Chapter 663: You Yu: With Daily Twenty-Seven Thousand, How Do You Still Have Energy?

Around eight o'clock in the evening, guests attending the academic advancement banquet gradually took their leave.

Li Luo saw Kong Junxiang and Ding Xiang out the hotel's main entrance, and before bidding them farewell, he still smiled and asked, "On the 20th, when you're picking up the bride, do you want us to come help out?"

Before Kong Junxiang could respond, Zhu Yufei and the others nearby began cheering, "We'll form a student battalion! Help you take down Ding Laoshi's bridesmaid squad!"

"I'd advise you to think again," Ding Xiang chuckled in warning. "My bridesmaids include Teacher Liu and Teacher Jiang too."

"Holy shit?" Zhang Guohuang yelled. "Ding Laoshi, you're too ruthless!"

Teacher Liu was their high school geography teacher; Teacher Jiang was the chemistry teacher.

If the bridesmaids are all teachers, how could they possibly handle that?

But Li Luo encouraged them from the side: "You're all graduated now—what are you afraid of?"

Kong Junxiang chuckled and shook his head: "If you can come, come. The bride pickup is in the morning—I'll send the address to the class group."

"If you're too busy, no need to show up at lunch—just make it for dinner."

After some casual chatting at the hotel entrance, Li Luo finally saw off the last group of guests, then rubbed his temples and turned back toward the hotel lobby.

Xu Rongsheng and Cui Suling had already left earlier.

Li Luo had assumed Ying Zhicheng and Yuan Wanqing had left too, but when he returned, he found they were still there.

Ying Zhicheng spotted Li Luo and waved him over.

Li Luo sat down on a nearby chair and asked curiously, "Uncle Ying, is there something else?"

"I read your latest novel chapter," Ying Zhicheng asked. "Your recent update schedule seems heavy?"

"Yeah, sort of," Li Luo sighed with a smile. "I mentioned this before—I wanted to stir up some buzz around the news, but I didn't expect it got a bit too heated."

"If you need it, I can help boost the buzz further," Ying Zhicheng nodded. "I'm already very familiar with Weibo."

"Then I'd be grateful, Uncle Ying," Li Luo readily accepted. "Before school starts, I hope this buzz can last a little longer."

"No problem," Ying Zhicheng nodded understandingly, already having made up his mind.

But then he hesitated, weighing his words carefully before saying, "About that other script you mentioned—if your updates are too hectic right now, you can wait until after school starts to settle down."

"Oh, you mean this one?" Li Luo suddenly realized, then smiled. "I finished writing it a long time ago—I just didn't give it to you because I was busy with 'Little Joy,' and planned to tell you once 'Little Joy' was fully wrapped up."

"Oh?" Ying Zhicheng's eyes lit up instantly. "You've already finished it?"

"Mm," Li Luo gave a light nod. "Not just the novel—I wrote the screenplay too, on the side."

"Good! Very good!" Ying Zhicheng's rare expression of delight broke into a smile. "Make sure to send it to me—I'll go see Director Wang Jun right away."

"No problem," Li Luo grinned. "I have full confidence in Director Wang Jun's abilities."

Mainly because Wang Jun doesn't rewrite scripts—he faithfully follows the screenplay without slipping in his own ideas or arbitrarily changing the plot.

After agreeing, Li Luo paused, then tentatively asked, "Uncle Ying, I have another idea on this—do you think you could agree to it?"

"What idea?" Ying Zhicheng asked, puzzled.

"This script isn't affiliated with Wenxue Group—it's entirely my personal copyright," Li Luo said. "So when Huayue Film and Television wants to buy the rights, I was wondering—could I directly invest in the project using the copyright fee as my equity?"

Hearing this, Ying Zhicheng's eyebrows rose—he immediately understood Li Luo's meaning.

It was like starting a company: one party invests capital, the other invests expertise.

Suppose Huayue Film and Television offers twenty million for Li Luo's script's copyright—he'd simply forgo the cash and treat that twenty million as his investment in the project.

This would skip the middle step of converting to cash, saving a lot in taxes.

After all, even without direct equity, Li Luo planned to keep investing in the new project just like he did with 'Little Joy.'

How much is a copyright fee anyway?

He only invested five million in 'Little Joy' and earned thirty-five million in returns.

That five million was exactly what he received after selling the copyright for 'Little Joy.'

After all, a twelve-million copyright fee gets split fifty-fifty with the platform, and after taxes, that's all you end up with.

If he could directly convert the copyright fee into equity, he'd definitely earn more.

"You'd better think carefully," Ying Zhicheng warned kindly. "Even though 'Little Joy' was a huge success, that doesn't mean our next project is guaranteed."

"I have full confidence in your script's quality."

"But 'Little Joy' was perfect timing, perfect location, perfect circumstances—there may never be another chance like that again."

"It's fine," Li Luo smiled. "It's just the copyright fee—if it loses money, I'll just consider it a book I wrote for free."

Ying Zhicheng chuckled at that. "Alright then—send me the script first. I'll mention it in the company."

"Thanks, Uncle Ying," Li Luo grinned, satisfied after getting the answer he wanted.

Yuan Wanqing, watching them discuss this, looked at Li Luo with a complex expression.

But in the end, she said nothing—after the two finished talking, she and Ying Zhicheng took their leave together.

After seeing off Ying Zhicheng and Yuan Wanqing, Li Luo greeted his parents, then gathered the three girls and prepared to drive home.

Xu Youyu hadn't drunk any alcohol that night and took the driver's seat voluntarily.

Yan Zhusheng got into the front passenger seat.

Ying Chanxi sat beside Li Luo in the back.

"You drank a lot today—are you okay?" Ying Chanxi asked, concerned.

"I'm fine," Li Luo rubbed his forehead, then leaned back onto Ying Chanxi's lap. "I'll shower when we get home and get an early night—tomorrow I start my official seclusion."

"You really plan to update twenty thousand words every day?" Xu Youyu said, startled as he started the engine. "Aren't you afraid you'll burn yourself out?"

"I'm not you," Li Luo said, eyes closed, enjoying the cool touch of Ying Chanxi's fingers massaging his forehead. "Someone who can only squeeze out four thousand words in a whole evening can't possibly imagine what daily twenty-thousand-word updates feel like."

"Oh, by the way."

"I need to correct that—it's not twenty thousand words a day. More accurately, it's twenty-seven thousand."

Xu Youyu: "... Don't drop dead on me."

"Relax, I've got it under control," Li Luo sighed contentedly, relaxed under Ying Chanxi's massage. "I've already prepared the outline—the plot will carry me through to the end of Volume Two, at least a million five hundred thousand words' worth—plenty for this burst."

"You're not even human," Xu Youyu couldn't help complaining. "Where do you even get that much energy?"

"Isn't having lots of energy a good thing?" Li Luo chuckled teasingly.

"Hmph." Xu Youyu knew exactly what he meant, but since both her sisters were still around, she wouldn't ride with him.

……

After the promotion banquet ended smoothly.

Li Luo then fully entered seclusion mode.

That night, he went home, took a shower early, and went to bed.

The next morning, he woke up on time, finished his morning run, sat down at his desk, and began his day of typing.

Xu Youyu was still asleep in bed when she heard the crisp clacking of keys beside her, so loud it kept her from sleeping.

When she finally dragged herself up at around ten in the morning, she saw that Li Luo had already written over ten thousand words.

"Damn! You're a freak!" Xu Youyu spat out. "What time did you even start writing?"

"Around half past seven," Li Luo glanced at the time. "Ten thousand words in three hours—that's still normal speed."

"With your update volume, I dare not even comment in your chapter comments," Xu Youyu couldn't help complaining. "I'm afraid my readers will catch me and demand I learn from you."

"So, how about you learn a bit?" Li Luo chuckled, watching Xu Youyu roll out of bed toward the bathroom. He stood up, wrapped his arms around her, and grinned mischievously. "Why not move your desk over here? Let's write together with passion?"

"Get lost, no way!" Xu Youyu rolled her eyes. "Let go of me—I need to use the toilet."

"Shall I accompany you?" Li Luo hugged her as he shuffled forward, whispering hot breath against her ear. "Chanxi is cooking, Zhusheng is practicing the qin."

"You're such a bad person..." Xu Youyu blushed, murmuring softly. "You already wrote ten thousand words this morning—how do you still have energy for mischief?"

"Mental effort doesn't drain physical energy. Consider it exercise before meals."

"Still, you have to wait until I finish using the toilet."

"I'll take you there."

"Ah! Wait a minute! Don't watch..."

……

Starting August 6, the authors and readers on Qidian once again felt the fear of being dominated by Chongran.

Since Chongran posted a single chapter announcing he would update at least twenty thousand words daily to repay his backlog, The Night Watch of Great Qian experienced another surge.

If during the first two months after The Night Watch of Great Qian launched, Chongran's daily ten-thousand-word updates were matched by other authors,

and if a few authors could barely manage to maintain both The Night Watch of Great Qian and I Am Really Not a Star at four thousand words daily,

now no author dared speak up.

Terrifying... utterly terrifying...

Ever since Chongran began his frenzied mass updates, nearly every author group discussed it daily.

At first, everyone thought Chongran had lost his mind—no one makes such promises to readers.

If he failed to deliver later, even if he kept his daily ten-thousand-word updates, readers' perception would be completely different.

For authors, managing readers' expectations for updates is a skill with deep nuances.

If a long-term daily ten-thousand-word author suddenly drops to eight thousand, readers will question him, criticize him, and even accuse him of cashing out and slacking off.

But if a long-term slacker who writes only four thousand words daily suddenly starts writing eight thousand, readers will wonder, "Did you take drugs?"

Then they'll cheer, praise him, and declare the prodigal has returned worth more than gold.

People always like to compare.

If Chongran swore he'd maintain twenty thousand words daily but failed to sustain it, his reputation might suffer.

But soon, authors realized the situation wasn't developing as they imagined.

Chongran didn't update twenty thousand words daily.

That bastard was updating thirty thousand words daily!

When they discovered this, they were completely stunned.

From August 6 to August 16, for a full ten days, he updated thirty thousand words daily!

Thirty thousand words of updates equaled the total of an entire month of previous daily ten-thousand-word updates!

Meanwhile, The Night Watch of Great Qian's performance skyrocketed, rapidly surpassing its previous average subscription count of under seventy thousand.

On the 16th, it broke seventy-five thousand average subscriptions and surged quickly toward eighty thousand.

At the same time, the plot of The Night Watch of Great Qian was approaching the climax of Volume One.

Normally, as a volume nears its end, all previously laid groundwork converges into a single explosive climax.

If the author updates slowly and delays the climax, many readers will decide to "raise the book."

They'll only reopen it once the entire volume is complete.

But with The Night Watch of Great Qian, the situation was completely different.

Chongran's update volume was simply too massive!

From the opening of the final climax to its resolution, the entire arc spanned over two hundred thousand words.

At a normal update pace—even with daily ten-thousand-word updates—it would take nearly a month to conclude.

At a daily four-thousand-word slacker pace, it would take over two months.

But with Chongran's thirty-thousand-word daily updates, the entire volume's climax was resolved in just seven or eight days.

Crucially, some authors who specifically followed it found that Chongran's quality during this burst update showed no decline compared to before!

Especially in this final arc—from setup to payoff of foreshadowing, to the protagonist standing alone with a single blade against thousands of inspectors, finally dying on the battlefield—the emotional arc was complete and powerfully rendered.

Logically, upon seeing the protagonist die—even if readers knew it was surely fake—they'd easily enter "raising the book" mode.

But all these issues were completely drowned out by the sheer volume and consistently high quality of updates.

On August 20, The Night Watch of Great Qian officially surpassed eighty thousand average subscriptions.

The plot unfolds from Volume Two, as the protagonist fakes his death and returns to life, coming back to Jingcheng, where new storylines revolve around several female leads.

Li Luo finally temporarily emerges from his seclusion to attend Kong Jun's wedding.

After returning, he dives once more into the vast ocean of writing, until the 24th, when Yan Zhusheng's birthday arrives.

(End of Chapter)