After posting the video and the link, Xu Yanxia went about her other tasks.
By the time she realized her video had gone viral, it was already evening, right when her brother and Luo Jiajia came to drop off some pastries for her.
They had been away for four days. Anxious about their night market stall, Xu Zhanpeng and Luo Jiajia had rushed back immediately after finalizing the purchase of a house in their hometown that morning, having just arrived in Rong City.
Since the couple still had to hurry to the night market, they could only spare a few moments to chat with Xu Yanxia by the side of the road.
"The house is all sorted out and registered under Grandma and Grandpa's names. In a few days, we just need to tell them to go pick up the property deed."
Stepping out of the car, Luo Jiajia handed Xu Yanxia the pastries meant for CEO Lu and said excitedly, "Xiao Xia, I just came across your account! Your very first video already has over three hundred thousand likes and more than twenty thousand comments. You're amazing!"
"Really?"
Xu Yanxia remained quite calm. "I've been so busy I haven't even checked. It must be because the Second Miss gave me a shoutout; she has tens of millions of followers, after all. Later, I'll give you a shoutout too, to help drive some traffic to our teppanyaki stall."
"Sounds like a plan."
Luo Jiajia nodded, beaming at her. "I also saw clips from your livestream last night while we were in the car today. Mr. Lu is so handsome, and the Second Miss is gorgeous, but you completely held your own next to them! Keep it up, Xiao Xia, you definitely have what it takes to be an internet celebrity!!!"
Xu Yanxia was speechless for a moment. "...I don't really want to be an internet celebrity. I just want to have a little project of my own outside of work."
"Well, you're the best anyway!"
Luo Jiajia said with a smile, "You really found the perfect job. Keep it up!"
From inside the car, her brother hurried Luo Jiajia, "Let's go, Jiajia, or we'll hit traffic soon."
Luo Jiajia waved goodbye to her. "We'll chat more when you have a day off."
Xu Yanxia waved back, watching as the two drove away.
At half-past six in the evening, the sky over Rong City was blanketed in the warm colors of the sunset, and a gentle breeze blew in from the distant sea.
Half an hour earlier, the Third Young Master, Lu Jingyao, had already finished his dinner and headed back to school. Meanwhile, CEO Lu, who had gone out that morning, had not yet returned. Finding herself with a moment of free time, she carried the pastries through the gates of the Lu residence and casually opened her TikTok account.
Only then did she realize that Luo Jiajia hadn't been exaggerating.
The video she posted that afternoon had indeed received over three hundred thousand likes and twenty thousand comments.
Her follower count had skyrocketed from less than ten to over two hundred thousand, and it was still climbing rapidly.
Such was the power of the superstar, Queen Xixi!!!
Xu Yanxia silently marveled at the influence before tapping into the comment section to see everyone's feedback.
To her surprise, the very first thing she saw was a comment from Lu Jingming. He was using the same English name, "Noah," that he had used when gifting a Carnival in last night's livestream—
"Looks delicious, keep it up."
Beneath those few simple words were over three thousand replies.
She clicked on the thread, only to find a sea of screaming comments—
"Ahhhhh it's Queen Xixi's CEO older brother!!! We've caught a real-life domineering CEO!!!"
"Ahhh the eldest brother gave Xiao Xia the first comment!!! You can tell it's true love!!!"
"I saw the eldest brother attending a forum in Harbor City this morning, so is he slacking off at the forum to watch Xiao Xia's video?!!"
"Noah" had replied to this comment with a simple, "Yes."
This sparked another wave of frenzy—
"Ahhh this is literally a CEO romance novel coming to life!!! I'm shipping them so hard!!"
"Sugar overload!!! The eldest brother and Xiao Xia are a perfect match!!!"
"I'll gladly devour this sweet PDA!!!"
...
Xu Yanxia, "..."
It was her fault. She shouldn't have sent the video to the group chat to ask for opinions while CEO Lu was attending an event.
She was too exhausted to explain; she would just let the netizens ship them to their hearts' content.
She scrolled down through more comments, replied to a few netizens asking for cooking advice, and then exited the app to continue walking back to the house.
Unexpectedly, she heard someone call her name, "Xiao Xia."
She quickly turned around and saw a Bentley Mulsanne with dual license plates pulling into the courtyard. Lu Jingming stepped out of the backseat.
—He hadn't driven himself today; Uncle Zhao was acting as his chauffeur.
Xu Yanxia stopped in her tracks and greeted him, "You're back."
Lu Jingming gave a hum of acknowledgment. In a few strides, he closed the distance between them and asked, "What are you carrying?"
"Oh,"
Xu Yanxia hurriedly offered him the pastries in her hands. "My brother just returned from our hometown and brought you some of our local pastries. They aren't expensive, but they are quite unique."
"I'll gladly accept them, then."
Lu Jingming took the box, thanked her, and asked, "They're back already?"
Xu Yanxia nodded. "They headed straight back after buying the house this morning. They just went directly to the night market so they could still catch tonight's rush hour."
She was just about to ask if he had eaten when his phone suddenly rang with a video call.
Lu Jingming answered and called out "Mom," as Mrs. Lu's face appeared on the screen.
Europe was seven hours behind Rong City, so it was currently a bright, sunny noon over there.
Mrs. Lu asked him, "Jingming, are you home yet?"
Lu Jingming nodded. "Just got back."
Mrs. Lu then asked, "Have you seen Xiao Xia? I have a few things I need to instruct her about."
"She's right beside me."
Lu Jingming handed the phone directly to Xu Yanxia.
Xu Yanxia took it and greeted Mrs. Lu on the other end, "Madam, I'm here. Please tell me what you need."
Mrs. Lu said, "Aren't we hosting a banquet for Mrs. He and the others on Wednesday? I just sent the guest list and their preferences to Aunt Zhang. Ask her for it later. A few of them have dietary restrictions, so you need to pay close attention to that."
"By the way, aren't you supposed to have Tuesday off? Since the rest of us are out of town this week and Jingming is the only one at home—and he'll be at work tomorrow—why don't you start your day off early tonight? That way, when you come back tomorrow evening, you'll have plenty of time to prepare."
Xu Yanxia nodded quickly, "No problem, Madam."
"That's good."
Mrs. Lu smiled and added, "We won't be home until Wednesday noon, so please put some extra thought into things over the next few days. If anything comes up, you can ask Aunt Zhang or Jingming. This meal is very important to us, so I'm counting on you."
"I understand. Please don't worry."
Xu Yanxia gave a serious nod.
Seeing that Mrs. Lu had no further instructions, she handed the phone back to Lu Jingming.
Mother and son chatted briefly before hanging up.
The two of them continued toward the living room. Just as they were about to enter, Xu Yanxia's phone started ringing.
She took out her phone, glanced at the screen, and saw that it was her senior from university, Lin Hengnan, calling.
She and Lin Hengnan usually communicated via WeChat. Since he was calling out of the blue, she figured it might be something important. She quickly said to Lu Jingming, "Excuse me, Mr. Lu. I need to take this call. Please go on inside."
Lu Jingming nodded. "Go ahead."
However, he stopped in his tracks as well, making no move to go inside.
His gaze followed Xu Yanxia as she took a couple of steps outward. She answered the phone and called out, "Senior," and sure enough, the faint voice of the guy they had bumped into yesterday at Huanong could be heard coming from the receiver.
He was asking her, "Xiao Xia, are you free right now?"
"I mean, is it convenient for you to come out?"
Lu Jingming quietly frowned.
At this hour, this guy was asking her to go out?
