Rekindling the Youthful Era

Chapter 800: Planning Before the Birthday

Saturday, October 12.

Early in the morning, Li Luo took Ying Chanxi and Yan Zhusheng out for a morning run. After returning home, they first finished their writing work for the day.

Around nine o'clock in the morning, Xu Youyu, having had enough of a good night's sleep, got out of bed. After the four of them tidied up, they set off for their company's address in the Times Square office building.

"So today is Zhusheng going to have its first official live broadcast?" Xu Youyu asked curiously, yawning as she sat in the front row.

Originally, she didn't need to go out with them; she could have just stayed home and diligently typed.

However, ever since Li Luo helped her organize the outline for the later stages of the story, she has no more worries about writer's block and has recently become quite free again.

Hearing that Yan Zhusheng was going to start a live stream today, and that Li Luo was going to visit the "Beginning" film crew, he decided to join in and go for a stroll.

"The live streaming room is all set up, and all the equipment was tested yesterday," Ying Chanxi said with a smile while driving. "Zhusheng promised everyone that she would do a live stream in front of so many viewers in Aunt Yuan's live stream room."

"She now has over four million followers, more than 100,000 more than Li Luo."

"Many fans are urging her to hurry up in the comments section of her videos, so she can't break her promise."

“My sister is a capitalist now.” Yan Zhusheng said to Li Luo from the back seat behind Ying Chanxi, “She’s always thinking of ways to make me make money for the company.”

"It's not as exaggerated as you say," Ying Chanxi said irritably. "After returning from Jingzhao City, I only let you take on one advertising order."

"By the way, how much does Zhusheng earn for an advertisement these days?" Xu Youyu, who was standing next to him, asked with a curious look.

"Not many," Ying Chanxi replied, gripping the steering wheel. "The number of followers on Douyin is relatively inflated, so the price ranges from 100,000 to 300,000."

"This time, I picked out a skincare product for Zhusheng. It's quite expensive, costing 250,000 yuan in total. After the company splits it 50/50 and deducts taxes, she'll probably get a little over 100,000 yuan."

"However, in order to maintain the quality of the account, we can't accept too many ads. One or two per month at most."

"So many?" Xu Youyu was somewhat surprised. "If you can only take on one or two, the average monthly income is still over 100,000 to 200,000 yuan."

"Wouldn't Zhusheng's annual income easily exceed one million over the course of the year?"

"This is so awesome..."

Xu Youyu's face showed envy.

Although Xu Youyu's income is not necessarily less than Yan Zhusheng's, after all, the book "Gu Dao Chang Qing" with more than 20,000 average subscriptions, plus "Literary Era" which also rose to 20,000 average subscriptions after its completion, is enough to keep her monthly income above 100,000.

But Xu Youyu is well aware that the income of online writers fluctuates greatly.

Especially after a book is finished, there is often a sharp decline in popularity.

Unless the new book can maintain its performance, it is quite normal for last year's million-dollar royalties to drop to only two or three hundred thousand this year.

Unlike Yan Zhusheng, whose Douyin followers have exceeded four million, this will undoubtedly be a stable and long-term source of income in the future.

"Who told you not to reveal your identity?" Li Luo heard the envy in Xu Youyu's voice and couldn't help but chuckle. "If you're willing, we can team up later."

"I guarantee that once your Douyin account reaches one million followers, you can easily earn tens of thousands of yuan in advertising revenue per month."

"How about it, early riser? Think about it."

"Get out! Get out! Get out!" Upon hearing this, Xu Youyu immediately waved her hand vigorously, as if driving away some demon. "I don't want to!"

"We writers should honestly earn our living with our own hands. What kind of behavior is it to show our faces in public like this?"

"Don't try to seduce me! Stop talking!"

Upon hearing this, Li Luo sighed helplessly: "You're just afraid of getting into trouble, aren't you? Haven't your roommates found out you're writing novels yet?"

"Hmph~ I hid it very well." Xu Youyu snorted and said with a hint of smugness, "Don't ruin my plans. Anyway, I'm not going to verify my Douyin account with my real name."

"Whatever you want." Seeing her resolute attitude, Li Luo stopped trying to seduce her.

At this moment, Ying Chanxi had already driven into the underground parking garage of the Times Square office building.

Upon arrival, the four of them got out of the car and went up to the tenth floor, entering the office of Reignit Culture.

After some renovations, once you step out of the elevator and turn right, you'll see a huge logo wall with the four characters "Reignite Culture" hanging on it.

To the right of the logo wall is the gate to rekindle culture.

Ying Chanxi took out an extra card and handed it to Xu Youyu. Then he took out another card, swiped it lightly on the card reader at the gate, and then pushed the door open and went inside.

"Senior, please keep this card safe. If you ever want to come to the company, you can just swipe it to come in."

"Oh, okay." Xu Youyu nodded and accepted it, curiously holding the card up and down on the card reader before quickly following her into the company.

The company's main office space is the lobby that you see right when you enter.

There are three "square grid" style desks placed in front and behind the floor-to-ceiling window, for a total of twelve workstations.

The four workstations closest to the door are for members of the Ministry of Commerce.

The four in the middle are used by Xiaowen and her newly hired assistant, and the other two are empty.

Of the four people behind, only one accountant is currently seated.

This office environment is quite spacious.

Li Luo had been here many times before. After entering, he nodded to the employees and then led Xu Youyu and Yan Zhusheng deeper into the area.

Inside was a long corridor with offices on both sides.

The space closest to the outside of the corridor is Ying Chanxi's personal office space, which he currently uses frequently.

If you walk further in, the tea room is on your right.

Further inside, there are live-streaming rooms specially designed for the company's artists, as well as an extra-large office exclusively for Li Luo, the chairman.

However, since Li Luo rarely comes to work here, the office, which is nominally the chairman's office, is actually used by Zhao Rongjun and his team.

It was Xu Youyu's first time here. He looked around, wandering around inside and out, quite interested.

Yan Zhusheng walked straight into the live broadcast room, checked the live broadcast equipment with Ying Chanxi, and after confirming that there were no problems, looked at Li Luo.

"What do you think I should broadcast during my live stream tonight?" Yan Zhusheng asked, blinking her eyes.

"What else can we broadcast? Singing, of course," Li Luo said with a laugh. "You want to try something fancy?"

“Singing alone is fine, but it’s a bit boring,” Yan Zhusheng said honestly. “My mom’s live stream last time was quite interesting.”

"What do you mean by 'interesting'?" "I mean interacting with the comments," Yan Zhusheng said. "Chatting with everyone is quite fun."

"Don't say anything out of line again," Ying Chanxi warned immediately upon hearing this. "Just focus on singing."

“You’re not just going to do a live stream this once; you’ll be doing one every week from now on.”

"You always act so recklessly. Be careful what you say. Can't you just behave yourself?"

“Xixi is right.” Li Luo nodded in agreement, raised his hand to rub Yan Zhusheng’s head, and said softly, “Don’t mess around with things like this. Let’s just do our jobs.”

"Oh..." Since Li Luo had said so, Yan Zhusheng had no choice but to nod obediently and put away her own little thoughts.

“This live streaming room is just for your temporary use,” Ying Chanxi continued. “When we move to the villa later, we’ll get you a live streaming setup on the fourth floor as well.”

"This live streaming room can be used by other artists in the company."

"If you want to do a live stream in the future, you can do it directly from home."

"Is my sister going to broadcast too?" Yan Zhusheng asked again. "A pretty female college student who becomes the CEO of a company in her freshman year should be very popular, right?"

"I think you should say less," Ying Chanxi waved her hand speechlessly. "Not everyone likes to be in the spotlight. Look at my senior, she does too."

"Oh." Yan Zhusheng nodded, a slightly aggrieved expression on her face. "So, my sister wants me to show my face in public and make money for the company, while she secretly counts the money in the back?"

"Then you should tell Li Luo yourself to never show your face again," Ying Chanxi said irritably.

"That won't do." Yan Zhusheng grabbed Li Luo's arm. "I want to make money for Li Luo."

Li Luo: "...You two stop acting so dramatic. If there are no problems in the live stream, I'm going to the film set."

"You take them with you, I still have to work at the company for a while," Ying Chanxi said. "Remember to pick me up at noon, we'll go home for lunch."

"Okay, give me the car keys."

"Here."

After receiving the Audi A8 car keys from Ying Chanxi, Li Luo left the company with Yan Zhusheng and Xu Youyu.

Driving the Audi towards the studio where the "Beginning" crew was located, Li Luo glanced at the two people whispering to each other in the rearview mirror and couldn't help but ask in confusion, "What are you two talking about?"

"Men shouldn't ask too many questions about what girls do," Xu Youyu chuckled, then leaned close to Yan Zhusheng's ear.

A short while later, Yan Zhusheng also leaned close to Xu Youyu's ear and whispered something.

Xu Youyu's expression immediately changed drastically: "What? When did this happen?"

"Not long after I returned from Jingzhao City," Yan Zhusheng recalled. "Senior doesn't know yet, right?"

"How would I know if you didn't tell me?" Xu Youyu said irritably. "Xixi would never tell me something like this, I didn't expect you two to... hmph~"

"Senior, you mentioned your plans for Li Luo's birthday before, but you didn't go into detail last time," Yan Zhusheng asked again. "Could you elaborate a bit more?"

"Well... I'm still thinking about some of the details, but we still have time, right?" Xu Youyu replied quietly. "I have some ideas now, but not many. You can bring them up if you think of anything."

“I didn’t have any other thoughts, it’s just…” Yan Zhusheng hesitated for once, glancing at Li Luo in the rearview mirror before whispering to Xu Youyu, “Last time on the plane, I asked my mother, and she said…”

The two girls were talking in the back seat, and Li Luo couldn't hear what they were saying at all.

Every time she asked out of curiosity, Xu Youyu would shut her down.

So Li Luo didn't ask any more questions and focused on driving.

After arriving at the film set, Yan Zhusheng and Xu Youyu in the back seat stopped talking and obediently followed Li Luo out of the car.

“Teacher Chongran, Zhusheng~” Xiaowen had already received the news and was waiting at the entrance of the photography studio. When she saw the three of them get out of the car and walk over, she quickly went up to greet them. “Ah, and Miss Youyu, you’re here too.”

Long ago, when casting for "A Little Reunion", Li Luo took three girls to Huayue Film and Television Company.

Xiaowen had met Ying Chanxi and Xu Youyu before, and Xu Youyu also appeared at Yuan Wanqing's concerts many times, so she knew Xu Youyu as well.

However, Xiaowen was unaware of the special relationship between Li Luo and Xu Youyu.

After all, once Xiaowen vaguely sensed the strange relationship between Ying Chanxi and Li Luo, she felt it was already quite absurd.

Who would have thought that Li Luo would be so outrageous as to have designs on three girls at the same time?

"You can show them around the film set, I'm going to see Director Wang."

As Li Luo said this, he went inside alone and headed towards where Wang Jun was.

At this moment, a film was being shot in the studio. After setting up an indoor scene resembling a bus, the actors performed scenes from the story within it.

As for the scenes outside the bus, we can use green screens and special effects, which is much more energy-efficient and cost-effective than actually renting a bus and filming repeatedly on the street.

Wang Jun spotted Li Luo immediately, waved to him, and raised a finger to tell him to be quiet.

After the scene was finished, Wang Jun paused filming and led Li Luo to a nearby bench to rest.

"Is everything going smoothly on Director Wang's end?"

"That's good, that's good." Wang Jun said with a smile, "After Ruan Lin went to school, she did learn some good things, and she picked things up quite quickly."

"The key is that the female lead's identity and background are quite consistent with her own, making it easy for her to adapt."

"If I didn't know that you didn't have a pre-selected actress in mind, I would have suspected that this script was tailor-made for her."

"It's not that bad," Li Luo said with a laugh. "But it's good that the filming went smoothly."

"Ruan Lin's schedule is only for this month, but she can come over during the winter break before the Chinese New Year after her final exams."

"So Director Wang should prioritize quality and not rush things."

"Don't worry." Wang Jun patted his shoulder and laughed, "We have plenty of time, and the content of the script isn't that much. We can definitely finish it before the New Year."

After some conversation, Li Luo followed Wang Jun around the film set and greeted some of the important supporting actors.

After wandering around for a while and confirming that there were no problems with the film crew, Li Luo accompanied Yan Zhusheng and Xu Youyu to watch a few scenes. When it was almost noon, he said goodbye and left to go home.

After returning to the company to pick up Ying Chanxi, Li Luo bought some groceries on the way home, and then he and Ying Chanxi cooked a meal together.

At the lunch table.

Xu Youyu ate with relish and casually brought up a topic: "By the way, after 'The Great Qian Night Patrol Division' finishes next year, what are your plans for your new book? Or are you just going to keep writing 'I'm Really Not a Star' and not start any new books?"

(End of this chapter)