Chapter 790

On Wednesday morning, Li Luo accompanied Ying Chanxi to her elective class.

As usual, they chose the farthest corner seat in the classroom and held a company meeting during lecture, exchanging updates on the past two days.

"I hired an administrative staff member yesterday to oversee the daily progress of the renovation," Ying Chanxi whispered to Li Luo. "And for the agent's assistant role, I asked Director Wang to recommend someone—he used to run errands on set."

"Xiao Wen previously worked beside Aunt Yuan, so she dealt mostly with singers and has little experience with filming."

"So hiring an assistant familiar with the set helps make up for this gap."

"Mm." Li Luo listened as she spoke, confirmed there were no issues, and nodded.

"On Douyin, over the past few days they've been inviting some popular bloggers to film collaborative videos with Aunt Yuan," Ying Chanxi continued. "This Saturday is when you two officially launch."

"Before that, these bloggers will gradually release their interaction videos with Aunt Yuan to stir up buzz within the Douyin platform."

"Douyin is also quite interested in you and Zhusheng—they have some recently promoted bloggers with student backgrounds."

"Miao Yifeng's suggestion is, if possible, could you two also film collaborative videos with some suitable bloggers?"

"Coincidentally, wasn't this the very thing you asked me to check about bringing Huanhuan and the others in?"

"Yeah, that's fine." Li Luo naturally didn't refuse, nodding in agreement. "But neither I nor Zhusheng are particularly popular individually—don't film separate collabs. Have Douyin assign bloggers to film with both of us together."

"Mm-hmm, that's exactly what I meant." Ying Chanxi nodded vigorously.

Bloggers who go viral on Douyin, if they're still students, are either bizarre enough to pull off wild stunts, or have standout looks.

Either way, Ying Chanxi certainly didn't want any outstandingly attractive opposite-sex individuals appearing alone beside Li Luo.

Her possessiveness and vigilance on this front were at maximum.

And Li Luo's thoughts aligned with Ying Chanxi's.

If they filmed separate collabs, and a male blogger happened to film alone with Yan Zhusheng, and fans started gossiping about rumors—even fake ones—Li Luo wouldn't tolerate it.

"Any other issues?" Li Luo asked.

"Not for now," Ying Chanxi shook her head. "Over the past few days, Douyin has been building momentum—not just for Aunt Yuan's入驻, but also spreading rumors about live-streaming launches, 真假混杂."

Li Luo rubbed his chin in thought, feeling Douyin was truly powerful.

Back in his previous life, at this time, few believed Douyin could make live-streaming take off.

After all, the live-streaming field had already gone through a bloody round of slaughter, leaving only Douyu and Huya.

Douyin only entered now—far too late.

But latecomers have their own advantages.

No one could have predicted that years later, Douyin's live-streaming would become mainstream, even sparking the rise of a new track: live-streaming e-commerce.

"Oh, by the way, one more thing," Ying Chanxi suddenly remembered, turning to Li Luo. "Wasn't Douyin previously limited to 15-second videos?"

"Mm." Li Luo nodded. "And?"

"With this collaboration with Aunt Yuan, your new song isn't it going to be released on Douyin?" Ying Chanxi reminded him. "A song is three or four minutes long—Douyin has officially decided to allow slightly longer videos."

"Allow videos three or four minutes long?"

"No," Ying Chanxi shook her head. "Aunt Yuan's new song is a special case. Otherwise, they'll only extend it to 60 seconds."

"I see." Li Luo rubbed his chin, thinking. "As Douyin gradually develops, this limit will surely be lifted step by step."

"Then why not lift it from the start?" Ying Chanxi asked, puzzled.

"It's like school," Li Luo smiled. "Users are like students—they need to be trained."

"If you open all video formats at once, they won't know how to film."

"But if you first tell them: press this button, record, and you can only shoot 15 seconds—then pick any trending BGM and upload, done—that's it."

"Users will happily post videos because the process is simple and mindless."

"Once users gradually adapt to this method, you slowly add new features, letting them learn bit by bit."

"That's precisely his brilliance."

After finishing their work discussion, Li Luo brought up the topic of moving house, which he'd talked about with Xu Youyu yesterday.

"When we move on the 20th, remember to tell Uncle Ying and the others to come over for dinner that night," Li Luo said. "Then on the 21st, my birthday, Youyu said the four of us will celebrate alone—no need to invite Mom and Dad."

"Mm-hmm…" Hearing Li Luo mention this, Ying Chanxi suddenly felt a twinge of guilt, sneaking a glance at him. Seeing his expression was normal, she exhaled slightly. "Senior sister already told me—everything's arranged that way."

After settling this, the two continued listening to the lecture, their hands under the desk holding each other, squeezing and rubbing gently.

Ying Chanxi savored this warm moment; after class, she rushed off again without pause.

She now had to handle school classes, secretarial duties for the Zhu Institute's student union, and manage all of Chongran Culture's operations—truly a busy person.

Fortunately, the Zhu Institute's professors were considerate; after learning her situation, they relaxed academic requirements for her.

Absences from class didn't matter—as long as her progress kept up, assignments could wait, as long as she didn't fail the final assessment.

Fortunately, hiring that administrative assistant had relieved Ying Chanxi of many trivial tasks, finally freeing her to focus more energy on important matters.

As for Li Luo, after arriving on Thursday, he accompanied Xu Youyu to another Online Novel elective class.

He also brought a document along.

"How much do you earn in royalties per month now?"

After sitting down in a corner, Li Luo casually asked Xu Youyu.

"Why? Is the creditor starting to care about my income? Afraid I can't pay back?" Xu Youyu teased with a grin. "I can repay you in other ways~"

"Stop joking," Li Luo rolled his eyes. "I'm being serious."

"Around a hundred thousand," Xu Youyu twirled a strand of hair. "Main platform is about seventy thousand, channels around thirty thousand—but including the completion fee from my previous novel, I'm probably making 110,000 to 120,000 a month."

Xu Youyu's current novel, Gu Dao Changqing, has over 20,000 average subscriptions; with daily updates of four thousand characters, this income is normal.

These days, channel revenue hasn't been slashed yet, so the royalties are still substantial.

If Xu Youyu works hard for another half year or so, repaying Li Luo's 800,000 debt will be easy.

But Li Luo wasn't rushing her to repay—the royalties from Gu Dao Changqing's later chapters should be enough for her to renovate the villa she bought.

"How long until this book ends?" Li Luo asked again. "It's already nearing two million characters, right?"

"Should be coming soon," Xu Youyu guessed. "After this year's New Year, another one or two months of writing should be about enough."

"So that would be March or April next year?"

"Something like that~"

"Same as me," Li Luo rubbed his chin, thinking. "My new book, The Great Gan Night Patrol Corps, should also finish around then—about three to four million characters."

"You're not even human…" Xu Youyu's lips twitched at the number.

After all, she'd started her new book back in September last year; by next April, she'd have written for over a year and a half—and only reached two million characters.

Yet Li Luo's new book started in April this year, will finish next April, and in barely a full year, he's aiming for four million characters.

Is this even a person?

"Don't you already know whether I'm human?" Li Luo chuckled.

"Hmph," Xu Youyu rolled her eyes. "You're pretty inhuman in bed too."

"What's that?"

"A beast."

"Better than not even being a beast."

"Hmph."

"By the way," Li Luo shifted the topic after teasing, asking Xu Youyu, "Has your editor mentioned copyright issues for your book, Gu Dao Changqing?"

"They did mention it," Xu Youyu recalled. "They asked me to fill out a copyright recommendation form, but nothing came after that."

"You filled out one of those?" Li Luo raised an eyebrow, then pulled out his phone and messaged Qianzhou.

As Qianzhou's top author, Li Luo received special attention from him.

The moment he sent the message, Qianzhou replied instantly.

【Qianzhou】: What's up?

【Chongran】: What's the status of Zao Shui's current book's copyright on your end?

【Qianzhou】: Hmm… probably just a basic recommendation. If no one's interested, it just sinks to the bottom.

【Chongran】: No chance for a major push?

【Qianzhou】: Urban setting, qi revival—already high review pressure. Plus, her performance is decent but not outstanding. It's stuck.

【Qianzhou】: The copyright department usually operates in two modes.

【Qianzhou】: The first is like Zao Shui's case—once performance hits the threshold, you fill out a copyright recommendation form.

【Qianzhou】: When dealing with film and TV companies, these forms get dumped en masse. If someone's interested, they'll follow up; if not, it's dead.

【Qianzhou】: The second is like your The Great Gan Night Patrol Corps—no form needed. Dozens of people rush to buy it. It's just a matter of price and terms—no question of whether it sells.

【Chongran】: What if I find a suitable buyer myself?

【Qianzhou】: Of course we'd welcome it with open arms… after all, it's a 50-50 split. We just sit back and profit.

【Qianzhou】: But the price can't be lower than the copyright department's minimum valuation—otherwise it won't pass.

Li Luo understood this point.

In fact, do authors on Qidian's male section really fail to sell copyrights?

A novel with ten thousand subscriptions—I'd sell the film/TV rights for five hundred thousand. As long as the quality's decent, plenty of companies would buy it.

But Wenxue Group comes in with a five-million offer—do you buy it?

Don't buy? Fine. I'll hold onto it. The valuation's fixed.

If I have a thousand novels with ten thousand subscriptions each, my company's value from just those alone is five billion.

Of course, reality isn't this simple—but the gist is about right.

For the author, an unsold copyright is worth zero.

So even fifty thousand is acceptable.

But for Wenxue Group, selling a copyright for fifty thousand is a drop in the ocean—and selling too many drags down the valuation of their other books.

So it's better to hold back, selling only the top-tier blockbusters. Rarity drives value.

Li Luo couldn't say whether this was good or bad.

Because if everyone sold their copyrights cheaply, and one actually became a smash TV series, wouldn't that mean buying a multi-million-dollar blockbuster copyright was worse than just randomly picking up a ten-thousand-subscription novel?

After all, a multi-million-dollar blockbuster copyright could buy dozens of ten-thousand-subscription novels at fifty thousand each.

Since film adaptation is always a gamble, why not place more bets with the same budget?

In the end, copyright prices might never rise again.

Now that Li Luo stood as a beneficiary, he had no motivation to criticize.

As they say, your position determines your thinking—this saying was truly accurate.

Li Luo sighed, made up his mind, pulled a document from his backpack, and handed it to Xu Youyu beside him: "Take a look at this."

"What's this?" Xu Youyu glanced down curiously. "Cultural Excellence Project, Key Support Initiative, Recommendation Letter?"

"A program from the Provincial Writers Association," Li Luo said simply. "If selected, the government offers some support. It's basically a prestige boost—the same work, different title, and people view it differently."

"You mean…"

"I'll help you maneuver the copyright," Li Luo winked, grinning. "Otherwise, are you really planning to carry a thirty-year mortgage for that villa?"

Xu Youyu stared at the document, finally understanding Li Luo's plan, and moved deeply: "... Young Master's great kindness—I shall serve you as ox or horse in my next life to repay this debt."

"Why not repay it in this life by giving yourself to me?"

"Because I already belong to you, body and soul," Xu Youyu whispered close to Li Luo's ear. "So I can only promise you my next life."