Chapter 8 — The Sweet Taste After Criticism

Tung posted a short behind-the-scenes clip on the channel on Friday morning, intended to be just a light "teaser" to guide the audience before the official episode of "Hoi Sinh Quan Nho" debuted. The clip is less than a minute long, recording the scene of Mai and Kien making moon cakes together, interspersed with the moment Kien caught the tray of cakes that almost fell out of Mai's hand, the two looked at each other and smiled in the warm yellow light of the kitchen.

No one in the group expected that short clip would create a small fever on social networks.

“Tomorrow, you have to see this,” Linh hurriedly ran into the kitchen at noon, held up her phone, the screen filled with comments and shares. “The behind-the-scenes clip received nearly fifty thousand views in just a few hours, but the comments…”

Mai took her phone and scrolled through a series of comments - mostly compliments about the "loveliness" of the couple in the clip, mixed with a lot of speculation about the real relationship between the two. But amidst those positive comments, there are also many skeptical opinions.

"Classic PR trick, drowning the product first and then doing a rescue to get views, it's so obvious."

"It's true that it's a staged drama. How can anyone who suddenly gets criticized have feelings for the person who criticized them so quickly?"

"The famous strict reviewer now turns out to be paired with his own victim, this script must have been written from the beginning."

Mai's heart sank as she read, feeling like all the true emotions she had experienced over the past two weeks were suddenly turned into a cheap show in the eyes of outsiders.

“What are they talking about?” Linh was upset, “we didn't do anything wrong.”

“The problem is not right or wrong,” Mai sighed, putting down the phone, “the problem is that once people have doubts, all explanations become meaningless.”

At that moment, Kien and Tung arrived, both with equally tense expressions on their faces. As soon as Tung entered, he quickly spoke up. "I'm sorry, I didn't expect the clip to cause such a big reaction. Maybe I should delete it."

“Deleting it won't solve anything,” Kien said, his voice lowering, “once it's spread, deleting will only make people more suspicious.”

Mai looked at Kien, clearly recognizing the tension in his eyes - not only because of the spreading scandal, but also because of concern for the reputation that he had built up over the past two years with the nickname "Vi Giac Tru", a reputation based on absolute objectivity, which was now being questioned.

“What should we do?” Mai asked, trying to keep her voice calm even though she was confused.

“I think,” Kien said after a moment of thinking, “the best way is to do a livestream, clearly explain the collaboration process, and show the audience that this is a real project, not a staged one.”

“Livestream?” Mai asked, her voice a little panicked, "in front of hundreds of thousands of people?"

"That's right," Kien nodded, "honesty is the only thing that can quell rumors. If you agree, I will arrange it tonight."

Mai hesitated for a moment, looked around the shop, thought of the efforts over the past two weeks, and the hope of improving the business situation that was gradually taking shape. Finally, she nodded. “Okay, I agree.”

The livestream took place that evening, right at Sun Cake shop. Mai sat next to Kien in front of Tung's camera lens, her hands shaking slightly because she was nervous about meeting her for the first time with tens of thousands of live viewers.

"Hello everyone," Kien spoke first, his voice maintaining its familiar calm even though Mai knew he was equally nervous. "I know there has been a lot of speculation recently about the partnership between me and Ms. Mai, the owner of Banh Nang shop. Today we want to clarify everything."

He told the whole story from the beginning - the first review, the tense meeting at the coffee shop, the decision to collaborate on the series "Reviving Small Shop", and the real efforts over the past two weeks to improve the process and quality of the bakery.

"This is not a trick," Mai continued, her voice gradually becoming stronger as she spoke about what she believed, "every innovation you see in the clip is real, every formula, every overnight work session is real. We didn't stage anything."

Live comments poured out massively on the screen, most of which now turned to support, moved by the sincerity of both. Some people are still skeptical, but the majority have begun to believe in the real story behind the controversial clip.

Near the end of the livestream, a prominent comment appeared and many people liked it: "Looking at the way the two of them looked at each other while telling the story, you know the feelings are real, they can't be acted."

Mai glanced at Kien when she read that comment, saw that he was also looking at her, they both quickly turned away, their faces turned red in front of the camera recording every moment.

After the livestream ended, the group sat back and breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that the number of negative comments had completely decreased, replaced by a new wave of support for both the bakery and the honest story of the two people.

“Thank you,” Mai said to Kien when everyone had left, leaving only two people left behind to clean up the equipment. “If it weren't for this livestream, the situation would probably be much worse.”

“I'm just telling the truth,” Kien replied, but his voice was much gentler than usual, “the only thing I always do.”

Mai smiled, looking at him in the half-dimmed light of the shop, clearly feeling that, although the rumors might have calmed down, the true feelings that were growing between the two of them could no longer be extinguished.

The next morning, the statistics surprised the whole group - the livestream attracted more than two hundred thousand views, four times more than Tung's initial prediction, and most importantly, the number of visitors to Banh Nang shop in the morning increased dramatically compared to previous days.

"Look," Linh exclaimed, standing behind the counter, unable to count the number of customers lining up to buy cakes, "from morning until now, almost all the trays of moon cakes have been sold. Some people even mentioned it because they watched the livestream last night and wanted to support us."

Mai stood looking at the rare crowded scene in front of the counter, her heart filled with an indescribable emotion - both happy because the business situation was improving, and touched by the sincere support of strangers just because they believed in a true story.

Kien came to the shop in the middle of the morning, bringing a rare smile when he saw the crowded scene. “It seems my 'honest' strategy worked better than expected.”

“What an unexpected effect,” Mai replied, smiling brightly, “who would have thought that a small scandal would turn into such a good promotional boost.”

“It's not really luck,” Kien said, his voice turning So seriously, "the truth always has its own power, it's just that sometimes it takes time for people to realize what the truth is."

At noon, when the flow of customers had subsided, Tung sent a message to the group chat, attaching an online article that had just been posted, with the title "From a review scandal to a true love story: the journey to revive a small bakery". The article summarizes the entire story, from the first review to last night's livestream, with a positive tone, praising the rare sincerity in an era of social network content full of tricks.

“We're in the news,” Linh shouted excitedly, passing the phone around for everyone to see.

Mai skimmed through the article and felt both proud and a little embarrassed to see her private story published in the newspaper with beautiful words like "true love story". She glanced at Kien and saw that he was also reading the article with an equally awkward expression. They both suddenly looked at each other and then burst out laughing at the interesting irony of the situation.

“It seems like the whole world knew before we both did,” Mai teased, her eyes playfully looking at him.

“Know what?” Kien asked again, although his voice was somewhat confused.

"I know," Mai replied, not saying more, just smiling and turning away to continue working, leaving Kien standing there with a rare blush on his face, silently admitting in his heart that perhaps the time had come when he couldn't continue to hide his true feelings any longer.

Late in the afternoon, when the shop had fewer customers, Tung pulled Kien to a private corner, his voice whispering with fake seriousness. "How long are you going to hide it? The whole world watching the livestream can see the feelings between you two, are you blind?"

“It's not the right time,” Kien replied, glancing at Mai who was busy folding cakes, his voice lowered. "There are still many things to deal with - Dat Long's company, and my channel too, now adding a love story, I'm afraid it will mess everything up."

“You always think too much,” Tung shook his head and patted his friend's shoulder, “there are things that don't need to be carefully thought out like a review, just let your heart guide you for once.”

Kien did not answer, just silently looked at Mai, his eyes in that moment contained a gentleness that he did not clearly realize until Tung reminded him, making him startled to realize that perhaps his friend was right - no matter how many reasons to delay, true feelings still silently grew every day, without waiting for any reasonable calculation.