Chapter 1 The Situation in Jingzhou

Meanwhile, in Jingzhou.

Pei Qian was also in his office, half-heartedly looking at the work reports from various departments while following the street food competition through a live broadcast.

The first group was the jianbing (savory crepe) group. The progress of each vendor varied; some had just skillfully flipped theirs over, while others had already started sprinkling chopped green onions on top. Although everyone's technique was skilled, there were still differences in quality.

"I'm actually watching a live broadcast of people making jianbing. This whole scene feels a bit absurd," Pei Qian couldn't help but complain.

Looking at the situation in the live broadcast room, the number of viewers was slowly increasing, and the barrage of comments became denser.

"What the heck! A bunch of people dressed so formally, making jianbing?"

"There are judges for making jianbing? That's too surreal!"

"The world is so big, there are all kinds of wonders! It's a street food competition? Will there be spicy tang, hand-pulled pancakes, and fried chicken fillets later?"

"Is the organizer Lengmian Guniang (Cold Noodles Girl)? Is this a publicity stunt? Hey, wait, wasn't Lengmian Guniang already finished?"

"Rumor has it that Tengda seems to have taken over? I don't know if it's true or not."

The number of people in the live broadcast room increased.

Although the street food competition's live broadcast room didn't get a particularly good recommendation spot, being listed in the lifestyle section brought a lot of natural traffic. Both the title of the street food competition and the content of the live broadcast greatly stimulated the interest of the viewers, making them unable to leave once they entered.

It was too interesting, something they had never seen before!

Some people noticed that the account for the live broadcast room was "Lengmian Guniang," which Meng Chang had specifically registered to promote Lengmian Guniang.

Many people hadn't been following up on Lengmian Guniang, and Pei Qian hadn't specifically publicized the matter, so most people didn't know that Lengmian Guniang had been taken over by Tengda. They were still wondering: Wasn't it said that Lengmian Guniang had gone bankrupt? How could they still afford to hold such a competition?

However, most of the audience didn't dwell on this point too much, because their attention was quickly drawn to the delicious jianbing.

The cameramen were specially hired, with several cameras switching back and forth. Some were responsible for filming the expressions of the judges, some were responsible for filming the vendors' movements from a slightly further distance, and others were filming the appearance of the jianbing up close.

One by one, golden-yellow jianbing were quickly made. Some were wrapped with youtiao (fried dough sticks), some were wrapped with bo cui (crispy wafers). The golden-yellow outer skin had crispy brown spots, black sesame seeds, and light-green scallions, making them look very tempting.

A row of staff members carried trays to the jianbing stands. The trays were specially made, with many small compartments, each corresponding to a vendor's number.

The vendors cut the jianbing into many small pieces and placed a piece in each staff member's tray, in the compartment corresponding to their number.

After the staff members went around once, the trays were filled with jianbing from all the vendors, and they were taken directly to the judges and the audience for them to taste.

Of course, because there were many people in the audience, the vendors had to continue making jianbing to ensure that everyone could taste them.

The first to taste them, of course, were the judges specially invited for the program.

The judges had chopsticks and other utensils at hand. They picked up a piece of jianbing and put it in their mouths, carefully tasting and chewing, recording the flavor of the jianbing corresponding to the number in their notebooks, taking a sip of mineral water to clear the taste from their mouths, and then continuing to taste the next one.

After the judges had tasted almost everything, the host handed over the microphone to each judge to express their opinions.

At this time, the audience was still tasting the jianbing.

The judges' comments and the audience's tasting could, to some extent, serve as an explanation.

Of course, if the audience felt that the judges were wrong, they could stick to their own opinions.

Both the judges and the audience could have very strong subjectivity when tasting. They could only comment on the jianbing they thought were delicious, and not comment on the others, or even decide which to eat and which not to eat based solely on the appearance of the jianbing.

Because the evaluation of food is inherently a relatively subjective matter, and food also emphasizes color, aroma, and taste. If the appearance is not good, then not being liked is also a high-probability event.

There was no helping it, after all, this was a world that valued looks.

In short, the rules were fair, and who could break through depended entirely on their abilities.

After the judges tasted them, they all had a good idea in their minds and began to speak in turn.

"I think No. 3 jianbing is very good. The skin is crispy, and it leaves a lingering fragrance on the lips and teeth after one bite. The cooking technique is relatively close to the traditional method, but there are also some personal micro-innovations in it."

"I think No. 7 is good. The main thing is that the sauce and various side dishes are very particular about the ingredients, but not too much. It won't be all sauce in one bite. It can maximize the taste of the whole-grain skin, giving people a relatively fresh feeling, and also conforms to the modern people's low-calorie eating habits..."

The judges began to express their opinions, evaluating these jianbing from different angles.

If a vendor's jianbing received good reviews from the judges, the host would also interview the vendor, asking them to briefly introduce the unique techniques and secrets of their jianbing, which would be a further way to get votes for themselves.

Finally, the judges and the audience would press the voting machines to vote for their favorite jianbing. After the background tallied the scores, the results would be automatically generated according to the weighted rules, and the most delicious jianbing would be selected according to the scores from high to low.

...

Pei Qian looked at the screen of the live broadcast room and swallowed subconsciously.

He had to say, it looked really tempting!

The cameraman shot the jianbing up close, coupled with the sizzling sound of the jianbing pan, which made people's appetite open up.

And there were more and more viewers in the live broadcast room.

"I went, it looks so delicious! Is it my illusion?"

"It's quite formal, with luxury hotels, uniform chef costumes, and judges' comments... These should all cause some psychological cues."

"Psychological cues are definitely only one aspect, but the skills of these vendors are definitely good! Although I can't eat it, you can see the way they make jianbing, as well as the color and texture of the jianbing, it will definitely not be bad!"

"Of course, this food competition selects the most outstanding vendors from all over the country, all of whom are well-known locally. There may even be the kind of Internet-famous snacks that you have to wait in long lines to eat. How can their skills be bad?"

"So envious, I want to eat!"

Most of the viewers in the live broadcast room initially entered only out of curiosity: they were all street food like jianbing, and they even had judges to evaluate them?

But after seeing it now, many viewers were already watching it as a serious food show, and some were even eager to try it and wanted to order a jianbing to try.

Of course, it was useless to think about it, after all, the jianbing that most people could order would definitely be far from the taste of these jianbing on TV.

The number of people in the live broadcast room began to increase rapidly, and the barrage of comments became dense!

The lifestyle section was originally a popular section of the live broadcast platform, and food was an eternal topic of people's attention.

The street food competition was both curious and down-to-earth, and had a certain degree of professionalism. It was also a food show in the lifestyle section, so it quickly attracted a large number of viewers!

Although it was Monday afternoon, the entire website was relatively deserted, but this also meant that there were not many big streamers broadcasting, and there was not much high-quality content.

The officials quickly noticed this and saw that the effect of the street food competition was so good, so they immediately transferred a lot of resources and directly put it on the homepage!

"...I didn't pay attention for a while, how come the popularity is so high!"

Pei Qian was watching it half-heartedly. He had just flipped through the work reports of various departments again. As a result, when he came back, he saw that the number of people in the live broadcast room had more than doubled!

The popularity had increased even more, obviously the official live broadcast platform was giving resources to promote it.

Pei Qian couldn't help but be a little shocked: "There are so many people watching even on Monday afternoon? Don't you all have to go to work?"

"Or are you all secretly watching while at work?"

"Slacking off at work, these are all talents! It's a pity that there is no way to contact these people and recruit them to Tengda."

Pei Qian was instinctively a little panicked. Anyway, no matter what happened, as long as it was related to popularity, it was often not a good thing.

But Pei Qian thought again, it would be best if this food competition was not popular, but even if it was popular, it didn't seem to have any impact on him, right?

Pei Qian had already said hello, and the judges wouldn't promote Lengmian Guniang, nor would it lead consumers to go to Lengmian Guniang to consume.

Even if there was popularity, all the popularity would dissipate after the competition was over. What was there to worry about?

Pei Qian thought about it and felt that there was no need for him to worry, so he continued to watch it steadily.

...

After the jianbing group competition was over, the hand-pulled pancake, grilled squid, and roasted gluten groups entered the competition.

The selection process was exactly the same. No one knew the final results of the selection, and it all depended on the tastes of the judges and the audience on the scene.

However, although they were all very simple and common street snacks, they could still make a difference.

After all, there was a saying that you should not use your hobbies to challenge other people's livelihoods.

There were so many street vendors across the country, all of whom were making money by selling snacks early and late. They had to make hundreds or thousands of copies every day, and those who didn't make them well were eliminated early on.

And those who participated in this competition were all well-known vendors from all over the country, and they were even more outstanding, each with their own unique skills.

In other words, "no skill, but only practice".

The competition lasted a long time, because it was divided into many groups, and all the audience on the scene had to eat, plus the judges' comments and the vendors' self-reports, the time passed quickly.

From 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.

As the meal time approached, many people had left work, and the popularity of the street food competition's live broadcast room also reached a peak!

The dense barrage of comments had almost covered the screen.

Next was the selection of the grilled cold noodles group, then the selection of the unpopular snacks group, and finally the final evaluation.

The final evaluation was to compare all the scores of different categories of snacks, find the top few scores of different categories of snacks, and award trophies and bonuses to these vendors.

The viewers who were still in the live broadcast room were basically waiting for the final evaluation to see which vendor would laugh to the end.