Zhang Yahui was pleasantly surprised: “That would be more than welcome!”

Zhang Yahui had previously seen Liang Qianfan in the Sloth Apartments promotional video and was deeply impressed by this designer’s ability to transform the mundane into something extraordinary.

Moreover, regardless of where the Street Food Market would be located, it would definitely need renovation to provide customers with the best dining experience. This is exactly where a designer like Liang Qianfan would be needed.

And Liang Qianfan happened to have nothing much to do recently and was also very interested in this Street Food Market.

The two were instantly in agreement.

Bao Xu, listening to their conversation on the side, began to formulate his own little plan.

He had been wondering how to escape his fate of being sent on trips.

Now it seemed that keeping a low profile was no longer effective, because everyone thought Bao-ge had no urgent work, so accompanying others on trips wouldn’t interfere with anything, which is why they all looked for him.

Therefore, finding some work would allow him to legitimately refuse those travel invitations, and the next second-place Best Employee winner wouldn’t have the nerve to approach him.

But the work he took on couldn’t be too critical or important. For instance, in the gaming department, if he put in too much effort and made significant achievements, he might still be voted as the second-place Best Employee.

So it had to be work that was neither too important nor too unimportant—something in between.

Didn’t the Street Food Market perfectly fit this criteria?

This was a project requested by Mr. Pei himself. If Bao Xu went there to help out, he could avoid travel duties. Since Zhang Yahui was in charge of the project and Liang Qianfan was responsible for renovation and brand design, Bao Xu would only be assisting them. No matter how outstanding his work was, he would at most be the third in command.

There was no way he could be voted as the second-place Best Employee.

In short, it was perfect in every way!

The only question was whether Zhang Yahui and Liang Qianfan would accept his help.

Bao Xu coughed lightly: “This Street Food Market project sounds very interesting! Could I transfer over to help you guys, give you a hand?”

Liang Qianfan was delighted: “That would be great!”

“Oh, I forgot to introduce you. This is a veteran employee of the Tenda Gaming Department, with outstanding achievements, known as ‘Traveler Bao Xu’.”

Zhang Yahui’s eyes immediately widened: “So you’re Bao Xu? It’s a pleasure to meet you! Although we haven’t met before, your reputation precedes you!”

“I imagine that traveling around the world, you must have tasted many local delicacies and seen many food markets. Your participation in this project would certainly be a tremendous asset!”

Neither Zhang Yahui nor Liang Qianfan had any objections to Bao Xu joining.

After all, everyone knew that employees from the Tenda Gaming Department were top-tier elites who could easily lead other departments. And Bao Xu was a veteran figure, like the sweeping monk in the sutra library—definitely not someone to be underestimated.

Liang Qianfan was pleased: “Let’s do this then. We’ll go to the Sloth Apartments office area right now, have some tea, and discuss the specific plans for the Street Food Market.”

“Including its location, scale, specific details, and so on—we need to plan carefully.”

The three happily left Shenhua Luxury Building and headed for Sloth Apartments headquarters, intending to have a more in-depth discussion about the various details of the Street Food Market.

…

In the afternoon, at Dragon Yu Group.

Zhao Xuming was in his office reviewing the upcoming schedule for the ICL League.

Today was Monday with no spotlight matches, and tomorrow, Tuesday, was a rest day.

But the day after tomorrow, Wednesday, there was a match featuring FV Team, which should draw high viewership.

So Zhao Xuming was feeling somewhat anxious as he waited.

Rabbit Tail Streaming’s commentary had received such a good response, completely outclassing the official commentary in game understanding. Zhao Xuming was facing pressure not only from viewers and public opinion but also from the streaming platforms.

The fact that the official commentary was inferior to Rabbit Tail Streaming’s created two problems: first, it made the official team look incompetent, which was embarrassing; second, it caused viewers from other streaming platforms to migrate to Rabbit Tail Streaming.

The vice presidents of other streaming platforms felt wronged: “We all paid for broadcasting rights, but in the end, the viewing experience on our platforms is inferior to Rabbit Tail Streaming. How is this fair?”

“Your official commentary team’s poor performance is harming our interests. This can’t continue!”

But Zhao Xuming had granted the rights for this unofficial stream commentary, with signed contracts, so he couldn’t go back on his word.

Therefore, considering multiple factors, the official commentary team needed to quickly improve their game understanding and ability to interpret matches, bringing them up to a level comparable with Rabbit Tail Streaming’s commentators.

Yesterday, Zhao Xuming had arranged for the program team to contact various clubs to find suitable commentary candidates. Today, his assistant and program team members had visited these clubs to conduct interviews and screening.

Fortunately, all the clubs participating in the ICL League were in Magic City, so there was no need for inter-city travel.

Zhao Xuming checked the time—it seemed about right.

He hoped to finalize the list of professional players-turned-commentators by this afternoon, conduct emergency training tomorrow, and have them start work the day after tomorrow to test the waters.

The day after tomorrow featured a high-profile match with FV Team. If the official commentary remained the same for this match, it might lead to further viewer loss.

Every day of delay caused irreversible damage.

Although rushing like this carried certain risks, after careful consideration, Zhao Xuming felt the risks shouldn’t be too great.

After all, these professional players would initially join as “guests,” with professional commentators controlling the rhythm and prompting them. The professional players would only need to answer questions and explain the gameplay to successfully complete their tasks, so there shouldn’t be major issues.

As Zhao Xuming was considering this, there was a knock on the door—his assistant had returned.

“Mr. Zhao.”

“The list of professional players for commentary roles has been finalized. Please review it.”

The assistant handed Zhao Xuming a document containing several suitable professional players selected from various clubs.

Zhao Xuming flipped through it and found some familiar faces.

The ICL League had been running for quite some time now, and all teams had already made appearances. Zhao Xuming had attended several matches in person and recognized many players.

Most of the players on the list had performed poorly on the field.

This was understandable—players who performed well would be kept by their clubs for matches. How could they be sent to work as commentators?

And if players themselves could still compete professionally, they wouldn’t abandon their careers for commentary roles.

When players could make a name for themselves and win championship prize money, how much could they earn as commentators? Anyone with sense would understand this.

It was definitely the poorly performing players who felt their professional careers had plateaued who would try commentating to find a potential post-retirement path.

However, even though these players might be considered “bad,” that was only relative to other professional players.

The documents clearly showed that, except for a few players with embarrassingly low RANK scores, the others all had high ratings.

Zhao Xuming nodded slightly.

Without a doubt, these players’ understanding of the game would far exceed that of the official commentators.

Zhao Xuming looked up and asked, “Have they been interviewed? How do they seem?”

The assistant replied, “They’ve all been interviewed. This list contains those selected after interviews. Those with unclear articulation, non-standard Mandarin, or confused thinking have all been eliminated.”

“These players all have clear articulation and accurate pronunciation. Even if some have slight accents, it definitely won’t bother viewers.”

“Regarding game understanding, we conducted some tests, but the specific results are hard to gauge.”

“We gave them recordings of previous matches to analyze, and they all provided thorough analyses. However, it’s unclear how they would compare with the commentators at Rabbit Tail Streaming.”

Zhao Xuming nodded slightly: “Well, that should be sufficient.”

Currently, the ICL League’s official personnel, including directors, observers, and commentators, were mostly ranked around platinum or diamond. But this level of game understanding was still far behind that of top-tier professional team players.

Having them test professional players’ game understanding was like elementary school students setting questions for high school students—they couldn’t effectively evaluate anything.

This was indeed somewhat challenging for them.

However, Zhao Xuming felt this shouldn’t be a major issue. Since these candidates were professional players, they should possess certain tactical awareness. As long as they could fluently express their game understanding based on the match situation, there should be no problem.

As professional players, their game understanding couldn’t be that much worse than FV Team’s second squad, right?

As long as the gap wasn’t embarrassingly obvious, it would be fine.

After all, they had their understanding, and Rabbit Tail Streaming had theirs. Small differences in opinion wouldn’t result in these professional players on the official commentary team being completely outclassed.

Zhao Xuming handed the list back to his assistant: “Good, proceed with this list.”

“There’s no match tomorrow, so the time is precious. Pair these commentators with the professional players, determine suitable partnerships based on their characteristics, and practice to build rapport.”

“The data analysis team should prepare relevant data for FV Team’s match the day after tomorrow and provide good logistical support.”

“Previously, Rabbit Tail Streaming found professional players to commentate matches with just a day or two of preparation, and the results were good. If they can do it, there’s no reason we can’t!”

“The day after tomorrow, for FV Team’s match, we must make a strong impression and restore the reputation of the official commentary team!”

The assistant nodded: “Yes, Mr. Zhao! I’ll arrange it right away.”

After the assistant left, Zhao Xuming’s previously anxious heart finally settled a bit.

Once the official commentary team improved, surely people would stop using Rabbit Tail Streaming’s commentary to criticize the official team, right?

After resolving this incident, there shouldn’t be any more unexpected issues, right?

Zhao Xuming felt exasperated, somehow caught between the major streaming platforms and Rabbit Tail Streaming, swaying uncontrollably with the wind, always inexplicably taking blame or getting caught in the crossfire.

He was cleaning up messes on both sides, yet Dragon Yu Group hadn’t benefited, while Rabbit Tail Streaming’s popularity continued to rise. Who could he complain to about this?