After posting the job advertisement online, Su Yiran quickly hired a long-term employee within two days. Her name was Zhang Xiaohong, and she had previously worked as an apprentice in a cake shop.

Su Yiran planned to give her a three-day trial period before signing a formal contract.

He had also decided earlier to have Xiaowen and the other student work part-time at the shop every weekend as long-term employees.

Su Yiran discussed this with them, and both were delighted, readily agreeing, and signing contracts with him. With new employees, the monthly wage expenses increased, putting more pressure on revenue generation.

The past two days were weekdays, and the foot traffic in the commercial district was significantly lower than on weekends.

Moreover, the new store’s discount period had passed, making business considerably slower.

However, they were still in the “honeymoon period” for new stores, so many people who discovered the new shop came out of curiosity to try the taste. Thus, customer flow was decent, considered average.

Plus, there were quite a few repeat customers; over a dozen customers who lived or worked nearby came to the shop once, were very satisfied with the taste, and returned again, some even bringing several new customers.

This situation was already much better than what Su Yiran experienced in his previous life.

In his past life, during the initial stages of his entrepreneurship, Su Yiran endured many hardships and encountered numerous difficulties. Conditions back then were not as good as now.

Opening a shop seemed simple, but once he actually started operating it, he realized how difficult it truly was—he had thought it too simple. At that time, there was much he didn’t understand, and no one could teach him. Many things he learned through slow, self-guided exploration, enduring a period of hardship before finally succeeding. In this life, with his experience and the exclusive recipes he had perfected in his previous life, which were highly praised, things were much easier.

It had only been a few days since the shop opened, so there was no need to rush. The priority was to build a good reputation, stabilize existing customers, and gradually expand the customer base.

It was just past noon, and there weren’t many customers in the shop. Su Yiran used the shop’s computer to check the store’s website for routine maintenance. He had previously uploaded a short video of himself making a peach mousse cake to the website, but the current website traffic was entirely from Su Yiran’s own clicks, and the video had gone unnoticed.

Then, he suddenly remembered the live streaming idea that his senior had mentioned on the day the shop opened. With nothing else to do, Su Yiran grew interested. He opened the live streaming platform where his senior worked, called Apple Live, which was currently the most popular live streaming platform on the entire network.

He looked at the homepage of Apple Live. The types of live streams were diverse, with gaming and singing/chatting streams being the most popular.

There was also a third major category: lifestyle streams, which included subcategories like food, learning, crafts, and outdoor activities. Besides live streaming, broadcasters on this platform could also upload short videos, and there was a dedicated short video section.

Su Yiran registered an account, choosing the nickname “My Yiting Desserts”. He uploaded the cake-making video from his shop’s website to the platform, with the title: “Teaching you how to make super delicious peach mousse cake.”

He had just finished uploading and publishing it when customers arrived at the shop again. He didn’t bother with it further, closed the browser, and went to greet the customers. Customers came in waves; the shop would be busy for a while, then quiet for a while.

This was actually related to a psychological phenomenon—when passersby saw many customers inside a shop, they subconsciously felt that the shop was good and would try it if it was convenient, leading to more and more customers during that time. Conversely, if they saw only one or two customers, or even none, they would assume the shop wasn’t good and wouldn’t feel any desire to try it, resulting in few customers during that period.

Thus, alternating between busy and quiet, it quickly reached past 4 PM, and the shop was empty again. Su Yiran finished tidying the counter, remembered the short video he uploaded to Apple Live at noon, and opened the Apple Live website again. To his surprise, in just three or four hours, the short video he had just posted at noon had garnered hundreds of views and was even trending in the lifestyle section’s real-time popular category, with a small flame icon added to its title.

The lifestyle sub-section of the short video board was a relatively niche area on Apple Live, so a new short video getting hundreds of views was already an excellent result. The video primarily taught viewers how to make peach mousse cake. He didn’t show his face; the camera focused on the cake-making process. He clicked on the video and saw lines of bullet comments floating across the screen:

[Just passing by.]

[Looks delicious, good job, streamer.]

[Streamer teaches in great detail, I’ll learn to make it when I have time.]

The first few bullet comments were normal, either from bored passersby or praising him. Then, suddenly, after a certain comment, the tone changed completely…

[Ahhhhh, am I the only one who noticed the streamer’s beautiful hands!! Hand fetishists are suffocating!!!!]

[You are not alone!!!]

[Not alone +1]

[Licking hands, woo woo woo.]

[Came from Tongtong, feels delicious.]

Most of the subsequent bullet comments also mentioned “Tongtong,” saying they came from Tongtong. The remaining twenty-something comments were mostly about [licking hands], [hand fetishists crying], and similar phrases…

Su Yiran roughly understood: someone named “Tongtong” might have stumbled upon his video while Browse the short video lifestyle section, found it good, and promoted it on some online platform, attracting some netizens to watch.

He looked at the twenty-something bullet comments about hand fetishism and couldn’t help but feel a little embarrassed. He lowered his head and looked at his hands—they were just ordinary hands. These netizens really were…

Still, he was very happy to receive over a dozen positive affirmations and compliments about his cake.

Su Yiran thought about it; live streaming seemed like a viable option. If he could truly attract many netizens and build a reputation for popular online desserts, perhaps one day “Yiting” could become a chain brand. Even if not, just doing it for fun and interacting with dessert lovers would be quite interesting.

Su Yiran loved sweets and also hoped that the sweets he made would be loved by more people.

He pondered for a moment, then texted his senior on WeChat: “Senior, you mentioned live streaming last time. I thought about it and found it quite interesting; I want to give it a try.”

Not long after, his senior replied: “That’s great! I knew you’d be interested [laugh]. You’ll definitely be popular doing this!”

Su Yiran remembered that a few years ago, when he was in college and opened a milk tea shop, his senior had suggested live streaming. He had been tempted, and the contract was almost finalized, but at that time, something happened with Ting Ge, and he was busy for a while, so he couldn’t attend to it, eventually giving up the idea.

After that, for a long time, he and his senior didn’t contact each other. He even thought his senior was angry and felt very apologetic. It wasn’t until he graduated from college and married Ting Ge, inviting friends to their wedding, that he reconnected with his senior.

Then, his senior discussed some live streaming details with Su Yiran, telling him to try broadcasting for two days, and she would arrange recommendations for him: “Just try it and see the effect. If you don’t find it fun, then don’t sign a contract.”

Su Yiran thanked his senior and chatted a few more times about the shop’s current business and his senior’s recent situation.

When they were almost done chatting, his senior didn’t reply, but WeChat showed “the other party is typing”. Su Yiran waited for a long time, thinking his senior was typing a long message, but then he saw his senior only sent a simple message: “By the way, how are you and Gu Yuanting… these past two years? How is he treating you?”

The tone seemed hesitant.

Su Yiran didn’t think much of it, assuming his senior was making small talk: “Very good [cute emoji], thank you for your concern, senior~”

Again, a long period of “the other party is typing…”, with white characters constantly flashing on WeChat, as if the person on the other end was repeatedly typing and deleting.

After some time, his senior replied with only three short words: “That’s good.”

Su Yiran was a bit confused, so he simply sent back a spinning animal emoji. His senior didn’t reply again, and WeChat no longer showed “the other party is typing…”.

Su Yiran thought the conversation was over and put down his phone to do other things.

Unknowingly, he was busy until almost 5 PM. Half an hour later, his phone suddenly chimed, and a WeChat message notification sounded. Su Yiran picked up his phone and saw a message from his senior, three abrupt words: “Be careful.”

Before he could think about it, the message flashed and quickly disappeared, followed by the small grey text “the other party has recalled a message,” as if the person on the other end regretted it immediately after sending it.

Su Yiran felt a little awkward. Was it a wrong message? He decided to pretend he hadn’t seen it, to save his senior further embarrassment, so he didn’t reply and put down his phone. The shop’s weekday business hours were from 10:30 AM to 6:30 PM, and on weekends, from 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM.

Tonight, there weren’t many customers in the shop, and it was almost closing time, so Su Yiran decided to close early. He quickly tidied up the shop and let the new employee, Zhang Xiaohong, leave early.

He sat in the shop, playing on his phone, waiting. He had just finished Browse Weibo and his WeChat Moments when the “ding-dong” sound at the door indicated that the glass automatic door had opened, and someone had entered.

Su Yiran looked up and saw Gu Yuanting. His eyes curved, and he smiled: “Ting Ge.”

Gu Yuanting walked over, saw that the shop was already tidied up, and was slightly surprised: “You’re closing early today.”

“Yeah,” Su Yiran nodded, “No customers, so I closed early.”

These past two days, Gu Yuanting no longer left early in the morning and returned late at night as he had been. Su Yiran guessed that perhaps after Ting Ge officially started his job at the company, his work settled into a routine and he no longer needed to work overtime constantly.

He had asked Gu Yuanting and, knowing his work hours were now 9 AM to 6 PM, suggested they leave for work together every day—one going to the company and the other to the shop. If Gu Yuanting wasn’t working overtime in the evening, he would drop by to go home with him. Gu Yuanting agreed.

Seeing Gu Yuanting approaching, Su Yiran quickly said, “Wait a moment, stand still.” With that, he quickly ran backstage.

Gu Yuanting was puzzled. “Not going back?”

He had already stopped and stood still.

Su Yiran quickly reappeared from backstage, mysteriously holding something behind his back. He pursed his lips in a smile. “Close your eyes.”

Seeing Su Yiran like this, Gu Yuanting had some suspicions. He closed his eyes, waited for two seconds, and then heard Su Yiran’s expectant voice: “Open them.”

He opened his eyes and saw Su Yiran in front of him holding a flat wooden carving, his eyes sparkling as he looked at him: “How is it?”

Gu Yuanting took the wooden carving. It was about two palms in size, hand-carved with hollowed-out characters “Yiting” (一听). The calligraphy was artistic, and the details of the carving were decent, but overall, it was just ordinary. He nodded and praised, “Not bad, it looks good.”

Su Yiran said, “Remember when we made this together last month? It was a bit of a failure then, so I sent it to a specialized shop for repair and polishing, and it’s been successfully salvaged! From now on, this will be our shop’s mascot.”

He looked at Gu Yuanting expectantly, his face clearly expressing, “Aren’t you surprised?”

Gu Yuanting: “…”

So it was something Su Yiran and the original owner had made together. Gu Yuanting lowered his gaze to the ugly wooden carving, his face devoid of expression.