A 1999-born internet celebrity rose to fame quickly from a barbecue stall, then fell due to misdeeds, now returns to run the stall, valuing real skills over fleeting traffic.
Just moments earlier,
Guo Youcai had been on stage at a celebration attended by tens of thousands, surrounded by entertainers holding microphones, with thousands of audience members in the crowd loudly praising his talent. In the blink of an eye, the stage was dismantled and the crowd dispersed.he was crouched by the grill in his own barbecue shop, looking up at his livestream, where only a few thousand viewers remained.
It took Guo Youcai just over two months to go from being an internet celebrity with tens of millions of followers to an ordinary business owner running a skewered meat stall on the streets of Heze.
Born in 1999, Guo Youcai had never really been in the public eye before. For several years, he had been helping his family run this small barbecue stall—less than 20 square meters in size—at the entrance of an alley in the old town of Heze,Grilling skewers, clearing tables, and chatting with regulars were his daily routine—until he happened to post a video of his daily grilling routine online. Within half a month, he had gained over 10 million followers,At the peak of his career, his daily revenue reached one million, and he was appointed as a cultural and tourism ambassador for Heze; when out and about, he was often recognized by passersby who asked for photos with him.
Fame and fortune came too quickly for him to adjust to, so he once hosted dozens of banquets to invite entertainers to boost his profile, publicly claimed to own a company with 3 million in registered capital, and even falsely claimed to have graduated from Peking University. When promoting products, he would randomly select no-name brands to endorse,nor did he obtain the necessary authorization when performing old songs. After numerous instances of misconduct were exposed one after another, public goodwill toward him rapidly eroded, and no one was willing to buy into the “viral hype” surrounding his past anymore.
After the controversy died down, his reputation hit rock bottom. The team Guo Youcai had hastily assembled was subsequently disbanded, the initial investment went down the drain, and the benefits he had reaped from his online following were completely exhausted. Facing the camera, he candidly admitted that his character and abilities were not yet sufficient to match the fame he had previously attained.
Now that Guo Youcai has returned to Heze, he spends his days tending the grill at his barbecue shop, and the buzz surrounding his livestreams has long since faded.
In the course of a lifetime, what must one truly build to achieve lasting stability? Is it fleeting popularity riding a trend, or one’s own abilities—held firmly in one’s hands and beyond the reach of others? Having weathered the ups and downs of life, he now has a clear answer to this question.
