Rekindling the Youthful Era

Chapter 759 features Sister Yu; let's at least keep it going for three more chapters, right?
On Tuesday, the third audition for "Beginning" concluded.

Li Luo stayed in the conference room and did the final selection with director Wang Jun, finalizing the candidates for the final auditions at the end of the month.

Among them, Liu Yundan, who auditioned for the role of Tao Yinghong in the drama, has already been pre-selected on Li Luo and Wang Jun's list, so she only needs to go through the motions.

For other roles, the selection process involves choosing from two or three actors who seem promising.

Then a more comprehensive audition will be necessary, including makeup and styling to match the character in the play beforehand, followed by an acting demonstration to see how well the actor fits the character.

Sometimes, when you can't judge an actor's skill level just by their acting, you have to start by looking at their makeup, demeanor, and overall image.

Perhaps it's just a glance, the outline of a profile, or a frown on the forehead; these could all become the final deciding factors.

To be honest, it all comes down to gut feeling.

The soul of a character may lie hidden within this.

In this regard, Li Luo and Wang Jun definitely have the final say.

One of them is a screenwriter, and the other is a director.

Logically speaking, domestic screenwriters don't have that much power, but Li Luo is an investor nonetheless.

Moreover, given the talent he has displayed over the years, no one dares to underestimate Li Luo just because of his age.

Wang Jun followed Li Luo's lead in this regard, showing absolutely no airs of a big director.

"Ok?"

After finishing up the audition stuff at Yuan Wanqing's studio, Li Luo came over and found Ying Chanxi, who was still busy, and patted her on the shoulder.

Ying Chanxi turned her head and saw him, then smiled and asked, "Finished with work? Going back now?"

"Well, how are things on your end?"

"I'm fine here. The next round of negotiations won't be until Friday." Ying Chanxi leaned back in her chair, stretched, and then stood up. "We've almost finished negotiating. By the next round, or the one after that at the latest, we should be able to finalize all the details of the contract."

"What was the final verdict?" Li Luo asked.

"Hehe, I feel like their big company really does have money." Ying Chanxi laughed happily. "Originally, according to the three initial options, Douyin should have been able to secure Aunt Yuan's full agency agreement for at least 2500 million."

“But now, if we finally agree to bundle Zhusheng and you together, then the portion paid to Aunt Yuan separately can be negotiated to be 2300 million.”

"But if there's no binding agreement in the end, then it will only be 2000 million."

"But this is still much higher than the initial second option of 1500 million."

Li Luo was also taken aback upon hearing this, thinking to himself that Douyin was indeed spending lavishly, sparing no expense for future promotion.

After all, given Yuan Wanqing's current influence, once she joins Douyin, the effect will be more useful than if they found ten celebrities of a lower tier.

But a star of Yuan Wanqing's caliber wouldn't easily agree to sign with Douyin.

Even though TikTok has begun to show its potential, most people are still unwilling to place a bet directly.

This thing is so trendy that many people, being conservative, prefer to wait and see.

But the more this is the case, the more benefits the first person to try something new will reap.

In a few years, the Chinese entertainment industry, which should have been a star-making machine, will gradually lose its ability to keep up.

What's the point of just trending on Weibo?
A young, promising star who has been painstakingly promoted may not be as well-known as a Douyin (TikTok) influencer.

If Yuan Wanqing wants to continue leading the trend in the next era, she must first stand at the next forefront.

With Li Luo around, none of this is a problem.

"What about our price?" Li Luo asked curiously.

He was mainly curious whether his net worth had increased on Douyin (TikTok).

The result was pleasing, but only half the story.

Douyin agreed to raise the price to three million to secure a contract for Reignit to join the platform.

However, Yan Zhusheng's price was also raised to four million by Douyin, which is still one million higher than Li Luo's price.

Seeing his click of the tongue, Ying Chanxi laughed and said, "Actually, there's some good news for you too."

"Although your signing fee is only three million, Douyin said they can offer six hundred thousand for your new song called 'Misplaced Time and Space' to cover the song's premiere rights, subsequent user cover rights, and related copyright fees for the background music."

"If you calculate it this way, you actually only have 400,000 less than Zhusheng."

"Thank you so much," Li Luo said with a forced smile. "You really know how to comfort people."

After complaining for a while, Li Luo pondered for a bit, then said to Ying Chanxi, "Since Douyin wants us to join Douyin together, why don't we join even more?"

"what do you mean?"

"Ruan Lin," Li Luo chuckled, "you've already signed with our company, we can't just leave you sitting there doing nothing, can we?"

"In the next negotiation, we'll tell Douyin that we'd like to bring in another actor and see if they're willing to pay an extra signing fee."

"Taking advantage of the popularity of 'A Little Reunion' and the fact that Ruan Lin has some fame, she can ride this wave."

Incidentally, this will also reignite their cultural revenue streams.

Anyway, Douyin is like a leech that doesn't itch anymore. As long as a well-known person is willing to join Douyin and bring traffic and popularity, they will accept anyone.

Ultimately, it all comes down to price.

Ruan Lin's asking price won't be very high; it might only cost a few hundred thousand.

But if she were in this time of year, her fame would be undeniable.

If the contract details specifically stipulate that Ruan Lin should dress up like the character in "A Little Reunion" and release a few videos, it could generate a very good topic.

Ying Chanxi thought about it briefly and felt that there was potential in this matter. So she immediately made a note in her work notebook, planning to discuss it with Attorney Tian when she had time in the next day or two, and also ask Xiaowen to inform Ruan Lin.

"Let's go, let's go home~" After Ying Chanxi finished, she got up and followed Li Luo out of Yuan Wanqing's studio, downstairs to the underground parking lot, and got into her Audi A8.

Li Luo sat in the passenger seat next to Ying Chanxi, and Ying Chanxi immediately leaned over to help him fasten his seatbelt, and even leaned in to give him a kiss.

Watching her return to the driver's seat with a satisfied expression, Li Luo couldn't help but chuckle and said, "It feels like our roles have been reversed. Shouldn't I be the one doing this in the driver's seat?"

"What can I do?" Ying Chanxi grumbled. "Someone bought me a car, but then when we go out together, they're too lazy to drive. What can I do? Maybe you can take over driving?"

"Never mind then, you drive." Li Luo reclined the seat back and lay down comfortably, letting out a contented sigh. "Xiao Ying, let's go."

"Hmph, who are you calling Xiao Ying?" Ying Chanxi rolled her eyes at him, but still obediently started the car and drove Li Luo towards Qianjiang University.

...On Tuesday night, Niu Qingling dragged me to band practice again, and on Wednesday, Ying Chanxi dragged me to that elective astronomy class.

Ying Chanxi said that he had communicated the details with Attorney Tian and also informed Ruan Lin. As soon as Lü Yilan heard the price Ying Chanxi had prepared, she immediately nodded in agreement, saying that there was absolutely no problem with joining Douyin.

Anyway, it's just shooting short videos occasionally, which doesn't take up much time and doesn't affect Ruan Lin's studies or filming.

It might even help generate buzz for the new play "The Beginning" in advance, serving as a form of publicity.

Thursday arrived uneventfully, and it was another elective online literature class.

This time, when Li Luo walked into the classroom again, he could feel that everyone in the classroom was looking at him.

Li Luo coughed, trying to keep his expression calm, and followed Xu Youyu to sit in their reserved corner seat.

At this moment, before class started, several readers who had been following "The Great Qian Night Patrol Division" gathered around and greeted Li Luo with smiles.

One of them even pulled out a newly bought kitchen knife, laughed, and handed it to Li Luo on the table.

"Hey, can you hold this cleaver so I can take a picture of you?" the boy who handed over the cleaver said with a grin. "I promised the readers in the book club that I would definitely deliver this cleaver. They don't believe I was in the same class as you."

Li Luo looked helpless and raised the kitchen knife so that his beloved fan could take a picture as proof.

Fortunately, the school bell rang, and Li Luo was spared further torment.

After everyone returned to their seats, Li Luo, holding the unopened kitchen knife in his hand, couldn't help but twitch at the corner of his mouth: "I never thought that the first time I'd ever received a knife in my life would be in a university classroom."

Xu Youyu, who was standing to the side, couldn't hold back her laughter any longer. She was huffing and puffing, her shoulders shaking. If she had let go of his hand, she probably would have burst out laughing long ago.

"Aren't you laughing a little too happily?" Li Luo reached under the table and slapped her thigh a few times in an annoyed tone. "Don't force me to fight you to the death. Today it's my turn to give a speech on stage."

Upon hearing Li Luo's words, Xu Youyu was immediately startled and quickly grabbed Li Luo's arm, begging for mercy, "No, no, no! Please have mercy, be magnanimous and let me go!"

“But your performance just now disappointed me a lot.” Li Luo sighed deeply. “I feel like my heart is broken, and I’m deeply hurt.”

"No, no, how could that be? You're perfectly fine." Xu Youyu patted Li Luo's chest and comforted her repeatedly, "I was wrong, okay? You can explain later, but don't bring up those irrelevant things."

"Those chapters I highlighted in red in the car last time, it seems we haven't tried them yet, you see..."

"Alright, I'll grant your wish when I go to do my running practice tonight." Xu Youyu grumbled, then reluctantly agreed, "Is that alright now?"

"Shouldn't you at least last three chapters?"

"Who are you looking down on?"

"Then it's a deal." Li Luo said with a smile, then stood up at Si Huanian's call from the podium and walked towards the podium.

"Because it's a rare opportunity for our teacher Chongran to give a presentation this time," Si Huanian said with a smile as he made way for others. "So I pushed all the other students to the back and left the extra time for our teacher Chongran to speak freely, for as long as he wants."

"Ahem... Teacher Si, please don't do that." Li Luo said helplessly, "Could you please stop calling me teacher? I can't accept that title."

Si Huanian smiled slyly, not minding lowering his stance.

As Xu Rongsheng's disciple, Si Huanian was well aware of Chong Ran's status with Xu Rongsheng.

It's said that Chongran has a very good personal relationship with her teacher. Although the specific reasons are unclear, it's certainly not a bad thing to curry favor with him.

Li Luo didn't waste any more time. After going on stage, he opened the PPT he had prepared, which prominently displayed the four characters "Gu Dao Chang Qing".

"The book I'm going to talk about today is a representative work in the recently popular Reiki revival genre—Gu Dao Chang Qing."

"I have quite a connection with this author."

As he said this, Li Luo glanced at Xu Youyu in the audience.

Xu Youyu noticed the guy's gaze and immediately glared back, telling him to keep his promise.

Li Luo chuckled and continued, "This author was a newcomer at the same time as me, and we published our new books together three years ago."

"I also highly recommend her previous book, 'The Literary Era,' but today I'll mainly talk about this book, 'Gu Dao Chang Qing.'"

Xu Youyu, sitting in the audience, breathed a sigh of relief when he finally got to the point.

Meanwhile, Jiang Feiya, after listening to Li Luo's explanation, had a strange expression on her face. She glanced at her roommate discreetly, then chuckled.

Li Luo was oblivious to Jiang Feiya's strange gaze. He was completely focused on recommending the book "Gu Dao Chang Qing" to everyone.

After briefly explaining the meaning of the spiritual energy revival, he then recounted the general plot of "Gu Dao Chang Qing" and provided a thorough and insightful analysis.

"The deduction from modern society to the cultivation society is a major highlight of this book."

"This is unlike some other novels that follow the trend of spiritual energy revival, where the author always cuts corners on this aspect."

"The author of this book has truly put in a lot of effort, describing in great detail the changes in government organization caused by this cultivation power, the relationship between cultivators and officials, the changes in the overall production of social materials, and even the changes in the mentality of ordinary people."

"You can truly feel that if one day the spiritual energy in the real world really does revive, then the changes and development of society will seem to be just like what she wrote."

Li Luo spoke in great detail, praising Xu Youyu so much that he felt like he was floating on air, extremely comfortable—it was like a complete mental massage.

Li Luo spoke for more than twenty minutes straight on the podium before he finished explaining all the merits of the book "Gu Dao Chang Qing".

After finishing her presentation, Li Luo stepped down from the stage, handed the stage back to Si Huanian, and sat back down next to Xu Youyu. She whispered in her ear, "How was my presentation? Are you satisfied, Sister Youyu?"

"It's...it's alright," Xu Youyu said, though his words didn't reflect his true feelings.

"I saw you were listening very attentively just now, I thought you would be very happy," Li Luo said with a smile.

"Hmph, you wait and see." Xu Youyu became arrogant again after seeing that he had finished his presentation. "Next month it will be my turn to present your book."

"Wow, I'm so scared!" Li Luo pretended for a moment, then chuckled, "The whole class knows who I am now, do you think I'd still be scared?"

"Tsk." Xu Youyu couldn't help but click his tongue, a little annoyed.

After Li Luo's identity was exposed, he no longer had any weaknesses.

On the contrary, if he still hides his identity, Li Luo will have a handle on him and he can only let him bully him.

"Don't forget Sister Yu tonight."

"Okay, I know," Xu Youyu muttered softly, "Where do we stop this time?"

Li Luo could even detect a hint of expectation in the tone of the person's voice.

"Then at school? Do you dare?"

"Why don't you dare?"

(End of this chapter)