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"Babe, look at this—he really did raise a bunch of sheep. And the best few female sheep? He even named them!"
"Let me see… Bella, Beth, Jill, Ginny… He milks them on rotation, even in the middle of the night, chills the milk, and sends it to the Jiang family in the capital first thing in the morning."
"That must cost a fortune! I never would've guessed Matt lived like this…"
"Definitely not cheap. Eating like this every day—no wonder he looks so well-maintained. Just look, he had Antarctic skate tail for lunch!"
"Yeah, and it was steamed too. Man really knows how to eat."
"Scroll down, I wanna see what the heck this 'blood swallow' is."
The couple kept scrolling through Matt's Weibo feed, commenting in disbelief the whole time.
Eventually, they came across a few of Matt's photos. In one, he was holding two red bird nests that honestly looked like they were made of plastic. Then there were pictures of them soaking in water, being cooked with ingredients, and finally turning into a bowl of soup.
The caption read: "Freshly opened blood swallow nests. So rich and flavorful!"
Meanwhile, in a small rented apartment, another young couple was doing their own research.
In just a little while, they figured out how much Matt's daily meals cost.
"Labor, feed, delivery—just one shipment of goat milk costs 1,300 Dollar."
"The Antarctic fish—he eats a few types, just the tails. Hmm… actually, this one's cheaper, only 1,100."
"Mass-produced stuff can only be so expensive. Shipping probably costs half as much as the fish itself."
"True. But this 'blood swallow' is the cheapest—it's just 200 Dollar."
"No way, that stuff's expensive. Wait, look closely—they're selling it by the gram. That's practically gold prices!"
"Damn… just eating this kind of stuff every day, plus all the extras—how much is Matt spending daily?"
"You're only looking at his food. Didn't you see his villa? It's in the city center and has an elevator!"
"You know what? Maybe we should try doing stand-up comedy too!"
It wasn't just this one couple—tons of people were scrolling through Matt's Weibo, getting inspired to become comedians themselves.
Meanwhile, at the taping of Comedy Stars, the mood was tense.
Matt, who'd just criticized Kyle for implying that government officials eating roast duck was no big deal, had now been called out himself.
Spending over ten thousand a day on food, and all for himself? If he were a major celeb, sure, that'd be whatever.
But Matt had always played the "veteran artist" card, and he was also the head of a performing arts association—a public figure.
Basically, he was dressed like a humble man but living like a tycoon. It wasn't hard to see through the act.
"Ahem, he's spending his own money, buying his own duck when he's craving it…"
Nick, quick on the uptake, jumped in to lighten the mood. His quip not only bailed Matt out but also got a good laugh from the audience.
"Alright, thank you judges for your comments. Now it's time to score—please raise your cards!"
The host moved swiftly to the next part.
The first judge, Nick, held up his card: Pass.The second, Lily, also: Pass. And Matt, after a long pause… finally raised his card: Pass.
With two out of three approvals, the contestants were eligible for the audience voting round.
Whichever group scored highest with the audience would advance to the next round.
"Congratulations to Kyle and Mia! You've passed the judges' test. Now we move on to audience scoring!"
Kyle stayed calm and composed, while Mia looked a little nervous. The lights behind them flickered, and the screen numbers started jumping.
"Out of 200 live audience members, 188 gave you a vote of confidence!"
"This is officially the highest score so far! Congrats to Kyle and Mia!"
The host was practically bursting with excitement.
Up till now, the highest score anyone got was 150.
Since stronger acts came earlier, judges and audience tended to score more conservatively.
After all, if a new act scored too high, it'd make the judges look like they didn't know what they were doing.
Ding~
"'Creative Excuses' performance complete. Prize of 10 million awarded! Performer abilities unlocked!"
Backstage, Kyle heard the system voice in his ear.
He'd already gained Neil's skills, and now with the addition of Lee's talents, Kyle was over the moon.
"Man, who would've thought Neil's sidekick—who never got much fame—was actually a master of traditional arts. He's pro level at clapper talk, sanxian, and Beijing drum songs!"
Drum songs? Gary likes to perform those, but he's just okay. Learned it as an adult, not since childhood, so it always sounds like a generic folk song.
While Kyle was enjoying himself, Mia was busy scrolling through her phone, staring at Matt's Weibo in shock.
"So everything you said is true… Look at this—he's so skilled at flexing, Matt's Weibo posts have over 100k likes and shares!"
"If he's gonna keep bashing us, I had to dig up dirt on him. Who knew his entire lifestyle was the dirt."
Kyle looked pretty smug.
The gap between people can be even bigger than the gap between people and dogs.
That kind of gap becomes crystal clear when you compare incomes.
For some folks, having pork ribs for dinner is already a luxury. Ribs cost over 30 Dollar per kilo now.
But for others, spending ten thousand a day on food is just normal.
Celebs make money fast—and spend it even faster.
One face cream can cost over ten grand. A single handbag might go for hundreds of thousands.
A formal dress? Fifty thousand easy. A piece of jewelry? Maybe over a million.
That's Matt's life. Maybe he's just sharing it online, but it's nothing like what normal people live.
Normally, no one would care if you lived like that.
But Matt insists on preaching that "ordinary people are happy," "officials aren't living lavishly," and "the government and people are one big happy family."
That's just… nonsense.
"When do you think we'll ever live like that?" Mia looked at her phone enviously. I mean, who wouldn't want Matt's lifestyle?
"If you want it, just give it a couple more years—you're already on your way. Look at you, already over a million followers!"
Kyle was also scrolling. Mia's fan count had exploded to over 1.1 million.
"No way. Last time I checked, it was like 300k—and half of those were probably bots."
She closed Matt's page and refreshed her own.
Sure enough, the number jumped out at her: one million.
"Oh my god, I really do have a million followers! I'm officially in the celebrity tier! Ahhh~!"
She was thrilled. Follower count directly reflects your influence.
100k is internet-famous. A million? You're a legit celeb.
Once you hit ten million, that's A-list status—front and center.
And just like that, in only a few days, Mia had leveled up to celebrity status.
"Well, well, look at you—about to be a huge star! A million followers is just the tip of the iceberg."
Kyle chuckled.
He hadn't forgotten that Mia had fully backed his decision to change their material.
"Oh please, don't get cocky. You don't seriously think your fan count's bigger than mine, do you?"
She snatched his phone and took a look.
Then she scoffed, unimpressed.
"Psh, I thought you had something. Turns out it's just 500k followers—you're not even in my league."
"Well, if I had your looks, your figure, plus my talent, I'd already be an A-list star with tens of millions of fans!"
Kyle grinned.
"This round, we're in for sure. Let's start thinking about our next piece."
"You sure it's not too early? What if someone else surprises us and steals the show?"
Mia wasn't totally convinced, but her worries were soon put to rest.
"Congratulations! You got the highest audience score and are officially moving on. Time to get ready—you'll be back on stage soon with the others."
A staffer knocked and announced it with a big smile.
"See? Told you we'd make it. If those eliminated contestants were really popular, they wouldn't have been kicked out in the first place. Not like us—we only struggled because of our material."
Kyle laughed.
"Don't forget, the entertainment world's just like the system. If someone gets eliminated and then suddenly becomes popular again, that's a problem. Makes the showrunners look bad. Makes the judges look clueless."
Mia blinked, then nodded slowly as it all clicked.
"You're right… no matter where you are, it's not just about talent or fighting your way to the top. It's all politics and relationships, huh?"
"....."