Chapter 765

Before long, it was Friday night.

After the final rehearsal of Shengsheng Buxi Band ended, Li Luo and Yan Zhusheng returned to Bihai Lanting.

Since tomorrow was the weekend and everyone had no classes, Xu Youyu and Ying Chanxi also came back home.

Now, among the three girls, some unspoken understanding seemed to have formed.

During weekdays, everyone tacitly agreed to stay in the dorm and not return, only coming back here together on weekends.

But it wasn't as if they truly lived in the dorms during weekdays.

Whenever they got the chance—whether Ying Chanxi, Yan Zhusheng, or battle-hardened Xu Youyu—they would all sneak Li Luo back home to spend the night.

Or, like Xu Youyu, they'd simply open a second front and lure Li Luo into the car.

Only on weekends would all four gather together and return to Bihai Lanting to sleep under the same blanket.

"By the way, aren't you guys performing at the music festival tomorrow?"

Xu Youyu was lazily sprawled on the living room sofa; hearing the door open, she lifted her head to look at Li Luo and Yan Zhusheng entering, then asked while sucking on a small pudding cup.

"Mm." Li Luo nodded, slipped on slippers, walked over to the sofa, and sat down by patting Xu Youyu's butt, "Will you come watch tomorrow at seven?"

"I'll bring my roommate along," Xu Youyu grinned. "I definitely have to support your performance—do you need a flower-offering segment on stage? A kiss would work too."

"Just chill out and don't cause trouble," Li Luo said helplessly. "Ying Chanxi will probably go with her roommate too."

"Scared?" Xu Youyu chuckled, lifting her foot to hook it under Li Luo's chin, "I thought you were afraid of nothing."

"Take your stinky foot away." Li Luo swatted it away.

Xu Youyu huffed, rubbed her foot, then muttered under her breath: "Don't know who was kissing it before."

"What are you two doing?" Ying Chanxi stepped out of the bathroom, towel-drying her hair, and walked into the living room to find Li Luo and Xu Youyu fooling around.

"Talking about tomorrow's music festival," Xu Youyu propped herself up on the sofa backrest and called to Ying Chanxi. "Are you going?"

"Yeah." Ying Chanxi nodded. "I made plans with my roommate to go, but we'll only show up during Li Luo's performance tonight—we won't wander around during the day."

"Mm, same here," Xu Youyu nodded, then grinned. "So, Ying Chanxi, you gonna go on stage and send flowers?"

"Can I?" Ying Chanxi looked hopefully at Li Luo.

"Uh… the lead singer is Zhusheng. Isn't it a bit weird to send flowers to the guitarist?"

"Are you that self-absorbed?" Xu Youyu scoffed. "I just said send flowers—I didn't say they're for you. Can't we send them to Zhusheng?"

"Then let's spread the love evenly," Li Luo laughed. "Prepare some for Niuxuejie and the others too, or they'll feel left out."

"How do you know no one's sending them flowers?" Yan Zhusheng glanced at Li Luo. "Isn't Xie Shuchen dating someone?"

"His girlfriend's still in senior three at Fuyi High School—what's she gonna send?" Li Luo rolled his eyes.

"Tomorrow's Saturday," Yan Zhusheng reminded him. "Our school doesn't ban outsiders from entering."

"True," Li Luo realized and nodded. "What about Shao Youpeng?"

That guy was pitiful—Li Luo recalled how, last time, while he and Youyu were in the BMW, Shao Youpeng had walked past outside the car, and he felt a twinge of guilt.

"Stop overthinking it," Xu Youyu waved her hand. "Whether they send flowers or not doesn't matter—we'll see tomorrow."

After chatting a while, Xu Youyu got up to shower, planning to finish and start writing.

Li Luo was pulled by Yan Zhusheng into the inner bathroom to shower, deliberately walking in front of Ying Chanxi.

Ying Chanxi sniffed, finding Yan Zhusheng's move childish and laughable in her eyes.

Thinking back to last weekend, when she'd secretly done something naughty while Yan Zhusheng was calling Li Luo, she secretly smiled with satisfaction.

But after Li Luo finished showering, Ying Chanxi approached him to discuss something serious.

"I need to tell you something," Ying Chanxi said. "Today was Friday—I went over to continue negotiations with Douyin."

"Mm, what happened?" Li Luo asked, blowing Yan Zhusheng's hair.

"You previously told me I could mention to Douyin about Ruan Lin joining Douyin, but…"

"What happened?" Li Luo raised an eyebrow, seeing Ying Chanxi's expression of helpless bewilderment, and assumed there was a problem. "They're not interested?"

"No…" Ying Chanxi laughed in exasperation. "On the contrary, they seem quite interested."

"Originally, according to your suggestion, I prepared an entry fee of six hundred thousand."

"But after discussing with Lawyer Tian, we thought Ruan Lin's actual value should be higher than Zhusheng's, so our bottom line could be around five million."

"But of course we quoted higher—we agreed on eight million, and then…"

Ying Chanxi paused, unsure what expression to wear, and finally laughed: "Douyin immediately agreed."

"What?" Li Luo froze, until Yan Zhusheng said "Hot!"—then he snapped back, shaking the hairdryer to keep blowing her hair.

"Why am I only worth three million, Zhusheng only four million, but Ruan Lin's worth eight million?"

Hearing Li Luo's confused, almost indignant tone, Ying Chanxi covered her mouth and laughed, then explained: "We just assumed too much."

"I only realized this after Lawyer Tian reminded me."

"Think about it—you're a behind-the-scenes worker, three million; Zhusheng is an undiscovered singer, four million."

"But Ruan Lin played a major role in the massive hit 'Little Joy,' a role so memorable she's been called the Nation's Little Daughter by netizens."

"That kind of influence is already huge."

"Otherwise, Douyin wouldn't have agreed so easily."

With this simple analysis, Li Luo naturally understood the logic—but he was still speechless.

Ultimately, Ruan Lin was the one appearing on screen.

Whether Li Luo or Yan Zhusheng, they mostly worked behind the scenes.

If not for Yuan Wanqing's fame driving attention, their online influence would've been far smaller.

Li Luo just never expected that his and Yan Zhusheng's combined signing fees were less than Ruan Lin's alone.

"But Douyin's position is," Ying Chanxi added, "this price is acceptable, but can we bundle other actors from 'Little Joy' too?"

"Right now only Ruan Lin has signed with us—Douyin will reach out to the others. Do you and Director Wang want to help make some contacts?"

"If the cast of 'Little Joy' could all move in together, Douyin could also launch a special campaign tied to 'Little Joy'—that'd be a great promotion."

"That could work." Li Luo rubbed his chin and nodded; he had to admit, the Douyin team had plenty of ideas. "I'll let Director Wang know and see if the others are willing."

Not to take money when it's offered is to be an idiot.

Li Luo had originally thought Ruan Lin's commercial value wouldn't truly be harvested until after 'The Beginning' premiered.

But he hadn't expected that, barely after signing the contract, Ruan Lin had already brought the company at least eight million in revenue.

According to the original contract terms, the income would be split fifty-fifty, meaning Chongran Culture would receive four million.

Just thinking about it, Li Luo couldn't help but feel a pang of awe.

No wonder everyone says capitalists have it easy—looking at this, it really was easy.

As long as the company controlled both resources and monetization channels, it could effortlessly extract commercial value from others.

Just by flipping it once, four million was in hand—easier than any other four million he'd ever earned.

You have to understand that such a huge sum, if converted into web novel earnings, even with results like Xu Youyu's, would require writing one or two more books, and then adding up all the royalties together would only be roughly equivalent.

【71】 You have to understand that such a huge sum, if converted into web novel earnings, even with results like Xu Youyu's, would require writing one or two more books, and then adding up all the royalties together would only be roughly equivalent.

【71】 To put it another way, that sum of money—if converted into online novels—even someone like Xu Youyu would have to write one or two more books and combine all his royalties just to match it.

Put another way, Douyin really had money.

Eight million, agreed on a whim—quite decisive.

Doing business with a giant like this was truly comfortable.

But only now, with Douyin at this stage, could anyone squeeze something out of it.

Once Douyin grows stronger, becomes a true behemoth, it won't be them spending money to beg others to join—it'll be others scrambling to join Douyin first, seizing traffic and catching the next wave of the future.

"So that's the situation," Ying Chanxi nodded. "We've negotiated most of it already; next time, we'll sign the formal contract."

"I'll have Lawyer Tian send you the detailed terms via email—remember to review them."

"Douyin wants all three of you to move in together and launch a cover song campaign around your new song 'Displaced Space-Time.'"

"Now there's just one final question: when will you move in?"

"Hmm." Li Luo rubbed his chin, thought for a moment, then asked, "Has Douyin said when their live-streaming feature will launch?"

"Live-streaming?" Ying Chanxi blinked. "Isn't Douyin a short-video app?"

"Once it grows bigger, it won't miss out on live-streaming," Li Luo smiled. "Just find out when the live-streaming feature will be ready—we'll move in then."

"Then we can not only do basic traffic generation and interaction, but also go live simultaneously to attract fans."

"I think Douyin would be thrilled to see that."

"Alright." Ying Chanxi nodded. "I'll ask next time."

After finishing this conversation, Yan Zhusheng's hair was already dry.

So Ying Chanxi pulled her annoying little sister onto the bed, while Li Luo stayed at the desk and kept typing.

When Xu Youyu finished typing and wandered over in the evening, Li Luo finally stopped his clacking fingers and joined them on the bed.

The four of them slept together—Li Luo hugged one on each side, while a foot from someone else sprawled across his stomach, and he drifted off comfortably.

……

The next morning.

Li Luo and the other two woke early, went for a morning run, then returned home.

In the morning, Li Luo finished his typing for the day, then called Director Wang Jun to mention the idea of the 'Little Joy' cast moving onto Douyin, asking him to recommend other actors from the cast to contact Douyin.

Wang Jun was surprised by this stroke of luck—two actors from the 'The Beginning' cast had previously played major supporting roles in 'Little Joy.'

After hanging up, he tracked them down and gave them Li Luo's contact information for the Douyin team.

After negotiations, both actors secured excellent deals and were overjoyed—never expected such good fortune.

Often, some people possess commercial value, while others hold platforms that need to leverage that value.

But the two sides never connect—there's simply no opportunity to bridge them.

Just like this case.

The Douyin team was swamped daily; perhaps they hadn't thought to use this summer's breakout hit, 'Little Joy,' for marketing.

But once Ying Chanxi mentioned Ruan Lin, the Douyin team immediately realized it was a great topic—perfect for expansion.

So those who might have missed this wave of wealth were now connected.

It's just like selling the copyright of an online novel.

Many believe that if an online novel is well-written and of high quality, people will naturally come to buy the copyright.

But in reality, the staff responsible for acquiring online novel copyrights don't personally read every single novel.

In the end, isn't it all about checking the website's rankings and data?

You say yours is good—then why is its ranking so low? Why is its performance worse than others'?

Look at them—they've topped the monthly vote chart several times—how could their plot not be good?

If you buy their copyright and the adaptation turns out mediocre, the staff can still explain themselves—after all, the data is right there, they were number one on the monthly vote chart.

But if you pick your supposedly higher-quality work, and the adaptation still turns out average, how will the copyright acquisition staff explain themselves?

Just to take a gamble?

They're all on fixed salaries, earning maybe a little bonus—why risk their career?

So for online novels, earning through subscriptions means exchanging content for readers.

But to sell copyright, you need to tell stories beyond the content itself.

When Li Luo's 'Little Joy' sold its copyright, it was thanks to external factors—otherwise, no one would have bought it.

"Are you all going to the music festival this afternoon?" Li Luo asked the three girls at lunch.

Ying Chanxi shook her head: "I'm going downtown this afternoon—I'll bring up your question about the live-streaming feature to Douyin as soon as possible and see if they're working on it."

"I'm not going either," Xu Youyu waved her hand. "Wait until you're on stage tonight—I'll stay with Zhusheng this afternoon."

"Go ahead and take care of your business," Yan Zhusheng turned to Ying Chanxi. "I'll take care of Li Luo."

Ying Chanxi: "... Don't get too cocky—right now I'm the one running all the errands for Chongran Culture, and you, as a contracted artist, are useless."

"I made Li Luo one point five million," Yan Zhusheng said. "Oh wait, it's two million now."

"The extra money was negotiated by me, okay?" Ying Chanxi snapped. "It should be credited to me, and so should Ruan Lin's eight million."

"Sister, you're amazing," Yan Zhusheng clapped her hands in encouragement. "Keep it up this afternoon—I'm going with Li Luo to the music festival."

Li Luo watched the two sisters bickering, expression caught between laughter and exasperation.

Xu Youyu beside him watched the spectacle with great delight, finding his meal even more satisfying.