I Really Didn't Mean to Make Money

Chapter 295: Casting

“Yes, you can choose any of the roles listed above.”

Luo Xiao replied with a smile.

“Even the female lead?”

Jiang Xue still asked cautiously, not quite reassured.

“Yes, even the lead.”

Luo Xiao nodded patiently. He could understand her hesitation.

After all, if President Chen hadn’t insisted on casting complete newcomers, he wouldn’t be here recruiting students from a school to play the female lead.

Though these students had studied acting, they were still no match for seasoned professionals.

With the confirmation, Jiang Xue and Su Tang exchanged a glance and saw the joy in each other’s eyes.

They had made the right move.

“If there are no other questions, let’s begin.”

Luo Xiao said calmly.

At his words, Jiang Xue and Su Tang immediately turned their attention to the scripts in their hands. Naturally, their first choices were the key roles.

Coming in early gave them more chances to audition.

Time passed quickly.

As the two were auditioning, more students began arriving.

Wang Bin stepped to the classroom door, holding a stack of prepared role scripts, and handed them out to each student.

“These scripts contain all the roles we’re casting for, along with short scenes. Choose the role you like and perform the scene.”

“Don’t crowd—line up and come in one at a time to audition.”

Outside, the students formed a line, entering one by one to audition.

Luo Xiao sat in a chair, watching each student act out their scenes. After each performance, he jotted down brief notes.

He had graduated from the directing department and had already directed two films. Though both were flops, the experience had taught him a lot.

So when it came to casting, he was confident in his judgment.

As dusk fell,

The auditions wrapped up, and most students left—only seven remained in the classroom.

Luo Xiao looked at the group and nodded.

In terms of both appearance and acting ability, these seven were solid choices.

“Alright, your roles have been finalized. You have three days to take care of school matters. Then report to Jiangcheng Blue Film Studio, sign your contracts, and get ready to head to the filming location and start shooting.”

With that, Luo Xiao left the classroom.

Su Tang stood there in a daze, feeling like she was dreaming. She had actually been cast as the female lead.

Jiang Xue, standing nearby, was also beaming. Though she hadn’t landed the lead, she’d secured a major supporting role—second only to the protagonist. How could she not be thrilled?

They didn’t know how the film would turn out—it might even be terrible—but it would still be a valuable experience.

And it was a chance to appear on screen. After graduation, it would serve as a stepping stone for future roles.

…

Linshui City,

Teacher’s College Student Dormitory.

Yang Yaoyao was watching the comments scroll by in her livestream as she helped a student work through a tough problem.

“Yes, just like that—draw an auxiliary line, and the question becomes much easier.”

As she spoke, she turned to the whiteboard behind her and began explaining.

She had bought the whiteboard after her livestream audience grew, to make teaching easier.

With the camera pointed at the board, it made lessons much more efficient.

“One moment, please. Let me finish helping this student, and then I’ll get to your question.”

Yang Yaoyao smiled as she addressed a user named “Stone’s Mom” who had just asked something in the chat.

Ever since they shared news of the livestream in several tutoring groups, the number of viewers had steadily increased—now over 200 people.

About 80% of them were parents helping their kids with homework. But since many of them didn’t know the material themselves, they would come to the stream for help.

“Thank you so much! If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t even know how to explain this to my kid. You’ve made things so much easier for me.”

After she solved a problem, one parent left a message of gratitude in the chat.

Yang Yaoyao smiled warmly at the kind words.

She really enjoyed this job—it let her help others and make money at the same time.

Ever since she started getting viewers, she’d been streaming for at least four hours a day. Sometimes, when there were lots of questions, she’d go over that.

Even though she didn’t get paid for time beyond four hours, she didn’t mind. If she could help even one more child, it was worth it.

Night fell.

Before she knew it, it was past 10 p.m. Seeing that no one had any more questions, she ended the stream. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

She had streamed for nearly six hours today. The audience had grown rapidly over the past couple of days.

Some of the questions were tough to answer on the spot, which dragged things out.

“Yaoyao, you’re finally done? You streamed for so long, and they don’t even pay extra. You should just log off when time’s up.”

Liu Weiwei came over when she saw Yang Yaoyao end the stream.

Yang Yaoyao just smiled casually.

“It’s not like I have anything else to do. Streaming a bit longer doesn’t bother me.”

“That won’t work. I heard some parents already created a group chat—parents from several schools have joined. They’re all talking about Boring Short Video. Once word spreads, your viewer count is going to explode. If that happens, you won’t be able to answer everyone’s questions, even if you stream until dawn.”

Liu Weiwei sighed.

She had started out with the same attitude as Yang Yaoyao, but now that the number of viewers kept climbing, she was already struggling to keep up.

“So what do we do?”

Yang Yaoyao frowned. The number of people joining the stream had indeed been growing steadily.

If it kept going, it would be just like Liu Weiwei said—she wouldn’t have enough time to help everyone.

“Sigh, there’s not much we can do. I checked—there are only seven of us doing this kind of educational livestream, including the two of us. But the number of people who need help? Way more. We’re totally outnumbered.”

Liu Weiwei slumped into a chair and sighed again.

Yang Yaoyao opened the Boring Short Video app and happened to notice a link for recruiting new streamers. An idea suddenly came to her.

“How about this—we bring in more people to do live streaming. If there are more streamers, we can split the audience among them. That way, we won’t be overwhelmed with too many issues to handle all at once.”

“But if too many people apply to be the same type of streamer, will the platform even approve it?”

“We’ll just call and ask them tomorrow. Simple.”

“Alright then!”

Liu Weiwei nodded. Streaming on this platform did have one advantage—she didn’t have to worry about losing traffic to others.

Because here, payment was based on the number of hours streamed.

As for gift revenue, she’d already given up on that. She had thought that with more people joining the stream, some parents might appreciate her efforts in solving problems and send her a few gifts.

But in reality, after all this time streaming, the number of gifts she’d received could be counted on two hands.

Of course, she’d never asked for any. Whether people gave or not was entirely up to them.

So, if there really could be more streamers like her, it would lighten her load a bit. Why not go for it?