteworthy.
Since everyone operated small tea workshops, they often resorted to brewing tricks within compliant limits to stand out in the competition.
One common tactic was to amplify astringency and bitterness to quickly numb the judges' taste buds, rendering them unable to tell the poor quality of the tea broth, but only able to smell lingering fragrance.
That's also why tea lovers buy those prize-winning teas online at high prices, only to receive tea samples that make them almost cry after tasting.
Wouldn't you cry? The judges taste hundreds of such specially crafted flavor bombs daily, effectively losing their taste.
Asking them to judge a tea broth's quality is truly challenging.
Thus, when buying award-winning teas, one primary reference standard is the reviews of on-site tourists.
"Blah blah blah—"
Seeing Ah Qing offer a disposable spoon right to his mouth, Ansheng reluctantly opened his mouth, extended his tongue, and tried a bit of the tea from the spoon.
As soon as he swallowed, the little fox's tongue almost popped out of his throat, and Ansheng jumped angrily to shout:
"Scoundrel! They didn't even process the green properly, yet dare to serve it to me?"
"It tastes bitter, like chewing on cow dung, lucky Ah Qing is livestreaming, or I'd have zapped you already!"
The little fox was already jumping around shouting.
Ah Qing looked strangely as she listened to Xiaolan's extremely disrespectful words, took the disposable spoon offered by the official tea master in her hands again.
Ah Qing opened her mouth, reluctantly tried a sip, but the broth didn't even go down her throat before making a face of pure agony as she ran to the tea bucket to spit it out, her face full of regret, saying, "My tongue's numb from the bitterness, it feels like it doesn't belong to me anymore..."
[23333]
[I was just saying, the fox looked unwilling like Wu Dalang drinking medicine, turns out it really knows about tea! Just smelling it can tell the broth's quality.]
Joy doesn't fade; it shifts.
Especially seeing the little fox standing up, busting out angry words at the tea master, was particularly amusing.
Combined with Ah Qing nearly spitting out her breakfast after tasting, viewers in the livestream room further began to believe... Xia Dong's fox really knows its tea.