She unlocked her phone and scrolled casually, checked her WeChat Moments for a bit, then tapped into the backend of her short-video app and found her follower count had gone up by tens of thousands again.
Among the new comments, some posted photos taken with her at the night market tonight, some were still shipping her and Lu Jingming, and others asked her cooking questions.
She picked a few to reply to, then exited the backend and returned to the recommendation page.
As coincidence would have it, the first thing she saw was the news about the business forum Lu Jingming attended in Harbor City today.
The news started with interview clips of several economics experts and business elites, followed immediately by footage of Lu Jingming giving his speech on stage and being interviewed. He switched fluently between Chinese and English, his remarks sharp and precise, without a single wasted word.
Most importantly, dressed in a British-style suit, he looked flawlessly handsome under the high-definition cameras without a single bad angle.
She tapped open the comments. Sure enough, most were praising his looks and posting screenshots of him.
Among them was a photo of him sitting in the VIP section, head bowed and eyes lowered to his phone, a faint smile playing on his lips.
Some netizens were screaming under the photo:
"Who gets this smile?! It's so doting and gives such CEO vibes!!!"
There were also comments from their shippers: "Could this be when Big Brother gave Xiao Xia her first comment on her video today? Big Brother admitted himself that he was slacking off at work to leave Xiao Xia a comment! He's smiling so affectionately, oh my god!!!"
Xu Yanxia was speechless. "..."
Was that true?
After thinking for a moment, she returned to her own comment section and tapped on the replies under Lu Jingming's comment.
She saw that comment again where someone asked if he was slacking off at the business forum. The timestamp on his reply showed it was ten hours ago.
"..."
Alright, he definitely would have still been at the forum at that time.
She locked her phone. In the dark, she couldn't help but recall Luo Jiajia's words from earlier.
Did he... really like her?
...
Perhaps due to her slight insomnia the night before, Xu Yanxia took a rare opportunity to sleep in.
By the time she woke up, it was already eight o'clock.
Luo Jiajia had already finished washing up, and her brother, Xu Zhanpeng, had gotten up, made breakfast next door, and brought it over for them.
Beef pies, hard-boiled eggs, a dish of chili oil pickles, a dish of cucumber tossed in sesame oil, and two cartons of milk.
Her brother asked her with a bit of concern, "I heard from Jiajia that you were still working on documents when you got back last night. What time did you finally go to sleep?"
"I went to bed before twelve."
Still a bit sleepy-eyed, Xu Yanxia quickly went to wash up and told her brother, "I'll send it to Mr. Lu in a bit."
Xu Zhanpeng sighed. "This isn't something that needs to be rushed in a day or two. You finally have a day off, it would have been better to sleep in a little longer."
Seeing her sit down, he handed her a beef pie. "Eat first."
"Okay."
Xu Yanxia took the pie and took a bite. She couldn't help but marvel at how great it was to have a day off. Being able to eat a ready-made meal without having to lift a finger was true happiness!
As she ate, she heard her brother say, "Xiao Xia, I was a bit arbitrary before. I didn't even know Mr. Lu, yet I spoke poorly of him. That was definitely my fault... Mr. Lu is quite cultured and has good taste. If you two are really dating, you don't have to hide it from me."
Pfft...
Xu Yanxia, who was drinking milk, nearly choked. She coughed twice before managing to say to her brother, "What are you talking about? We're not dating at all."
Xu Zhanpeng let out an "Oh" and added, "Well, if you do start dating later, don't hide it from me either..."
"Cough..."
Xu Yanxia choked again, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "There's nothing going on!"
Luo Jiajia, who was sitting to the side, couldn't stand it anymore and directly asked Xu Zhanpeng, "If you have something to say, just tell Xiao Xia straight. You're siblings, why beat around the bush?"
Xu Zhanpeng finally spoke up again. "I thought about it some more after coming back last night. Although opening a restaurant would be really great for us, I don't want you to owe Mr. Lu and his family a favor because of this. Our family's background is completely different from theirs. If his family uses this against you in the future... then I'd rather keep running the street stall for a few more years."
Xu Yanxia understood now. So her brother also thought the investment was because Lu Jingming liked her?
She thought for a moment, then asked her brother seriously, "Brother, if it wasn't someone investing in us right now, but we had our own money to open a restaurant, do you think we would lose money?"
Xu Zhanpeng said, "As long as we get a reliable location, I think we definitely won't lose money."
After all, he had run restaurants for many years and had been in Rong City for a while now. He was confident in his culinary skills and the local market.
Xu Yanxia then said, "That settles it. Putting aside what's going on between him and me, his willingness to invest in us shows he has a good eye. We just need to repay him with our profits. To put it bluntly, this is a cooperative relationship between us. No one is inferior to the other."
"Exactly!"
Luo Jiajia quickly chimed in to Xu Zhanpeng, "We're signing a contract, not taking their million for free. If we do a good job, they should be thanking us."
"That's true."
Xu Zhanpeng finally nodded and said to his sister, "I was just worried that family matters might cause you to suffer a loss in the future... Well, take your time eating. I'm going back to prep the ingredients."
Although the two apartments they rented were next to each other, their sizes were different. Xu Zhanpeng's place was larger, so cooking and prep work were usually done over there.
Xu Yanxia quickly added an instruction, "Brother, save some beef offal for me. I'll need it for shooting a video later."
It was so kind of Queen Xixi to specifically direct traffic to her yesterday, causing her to gain so many followers in a single day. She couldn't afford to slack off; she had to keep making videos.
Today, she might as well take advantage of her day off to promote a wave of their own signature dishes.
"Will do."
Xu Zhanpeng returned next door.
After Xu Yanxia and Luo Jiajia finished eating, she sent the document she had prepared last night to Lu Jingming's email via the office system, and then went next door to shoot her video.
Although it was only her second day doing this and she was still a bit unskillful, thankfully she had Luo Jiajia helping with the filming. She only had to focus on the cooking and the commentary.
However, today's dish had to be completed in two stages. Seeing that the beef offal was seasoned and already simmering in the pot, they had to wait at least two hours before they could shoot the second step. Luo Jiajia handed the phone back to her and casually mentioned, "I think Mr. Lu just sent you a WeChat message."
"Oh, really?"
Xu Yanxia took the phone and opened WeChat. Sure enough, she saw the messages from Lu Jingming:
"I've forwarded the document to the investment firm. After discussing it, they will probably want to meet with you in person."
"Also, the employment contract for Jiushan has been drafted. I'll send you the electronic version to look over first. Let me know anytime if you have any questions."
Both messages were sent over forty minutes ago. Xu Yanxia quickly replied with an "Okay."
Then she opened the contract to read it.
There were no issues with the rest of it, except the number under the salary section was a hundred thousand higher than last time.
"???"
What was going on? The amount he offered last time was already high enough, so why had it increased again?
