Chapter 455: If a Child Is Born

On February 4th at noon, the group landed with the plane and returned to Yuhang City.

After returning to Bihai Lanting, Li Luo got out of the car with the three girls, picked up their luggage, and temporarily parted from Lin Xiuhong and the others.

As Cui Suling left, she told Xu Youyu: "Pack your bags and come home before the 6th—it's almost New Year."

"Got it~" Xu Youyu nodded, "I'll go back tomorrow night."

Back in apartment 1502 from the community gate, Li Luo pulled out his keys, opened the door, and stepped inside first to change into slippers.

Ying Chanxi and Yan Zhusheng followed behind, changed into slippers, then dragged their suitcases toward their rooms to organize their belongings first.

In contrast, Xu Youyu was lazier—upon entering the house, she kicked off her shoes, stepped directly onto the floor in her socks, flopped onto the soft sofa, dumped her suitcase aside, and let out a long sigh.

Li Luo, seeing this, was unfazed; he didn't rush to his room but walked to the sofa and patted Xu Youyu's butt: "Hurry up and pack your bags—you're going back tomorrow night, aren't you?"

"Why the rush?" Xu Youyu grumbled, wiggling her butt, lifting her feet into the air and swinging them. "I've finally escaped their terrifying stares—I'm completely relaxed now, switched from combat mode straight to hibernation mode."

After all, in Xu Youyu's view, Ying Chanxi and Yan Zhusheng didn't know she wrote novels.

After leaving the four parents who knew about it, her mood had clearly relaxed.

But Li Luo, as someone who'd been through it, smiled and reminded her: "I suggest you don't jump into hibernation mode too soon."

"Why not?"

"From my experience," Li Luo said slowly, "once your parents find out you write novels and have openly confronted each other, it won't be long before your relatives find out too."

"After all, it's a million-copy work."

"Your relatives might not have high cultural literacy and may not appreciate the content, but the royalty payments are real."

"In a year and a half, you've earned seventy or eighty thousand yuan in royalties—how many normal Gao Zhongsheng, college students, or fresh graduates could earn that much?"

"If it were me, I'd definitely sneakily brag to my relatives."

¤￠o

Hearing Li Luo say this, Xu Youyu's expression changed instantly; she shot up from the sofa with a flash.

If only Xu Rongsheng knew about it, Xu Youyu wouldn't worry at all about what Li Luo described.

After all, Xu Rongsheng clearly wasn't the type to blab—unlikely to brag to relatives over something like this.

But Cui Suling wasn't like that!

In Cui Suling's eyes, since everyone knew—Lin Xiuhong and Li Guohong knew too—what was the harm in sharing it with relatives?

After all, Cui Suling hadn't read the later parts of Xu Youyu's novel and still thought her writing was perfectly respectable.

Thinking of this, Xu Youyu quickly pulled out her phone from her pocket, thought it over, and still sent a message to her dad.

Telling her mom directly, Xu Youyu felt, would be ineffective—this time, only her dad could handle it.

After sending the message and seeing Xu Rongsheng's reply, Xu Youyu finally exhaled deeply, collapsed back onto the sofa, and fully relaxed.

"There's one more thing," Li Luo added. "Since my parents saw photos on Weibo during the year-end party, maybe others saw them too—I think you shouldn't let your guard down yet."

"Stop scaring me!" Xu Youyu rolled over on the sofa, glaring at him angrily. "It's all your fault, you jinx!"

"If you hadn't lied to me when you woke me up, saying my parents already knew I wrote novels—"

"Maybe they wouldn't have known at all!"

Li Luo: "... You can actually say that? Your dad found out about this last year."

"Hmph, I don't care," Xu Youyu kicked him angrily. "It's all your fault—I'm furious."

Li Luo grabbed her ankle, lifted it gently, and raised one of her legs high into the air.

Her body, unused to exercise, lacked flexibility; she yelped loudly and begged: "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Let go!"

Li Luo chuckled and released her, then said: "What time are you going home tomorrow night? If possible, stay for dinner first."

"Why?" Xu Youyu asked curiously. "Are you cooking?"

"Not exactly," Li Luo smiled. "I prepared a surprise for my dad—we'll celebrate over dinner."

"Huh? What surprise?"

"Still a secret."

…

Evening.

Li Luo was typing in his room.

During a break, he checked his QQ messages.

【Qianzhou】: Your novel "Little Joy" has been doing well lately—it's earned the Premium badge, topping both monthly votes and sales in the Realistic category, with virtually no competition.

【Qianzhou】: Also, the reception has been good; when you first started, many doubted it, but now plenty are praising the plot.

【Qianzhou】: The copyright department's negotiations seem to be going smoothly, but I don't know the details—I'll only hear once the final result is confirmed.

【Qianzhou】: If you want specifics, you'll have to ask the chief editor, executive editor, or someone from the copyright department yourself.

【Chongran】: Got it.

For Li Luo, "Little Joy" earning a Premium status was somewhat surprising.

Although he hadn't read the original novel of "Little Joy," such adaptation-targeted novels usually aren't very long.

Li Luo enriched and expanded the plot based on the TV drama's 49 episodes, writing a full 800,000 characters—far different in form and content from the original novel.

In his past life, he'd seen a few behind-the-scenes news pieces about "Little Joy"; according to them, the TV drama used the novel's plot as a backbone and framework, but many specific scenes were original additions by the creative team.

Excluding the few unrealistic, out-of-touch settings in the TV drama, "Little Joy" itself had excellent plot logic and pacing.

Li Luo's expansion, roughly one or two ten-thousand-character chapters per episode, was already tightly plotted by online novel standards.

For example, in "I Am Really Not a Star," a scene of the protagonist showing off and humiliating his rivals could be stretched across multiple chapters with deliberate buildup.

The protagonist, Li Yang, might write a song and prepare to debut it on a show—before and after, you could easily get twenty to thirty chapters, totaling about fifty thousand characters.

In "Little Joy," however, such conflicts and tensions were shorter and more urgent.

The content packed into 800,000 characters, if written in standard online novel fashion, could easily be stretched to two or three million characters.

Just the romantic plotline between the male and female leads could spawn a long string of story arcs.

Thinking of this, Li Luo opened the message sent by Lawyer Tian again.

【Lawyer Tian】: Wenxue Group's offer for the film and television rights to "A Little Happiness" is 15 million.

【Lawyer Tian】: To be honest, this price is inflated.

【Lawyer Tian】: After all, your "I Am Really Not a Star" is the one with the most explosive performance; compared to it, "A Little Happiness" falls far behind.

【Lawyer Tian】: But Wenxue Group has already internally designated "A Little Happiness" as the first prize in their realistic-themed writing contest, and it's said this contest has a cooperative relationship with the Changning City News and Publication Bureau—it carries official endorsement.

【Lawyer Tian】: Huayue Film and Television either got fooled or something else, but their asking price isn't particularly low either.

【Lawyer Tian】: Originally, I estimated your "A Little Happiness" could sell for at most seven or eight million.

【Lawyer Tian】: But given the current situation, the final transaction price will likely exceed ten million.

【Chongran】: Got it. Thanks, Lawyer Tian. Please keep following up and let me know if there's any update.

【Lawyer Tian】: No problem.

After reading Lawyer Tian's message, Li Luo fell into deep thought.

It's currently 2016; although the online novel rights craze still has some lingering heat, it has largely passed its most frenzied phase.

Moreover, "A Little Happiness" itself isn't a breakout online novel—it's mainly relying on the reputation of "Chongran," the official endorsement from the contest award, and its backing by Wenxue Group that allows such an inflated price.

Li Luo wasn't particularly concerned about this.

He still remembered the advice given to him by a platinum-tier author during last year's annual meeting.

When selling film and television rights for the first time, don't care about the price—what matters most is simply selling it.

Because for Wenxue Group, which holds a vast library of online novel rights, their goal isn't to help every author sell their rights.

Their goal is to maximize the value of the rights in their possession.

Simply put, a regular high-quality online novel with an average subscription of just over three thousand—wouldn't any film company be willing to buy it?

In fact, for such novels, if the film rights are offered at tens of thousands or even a hundred thousand, many companies would still be willing to hoard the rights.

As long as one of them becomes a hit, it can immediately recoup costs and turn a profit.

But if Wenxue Group offers you several million, would you still buy it?

For a regular ten-thousand-subscription novel, if the film rights sold for tens of thousands, many companies would happily acquire them—but if they offer you ten million upfront, would you buy it?

But for those online novels that blew up on Qidian with tens of thousands of average subscriptions, Wenxue Group offers several tens of millions.

At first glance, it seems expensive—but when their high-quality ten-thousand-subscription novels are already priced at several million, isn't it perfectly reasonable for a breakout novel to be priced at tens of millions?

For Wenxue Group, whether a high-quality ten-thousand-subscription novel sells its rights or not isn't important at all.

What matters is whether they can inflate the IP's price.

Once a breakout online novel sells its rights for tens of millions, the profit from just one novel far exceeds the combined rights income from dozens or even hundreds of ordinary books.

And under equal rights value, selling just one breakout novel means Wenxue Group only gives up one book's rights while still holding tens of thousands of other works in their library.

For Wenxue Group, this is a plentiful arsenal.

Faced with this situation, Li Luo had no real solution.

Moreover, given his current status as a grandmaster, he's actually a beneficiary under this rights strategy.

But then again…

If he can sign a platinum contract next year, perhaps he could climb another level and truly gain some control over his rights.

But at this moment, Li Luo was just thinking about it.

After all, since his rebirth, his current life was already more than comfortable; how much more money he made in the future made little difference.

Would he really buy a villa and hire Butler Liu as his butler?

Hmm… now that he thought about it, it wasn't entirely impossible.

Thinking of this, Li Luo chuckled silently, and vivid fantasies about the future surfaced in his mind.

Actually… a villa does seem quite nice?

The Bihai Lanting apartment is good too, but now living with four people is already a bit cramped.

When Lin Xiuhong and the others come to cook, and ten or so people sit around the table eating, the dining area is still too crowded.

What if they have children in the future…

Cough.

Thinking of this, Li Luo quickly stopped his fantasy and silently muttered, "Sin, sin."

Some things haven't been settled yet—there's still a long road ahead.

They're all still young now; they must wait until after entering university before proceeding gradually.

Don't be too hasty.

Thinking of this, Li Luo took a deep breath, placed his hands back on the keyboard, activated his memory palace, and immersed himself once more in his writing.