Chapter 754: Ying Zhicheng's Fist

Li Luo still had no idea what was happening in Ying Zhicheng's office.

Mainly, having lived with Ying Chanxi and the other two girls for so long, he hadn't yet realized just how extraordinary it was to buy and gift cars.

Gifting one person would be one thing, but gifting new cars worth millions to both sisters made the underlying meaning far too obvious.

But from Li Luo's perspective, it seemed entirely natural, so much so that this implication hadn't even crossed his mind.

Bringing Ying Chanxi and Yan Zhusheng to Yuan Wanqing's studio, Li Luo spent the entire journey listening to Ying Chanxi report on the current situation.

Negotiations with the Douyin team had already made good progress, with both sides reaching a certain level of consensus.

On Yuan Wanqing's side, the intention to join the platform had been preliminarily settled, though specific details still needed to be finalized.

On one hand, after Yuan Wanqing joined, Douyin had to provide corresponding traffic support, including promotional slots like splash screen ads, all of which needed fixed durations and frequencies.

Furthermore, vague clauses such as "providing corresponding traffic pool promotion" also needed to be quantified and confirmed to avoid future disputes.

On the other hand, Yuan Wanqing's side also had a corresponding series of obligations.

This included how many videos needed to be released each quarter, what elements these videos must contain, and that they couldn't just be casually filmed to get by.

Douyin had the right to request Yuan Wanqing's cooperation with relevant activities, requiring her to participate in filming one official campaign video per quarter, with the content planned by Douyin.

In addition, there was a series of commercial orders that Douyin could provide and coordinate, all of which would need to be liaised with Yuan Wanqing's studio at the appropriate time.

Then there were matters concerning future live streaming content.

Although Douyin had not yet opened its live streaming section, Yuan Wanqing had already received the latest news from them, confirming that pilot trials would likely launch this year, with permissions gradually opening next year until fully unrestricted.

Yuan Wanqing still felt some hesitation about live streaming on such a platform.

After all, previously she had only done live broadcasts for finals of variety shows like "Singer," or for events like the Spring Festival Gala and concert tours.

These were basically all singing-based appearances.

As for other programs, most were pre-recorded, with very few being live.

Under such circumstances, conducting live streams on the Douyin platform would carry some degree of risk.

However, Li Luo still offered some advice, suggesting the studio proceed with negotiations under the presumption that live streaming would happen in the future, while leaving the actual decision of whether to stream for later.

On this basis, Ying Chanxi, representing Chongran Culture, had also made progress in negotiations with the Douyin team.

Just to keep the other side eager, Ying Chanxi was still dragging things out, having only temporarily agreed to Yan Zhusheng's bundled entry.

Originally, the Douyin team could already accept this result; if Chongran couldn't join temporarily, having both Yuan Wanqing and her daughter join Douyin would still maximize the traffic.

But when Ying Chanxi revealed that Teacher Chongran had recently created some new songs, the Douyin team became restless again.

As everyone knew, anything produced by Chongran was bound to be a masterpiece.

This wasn't something proven solely by Yuan Wanqing.

In recent years, besides creating two albums for Yuan Wanqing, Chongran had also written songs for quite a few other singers.

Basically, every single one had gained significant popularity.

Many were even considered by the market to be catchy pop tunes; regardless of their quality, they were undeniably easy to sing along to, fitting Douyin's taste perfectly.

Of course, since this news came from Chongran Culture, it might very well be preparation for Yuan Wanqing's third album.

In that case, the quality would certainly be high.

If they could get Yuan Wanqing's new songs to premiere on Douyin, the traffic would truly be maximized to the fullest.

Thus, Douyin became proactive again, maintaining negotiations with Yuan Wanqing's studio on one hand while continuously contacting Chongran Culture on the other to discuss terms with Ying Chanxi.

They understood clearly that if Chongran really had no intention of joining, there would be no need to reveal the existence of new songs.

So there was definitely an opportunity; it was merely a matter of negotiating terms and throwing money around.

It had to be said that Douyin's conditions were quite generous.

Now was Douyin's period of high explosive growth, and with the funds from financing, their ammunition was extremely plentiful, intending to fire wildly across the market.

The conditions offered to Yuan Wanqing and the others seemed very high, but in the context of Douyin's overall budget, this expenditure was merely a drop in the bucket.

As long as it brought data growth and market share, this money would be earned back hundreds or thousands of times over in the future.

"Anyway, everything is going smoothly." Ying Chanxi brought Li Luo to the studio, introduced him to Ruan Tao, who was in charge of business liaison, and listened to him explain some details, "I feel we can finalize everything by the end of this month or early next month."

After carefully understanding the situation, Li Luo nodded and didn't say much more.

He only pointed out a couple of things regarding certain clauses, leaving the rest to the professionals rather than interfering unnecessarily.

After getting acquainted with the business liaison matters, Li Luo took the two girls to the recording studio next door, where they found Luo Fei loafing around and resting.

"Oh? This is truly a rare occasion." Seeing Li Luo walk in, Luo Fei immediately raised her eyebrows and chuckled, "To have the honor of seeing our very busy person is truly an honor."

"Ahem... Auntie Luo, please stop teasing me." Li Luo coughed once, walked over to Luo Fei, and greeted her.

Luo Fei glanced at this young man, then asked, "What made you think of coming to my place?"

"I've prepared a few songs and wanted to show them to you; you can find some time to start working on the arrangements." Saying this, Li Luo pulled out a USB drive and handed it to Luo Fei in front of him.

Hearing Li Luo say this, Luo Fei's eyes immediately lit up; she sprang up from the sofa with a whoosh, snatched the USB drive from Li Luo's hand.

"I knew it; some people never visit without a motive, turns out you're here to order people around again." Luo Fei chuckled as she plugged in the USB drive and eagerly began uploading the audio files and lyrics inside.

Yan Zhusheng, standing nearby, glanced at Luo Fei's reaction and remarked from the side, "If Auntie Luo doesn't want to be ordered around, we can find someone else; you should rest more."

"What kind of talk is that?" Luo Fei rolled her eyes at Yan Zhusheng, "Our Teacher Chongran and I are like two swords combined, invincible under heaven; how could I entrust something like arrangement to another's hands? I must personally take charge of it."

If one were to say who in the room understood Li Luo's value the most, if Yan Zhusheng claimed first place, Luo Fei would have to claim second.

Regarding Li Luo's ability to compose songs, Luo Fei had witnessed it all with her own eyes over these past few years.

There wasn't a single song that came out of his hands that was bad.

Even those catchy pop tunes specifically exported for external use managed to maximize traffic in terms of dissemination, with certain specific passages being so catchy that their brainwashing effect was incredibly strong.

For Luo Fei, encountering a lyricist and composer like Li Luo was truly a stroke of immense luck.

Therefore, she cherished every opportunity to arrange music for Li Luo.

"How many songs is it this time?" Luo Fei asked curiously as she counted, while Ying Chanxi also leaned over to take a look.

Yan Zhusheng, having already tasted Li Luo's new songs, naturally didn't rush over to join the fun, simply stating, "There are five songs in total."

"Is that so?" Ying Chanxi, hearing Yan Zhusheng say this, couldn't help but ask in surprise, "Isn't this six songs? Or did it repeat?"

"Hmm?" Yan Zhusheng frowned, leaned over to take a look, and discovered it really was six songs. She immediately turned her head to look at Li Luo, narrowed her eyes, and questioned, "Wasn't there only five songs? How is there an extra one?" "Oh, it was added temporarily on the spot; I haven't had time to let you hear it yet." Li Luo raised his hand and patted Yan Zhusheng's head, explaining simply, "We've been negotiating with Douyin recently. If the deal goes through in the end, this new song will be our explanation to the Douyin side."

"Ah, I see, that does sound familiar." Luo Fei nodded in realization. She just didn't usually pay attention to the business liaison work; at most, she'd heard colleagues mention it while eating together.

She hadn't expected Li Luo to have actually prepared a new song specifically waiting here.

"What about the other five songs?" Luo Fei asked curiously again, "Releasing so many at once, are you making another album for my Wanqing?"

"Not exactly." Li Luo chuckled, "Aunt Yuan has those two albums; they're enough to last a lifetime. There's no rush for a new album."

"These five songs are mainly prepared for next year's TV series 'The Beginning': one theme song plus an opening theme, one ending theme, and three insert songs."

"It's not yet decided who will sing them. Aunt Yuan and Zhusheng will both try them out then."

"So which one is prepared for Douyin?" Luo Fei asked, glancing at the song titles listed there.

"That one, 'Displaced Time and Space'." Li Luo said, "Let's arrange this one first. The five for 'The Beginning' aren't urgent; we can polish them slowly."

"OK." Luo Fei made a hand gesture, indicating no problem, "Let me listen to your demo first."

Having finished speaking, Luo Fei played the song directly in the recording studio; inside was simple piano accompaniment and Li Luo's vocals.

When the line "I blew the evening wind you blew" came out, Ying Chanxi beside him finally realized: "You sang this to me last time!"

"Yes, it's this one." Li Luo smiled, "This melody should be pretty good, right?"

"Very catchy." Luo Fei nodded in satisfaction, but immediately noticed something was off, "The lyrics you gave... why do there seem to be two versions?"

"Hmm... one is the normal version." Li Luo said, "As for the other version, if you have the time, please make a special arrangement for it as well, to keep for later use."

"Alright." Luo Fei nodded, briefly scanning the second version of the lyrics. She felt quite amazed; just looking at the lyrics, she felt they had more flavor than the original.

Maybe it was because she was getting older.

"I want to sing this one." Yan Zhusheng pointed to the first of the five songs specially created for 'The Beginning' and said to Li Luo.

"Sure, as long as you like it." Li Luo nodded with a smile, "The style of this song actually suits you quite well; you handle it yourself."

Luo Fei glanced over and clicked play directly. The demo for the song titled 'Under Investigation' began to play.

Just at that very moment, Director Wang Jun, who had heard Li Luo was visiting Huayue Film and Television, wandered over to find Li Luo.

After being directed by the studio staff, Wang Jun arrived at the recording studio door. Seeing the door wasn't closed, he followed the sound of the singing in to take a peek.

After hearing the melody and lyrics inside, Wang Jun felt instantly captured. He couldn't help but lean close to the computer screen to carefully examine the specific lyrics.

"Did you write this?" Wang Jun turned his head to look at Li Luo.

"Mm."

"A song for 'The Beginning', right?"

"Yes." Li Luo smiled, "Director Wang is very sharp."

"Just reading the lyrics gives me the feeling!" Wang Jun couldn't help but exclaim, "Anyone who has read the script can tell! This is completely tailor-made for 'The Beginning', too perfect!"

"This is the theme song; there are four others prepared for 'The Beginning' as well." Li Luo said.

"Can I listen to all of them?"

"Of course."

More than ten minutes passed quickly.

After all five songs finished playing, Wang Jun fell into silence for a long time. For a moment, he hadn't quite come back to his senses, seemingly touched by the lyrics inside.

"Written so well." Wang Jun couldn't help but sigh, "Listening to it makes me want to start filming immediately."

"Still the high standard as always." Luo Fei also praised, "I will seriously oversee the arrangement aspect; we can't let down the quality of these songs."

"I am increasingly looking forward to the reception after 'The Beginning' airs." Wang Jun stood up from the sofa, patted Li Luo's shoulder, and said with a smile, "I'll go first. I'm full of energy now, off to work."

Li Luo saw Wang Jun off from the recording studio, but right in front of him, Ying Zhicheng arrived like a gust of wind.

"Uncle Ying?"

"Are you free now?"

"I am... I suppose?" Li Luo felt Ying Zhicheng's emotions were a bit off and responded hesitantly.

"That's perfect then." Ying Zhicheng smiled, raised his hand, and put an arm around Li Luo's shoulder, "I'm going to the gym this afternoon; you accompany me."

"Oh, the gym..." Li Luo glanced at the time; it was still early, "It's not impossible."

"Then let's go."

Watching Li Luo's back as he was led away by Ying Zhicheng, Yuan Wanqing, who had come with Ying Zhicheng, gave a look of mourning, then walked into the recording studio.

"Eh? Where's Li Luo?" Ying Chanxi noticed Li Luo hadn't returned after seeing Wang Jun out and asked in confusion.

"Him? Your dad took him to the gym." Yuan Wanqing coughed once, then changed the subject, asking, "What are you guys doing here?"

"Listening to songs." Yan Zhusheng pointed over at Luo Fei, "Li Luo's new songs."

"Is that so?" Yuan Wanqing's eyes lit up, "Let me listen."

"They aren't prepared for Mom." Yan Zhusheng said seriously, "I'm going to sing them."

Yuan Wanqing glanced helplessly at her own daughter: "You're getting better and better at guarding your food."

"Mom is just more greedy."

"I'm not." Yuan Wanqing refuted, "We'll record a version for both; whichever one Li Luo thinks is better, we'll naturally use that one."

Li Luo's songs, once used, are always said to be good. Even between mother and daughter, no one wants to give them up.

Just as Yuan Wanqing and Yan Zhusheng wanted to fight over the songs, Li Luo had already been taken to the gym downstairs.

Led by Ying Zhicheng's trainer to put on a full set of boxing gear, Li Luo stood on the boxing ring, looking at Ying Zhicheng, who was eager to try, and couldn't help but twitch the corner of his mouth.

"Uncle Ying... is this really necessary? I've never trained in boxing."

"Don't worry, I'll go easy on you." Ying Zhicheng chuckled, then tightened the boxing gloves in his hands, "Never trained doesn't matter; isn't that why we're wearing protective gear?"

Having said that, Ying Zhicheng's expression suddenly became serious. In an instant, he threw a straight punch, heading straight for Li Luo's face!

(End of this chapter)