Lu Zhixian ignored Lao Zhao's frantic state.

He picked up his phone and opened the recording interface of Yitian Short Video.

Walking to the open kitchen, he casually leaned his phone against a jar of black pepper sea salt.

The camera was fixed.

In the frame, Lu Zhixian was wearing a pure white T-shirt with a black waist apron tied around him.

Sunlight filtered through the floor-to-ceiling window onto his profile, outlining a sharp jawline.

"Brother, my dear brother," Lao Zhao stood opposite him, clutching his hair with both hands.

"There are tens of millions of people out there, the entire music industry, all staring at your first video on this platform. They're waiting for you to release a new song, waiting for you to continue your ascent to godhood! And now you're showing them how to cut beef?"

Lu Zhixian pressed the record button.

He lowered his head, his gaze falling on the bone-in beef short ribs on the cutting board.

"Watch closely," Lu Zhixian said calmly.

His right hand gripped the silver, gleaming boning knife.

The system-enhanced [Master-level Culinary Arts] was fully activated at this moment.

Lu Zhixian's wrist flicked suddenly. The boning knife spun beautifully between his fingertips.

The blade descended.

The rest of Lao Zhao's words got stuck in his throat. He stared wide-eyed at the cutting board.

In less than ten seconds, a perfectly separated piece of marbled Wagyu beef lay on the wooden board.

The marble-like fat texture was clearly visible.

Lu Zhixian put down the boning knife.

He turned around, switched on the induction cooker, and placed a cast-iron skillet on it.

He picked up a knob of butter and tossed it into the pan.

"Sizzle—"

Under the high heat, the butter melted rapidly, and a rich milky aroma instantly filled the entire kitchen.

Lu Zhixian used tongs to pick up the Wagyu and laid it flat on the bottom of the pan. As the fat touched the hot iron plate, it let out a searing sound.

He pinched a bit of sea salt with his left hand and raised his arm. His two fingers rubbed together gently.

Standing opposite him, Lao Zhao's Adam's apple bobbed involuntarily.

He swallowed a large mouthful of saliva.

Two minutes later.

Lu Zhixian turned off the heat. He picked up the steak, which had been seared to a charred brown on the surface, and placed it on a pure white bone china plate.

He casually sliced two cherry tomatoes for garnish.

He picked up the plate, grabbed a silver fork, and turned toward the living room.

He casually picked up the camera, and it followed his perspective, shaking along the way.

Lu Zhixian walked to the leather sofa in the living room and sat down. He propped his phone against a tissue box on the coffee table.

He used the fork to pick up a piece of beef dripping with rich juices and put it in his mouth, chewing slowly.

Lao Zhao followed him and stood in the camera's blind spot, watching longingly.

Lu Zhixian swallowed the beef. He leaned back slightly against the sofa.

He reached out with his left hand and picked up the acoustic guitar that had been leaning against the sofa.

The very acoustic guitar that had attained legendary status across the internet last night.

Lao Zhao's spirits lifted.

It's coming! He's finally going to sing!

He simply rested the body of the guitar casually on his thigh, his right hand still holding the silver fork he used to eat the meat.

Then, Lu Zhixian's left hand gripped the guitar's fretboard single-handedly.

No preparation, no soundcheck.

Lu Zhixian's left fingers tapped heavily directly onto the strings.

"Clang!"

A note exploded.

Immediately after, his middle and ring fingers slid rapidly across the fretboard, pulling and hammering the strings.

Relying purely on the strength of his left hand alone, he hammered out a highly rhythmic and incredibly lazy blues variation.

Lao Zhao's scalp tingled.

He didn't understand guitars, but he had ears.

The sound produced by sliding a single hand on the strings was relaxed to the extreme, yet also flashy to the extreme.

The fifteen-second variation came to an end.

Lu Zhixian's left hand left the fretboard, the lingering notes echoing in the living room.

He put down the guitar. He picked up a glass of warm water from the coffee table and raised it toward the camera.

"I'm full, just coming up for some air."

After saying that, Lu Zhixian tapped the screen.

Send.

8:05 PM.

Jingzhou, the headquarters of Yitian Media.

The top-floor data center. Indicator lights on hundreds of servers flashed frantically. A massive curved electronic screen took up an entire wall.

Vice President Su Lan stood before the screen, her hands tightly clutching the hem of her clothes.

Data Director Lao Chen sat at the main console, his eyes fixed on the red line graph in the center.

"President Su, the video is live," Lao Chen's voice was tense.

"Push it! Change every splash screen, pop-up, and top trending spot on the site to Teacher Lu's video!" Su Lan ordered decisively.

"We've already switched over!"

As soon as he finished speaking.

The red line on the big screen suddenly paused for a second.

"Beep beep beep beep—"

The main console immediately erupted with a piercing alarm.

"Cluster 1 server load has reached 95%!"

"Bandwidth limit exceeded on backup line 3!"

Lao Chen suddenly sprang up from his chair. He had been a data director for ten years and had never seen such an increase!

"What's happening?" Su Lan asked anxiously.

"The traffic is too huge!" Lao Chen's hands flew across the keyboard.

"Users from across the entire internet are crowding into this video! The refresh rate in the comments section has exceeded the database's write limit!"

"Hold on! You must hold on!"

"If the servers crash today, Yitian will become the laughingstock of the entire internet!"

"We can't hold on, President Su!" Lao Chen was drenched in sweat. "The number of concurrent viewers has surpassed five million! And it's still rising!"

Lao Chen turned his head sharply.

"Cut off the Gaming section! Cut off the Beauty section! Divert all server computing power from the entertainment sub-sections! Make way for the homepage! Fast!"

The entire data center was in chaos.

Su Lan took out her phone and opened the Yitian app.

Lu Zhixian's video played automatically on the homepage.

In the frame, the man in the white T-shirt was cutting meat, sprinkling salt, and playing the guitar with one hand.

Looking at Lu Zhixian's bone-deep sense of relaxation on the screen, Su Lan suddenly understood.

This was a dimensional strike.

While all the celebrities were desperately striking poses, building personas, and spending huge sums on promotion...

Lu Zhixian was just wearing an apron and cooking a meal in the kitchen.

Using his max-level culinary skills and that miraculous one-handed guitar technique, he showed everyone what a true genius was.

The video's comment section had completely gone crazy.

Su Lan swiped down.

Likes: 2.14 million.

Comments: 450,000.

And only five minutes had passed since the video was posted.

The top comments were all professional accounts with yellow 'V' verification.

Vice Chairman of the Chinese Guitar Association.

"I just tried it with my guitar. Hammering notes with one hand while coordinating those high-level slides... I'm sorry, my fingers cramped up. This blues fingering shouldn't even exist on Earth! God Lu, are you taking disciples?"

Lead Guitarist of a top domestic band.

"I thought fingerstyle was the limit. Today he told me he can even play with one hand. I announce that from today on, my guitar is firewood."

A certain Michelin three-star executive chef.

"Am I the only one who noticed his knife skills with the Wagyu? That cut going right along the fascia—you absolutely couldn't do that without ten years of kitchen experience! Perfect! Teacher Lu, would you consider a career in the catering industry?"

Below them were the frantic replies of netizens.

"A god-tier live performance reproduction? No, God himself has descended to cook!"

"That damn sense of relaxation! That line 'I'm full, just coming up for some air' is so charming it makes my legs go weak!"

"Who understands! The way he looks sprinkling salt in an apron is ten thousand times sexier than those male celebrities in deep-V suits!"

"Capital packaging? Can your capital package a God of Cookery who plays blues with one hand?"

Data Director Lao Chen clutched his hair tightly, his eyes bloodshot as he stared at the data still jumping wildly on the screen.

"Five minutes! Only five minutes have passed! Likes have broken two million! And look at the comments section—are those verified accounts crazy?!"