This plan quickly took shape in Pei Qian’s mind.

The most valuable asset of Cold Face Girl’s Food Laboratory was actually the street food vendors from all across the country.

These vendors had been screened by countless food lovers, and each had one or two unique specialties. If they were allowed to experiment freely in the Food Laboratory, turning their exclusive techniques into standardized, quantifiable operations, Cold Face Girl would be able to continuously launch new food products, and the stores would keep expanding.

But what if Pei Qian intercepted these excellent vendors with his “Street Food Market”?

He could offer them better treatment, letting them comfortably set up stalls in the Street Food Market. No matter how good business got, their earnings would remain within a controllable range.

Moreover, this approach was reasonable and completely justifiable.

Pei Qian couldn’t suppress a department without grounds, nor could he take unreasonable actions. However, if he was supporting another department that earned less money, objectively weakening the original department in the process, that wouldn’t be a problem.

Because everyone would think this was due to Mr. Pei having different focus points and goals, rather than deliberately creating obstacles.

The more vendors Cold Face Girl found, the more vendors the Street Food Market could poach, and while this might not completely prevent Cold Face Girl from making money, it could at least greatly delay the profit-making process.

Pei Qian felt this plan was worth trying.

The only question was: who should be the person in charge of this project?

After careful consideration, Pei Qian felt he needed to undermine Cold Face Girl from within.

Currently, Cold Face Girl’s person in charge was Qi Yan, who originally worked under Meng Chang handling advertising and marketing. Her control over Cold Face Girl probably wasn’t particularly strong.

The most suitable person to be in charge of the “Street Food Market” project would naturally be one of Qi Yan’s direct subordinates.

With Qi Yan as their immediate superior, direct subordinates couldn’t see opportunities for promotion. But once they became the person in charge of the “Street Food Market,” putting them on the same level as Qi Yan, they would inevitably do everything possible to achieve results and weaken Cold Face Girl.

Pei Qian immediately decided to visit the company to check with the HR department about Cold Face Girl’s current personnel structure, to see who would be most suitable to lead the “Street Food Market.”

Of course, there was no rush.

After all, Cold Face Girl was still operating at a loss, and even if it might make money in the future, it definitely wouldn’t happen in just a few days.

So Pei Qian needed to study this more carefully. Finalizing the candidate and assigning tasks tomorrow or the day after would be fine.

……

4:50 PM.

Shanghai, Wolfjaw Streaming headquarters.

Zhu Yan was in his vice president’s office, waiting for the debut broadcast of the ICL League on Wolfjaw Streaming.

News about the distribution of ICL League broadcasting rights had spread across the internet yesterday, triggering heated discussions online.

Some netizens said that Mr. Pei was truly a mastermind, not only getting the broadcasting rights for free but also making a huge profit on top of that, proving himself to be a money-making genius.

Others said that Mr. Pei had obviously sold too hastily—the exclusive broadcast of the ICL League was a lucrative opportunity, and he could have milked it further.

Of course, the netizens’ discussions were all based on hearsay, originating from rumors, with no knowledge of the contract details.

Most netizens’ enthusiasm for this matter only lasted a day before gradually subsiding.

After all, for most people, the fact that several streaming platforms now had the broadcasting rights to the ICL League was good news, as they could watch on their preferred platforms.

Although the viewing experience on Bunny Tail Streaming was also good, many viewers had their own preferred streaming platforms, and switching to Bunny Tail Streaming would be quite inconvenient.

Zhu Yan was absolutely certain that after Wolfjaw Streaming’s first broadcast of the ICL League, they would gain some popularity.

Because many of Wolfjaw Streaming’s old viewers had gone to Bunny Tail Streaming just to watch the ICL League. Now that Wolfjaw Streaming had the same content, why would they still go to Bunny Tail? They could just watch on Wolfjaw.

The return of these viewers would definitely improve Wolfjaw Streaming’s metrics.

Soon, at 5 o’clock, the ICL League broadcast officially began!

Like other streaming platforms, Wolfjaw Streaming’s ICL League broadcast was 30 seconds behind Bunny Tail Streaming.

Originally, there was a promotional countdown page before the match began, but if the countdown didn’t match the system time, it would easily expose the delay. Therefore, Longyu Group specifically created a 30-second opening sequence.

After the match officially started, this opening sequence would play first, and then the official live broadcast would begin.

Although this approach was still a bit awkward, it should be enough to fool 90% of the viewers.

Soon, the first match officially began!

Zhu Yan himself couldn’t really understand IOI matches, but MOBA game matches were relatively easier to understand compared to FPS or tactical games. Killing opponents, destroying towers, pushing the base—the power dynamics between the red and blue sides were obvious at a glance. Even people who didn’t understand the game mechanics could barely follow the excitement.

Zhu Yan watched the match while checking the changes in viewership data from the backend.

Viewers in the streaming room saw a heat index of 2 million, but this was obviously fake; the actual number of viewers was just over 20,000.

Zhu Yan found this actual number acceptable and within his expectations.

Originally, on Bunny Tail Streaming, the ICL League had only about 70,000 to 80,000 viewers. Now that it was spread across six streaming platforms, the numbers would naturally be severely diluted.

Of course, Wolfjaw Streaming also had some loyal viewers who hadn’t watched the ICL League before because it was exclusive to Bunny Tail. Now that their platform also had the ICL League, they would come to check it out. This group was not to be underestimated.

But it was only the first day after all, so this number wouldn’t be very large.

Zhu Yan was already very satisfied with having over 20,000 viewers.

The bullet comments in the streaming room were very dense. After all, over 20,000 viewers were enough to fill the screen with comments. Combined with quick comments and those sent by bots, the entire streaming room seemed very lively.

The heat index of 2 million gave the impression that the ICL League was extremely popular.

Zhu Yan was very pleased with this. It seemed that buying the broadcasting rights for the ICL League was the right decision, with a very obvious boost to the overall heat of Wolfjaw Streaming!

However, just as he was feeling smug, he suddenly saw several disharmonious bullet comments float by.

“Holy shit! They’re going to turn the tables!”

“They lost this team fight!”

“LMAO, this mid lane is criminal, absolute liability!”

“Now watch this mid laner’s brilliant performance! You’d need ten years of cerebral thrombosis to pull off moves like this!”

As these bullet comments floated by, Zhu Yan was completely confused.

What was going on?

On the live broadcast, both sides were still moving around the map, testing each other—they weren’t even fighting yet!

So what did these bullet comments mean?

His confusion was quickly answered because a team fight suddenly erupted. The heroes that had been constantly moving around suddenly unleashed their skills, and the situation on the field changed instantly!

One team had already gained a decent economic advantage, but in this team fight, their mid laner elegantly threw out a combo that hit absolutely nothing but air!

After this breathtaking display of incompetence, the opponents immediately seized the opportunity to counter-attack, first eliminating the brain-dead mid laner, then pressing their advantage to kill three more enemy team members. They then pushed straight to the enemy’s high ground, destroying one lane. The situation on the field instantly underwent a 180-degree reversal!

Now Zhu Yan understood what those bullet comments were referring to.

They were talking about the team fight that would happen 30 seconds later…

Of course, strictly speaking, this team fight had already happened, but because Wolfjaw Streaming was delayed by 30 seconds, it created this time gap.

These bored viewers had obviously opened both Bunny Tail Streaming and Wolfjaw Streaming simultaneously. After seeing the team fight start on Bunny Tail, they immediately ran over to Wolfjaw to spoil it!

After the team fight ended, the streaming room was quickly filled with question marks in the bullet comments.

“????”

“What do you mean, spoilers?”

“Damn, why are you guys ahead of me?”

“What’s going on?”

“Spoiler trolls go die!”

Those viewers who, like Zhu Yan, had been spoiled in advance were all furious, sending angry comments.

It was like a college student intently watching a football match, with players constantly passing the ball and maneuvering, when suddenly a thunderous cheer erupts from the dormitory outside!

Then, ten seconds later, the goal finally appears on their own broadcast!

This kind of spoiler could make someone watching the broadcast so angry they’d spit blood.

Although the ICL League was different from football, the feeling of anger after being spoiled was absolutely the same.

Most people preferred watching live broadcasts rather than recordings because “events happening in real-time” had meaning, while “events that have already happened” didn’t mean as much.

Now a perfectly good live broadcast was inexplicably delayed by thirty seconds—how frustrating!

Of course, if you were just watching the match by yourself, a thirty-second delay wouldn’t be a big deal. The key was that many people watched streams with bullet comments enabled!

If the bullet comments spoiled what was going to happen, the viewing experience would be completely ruined.

And there were many such idle troublemakers. Even though it was behavior that annoyed others, they reveled in it.

Some people would even open several streaming platforms simultaneously. After seeing a comeback on Bunny Tail Streaming, they would copy the same message to several platforms to spam, emphasizing their desire to harm others without benefiting themselves!

These people frantically posted spoilers, affecting other viewers’ experience, so naturally, other viewers would band together to attack them with angry comments.

And while ranting, they would inevitably include Wolfjaw Streaming officials in their criticism.

“What kind of garbage platform is this? Why are you slower than others?”

“They’ve already finished a team fight, and you’re still feeling each other out?”

“Speed it up! Trash!”

Looking at the screen full of bullet comments, Zhu Yan was stunned.

How could this happen!

Previously, although he had purchased some broadcasting rights, he had never signed clauses like “delayed broadcast by 30 seconds.” Since this was his first time signing such an agreement, he hadn’t thought much about it, figuring that 30 seconds was negligible.

Now he realized, how could it be negligible? It was extremely damaging!

The viewers were practically revolting!

As the wave of spoilers flooded the bullet comments, Zhu Yan watched helplessly as the true viewer count rapidly plummeted from 27,000 to 23,000, with a large number instantly leaving.

Obviously, these people were annoyed by the spoilers and had gone to other platforms to find faster broadcasts!

Zhu Yan was so angry he nearly fainted. Every single user leaving felt like flesh being cut from his body.

“You, Zhao Xuming, what kind of rotten idea was this!”

“So you were conspiring with Mr. Pei to scheme against us?”

Zhu Yan instantly flared up, throwing all the blame on Zhao Xuming.

After all, this was Zhao Xuming’s suggestion, so naturally, he would take all the blame!

Previously, Zhao Xuming had friction with these streaming platforms, so it wasn’t impossible that he was using this opportunity to get back at them.

Thinking even deeper, it was possible that Zhao Xuming and Mr. Pei had reached some unspeakable agreement behind the scenes!