Chapter 244 The First Endorsement
"Bingyuan Video contacted us. They have a self-produced web series that they want to buy the rights to 'Remembrance' and use it in their show."
That day, Chen Ziyan suddenly called Lu Yanhe and brought up the matter.
"Remembrance" has been bringing Lu Yanhe some income from cover versions, music platform revenue sharing, and various other copyright incomes. Each income is not much, ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds or thousands. Previously, the company's music management department had been helping to manage it, and Chen Ziyan rarely told Lu Yanhe about it. This time, she specifically told him about it, which surprised Lu Yanhe.
Is there anything special about it?
“They don’t plan to buy your original version; they’re going to find someone else to cover it,” Chen Ziyan said.
Lu Yanhe: "Sure, several people have already covered it."
Especially among singers and bloggers who do live streaming, almost everyone has sung "Remembering" at least once.
Chen Ziyan said, "They are planning to invite Chen Ziliang to sing."
"Huh?" Lu Yanhe finally understood why Chen Ziyan had come to talk to him so seriously.
Lu Yanhe doesn't have many enemies in this line of work, but Chen Ziliang is definitely one of them.
They had a falling out from their very first meeting, and their conflicts continued every time, as if their horoscopes were incompatible or they were destined to clash.
Chen Ziyan asked, "Are you willing?"
Lu Yanhe said, "I don't want to."
Chen Ziyan nodded and said, "Then I'll refuse. However, there's something I still have to tell you. I heard that Chen Ziliang recommended this song to the production team so they could use it as the OST."
"Huh?" This surprised Lu Yanhe greatly, even making him feel incredulous. "He recommended this song?"
Chen Ziyan: "Yeah, you didn't expect that, did you? I didn't expect it either, it's unbelievable."
What is he doing?
"Perhaps he wants to extend an olive branch of friendship to you?"
"Don't disgust me, Sister Ziyan." Lu Yanhe didn't believe Chen Ziliang had such thoughts at all. "Who knows what he's thinking."
Chen Ziyan nodded, "Okay, then we'll just refuse."
"Well, Sister Ziyan, is there anything else? If not, I'll be going now," Lu Yanhe said. "I'm going to look at houses with Li Zhibai and Yan Liang later."
Where are you planning to rent a place?
"Let's rent somewhere in the university town area and see if there's anything suitable," Lu Yanhe said. "We all have classes in that area, so renting a place there would be the most suitable."
Chen Ziyan: "I didn't expect that the three of you would get along so well, and that you would even live together."
“The place I was staying before was arranged by the company. Although Zhou Ping’an didn’t try to kick me out like before, I still felt uncomfortable there. I’d rather find a place to stay on my own that’s more comfortable, and I won’t have to get up early in the morning and suddenly see Zhou Ping’an in the living room,” Lu Yanhe complained.
“Okay.” Chen Ziyan nodded. “However, you’ll need to rent a place in that area, and it will need to accommodate three people at the same time. It’ll need to be at least a three-bedroom, two-living-room apartment. The rent probably won’t be cheap. Even the cheaper ones will probably cost around 13,000 to 14,000 yuan a month.”
Upon hearing this, Lu Yanhe's eyes widened in shock, and he asked, "So expensive?"
"Well, this is considered cheap. If you want a room with a better orientation and a larger size, it will probably start at 20,000."
Lu Yanhe was shocked and said, "Can we afford to stay here?"
Chen Ziyan: "If the three of you split the rent, it will be a little better. However, with your current income, six or seven thousand yuan a month in rent is really a bit of a struggle."
Chen Ziyan was exaggerating, of course. Although Lu Yanhe's income is not particularly high now, he is still a popular and well-known star. With so much work now, including the recording of two episodes of "City Travelogue" and the recording of "Young Days", he has earned some money.
She said this because she knew that given Lu Yanhe's personality and current income, he would definitely not be willing to spend so much money.
Lu Yanhe thought for a moment and said, "Let's go take a look first. If it's too expensive, we'll just stay in a smaller one."
Chen Ziyan: "Li Zhibai would definitely be too lazy to live in a small house with you guys."
Oh, right, and there's also this pampered young master Li here.
Lu Yanhe said, "Uh, does that mean we're destined to spend so much money renting a place?"
“It’s good to have a nice place to stay. You’ll be studying here for four years, so you’ll have to live here for at least four years,” Chen Ziyan said. “Don’t be stingy with the money. You’re an artist, so maintaining your best appearance is the most important thing. If you don’t live well, you won’t be in a good mood, understand?”
Lu Yanhe glanced at Chen Ziyan with a hint of helplessness and said, "Sister Ziyan, after all this time, you're just telling me not to be stingy with money?"
Chen Ziyan: "Mm."
"knew."
In many matters, Lu Yanhe found that Chen Ziyan often used her own methods to help him adjust his views and avoid potential conflicts.
Chen Ziyan was reminding him in advance that Li Zhibai's spending habits were different from his, so as not to cause any conflicts over money later.
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Ever since he compiled a list of all the great ideas for variety shows that he knew, Lu Yanhe has been like a man with a supernatural ability. Whenever he has a spare moment, he starts to recall what other good ideas and creative concepts he knows.
Previously, Lu Yanhe always thought that good things should be kept to himself until he had the ability to make them, and then he would slowly work on them. Now, however, he realized a new path. He couldn't completely follow the path he had taken before, but he could combine it with some existing ideas.
For film and television dramas, unless you are a genius director who can turn a melodramatic story into a work of art, nothing is as good as a good story. A good story has an extraordinary appeal to all creators.
For variety shows, a brilliant idea can last for four or five seasons. For example, there's the nationwide talent show "Super Girl," the "Blind Audition" with "lights up" that came out after many years of talent shows, and "I Am a Singer" that went against the grain when talent shows were all the rage.
In short, it means keenly capturing the psychology of the masses, designing corresponding products precisely according to this psychology before such products appear on the market, satisfying the psychological needs of the masses, and becoming an instant hit.
In his book "Jump Up," Lu Yanhe has fully enjoyed the benefits that come with his status.
Unless you're an artist, have some fame, or a fanbase, nobody would be willing to create a Mook for you in this day and age.
Lu Yanhe wanted to make "Jump Up" because he wanted to have a long-term, stable topic of conversation with Chen Siqi. He wanted to make "The Days of Youth" well because he wanted to have a long-term, stable collaborative project with Li Zhibai and Yan Liang.
Lu Yanhe has only been in this world for a year, but he already has someone he cherishes.
He hopes to ride the wave of success and continue Chen Ziyan's legend, and he also hopes to have the ability to help those around him and do what he wants to do.
Of course, most importantly, he himself wanted to become stronger.
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It's easier for three men to look at houses, as they don't have many requirements: a good location, a good environment, and good security.
All three are celebrities. Li Zhibai is a top-tier star, not to mention Lu Yanhe, whose popularity is visibly rising. There will be no shortage of paparazzi in the future, so they would rather spend more money now to ensure privacy.
The real estate agent showed the three of them seven or eight houses. After going around in circles and comparing prices, they finally chose a high-end community that was only about a 20-minute walk from Zhenhua and Jingyidu. Of course, the price was so high that it made Lu Yanhe and Yan Liang's hearts ache.
Li Zhibai waved his hand and said, "Don't worry about the rent, I'll cover it."
"No way! If you cover the rent, how can we feel comfortable mooching off your meals in the future?" Lu Yanhe was heartbroken, but he stuck to his principles at this moment.
When they were poor, Li Zhibai was willing to let them take advantage of him, and they accepted it.
Now that he and Yan Liang are both earning money and have jobs, how can they shamelessly take advantage of each other?
The closer the brothers are, the less you should take advantage of them at this time.
Li Zhi rolled his eyes. "I don't believe you're embarrassed. Keep pretending."
This is a duplex, with two floors and four bedrooms.
The house is very nice, but the landlord's whole family has immigrated abroad, so the real estate agent is managing it.
The rent was quoted at 25,000 per month, but Li Zhibai said he would pay a year's rent upfront and insisted on getting it down to 23,000 per month.
It's still expensive, but it's definitely much more comfortable to stay in.
Lu Yanhe and Yan Liang calculated how much money they would have to spend each month, and he felt that his future path to making money was long and arduous.
“To be honest with you, we’re planning to stay for at least four years. These two are about to start school, and this is a good location, which is why we’ve chosen it. As long as we’re comfortable here, renewing the lease is a sure thing. Compared to just listing it here for a pittance, we can get four years’ rent right away without any hassle,” Li Zhibai told the agent. “You’ll also get a higher commission.”
The agent said with a forced smile, "You're big stars, why would you care about two thousand yuan a month? The landlord is very direct, he insists on twenty-five thousand a month and won't lower the price, so I really can't do anything about it."
"Don't celebrities care about two thousand a month? Everyone's money is earned through hard work." Li Zhibai raised an eyelid. "You handle things with the landlord. If you can't, then forget it, we'll find somewhere else."
The agent cursed under his breath, but then thought that if he could close this big deal, his commission would be like his year-end bonus.
"How about this, you rent for four years straight, and I'll try my best to get the landlord on board."
"I'm renting it for four years straight, so I'm not willing to pay 23,000 a month. If you're willing to pay 20,000 a month, I'll rent it for four years straight. If we can't reach an agreement, then forget it." Li Zhibai acted like a cocky guy, not even taking off his sunglasses. "Don't look so pained. I know the market here. If you don't rent it to us, when will you ever be able to rent out a place at this price? It's a duplex, over 200 square meters in total. Tell me, when was the last time anyone came to see this place?"
intermediary:"……"
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After much persuasion, they finally agreed to rent it for four years at a price of 21,000 yuan.
"Alright." Li Zhi finished with satisfaction and discussed with Lu Yanhe and Yan Liang when to move. "I'll have someone come and clean tomorrow, or how about we move the day after tomorrow?"
“Okay.” Lu Yanhe nodded.
Li Zhibai gave a thumbs up, "Done."
The rent of 21,000 yuan adds up to over a million yuan over four years.
When Li Zhibai finally signed the contract with the middleman, Lu Yanhe and Yan Liang were terrified.
With so much money involved, Li Zhibai didn't think twice and signed the agreement without hesitation.
"It's just a small amount of money," Li Zhibai waved his hand. "It's nothing."
He's a rich kid after all; his family owns a big company, so he's very knowledgeable.
Lu Yanhe wondered when he would be able to casually refer to a sum of money as "small change" when he saw a number in the millions.
Yan Liang cautiously asked Lu Yanhe, "Do you have that much money on hand?"
Lu Yanhe shook his head: "No."
"What should we do? The contract requires us to pay 20% upfront immediately."
“With Li the landlord around, what’s there to be afraid of?” Lu Yanhe pointed at Li Zhibai and said, “We’ll pay his rent from now on.”
Li Zhibai gave an OK sign, "Okay."
-
In the last few days of the month, Lu Yanhe didn't do anything else. He worked with Jiangyin Publishing House and Yemai.com to finalize the publicity plan for "Jump Up", moved house, and then worked with Li Zhenzhen to write the plan for the second phase of filming "The Days of Youth".
Besides working with Lu Yanhe on writing the plan, Li Zhenzhen also had to oversee the editing of the first episode.
They plan to release the first episode before the second phase of recording to see the audience's reaction.
Lu Yanhe didn't know how Li Zhenzhen planned to edit the footage, but based on the content they had recorded before, even if they edited it to the negative, there would still be plenty of topics to discuss, and it wouldn't lack popularity.
Seeing that Li Zhenzhen was starting to lose hair, had acne on her face, and her complexion was turning yellow, Lu Yanhe knew without asking how much pressure Li Zhenzhen had been under lately.
Li Zhenzhen is a very visionary and idealistic program director. Lu Yanhe initially genuinely believed in her, thinking she could create a unique program. However, the actual recording didn't meet his expectations. This taught Lu Yanhe a profound lesson. He still admired Li Zhenzhen as a producer, but acknowledged her shortcomings in program production.
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On the last day of August, Lu Yanhe got together with Li Pengfei, Lin Yu, Chen Qin, Xu Zijun and a few others.
Lin Yu's competition finally ended, and she achieved seventh place nationwide, the only high school student among the top ten. She had registered as a high school student.
Therefore, everyone gathered together partly to celebrate Lin Yu's passing.
Lin Yu was very happy to receive the award, saying, "I have always loved learning languages, but I don't want to be just a translator in the future, so I didn't choose foreign languages as my major and had to learn them on my own."
“You’re setting your standards too high.” Li Pengfei clicked his tongue twice. “What kind of monsters are you all? You’ve got such a wonderful summer vacation after the college entrance exam, and you’re all busy with competitions and making magazines. You’re so hardworking that I can’t even sleep in properly.”
"You don't even try, how dare you say that?" Chen Qin glanced at Li Pengfei.
At No. 13 Middle School, besides Chen Siqi, these are the few people Lu Yanhe is relatively familiar with and close to.
It's fair to say that without these people, his senior year of high school would have been half as bad.
"Old Lu, how's that 'Jump Up' you made coming along? When will it be released?" Li Pengfei asked.
"It's already been submitted for review," Lu Yanhe said. "If all goes well, it should be available for sale by the end of September."
Li Pengfei clicked his tongue twice, "I also deserve credit for this book."
“Yes, your name is in the assistant editor section,” Lu Yanhe said. “Chen Siqi said we should add it for you.”
Li Pengfei's eyes widened. "What the hell? I've become an assistant?"
"Chen Siqi said that you did a great job as her assistant and she is very satisfied."
"I'm satisfied, Grandpa!" Li Pengfei said. "I'm only helping you because of you."
“Same here. We’re both editors-in-chief. If you’re her assistant, you’re my assistant,” Lu Yanhe said with a smile.
Li Pengfei spat and glared at Lu Yanhe with resentment, "Have some decency."
Lu Yanhe was both amused and exasperated.
"Yan He, will you continue working on this book? I remember you initially wanted to make it into a magazine, right?" Lin Yu suddenly asked.
"It depends on the performance of the first book. I want to continue making it. If possible, I would like to make it like a magazine and release it at fixed times," Lu Yanhe said. "However, it's unreliable to say these things now. If the first book, 'Jump Up,' doesn't do well and the market response is bad, there will definitely be no way to continue making it."
Lin Yu hesitated for a moment, then seemed to have made up her mind, and said, "If you plan to continue, could you let me join? Let's see what I can do. I don't need a salary, just treat it as an internship. Actually, I wanted to join you from the beginning, but I was preparing for a competition during the summer vacation and didn't have time to help you. Now that the competition is over, I've thought about it seriously, and I really want to take this opportunity to train myself."
Lu Yanhe looked at Lin Yu with some surprise.
Lin Yu possesses a rare maturity and self-discipline among his classmates.
To be honest, when he first wanted to create "Jump Up," he had considered asking Lin Yu for help. However, Lin Yu was preparing for a competition at the time, so Lu Yanhe didn't ask, nor was he comfortable asking. He never expected that Lin Yu would have the same idea.
“Of course you’re welcome if you’re willing,” Lu Yanhe said immediately. “Actually, so far, it’s just been Chen Siqi and me. Especially since I haven’t been able to help much; it’s all been Chen Siqi’s doing. If you’re willing to help, I’d be very happy to welcome you. Let’s see how the first book sells. If we can really continue, we’ll definitely need to form a formal team. We can’t just keep doing this on a small scale and rely entirely on ourselves.”
Lin Yu smiled and nodded.
At this moment, Xu Zijun cautiously asked, "Can I participate too?"
Lu Yanhe was surprised that Xu Zijun was also interested.
Are you all serious?
“Seriously,” Xu Zijun said, “if you’re willing.”
-
"If they're willing to work together, of course, no problem. I'd love to have them." Chen Siqi was very happy about this. "It's really tiring for me to manage so many things by myself, and I can't keep up with everything. Most of the manuscripts for our first book were commissioned by us. If we can really make a second book, we'll definitely form a team to do it."
Lu Yanhe breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Chen Siqi agree.
“However, if we really want to form a team to do this, we can’t just let everyone work for free like before, right?” Lu Yanhe said. “The two of us worked for free all summer and might not even earn a penny.”
“Not necessarily,” Chen Siqi said immediately. “Both Yemai.com and Jiangyin have raised their estimates for this book, and the feedback from various channels is quite enthusiastic.”
"Huh?" Lu Yanhe was shocked. "Really?"
“Really! Your recording of ‘City Travelogue’ has brought a lot of attention to this book. YeMai.com’s homepage for ‘City Travelogue’ has created a special link that leads to the book’s reservation page,” Chen Siqi said. “Moreover, YeMai.com has been promoting this book through various channels. They value this book very much.”
Lu Yanhe said, "I doubt they can make much money through e-commerce."
“They don’t care about this sales revenue; they want to drive traffic to their brands,” Chen Siqi said. “It’s said that several brands want to discuss cooperation with YeMai.com, but YeMai.com has refused them all, refusing commercialization.”
Lu Yanhe: "Yemai.com has always followed this style. It says it's not commercial, but when it matures, it will be. I've seen several business cooperation advertisements on Yemai.com."
Chen Siqi said, "The bad thing is that we're all going back to school in September, and you'll be the only one at Yuming then. There's a whole series of promotions for this book after it's released, and we don't know if you'll be able to find the time."
Lu Yanhe: "Let's try our best to collect them."
Chen Siqi said, "When I was making 'Jump Up,' I actually had another idea."
What are your thoughts?
“When the time is right, I want to turn ‘Jump Up’ into a comprehensive content media,” Chen Siqi said. “I thought of it while I was working on ‘Jump Up’. Of course, it’s not possible now. We have to do a good job with ‘Jump Up’ first. I’m actually quite happy that your classmates want to join us. This way, I can have more time to prepare in this direction.”
What do you want to do?
"Entertainment," Chen Siqi said. "Didn't I not want your name to appear in this book before? But now it's impossible not to. 'Jump Up' is already clearly associated with you and the entertainment industry, especially the first issue, with articles written by so many artists such as Jiang Yuqian, Song Linxin, Li Zhibai, and Yan Liang. We can no longer simply position it as an arts and literature magazine. So, after thinking it over, I decided that I can't be bothered to avoid this point. Since it's already related to entertainment, let's openly do entertainment content."
This was actually a long-term plan Lu Yanhe had for "Jump Up" deep in his heart. Lu Yanhe didn't want to turn "Jump Up" into an entertainment magazine, but rather to use it as a foundation to expand its influence in the media field. The most valuable asset of a magazine is actually its core readership. Lu Yanhe hadn't expected Chen Siqi to have thought of this as well.
Chen Siqi said, "I won't do anything else for now. I'll start with something with lower costs. I plan to create a self-media account called 'Jump Up' and launch it when the book is released."
"So what are you planning to do on this social media account?"
"We create content that isn't suitable for publication in the book 'Jump Up,' but which still gets a lot of readers, such as celebrity interviews, film reviews, or even our own personal diaries or short articles," Chen Siqi said. "The book 'Jump Up' goes against the tide of the times and aims to create a cultural renaissance, while the self-media platform of 'Jump Up' is in line with the trend of the times. The key is that it doesn't require us to invest any costs."
Are you planning to run this social media platform all by yourself?
"Who said that? Didn't you say that several of your classmates wanted to join us? I also asked your classmate Bai Yu, and she's very willing to come and have fun too," Chen Siqi said. "Anyway, we're all students with plenty of time. We're all from different parts of the country attending university, and we can find many interested classmates to join us."
When Lu Yanhe heard Chen Siqi say this, he knew that she had made up her mind to do it.
"Sure, if you want to do it this way, then let's do it."
“Okay, since you support it, I’ll get started.” After Chen Siqi finished speaking, she suddenly took out two documents from her bag and handed them to Lu Yanhe. “This is an agreement I drafted myself. The ‘Jump Up’ self-media account belongs to both of us. Just like ‘Jump Up,’ if there are any revenues in the future, we will split them 50/50.”
Lu Yanhe was shocked.
He didn't expect Chen Siqi to be so efficient; she even drafted an agreement.
"I haven't done anything yet, are you sure you want to give me half of the profits?" Lu Yanhe asked in surprise.
“Giving you half of the profits is already a bargain for me,” Chen Siqi said. “Without you, there would be no ‘Jump Up,’ and there would be no such self-media.”
Lu Yanhe scratched his head.
"Is there anything I need to do?"
"You just help us get big stars like Jiang Yuqian to contribute to each episode of 'Jump Up,' and I'll take care of the rest." Chen Siqi said confidently, her eyes filled with determination and confidence in the future.
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Chen Siqi created the self-media account for the "Jump Up" editorial club in this way.
Chen Siqi registered this account on several major websites and social media platforms. Of course, after registering, nothing was published and no content was created.
Lu Yanhe was quite happy that Chen Siqi had such high enthusiasm for doing this.
He was just a little uneasy about whether "Jump Up" could be continued in the long term; he really had no confidence in it.
On the contrary, after learning about Chen Siqi's thoughts, Chen Ziyan's eyes flashed and she said, "Yan He, your little girlfriend is quite remarkable."
Lu Yanhe had always known that Chen Siqi was remarkable.
Hearing Chen Ziyan praise Chen Siqi like that made him inexplicably happy.
Then, at this time, August passed and September arrived.
Lu Yanhe held his first product launch event as a spokesperson.
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At the launch event for the Xueyou APP, Li Luzhi explained that his inspiration for developing the APP came from Lu Yanhe leading everyone in a live broadcast to memorize words together.
The entire press conference was broadcast live.
Lu Yanhe also logged into the APP on site and tried out the APP's connection function with several other people.
Subsequently, Lu Yanhe delivered a speech at the press conference explaining why he chose to use live streaming for studying during his senior year of high school.
"I know my willpower isn't that strong, and it's not something one person can do alone. So, choosing to do live streaming is less about me showing everyone how I study and do problems, and more about asking everyone to supervise me."
"Most importantly, when I am studying, I know that there are many people with me, accompanying me. This feeling gives me a sense of companionship, and whenever I feel tired and want to slack off, I want to persevere a little longer."
“There’s a feature I really like on the Xueyou app: you can invite a few friends to form a study group on the app, set task goals together, and then everyone can see each other’s progress in real time,” Lu Yanhe said. “This kind of peer motivation is very positive.”
Lu Yanhe's speech was bought by Li Luzhi's company to become a trending topic.
With the halo of a top student who scored 657 points in the college entrance examination, the content of this speech received a great deal of attention.
Within an hour of the press conference ending, the Xueyou APP had been downloaded more than 200,000 times and registered users exceeded 50,000.
"You've worked hard." Li Luzhi saw Lu Yanhe downstairs and said, "The data is very good after the product went live today. Your appeal among students is truly extraordinary."
Lu Yanhe said, "Thank you, Uncle Li, for giving me my first endorsement."
"Your agent is very responsible and values your endorsement. She repeatedly confirmed with us the business and profit models of our app to make sure it wouldn't cheat you before agreeing to sign." Li Luzhi patted Lu Yanhe on the shoulder. "That kid Li Pengfei is a reckless and irresponsible person, but he admires you. Please guide him for your uncle and help him get on the right track. That brat refuses to go abroad and can only go to South China University. He doesn't even know what kind of monsters and demons are in that school."
Lu Yanhe was at a loss for words.
All he could say was, "He and I are good friends, and we will definitely help and support each other."
Li Luzhi nodded. "You're starting school tomorrow, right?"
"Yes." Lu Yanhe nodded. "Report tomorrow."
Li Luzhi said, "Starting tomorrow, you'll be a college student. Good luck! If you need any help, just give me a call. You're Li Pengfei's friend, so I'll definitely help you if I can."
"Thank you, Uncle." Lu Yanhe's gratitude to Li Luzhi was genuine.
He always envied Li Pengfei for having a father like Li Luzhi.
He will always remember that during the winter break when they were studying on their own, Li Luzhi brought them lunch and invited them to eat.
He will always remember Li Luzhi's seemingly rough but actually caring father-son relationship with Li Pengfei.
Lu Yanhe was envious. Because he would never experience that in his entire life.
(End of this chapter)
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