The post was long so it was hard for the contestants to read everything but some sharp-eyed ones were able to at least make out some parts of it. Especially since Fan Mei had included pictures and Weibo posts. These were easy enough to read even at a distance so they had a rough guess what this was about.

Si Yi wasn’t done yet though. “I guess it might be a bit difficult to read because of the length of the article. We have highlighted the important and made a list containing all of them. Let’s have a closer look at that.”

He pressed the arrow key, first showing the same picture as before but with parts highlighted in yellow. “If you want to make sure that we haven’t changed anything, you are free to look the article up. It is still online as far as I am aware. At the very least, it was this morning and I haven’t received any news that it was taken down since then.”

Some of the contestants actually took out their phones. It wasn’t necessarily because they didn’t trust Si Yi but instead because even with the list he had announced, it might be difficult to read for those in the back. They just wanted to make sure that they didn’t miss anything and could look it up themselves if it was necessary. After all, this had already become a major issue in the show.

They wanted to stay on top to find out what was really going on. If Fan Mei was right, then this meant that the first task might have been judged unfairly by Xiao Ming. If one of them were to be thrown out because of that task, they could probably argue for a do-over based on that. If she wasn’t and was instead just randomly making trouble, then she would probably be thrown out. That would be one contestant less. And considering that she had done rather well on the first task, that would be a win for them.

Well, not that it wouldn’t be either way. Only half of the contestants would be accepted into the second episode. While they wanted to win based on their own skills, most of them were nervous today and felt that they weren’t able to truly show their best. So maybe being saved by the fact that somebody else had picked up a stone only to smash their own foot was indeed welcome.

Si Yi gave everyone enough time to make a decision and then pull out their phones if they wanted to before he continued to the list he had mentioned.

Some of the contestants immediately lowered their phones when they saw it. There actually wasn’t much on the list, just a couple of bullet points, so they were more than big enough to read even from the back.

Si Yi glanced at Fan Mei but then just looked at the other contestants in general. He might be debating her but the important people here were the contestants and crew members because their perception would influence how things would be going forward. If they wanted young master Xiao to not get into even further trouble because of them, then his performance needed to be stellar.

He faintly tilted his head and motioned at the projected list. “Now, you can all see the points that we’ve noted down. I would suggest that we can go through them one by one to ensure that we haven’t misrepresented what Ms. Fan wrote.” He didn’t wait for an answer and immediately brought up the first point. He didn’t even need to look at the list. Needless to say, he had long learned everything he was going to show by heart just in case it might come up.

“Ms. Fan’s first point of contention isn’t about us but about Judge Xiao. I hope it is alright that we still included this but we felt that only this way could we give an honest representation of the article’s content. Either way, what she remarks on is Judge Xiao’s lacking fame.”

Si Yi stopped talking for a moment, his brows furrowing slightly. “Now, I will admit that I am not all that familiar with food streaming in general. I do enjoy a good cooking show on TV or a stream online here and there and Judge Xiao’s stream is one of those that I have looked at more often. I am no expert though. As such, I can only make a comparison based on numbers alone.

“As we’ve seen, even in this room, the percentage of people actually knowing the stream and having watched it at least once is pretty high. If we look at the statistics on the website, this seems to be true even in comparison to other channels.” He clicked on a key and the next slide came up, showing a ranking.

“This is the ranking of the most popular streaming channels on the website from today. As you can see, Bright Yellow Water is currently number fifty-six. Now, please keep in mind that this is the ranking of all channels, not just that among cooking channels. We will get to that one in a moment.”

He glanced at Fan Mei for a moment and gestured at her. “Ms. Fan, despite this, do you still want to say that Mister Xiao’s channel is not famous enough for him to be a judge on the show?”

Fan Mei shifted on the spot. With such a direct question, it was difficult to give a vague answer. “Well, just like you, I also can only judge based on my own knowledge and experiences. He didn’t seem that famous to me. Let’s not forget that ‘Golden Spoon’ has already started filming. While the casting episode has not aired yet, promotional materials were already shown online. I am sure that Bright Yellow Water will have profited off that. Their ranking right now is likely much higher than before.”

Si Yi inclined his head. “This is something I can’t deny. It would be strange if him being the judge on a show that is likely going to be very popular wouldn’t positively influence his own popularity as well. Then, if I may ask, how famous do you think a cooking stream should be to invite one of its members as a judge on such a show?”

Once again, Fan Mei was caught unprepared. She had originally been going after Si Jin and only used Xiao Ming for that. As such, she hadn’t paid too much attention to him and the channel. She had only looked at his channel superficially, feeling that this Si Jin was the actual person behind the scenes. After all, all of this had originally started because of her sister-in-law’s Weibo post and she just couldn’t imagine that a superstar like Tao Jin would watch a small streaming channel like this. There had to be more to this!

She gritted her teeth, knowing that she wouldn’t be able to get around this. “Well, I’d expect them to be at least in the top one hundred. I’ve looked through the list when I wrote my article and there were other streaming channels that were. That did make me wonder why the producer would invite Mister Xiao instead of one of those streamers. Surely, the show would benefit the most from having the most popular streamer being a judge.”

Si Yi inclined his head. “Well, I can’t speak about the producer’s motifs for choosing Judge Xiao but I can tell you that Bright Yellow Water fulfilled your criteria of being in the top one hundred.” He clicked to the next screenshot and raised his brows. “You must have missed their name when you went through the list that day, Ms. Fan. Clearly, the day your article went online, they were number seventy-five in the ranking.

“Now, if you want to say that you clearly needed some time to research, then let me show you a few more statistics.” Once again, he clicked.

The contestants looked at the end of the list again and soon spotted Bright Yellow Water’s name on place seventy-eight.

“The date is in the right upper-hand corner. If you remember, this is the date when ‘Golden Spoon’ was announced. Now, could it be that it was indeed the press conference that catapulted them this far up the ranking? I’m afraid that is not the case.” He clicked once more and motioned at the picture that was being projected. “This is the ranking of the channel several weeks before the press conference was being held.

“On that day, Mister Qian mentioned on the channel that they were in the planning stages of something big but that they weren’t allowed to say much.” He clicked forward once again but this time, there wasn’t a picture but instead a video file. Before anyone could ask, Si Yi already started to play it.

The three members of Bright Yellow Water could be seen sitting at the counter in their own apartment, a few bowls with steaming food in front of them. Xiao Ming was holding a teacup, taking a sip with a smile, while Li Shui was wolfing down beef noodles.

Meanwhile, Qian Huang was hitting the rim of his bowl with the tip of his chopsticks in excitement, staring at the camera. “I wish I could tell you details already but we are working on something big. Really big. When we tell you, you probably won’t believe it. I know some of you are going to ask for hints but I can’t. If I do, this will fall through so you better not ask! Also, don’t try to get the news out of Xiao Ming. He’s under orders not to say anything and I’m the only one with all details anyway.”

The video stopped and Si Yi folded his hands for a moment before he glanced at Fan Mei. “As you’ve seen on the image before, on that day, Bright Yellow Water was in place eighty-nine out of one hundred. For a cooking channel that was not advertised on national TV yet and hadn’t had the help of the advertisement it gained through ‘Golden Spoon’, that should count as very good.

“Now, I am not arguing that there weren’t higher-ranked channels around. There were.” He reached over to the keyboard again and pressed the arrow key, revealing the image from before with some added highlights. “In fact, there were three other channels being ranked higher than Bright Yellow Water: Wan Huang, Little Kitchen, and She Hua Cooking. They ranked at number fifty-four, eighty-one, and forty-seven, respectively.”

Fan Mei raised her brows and then hastily interrupted Si Yi before he could say anything else. “I admit I didn’t have all the numbers you have, Mister Si. But you have to admit that there is a stark difference between a channel that only ranks number eighty-nine and a channel that can rank number forty-seven. While that isn’t exactly half, it still comes close enough to that. Why wouldn’t that make somebody wonder if there wasn’t more to this?”

Si Yi smiled faintly. This woman was making things too easy for him. Honestly, he wasn’t sure why the team behind ‘Golden Spoon’ had decided on young master Xiao. Because their master wanted to win his affection aboveboard, they usually weren’t allowed to interfere past throwing some money at them if they seemed to be struggling. As such, this had nothing to do with the Si clan and could be exposed without repercussions.

He turned to Yang Shu Na and faintly raised his brows. “I’m afraid this is one question I am not qualified to answer. Ms. Yang, maybe you could shed some light on this?”

Yang Shu Na was taken aback. She glanced from Si Yi to Fan Mei and then over to the judges’ table. Usually, exposing internal information was a huge no-no but in this case, their credibility might depend on it. Also, there wasn’t anything shady behind it.

She smiled and then motioned over to the judges’ table. “Actually, I am not entirely able to answer that question either. You would have to ask Mister Yu. You should know that our production team had a list of several channels we considered for the position. Producer Bian showed some parts of those channels’ videos to Mister Yu who had already been invited to join and accepted our invitation. He was the one who recommended Mister Xiao from Bright Yellow Water for the position.”

Not just the contestants, even Xiao Ming and Qian Huang were taken aback, the surprise visibly showing on their features. They hadn’t been sure why their channel had been offered this opportunity. In fact, they had wondered about their lacking popularity compared t others as well. In the end, they had figured that the show wanted somebody who wouldn’t be able to fight back as easily if they were slighted, meaning that their participation would really be a double-edged sword. Now, it turned out that there might have been kind thoughts behind that choice.