After ending her stream, the redness around her eyes had faded, and her emotions had mostly returned to normal.
Just then, her editor sent her a message.
"Itās snowing today, are you okay?"
"Not really." The thought of the vote count made Itās snowing today angry. "How could our stream stats be so different?"
"I can accept that she got all of her votes, but why were mine so low? I feel like a lot of my fans went over to her stream..."
āArenāt my boiled meatballs delicious?ā This was what Itās snowing today couldnāt wrap her head around. She thought her meatballs were genuinely amazing.
"I made these same meatballs at the last tea party, and everyone in the neighborhood came over to ask about them!"
"I was originally saving this dish for the end."
"Uh..." The editor hesitated. "Well, what you made was actually fine. Donāt sell yourself short."
"Your performance was actually pretty good, and your fans are very loyal. Itās just that your opponent was too strong. Anyone who went up against her would have ended up with the same result."
"So, you ate her dish too? What do you think? How big is the gap between us?"
"Just a little."
"...Why is everyone saying ājust a littleā today!" Itās snowing today flared up. "I donāt want to hear that! I want a more precise answer!"
In the end, the editor left her with a single sentence: You didnāt lose unfairly.
After she ended the call with her editor, the private streamer group chat was full of people tagging her, asking how sheād crashed and burned so spectacularly. They were all just trashy rivals from her cohort, so she ignored them.
The winners were advancing based on rank, and at 10 p.m., whatās-her-name would have her second-round PK. She had to go watch.
She wanted to see if that streamerās cooking was really all that.
Langlibaitiao had the same idea as Itās snowing today. He had faced Wang Henli in the first round of PKs. Although that guyās reputation wasnāt the best, a starved camel is still bigger than a horse. With a recipe in hand and plenty of experience, Wang Henli had still defeated him.
Old Langās fans were all consoling him.
But Old Lang didnāt care. "A loss is a loss. I made it to the second round anyway. Besides, I donāt want to compete anymore. Iām going to find something to eat!"
āā?
āāWhat the hell?
Langlibaitiao announced, "Iām going to watch the stream at ten, too! Iām going to get some food!"
He proclaimed in his fan group that he was going to "study the cutting-edge techniques of the new streamer" and then "rebrand" himself.
His fan group was known for being mischievous. As soon as he said that, someone immediately started rallying the troops: "Letās go, people, letās go! At ten oāclock, weāre joining Old Lang to stir things up in Jiang Jiujiuās stream!"
Jiang Qiuqiu, of course, was oblivious to all the commotion outside. After finishing her scallion pancake, she had her assistant robot clean the kitchen, chatted with Meimei about the stream, and rested for a bit. Before she knew it, it was ten oāclock.
The second round felt much more familiar than the first. She was still kneading dough, but this time she didnāt need to work it until it was perfectly smooth, and the steps were simpler.
She only paused to explain a few of the more critical steps before starting on the filling.
For the second round, Jiang Qiuqiu planned to make a preserved-vegetable-and-pork-belly pie.
The preserved-vegetable-and-pork-belly pies she often ate back in the 21st century werenāt pan-fried. They were made by street vendors in tall, repurposed oil drum ovens, baked with charcoal. The resulting flatbread was crisp yet chewy, spread with just a thin layer of preserved vegetables and meat. The charcoal fire was difficult to control, so the pies would sometimes have a hole burned right through them. But even with the holes, their unique flavor was... unforgettable.
She hadnāt prepared a tall oven for baking today, so Jiang Qiuqiu found the rack and stove she had used for the grilled oysters and bought some large, blocky stones.
She couldnāt bake the pies against the wall of an oven, but roasting them on hot stones would be just as delicious.