After the college entrance examination, life began to follow one's heart

Chapter 220 Xu Lin, with Clear Thinking

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Then Xu Lin opened his work account.

Two days ago, Nicholas Tse departed for Linxiang to participate in the filming of the eleventh season of "Singer".

I don't know what's going on.

Xu Lin clicked on Xie Ting's information; his latest news was from this afternoon.

The first episode of this season was filmed today.

Since it's filming on location, there's no need to go out at night to film. The lighting setup on location is already at night, it's not a live broadcast.

Nicholas Tse appears in this first episode, along with ten other young singers.

However, Nicholas Tse is the most famous among these minor singers.

These people's time on "Singer" was basically their highlight. After leaving the stage, they basically disappeared from the public eye. After a while, people would ask, "Who is this?"
The competition in the entertainment industry is fierce. You finally get to that point, only to find that everyone else is on the other side, while you're stuck on the ground, or even buried in the dirt.

Xu Lin wasn't worried about Xie Ting doing that, because he was a naturally gifted player, purely blessed by God, with excellent physical attributes in all aspects, and Xu Lin himself was there to oversee things. So as long as he didn't encounter any injustice, everything would be fine.

Xu Lin planned to let him break through the stage in "Singer" first.

At this moment, Xu Lin replied with an "Mm".

Xie Ting replied instantly: "Master, you're finally online! *crying emoji*"

Xu Lin: "How's the situation?"

"The first episode has successfully advanced. It will officially air on Hunan TV at 8 PM the day after tomorrow, and will also be available on Mango TV at the same time!"

Xie Ting was quite excited and started chattering away, sending ten messages in less than a minute. This was his first time on a big stage, and it was a hard-won opportunity. Now that he had advanced, he was naturally very happy.

"Then let's try to win the championship."

"I can't even dream of winning the championship, especially with so many amazing predecessors."

"That's true, winning the championship is unlikely."

Xu Lin thought about it and realized it made sense.

"Yes, that's unlikely."

You didn't understand what I meant.

"Master, what do you mean by this?" Xie Ting asked humbly.

Xu Lin analyzed, "You, a newbie who just entered the industry, won the championship. It's a slap in the face for them. Even if they are not as skilled, these old guys in the entertainment industry can't bring themselves to lose to a young person who has just debuted."

"Oh, I see!"

Nicholas Tse had a sudden realization: "But even if we don't do that, I still can't beat these seniors, right? Their singing skills, stage presence, and so on are all beyond what a greenhorn like me can compare to."

Xu Lin: "You're overthinking it. Besides, these people are really nothing special. Some of them have been singing the same song for decades without changing it. They keep singing the same song over and over again. What other works do they have besides this one? Many of them don't even have five decent songs. As for stage presence, don't worry about that. As long as you sing well and the songs are good, these superficial things don't matter. You're just starting out, so don't worry about all this nonsense. So what you need to do now is to slap these people in the face and let them know that the post-2000s generation is here to cause trouble. Just do it!"

"Damn, I get it!"

Nicholas Tse had another moment of profound realization.

"But Master, won't this offend people in the industry?"

"What the hell are you talking about? Are you a Gen Z? Stand up straight! If you can't make it here, you can always come back. Don't be so timid and cowardly like a middle-aged man who's lost his backbone. Besides, you haven't signed with any company yet, so what are you afraid of? What can they do to you?"

"Master, that's awesome!"

Nicholas Tse had another moment of profound realization.

Xu Lin continued, "If you're a coward, don't say you're my apprentice. I'm afraid of losing face."

"Master, I understand. Just do it."

"Well, even if we can't win the championship, we'll at least bring back the title of 'Uncrowned King'."

"Master, what is the uncrowned king?"

"I'll go north myself."

Tse Ting actually did some research and suddenly understood. Applying it to this context, it meant that even if he couldn't win the championship, he still won over countless viewers with his outstanding talent and songs, becoming the true champion in their hearts.

Then Xu Lin sent him three new songs, two love songs and one folk song.

"Master, is this a new song?"

"Practice these three songs first. If they're not enough, come ask me. I'll be singing new songs on the show this time."

"Understood, Master!"

"The goal is to destroy the show, or in short, crash it. Don't worry about anything else."

"Master, I understand. I will definitely do my best when the time comes!"

"Okay, I'll rest now if there's nothing else."

"Alright, Master, let's talk another day."

Xu Lin did not reply again, logged out of the work account, and switched back to the personal account.

I just saw Ning Yuhan's message, saying that it's their School of Economics and Trade's turn to hold the flag-raising ceremony tomorrow morning, which is Monday, so they have to get up early.

"What time is it?"

"The flag-raising ceremony starts at 7:30. We need to be assembled a few minutes early, so please try to get up before 7:15!"

Xu Lin originally didn't want to go, and this semester, whenever he was at school, he would get up at eight o'clock. Now, having to get up at a little after seven o'clock was really difficult for him.

However, considering that the flag-raising ceremony is a solemn and sacred event, I decided against it.

The next morning, Xu Lin arrived at the cafeteria at seven o'clock and had a bowl of hot and sour noodles with Ning Yuhan.

The flag-raising ceremony officially began at 7:30 a.m.

Xu Lin didn't go to class during the day, and as usual, he went to the film set on Mondays.

He usually comes to the film set twice a week, and occasionally a third time, depending on the situation.

Upon arriving at the film set, Xu Lin discovered that many girls had bought the set of books he had released the day before.

Xu Lin hadn't checked how well the book was selling, but he figured it probably wasn't bad.

This book is more suitable for young people or girls; it's not suitable for grown men—it's a bit too sweet for them.

"Xu Lin, could you sign this for me?"

Upon seeing Xu Lin appear, Chen Duling walked over with the book in her hand.

"no problem."

Xu Lin took the book and pen, opened the first page, and prepared to write his signature.

Mr. Xu.

However, the moment Xu Lin put pen to paper, he felt that his signature seemed a bit monotonous and lacked something.

He thought for a moment and then wrote: "His eyebrows and eyes reveal elegance, his voice and smile reveal gentleness."

Xu Lin writes in running-cursive script. With the support of the "magical brush" function, Xu Lin may not be able to keep up with those old men who have been immersed in calligraphy for decades, but he should be able to catch up with them without any problem!

"Xu Lin, your handwriting is so beautiful!"

Chen Duling exclaimed in surprise.

"Just words."

Xu Lin didn't care.

What does this sentence mean?

"Here's my assessment of you. See if it suits you well. It's from the Huangmei Opera 'A Lin Sister Fell From Heaven'."

This sentence praises the girl for being delicate and gentle.

Actually, many girls can wear it, of course, you have to be pretty.

"oh oh!"

Chen Duling took the book, pondered it for a long time, and couldn't put it down.

"Xu Lin, say something too!"

Dilraba was watching from the side just now.

"Bring the book here."

"Give."

The other person said, "What kind of feedback would you like to give me?"

Xu Lin thought for a moment and wrote: "Having finished her makeup, she stands in the spring breeze; a smile is worth a thousand pieces of gold."

"What does this sentence mean?" Dilraba asked curiously.

Xu Lin handed her the book: "If you were made up and stood in the spring breeze with a slight smile, I wouldn't want a thousand taels of gold."

"Haha, do you mean you like me?" the other person joked.

"That depends on what you look like without makeup."

Xu Lin smiled.

"Xu Lin, that's a bit mean!"

"Haha, just kidding."

"Mr. Xu, could you sign something for me too?"

"Row."

"Mr. Xu, I'd like to say something too."

"Yes, yes, everyone, one at a time!"

At the same time, many people came up to Xu Lin for his signature; most of them were girls, but there were a few boys as well.

Xu Lin doesn't sign his name, but he still writes classical poems, and everyone gets a copy.

For a beautiful girl, Xu Lin would write a poem or classical Chinese phrase praising her appearance.

What if it's an ordinary girl? I can't possibly compliment her on her looks even if she's not particularly attractive. Xu Lin really can't do that; he just can't bring himself to do it.

So he would see if she had any temperament. If she did, he would use poems describing a woman's temperament. If not, he would say that she was intelligent and virtuous, such as that she was gentle, quiet, and well-mannered. There were so many ancient poems and songs, and Xu Lin had read quite a few, so he was not worried about not having any.

The same applies to the boys, but few of them signed, so Xu Lin got it done easily.

Xu Lin signed documents for more than eighty people.

A flowing, cursive script.

Their film set is a place where they can easily find themselves trending on social media every now and then.

Today's trending topic is: Mr. Xu's new book signing. Actually, it all started with people posting on Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book) with pictures of a line of text written by Xu Lin on the book.

Xu Lin signed mostly the autographs of girls, and the mainstream social media platform for girls is Xiaohongshu.

This topic first gained traction on Xiaohongshu (Little Red Book).

Not long after, it became a trending topic on Weibo and was seen by more netizens.

"Is this Mr. Xu's handwriting? It's so beautiful!"

"That's right, this is Mr. Xu's handwriting. It's very beautiful. I got his autograph on set. I never expected his handwriting to be so good. Look at the poem he gave me. [Image.jpg]"

"Wow, such beautiful handwriting! Mr. Xu is not only talented, but his handwriting is also so beautiful?"

"Not only is his handwriting beautiful, but I also think he has a strong knowledge of classical Chinese poetry. I heard that more than 80 people on set asked him to sign his autographs, and he gave each of them different poems as comments. Even I, a Chinese literature major, can't memorize that many poems, let alone poems that praise people. In other words, Mr. Xu has mastered so many poems of this type."

"Mr. Xu is a jack-of-all-trades, he has everything you could want, and that's no exaggeration. You weren't on set and didn't meet him in person, so it's hard for you to understand that feeling."

It was quite lively on Weibo. Although it didn't reach the top of the trending topics, the related trending topics were still quite popular.

Xu Lin left the film set in the afternoon, and around 5:30, he drove his electric bike back to the school gate.

After waiting for a while, Ning Yuhan came out.

"Honey, I want to go to the bookstore to buy books!"

Ning Yuhan, carrying her schoolbag, sat behind Xu Lin with practiced ease, hugging his waist.

"what book?"

"It's that book of yours!"

"OK,"

Xu Lin: "Then let's head to the bookstore."

Xu Lin's book is indeed selling like hotcakes. Just yesterday, in Jiangdu alone, three bookstores sold a total of 50,000 copies. This is not even the limit, because that was all the stock the three bookstores had prepared. Neither the bookstores nor the publisher expected the book to sell so well; they initially thought it would take a long time to sell.

The book set consists of two volumes, and since it's newly released, there are no discounts or promotions yet. The regular edition costs 100 yuan per set, and the hardcover edition costs 180 yuan per set.

In this era of widespread e-reading, people's demand for paper books has greatly decreased. Even if they do buy paper books, they generally won't spend money on novels, but will mostly choose knowledge-based paper books.

Xu Lin's book sold so many copies in one day, so its sales are obviously very strong.

Xu Lin also took Ning Yuhan to the same bookstore as yesterday.

It was already past six o'clock when we arrived at our destination.

At this time, students have finished class and office workers have finished get off work, so there are even more people.

There was a huge queue, and people had to come and maintain order.

They're all here to buy Xu Lin's book.

Which online novel author has this kind of influence?

Don't be fooled by how popular many books by famous authors are online. In reality, when it comes to publishing, not many people actually buy them. Most of them end up gathering dust on bookshelves, ignored by everyone.

After all, in the era of e-reading, paper reading has already been greatly reduced, and there is even less need for paper reading of online novels, unless you particularly like the book.

Xu Lin and Ning Yuhan waited in line for fifty minutes before it was their turn.

Ning Yuhan was very happy after buying a set of books.

"Honey, I want to sign too!"

Ning Yuhan heard from Liu Yuqing and the others today that your boyfriend is trending on social media again.

She glanced at it, and it really was trending.

Ning Yuhan didn't tell anyone that Mr. Xu was her boyfriend, but it didn't matter because everyone knew. They just thought, "It's just the two of you who won't admit it."

Ning Yuhan had already prepared a pen.

After Xu Lin took the pen, he thought for a moment and felt that writing classical poems would be too cliché, so he decided to do something different.

So I wrote: "Forever a gentle and lovely senior."

Ning Yuhan watched as the sun shone brightly on her face.

"I want to write a sentence too!"

Ning Yuhan also wrote a sentence under this sentence: "I will always love my handsome, talented, and bad junior."

"Wow? Such a long prefix?"

"Like it?"

The senior student looked at her with deep affection.

Can I say I don't like it?

"Humph!"

"Hum one more time, let's see you act cute."

"No."

Ning Yuhan shook her head.

"You won't act cute, huh? You'll see how powerful I am tonight!"

Xu Lin put his arm around the other person's shoulder, leaned close to their ear, and whispered, "Has your period come?"

"No." She shook her head again.

"Then let's go home!"

Xu Lin was highly interested.

After eating their fill outside, the two returned to their rented apartment.

Ning Yuhan hadn't been here for a while, and her obsessive-compulsive disorder kicked in, so she immediately started packing her things.

Xu Lin was already used to it, so he simply let her do it. If he didn't let her do it, Ning Yuhan would feel uncomfortable.

However, Xu Lin wasn't one of those slovenly guys, so the house was generally clean and didn't require much effort to tidy up.

It was done in a little over half an hour.

After washing her hands in the second-floor bathroom, Ning Yuhan came to the room.

Seeing that Xu Lin was looking at the computer and not playing games, Ning Yuhan knew he was busy, so she didn't disturb him.

However, Xu Lin saw her and said, "Come here."

Xu Lin beckoned with his finger.

Ning Yuhan walked over and saw Xu Lin pointing to his lap. Ning Yuhan was already very familiar with this, so she sat on Xu Lin's lap.

Today, Ning Yuhan was wearing sweatpants, so the sensation of her bottom sitting down was indescribable.

Ning Yuhan's hips were somewhere between Xia Xiyao's and Rong Xiyan's, combining the advantages of both, and everything was just right.

Xu Lin couldn't help but reach out and grab it a few times.

"color!"

Ning Yuhan pursed her lips.

"This isn't lust, it's romance. Come on, give me a kiss."

Xu Lin pointed to his mouth, and Ning Yuhan kissed him.

After the kiss, Xu Lin moved over so that Ning Yuhan could sit down in his arms and lean against him, with the two of them facing the computer screen.

"Look at the screen."

Xu Lin pointed to the screen.

"what is this?"

"Didn't I write a new book before? Now that it's finished, I'm preparing to publish it."

Xu Lin briefly explained the copyright issue to her.

Actually, several copyright holders want the rights to Xu Lin's book. One of them is the website, which has been trying to sign a contract with Xu Lin for a high price. However, Xu Lin did not agree because if he did, he would have to share the copyright revenue with the website, and there would also be some messy cooperation issues that would cause disputes.

Xu Lin only wanted to firmly grasp the power of copyright discourse in his own hands.

So this time, Xu Lin simply gave the copyright to someone else to operate, while he took the lion's share of the profits.

The publisher of the book "Miss Maybach" has contacted Xu Lin, wanting to acquire the publishing rights for the new book.

Xu Lin had no particular concerns about publishing; if the price was right, he'd just hand it over to this publishing house. His book, *Miss Maybach*, was currently being published by this same house, so they were practically acquaintances.

Publishing doesn't actually involve much money, and the profits involved aren't significant.

As I said before, the market for printed books is just so-so.

A work of the caliber of "The Three-Body Problem" has only sold a little over three million copies in China so far. And you should know that the first volume of "The Three-Body Problem" was published in January 2008, and now it's April 2026. Eighteen years have passed, and it's five months older than Xu Lin's age, yet it has sold less than four million copies in China.

Although "The Three-Body Problem" has sold over 30 million copies worldwide, Xu Lin's current books will only be published in China. There is simply no market for this genre abroad. If you are neither science fiction nor fantasy, foreign countries will not pay any attention to you.

Therefore, Xu Lin's focus on the domestic market suggests that there are indeed limited opportunities in the physical book publishing sector.

Currently, Xu Lin plans to release the copyright for the publishing aspect.

What about film and television?
It also depends on whether anyone is willing to invest, because this story has a plain and heartwarming style, with a slightly bittersweet youthful feel in the early stages.

Xu Lin thought it could be made into a movie, and the budget wouldn't be too big, but he didn't know how the market would react.

And it requires investment from someone.

"its not right!"

As he pondered, Xu Lin had a sudden inspiration.

"what happened?"

Ning Yuhan was puzzled.

"Just now I fell into a misconception, thinking that film and television copyrights require investment, and that without investment, they can't be made."

Xu Lin laughed and said, "I thought to myself, why don't I just invest in myself? I can find professionals to make a low-budget youth film, adapt it a bit, and I can just be the investor and the boss."

So, can't I become capital myself?
So what if we lose money? But how much can we lose? It's not like we invested tens of millions.

If a film doesn't involve a lot of special effects, the biggest expense is actually the actors.

Is extra just as bad?

That's not necessarily true. A large amount of social resources are controlled by vested interests, leaving many young people with no opportunities.

In the past, few of the most famous stars in Hong Kong films were formally trained actors.

Besides, what if it works out?
Xu Lin's mind was clear.

(End of this chapter)