Chapter 264: Chapter 264: Cultural Confidence

However, not everyone was smiling.

In the corner, Lai Liang’s expression was as dark as a thundercloud.

He avoided the camera and quietly scrolled through the online comments, discovering that the entire internet was almost unanimously praising Nan Zhi.

As for him?

Not even his overwhelming army of hired trolls could drown out the power and voice of the real public.

He had been pushed to the fringes, just as he was now, hiding in a dark corner, glaring at Nan Zhi with eyes full of jealousy and hatred.

But Nan Zhi never once spared him so much as a single glance.

Lai Liang was so furious he nearly threw his phone.

At the critical moment, his rational mind took over; he knew they were still live.

So, Lai Liang sent a message to Chang Mu, who was working behind the scenes:

"What are we going to do now!!!"

Chang Mu didn’t reply.

In fact, Chang Mu was in a complete panic herself.

She’d lost count of how many calls she’d made to her troll farms, telling them to hurry up and control public opinion and suppress Nan Zhi’s momentum.

When they told her it was "impossible," Chang Mu flew into a rage, cursing them for taking her money and doing nothing. She conveniently forgot that just two days ago, she had been more than satisfied with this very same company.

After nearly ten minutes of her tirade, the person on the other end hung up without another word and sent back a text:

"Forget the rest of the payment. This psycho can play by herself!"

Chang Mu’s eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.

And then came a scream of pure, unadulterated fury.

But her despair didn’t end there.

After the head of the troll farm sent that message, the tide of secretly manipulated online sentiment began to recede, and more and more real, rational voices started to dominate the discourse.

Even the slowest netizens noticed that the internet had suddenly gone quiet. The supporters of Lai Liang, who had been arguing incessantly with them just two days ago, seemed to have vanished in the blink of an eye.

Their previous aggressive momentum, which had outshined even top celebrities, was completely gone. Only a meager handful remained, still arguing nonsensically.

And so, someone posted on a certain forum:

"Have you guys noticed that a certain internet celebrity chef’s trolls have all disappeared?"

Replies quickly followed:

"Noticed it a while ago! Just as I expected, hehe."

"I’m not a fan of Nan Zhi, and I don’t like her. But I hate basic guys even more, especially when a shorty like him gets hyped up like a god every day."

"Right? And don’t even get me started on those who hype up kaiseki. Who wants to eat their dog-bowl-style plating!"

"Hahaha, that suddenly reminds me of those videos making fun of Michelin-style plating!"

"I recommend watching Nan Zhi’s stream. Now *that’s* what you call the grandeur of a great nation, a true feast for the eyes!"

"[Link] Go read this post. The blogger gives a detailed breakdown of the origins of Japanese cuisine. It’s a total slap in the face to some dogs!"

"Don’t say that, you’re insulting angelic doggos..."

...

As clips of Nan Zhi’s live broadcast went viral across the web, so did a post about the origins of Japanese cuisine from a popular blogger who specialized in traditional culture.

She mentioned that historians widely believe Japanese cuisine originated a thousand years ago during the Tang Dynasty. After a crushing defeat in the Battle of Baekgang, R Country sent envoys to the Tang court to comprehensively study the Celestial Empire’s political system and way of life.

However, since they primarily learned the lifestyle of the upper aristocracy, they soon found it too costly and began their path of "modification."

The Tang nobility’s trend of drinking heated wine with green plums was adapted into distilled spirits and plum wine, which were easier to store and transport. The popular Tang practices of whisking and portioning tea were simplified by omitting the technically demanding tea ewers, replacing them with more easily produced kettles and bowls. They also added the spiritual element of "wabi," creating the Japanese tea ceremony...

Even sashimi, which has become almost synonymous with Japanese food, also originated in Hua Country. Its earliest roots can be traced back to the Zhou Dynasty, and it reached its peak during the Tang Dynasty.

Bai Juyi wrote of "peeling Dongting oranges and slicing sashimi from Heavenly Lake fish." He Chao wrote of "carp sashimi on a jade plate, while lamb boils in a golden cauldron." Zhang Ji wrote of "rejoicing together over bream and carp, prepared as sashimi before me." ... All of these were true depictions of aristocratic life in the Tang Dynasty.

Even today, some regions in Hua Country still retain raw food traditions—Shunde-style raw fish, Chaoshan-style raw marinated seafood, Jiangnan-style drunken shrimp, Ningbo-style raw chili crab with red roe, and Songyang-style pickled mountain crabs...

The blogger concluded her post by writing:

"Although many of our traditions have been lost to the river of history, I hope everyone remembers the cultural heritage left to us by our ancestors. Finally, a salute to Nan Zhi for showing us that there are still young chefs like her walking the path of the older generation, passing the torch and cherishing our legacy."

This blog post was quickly shared far and wide.

It wasn’t just limited to Weibo; people were promoting it like crazy on all major platforms, on their friend feeds, and even on video sites.

Many uninformed netizens felt as if they had been woken up with a jolt:

"Oh my god, I never knew any of this. I always thought that was their unique culture!"

"They’re trying to claim the son is the father. It’s completely backward!"

"I just had a huge fight with one of Lai’s stans yesterday. They’re getting totally owned right now!"

"Look, there are still some hard-headed ones telling us to ’reflect’ and not claim the origin of the universe for ourselves."

"Some people have been kneeling for so long, their knees have gone soft."

"Nan Zhi is seriously amazing! A top historian is analyzing her banquet procedures and etiquette based on ancient tomb murals and says it’s completely textbook-level accurate!"

"No way, that sounds like an exaggeration, sis..."

"It’s true! It’s already been reposted by official state media!"

...

The impact of Nan Zhi’s "little demonstration" had not yet reached its peak. Instead, it began to leave a lasting, long-term impression on the collective memory of the internet.

Perhaps many years from now, when people speak of the "nostalgic revival" trend, they will mention the grand banquet Nan Zhi presented during a children’s variety show live broadcast.

Her small act became the catalyst for an awakening for countless people.

Of course, all of that was for later.

For now, however, the one hit hardest was Lai Liang.

He could barely keep his composure. Claiming he felt unwell, he snuck away, hugging the wall, while Nan Zhi was interacting with the children.

No longer busy cooking, Nan Zhi shed the distant, cool demeanor she had while preparing the food. She returned to her approachable self and began to carefully and patiently answer the children’s million questions.

She would tell them the origin of each dish, the occasions it was typically served at, or the little-known stories of famous people connected to it.

Passing down stories through Food, tasting history on the tip of the tongue.

She was putting it into practice.

As for Lai Liang’s departing figure, she glanced at him from a distance and then dismissed him from her mind without a second thought.

’To her, Lai Liang wasn’t even qualified to be her rival.’

’He was nothing more than a tiny ant she had crushed underfoot on her journey.’

Meanwhile, in another corner, watching everything unfold as predicted, Qi Pei’er clenched her fist.

’Time to close the net!’

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