Si Jin … did indeed not notice. After cutting the ten thousand onions, he put down the knife, nodded, and then left the room, having his men deal with distributing the cut onions outside.

As for himself … he went to share the good news with Xiao Ming and then went to bed when he noticed that he wouldn’t get any response from him personally. After all, he had been awake for more than twenty-four hours and while he was able to stay up for longer, he felt that it was still better to sleep for a while before the live stream started. That way, he would be better rested when he finally saw Xiao Ming again. Because of that, he didn’t notice either what was happening outside.

While the master was unaware, his men weren’t. They all stood around a tablet, looking at the article that had been published online and shared on Weibo by several accounts with dark expressions.

"Young Master Xiao hasn’t even been mentioned by name. Master will be angry when he finds out. What do you think we should do?" As usual, Si Yi took the lead in pointing out the problem they had to solve.

Si Er furrowed his brows and then took the tablet, looking at the site for a moment. "How about I hack into the website and change the text?"

Si Yi pondered for a moment and then nodded. "That would be for the best. "Si Qi, you write a more favorable article. Make sure that it isn’t too obvious though. The last thing we need is somebody getting behind this."

Si Er gave him a miffed look, feeling that his abilities were questioned. Si Qi nodded without hesitation though, took the tablet from Si Yi’s hands, and then opened the text document and the keyboard, his fingers flying over the digital keys, editing the text in question. When he finished, he handed the tablet to Si Er and then went into position again. Si Er did as he had promised and exchanged the text on the website before handing the tablet back to Si Yi.

Si Yi nodded and then opened Weibo, looking at the post that had been sent and the texts accompanying the several shares. Unfortunately, neither of them mentioned either Bright Yellow Water or Young Master Xiao yet. Changing this would be too obvious though.

The news outlet definitely wouldn’t make a huge fuss about it when they had been hacked to prevent people from knowing there was a security breach. They would only admit to it if they were forced to do so. But if several accounts on Weibo were compromised as well, the consequences might be bigger. They couldn’t risk that.

Si Yi pondered and then turned to one of the other men. "Si Shi Qi, you message your wife and ask her to share the article and mention Master’s crush."

Si Shi Qi tensed for a moment, seeming as if he didn’t want to do it but then he still took out his phone. Anyway, while they did try to keep their own families out of this, the one they were talking about here might be their Master’s future partner. Naturally, they had to get this right.

[Darling, can you do me a favor?"

It only took a hot minute for a message to come back. [What’s the matter? You better explain fast. The director is already calling for me.]

Si Shi Qi hesitated again and then send over the link, followed by another text.

[The one who donated is my good friend from work. He wants to take part in the cooking show because he’s a huge fan of that food anchor, Xiao Ming. He’s angry that most people aren’t even mentioning him. It was all my idea in the first place so I feel like I need to make it up to him. You have a large following, could you post on Weibo about it?]

Unfortunately, he didn’t get an answer back immediately. Si Shi Qi lowered his phone and looked at Si Yi. "She is currently working. It might take her some time to reply."

Si Yi nodded. "That’s better than nothing. Everybody try to think up a way how each of us can help Master. Until he gets up, we have to have a watertight plan. This time, nothing can go wrong!"

The other ninjas nodded and then each retreated to a corner of the room, furrowing their brows and thinking deeply.

Five minutes later, the twenty of them reconvened in the middle of the room.

"What are your ideas?" Si Yi looked from one person to the other, starting with Si Er.

"I could enter the websites of several other news outlets and post an article on the matter. That way, the information would seem more important and might be shared by more accounts on Weibo. Sooner or later, they will have to mention Young Master Xiao."

Si Yi nodded slowly. "Risky, but with the possibility of high gains. Si San?"

"I could borrow a small airplane and leave a message in the sky."

"Creative, definitely newsworthy, but it might be too difficult to condense the information into a short enough message for this."

Si San stepped back, accepting that his idea would not be possible to implement. Instead, Si Si stepped forward. "I am afraid that there is no short-term plan I can take part in but we might be able to organize an event around the start of the cooking show. Alternatively, we could organize events for people to cook following Young Master Xiao’s live stream. It might seem like we are trying to profit off of Bright Yellow Water’s success though, making them furious instead of grateful."

Si Yi slightly furrowed his brows and nodded. "I agree. This would be too risky if it is done in a too high profile manner."

At that, Si Shi Qi spoke up. "I had a similar idea in that we could start a marketing campaign for them. It is just a matter of whether they would think it is a scam. Maybe we could combine these ideas though.

"The most important part is to make sure that Bright Yellow Water will gain more viewers so that Young Master Xiao can live his dream. It would be preferable that this happens in a way that will let him know that our Master is the one behind this.

"It would be possible to organize some smaller groups that cook together following his live stream. If we make this idea public on Weibo by using some carefully chosen accounts, this might motivate other viewers to do the same. As long as it isn’t a huge corporation trying this, it should not make them feel as if it was anything bad. Since we have several accounts already following Bright Yellow Water, we could use some of them. The more well-known the name is to them, the better."

Si Yi’s expression turned thoughtful at that. "If we do it that way, there really is less risk of antagonizing them. In that case, yes, let’s go along with this. Then the two of you will work on this together."

Si Si and Si Shi Qi both nodded and then retreated to the side, starting to discuss their own plan while the others continued to gather ideas.

Si Wu’s expression was a little uncomfortable. His alternative identity was that of a young university professor. In the past, this identity had proven to be quite useful but there wasn’t much he could do in terms of this problem. "I could open a recording of the live stream on my notebook before I start my next lectures. That way, students would notice that I am watching Bright Yellow Water and might at least check it out. With how closely connected the youth is these days, this might lead to a large percentage of my department’s students taking a look. Everyone who is interested in cooking would definitely stay."

Si Yi did not seem impressed. "It is an idea but I am afraid that the yield wouldn’t be high. Anyway, you should still do it. Even if we can only reach a few people, it is better than nothing." He turned to Si Liu, slightly raising his brows.

Si Liu didn’t look any happier than Si Wu. He also hadn’t been able to come up with much. "I could maybe step up and ask if they would be interested in a sponsorship. I could cite the article about Master’s donation as my reasoning behind this, saying that they are doing good for the people in the country in more than just one way. It should show them that the article has some positive outcomes."

Si Yi nodded. "They are likely to refuse, knowing Young Master Xiao, but it really is a good idea to make them connect this with Master’s name. When you do so, do mention his family name."

Si Qi gave a breezy smile when Si Yi turned to him. "I can write a short story and mention that the article was my inspiration. It could be about a ninja cutting onions to gain the attention of his secret crush. This will make Young Master Xiao and the other two clue in to Master’s feelings for Young Master Xiao, and also put my readers on track to go and eat some melon seeds in the channel. With somebody helping out at the side, Young Master Xiao should be much more open for Master’s advances."

Si Yi gave a hum, clearly satisfied with that suggestion. "Start on it immediately. This has to appear before this evening’s live stream if possible. If you cannot finish the story until then, at least announce it."

Si Qi nodded and then rushed away to take out his notebook, starting on the draft.

On the other hand, Si Ba looked just as embarrassed as Si Wu had, not quite sure what he should say. "I … could have my girlfriend share it. She’s quite well-known online."

Si Yi furrowed his brows at him. "That is to be expected." He didn’t bother with him any longer and turned to Si Jiu instead.

Unfortunately, the IT manager didn’t look much better. "I could probably help Si Er with his plan?"

Before Si Yi could say something, Si Er shot Si Jiu an unhappy glance. "Keep to your own lane! Why would I need your help with my part? Anyway, Si Yi didn’t say yet that I should do it."

Si Yi gave a hum but didn’t indicate either way. Instead, he turned to Si Shi, hoping for better results.