Chapter 7: Welcome, Baby Croissant
As far as Jian Xingsong was concerned, Shen Jinye’s words no longer held a shred of credibility.
Jian Xingsong was good-natured, but that didn’t mean he lacked a temper. He had a soft personality, yet he was incredibly stubborn. Once he made up his mind, a team of wild horses couldn't drag him back.
Once he decided to break up, there was absolutely no turning back.
Before initiating the breakup, he had already tried everything to salvage their relationship. When those efforts failed to garner a positive response, he slowly began to desensitize himself until he was ready to finally end it.
He was peculiar and endearing in that way.
Putting his phone aside, he focused on his crocheting. He was making a little wolf doll.
As an original crochet creator, Jian Xingsong designed many of the dolls featured in his videos himself. Drafting the patterns on his computer and figuring out how to translate them into finished crocheted pieces was second nature to him.
As a result, he had amassed a respectable following of nearly 300,000 fans on his personal account.
This number was nothing to scoff at. Within the niche of crochet and handicrafts, his follower count was actually quite impressive. Looking back through his video uploads, the likes had steadily increased over time, but even his older videos comfortably broke the 10,000-like mark, and his comment sections were always highly active. It was a testament to his talent.
This level of engagement was exceptionally rare among content creators in the same niche.
The online storefront he ran mostly sold his own original designs. Because his craftsmanship was so exquisite, his sales were always decent.
However, since he worked alone, his capacity was limited, so he didn't take on too many commissions. Instead, he primarily sold limited-edition, one-of-a-kind dolls.
This perfectly catered to the psychology of buyers who loved exclusive items, ensuring there were always people willing to open their wallets for his work.
Anyone familiar with crochet knows that the skill ceiling is somewhat ambiguous—neither incredibly high nor particularly low. It's incredibly time-consuming and labor-intensive.
Price a piece too high, and it won't sell; price it too low, and you feel like you're shortchanging your own hard work.
Ultimately, this industry wasn't just about selling the act of crocheting itself; it was about selling a design and an aesthetic vision.
That perfectly explained why some creators could sell out instantly, while others couldn't even give their creations away for free.
Jian Xingsong had a very clear understanding of his own market positioning. He never bothered setting up a studio. Instead, he copyrighted his design patterns, and would either sell the patterns themselves or auction off the finished, exclusive crocheted pieces. Through this model, he pulled in a solid monthly income.
Furthermore, his smartest trait was knowing how to compromise and strategize.
Whenever his limited-edition designs gained popularity, he would intentionally hold back a few exquisite patterns from being exclusive and release free tutorial videos for them instead. This way, when beginners searched for tutorials, they would find his videos and click into his profile.
Once they were on his page, he had a fifty percent success rate of retaining viewers who loved handmade crafts. All of these people were his potential customers.
It was killing two birds with one stone.
This was the secret to his channel's survival and success.
He would occasionally livestream as well, though he rarely spoke during them. His streams were marketed mostly as ASMR and relaxation aids; because of his social anxiety and introversion, he wasn't very good at interacting with his audience.
The style of his stream was simple: the camera only showed his torso as he worked, with the focus entirely on his hands and the crochet hook.
He rarely made a mistake. Every stitch fell exactly where it was supposed to. This display of skill alone had won over countless viewers.
Watching him quietly and smoothly crochet a doll—seeing it slowly take shape from a simple ball of yarn into a finished piece—viewers in the chat couldn't help but marvel. His technique was simply beautiful!
His quiet demeanor carried a natural healing energy. Whenever the fans in his stream watched him work, it was as if their restless hearts were soothed.
Crocheting might seem boring to watch, yet it possessed a magical quality that kept people silently transfixed, entirely unaware of the time passing until he finished a piece.
Moreover, Jian Xingsong's technique was flawless and his color palettes were always pleasing to the eye. Combined with the gentle, subconscious smile he’d show upon finishing as he announced, "All done!"...
His voice was incredibly non-threatening, resting comfortably in that rare sweet spot of being soft without being overly cloying. Hearing the pure joy in his voice made his listeners inevitably smile along with him.
Thus, his unique streaming style was born.
His fanbase was remarkably loyal. To them, Jian Xingsong was an absolute treasure of a creator!
When they found out he had gotten a boyfriend, they treated the situation like they were watching their own child date someone, maintaining a critical "evaluating the son-in-law" attitude.
Out of solidarity, many of Jian Xingsong's fans had followed Shen Jinye as well. So, when they witnessed the absolute trainwreck in Shen Jinye's stream today, they completely abandoned his channel and flocked directly to Jian Xingsong to comfort him.
Normally, Jian Xingsong streamed from 10:00 PM to 11:30 PM. He glanced at the time; it was already 8:30 PM. Too much had happened today, and he was simply not in the mood to stream. After a moment's thought, he posted a leave of absence notice on his main profile.
Seeing their usually diligent "little bee" post a leave notice today...
...made his fans' hearts ache for him even more.
[Don't cry, Baby Song! There are millions of men out there, if this one's no good, we'll just get a new one!]
[Good job on the breakup, Baby Song! A scumbag like Ye doesn't deserve you!]
[Don't cry, Baby Song. You're the best, it's Ye who is unworthy!]
[Baby Song is the best! Sending hugs to our baby!]
[Songsong, Songsong! Go watch God Jin beat the crap out of the scumbag!]
Comments of this nature almost completely took over Jian Xingsong's latest video uploads.
Seeing them warmed Jian Xingsong’s heart. So he wasn't completely unworthy of being loved after all...
Stunned, his eyes snagged on the comment urging him to go watch "God Jin" beat up the scumbag. A rare, massive cluster of question marks floated into Jian Xingsong's mind.
God Jin... Xie Zhijin's honorable moniker. Since they streamed on the same platform, he naturally wasn't completely unfamiliar with the title. Moreover, his ex, Shen Jinye, was a massive fanboy of Xie Zhijin.
While he was dating Shen Jinye, the guy made no secret of his absolute idolization of Xie Zhijin. However, Shen Jinye was merely a gaming streamer with half a million followers, and Jian Xingsong was a niche crochet streamer with 300,000.
Compared to a gaming god like Xie Zhijin, who boasted an eight-million-strong fanbase, there was an insurmountable chasm between them.
Streamers had their own social hierarchies. The top streamers played with other top streamers, while the smaller ones formed their own circles. Unless there was a middleman to build a bridge, it was impossible for a small streamer to ride the coattails of a major one.
Even though Shen Jinye streamed in the exact same gaming category as Xie Zhijin, the gap in their popularity was simply too vast for them to ever interact.
It was only recently that Shen Jinye had gotten lucky; he started playing games with another streamer for a while, who pulled him into their circles, slowly allowing him to meet more people and expand his network.
You had to admit, Shen Jinye definitely had some luck on his side.
As for himself... Jian Xingsong shook his head. The gap between him and Xie Zhijin was astronomically wider. If they hadn't been high school classmates, Xie Zhijin probably wouldn't even know he existed.
By the time Jian Xingsong snapped back to reality, he realized he had already searched up Xie Zhijin's stream and clicked inside.
His username was a single character: [Jin]. It suited his aloof, cool-guy aesthetic perfectly.
The match had just begun. As a complete gaming noob, Jian Xingsong couldn't grasp the underlying tension on the battlefield. To him, it looked like both sides were just peacefully farming without any fighting breaking out yet.
Jian Xingsong simply left the stream running in the background while he lowered his head and went back to his crocheting. He had already finished the little wolf's body; once he stuffed it with cotton, it would become plump and adorable.
But right as he lowered his head, Xie Zhijin secured the kill on the enemy team's Lan, claiming First Blood.
"First Blood!"
The system announcer's majestic, solemn voice rang out, causing both streams' chats to fall silent for a brief second.
The next instant, the chat in Xie Zhijin's stream began scrolling at lightspeed.
[Holy crap! First blood!]
[Walked right in to see the scumbag get wrecked. So satisfying!]
[My name is Lan, an assassin of Wei. My current target is a scumbag named Ye. Now, mission accomplished!]
[User above is a genius!]
[I'm dying of laughter. I came over from the stream next door, the scumbag is totally dumbfounded!]
Xie Zhijin paid absolutely no attention to the bustling chat. His gaze, incredibly sharp, zeroed in on a single line of text highlighted in yellow: "The streamer you follow [Croissant] has entered the stream."
Xie Zhijin’s eyes widened a fraction. Swallowing hard, his Adam's apple bobbed, and with a slightly hoarse voice, he read out, "Welcome to the stream, Baby Croissant."
The moment those words left his mouth, the chat paused in an eerie silence for a split second, before the screen was suddenly bombarded with a tidal wave of question marks.
[?]
[??]
[??!]
[??? Hello? Was there a streamer swap?]
[Whoever you are, get out of my favorite streamer's body right now!]
[Did the sun rise in the west? God Jin actually welcomes new viewers now?]
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