SG 61

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Actor Ji Fanchuan posted a Weibo post with a plate containing a grilled steak, captioned: It’s been a while since I grilled steak, but my skills haven’t been lost (emoji). 

Just grill steak, but there’s not one plate in the photo, and the edge of the other plate is showing. Fans are already used to this kind of subtle display of affection. Who is the steak for? Do you even need to ask? The answer is that the agent works too hard, and he needs to be rewarded. 

Wait a minute, the “Kejia” (academician) smells something different. Isn’t the plate holding the steak from the popular Starfish Pottery? When a fan brought up the question, several high-definition pictures were immediately added for comparison. 

Each piece of ceramic from Starfish Pottery is printed with a special mark made by the potter, so there’s no mistake. The key is the two plates. One has the pattern “No Berry Troubles” and the other has the pattern “Peach You Like.” Tsk tsk tsk tsk, this little trick of trying to hide something makes it even more obvious. 

“Close Weibo, open Douyin. I want to buy this exact thing in ten minutes.” Over two thousand replies followed this comment. 

“Close Weibo, going downstairs, driving, already on my way to the store.” This comment also received over a thousand replies. 

Ji Fanchuan scrolled through the comments, wondering why these two comments were so highly upvoted. Scrolling further, he saw someone comment: “Did Ke Ke say the steak was delicious? It’s different with the scheming plate.” (Witty meme) 

That’s the normal style, why is everyone focusing on the plate? The key point is that Ji Fanchuan didn’t buy the plate. A while ago, Zhao Ke brought home a large, heavy box that had been kept in storage. 

A few days ago, while looking for something, Ji Fanchuan found the unopened box and opened it. Inside was an 18-piece dinnerware set: six plates, six bowls, and six matching porcelain spoons. Each plate was adorned with a different fruit on the rim, and no two were repeated. The fruits were three-dimensional, looking lively and lovely. 

Zhao Ke definitely wouldn’t buy something like that. Ji Fanchuan suspected it might have been a gift from Xia Zhifei. Last October, after hearing Zhao Ke mention that he’d done Zhifei a small favor, Ji Fanchuan discovered an interesting handmade pottery shop.

It would be a shame to leave such lovely tableware gathering dust in the pantry, so Ji Fanchuan grabbed it and used it. Could there be a meaning behind this plate? 

He went to the kitchen and pulled a peach-patterned plate from the dishwasher. He inspected it carefully, and sure enough, on the bottom, he saw tiny words: “Peach You Like”… 

Ji Fanchuan had no idea the plate held a hidden meaning. He chose it simply because the peach on it resembled Zhao Ke. It looked prickly, but peel open the skin and it was sweet. 

Now that he knew what the plate represented, Ji Fanchuan smiled at it, convinced he hadn’t made a mistake. 

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The same plates and bowls from Starfish Pottery sold out within a day. Since they weren’t mass-produced, stock was limited. Yan Anqing couldn’t understand why so many people were suddenly coming to the shop to buy these plates and bowls. Even if he temporarily adjusted his pottery production schedule for the next day, the quantity he could produce in a single day was still a drop in the bucket.

The store manager was also worried. There were so many requests for the same bowls and plates. He had wanted to hold a pre-sale, but with the current number of people, even three months of continuous production wouldn’t be enough. 

Yan Anqing had never encountered this situation before. Because bowls and plates are too heavy to carry, most tourists who visited didn’t buy them; smaller items were more popular. He didn’t know why they were suddenly sold out. 

Over dinner that night, he gloomily recounted this to Chu Baiyan: “Today, all the plates and bowls in the shop were sold out, and there are still many people asking for them. The store manager said that with the current demand, we can make plates for the next three months.” 

Chu Baiyan, who doesn’t use Weibo or follow celebrities, was also confused about the situation. However, making only bowls and plates for the next three months was obviously not feasible. Yan Anqing only had two hands, and if he used them all to make bowls and plates, he wouldn’t be able to make anything else, and customers who wanted other items would also be out of stock. 

“How about I talk to Brother Zhang and ask if you could record a video explaining this to everyone? Handmade ceramics have to be of guaranteed quality, and we can only produce a limited amount each day. Those who didn’t buy bowls and plates can look at the other items in the store.”

“I think everyone will understand if I tell customers the truth. We can’t just make bowls and plates from now on. Satisfying those customers will also affect those who want to buy other items.” 

The problem that had been bothering him all day was solved, and Yan Anqing was very supportive. He didn’t want to just make the same item each day. 

Two days later, Starfish Pottery updated a video on various platforms. In it, the owner explained that handmade ceramics have to be of guaranteed quality, and that we can only produce a limited amount each day. Those who didn’t buy bowls and plates can look at the other items in the store. 

Although the owner’s face wasn’t shown, his voice was gentle, and every piece he described was adorable. If you can’t find the same bowls and plates, it’s also good to buy other items from the same potter. 

And so, the entire shelf was cleared out. 

For their third anniversary, J-God and his husband posted a commemorative video on Little Bluebird. As is customary, a notification is posted on Weibo after a video is released. The content of these notifications is usually quite ordinary, just a sentence letting everyone know about the new video. 

This time, however, the post was a bit different. In a rare move, it included a photo of a pair of cups with a ceramic starfish nestled between them, captioned: “One cup, a lifetime, and the next life is mine too!” 

Fans quickly spotted the clue: J-God’s cups looked so familiar. And that hand-shaped starfish, isn’t it one of the must-buy items at Starfish Pottery? Many fans also have the same model, and combined with the newly released video, fans suddenly realized what was going on. 

J-God and his husband went to Jindu for a trip. They not only saw the “Mermaid” show at Ocean Park, but also visited Starfish Pottery.” It was a worthwhile trip, as they bought cups and were inspired. 

This commemorative video went viral. J-God and his husband were filmed in a large, round bathtub. Even more exciting was the fact that J-God transformed into a siren, sporting a gray-blue fishtail. 

The fishtail, the bathtub, the wet body… it was so complete, it was enough to make every fan’s nose bleed. Comments poured in, suggesting he take his husband out more often for more inspiration. Take more photos and enjoy watching, and don’t be stingy with your followers. 

Starfish Pottery inexplicably gained tens of thousands of followers in just a few days. The “No Berry Troubles” series of mugs sold out, but since this series is always a hot seller, selling out isn’t uncommon. 

“Why are the followers so high these days? Every time I click on it, the followers are increasing by thousands. It’s frightening.” While followers are merely a quantitative change, the sudden surge of followers made Yan Anqing a little worried. 

“Maybe you got picked up by some great influencer,” Chu Baiyan explained, borrowing a colleague’s words. 

“What does ‘get picked up by a great influencer’ mean?” Yan Anqing still didn’t understand; the explanation was practically nonsensical. 

Seeing Yan Anqing’s serious expression, Chu Baiyan laughed. “It’s that somewhere on the Internet that we don’t know about, there’s aTBML influencer with a lot of traffic and fans who posted something about ‘Starfish Pottery’. It drives fans to follow and buy the same items, which is called being picked up by a great influencer.”

“Oh, it’s because that great influencer likes my ceramics, and his fans also like my things because he likes them?”

“Perfect understanding ability.” Chu Baiyan lowered his head and kissed Yan Anqing on the lips.