Chapter 858

This year's annual meeting was unlike any other—it was the busiest one Li Luo had ever experienced.

Since his rebirth and the start of his writing career, spanning a total of three and a half years, this was Li Luo's fourth time attending the Wenxue Group annual meeting.

In the first year, he was still a fresh-faced newcomer author.

By the second year, he had successfully signed with a Grandmaster; by the third, he secured a Platinum contract—and now, here he was.

To say he was crowned a deity in his youth would be no exaggeration.

Yet Li Luo knew full well what kind of gifts he had received, so he never grew arrogant, merely continuing to diligently manage his life.

This trip was framed as a vacation, but in truth, it was primarily about work.

Even Ying Chanxi, who had always accompanied Lin Xiuhong and the others on trips, could not join the elders this time—she instead joined Li Luo's online novel endeavors.

In contrast, Xu Youyu had little to do, aside from appearing on stage during Saturday night's formal annual meeting to announce the Grandmasters and annual works.

Especially before confirming her Grandmaster contract, Xu Youyu had already signed an agreement with Chongran Culture.

Thus, her Grandmaster contract was actually signed by Chongran Culture on her behalf with Wenxue Group.

After finalizing the contract details, Xu Youyu happily traveled with Yan Zhusheng to entertain the elders.

Ying Chanxi stayed behind, bringing along a legal department employee from the company and Attorney Tian to assist Li Luo in negotiating future cooperation details with Wenxue Group and Tencent Video.

Li Luo was no longer merely an author.

With Chongran Culture behind him, he now had the clout and conditions to negotiate with these giants.

Wenxue Group, General Hou, and Tencent Video's General Liao had all privately researched Chongran Culture.

When they discovered Li Luo had also signed a入驻 contract with Douyin—and that Yuan Wanqing was involved—they realized how thorny this matter had become.

When signing his Platinum contract, Qidian had granted Li Luo certain freedoms.

For instance, Huayue Film and Television's current production of "The Beginning" had bypassed Wenxue Group entirely.

But for online novels already published on Qidian, like "The Grand Gendarmerie Night Patrol," Li Luo would entrust their operational rights to Wenxue Group.

However, he retained a veto right: if he disagreed, no rights to "The Grand Gendarmerie Night Patrol" could be sold.

But unlike ordinary Platinum authors, if Li Luo found a rights investor willing to pay more, Qidian could not block the sale.

In short, it was to prevent Qidian from forcing him to sell rights exclusively to Tencent.

After all, Tencent Video was not the only company capable of developing IP.

Of course, as a crucial part of Tencent's IP strategy, if the price was right, Li Luo had no reason to oppose them.

This clause was purely to safeguard his own interests.

For Wenxue Group, this was all acceptable—as long as Chongran signed the Platinum contract.

But for Tencent Video, it was slightly troublesome.

"When you had lunch with the chief editor yesterday, his meaning was pretty clear, wasn't it?" After Saturday night's annual meeting ended, Ying Chanxi, watching Li Luo return to the hotel room, pulled him aside to discuss what to watch for in tomorrow's meeting with General Liao and General Hou.

"Mm." Li Luo sat on the office chair at his desk, pulled Ying Chanxi onto his lap, and held her tightly, inhaling the faint fragrance clinging to her skin, "Tencent Video is determined to get 'The Grand Gendarmerie Night Patrol.'"

"If they let this top-tier IP slip away, let's not even talk about anything else—General Liao's seat might just get moved."

"It's not us who are in a hurry—it's them."

Ying Chanxi nodded gently against Li Luo's chest: "But your Platinum contract does include a clause granting Tencent priority rights under identical conditions."

"You said it yourself—under identical conditions." Li Luo chuckled, "Didn't our little General Ying specifically bring in Attorney Tian and arrange meetings with iQiyi and Youku? You've prepared thoroughly."

"Isn't that all for the sake of our company's growth?" Ying Chanxi huffed. "Even when buying clothes, you compare three stores. To make Tencent Video pay more, you need the other two to push."

"Our demands aren't complicated," Li Luo said with a smile. "Just three."

"Mm-hmm, I know," Ying Chanxi counted on her fingers. "First, Chongran Culture must secure a certain share of project investment, and then split a portion with Huayue Film and Television."

"Second, the rights sale must bundle 'I Am Really Not a Star' and 'Gu Dao Changqing' together."

"Third, during the adaptation, you must serve as head of the screenwriting team, and you must place Ruan Lin and Bai Lixuan into the production crew."

These three demands seemed few, but each one pushed the boundaries.

Yet for ordinary Platinum authors—even those at the pinnacle of the online novel world—compared to behemoths like Tencent Video, they were still ants trying to shake a tree, utterly insignificant.

They had no right to make demands at all.

Just being able to sell the rights was already a sign of respect.

Isn't getting paid enough?

Yet he wants investment shares and partial control over the project.

Even wants to bundle sales.

For an ordinary Platinum writer, such negotiation would be utterly impossible.

But Li Luo was different.

Though Chongran Culture was still a small fry compared to these giants,

because his Platinum contract had few restrictions, he could negotiate with Tencent Video—or with several other video platforms.

Even Douyin might be willing to wade into this mess.

And everyone knew that even without his online novels, Li Luo was an exceptional lyricist and composer.

He was the man who, through one hit song after another, had propelled Yuan Wanqing back to her current status.

Even if his online novel path were blocked, after climbing onto Douyin's leg, he still had countless other ways forward.

He even had channels beyond Tencent's control, capable of blowing this whole thing wide open.

Unable to silence him, General Hou and General Liao naturally preferred to sit down calmly and negotiate.

Time quickly arrived at Sunday.

After negotiations, Li Luo and Ying Chanxi were reasonably satisfied.

Tencent Video readily agreed to Li Luo serving as head of the screenwriting team for the adaptation.

On one hand, film and television adaptations carry inherent risks—no matter how successful the original novel, there's no guarantee the drama will perform well.

In the end, it all comes down to the team's skill in adaptation.

If the original author is willing themselves, that would naturally be best.

But different fields are like mountains apart; most online novel authors, though highly skilled at writing online novels, are未必 very proficient in screenwriting.

In the industry, authors who can handle both roles are exceedingly rare.

But Li Luo already had the case of "Little Joys" behind him, and recently又有 a new drama, "The Beginning," currently in production—he clearly possesses considerable talent in this area.

That's why Tencent Video agreed so readily.

A free quality guarantee—who wouldn't want that?

As for inserting people into the production team, that's even simpler.

However, Tencent Video also made a request: the lead roles are non-negotiable, but other male and female supporting roles can be arranged by Li Luo.

This was exactly what Li Luo expected, so he agreed readily.

As for bundled rights sales, after negotiations, Tencent Video made some concessions, but also set certain requirements.

For example, if "I Am Really Not a Star" is to be adapted into film or television, the screenplay must be written personally by Li Luo.

Especially any works already existing in reality mentioned in the book must be deleted, leaving only Li Luo's own original creations.

For Li Luo, this is a bit troublesome, but not difficult.

After all, entertainment novels follow repetitive templates; if adapted into a TV series, the content must be rewritten entirely, otherwise it can't be filmed.

So this requirement is entirely reasonable.

As for "Gu Dao Changqing," its average subscription of over twenty thousand speaks for itself—it was the kind of rights that would have been fiercely contested by investors years ago.

Unfortunately, in recent years the rights fever has passed its peak, everyone has cooled down a bit, and it's become harder to sell.

Especially since "Gu Dao Changqing" is a modern-setting spiritual revival story, involving many elements, making filming extremely complicated.

So Tencent Video's stance is somewhat ambiguous, saying only that they might consider it, without making a firm decision.

Besides this, Tencent Video's Vice President Liao also looked troubled by the requirement that Chongran Culture must hold a certain investment share.

This is clearly not something he can decide alone.

It's not even something Tencent Video alone can decide—there are many stakeholders behind the scenes, so they can't just agree on the spot.

Thus, after Sunday's negotiations ended, both sides reached a preliminary understanding.

They must continue communicating and exchanging views until they reach an agreement—or break off entirely.

Reaching this level on the first try was already beyond Li Luo and the others' expectations—a good start.

The rest will require slow, steady grinding.

But this has little to do with Li Luo; the specific matters will be handled by Ying Chanxi.

After this period of professional training, Ying Chanxi has gradually grown, able to stand on her own for Li Luo and shoulder many of his burdens.

"Finally done." Ying Chanxi followed Li Luo out of the hotel conference room, parted from Lawyer Tian and the company's legal team, then willingly linked arms with him as they returned to their room.

"Go out and have fun with your parents tonight," Li Luo said. "Relax—you've worked hard these past two days."

"You know how hard I've worked, yet you won't reward me?" Ying Chanxi glanced at him.

"Didn't I just tell you to go out with your parents?"

"Is that a reward?" Ying Chanxi huffed. "No way. Not even close."

"Then what do you want?" Li Luo chuckled mischievously, scooping her up and carrying her toward the bathroom. "I get it—you want this kind of reward."

"Ah!" The sudden lift and loss of weight made Ying Chanxi instinctively cry out, then she clutched Li Luo tightly. "W-what are you doing?"

"Didn't I say I'd reward you?"

"Th-this…" Ying Chanxi watched helplessly as Li Luo carried her into the bathroom—still fully dressed—then turned on the shower, drenching them both. "Who said this was the reward…"

"Don't you want it?"

"Mmm…" Ying Chanxi fell silent, clearly accepting this form of reward.

…

More than half an hour later, utterly limp, Ying Chanxi lay in Li Luo's arms, resting against his shoulder and whispering, "Lin Yi sent the dinner location in the group—will you come too?"

"I won't go," Li Luo kissed her soft cheek, then added, "You all have fun. I need to join Youyu and the editor-in-chief and chief editor for dinner."

"Is there something else you need to handle?" Ying Chanxi asked, puzzled.

"Yeah, not related to rights," Li Luo chuckled. "'The Great Patrol of Gan' has reached one hundred thousand average subscriptions. Qidian has already prepared promotional posters and needs a commemorative campaign—I need to cooperate."

"Also, I've sent the opening chapters and outline of my new book to the editor-in-chief and others—we need to discuss it properly tonight."

"Also to plan the launch strategy for the new book."

"Oh." Ying Chanxi nodded obediently, quiet for a moment in Li Luo's arms, then added, "Feels like everything's been so rushed—we haven't had a proper trip together."

"Really? Didn't we just have a proper time together?" Li Luo teased with a mischievous grin.

Hearing this, Ying Chanxi's cheeks flushed slightly as she muttered, "That doesn't count! And this kind of thing… we could do it at home. I meant traveling."

"We're only busy for this short while," Li Luo hugged her, patting her shoulder. "I promise you—we'll only be busy for these four years of college."

"After graduation, we'll rent a Motorhome, the four of us, and road-trip across the whole country."

"What do you think?"

Hearing this, Ying Chanxi immediately pictured the scene in her mind, her heart swelling with longing.

"You'd better not be lying."

"Do you think I'd lie to you?" Li Luo chuckled. "When I marry you, we'll drive the Motorhome on our honeymoon."

"Hmph~" Ying Chanxi wrinkled her nose at the mention of Zhusheng and the senior. "You're dreaming. Dream yourself to death."

"I can't die yet—I haven't enjoyed enough," Li Luo said, then rolled over and pinned her beneath him again.

"Mmm… I still have to go to dinner…"

"Have some dessert first to fill your stomach, sweetheart."

"Wuwu... you're so mean..."