Chapter 223: It

February 7th, the first day of the symposium officially began.

After being woken by his alarm, Li Luo got out of bed, washed up, got dressed, and sent a message to his senior during the process.

After finishing his preparations, Li Luo checked his phone and found Xu Youyu hadn't replied; he sighed helplessly, stood up, left his room, and went to the adjacent Room 9106, knocking on the door.

After knocking for over a minute, the door finally opened.

Xu Youyu, hair disheveled and eyes vacant, poked her head out and mumbled something.

"Get up, let's go downstairs for breakfast," Li Luo pushed the door open, stepped inside, gripped Xu Youyu's shoulder, and shoved her into the bathroom; he turned on the faucet, dipped his fingers in water, and slapped it onto her forehead.

The cold water jolted her entire body, and she instantly snapped awake.

"You go out, I'll wash myself."

"Hurry up, it's almost eight," Li Luo reminded her. "We still need to eat breakfast—the meeting starts at half past eight."

"Got it."

…

At the same time, Xu Rongsheng, who had spent the night at the Quanjie Hotel, had already risen early and gone downstairs with a friend he met through the Writers Association to have breakfast.

"This morning, we'll just chat in the small conference room," said Sun Jingchun, accompanying Xu Rongsheng. "You can discuss the content of tomorrow's speech in advance, and we'll fine-tune the details. In the afternoon, it's free time—you can go to Xihu for inspiration."

Upon hearing this, Xu Rongsheng raised an eyebrow: "So I'm not speaking until tomorrow? I won't meet those online novel authors today?"

"Uh, hehe—we're from the Writers Association, while those writing online novels belong to the Online Novel Writers Association."

Sun Jingchun chuckled, "You don't know—these online novel writers are all young guys and girls, stubborn as mules."

"During the setup of the Online Novel Writers Association, they've already argued with many senior members of our association—even dared to talk back to leadership."

"We're just looking out for your reputation and experience, so today we'll hold a small private meeting first."

"The online novel authors have their own sharing session too. On the first day, we won't interfere with each other—we'll communicate and exchange after tomorrow."

After listening to Sun Jingchun, Xu Rongsheng finally understood and laughed softly, tapping Sun's finger: "We're friends—you still talk to me in official jargon."

"You're just worried that my speech draft contains some criticisms of online novels, afraid they'll stir up controversy among those kids, right?"

"Hehe, it's natural for you to worry, but I've got no issues—once you read my draft, you'll see."

"If you say so, that's perfect," Sun Jingchun chuckled. "In any case, for safety's sake, all the professors, scholars, and writers invited to lend prestige are gathered for a preliminary meeting."

The two ate breakfast while confirming the day's entire schedule.

Around eight, Xu Rongsheng finished breakfast, stood up, and followed Sun Jingchun out of the restaurant toward the conference room prepared for them.

And just then.

As Xu Rongsheng was about to enter the elevator, he noticed two people stepping out of the elevator farthest from him.

Before stepping into his own elevator, he glanced instinctively—something about their backs felt strangely familiar.

? co

But the elevator doors had already closed. Xu Rongsheng's expression turned puzzled; Sun Jingchun noticed his oddness and asked with concern: "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Xu Rongsheng laughed and shook his head. "Probably just my imagination—I thought I saw someone I knew, but it's probably not."

Sun Jingchun didn't think much of it and cheerfully led Xu Rongsheng to the hotel's first floor, heading toward the rented conference room.

Meanwhile, at the second-floor restaurant entrance, Li Luo and Xu Youyu showed their room cards and were allowed in; they picked up trays and began selecting food.

After a thorough sweep, the two sat at a window-side table with their trays and started eating, completely unaware they had just missed someone.

"By the way, your contest prize is fifty thousand!" Xu Youyu said suddenly, mid-bite, her face filled with envy. "That's more than all my manuscript fees for the past few months combined."

"Is that so?" Li Luo raised an eyebrow, then modestly replied, "But it's still less than the change from my manuscript fee last month, so it's not much."

Xu Youyu: "...?"

"Are you even human? How can you say something so cold-blooded?"

"Aren't you going to ask how much my manuscript fee actually was?"

"Hehe," Xu Youyu sneered. "You think I'm stupid? You were on the bestseller list for so long last month—I can estimate it easily."

"You can estimate?"

"I saw on the forum that the daily sales for rank one are around twenty to thirty thousand copies—that's over ten thousand yuan for the author," Xu Youyu counted on her fingers. "If you stayed at rank one the whole month, you'd earn three to four hundred thousand."

"But you only stayed there for a few days at the beginning, then dropped down."

"Even though the top five and top ten look clustered, the gap between each rank is huge."

"I heard that around rank ten, earnings drop to about one hundred thousand."

"You stayed in the top ten all last month, and you say fifty thousand is less than your change—so it must be between one hundred fifty and two hundred thousand."

Xu Youyu's analysis was utterly confident.

But Li Luo shook his finger and smiled faintly: "It was three hundred seventy thousand."

"Huh?" Xu Youyu froze, breath caught—her brain felt like it had seized up.

"Three hundred seventy thousand."

"I heard you, I'm just shocked—you don't need to repeat it," Xu Youyu took a deep breath, forcing a blank expression. "I really want to stab you with my fork. I should've made you pay for last night's barbecue."

"No problem—I'll pay for meals these two days."

"Just two days?" Xu Youyu raised an eyebrow. "After we return on the 9th, you still have to pay! Otherwise, this wound will never heal!"

"What wound?"

"Look," Xu Youyu unzipped her down jacket and pulled her sweater collar toward Li Luo.

"Look at what?!" Li Luo quickly zipped her jacket back up. "Are you crazy? This is a restaurant—not your room!"

"Oh?" Xu Youyu smirked, sensing she'd gained the upper hand. "So you mean, if we were in the room, you'd have looked?"

"I mean, don't casually strip in public," Li Luo growled. "Don't twist my meaning."

Since last night's mutual exposure of their secret identities, Xu Youyu had become increasingly bold around him.

After all, the deepest secret she'd hidden had been uncovered by Li Luo; after sharing that secret, Li Luo had effectively become the person she was closest to in private.

Although Xu Youyu himself hadn't realized it, this had already become unmistakable in the course of their unconscious interactions.

……

After breakfast, Li Luo and Xu Youyu followed the hotel's directional signs all the way to the adjacent conference hall.

They had already checked in here yesterday, received an identity badge, and were let in after showing it.

Over the past year, nearly all authors who joined the Qianzhou Provincial Online Novel Writers Association have come.

There were about a hundred attendees, roughly half locals, the other half big names who had traveled from other provinces to attend the conference.

After all, Qianzhou Province was the first to drink the first soup on this matter—the government responded to the national call for building new entertainment and new literature by establishing the country's first provincial online novel writers association.

Online novels have now developed for over a decade, gradually evolving from their chaotic early days to today's golden age.

Only after multi-million-dollar film and television adaptation rights for online novels were sold one after another did the market suddenly realize how substantial the online novel market had become.

Authors sitting in this conference hall, if local, were fine—their achievements varied from high to low.

The lowest, like Xu Youyu, had only managed to attend thanks to winning a single writing contest.

But anyone invited from outside the province was worth at least several million, if not tens of millions.

Though everyone here looked unkempt and dressed casually, the money they made from writing books was real, tangible cash flow.

Many held over a million yuan in cash, wealthier than many small business owners.

In this atmosphere, among mostly young people, Li Luo and Xu Youyu weren't particularly conspicuous.

Occasionally, a few authors who had met Li Luo yesterday came over to greet him, and Li Luo politely replied to each.

Especially since he possessed the Memory Palace, he could recall the pen names and corresponding works of anyone he'd ever met before.

For many works he'd read, he could even recite several vivid plot passages, making several authors laugh with delight, feel honored, and develop a fondness for Li Luo.

In contrast, Xu Youyu showed little interest in such socializing, simply staying quietly beside Li Luo without speaking.

Li Luo knew Xu Youyu's nature—she became aloof around unfamiliar people.

It wasn't that she rejected others outright; she simply had so little social energy.

So she only spent her energy on those she cared about, and had no intention to waste even a bit on those she didn't.

Fortunately, she was just a minor nobody, her achievements utterly unremarkable among these authors, so few cared about her.

At most, a few male authors would glance over and ask a couple of curious questions.

But after asking those around them—especially editors—they learned she was a minor, like Chongran, most people reined in their private thoughts.

She was undeniably beautiful, but targeting a minor was just plain unethical.

Especially seeing Xu Youyu sitting with Chongran, many began to guess, roughly deducing the relationship between the two.

Then they couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

Look at the godlike life others led in high school, then look at themselves.

Truly, comparison brings only shame.

…… When the time reached half past eight, the morning session officially began.

First, the chairpersons of the provincial online novel writers association took the stage to speak, followed by representatives from various websites sharing their experiences.

The morning schedule passed quickly, reaching eleven-thirty by noon.

Li Luo listened, half-asleep.

Next to him, Xu Youyu had already fallen asleep, head resting on the table.

Li Luo looked around and saw many authors scrolling on their phones; some overachievers had even brought laptops to write.

Everyone came to this conference mainly to join the buzz and expand their network—who actually came to learn techniques?

If they truly needed to learn, chatting privately with big names would be far more effective than this formal setting.

When the conference ended, thunderous applause erupted in the hall, like an alarm clock, waking Xu Youyu up.

Li Luo patted Xu Youyu's shoulder and smiled, "Time for lunch, senior, let's go—class is over."

"Finally over?" Xu Youyu yawned, stood up with Li Luo, and headed toward the conference hall exit.

"Chongran, get some sleep early!" Qianzhou called out as he hurried over from the hotel.

Qianzhou, as an editor, wasn't a member of the writers association—he only came along to tag along with the chief editor Hongdou and to look after the two minor authors.

He'd slept in all morning at the hotel and only came over for lunch.

"Let's go eat," Li Luo waved to Qianzhou, then turned to Xu Youyu, "Let's try Yuhang Restaurant again—yesterday we treated the editor there, the food was good; today I'll treat you."

The three walked together toward Yuhang Restaurant.

At that moment, Xu Rongsheng stepped out of a small meeting room beside the conference hall, accompanied by Sun Jingchun, heading toward a nearby restaurant.

As he exited the meeting room door, Xu Rongsheng unconsciously glanced at the three figures nearby and furrowed his brow slightly.

That déjà vu surged back—he saw again the familiar back he'd noticed before.

But soon, the back disappeared around the street corner, leaving Xu Rongsheng puzzled.

Did he have any acquaintances around here?

He couldn't recall.

And yet, that back—why did it look more and more like his daughter's?

But Xu Youyu was supposed to be in Yinjiang District—how could she possibly be here in the city?

Carrying this question, Xu Rongsheng followed Sun Jingchun toward the restaurant and called Cui Suling.

"Hello? Is Youyu at home?"

"Oh, she went back to Bihai Lanting yesterday?"

"You're sure she went back there? She ate dinner at home last night, right?"

"Oh, okay, I see."

"No matter, just asking out of concern for my daughter."

After hanging up the phone, Xu Rongsheng put the matter out of his mind and went to lunch with Sun Jingchun first.

Then, at half past twelve, after eating and drinking their fill, Xu Rongsheng and Sun Jingchun strolled slowly back to the hotel and encountered again the back view that had seemed vaguely familiar to him before.

As he stepped into the hotel lobby, he spotted three figures near the elevator from afar.

One of those figures bore a strong resemblance to his daughter.

Xu Rongsheng immediately quickened his pace, wanting to confirm.

Just then, the elevator doors opened, and the three figures stepped inside—the moment was slipping away.

But Xu Rongsheng suddenly stopped, watching helplessly as the elevator doors closed before him, lost in thought.

"Uh… what's wrong with you? One moment you're rushing, the next you're standing still." Sun Jingchun, beside him, frowned in confusion.

"Hmm… nothing." Xu Rongsheng shook his head, still replaying that fleeting glimpse in his mind.

That profile… honestly, as a biological father, if he hadn't recognized it, he'd be utterly unfit.

But how could his daughter be in this hotel?

And with two men beside her… Xu Rongsheng suddenly remembered.

The boy standing beside Xu Youyu was none other than Li Luo, the male classmate who had visited their home before!

How could the two of them end up in a hotel in the city?!

A thought suddenly struck Xu Rongsheng, startling even himself—his face darkened instantly.

His fists clenched tight.

"Jingchun, can you do me a favor?"

"Huh? What's up?"

"I know someone staying at this hotel—can you help me find out which room she's in?"

"Huh?" Sun Jingchun frowned at this. "That's not easy to check—privacy is involved; the hotel won't necessarily tell you. If you want to know, just call your friend directly."

Xu Rongsheng took a deep breath and stopped hiding it: "What if it's my daughter? Could you ask then?"

"Huh?" Sun Jingchun froze, slow to react—then, seeing Xu Rongsheng's serious, earnest expression, realized this was no joke. "Hmm… in that case, I'll ask for you."