Chapter 802: Xu Youyu

After the cooperation agreement for TikTok was finalized, Li Luo's life returned to its daily rhythm, and his time at school gradually flowed toward the end of the semester.

As the calendar entered December of this year, Ying Chanxi completed the company's initial recruitment.

After deciding to outsource the legal department's workload to Lawyer Tian's law firm, she saved considerable budget on hiring staff.

In the end, she hired fewer than ten people; after the daily office area was renovated, these employees worked inside, and the space still felt spacious.

Among them, the Business Department, responsible for advertising resources and operations, was the department that hired the most people.

After all, the company had only a few artists, and their business wasn't busy at all—Xiao Wen could handle it all alone, even with some spare time.

So after entrusting all artist-related work to Xiao Wen, Ying Chanxi led the Business Department staff to begin advertising coordination efforts.

Not only did she leverage the network resources provided by Yuan Wanqing Studio and Huayue Film and Television, but she also required employees to proactively contact various physical enterprises to explore collaboration possibilities and actively expand business.

Given Yan Zhusheng and Li Luo's current popularity on TikTok, securing advertisements was still quite easy.

But Ying Chanxi didn't get greedy—she only tried one advertising collaboration, having Yan Zhusheng and Li Luo film a video with a subtle product placement, marking the company's first legitimate advertising income.

From this moment on, Chongran Culture truly began walking the path of development and became a proper company.

Before this, it was less a company and more Li Luo's personal studio disguised as one.

Ying Chanxi had been in high spirits these past few days.

Successfully closing her first advertising deal proved the company had acquired sustainable profitability beyond relying solely on Li Luo's works or TikTok onboarding as one-time transactions.

And getting the company to operate normally also proved Ying Chanxi's efforts had not been in vain.

Especially after receiving praise from Li Luo, Ying Chanxi's tail was so happily raised it seemed ready to touch the sky.

"I also secured two ads for Yinghuan and Rongjun," Ying Chanxi said cheerfully while eating lunch beside Li Luo in the cafeteria. "Though the amounts are far less than yours, they're still decent—combined, they're tens of thousands."

"That much?"

"Yes." Ying Chanxi nodded vigorously. "You haven't been paying attention to their account these past few days, have you?"

"Since Yinghuan posted the collaboration video with you guys, their follower count skyrocketed—they now have over five hundred thousand followers."

"So the advertising rates have increased manyfold. If managed well, their income from just this account alone won't be small."

Li Luo, upon hearing this, was somewhat surprised—he hadn't expected Yinghuan and Zhao Rongjun's couple account to gain so many followers.

Previously, they had only tens of thousands of followers; after this collaboration, they'd jumped to five hundred thousand.

In today's TikTok landscape, while not top-tier, they were solidly in the mid-tier.

Especially within the couple niche, they could be considered near-top-tier influencers.

But after scrolling through the two collaboration videos on his phone and thinking for a moment, Li Luo understood why.

Before Li Luo and the others joined TikTok, TikTok had arranged for a group of influencers eager for internal promotion to film collaboration videos with them.

Among them, Yinghuan and Zhao Rongjun were last-minute additions arranged by Ying Chanxi.

Among all the collaborating influencers, their couple account was likely one of the biggest beneficiaries of this collaboration plan.

On one hand, Yuan Wanqing's traffic was genuinely massive, and TikTok had provided enormous internal promotion.

On the other hand, it was also due to Yinghuan and Zhao Rongjun's genuine relationship with Li Luo and the others.

Other influencers who collaborated were merely acquaintances of Li Luo's.

But Yinghuan and Zhao Rongjun were actual high school classmates of Li Luo and Yan Zhusheng.

They were both currently studying at Qianjiang University.

This led to an exceptionally high conversion rate among Li Luo's fans toward Yinghuan and Zhao Rongjun's couple account.

It was an unexpected bonus from this TikTok collaboration campaign.

Especially before securing ads for them, Ying Chanxi had already established Chongran Culture's staff structure and signed an agency contract with them.

So in this advertising revenue of tens of thousands, Chongran Culture would receive a ten percent share.

Though only a few thousand yuan, it was still mutual contribution.

Li Luo was perfectly pleased with this.

Back when Qiao Xinyan and Yinghuan both had feelings for Zhao Rongjun, Li Luo had actually favored Qiao Xinyan.

Both girls were wonderful, but for Zhao Rongjun, Qiao Xinyan was the more socially matched partner.

The pressure from her family would be much smaller.

Unfortunately, compared to Qiao Xinyan, Yinghuan was more proactive.

After his good friend ended up with Yinghuan, he clearly recognized this issue and became even more determined.

Not only did he earn admission to Zhu Institute through his own merit, but with Li Luo's help, he secured a software development project from Qianjiang University's Information Office and assembled a team.

Now, with his TikTok account, Yinghuan was already generating substantial income for them both.

Although Yinghuan never lacked pocket money—adding or subtracting tens of thousands made no real difference to her.

But for their future, it was a tremendous advantage.

After all, Yinghuan didn't lack money, but that was all support from her family.

Put plainly, if she were to completely leave her parents, Yinghuan would just be an ordinary college student.

But now, with her own income source, even if her parents later objected, she could rely on this income to find the courage and confidence to stand beside Zhao Rongjun.

That was the true significance.

Thinking of this, Li Luo felt slightly relieved, gaining more confidence in his good friend's future happiness.

Recalling how, in his past life, this guy had to borrow money from him even when arguing with his wife, Li Luo felt a pang of emotion.

"By the way, has 'The Beginning' started filming?" Ying Chanxi asked after finishing talk about the company, turning to Li Luo. "Xiao Wen seems to have picked up Ruan Lin at the airport over the weekend."

"Yeah." Li Luo nodded. "It just started filming a few days ago."

"How long will filming take?"

"Should be pretty fast," Li Luo mused, stroking his chin. "Ruan Lin has school, so the crew gave her a long leave for now."

"We'll concentrate on shooting the core plotlines around the female lead within about a month."

After that, she'll have to fly back to Jingzhao City to prepare for her final exams at school.

"The production team will keep shooting other scenes and plotlines, and should wrap up before the New Year." "Oh, by the way," Li Luo paused here, turning to Ying Chanxi to remind her, "Ruan Lin is here right now, and she needs to cooperate with TikTok's campaign by filming a video linking the cast of 'Little Joy.'"

"Have Xiao Wen coordinate the timing with the production team so there are no conflicts."

"If there are any suitable short video ads, you can let her take one or two, but not too many—just test the waters."

"Mm-hmm." Ying Chanxi nodded vigorously, indicating it was no problem.

Then Li Luo asked, "How's the renovation of the company's livestream studio going?"

"It should be finished next week," Ying Chanxi said cheerfully. "Last time I added the TikTok staff's WeChat and specifically asked them about livestream equipment—I ordered a full set."

"When Zhu Sheng needs to livestream on weekends, she can start from next week."

"By the way, hasn't her follower count already surpassed yours? You really need to fulfill your promise to your fans now."

"Mm." Li Luo chuckled and nodded. "But I'm not talking about Zhu Sheng—I'm talking about Ruan Lin. When the 'Little Joy' cast crossover happens, she can host a livestream."

"Has TikTok's livestream feature been activated yet? I haven't paid much attention lately."

"If it hasn't, go and apply for it."

"It's already activated," Ying Chanxi nodded. "But only partially—apparently you need a certain number of followers. But for you two, that's no issue at all."

"Mm." Li Luo nodded in understanding, then asked, "How did the cooperation with Miao Yifeng turn out?"

"We negotiated for over a week," Ying Chanxi said. "The song 'Fighting to Live' went smoothly—we signed the contract on the first day."

"After that, he became interested in your other new songs, and the final agreement was that you could upload them first on TikTok."

"But TikTok must also help promote the TV drama, and the release schedule must follow your requirements."

"But after that, Miao Yifeng wanted to secure the copyright for all your future new songs, so we haggled for a long time."

"In the end, we only secured usage rights for them."

"Going forward, whenever any TikTok user uses your songs as BGM, TikTok will settle royalty payments to you quarterly."

"That's good." Li Luo nodded in satisfaction, raising his hand to pat Ying Chanxi's head. "Our Xixi is getting more capable by the day."

"Hmph~" Ying Chanxi let out a soft purr, nuzzling her cheek against Li Luo's palm, her chin lifting in delight.

They ate while chatting about recent developments; by the time they finished talking, lunch was nearly done.

Ying Chanxi had no classes in the afternoon, so she planned to visit the company.

Li Luo had nothing else to do, so he simply accompanied her, touring the company and checking on Zhao Rongjun's team's progress.

Their software framework was nearly complete; they had already submitted their application to the Dandelion Startup Competition and successfully advanced to the second round.

Li Luo didn't understand software code or how it operated—he could only listen as they explained.

"It should be finished in about half a month," Zhao Rongjun told Li Luo. "But after completion, we still need to hand it over to the IT office teacher."

"Then we'll try connecting to the school's system data for a pre-run test, to see how well it performs and how accurate it is."

"If there are any bugs along the way, we'll have to fix them."

After learning about the progress, Li Luo nodded in satisfaction and patted Zhao Rongjun on the shoulder—he felt completely at ease.

After finishing business talk, he pulled Zhao Rongjun to the window and grinned. "Huanhuan's account is doing great—if you take one or two ads per month, your monthly income can stay at tens of thousands."

"If you two focus entirely on this, you'll never have to worry about food or shelter."

"Put in the effort, save up for a few years, and dealing with your future father-in-law won't be a problem."

As he spoke, Li Luo winked at him and elbowed him a few times.

"This is all thanks to you," Zhao Rongjun said, scratching his head shyly. "The sudden surge in followers is thanks entirely to our collaboration with you two—otherwise it wouldn't have grown so fast."

"But I still feel this isn't sustainable, so I'll definitely keep focusing on my studies."

"Including this software project—I have to do it well."

Hearing this, Li Luo relaxed.

After all, a regular college student suddenly earning tens of thousands a month made Li Luo worry he might get arrogant.

Now it seemed he'd overthought it.

So they toured the company once more, checking the livestream studio's renovation, and then Li Luo took his leave, heading home.

Coincidentally, Xu Youyu was also at home writing. Li Luo walked into her bedroom and hugged her from behind.

"Ah~ Don't bother me now, I'm writing."

"I see your hands aren't moving on the keyboard at all—how are you writing?"

"I'm stuck," Xu Youyu said with a pout. "The later chapters are harder to write—there are too many plot threads to tie up, and I can't handle them all."

"Let me help you organize them?"

"How do you organize?" Xu Youyu felt the warmth of his hands and let out a soft hum. "You're helping me like this?"

"We can organize first, then organize again," Li Luo chuckled. "Sitting too long harms the body—I'll take you for some exercise first."

"What kind of roleplay this time?" Xu Youyu, now intrigued, tossed aside her writing and grinned.

"How about the famous female author and her devoted reader-fan?" Li Luo leaned close to her ear, breathing warm air. "Dear Zao Shui, I've admired you for so long—I never imagined you'd be this beautiful in person."

"Really? Which of my books have you read?"

"I've read every single one of your books—I remember every scene clearly."

"Really?" Xu Youyu gave him a skeptical look. "Then I'll test you—if you get it wrong, you'll be punished."

"And if I get it right?"

"Then I'll reward you."

"What kind of reward?"

"I haven't decided yet," Xu Youyu blinked, thinking. "Why don't you suggest one?"

"Then I won't be polite."