Chapter 147: Special Cooperation

Lu Yan He accompanied Li Pengfei to buy things and also bought a laptop. Just after buying it, Li Pengfei suddenly thought of something and said: "Should I also buy one for Xu Zijun? She definitely doesn't have one."

"You take it easy first, she might not be willing to accept it," Lu Yan He said. "A suitcase is a few hundred yuan, that's fine. A laptop is several thousand yuan. It doesn't count for anything to you, but to her, it's a very expensive gift."

"You're right," Li Pengfei nodded, accepting it very readily, without using the exaggerated tone of those rich second generations in TV dramas, saying "What's so expensive about this!"

This is Li Pengfei, a rich second generation who doesn't usually show off wealth and doesn't look down on the "class theory" of people like Chu Saiying, and doesn't have the problem of "why don't they eat meat porridge."

Lu Yan He just thought so, when he heard Li Pengfei suddenly say again: "Find a reason next time, and send it legitimately."

"..." Lu Yan He glanced at this guy sideways.

Is this a question of reason?

The phone suddenly rang.

It was a call from an unknown number.

Lu Yan He answered the number in surprise.

"Hello, hello, is this Lu Yan He?" The other party reported their home, "I am Xu Xiaoyin, a novel editor at Jiang Yin Publishing House. I don't know if it's convenient to talk?"

"I, I am," Lu Yan He was confused. "What's the matter?"

"It's like this, I am the responsible editor of 'Nineteen Years of Crime Record.' I especially thank you for recommending this book in the livestream last night. I don't know if you are free today, I want to express my gratitude to you in person."

Lu Yan He heard this and was even more shocked.

This was really an unexpected thing.

"Uh, no need for gratitude, you are too polite," Lu Yan He said. "I didn't do any special recommendation, just read this novel when I was livestreaming, and I haven't even finished reading it."

Xu Xiaoyin said: "But it's because you read this book that this book sold more than a thousand copies online last night. If you have time, let me express my gratitude in person. Additionally, I have another book I want to ask you to read and see if we can cooperate."

Lu Yan He heard this and was surprised.

Cooperation?

Lu Yan He hesitated.

He said: "Then... are you convenient to come to Zhoufujing now? There is a coffee shop on the first floor here. If you are convenient now."

Xu Xiaoyin immediately smiled and said: "Of course convenient, we expect it to take thirty minutes to come over, is that okay?"

"Okay, then I'll wait for you here."

Lu Yan He hung up the phone, pondered for a moment, sent a message to Chen Ziyan, and told her about this.

Chen Ziyan replied: It might be that they saw you livestreaming reading this book yesterday and could help sell more than a thousand copies, so they want you to help promote the book. However, the profit of book merchants is low, and they can't give much promotion fee if they ask you to cooperate in promotion. You can talk to her first, see her intention. If it is a real commercial cooperation relationship, then go through the contract properly later, and wait for me to come back to talk. However, based on my understanding of the publishing industry, it is difficult for them to offer a high price.

Lu Yan He thought about it and said: Then I'll talk to her first.

Chen Ziyan: Hmm, this depends on your own mood. If it is a non-commercial promotion, you weigh it

Lu Yan He: If it's too much trouble, how about I just decline it?

Chen Ziyan: If it were any other artist, I would have let them decline it, but you are different. Your livestream channel is inherently educational; continuing to livestream and becoming a book-focused blogger will also be a great boost to your public image.

Lu Yan He understood Chen Ziyan's intention.

Chen Ziyan said: This is where you differ most from other artists—your learning, your academic background, your intellectual side. These are things that an agency cannot package. I'm not saying you should worldly lean into these labels, but since you study well and love to read, we can build our narrative around these things. It will be authentic and unassailable, and others won't be able to imitate it.

Lu Yan He replied with a single word: "Okay."

"All bought." Li Pengfei paid the bill and had them pack up the laptop for him.

With a suitcase in his left hand and a laptop bag in his right, his face still fresh and youthful, he looked every bit like a teenager who had just finished the college entrance exam.

"Let's go," Li Pengfei said.

They were going to Li Pengfei's house later.

Lu Yan He said: "I just got a call; I need to meet someone from a publishing house here in a bit. Why don't you head back first, and I'll come over on my own later?"

"Someone from a publishing house? What does that have to do with you?" Li Pengfei looked puzzled. "I'll go with you and wait for you here."

Lu Yan He nodded: "Alright, I agreed to meet them at the coffee shop by the entrance we just came through. Let's go over and wait for them now."

"Sure."

The two of them went over together.

Only after listening to Lu Yan He explain did Li Pengfei understand why the people from the publishing house wanted to meet him.

"That's impressive. Just one livestream, and you helped them sell a thousand books," Li Pengfei said.

Lu Yan He was actually quite surprised himself. His livestream channel usually had a stable viewership of about four thousand people, and that was after half a year of slow growth. Including those who came and went, perhaps about ten thousand people had watched his half-hour livestream yesterday. Could that really lead to a thousand people buying the book?

Was his influence really that strong?

Lu Yan He always felt it sounded unreliable.

Yet, this data came from the people at the publishing house.

Xu Xiaoyin brought Xu Mingyue to this coffee shop in Zhoufujing. Pushing the door open, they found it quite crowded inside, but Lu Yan He was easy to find. A quick search online would show his photos; good-looking people always stood out in a crowd, and one could spot him at a glance. It could only be said that people's eyes were naturally drawn to focus on the attractive ones.

Xu Xiaoyin and Xu Mingyue were both women, and seeing a handsome man in real life always made them happy, especially a handsome boy who had just graduated from high school.

They walked over and greeted him.

"Hello, Lu Yan He. I'm Xu Xiaoyin, the one who called you earlier."

Xu Xiaoyin reached out and shook hands with Lu Yan He.

Lu Yan He: "Hello, Sister Xiaoyin."

Xu Xiaoyin glanced at Li Pengfei, somewhat curious about his identity.

Li Pengfei took the initiative, grinned, and said: "Li Pengfei, Old Lu's classmate."

"Xu Mingyue, an intern at our house," Xu Xiaoyin introduced them as well.

At this moment, Xu Mingyue felt quite conflicted inside.

A year ago, she had stumbled upon Lu Yan He's livestream by chance. Because she thought the streamer was handsome, she recommended it to her roommate, and as a result, He Lan became his die-hard fan. A year later, she was actually meeting him because of his livestream.

He probably couldn't have imagined that she had also once been a viewer of his channel.

Xu Xiaoyin picked up a canvas bag that clearly looked like it had been specially designed, heavy and full, placed it on the table, and pushed it toward Lu Yan He, saying: "Thank you very much for reading the book 'Nineteen Years' on your livestream. This is a small token of appreciation; it's a series of hardcover editions by famous authors that our publishing house has launched."

Lu Yan He was a bit surprised and said: "Oh! Thank you! You are too kind."

Xu Xiaoyin said: "Actually, after I found out about this, I was deeply moved. Many so-called book bloggers online nowadays only record various book recommendation videos and copy if they are paid to do so. So, when we first heard the news, we thought it was something our marketing department had done. Later, we realized it was your spontaneous action."

"I've been livestreaming for a while, and now that I've finished my exams, I just keep the stream on while reading novels. I really love reading novels myself," Lu Yan He said. "I've only read the beginning of 'Nineteen Years: A Crime Record'; I haven't finished it yet."

"This novel is very well written, but because the author is a newcomer, it hasn't received much attention since its release," Xu Xiaoyin asked curiously. "Where did you hear about this book?"

"I finished my exams the day before yesterday, and yesterday I went to browse the bookstore and picked this one out. I didn't hear about it from anywhere in particular."

Xu Xiaoyin was astonished.

Then this was truly a stroke of luck by chance.

She smiled: "That's great. I thought there really weren't many people willing to go to bookstores anymore."

After the pleasantries, Xu Xiaoyin began to discuss business.

"Yan He, I came to see you today specifically for another matter, which is also a collaboration. Another book I'm in charge of, 'Star Orbit', is going to be released this Thursday. I wonder if we could collaborate on the promotion of this book?" Xu Xiaoyin took another book out of her bag—a new book wrapped in plastic—and pushed it toward Lu Yan He.

Lu Yan He looked at Xu Xiaoyin in surprise and said: "Promotion?"

"Yes, I'd like to invite you to read this book on your livestream," Xu Xiaoyin said. "I discovered this novel two years ago. It's also by a new author. The market is bad right now, and it's very hard for new authors to get ahead. We finally managed to secure a book number and get the chance to publish it, but the first printing is only eight thousand copies. Since I happened to meet you, I thought I'd see if we could collaborate."

Lu Yan He looked at the book in his hand, hesitating.

"Of course, we certainly aren't looking for a free ride," Xu Xiaoyin said immediately. "We will provide corresponding promotional fees, although our publishing industry can't compare to other sectors, so the promotional fee might not match your usual quotes."

Lu Yan He thought to himself, you're overthinking that.

This was his first time encountering this kind of promotional work.

"Sister Xiaoyin, here's the thing: if it's a commercial collaboration, my work has to be approved by my agent. I can't give you an answer right away."

Xu Xiaoyin nodded: "Understood, we understand. Since I don't have your agent's contact information, would you like to give it to me, or would you prefer to relay the message for me?"

Lu Yan He: "I'll talk to my agent later and ask her to contact you, how about that?"

"That would be wonderful," Xu Xiaoyin said.

After leaving the coffee shop, Xu Mingyue got into Xu Xiaoyin's car.

Xu Mingyue asked: "Sister Xiaoyin, how much promotional fee do we usually give to artists like Lu Yan He?"

Xu Xiaoyin said: "I don't know either. If we really have to pay a promotional fee, it would need to be submitted to the house for discussion. Generally speaking, unless it's a dedicated book blogger who has negotiated a framework for cooperation with the publishing house, promotions for single books like this are usually handled through connections or favors."

Xu Mingyue asked in confusion: "Then why did you mention a promotional fee to him just now..."

"That's to show our attitude," Xu Xiaoyin said. "We can't just expect to get a free ride when asking for someone's help."

"What if they really want a promotional fee?"

"Then we report it to the house and process the payment," Xu Xiaoyin said. "If Lu Yan He can help sell a thousand copies of a book in one livestream without saying a word, what's wrong with applying for a promotional fee? It just won't be very high. In fact, usually, when celebrities hear how much our promotional fee is, they just give it to us for free."

"Ah?"

"How much promotional fee do you think we can afford?" Xu Xiaoyin looked at Xu Mingyue and laughed.

Xu Mingyue: "How much do you usually give?"

"Five hundred, or a thousand?" Xu Xiaoyin said. "Unless it's one of those very popular livestream channels that can help us sell tens of thousands of copies in one night, that's usually the price."

"That's too low, isn't it?"

"It depends on what you compare it to. The profit from one book is only so much; if we pay too much, wouldn't that be a losing business?" Xu Xiaoyin sighed. "The publishing industry is really in a slump right now. Mingyue, do you really intend to come into the publishing industry in the future?"

Xu Mingyue hesitated for a moment and said: "I've always had this dream, but I haven't figured it out yet. I wanted to come for an internship now to see if I truly love this industry. I read a lot of novels and magazines when I was a child, and I really wanted to work at a magazine office back then, but many magazines have ceased publication now."

"There's no helping it. I thought electronic magazines were a new path for development, but now I've found that doesn't work either," Xu Xiaoyin said with a sigh and a smile.

Lu Yan He called Chen Ziyan in the car and told her about Xu Xiaoyin.

Upon hearing this, Chen Ziyan said: "Alright, send me her number, and I'll contact her."

Lu Yan He said okay.

After hanging up, Li Pengfei looked at Lu Yan He with a strange expression and asked: "Are you always this obedient in front of your agent? You even called her immediately for such a small matter."

Lu Yan He said: "She's my agent; this is work. Of course, I have to tell her immediately, and I need her to handle the follow-up matters for me. I haven't handled these things myself before."

What Lu Yan He didn't say was that he had just started working with Chen Ziyan, and he didn't want her to misunderstand him as someone who liked to take private jobs on the side because of poor communication.

Many artists take private jobs on their own, bypassing their agents, which is often one of the reasons why the relationship between artists and agents falls apart.

"I forgot to ask just now, how did they get my number?" Lu Yan He suddenly said.

"Ah?" Li Pengfei looked at Lu Yan He in surprise. "Didn't she tell you?"

"No, and I forgot to ask," Lu Yan He said. "Not many people know this number of mine."

"But it is also very strange," Xu Mingyue suddenly said in the car.

"What's strange?" Xu Xiaoyin asked.

Xu Mingyue: "When we gave the information to Star Entertainment, didn't they say he had already terminated his contract with them? Then he said he wanted his agent to contact us—where did the agent come from?"

Xu Xiaoyin came to her senses and realized this problem too.

"That's true." She thought for a moment and said: "Did he switch to another agency?"

Xu Xiaoyin's phone rang right at that moment.

It was an unknown number.

Xu Xiaoyin answered the call; the phone was connected to Bluetooth, and she signaled for Xu Mingyue to stay quiet.

"Hello? Who is this?"

"I am Chen Ziyan, Lu Yan He's agent," a female voice with a hint of efficiency rang out. "Are you Xu Xiaoyin?"

"Ah, yes, I am Xu Xiaoyin. Agent... Chen, hello."

"Hello." Chen Ziyan laughed on the other end. "Yan He called me just now and told me you have a collaboration for him. I heard you want to promote a novel for your publishing house?"

Xu Xiaoyin: "Yes, that's right. I am the editor in charge of this book. Actually, it's because Lu Yan He read another book I was in charge of during his livestream yesterday, and the market feedback was very good, so I wanted to see if we could collaborate on promoting this new book, 'Star Orbit'."

Chen Ziyan said: "Editor Xu, here's the thing: Yan He is a child who loves to read. Promoting books he likes is certainly no problem, but this kind of collaboration is a bit restrictive. How about this? If your publishing house has books you want Yan He to promote, just send one or two copies over. Yan He will pick them himself; if he likes them and is willing to promote them, he will do it himself. As for promotional fees, let's forget it. It's not a serious marketing campaign; he's just reading books on his own livestream channel. Correspondingly, please don't specify which books he must promote. Books are about finding the right audience; if Yan He doesn't like them, his fans might not either. Let's make this collaboration less utilitarian, what do you think?"

Xu Xiaoyin was, of course, very pleasantly surprised.

"That would be wonderful, but..." Xu Xiaoyin felt embarrassed instead. Just sending a few books to Lu Yan He—what was that? It was practically a freebie. "Not paying a promotional fee doesn't seem right, does it? It's not a charity collaboration. One or two books is fine, but if we can have a long-term collaboration later, we would feel bad about taking advantage of this."

Chen Ziyan smiled and said: "Let's just talk about the initial stage for now. If there is room for long-term cooperation later, and we can continuously help you sell more books through Yan He's influence, we can discuss a framework for cooperation then. I know that unless it's a particularly best-selling book, the profit from one book isn't high. I'm just helping him take this on because I see that Yan He himself is a person who loves to read."

Xu Xiaoyin always felt that taking advantage of this for free was not very polite—this time, she brought 'Star Orbit' for a promotional collaboration, and taking the advantage of not paying a fee was justifiable, but Chen Ziyan's intention was clearly to let Lu Yan He do long-term promotions on his livestream. As long as they sent the books and Lu Yan He liked them and was willing to promote them, she couldn't bring herself to do that.

But Chen Ziyan clearly didn't need that little promotional fee right now, and she hadn't reported it to the house for approval yet, so could she really force the promotional fee on them?

Xu Xiaoyin had no choice but to say: "Then thank you very much."

After hanging up, Xu Xiaoyin felt that this matter had gone surprisingly smoothly.

She asked Xu Mingyue in confusion: "Are people in the entertainment industry this easy to deal with?"

Xu Mingyue: "... I don't think so."

Chen Ziyan really didn't care for that small promotional fee.

She couldn't be bothered to earn petty profits; it was better to let Lu Yan He establish a connection with Jiang Yin Publishing House, which might lead to unexpected opportunities in the future.

Jiang Yin Publishing House was also one of the large domestic publishing houses, with a state-backed background and a wealth of author resources. In this era of IP, they had good relationships with many film and television companies and had invested in many film and television projects.

That was considering the big picture. Considering the small picture, Chen Ziyan didn't intend to let this matter be tainted by the smell of money.

To be precise, she didn't want Lu Yan He's image as a book lover to be tainted by the smell of money.

Once people knew, his love for reading would inevitably take on a utilitarian color, and a good thing would turn bad.

When they were almost at Li Pengfei's house, Lu Yan He finally found out who had given out his number.

Liu Qin called him and said: "Yan He, a classmate of mine from a publishing house contacted me earlier, saying she had a collaboration for you. Because it was my old classmate, I didn't think much of it and gave it to her. I just realized I should have told you first. Has she contacted you?"

"Ah, she has contacted me." Lu Yan He never expected it to be his own homeroom teacher. "Is Editor Xu Xiaoyin your classmate?"

"Her? Who is she? The one who asked me for the number was Liu Cheng, who is now an editor-in-chief at Jiang Yin Publishing House."

"Oh! The one who came to find me is an editor named Xu Xiaoyin," Lu Yan He explained.

"Then she might be an editor under her," Liu Qin said. "I'm sorry, I didn't think that much just now. Your status is quite special, and your phone number really shouldn't be given out casually. Next time, I'll tell you first and ask if it's convenient."

"Alright, thank you for your concern, Teacher Liu," Lu Yan He said.

Liu Qin: "I haven't asked you yet, how did you do on your exams? You kids are something else; you didn't even tell me when you finished, and I didn't feel comfortable asking."

"Pretty good, performed as usual," Lu Yan He said with a smile. "The results aren't out yet, so how could I have the nerve to call you? If I say I got a high score and it turns out to be embarrassing, or if I say it's low and I'm afraid you'll worry."

Liu Qin laughed magnanimously and said: "Performing as usual is fine. Your grades improved quickly later on, so you'll definitely be able to get into a key university."

"I'm hoping for that too," Lu Yan He said.

The teacher and student chatted for a bit before hanging up.

Lu Yan He was truly grateful to Teacher Liu from the bottom of his heart.

Not just her, but also Old Chen, Su Su, and Old Lady Lin.

If he hadn't met these good teachers, he wouldn't have been able to improve his grades so quickly on his own.

Especially Su Su.

History was truly a difficult subject. If he hadn't encountered a teacher like Su Su who knew how to lecture and solve problems, he really didn't know if he would have ever had a breakthrough.

Li Pengfei nudged his arm and said: "What are you daydreaming about? We're here."

Lu Yan He came to his senses and looked up, shocked to find that although Li Pengfei's house was also in a residential complex, it was a small villa with a yard. The yard wasn't big, only about fifty square meters, but in this location, having a yard meant the price must be sky-high.

It could only be said that his usual joke about Li Pengfei being from a "wealthy family" wasn't really a joke at all.

"Impressive," Lu Yan He sighed with envy.

Li Pengfei chuckled.

"Let's go in and take a look. My dad isn't here, and it's just Aunt Zhang at home."

Lu Yan He also knew Aunt Zhang from Li Pengfei's house. Previously, this Aunt Zhang had often come to school to deliver food to Li Pengfei, and Lu Yan He had tagged along many times.

"Aunt Zhang, please cut some fruit for me and brew two cups of coffee to bring up," Li Pengfei shouted as soon as he entered the door, beckoning Lu Yan He to go upstairs with him.

Aunt Zhang was sitting on the small balcony scrolling through her phone. Seeing him bring a classmate back, she responded with a warm smile.

Lu Yan He followed Li Pengfei upstairs and entered his room.

Li Pengfei put his suitcase against the wall and said: "Come on, come on, there's nothing to see in my bedroom, let's go next door."

Next door was actually a game room, with an entire wall fitted with electronic screens.

This was the first time Lu Yan He had seen a room specifically set aside as a game room. Two lazy sofas were placed against the other wall; one could just lie down, pick up a controller, and play games comfortably.

"This is truly enviable," Lu Yan He said.

Li Pengfei asked: "Play a couple of rounds?"

"Sure," Lu Yan He nodded.

After spending half the day at Li Pengfei's house, Lu Yan He headed back.

Li Pengfei wanted to keep him to play a bit longer, but Lu Yan He was thinking about the unfinished 'Nineteen Years: A Crime Record' and didn't want to spend the whole day playing games with Li Pengfei, so he said he had things to do and left after lunch.

At three in the afternoon, Lu Yan He started his livestream on time to continue reading the novel, 'Nineteen Years: A Crime Record'.

As for that book 'Star Orbit', Lu Yan He hadn't received a call from Chen Ziyan yet, so he didn't know how to proceed.

But if he really had to promote it later, he would definitely have to continue reading the book on his livestream.

Lu Yan He felt that he had to finish 'Nineteen Years: A Crime Record' first no matter what.

This novel was actually quite good; it told a murder story that spanned nineteen years.

From their college days to later on, the characters who appeared were all middle-aged.

The time span was very large.

Lu Yan He read for three hours in one go, and by the time night was about to fall, he finally finished the book.

It was June now, and it got dark quite late; it was only six o'clock.

The ending of the story left Lu Yan He feeling a sense of loss, and he was lost in thought for a long while.

When he came to his senses, he thought to check the chat room and found that many people were actually discussing the book.

——I went out for lunch today and happened to pass by a bookstore. I remembered Lu Yan He read this book last night, so I went and bought a copy. I opened it and read a few pages after eating; the beginning was hair-raising and very scary.

——Is it very scary? I'm so afraid of scary stories like that, I don't even dare to watch.

——It's not that scary, is it? The beginning deliberately creates a terrifying atmosphere, but in reality, it's not that terrifying; it's not a horror thriller novel.

——I ordered it online, but it hasn't arrived yet; I won't receive it until tomorrow.

——Me too.

——It's been a long time since I read a novel. I didn't expect Lu Yan He to read for so long in one go. It must be really good.

——He's almost finished reading it.

Lu Yan He kept scrolling up through everyone's comments and smiled.

He unmuted and said: "I just finished reading this novel. The ending was a bit unexpected for me. It's a very good story. If you all love reading detective and mystery novels, you can give this one a try."