Chapter 73: The Cub Wants, The Cub Gets

Chapter 73: Chapter 73: The Cub Wants, The Cub Gets

Mao Qiu agreed wholeheartedly.

For Mao Ge, however, it was as if the sky had fallen.

’I can’t come here for meat anymore, meow!’ the little orange cat thought, completely dumbstruck.

Feng Si saw the person and cat off. Though she acted tough, she stood by the door and let her gaze linger for a moment on the dejected little cat.

After coming back inside, she browsed online for a while but couldn’t find what she was looking for.

Around noon, just as Yang Wen was reporting the day’s "water army" hires from various cities on the communicator, she was sewing.

She was in the middle of making a little white hat for Yun Duo. The fine needle and thread darted across the thumb-sized cap, and she finished by adding two round ears.

After finishing the adorable hat, Feng Si set down her needle and thread and initiated a voice call with Yang Wen.

Yang Wen was inspecting the workshop. Today, they had hired 150,000 Beastmen for the water army, primarily focusing on Pantian City, for a total cost of three million coins. He was currently following Feng Si’s instructions and taking inventory of the pickled cabbage jars in the warehouse.

Just then, a name he had never seen before popped up on his communicator, and his heart skipped a beat in panic.

His mind immediately started racing. ’Does she think I’m working too slowly?’

Yang Wen immediately accepted the call. "My lady, the five thousand sub-females in the pickled cabbage workshop are very diligent. They’re making a lot of pickled cabbage, and fast. It’s taken me half the day just to finish inventory on the second warehouse, and there are still four left to go. Do you have any other instructions for me?"

’See? I’m being obedient. I’ve been busy with the task you gave me.’

Feng Si scrolled through the daily "water army" report from the various cities on her light screen. Her fingers toyed with the soft, miniature hat as she furrowed her brow.

’Too slow.’

’Promoting products through the livestream only reaches a fraction of the online population. If I want Si Shi’s food to truly capture the hearts of Beastmen and become a household name in a short amount of time, just hawking it in a livestream is way too slow, isn’t it?’

Pinching the tiny bear-eared hat between her fingers, she collected her thoughts and said decisively, "You did a good job hiring people for the livestream. Now, I have another important task for you."

"I want you to find the Beastmen with the largest fanbases online and negotiate a collaboration. Have them post a short video featuring Si Shi’s pickled cabbage with minced meat."

Yang Wen replied, "Have them post a video about food? I’m afraid that won’t work, my lady."

The little hat slid from Feng Si’s fingertips back into her palm. "The price is negotiable," she said, her tone dripping with wealth. "We’ll pay well for a single video."

Yang Wen explained, "The ones with large fanbases around here are all male beasts who earned their fame through bloody battles in the Beast Fighting Arena. They’re incredibly strong... and probably aren’t short on money."

Saying "probably" was an understatement. Anyone famous from the Beast Fighting Arenas of the South Desolate Continent was an Advanced Male Beast or even stronger, placing them in the highest echelon of combat prowess.

Feng Si’s brow furrowed. She leaned back against the sofa, deep in thought.

’So relying on major influencers for traffic and buying ad placements won’t work here.’

As she thought, she unconsciously started kneading the little hat in her hand.

The little black snake stared at the bear-eared hat in Feng Si’s fingers for a long time. ’Mommy said she made it for Yun Duo. With it on, my head won’t be cold anymore.’

Sticking out his little round belly, Yun Chi quickly slithered up Feng Si’s arm and into her palm. His short, chubby black claws latched onto the bear-eared hat with a soft SMACK. "Hiss~"

His scales were delicate and soft, and felt slightly warm to the touch. Feng Si didn’t move her fingers, understanding that her little cub wanted to wear the hat now.

Forgetting she was still on the call with Yang Wen, she looked down at her cub with a gentle smile. "Be good, sweetie. The new hat needs to be washed and dried before Mommy can put it on for you."

Yang Wen: "?"

’What? I... don’t understand what’s happening at all.’

Yang Wen began to wonder if he was getting old, if he’d developed some memory-loss illness that was making his mind sluggish. Just as he was steeling himself to ask what she meant...

On the other end of the line, Feng Si brought her hand up to her face. Cradled in her palm was her most precious cub, Yun Chi. Dressed in a homemade white cotton onesie, he had already eaten himself chubby just one day after being born. He was unbearably cute.

The sight filled the new mother with a deep sense of joy. Affection bloomed in the depths of her eyes. ’No matter how I look at him, my own little cub is the most beautiful and adorable thing in the world!’

In her relaxed state, an idea suddenly struck Feng Si.

’To increase exposure, I don’t have to rely on celebrity endorsements. If the big names won’t work, won’t countless others do the trick?’

’There’s strength in numbers, no matter what you’re doing.’

’My goal isn’t to partner with celebrities who have fans, anyway. It’s to make pickled cabbage famous in Pantian City as quickly as possible.’

Feng Si continued, "I’ll send you a short video in a bit. I want you to take another five million coins and hire a large number of Beastmen, focusing on Pantian City’s local network. Have them use multiple channels to flood the entire web with a massive number of short videos..."

Yang Wen thought it over, his jaw dropping as he listened. He felt an urge to applaud Feng Si’s idea.

’Brilliant.’

’A single short video online is like one fish in a vast river—no one pays it any mind. But ten thousand, or a hundred thousand videos at once? That’s a different story. Even if you don’t want to see them, you won’t be able to avoid them as long as you’re online.’

’I understood her idea as soon as I thought about it. That proves my brain hasn’t come down with ’stupid sheep disease’.’

Just before hanging up, Feng Si added, as if it were an afterthought, "Oh, right, can you help me find a type of wild grass? The root is purplish-green with white fuzz, and the leaves are a triangular heart shape. I’ve sent you a quick sketch of it."

Yang Wen looked at the remarkably lifelike drawing that appeared on his light-screen device and recognized it instantly.

’Jing Jie... Cat-type Beastmen like to use it as an aid for flirting during mating.’

’I never would have guessed. Feng Si seems so calm on the surface for a sub-female, but she really knows her stuff behind the scenes. She even knows to use this to please a male beast.’

’Could it be she’s taken a fancy to some male beast? She wants to—’

His face instantly flushed beet-red. "Jing Jie... My lady, a single fresh stalk of that plant goes for twenty thousand coins at the Northern Wilderness auctions. Are you sure you want to buy it?"

’Catnip is that expensive?!’

Feng Si recalled Mao Ge’s utterly despondent face. Losing his "job" had been a huge blow to the little orange cat. Her voice held a slight hesitation. "Buy me ten stalks. As soon as possible."

Yang Wen: "...Yes."

That same day, Yang Wen first went through the Niu Ding City Lord’s connections to buy ten stalks of Jing Jie for Feng Si on the black market and had them delivered. Then, with careful planning, he used the five million coins to hire 250,000 sub-females from Pantian City online, paying them to post the video of pickled cabbage with minced meat on their personal accounts. On that day, countless Beastman families in Pantian City were practically driven to tears with craving for the dish.

The internet was flooded with a new wave of posts, all asking the same thing: How to buy the pickled cabbage from the video.

And then—

That evening, the moment the ’Si Shi Xiao Si’ livestream went live, its viewer count shot past two million.

Feng Si stood before the camera, looking much more comfortable and at ease during her second broadcast. A gentle, warm smile graced her face. "Welcome, everyone, to Xiao Si’s livestream. Today, I’d like to recommend a classic dish: Fish with Pickled Cabbage."