Chapter 796: Sister, You Don

Like with《Little Joy》，Li Luo prepared five songs for《The Beginning》.

Besides the already outstanding opening theme《Under Investigation》，Li Luo selected four additional songs that matched the theme well.

Among these, three songs were actually better suited to Li Luo's own voice and vocal tone, giving them more depth.

This wasn't to say Yan Zhusheng and Yuan Wanqing couldn't perform these songs—on the contrary, they could sing them without any issue.

But sometimes a song's tone determines that only a certain vocal quality can deliver the right feeling.

If given to Yan Zhusheng and Yuan Wanqing to sing, it would feel entirely different.

However, after assigning《Under Investigation》to Yan Zhusheng and the other three to Li Luo, one final song remained, and Yan Zhusheng had originally planned to claim it.

But Li Luo suggested giving it to Yuan Wanqing to sing, which made Yan Zhusheng slightly upset; she pouted and secretly punched Li Luo.

Yuan Wanqing looked amused: "If you want to sing it, sing it—I'm not trying to compete with you."

"Then the alternate lyrics for《Misaligned Space-Time》will also go to Aunt Yuan," Li Luo said, seeing Yuan Wanqing's response, and didn't press Yan Zhusheng further; he patted her head and added, "Don't try to snatch this one."

"Oh." Yan Zhusheng nodded obediently.

In truth, if Li Luo had insisted on giving the current song to Yuan Wanqing, Yan Zhusheng would've just pouted—but she was still obedient when she needed to be, never truly sulking.

Yuan Wanqing had no objections to these arrangements; after nodding in agreement, she said, "The live stream will take place in this recording studio."

"The Douyin team will arrive at 2:30 PM to set up the venue and calibrate the equipment."

"The live stream flow has already been coordinated with Douyin; two gaps have been left in the middle for you two to insert segments."

After hearing this, Li Luo asked curiously, "Is there a detailed document for the live stream flow and content?"

"Yes." Yuan Wanqing nodded, pulled out her phone, sent a message to her staff, and soon someone delivered a file.

Li Luo reached out, took it, opened it, glanced through, then nodded in understanding.

The plan was very detailed, dividing the one-hour stream into roughly ten-minute segments.

The first ten minutes were the warm-up segment, followed by ten to twenty minutes for the entertainment segment.

Then Yan Zhusheng's guest appearance segment.

The second half featured the singing segment, with Li Luo's guest appearance inserted in between, ending with a ten-minute wrap-up.

The entire flow was clear and well-planned, even including rules for bullet screen interactions.

After all, live streaming is the most prone to incidents; one misstep could instantly ruin someone's reputation.

So before the live stream began, both Yuan Wanqing's studio and the Douyin team advised against her responding to bullet screens casually.

At each stage, the team would deliberately flood the screen with specific bullet screen messages, controlling the direction of comments so Yuan Wanqing could respond appropriately.

These responses were all pre-prepared; Yuan Wanqing simply needed to follow the script.

There would also be dedicated prompt boards, so she wouldn't have to worry about appearing unprepared.

Of course, if Yuan Wanqing saw a bullet screen worth replying to, she could say something—but she had to think carefully first.

For Yuan Wanqing, this was naturally no problem, but for some others, it might not be.

"Don't say anything stupid during the live stream," Ying Chanxi said, eyeing her little sister skeptically, unable to resist warning her, "If something goes wrong, I won't be able to clean up after you."

"I'm very well-behaved," Yan Zhusheng said seriously, her face stiff, "Don't you believe me, sister?"

Ying Chanxi: "..."

Do I look like someone who believes you?

She had zero self-awareness.

Ying Chanxi rolled her eyes at her, but since Yuan Wanqing was present, she didn't say more.

Li Luo wasn't worried Yan Zhusheng would say something wrong; though she seemed innocent and pure when around him, her little mind was actually quite sharp.

She knew what to say and what not to say.

Otherwise, she wouldn't constantly manage to make Ying Chanxi furious without actually making her truly angry.

In this regard, Yan Zhusheng's timing was spot-on.

"Do you have a pen? I'll write down some more ideas," Li Luo said, holding the live stream document, thinking for a moment, then asking Luo Fei beside him.

Luo Fei handed him a pen; Li Luo began adding his own thoughts in the blank spaces of the document, supplementing parts of the live stream planning.

Yuan Wanqing watched from beside him, nodded in understanding, and couldn't help laughing: "That makes it even more complete."

At 2:30 PM, Douyin's Miao Yifeng arrived on time at Yuan Wanqing's studio with the live stream equipment to set up the venue.

While the staff worked busily, Miao Yifeng went to the adjacent rest room to coordinate details with Li Luo and the others.

"Hmm… I've received the previous live stream plan," Miao Yifeng said, adjusting his glasses. "The additions from Chongran are fine, but this self-accompanied singing and TV drama promotion…"

"What's the issue?"

"Nothing," Miao Yifeng chuckled and shook his head, thinking Chongran was indeed a master at marketing, knowing exactly how to leverage traffic. "But Chongran, you're starting a new drama soon—would you consider collaborating with us?"

"Collaborate? Douyin can't stream TV dramas yet, right?"

"Of course not that," Miao Yifeng smiled. "But we can still edit and post drama clips to boost your show's popularity."

"Also, actor signings and interactions can all happen on our Douyin platform."

"It's another promotional channel—don't you agree?"

Li Luo nodded with a smile, not refusing the offer.

But since《The Beginning》hadn't even started filming yet, discussing this was premature; the two quickly shifted the topic back to tonight's live stream.

"Yuan Wanqing's Douyin live stream has already been preheated online since yesterday, and today's promotion has been comprehensive," Miao Yifeng said. "Tonight's viewership will be high—we estimate the peak concurrent viewership may exceed 500,000."

"What level is that in the live streaming industry? Is that a lot?" Ying Chanxi asked curiously.

"On other major live streaming platforms, even the top-tier rooms only barely reach 500,000 peak viewers during major events," Miao Yifeng said. "That's already a very high standard."

If this were just a simple live stream, Miao Yifeng's team wouldn't have come on-site.

After all, handling a live stream with a peak likely exceeding 500,000 requires all kinds of professional equipment.

Otherwise, when the massive traffic hits, if the livestream crashes and won't even open, it would be too embarrassing for TikTok.

So while these people moved to the lounge to discuss livestream details, TikTok's staff had already begun setting up the recording studio's livestream environment.

All professional-grade network transmission systems, encoding and streaming systems, and on-site monitoring systems must use the most advanced equipment.

Emergency contingency plans for all possible sudden scenarios must also be fully prepared.

Midway through, Ying Chanxi curiously slipped into the adjacent recording studio and, seeing a few staff members on break, humbly approached them to ask about livestream setup tips, picking up many small bits of knowledge for free.

Later, when transitioning the livestream setup at Chongran Culture, Ying Chanxi had clearer demands and direction.

After TikTok's team finished setting up, Yuan Wanqing and others entered the recording studio.

The recording studio was divided into two spaces, separated by a large glass panel.

The small room inside the glass was where the singer recorded, while the outside held monitoring equipment and the control console.

Along the wall was a sofa for resting, and Luo Fei's usual computer desk.

At this point, the control console and monitoring equipment had been moved to the side; the original position was now occupied by the wall-mounted sofa, angled backward, facing away from the glass.

Thus, when the livestream camera faced the sofa, it could also capture the small recording room behind the glass.

The staff responsible for livestream planning now stood before the camera, explaining the livestream concept and specific points to note to Yuan Wanqing and the others.

Li Luo and Yan Zhusheng, as participants who would enter midway, stood beside them listening.

This livestream was not only Yuan Wanqing's online debut, but also TikTok's first-ever activation of its livestream feature—its significance was immense, directly determining TikTok's subsequent strategic planning.

Not only did Miao Yifeng arrive on-site to guide, but behind the scenes, TikTok's lead, Zhang Nan, was monitoring the situation in real time from headquarters.

After hearing the briefing, and before dinner time arrived, they ran through the entire livestream process once more according to procedure.

Only after confirming everything was fine did they finally disband temporarily and were sent off to dinner.

"I had no idea setting up a livestream could be this complicated," Ying Chanxi murmured over dinner. "I thought it was simple before."

"It's mainly because the peak traffic might be extremely high," Miao Yifeng explained with a smile. "For regular livestreams, daily peaks might only reach thirty to fifty thousand—there'd be no need for such expensive and cumbersome equipment."

"TikTok is committed to the simplest possible operation—users should be able to complete videos and livestreams using only a single smartphone."

"Otherwise, if every livestream were this complicated, our whole project would lose its meaning."

Though it sounded slightly boastful, some of what Miao Yifeng said was indeed correct.

TikTok had now reached a bottleneck.

The roughly one hundred million users it had accumulated over the past year and a half, drawn solely by "trendy" and "cool" labels, were no longer enough to satisfy TikTok.

But to expand into broader territory, it could no longer remain confined to "trendy and cool"—it must move toward more everyday, down-to-earth content.

The target audience must gradually shift from merely attracting young urbanites to encompassing the broader general public.

This was why TikTok placed such high importance on Yuan Wanqing.

After all, with Yuan Wanqing's national recognition from appearing on the Spring Festival Gala twice in recent years, and the widespread popularity of songs like "Ru Yuan" and "Shi Mama Shi Nü'er," which appealed to all ages, she embodied precisely the traits TikTok needed at this stage.

Everything was just right.

…

After dinner, everyone returned to Yuan Wanqing's recording studio, about an hour before the 7 p. m. livestream start time.

At Yuan Wanqing's request, they ran through the livestream procedure one final time; after confirming everything was flawless, they waited quietly for the time to come.

Meanwhile, in Beijing's TikTok headquarters, Zhang Nan continued monitoring the promotional effectiveness across major internet platforms.

Watching the real-time data on the backend, Zhang Nan's face was tense, brows slightly furrowed, yet her lips curled slightly upward, immersed in the tense yet exhilarating atmosphere.

This livestream might become TikTok's turning point toward explosive growth.

Zhang Nan mentally reviewed all her planning before and after the livestream, wondering if anything had been overlooked.

Time quickly reached 7 p. m.

…

"Hurry up, hurry up! The livestream's started!"

In the dormitory building of Qianjiang University's Music College, Cheng Jinyan excitedly shouted to his two roommates, "I'm in—what about you?"

"I'm watching," Su Wei replied from her bed, headphones on. "Don't make noise—it sounds like she's about to sing."

Shen Zhaoyin sat silently at her desk, her phone displaying Yuan Wanqing's livestream.

The comments were already flooding the screen.

The screen was filled with comments reading "Sister Qing, good evening."

But Yuan Wanqing did not appear on the sofa as everyone expected, warmly greeting viewers—instead, she stood inside the recording room behind the glass.

At this moment, Yuan Wanqing wore headphones, smiling and waving at the camera.

After seeing the crew outside the livestream camera give her an OK sign, she slowly inhaled, listened to the music in her ears, followed the rhythm, and began to sing.

"It's 'Light Years Away.'"

Cheng Jinyan sighed. "The livestream's actually inside a recording studio."

【Starting with a big one?】

【Holy shit, she just jumped straight into singing?】

【Is this a livestream? Feels like she's giving a concert lol】

【I downloaded TikTok just for Sister Qing!】

【So good! So good!】

Yuan Wanqing's debut instantly stole the spotlight—within one minute of the livestream opening, over a hundred thousand viewers flooded in, and during her performance of "Light Years Away," the number climbed steadily to three hundred thousand.

Miao Yifeng, watching the rising data and Yuan Wanqing's flawless performance on the monitor, crossed his arms and nodded with a satisfied smile.

After finishing "Light Years Away," Yuan Wanqing closed her eyes, took a deep breath, then opened them, removed her headphones, and waved at the camera.

She then stepped out of the recording room, sat down on the sofa, and greeted the camera: "Good evening, everyone~ I'm Yuan Wanqing. I'm thrilled to be hosting my very first online livestream on TikTok and meeting you all."