Rekindling the Youthful Era

Chapter 787 How many girlfriends did he have after rekindling his relationship?
Saturday, October 11.

Xu Yinghuan got up early in her dormitory, washed up, got dressed, and then slung her bag over her shoulder to go out.

Ren Zheng, still sleeping in, groggily opened her eyes, glanced under the bed, and asked weakly, "Where did you go so early in the morning?"

"Let's go to the office building. Ah Jun and the others should be waking up soon. I'll bring some breakfast over," Xu Yinghuan said with a smile. "You can continue sleeping. I won't disturb you."

"You really are full of energy..." Ren Zheng rubbed her eyes and said helplessly, "It's not like it's your project."

“How can you say I’m not?” Xu Yinghuan retorted with wide eyes. “I’m also a project member, okay? I’m just in charge of logistics.”

"Didn't you say you were going to manage the finances?" Ren Zheng said speechlessly, "How did you end up in logistics? You're delivering food every day, you've become a food delivery person."

“The food in the school cafeteria is cheap.” Xu Yinghuan proudly raised her chin. “Originally, I meant to treat them to a meal, since it wouldn’t cost much, but they didn’t agree, so I had to deduct it from the budget.”

"It's not good to say that several grown men are all supported by a little girl like you." Ren Zheng chuckled. "That's how all men are, they care a lot about their image."

"I think you should find a guy to date," Xu Yinghuan suggested helplessly. "Stop complaining all the time, or you could try to get back together with Fang Chen."

"Get back together? We were never together, okay?" Ren Zheng glared and corrected her.

"Okay, okay, I'm not arguing with you anymore, I'm leaving now."

"Wait!" Ren Zheng rolled off the bed. "I'll go with you. I can't sleep anyway, let's go get some breakfast."

After waiting for Ren Zheng to wash up and get ready at the door, Xu Yinghuan accompanied her to the cafeteria for breakfast.

While eating, Ren Zheng took out her phone to browse Douyin (TikTok) and said to Xu Yinghuan, "I've seen several videos of Yuan Wanqing these past two days, have you seen them? They were posted by some bloggers I follow."

"Really?" Xu Yinghuan has been busy with Zhao Rongjun's big project lately and hasn't paid much attention to what's happening on Douyin. However, she does know a little bit: "Aunt Yuan seems to be joining Douyin soon, it should be sometime soon, right?"

"Oh right, I think I've seen news about this before." Ren Zheng thought to herself, and then searched for it. She quickly found relevant content. "It seems to be today? It's even trending on Weibo."

"Hey, look." At this moment, Xu Yinghuan also took out her phone and scrolled through Douyin, then handed the phone to Ren Zheng in surprise.

Ren Zheng looked down and saw Yan Zhusheng and Li Luo. Besides them, there was a video of a blogger visiting Qianjiang University.

"Why are the two of them here?"

“It seems that Zhu Sheng and Li Luo are also going to join Douyin with Aunt Yuan,” Xu Yinghuan said. “They went to Jingzhao City before and it seems they signed a contract with Douyin.”

"Do you need a contract for this kind of thing?" Ren Zheng asked curiously, not quite understanding either. "And you make money from it?"

“Of course.” Xu Yinghuan nodded. “They are celebrities. Douyin has to pay to invite them. Ordinary people like us don’t have that kind of treatment.”

After chatting for a while, Xu Yinghuan bought a few more breakfasts and headed towards the office building in Times Square with Ren Zheng.

When the two of them arrived, several members of the project team were still fast asleep on the folding beds.

Zhao Rongjun, on the other hand, didn't sleep here. He just rushed over from the dormitory, woke up the others, and then started eating breakfast.

After breakfast, Zhao Rongjun and the others started working, while Ren Zheng and Xu Yinghuan found a corner where they wouldn't be disturbed and scrolled through Douyin videos.

Sure enough, after just a quick scroll, I came across a lot of videos about Yuan Wanqing and the other two.

Ren Zheng and Xu Yinghuan alone must have seen more than a dozen unique ones.

"Huh?" Ren Zheng suddenly exclaimed in surprise halfway through the scrolling, and quickly showed her phone to Xu Yinghuan, "Look at this, isn't this Yuan Wanqing's account? It shouldn't be a fake, right?"

“There’s a verification mark on it,” Xu Yinghuan pointed out. “It’s her. She already has an account, right? She just hasn’t posted any videos yet.”

"This account already has over 100,000 followers!" Ren Zheng only noticed the number of followers this time, and her eyes widened immediately. "100,000 followers without even posting any videos?"

"What about the other two?" Xu Yinghuan asked curiously.

"Let me look." Ren Zheng searched for Yan Zhusheng again, and sure enough, she found her verified account that had not yet posted any videos.

However, I couldn't find Li Luo when I searched for him.

"You should search for 'Reignition'," Xu Yinghuan reminded her. "He's definitely using a pseudonym."

"Oh, right." Ren Zheng realized what she meant and searched for the pen name, and sure enough, she found it.

However, compared to Yuan Wanqing, Yan Zhusheng and Li Luo's accounts had very few followers, only about a hundred people in total, without posting any videos.

Just as the two were chattering about this, Ying Chanxi rushed to the office building from outside, bringing with her newly recruited employees and instructing the workers on the renovation work.

Seeing the two people sitting in the corner, Ying Chanxi walked over curiously and took a look. When she found out they were watching this, she immediately laughed: "It should be almost ten o'clock, right? We'll be able to see the video soon."

"Does Xixi have any inside information?" Xu Yinghuan asked curiously as she moved closer to Ying Chanxi.

"A new song will be released later," Ying Chanxi said. "It was written by Li Luo, and Aunt Yuan and Zhusheng can both sing it."

"Will the new song be released directly on Douyin?" Xu Yinghuan asked in surprise.

"Yes." Ying Chanxi nodded. "It's a deal with Douyin, as stipulated in the contract."

As we were talking, it was already ten o'clock.

Ren Zheng only glanced at it briefly, without even searching Yuan Wanqing's homepage, and immediately came across Yuan Wanqing's newly released introductory video.

A full sixty seconds.

"Can we post videos this long now?" Ren Zheng asked doubtfully. "I thought we could only post fifteen-second videos?"

“Oh, this?” Ying Chanxi said from the side, “This is a new feature that Douyin is currently testing, and it has just been opened to Aunt Yuan and the others.”

"I remember Huanhuan's account had over 30,000 followers, right? You should be able to apply for one through the backend now."

"Once the review is approved, you can also post 60-second videos."

"Really?" Xu Yinghuan was surprised for a moment, then picked up her phone and tried it out. "Let me see."

Xu Yinghuan and Ren Zheng didn't see anything wrong with Yuan Wanqing and the others joining Douyin.

But from the outside, it is a very clear signal.

TikTok is about to launch a new wave of attacks.

This wave of hype is quite intense.

Almost simultaneously, major platforms were spreading news about Yuan Wanqing joining Douyin, and the popularity of various trending topics continued to rise.

At the same time, news about Yuan Wanqing's new song also spread.

However, because Douyin has bought the exclusive rights to premiere "Misplaced Time and Space," it is currently only available on Douyin.

Since it's free software, many of Yuan Wanqing's fans figured they might as well download it and delete it later. But once they downloaded it, followed Yuan Wanqing's account, and learned that they could see her daily life updates more closely on the app, they'd probably be less willing to delete it.

If Douyin then pushes some handsome men and beautiful women to you, you can easily fall into the trap of Douyin's big data push and be unable to extricate yourself.

"This song is not bad." Ren Zheng commented, nodding her head as she listened to Yuan Wanqing's new song.

“Of course,” Xu Yinghuan said from the side, “After all, it was Li Luo who made the move.”

Hearing the two people praising her, Ying Chanxi was even happier than if she had been praised herself, even though they weren't praising her. The corners of her mouth couldn't help but turn up slightly.

"Does Xixi want to have lunch with us later?" Xu Yinghuan asked again. "Ren Zheng and I are going out to eat later, and we'll bring lunch back for Ajun and the others."

"I won't go with you." Ying Chanxi shook her head. "I'm going to find Li Luo to have dinner with later. He has an appointment with guests."

"Oh, that."

As noon approached, Ying Chanxi instructed her employees to prepare boxed lunches for the renovation workers, while she went downstairs to find Li Luo.

After meeting up with Li Luo at the entrance of a restaurant, the two went to find a quiet corner. A short while later, they met up with the platinum-level bigwig from the Writers' Association.

While it's called platinum, that's a thing of the past, because the author terminated their contract with Wenyue Group for their new book this year and opted for a full online release.

However, platinum still retains its gold content.

"Isn't Qianjiang University right next door?" After taking his seat, the platinum-level executive greeted the two of them and then casually asked, "You two study around here?"

“Yes.” Li Luo nodded. “This is my girlfriend, Ying Chanxi, who is also the current CEO of Reign Culture.”

"What a perfect match!" the platinum tycoon said with a smile. "I envy you guys who went to university. I've never been, so I have no idea what it's like."

"If that's the case, I'll have to recount someone's early fame all over again," Li Luo said with a chuckle.

"Well, a hero doesn't dwell on past glories." The platinum tycoon waved his hand. "Now that I'm older, I just want to make money and enjoy life."

"How are the new book doing?" Li Luo asked curiously.

"Anyway, it's better than before." The platinum tycoon scoffed. "Those guys were trying to fool me before they terminated their contracts, but look at them now. The total number of subscriptions across all platforms, if you just look at the average subscriptions, is more than all my previous books combined."

The two chatted for a long time, and Li Luo learned a lot of deeper inside information about the industry from him.

Soon after, Li Luo brought up the matter of the recommendation letter and took out Xu Youyu's document.

“‘Gu Dao Chang Qing’.” The platinum-level executive glanced at the title, then suddenly realized, “I think I saw it at the annual meeting before, hmm…”

At this point, the platinum tycoon suddenly paused, looked up at Li Luo, then glanced subtly at Ying Chanxi beside him, before immediately looking away.

He had attended the annual meetings of the previous years before leaving Wenyue Group, and had known Li Luo for a long time.

but……

How come he remembered that this kid seemed to have a thing with the author of "Gu Dao Chang Qing" who was sleeping early?

Could it be that he misremembered?

That's not right.

I remember those two were holding hands!

The platinum tycoon glanced at Li Luo again, buried his doubts, composed himself, coughed, and pretended not to know anything.

"There's nothing wrong with the document's content. You just need to submit it to the secretariat later, but..."

"But what?"

“Logically speaking, it would be enough for the vice chairman to recommend one work, after all, we need to share the pie,” the platinum tycoon said. “But don’t you still have ‘The Great Qian Night Patrol’ that you’re currently writing?”

“I don’t need to worry about copyright issues, so there’s no need for it,” Li Luo shook his head.

“That’s different.” The platinum executive shook his head. “It can add a bit of prestige. I’ll submit it for you.”

"Huh?" Li Luo was taken aback, not expecting the other party to be so helpful. "What about you? Didn't you just release a new book too?"

"I really don't need this." The platinum tycoon rolled his eyes. "The copyright was all negotiated before the book was even published. This kind of support quota for my work is nothing more than icing on the cake for me."

"makes sense."

Since the other party had said so, Li Luo accepted their kindness.

The two then chatted about some other things, and the conversation eventually turned to Douyin (TikTok).

The platinum-level executive happened to come across Li Luo's video and, seeing his announcement of joining Douyin, couldn't help but ask curiously, "Do you think Douyin can continue to develop in the future?"

"It should be fine," Li Luo said, then suddenly thought of someone in his future life streaming games on Douyin every day, and couldn't help but suppress a laugh, "Actually, it would suit you quite well."

"What do you mean?" The platinum boss is indeed getting old now and cares a lot about the opinions of young people like Li Luo, so he humbly asked for advice.

“The audience for the books you wrote was basically students back then, and students today also enjoy reading them,” Li Luo said. “And platforms like Douyin attract users from lower-tier cities and rural areas; to put it simply, they are down-to-earth.”

"I feel that these users have a high degree of overlap with the readers of your book."

"If you're interested, you can also post videos here. We'll also be opening a live streaming channel later. Give it a try; the results might be pretty good."

Upon hearing this, the platinum executive fell into deep thought, taking his words to heart and pondering them carefully.

After lunch, Li Luo and Ying Chanxi saw him off downstairs. Ying Chanxi then went back to her office to continue her work, while Li Luo returned to Bihai Lanting and planned to write for a while in the afternoon.

Xu Youyu had only just gotten up, grabbed a quick bite, and then settled into his room to type on his keyboard.

While her older sister was away, Yan Zhusheng curled up on Li Luo's bed and scrolled through her phone, occasionally stretching her leg to rub against Li Luo and try to seduce him.

"Li Luo."

"Ok?"

"Someone asked me if I'm dating you."

"Who asked?"

"Fans on Douyin (TikTok)".

"Just don't reply."

"Oh." Yan Zhusheng nodded obediently, then gave that person a thumbs up.

(End of this chapter)