Rekindling the Youthful Era

Chapter 853 Are you humiliating me?
After receiving the message from Qianzhou, Li Luo immediately opened the Writer Assistant app and checked the backend data.

The number representing the average order value is clearly marked above – 100021.

It has indeed surpassed 100,000 average subscriptions.

"Holy crap! Holy crap! Holy crap! Holy crap!!!"

Li Luo himself wasn't particularly surprised, after all, his editor Qianzhou had reminded him a few days earlier that the average daily subscription was about to break the 100,000 mark.

Therefore, Li Luo was prepared for this.

But he didn't tell anyone beforehand.

So much so that when Xu Youyu curiously peeked over and saw the numbers displayed on the writer's assistant's backend page, he couldn't help but exclaim in surprise.

"Why are you making such a fuss?" Cui Suling said irritably when she saw her daughter's exaggerated reaction.

"Mom, you don't know, Li Luo's new book is going to break records!"

Xu Youyu, his face full of amazement, explained to the others, "One hundred thousand average subscriptions! Look at this! This achievement is simply unbelievable! No one has ever broken the one hundred thousand mark in paid subscriptions on Qidian's main site before!"

"Really?" Cui Suling curiously leaned over for a look, but couldn't quite grasp how impressive it was.

But since it was my daughter who said it, then it must be true.

Lin Xiuhong and Cui Suling had similar feelings. After glancing at Li Luo's phone, they asked curiously, "I see that on platforms like Weibo and Douyin, people easily have millions or even tens of millions of followers. Is your 100,000 followers considered impressive?"

“Aunt Lin, you don’t understand,” Xu Youyu explained patiently. “If we’re just talking about the collection of Li Luo’s book, it’s worth several million.”

"That means that so many people have added Li Luo's book to their bookshelves."

"However, on average, a full 100,000 people paid for the entire book!"

"Can those bloggers with millions of followers on Weibo and Douyin have hundreds of thousands of paying followers?"

"It's very difficult~"

After Xu Youyu finished speaking, Xu Rongsheng chimed in, nodding and saying, "Yes, although the internet ecosystem is all about traffic, the ultimate goal is to make money from users."

"It's truly remarkable that Li Luo was able to achieve the top ranking on the website."

"With hundreds of thousands of paying fans, the influence behind that is considerable."

In reality, this number is not that many.

However, as a paid platform, Qidian's user acquisition effectiveness is generally limited.

For websites that charge users a certain number of words, the traffic costs to acquire a single paying user from outside are enormous.

Therefore, Qidian's number of paying users has never been large, only a few million.

At its peak, it was only around ten million.

However, online literature channels have not yet lost their momentum, and Li Luo's books have also achieved good sales results on these channels.

According to editor Qianzhou, the sales figures from the distribution channels are equivalent to at least 100,000 to 200,000 average subscriptions.

Therefore, if we include the total number of paying users across the entire network, Li Luo's "The Great Qian Night Patrol" is estimated to have a total average subscription exceeding 300,000.

Not to mention the countless pirated readers behind it.

Even if the number increases several times, that would be considered small.

It can be said that Li Luo is now the undisputed number one subscriber on Qidian.

[Reignition]: I saw it.

[Qianzhou]: Your reaction is too calm! 100,000 average subscriptions! That's a record-breaking achievement!
[Reignited]: Didn't we already break the record before? It's not that bad.

[Qianzhou]: The meaning behind this is definitely different, and the leaders attach great importance to it.

[Qianzhou]: It just so happens that the annual meeting is in the next couple of days. The editor-in-chief and the others will definitely want to chat with you. Just have a good chat with them.

[Reignited]: Okay.

After talking with the editor, Li Luo led everyone to the car and headed to the hotel in Wuchang City where the annual meeting was being held.

Li Luo didn't accept the hotel room arranged by Qidian's official team; instead, he booked four presidential suites directly.

Li Guohong and his wife, Xu Rongsheng and his wife each have a room, Li Luo has a room by herself, and the three girls share a room.

Hmm... that's the theoretical arrangement.

In reality, the last house was clearly just a cover-up.

After arriving at the hotel smoothly at noon, Li Luo followed her two mothers' arrangements and rented two cars according to their pre-prepared itinerary, heading to a nearby restaurant for lunch.

Even before arriving in Wuchang, Ying Chanxi had spent the three days at the villa planning a trip with Lin Xiuhong and Cui Suling, filling their schedule to the brim.

Li Luo and Xu Youyu won't be able to join them tomorrow because they have to attend the annual meeting.

Even Li Luo received a message from the editor-in-chief while he was having dinner, inviting him to dinner that evening because of the breakthrough of 100,000 average subscriptions.

After spending the afternoon visiting two famous attractions in Wuchang with his parents, Li Luo took Xu Youyu back to the hotel early and met with the editor-in-chief, Nanfeng, in a private room at the restaurant.

Besides Li Luo, those present included several editors-in-chief, President Hou of Wenyue Group, and several other platinum authors.

The platinum tycoon who was closest to Li Luo winked at Li Luo and greeted him with a smile.

After Li Luo pulled Xu Youyu aside to greet President Hou and the editor-in-chief for a few moments, he sat down next to the platinum tycoon and asked curiously, "Why did you come here?"

Despite being called a platinum-level figure, he actually ended his contract with Wenyue Group in mid-2017 and instead opened his own studio and company, releasing his new book across all online and offline channels.

If Li Luo's total sales across all online channels reach 300,000 average subscriptions, then this big shot's total sales across all channels would likely easily surpass 500,000.

"I was chatting with the people at Wenyue about animation development," Potato said casually to Li Luo after taking a sip of tea. "I happened to run into the editor-in-chief and chatted for a bit. I heard you were coming too, so I came over to freeload a meal."

"Saying you're freeloading is going too far," Nanfeng teased Tudou. "You didn't agree to come before when I invited you."

"I didn't know my little brother was here too," Potato chuckled.

When President Hou across the table saw that Tudou and Chongran seemed to have a very good relationship, he couldn't help but frown slightly, looking rather displeased.

Having followed Ying Zhicheng around for a long time, Li Luo has learned a few things from him through observation and experience.

So he stopped exchanging pleasantries with Potato and turned to the middle-aged man next to President Hou who hadn't spoken, chuckling as he greeted him, "President Liao, I'm sure I haven't mistaken you for someone else, have I? We've met before."

"I didn't expect Chongran to still recognize me?" Mr. Liao, who was next to Mr. Hou, laughed, raised his teacup and clinked it with Li Luo's across the table, taking a small sip. "We're just having a simple meal today, and chatting a bit more." This Mr. Liao works for Tencent Video; Li Luo had met him before at the summer salon.

At the time, "The Great Qian Night Patrol" was a huge hit, and its momentum was at its peak. In just a few months, it broke through 70,000 average subscriptions, instantly attracting people from several video websites.

As an "insider," Tencent Video undoubtedly has the biggest advantage.

At the time, because "The Great Qian Night Patrol" was just starting out and far from being completed, Li Luo declined the sale of the copyright.

Wen Yue's side shared the same sentiment as Li Luo: although they were family, they needed to wait for the right price.

With average subscriptions now exceeding 100,000, both General Manager Hou and the editor-in-chief clearly feel that the time is ripe to reap the rewards.

Potato was well aware of this, and when he heard that they were going to eat, he came over to support Li Luo.

After all, he had clashed with Wenyue Group several times in private before, and the talks were not pleasant.

Only after leaving the platform to start my own company and taking control of all aspects of copyright did I realize how vast the outside world is.

When President Hou saw Tudou and Chongran getting so close, he was naturally a little unhappy.

Fortunately, the conversation only lasted a short while.

After the dinner, Mr. Liao from Tencent Video privately invited Li Luo to a meeting to discuss the matter further.

Li Luo verbally agreed, then turned around and pulled Xu Youyu along to go drinking with Tudou in another place.

"The provincial key support approval for 'Gu Dao Chang Qing' should be coming soon," Potato said to the two while drinking. "Your 'Da Qian Xun Ye Si' will definitely be fine too, which will give you more leverage."

"Thanks." Li Luo clinked glasses with him to express her gratitude.

"It's just a small matter," Potato said with a smile. "When the provincial online writers' association holds its council meeting in a couple of days, you'll be a council member, and you'll be able to intervene in these approval processes in advance."

"Let me add a couple more words, which are just my personal opinions."

"Just listen casually, but how you actually do it is up to you."

Upon hearing this, Li Luo nodded silently, looked at Tudou, and gestured for him to continue.

Potato took a sip of wine to moisten his throat before continuing, "Guess how my 'Yuan Zun' is doing now?"

"how?"

"Eight hundred thousand." Potato waved his finger and said to Li Luo, "If we're counting the average subscriptions across the entire network, it's a full eight hundred thousand!"

"If I had signed an exclusive agreement with Qidian, do you think my book could have achieved this level of success?"

"Actually, your 'The Great Qian Night Patrol Division' has also performed very well in terms of distribution channels."

"But it can only use the channels that Wenyue Group has established, not all channels."

"Even so, I asked around for you. Just considering the channels that Wenyue Group has established, your average subscription rate from those channels should be at least 300,000."

These words surprised Li Luo: "Is it that much? The editor told me it was only a few hundred thousand."

“The distribution channels are all shady.” Potato rolled his eyes at him. “It’s not that your editor is lying to you, it’s just that his own authority is not very high, and the data he can see is provided to him by the distribution channels.”

"In reality, many channels are subcontracted layer by layer. Do you think the actual share that we can get back from Qidian is 50/50? Many times it might not even be 5%!"

"Of course, I'm not saying that there are no benefits to cooperating with Qidian at all; at least it can save authors a lot of trouble."

"If I started my own company and had to negotiate revenue sharing with each channel, dealing with contracts with each channel would be a huge headache."

"Whether the quality of the work can be maintained after being distracted is also a question."

"So this is just a suggestion, you can just take it with a grain of salt."

Li Luo swirled his wine glass and nodded slightly after listening to Tudou finish speaking.

Before his rebirth, he had heard a lot of gossip about the industry from Xu Youyu and had heard about these things, but hearing it from Tudou himself made him understand these things much better.

"Hmm, I already have some ideas in mind," Li Luo said to Tudou. "Thanks, you even took the time to tell me so much."

"I just like you. I feel like you're a lot like me." Potato chuckled and patted Li Luo on the shoulder. "Don't talk about feelings when you're doing business. President Hou and President Liao are both veterans in this area. Just be careful."

After drinking with Potato, the three said goodbye in the hotel elevator, and Li Luo led Xu Youyu towards their room.

On the way, Xu Youyu asked in a low voice, "Are you planning to follow the same path as Tudou and release products through all channels in the future?"

Upon hearing this, Li Luo gently shook his head: "I don't have that idea yet."

"Subscription fees are only a small fraction of the revenue from copyrights, so I have my own plans."

"It all depends on whether WenYue and Tencent Video are willing to cooperate."

"Oh, by the way, I'll give you a little push while I'm at it."

At this point, Li Luo smiled at Xu Youyu and said, "Maybe your mortgage will be sorted out then."

"Is it about film and television copyrights?" Xu Youyu asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes,” Li Luo nodded. “The copyright price for ‘The Great Qian Night Patrol’ won’t be low. Getting them to bundle some other things along with it shouldn’t be too difficult, right?”

"Hehe, sounds pretty good." Xu Youyu laughed happily. "It could be a few million, right?"

“You underestimate yourself.” Li Luo shook his head. “Let’s quote a higher price first.”

"Why don't you talk about other more important conditions first?" Xu Youyu thought for a moment and then said, "I'm not in a hurry for this, so as not to affect your plans."

“You are the most important one.” Li Luo took Xu Youyu’s hand and swiped his card to enter his room.

Upon hearing this, Xu Youyu couldn't resist and pinned him against the wall as soon as they entered the room.

"Are you doing this on purpose?" Xu Youyu asked while kissing me. "You always tease me at times like this."

"If you like it, that's fine." Li Luo turned her around and pressed her against the wall, lifting her legs. "But I have to remind you of something."

"What?" Xu Youyu was dizzy from his kisses, and the next second he carried her into the master bedroom and threw her onto the bed.

"Promise me." Li Luo pounced on Xu Youyu, pinching her snow-white chin with one hand, and said seriously, "When you earn copyright fees, you can't invest them or speculate in stocks. You have to honestly pay off the mortgage and put the rest in the bank."

Xu Youyu was speechless: "...Why do I feel like you're humiliating me?"

"I'm doing this for your own good, sweetie."

(End of this chapter)