Chapter 850

After Li Luo's birthday week passed, the four of them returned to their daily routines.

Aside from moving from Bihai Lanting to Sky Ridge Elegant Residence, there was no major change.

Every morning they went for their usual run, ate breakfast, then headed to school for class.

After class, Ying Chanxi immediately went to the company to handle daily affairs; she had resigned from her position in the Student Union secretariat and devoted herself entirely to building Chongran Culture.

With Ying Chanxi's help, Li Luo was now essentially a figurehead, only stepping in to think when important decisions were needed.

In his spare time, he either attended class or wrote at home at night, besides working out and spending time with the three girls, enjoying life.

In this regard, Xu Youyu and Yan Zhusheng were also relatively relaxed, at least not as busy as Ying Chanxi.

Xu Youyu's schedule was quite free outside her necessary nightly writing work.

But with finals approaching, she still had a few morning runs to complete, so she had to wake up early on school days and join them, each run leaving her as if she'd lost half her life.

Yan Zhusheng's school was on the other side of the river, a bit farther away.

Sometimes after evening classes, he simply stayed overnight at the dorm with his roommate instead of going home.

In terms of accommodation, the four didn't need to return home every single day.

Not just Yan Zhusheng—even if Ying Chanxi had dinner plans with Qiao Xinyan, she might go back to the dorm with her afterward.

Xu Youyu was even lazier; after afternoon classes, she'd return to the dorm with her roommate, lie down, and simply refuse to go home.

So whether Li Luo returned home to sleep depended entirely on whether any of the girls were waiting for him in bed.

If Ying Chanxi and the other three were all staying in the dorm, sleeping alone in such a large villa held no appeal.

It was better to return to the dorm and chat and joke around with his buddies.

That Wednesday, Ying Chanxi and the others were sleeping in the dorm, so Li Luo returned to Qingxi Dormitory.

Cheng Xin, who was editing a video at his desk, looked up in surprise when he saw Li Luo enter: "Luo Ge, why are you back in the dorm?"

"My bed is right here—where else would I go?" Li Luo said with a look of utter normalcy, walked to his desk, and sat down to open his laptop.

"Clearly, he's asking why you, with three girlfriends to keep company, have time to sleep in the dorm," Bai Haoran said, adjusting his glasses and glancing at the dorm's life winner.

Li Luo coughed, avoided the remark, and asked: "Where's Wen Zexuan? Why isn't he in the dorm?"

"Him?" Cheng Xin chuckled helplessly. "He's out filming a video."

"With who?" Li Luo raised an eyebrow. "Jiang Lai?"

"Yeah, who else?" Cheng Xin nodded, then scratched his head. "Honestly, I'm starting to get confused about their relationship—is this dating or just pure partnership?"

"This doesn't look like normal dating at all," Bai Haoran couldn't help but smirk. "They film scripted short videos where they pretend not to know each other, and Wen Zexuan uses all sorts of tactics to flirt."

"I don't get who even watches this—it's obviously fake."

"But his data's actually pretty good—he's got over two hundred thousand followers."

"It's not just him," Cheng Xin immediately added. "He's also using his own account to drive traffic to Jiang Lai's beauty blogger account—now her account has thirty to forty thousand followers."

"Supposedly Jiang Lai has landed several ads for cosmetics and skincare products, and her ad fees are higher than Wen's twenty-plus-thousand-follower rate."

"But Wen still gets a cut from Jiang Lai's ad revenue—this partnership model seems pretty solid."

Hearing this, Li Luo finally understood.

Looks like Wen Zexuan actually pulled it off?

To be fair, their current relationship does seem well-suited.

They used to be boyfriend and girlfriend, broke up, know each other well, can jump straight into script mode, and likely won't develop real feelings.

Of course, you can never be sure.

But Li Luo could tell neither Wen Zexuan nor Jiang Lai were the type to believe in love—they cared more about their careers.

In this regard, Cheng Xin was clearly more innocent.

As for what sparks might fly between Wen Zexuan and Jiang Lai, it was none of Li Luo's concern.

"So how are you doing?" Li Luo asked Cheng Xin. "Is it going smoothly?"

"Hehe." At this, Cheng Xin gave a smile that was both proud and slightly humble, scratching his head. "It's okay, I guess… at least I'm pretty satisfied."

"Tell me specifics," Li Luo said. He hadn't paid much attention lately and didn't know how Cheng Xin and Wen Zexuan were progressing.

He'd previously had Ying Chanxi draft contracts to sign them both to the company, and they occasionally helped provide advertising resources.

But so far, their earnings were trivial for the company, so Ying Chanxi hadn't mentioned them to him.

"I now have over a hundred thousand followers on Bilibili," Cheng Xin told Li Luo. "I update about one or two videos a week, each around ten to twenty minutes long—roughly six videos a month."

"Last week we landed our first ad—for an electric toothbrush—and made over five thousand yuan."

"After splitting with Hao Ge, I got over two thousand yuan each—more than my monthly living allowance."

"But the audience here really hates ads—our sponsored video got absolutely roasted."

"I don't even know if I should keep taking ads anymore."

As he spoke, Cheng Xin scratched his head in frustration—he'd clearly been anxious and worried about this lately.

Li Luo had naturally anticipated this.

In fact, Bilibili is still burning cash at this stage, touting its "free, no-ad" image.

Next year, it will even launch a content incentive program: if your video performs well, you get direct cash rewards based on data, no ads needed to support a whole cohort of UPs.

Cheng Xin is catching a good wave—he can at least ride this boom.

Once his account is established and backed by Chongran Culture with future advertising resources, his potential is limitless.

"Don't rush," Li Luo patted his shoulder. "Bilibili's ecosystem is different from Douyin—don't worry about ads yet."

Li Luo explained Bilibili's plans for next year, telling him to relax, then asked: "You just said you split money with Hao Ge?"

"Yeah," Cheng Xin nodded. "When I did videos alone, I had to research, write scripts, record, voice-over, edit—it was a nightmare."

"I didn't want to make sloppy stuff, so I could only produce one or two videos a month."

"Then Hao Ge started helping me research, and he thought my voice sounded shaky and weak during recording, so he just took over the recording."

"Now we've split the work: he handles the research, I write the scripts; he records, and I edit."

"Hehe, this way our efficiency has doubled or even tripled, and the work's much lighter too."

Hearing this, Li Luo glanced at Bai Haoran, saw him nod calmly, and smiled knowingly—he thought this wasn't bad at all.

But he still teased, "Didn't Big Brother Hao say earlier he was going to take the civil service exam? Changed your mind?"

"Cough… cough…" Bai Haoran coughed at Li Luo's teasing, then immediately defended himself, "All his videos are about politics and history—they actually help me prepare for the civil service exam."

"Besides, self-media is too unstable. I'll definitely still take the civil service exam in the future."

"But during university, it's a good transitional phase. If I can earn extra income, it'll help ease the burden on my family."

Bai Haoran spoke with righteous solemnity.

But beside him, Cheng Xin quietly told Li Luo, "Last time, he spent all that two-thousand-plus yuan on gifts for his sister."

It was meant as a whisper, but Bai Haoran heard every word clearly.

When Li Luo looked over with a knowing, amused gaze, Bai Haoran—who was usually so calm—uncharacteristically flushed red with anger and snapped: