Chapter 233 Living with a Senior

Late night in a hotel room.

Yuan Wanqing took off all her clothes and was half covered with a quilt. She leaned lazily in Ying Zhicheng's arms, her peach blossom eyes half-closed, and her face still had a blush that had not yet faded.

Ying Zhicheng is two years older than Li Guohong and is 38 years old this year. He has always kept a good figure because he has a secretary who plans his work and schedule for him all year round and he has a fitness plan every week.

Yuan Wanqing was a female singer who emerged at the beginning of the century and was hailed as the little queen of singing by the media at the time. Unfortunately, she retired due to illness.

However, in order to cure heart disease, he has maintained a light diet, regular work and rest schedule, and a training plan assisted by a doctor, so he is in good shape.

If she puts on a little makeup, it would be hard to tell that she is 34 years old. She looks more like a girl in her twenties.

The two of them had just finished a physical exchange, and because she still remembered the doctor's advice not to over-exercise, Ying Zhicheng didn't bother her too much.

When they were in China, they had to restrain themselves and pay attention to the impact. Only when they arrived in a foreign country did they dare to indulge themselves a little.

Leaning in Ying Zhicheng's arms at this moment, Yuan Wanqing felt at peace. She sighed with contentment and enjoyed the peace of the moment.

Ying Zhicheng also stroked the beauty's round shoulders, touched the cigarette box on the bedside table with his right hand, thought for a moment, then let go of his hand and pushed the cigarette box and lighter away.

"This time when you return to China, will you go home with me during the New Year?" Ying Zhicheng asked softly in her ear.

Upon hearing this, Yuan Wanqing was stunned for a moment, then she shook her head gently, leaned on his chest, and whispered, "Zhu Sheng is still young, and your daughter is in high school. You should wait until they go to college before considering making it public. I don't want to affect their studies."

Ying Zhicheng was silent for a moment, then nodded: "Okay, I'll listen to you, or I was too anxious."

"I know you want to give me a status, but we have been in a relationship for two or three years, right? Do you think I am anxious?" Yuan Wanqing chuckled, "We are not young anymore, and I don't care about status that much. The healthy growth of the child is more important."

"Well, you're right."

"Besides, we are both very busy now, so it's good to take a break from our busy schedule like this occasionally." Yuan Wanqing said, "If the results of this comeback are not ideal, I may just retreat behind the scenes, but now..."

"I didn't expect that just a song called 'Annual Rings' would be better than the carefully prepared album." Ying Zhicheng laughed and shook his head. "I thought it was your daughter's work before, but later I found out that it was produced by the songwriter named Reignite."

"Yes." Yuan Wanqing was also very emotional when she mentioned this. "And this young man named Chongran is still writing his own novel. There was an exclusive interview event before, which was linked to his novel. It is said that the effect is quite good."

"Yes, I know." Ying Zhicheng nodded. "I asked my secretary to check it out. Did you buy the copyrights of two songs from him?"

"Well, there are two, but it will be four soon." Yuan Wanqing smiled slightly, "There is also a song called 'The Sky Has No Limits' and 'Under the Flying Clouds'. I am amazed at his creative ability. They are indeed rare masterpieces."

"Four songs?" Ying Zhicheng fell silent for a moment, then burst into laughter, "That's really amazing, could he buy all the new albums for you next time?"

"Who says he isn't?" Yuan Wanqing laughed. "My daughter told me that he was attending a symposium in the past few days, and the novel he wrote won the first prize in an essay competition. It can be said that he is quite impressive. His talent should be beyond doubt."

"So..." Ying Zhicheng raised his eyebrows, "Your daughter seems to be very familiar with this Chongran?"

"They are classmates." Yuan Wanqing explained simply, "The song 'Annual Rings' was circulated from my daughter because he asked my daughter to record it. Otherwise, we would not have heard it."

"I see." Ying Zhicheng showed a look of understanding. "So, privately, many people should know that he is writing a novel?"

"That should be the case, right?" Yuan Wanqing hesitated, "My daughter knows about it, and his family should know about it too, but other students in the school probably don't know."

Ying Zhicheng nodded, his expression noncommittal.

Yuan Wanqing then said, "Come to think of it, he once gave me a small suggestion about the promotion of the new album, which I found quite interesting."

"Oh? Tell me."

……

In Yuhang City, on the other side of the ocean, it was almost noon.

Li Luo had just packed his luggage when he heard a knock on the door. Xu Rongsheng's voice rang out from outside: "Li Luo, get ready. Let's go have lunch."

"Okay Uncle Xu, I'll be right there."

"Don't worry, Youyu is probably still sleeping in. I'll go call her."

After that, there was a knock on the door next door.

After a long while, the knocking on the door stopped.

Li Luo dragged his suitcase and pushed the door open. He saw the door next door just opened and Xu Youyu's dazed voice came out: "Dad... Good morning."

"What time do you think it is?"

"Hmm? What time?"

"It's already half past eleven, and you're still sleeping?" Xu Rongsheng said, "Li Luo has already packed up, don't keep him waiting any longer."

"Hmm..." Xu Youyu rubbed his eyes, and looked next door, and saw Li Luo who had already come out with a suitcase, "You have packed everything, why didn't you call me just now?"

"Wouldn't it be nice to let you sleep a little longer?"

"Thank you very much."

Xu Youyu returned to the house yawning, washed his face and woke up, then immediately started packing his luggage.

By almost twelve o'clock, I was finally ready. I dragged my suitcase and followed behind, going downstairs with Li Luo and Xu Rongsheng to check out.

Then the three of them went to a small restaurant nearby and had a simple meal at the expense of Xu Rongsheng.

"After returning to my room last night, I carefully read your book." Xu Rongsheng said to Li Luo with a smile at the dinner table, "To be honest, it is quite inspiring."

"I've also read the beginnings of some other books, but I feel that your work is more organized in structure. I don't know if it's just my illusion."

"It seems like you are intentionally controlling the word count of each plot."

"Basically every 20 to 30 chapters has a complete structure of introduction, development, turn and conclusion, which is very regular."

"Other books have this quality, but they tend to get lost along the way, hitting all sorts of targets here and there."

When Li Luo heard Xu Rongsheng talking about the book he wrote, his face suddenly froze. He glanced at Xu Youyu next to him and saw that she was holding back her laughter and concentrating on eating. She looked like she wanted to laugh but was afraid of being implicated.

But after hearing what Xu Rongsheng said later, Li Luo realized that he was really studying it seriously. He explained, "I call this writing style the rhythm of online literature."

"A complete plot with climaxes and exciting moments, assuming it has 50,000 words, then this number of words is the rhythm of an online novel."

"Some books may have 100,000 words, some 200,000 words, and some may even have millions of words before they burst out. This is the rhythm of a book, just like the ups and downs of musical notes."

“The slower the pace, the longer the buildup, the more accumulated emotions, and the more intense and prolonged the emotional outburst at the climax, but the price is that during the serialization period, the reader’s follow-up reading experience will be very bad and more difficult to endure.” “The faster the pace, the shorter and faster the buildup, and the emotional ups and downs are not as dramatic, but because the emotional feedback can be obtained faster, the reader’s follow-up reading experience will be better.”

"The price is the loss of the high burst that has been laid for a long time, and it is difficult to leave a deep impression on readers."

Li Luo's choice was obviously the latter.

After all, the development of the Internet has always been moving in the direction of short, flat and fast progress, and Li Luo is just following the trend of the times.

As for his theories, they were basically summarized step by step by online writers in later generations.

"Of course, there is also a way to have both," Li Luo added, "which is to insert a small introduction, development, transition and conclusion into the introduction, development, transition and conclusion of a million-word article, so that one big one contains several small ones."

"While ensuring that readers are satisfied with the quick and easy content, it can also continue to build on the climax."

“I call this kind of writing the secondary structure, while the two fast and slow modes mentioned above belong to the primary structure.”

For Li Luo, the secondary structure is of course a better choice, but his ability in this area is limited, so he made some trade-offs.

After all, this kind of secondary structure is often very brain-consuming. It requires short and fast-paced plots to follow one after another, while also laying the groundwork for the climax, moving forward step by step towards the climax.

If this kind of thing is not controlled well, the secondary structure will collapse. In the end, not to mention taking both into account, the shortcomings of both will be encountered, and the effect will be poor.

As for above this, there is a three-level structure.

It is based on a small plot of 50,000 to 100,000 words as the cells, a climax plot of 50 to 1 million words as the skeleton, and finally converges into an ultimate climax of 4 to 5 million words.

It is equivalent to a very large introduction, development, turning point and ending, which contains four or five medium-sized introductions, developments, turning points and endings.

And every medium-sized chapter contains four or five smaller chapters.

With layers of nesting, a beautifully structured online literature framework is created.

However, this level of paving is not something that ordinary people can handle.

The entire framework of the book must be completed before it is even started, and during the continuous creation process of more than a year, it is carried out in an orderly and impartial manner.

This is a huge test for an online writer.

Most people who write online articles just come up with an idea, then open Word and start working on it without giving it much thought.

Most people who think so much at the beginning, just after writing tens of thousands of words and uploading them, find that their data has already failed...there is no follow-up.

"Your statement is quite interesting. This is the first time I've heard of it." Xu Rongsheng nodded in realization and silently noted it down in his mind. "This can be considered a feature of online literature. After all, there has never been a work with millions of words in history."

"This can be considered a trend of the times," Li Luo said with a smile. "As the media that carry text develops, it will naturally produce works with larger numbers of words."

If a work of millions of words were to be made into paper books at one time, with the same thickness and number of pages as ordinary books, it would take more than ten to twenty copies to be published at one time.

If this kind of cost were put into ancient times, it would be unimaginable.

That is to say, in the Internet age, words can be separated from reality and recorded completely through the virtual Internet, which allows the number of words in novels to expand and evolve tremendously.

Xu Youyu, who was concentrating on eating, looked at his father and Li Luo discussing the online article in a very harmonious manner, and an expression of surprise suddenly appeared on his face.

But as the two people's discussion deepened, Xu Youyu gradually became fascinated.

Xu Youyu gained a lot from the many theoretical frameworks that Li Luo spoke of, and he even felt like he had suddenly gained enlightenment.

In the past, I was confused about the structure and writing style of online articles, but now it seems that I have understood them all of a sudden and everything has become clear.

During the discussion with Li Luo, Xu Rongsheng gradually discovered that Li Luo did have unique insights into online literature, from being stiff and awkward at the beginning to being able to talk freely later.

In this regard, Xu Rongsheng also communicated with Xia Lie, the editor who specializes in interviewing online writers, but those big authors did not seem to have a very complete basic understanding of online literature like Li Luo, and they relied more on vague inspiration to create.

Of course, for creators, they just need to give full play to their inspiration, but for those who want to explore the mechanism and essence of online writing, there are many things to consider.

Therefore, Li Luo's insights from the future ten or twenty years later were very inspiring to Xu Rongsheng.

This made Xu Rongsheng look up to Li Luo again.

After all, with such insight into online literature, it is conceivable that Li Luo’s success is by no means a simple accident or luck, but is also supported by considerable strength.

Even though this book is finished now, Xu Rongsheng believes that Li Luo can still create equally excellent works.

……

After lunch, the three of them hailed a taxi on the side of the road and went home.

Xu Rongsheng went straight back to the residential quarters for employees of Qianjiang University, but Xu Youyu had no intention of going back. After dropping his father off at the residential quarters, he told the driver to drive to Bihai Lanting.

"Aren't you going home with me?" Xu Rongsheng asked.

"Well, I'll stay there for a few more days and come back before the New Year."

"You girl..."

Watching the taxi go away, Xu Rongsheng shook his head helplessly.

In the taxi, as the car stopped at the entrance of Bihai Lanting community, Xu Youyu got out of the car and unloaded his and Li Luo's luggage, then waved to Li Luo in the car: "Let's go, what are you doing?"

Li Luo: “……?”

Li Luo was pulled out of the taxi by Xu Youyu, looking confused. As he watched the taxi go away, he suddenly fell into deep thought: "Why did you pull me out? I still need to go home."

"Do you have the heart to leave me here alone without even knowing how to fix dinner?" Xu Youyu looked at him with a pitiful expression, blinking his big eyes.

"From here, go there, turn right at the intersection, walk straight to the middle, then turn left across the street, there is a residential area there." Li Luo said expressionlessly, "Then go straight to Building 5, Unit 2, stop, go up to the 4th floor, enter Room 402, sit down at the dining table, and wait for your meal."

Xu Youyu curled his lips and said, "Thank you. I think it would be more convenient to just abduct you here."

"I'm tired from the long journey."

"Can I give you a shoulder massage?"

"That's something you can consider."

(End of this chapter)