In the office…
Impossible!
His intention was to ask everyone to slack more and work less. Now, people were taking his words as an encouragement to work harder! What's more, it looked like they really were going to do so! Reading his employees' promises to 'take care of their bodies', 'be more professional' and 'fight harder for Tengda' exhausted Pei Qian.
He wanted to reply with a few sentences, and yet he had no idea what to say.
Forget it, I'll leave it…
As long as he had typed what he meant, it would be alright. At least a portion of his employees would understand the letter and relax, right?
Pei Qian retrieved his little notebook and prepared to plan for the next cycle's jobs.
Although this cycle would be quite longabout five months, he had drunk poison to quench his thirst during the last cycle. That depleted his potential to incur losses during this cycle. Pei Qian expected his various businesses to generate much more revenue this month.
He did not want to be rendered helpless just before the next settlement. Thus, Pei Qian had to make the necessary preparations now and come up with a good plan.
He had to do all that he could to get rid of all hidden danger before they germinated!
Pei Qian pondered for a moment and realized that the first thing that he had to attend to was Lin Wan and Shang Yang Games.
Pei Qian had already agreed to work with Lin Chang and Lin Yu earlier, and they had come up with a plan to send Lin Wan away. Pei Qian decided to put Lin Wan in charge of a new business while she looked after Shang Yang Games.
That way, Lin Wan would be distracted and overwhelmed. Her chances of failure would thus increase greatly.
Shang Yang Games had just moved into a new office building recently. The employees were also enjoying maximum benefits. They were being treated on par with Tengda Games' employees, and their daily expenses had greatly increased as well. If the new game and new business incurred losses—not only would they lose all the money earned by the mobile version of Bloody Battle Song, but they would also be able to spend some of Tengda's money. Just thinking about this exciting prospect filled Pei Qian with hope! Lin Wan had just produced a very successful game; she was still feeling extremely proud of herself.
Men were most easily hoodwinked while they were proud.
Pei Qian quickly came up with a plan to deal with Lin Wan and Shang Yang Games. After coming up with a general direction, he called his chauffeur and arranged to be sent to Shang Yang Games' new office.
In the guest room…
The new administrative girl that Shang Yang Games hired served tea to both people. Lin Wan sat opposite Pei Qian, looking very content and hopeful. Obviously, she could hardly wait to start working on the next game. After seeing how contented Lin Wan looked, Pei Qian could not help but feel sorrowful.
How did things come to this…?
At the end of the day, Lin Yu is to blame! It was my bad luck meeting these lousy teammates! I must learn from my lessons and stop producing mobile games! Pei Qian inwardly made up his mind.
Lin Wan sipped her tea and said, "Boss Pei, the working environment in the office is not bad now. Everybody has a renewed fighting spirit.
"After a good rest, everybody can't wait to jump into the next project.
"I have to say that your internal letter was extremely well-written. You rekindled the employees' fighting spirit but allowed everyone to feel your warm care and concern for them at the same time.
"You had everything all thought out!"
The corners of Pei Qian's mouth twitched as he held onto his cup of tea.
Stop talking about the internal letter! What I wanted to say was completely different from what you understood!
He started to say something in response but stopped himself in the end.
Forget it, there's no point arguing about this.
However, from Lin Wan's state, Pei Qian could tell that the situation in Shang Yang Games was similar to what he expected.
To put it nicely, she had a high fighting spirit. However, to put it bluntly, she was inflated. Since she was inflated, Boss Pei could expect a much easier time assigning her the new task.
Pei Qian sipped his tea, maintaining a calm and nonchalant expression. "The new game? There's no rush for that. We can think about it a bit more before we get started.
"Do you have any good ideas?".
Obviously, Lin Wan had expected Boss Pei to ask her this question. She had a well-prepared answer. "Yes! I was discussing with Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin about it. We all think that we should continue producing elite mobile games following the success of Bloody Battle Song's mobile version.
"At the moment, the mobile version of Bloody Battle Song is earning four or five million yuan a month. It also has an overall rating of 8.9 on TPDb. We're hoping that the next mobile game will earn more than ten million yuan each month and achieve an overall rating above 9.5!" The hand that Pei Qian was using to hold his teacup shook furiously.
It's a good thing to have goals, but you have to stop telling me such horrifying things! Pei Qian remained silent for a moment.
"…I remember that Wang Xiaobin wanted to do standalone games."
Before deciding to create Bloody Battle Song: The Powerful Version, Pei Qian conducted a simple ballot. He made each of Shang Yang Games' employees come up with a plan and then randomly chose one to work on among them all.
He remembered that Wang Xiaobin had proposed a standalone game that did not desire to gain credit but merely hoped not to make any mistakes.
At the time, Pei Qian had thought that the standalone game's lower limit was not low enough. Although there was a possibility that such a game would fail, the chances of failure were not as high as Bloody Battle Song: The Powerful Version.
That was why he did not select it.
Yet, now, Pei Qian was beginning to regret his decision.
If it was possible, Pei Qian did not mind mending the pen after losing the sheep. He could retrieve the standalone game's proposal and make it Shang Yang Games's new project.
Lin Wan smiled. "That's right. Wang Xiaobin did want to do standalone games. However, I remember Boss Pei commenting that the game was too conservative and mediocre. It was not creative enough."
Pei Qian cleared his throat. "That was then, and now is now. I'm hoping to make some adjustments to his proposal in order to make it more 'special'. That proposal was not bad, to tell you the truth."
Pei Qian tried to appear genuine.
Lin Wan smiled subtly, thinking that Boss Pei was just trying to comfort his employees. "I understand what you mean, Boss Pei. Wang Xiaobin did try to edit his proposal based on your comments.
"However, while he did that, Repent and be Saved was released."
Pei Qian was confused. "?"
Lin Wan explained, "At first, Wang Xiaobin had many ideas that he thought were acceptable. However, after seeing Repent and be Saved, he felt like his concepts had been undermined. At the same time, his confidence suffered a huge blow.
"He thought that no matter how much he edited his original idea, he would never be able to reach Repent and be Saved's standard. Comparatively, he thought his game was a piece of trash. That was why he decided to throw his proposal away and come up with an entirely new one. "After that… he ended up with nothing definite.
"I asked him about it before. He said that he had only come up with about two hundred words for his new proposal, and he had not even thought about the core playstyle or how to alter the storyline."
Pei Qian was speechless. "…"
I actually had a hand in this?
Repent and be Saved's success had dealt a huge blow to Wang Xiaobin and made him feel like he had to redo his design manuscript from before?
Didn't that mean that the proposal was gone now?
Pei Qian's heart hurt.
Young people nowadays were so easily affected by others! How could they give up so easily in the face of minor setbacks?
Pei Qian had intended to make Shang Yang Games work on a new game based on Wang Xiaobin's proposal.
That way, even if the game failed to incur losses, it would probably not generate much profit due to its mediocre gameplay. That would also mean less trouble and pressure for Boss Pei.
However, that was impossible now. Wang Xiaobin was thoroughly disappointed in his original proposal. What should Pei Qian do?
Pei Qian could not stand by and watch Shang Yang Games build on the mobile version of Bloody Battle Song's success by producing more mobile games; he had to do something to stop them! After deliberating for a while, Pei Qian slowly said, "Working on mobile games… Wouldn't be appropriate."
"Oh? Why not?" Lin Wan asked, listening closely.
She accorded much weight to whatever Boss Pei said.
Pei Qian mumbled to himself for a while and then acted genuine. "Man must work hard to venture outside their comfort zones and break boundaries.
"If you continue to work on mobile games, you will achieve financial success; but this bit of money is insignificant.
"Real success comes from creating an outstanding game and gaining fame and reputation. Only then can you say you've realized your dreams towards games!"
Lin Wan nodded, looking like she understood. However, after some consideration, she said, "But the three of us don't have any other good ideas.
"Even if we want to create outstanding games, we won't know where to begin."
Pei Qian leisurely sipped his tea and said, "Well… I can contribute a…
"General direction."
Lin Wan was surprised. "What is it?"
"A horror game," said Pei Qian, looking very serious.
Lin Wan was obviously stunned. "Huh?"
She pondered for a while and then awkwardly said, "Horror games… no one in the project team has worked on such games. Oh, horror games aside, none of us have even worked on ordinary standalone games.
"I don't think many of us have even played horror games before. We're just not interested in them…
"One might even say it's all Greek to us…"
Pei Qian grinned.
Not many of them have played such games? That's perfect!
Pei Qian chose horror games because he was inspired by Xia Jiang and the others' experience at the amusement park.
After the interview team fled Jingzhou without bidding farewell, Pei Qian asked the Tengda staff who accompanied them to the amusement park about what they did. After asking around, he discovered that many people took part in extreme activities like drop towers, roller coasters, and pendulum rides-even though they were extremely terrifying.
Perhaps it was because they were already there, and they did not have to pay a cent.
However, few people took part in one particular attraction—the haunted house!
What's more, it was not just the interview team who did not like the haunted house. The same could be said for all the customers in the amusement park.
Pei Qian looked into this phenomenon a bit more and realized that among all the attractions in this amusement park in Jingzhou City, the haunted house was indeed the least popular.
At the end of the day, there were two reasons for this:
Many tourists-females especially-would dare to take part in high-altitude attractions, but not dare to walk into a haunted house. Their boyfriends could not possibly leave them alone and enter on their own. Just like that, a huge group of tourists would be dissuaded from entering the haunted house.
At the same time, this haunted house had a limited set-up and path. Thus, even if some tourists were interested to venture inside, they would emerge feeling disappointed. Of course, they would not enter a second time.
With this as his inspiration, Pei Qian decided to recreate this experience in a game!
Chapter 311 Who Else but you would be Suited to Manage the Cell Phone Business?
Would creating a horror game greatly increase the chances of incurring loss?
Of course, Pei Qian knew that some horror games became extremely successful and generated a lot of profits. However, on the whole, these formed the minority.
Very few horror games could rise above the others and make an impression in gamers' minds. Most horror games and films either failed without a sound or became the subjects of dissing programs. The reasons behind this were quite similar to those behind the unpopularity of haunted houses.
On one hand, horror naturally repels more timid gamers or viewers.
On the other hand, if horror is not well done, it could easily turn into a joke.
Take horror films for example.
In order to be really frightening, horror films had to be extremely realistic. That meant the setting, props, costumes, and make-up had to be extremely well done.
In order to ensure that viewers get engrossed in the film, the filming techniques and storyboard had to be exquisite; so that viewers would not be able to guess what would happen next. They had to be kept tense throughout the film, so that there would be no break in the immersive experience.
If the people in charge were not professional enough, the horror film could turn out like the haunted house in Jingzhou—it could fail in both aspects.
Timid tourists would not dare to enter, and bold tourists would find it boring.
The same logic applied to horror games. Thus, very few developers could produce good horror games.
The reason why Pei Qian wanted Shang Yang Games to venture into this arena was precisely that Lin Wan and Shang Yang Games had no experience with horror games at all.
They might come up with an absolutely trashy horror game, which would make it to Teacher Qiao's Trash Games Diss segment. Wouldn't that be beautiful?
Of course, he had to encourage all of them first. At the very least, he had to persuade Lin Wan and Ye Zhizhou to take on a mission that they would most likely fail.
Pei Qian set his teacup down and said seriously, "The local games market has not produced any notable horror game thus far!
"The local standalone game industry is exceptionally weak, and horror games are considered the niche among this niche!
"At the same time, creators have to be highly-skilled in order to create good horror games.
"If you want to prove yourself, you must seek to work on the hardest task! If you can conquer the realm of horror games, you could easily create any other type of game!
"How can employees of Tengda retreat to avoid defeat?"
Lin Wan blinked as she pondered hard. Obviously, Pei Qian's speech had moved her a?bit.
Pei Qian celebrated inwardly. Indeed, putting it this way was proving effective! If it had been someone else, Pei Qian's speech might have backfired and really caused the other party to retreat to avoid defeat.
However, Lin Wan was different. She loved being challenged.
What's more, the mobile version of Bloody Battle Song had achieved great success. One could say that the entire project team was now inflated and infected by blind optimism. Under such circumstances, who would give up the opportunity to create a popular AAA game to prove themselves?
Pei Qian did not think that Shang Yang Games' employees would be able to resist this temptation.
After considering for a moment, Lin Wan said, "Boss Pei, I have to discuss this with Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin."
Pei Qian smiled and nodded subtly. "Of course."
He could tell that Lin Wan was moved.
Since the three of them had not thought of any good ideas, Pei Qian's suggestion would serve as the lamp that led the way!
Lin Wan stood up, intending to call Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin over to discuss how to proceed with the new game.
However, Pei Qian raised his hand to stop her.
"Wait a minute. There's something else."
Lin Wan nodded. "Go ahead, Boss Pei."
Maintaining a solemn expression, Pei Qian said, "Apart from the new game, I have another important task for you.
"Tengda is going to create a new cell phone brand. I hope… to put you in charge of this cell phone brand."
Lin Wan was stunned. She quickly shook her head and said, "No, Boss Pei. I can't handle this.
"I have bought many expensive cell phones, but I actually know nothing about them. I'm not even interested in them. What's more, I'm already responsible for Shang Yang Games. If I take on another role, I will be too busy to cope."
Even though he had just been decisively rejected, Pei Qian did not become anxious. He had expected Lin Wan to react in this manner.
"Don't rush to turn me down.
"Cell phones would be a very important part of Tengda's business plan. In fact, it is even more important than Shang Yang Games.
"After all, Shang Yang Games can only become a game company that is famous in China at best. However, a cell phone business would have the potential to develop into a tech giant worth hundreds of billions of yuan!
"In the future, cell phones would have an even larger and more intimate influence on people's lives. They are portable and can act as the window through which each person can connect with others on the internet.
"Take Shenhua Corporation for example. One cell phone market could easily make a game hot. You witnessed this formidable power for yourself, right?
"If our cell phone business succeeds, Tengda would be like a tiger that has grown wings!"
Pei Qian kept trying to feed these illusions.
Lin Wan hesitated. "Er… Boss Pei, I understand what you're saying. I just think that I would be overwhelmed if I have to handle a game and cell phone business simultaneously." Pei Qian shook his head. "You belittle yourself.
"This is something that every ordinary leader would have to go through in order to grow and mature into an outstanding leader.
"What's more, you would not have to handle the cell phone business on your own. I'm thinking of getting you an assistant. You can hand all the work to him and just remain in charge of making important decisions.
"Tengda's business is very complicated now, but I'm not doing anything. The business is developing well on its own, right?
"You'll be just like me—an overseer."
Thinking that Pei Qian was joking, Lin Wan immediately laughed. "Boss Pei, how can I compare to you?"
Pei Qian quickly raised his hand. "Don't belittle yourself. You are all much stronger than I am. All in all, this is something you have to go through in order to become an excellent leader.
"What's more, if you take a look around Tengda Corporation, would you be able to find anyone else who is more suited to manage this cell phone business?"
Pei Qian looked 120% sincere.
Lin Wan stared at Boss Pei, stunned. Suddenly, she felt like he was making perfect sense. Boss Pei was known for having big plans. It was no big deal that he was now thinking about venturing into the cell phone industry.
Given Tengda's financial prowess now, it would have no problems starting a cell phone arm.
On top of that, it looked like Boss Pei intended to take the cell phone business slow. He had no intention to bite off more than he could chew.
Frankly, Lin Wan also thought that she was the most suitable person in all of Tengda to be in charge of the cell phone business. Although Lin Wan did not know much about the cell phone industry, the same could be said of everyone else!
Boss Pei could spend a large sum poaching someone from another company, but such people were often unreliable. Trust would become an issue.
Even if they managed to find someone who was loyal enough, it was hard to guarantee that he would embrace the Tengda spirit.
Among all the old employees in Tengda, Lin Wan was indeed the one who had been the most exposed to the cell phone industry. After all, Shenhua Corporation had started off producing cell phones in the telecommunications industry.
As the saying went, someone without knowledge should have common sense. No matter how much understanding Lin Wan lacked in the cell phone industry, she had already been unconsciously influenced by what she saw growing up. Naturally, she was much more suited for this task compared to other employees of Tengda.
Hesitantly, Lin Wan said, "Alright, Boss Pei. I'll consider this properly. However, I hope that you will continue to seek more suitable people in the meantime. It'll be best if you can find a talent who is more suited for the task than I am."
Pei Qian nodded. "Alright."
Lin Wan had obviously loosened her stance. It was only a matter of time before she would accept the role.
Pei Qian thought about randomly hiring someone who had experience in the cell phone industry when the time came, and putting him in charge of doing the actual work. The cell phone business would most likely fail then!
Yet, who should he hire to work under Lin Wan…?
That was something he still had to think through! If he ended up hiring a capable person who would bring Lin Wan to success, he would be in deep trouble.
"Boss Pei, shall I call Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin over so that you can explain to them the general direction for the new horror game?" Lin Wan asked.
Pei Qian quickly shook his head. "No.
"You all can think about it at the initial stage. I don't want to limit your imagination. Once you come up with a general plan, let me know. I will give some suggestions."
Pei Qian did not trust his own thought process anymore.
What if he randomly came up with a plan that became famous out of nowhere again? What would he do?
Still, he could not sit back and do nothing.
Pei Qian thought he would let Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin come up with the initial ideas. He would only offer some 'guidance' after that to maximize the chances of the game failing to generate profits.
"Alright, get back to work. I'll come back again in a while."
Pei Qian got up to leave.
Chapter 312 My Employees Have Learned How to Fight to Answer Questions First
After leaving Shang Yang Games, Pei Qian returned to Tengda.
There was still a lot of work to be done. He had to take his time to plan everything. Apart from Shang Yang Games and Lin Wan, the thing that was causing Pei Qian the greatest headache was thinking about what Tengda Games' next game should be.
At this point, Pei Qian felt like he had exhausted his limited abilities-no, he felt helpless.
From Ocean Stronghold to Game Designer and then to Repent and be Saved, Pei Qian had already kept pushing Tengda to create new types of games. He already worked with three different chief planners as well.
Yet, so what?
It was useless!
No matter how much he tried to change, it did not seem effective!
Pei Qian wanted to create a horror game to incur losses, but he did not even dare to hand this task to Tengda.
He felt more relieved handing the task to Shang Yang Games, which did not have much experience creating standalone games.
Now, he had another problem on his hands. What should the bunch of people at Tengda?do?
They seemed to have good experience working on standalone games and online games alike. If Pei Qian allowed them to carry on working on these, they would likely recreate their former success. No idea of his seemed to be good enough.
Should he allow all of them to go on a paid holiday?
However, he did not have a good enough reason for it. In order to ensure that he incurred losses in the previous cycle, he had already maximized their benefits. It would be extremely difficult to try and give them more?now.
The more Pei Qian thought about it, the more troubled he felt. Even after a long time, he could not come up with anything good.
Helpless, he accessed Aili Island and began catching up on shows.
After some time, he heard a knock on the door. Pei Qian looked up to see Huang Sibo.
"Boss Pei, I have some good news for you!"
Pei Qian's hands trembled. He was nearly scared to death hearing the words 'good news'.
This fellow is coming to stab me in the back?again!
Yet, on further thought, he realized this was not right. Settlement was already done!
What was there to fear now?!
Pei Qian calmed down as a casual smile spread across his face. "Hmm? What's the good news? Does it have to do with A Day in a Great Inventor's Life?"
Huang Sibo excitedly replied, "That's right! Boss Pei, A Day in a Great Inventor's Life has finally turned its losses into profits!"
Pei Qian was shocked.
Was this program capable of such a thing?!
It was not that Pei Qian was looking down on this program, but the program had severe limitations indeed.
The program consisted of short episodes filmed by Fei Huang Workspace, but the latter's work ethic had always been to produce the best of the best. Things like costumes, make-up, props, editing, and actors had always been expensive. Their productions required higher expenditure than most other online productions.
What's more, it was very difficult for a program like A Day in a Great Inventor's Life to obtain sponsored partnerships.
If they had been concerned about sponsored partnerships alone and not about the program's effect, it might have been alright.
However, everyone at Fei Huang Workspace had been following Boss Pei's instructions strictly when it came to their productions. They refused to accept any sponsorship offers that would negatively affect their program. As a result, they often only obtained one passable sponsored partnership after producing multiple episodes.
On top of that, the props used in A Day in a Great Inventor's Life were all relatively useless.
Even if manufacturers wanted to work with them, it would be extremely difficult for the program to market their goods well. In fact, the program would more likely dissuade viewers from purchasing those products.
Take the hand-held portable washing machine in the first episode for example. There were indeed similar inventions in the market, but the video had dissuaded a huge group of consumers who initially wanted to purchase it from doing so.
Until now, A Day in a Great Inventor's Life had already been running steadily for more than two months, and they had already finished filming their twelfth episode.
Although there was a large and stable audience, there were still no avenues for Fei Huang Workspace to monetize these views. The incentives that Aili Island provided were barely enough to fill the employees' stomachs.
Thus, Pei Qian felt confused. How could a program like that turn its losses into profits?
Did Aili Island spend a huge sum of money to purchase exclusive broadcasting rights again? Or did they suddenly obtain a lot of sponsored partnerships?
Huang Sibo smiled and handed his cell phone to Pei Qian.
Pei Qian took it and realized that an online shop was displayed in the browser!
The online shop was called 'Aidi Sun's Laboratory'. Pei Qian quickly clicked on the list of products in the shop and scanned it.
Finger Trainer: In this day and age, we use our touch-screen cell phones every day. That's why it's important to ensure that our fingers remain active. With this Finger Trainer, you can train your finger muscles during your free time. This would boost your typing speed on your cell phone.
The picture depicted what looked like a mini treadmill. A hand was 'standing' on the treadmill using its index and middle fingers, seemingly pushing the caterpillar track underneath it by imitating a walking motion. The mini liquid crystal display (LCD) on top displayed an ever-changing reading and was used to record the training time and program.
LED Slippers: These slippers will light up with every step I take. Mom never has to worry about me going to the toilet at night again!
Sunlight Footbath: Replace water with fluorescent light from a lamp. The 'sunlight' will improve blood circulation in your feet and remove signs of exhaustion even before you go to bed. You can even get a beautiful tan while you're at it!
Grass Slippers: Blades of fake grass grow inside the slippers, so that you can feel like you're walking on grass every time you put these slippers on.
Spaghetti Spinning Fork: There are batteries inside the handle of the fork. You just have to lightly squeeze it to make the fork rotate, thus easily rolling the spaghetti on your plate around it!
Pei Qian browsed the shop from beginning to end and realized there were many products inside it. What's more, most of them had appeared in the videos before.
He looked at the sales volume for each of the products. There were some which sold very few, but there were also some that sold hundreds or more than a thousand.
The most popular products were side products that were related to the program. One example was the T-shirts with the program's title on them—more than four thousand of those had already been sold.
More than seven hundred chibi[1] dolls of a certain inventor had also been sold.
On top of these, the shop also sold snacks and other toys like chibi dolls. These were selling very well!
The revenue earned from the shop and the occasional sponsored partnerships were enough to turn the program's losses into profits! Pei Qian suddenly smiled, relieved.
Great!
He was not happy that Fei Huang Workspace had turned their losses into profit. He was just happy that Fei Huang Workspace had timed this extremely well.
They had only started generating profits after settlement. Huang Sibo had not stabbed him in the back!
If they had generated these profits before settlement and earned the company extra tens or hundreds of thousands of yuan, Boss Pei would have been so angry that he would have vomited blood.
Yet, now, Pei Qian was completely at ease.
Was it just this small shop? There was no problem at all!
Seeing the smile on Boss Pei's face, Huang Sibo immediately felt comforted. Boss Pei was happy with the way Fei Huang Workspace insisted on its bottom line, carefully selected their sponsored partnerships, and maintained its reputation!
However, the smile only remained on Pei Qian's face for a short while before it disappeared.
All of a sudden, Pei Qian realized that the online shop was not safe!
Although it was not earning much for now, online shops would become extremely popular within the next few years. Many retired people would later open their own online shops to sell things like pork cubes and end up earning millions of yuan each month. What more could be said of an online shop run by professionals in Fei Huang Workspace?
In fact, Pei Qian did not even have to look that far. From the way things were going, it looked like Fei Huang Workspace would accumulate a huge profit before the next settlement!
Wouldn't Pei Qian still have to wreck his brains to come up with a way to spend this money?!
Sh*t, he had celebrated too early!
Although he had completed the previous settlement unscathed, he still had to deal with Fei Huang Workspace's profitable business during this cycle!
Pei Qian cleared his throat and handed the cell phone back to Huang Sibo.
"Not bad, but you have to work harder.
"What's Fei Huang Workspace's plan for the future?"
Huang Sibo smiled and answered, "Director Zhu Xiaoce and I have discussed this, and we decided to continue filming A Day in a Great Inventor's Life. We'll try to turn this program into an extremely influential IP project!
"At the moment, it looks like the online shop model is working. We've already accomplished our initial goal, which was to turn Fei Huang Workspace's losses into profit. We intend to keep working hard in order to maximize our revenue!"
Pei Qian fell silent and did not reply.
Huang Sibo's heart thudded as he realized that there was something amiss with Boss Pei's reaction.
Why? Didn't Boss Pei smile earlier on? Why did he look so stern now?
After all, Huang Sibo had been one of Boss Pei's first employees. He could easily detect and understand Boss Pei's mood.
After some thought, Huang Sibo quickly realized the reason for this.
I understand now.
Boss Pei smiled because he was happy that Fei Huang Workspace's A Day in a Great Inventor's Life has started generating profits. He recognized our achievements. However, he's probably looking so stern now because he's not satisfied with our plans for the future!
Huang Sibo instinctively recalled his past conversations with Boss Pei.
Again and again, Boss Pei had ordered him to look further into the future and not to cling to small, present achievements!
Fei Huang Workspace was now generating profits, but would this small sum mean anything to Boss Pei?
Probably not!
It looked like Boss Pei had higher hopes for Fei Huang Workspace! Pei Qian was still thinking about how to persuade Huang Sibo to spend more money. At that moment, he could not think of anything good to say.
Instead, Huang Sibo spoke first.
"Boss Pei, are you unhappy with Fei Huang Workspace's plans for the future?
"Do you think that Fei Huang Workspace should come up with better products and not cling to our small, present achievement?"
Pei Qian was speechless."…"
Eh? My employees have learned how to fight to answer questions first?
He looked up to see Huang Sibo's sincere gaze and then nodded. "That's right! That's what I'm thinking!"
Huang Sibo smiled, comforted. Inwardly, he celebrated the fact that his relationship with Boss Pei was improving. He was increasingly able to view problems from a larger perspective! However, his smile quickly faded.
"Boss Pei, we're not being short-sighted.
"The key problem is that Director Zhu Xiaoce and I haven't found a good direction. We don't even have one good idea.
"Boss Pei, if you could offer us some guidance, we would be extremely grateful!"
Pei Qian was put in a spot as he looked into Huang Sibo's expectant eyes.
You want me to generate ideas for you? Aren't you afraid of messing up completely?
Er, that's not right. My ideas have always proven extremely popular.
Pei Qian fell deeper into this dilemma. If he didn't give any ideas, Fei Huang Workspace would continue filming A Day in a Great Inventor's Life. From the way things were going, Pei Qian guessed that the online shop would probably do better and better. The videos would also get more and more sponsored partnerships, and the profits would keep rolling in. Yet, if he gave ideas, Pei Qian worried that they would turn out successful.
[1] This is a kind of super-deformed style where the character becomes cute and small, with modifications to the anatomy ratio
Chapter 313 A Perfect Script that Housed All Toxic Points!
Pei Qian pondered for a moment and still decided that he could not take the risk.
It would be best if he could bluff Fei Huang Workspace into spending large sums of money and come up with their own ideas and script. That would increase their chances of incurring losses! Thus, Pei Qian chose to avoid talking about his hopes for Huang Sibo. Instead, he changed the topic entirely. "There's no need to rush things like creativity. Many famous directors improvise their script as they film, don't they? I believe that Director Zhu Xiaoce can do the same!
"The most important thing is that it seems too unambitious for a filming workspace, that was established nine months ago and that has Tengda Corporation as its backing, to continue working on short videos and generating revenue from sponsored partnerships and an online shop!"
Huang Sibo opened his mouth, instinctively wanting to rebut Pei Qian. So what if they had been established nine months ago? Was that a long time?
Many filming workspaces closed down after six months, much less nine. The fact that Fei Huang Workspace could survive for nine months was good enough! Even though some of their productions incurred losses, most of them were well-received!
However, as he looked at Boss Pei, Huang Sibo became too ashamed to speak up.
Indeed, Tengda Games had come up with so many good games in just nine months!
Compared to Tengda's success, Fei Huang Workspace's achievements were not even worth mentioning.
It was no wonder that Boss Pei felt disappointed in Fei Huang Workspace.
Slightly embarrassed, Huang Sibo said, "Well… Boss Pei, do you think Fei Huang Workspace should venture into filming proper movies now?"
Pei Qian nodded. "That's right. You've already worked on short videos and documentaries. The director and staff are all considered skilled now. What are you waiting for?" Huang Sibo frowned. "Er… We don't have enough money?"
Pei Qian smiled subtly. "If you don't have enough money, you can film a movie that has a lower production value. If you're still short on cash, you can ask me for more. How big of a problem is that?"
Huang Sibo looked like he was being put in a spot. "Well… the budget is only one problem…
"Boss Pei, it's not that I'm being conservative. The problem is that filming movies and filming short videos are two entirely different things!"
Huang Sibo began to explain why he thought so.
Each episode of Boss Pei's Daily Life only lasted a couple of minutes. Each episode of A Day in a Great Inventor's Life did not last that much longer; on average, they lasted ten minutes. The longest episode only lasted half an hour.
However, a proper movie to be screened in cinemas had to last at least ninety minutes.
On the surface, it merely looked several times longer. However, underneath laid a massive difference.
A short video that only lasted several minutes could be made up of different comedic clips. The story could be messy and all over the place, but as long as it could make viewers laugh, the short video would be considered a success.
On the other hand, it would not be enough for a ninety-minute-long movie to merely make the audience laugh.
In order to produce an outstanding movie, the story had to be complete and pull at the audience's heartstrings. That was far more difficult than creating a short video.
Coming up with comedic material alone would not be sufficient to create a good movie.
Many movies that had been produced to ride on web series' popularity failed terribly, precisely because the producers were not powerful or skilled enough to produce a proper movie. They saw movies as merely extended versions of their short videos. That was where they failed.
"Boss Pei, that is why it'll be very risky for us to try and produce a proper movie. It's best if we don't take that risk unless we're a hundred percent confident.
"At the very least, we need to come up with a good script, right?"
Huang Sibo looked very earnest.
Pei Qian remained silent for a long time. It looked like Huang Sibo knew a lot about this!
However, now that he had put it that way, Pei Qian was all the more interested in producing a movie!
The high chances of failure were exactly what attracted Boss Pei!
Of course, at the end of the day, Boss Pei was still extremely benevolent. Since there were high risks involved and they were likely to fail, Pei Qian could not allow Huang Sibo and Zhu Xiaoce to take the blame.
As the saying went-if I didn't go to hell, who would?
Boss Pei had to get ready to shoulder all responsibility for this!
After considering for a moment, Pei Qian said, "Since that's the case, Tengda will fund the movie. I will think of a script. You and Director Zhu Xiaoce will just be in charge of filming."
This way, Boss Pei would be solely responsible for the movie failing. Tengda would be the one incurring losses, and the morale of Fei Huang Workspace's employees would not be affected.
Huang Sibo was evidently stunned. He quickly said, "Boss Pei, you're mistaken. I'm not afraid of shouldering responsibility, I'm just _"
Pei Qian smiled and waved his hand. "I understand.
"You are the CEO of Fei Huang Workspace now. You have to be responsible for the projects you take up. It's right that you are critically analyzing risks and ensuring that the workspace can generate profits.
"Just take this opportunity as part of your training. You can also take it as Fei Huang Workspace's advancement in the filming industry."
Huang Sibo's eyes welled up. He was touched!
He could tell what Boss Pei was thinking. Boss Pei was worried that if Fei Huang Workspace failed, Huang Sibo and Zhu Xiaoce's confidence would be greatly affected. That was why he was offering to invest in this project and take sole responsibility if the movie failed!
However, no matter the final outcome of the movie, Fei Huang Workspace would surely gain a lot of experience during the filming process. That would speed up their growth.
Huang Sibo wanted to say many things, but he also felt that he would be acting too formally if he thanked Boss Pei profusely.
Finally, he summarized everything that he wanted to say in a word of thanks.
"We'll follow Boss Pei's instructions, then. Fei Huang Workspace will do its best to cooperate and do a good job of filming!
"There's another thing, Boss Pei. Fei Huang Workspace cannot make you do all the work for nothing. We will pay you a hundred thousand yuan for your script. It's not a lot of money, but it's a token of our appreciation. Please don't turn it down."
Huh? A hundred thousand yuan for my script?
Pei Qian had just casually made the suggestion, but when he heard the figure, he perked up immediately.
"Alright! I'll send you the first draft of the script in a few days!" This was an unexpected surprise!
He had pulled a similar stunt when they filmed Boss Pei's Daily Life back then. Pei Qian made a guest appearance in the short videos and earned a sum of money for playing himself.
Now, he had found yet another avenue to earn money.
He was going to be a scriptwriter! The upper and lower limits of scriptwriters' market pay were quite far apart. Top scriptwriters could earn a six-figure-sum for writing just one episode's script. On the other hand, newer scriptwriters only earned a few thousand yuan-or over ten thousand yuan at most-per episode. Even then, they were expected to continuously alter the script at any hour of the day or night.
The System would probably find paying Pei Qian a hundred thousand yuan for writing a movie script acceptable. It would probably not be considered fraudulently acquiring System Funds.
At the same time, there was no need for Pei Qian to write the script in great detail. All he needed to do was offer an idea.
It was a perfect arrangement!
The two men chatted for a while longer until Huang Sibo stood up and bid farewell.
Now that they had officially decided to film a movie, Huang Sibo's passion for work was reignited.
There was still a lot of work to be done when he returned to Fei Huang Workspace. The most urgent of which was to hire more employees.
After Huang Sibo left, Pei Qian opened a new document and began writing the script.
Pei Qian knew nothing about movie scripts.
However, since he was going to be paid a hundred thousand yuan for this draft, he had to make sure that he did a sufficiently good job. There was no need to come up with a mental outline: he intended to get straight to work on the new document!
"First, the genre!"
Without any hesitation, Pei Qian typed the words 'science fiction' in the document.
Sci-fi movies were the most expensive to produce. They were also the easiest to screw up since so many sci-fi films were horrible. It was perfect for Pei Qian, whose aim was for the movie to fail in the box office.
Having decided the movie's genre, Pei Qian was already halfway to success!
Now, it was time to come up with an outline of the movie's story.
Thirty minutes later…
The document still only contained the words 'science fiction'.
Pei Qian heaved a long sigh. D*mn, I'm not cut out for this at all.
At first, he thought that he could just come up with a rubbish story that would insult his audience's intelligence. However, when he wanted to start writing, he discovered that even coming up with a rubbish story was extremely difficult.
At that moment, Pei Qian wished that he could recall the storylines of all the horrible movies he had watched.
Unfortunately, Pei Qian was no movie enthusiast. He had only watched very few movies.
What's more, he absolutely despised lousy movies. He would never catch the premiere of movies and would resolve not to buy tickets to watch them if they had a bad reputation.
Thus, Pei Qian could not recall the plots of lousy movies no matter how hard he tried. He was completely uninspired.
Every time he wrote a line in the document, he erased it and was left with the words 'science fiction' again.
Pei Qian scratched his head.
"I can't go on like this. I need to alter my thought process. Hmm… I can write in opposites!"
Pei Qian suddenly thought of a brilliant idea.
Be it films, novels, or games; they were all the same at their core. If one wanted to produce a good film, they had to be sure of what their audience wanted to see. Conversely, if one wanted to produce a horrible film, they just had to be sure of what the audience did not want to see, right?
Many lousy movies had empty plots that caused their audience to feel bored and drowsy. This was a good line of thought, but it did not give Pei Qian much to work with.
What was really bothering Pei Qian now was the movie's concrete plot.
He had to settle on a concrete plot first and then dilute it as much as possible. Only then could he make the plot empty and bland, so that the audience would become bored and drowsy.
What kind of plots was the most annoying?
Pei Qian could not help but think about one of the concepts in the web novel industry.
Toxic points! So-called toxic points referred to things in a plot that would make the reader feel unwell. A brown-noser[1] was an example of a toxic point.
At that thought, Pei Qian happily wrote another line under the words 'science fiction': 'The male protagonist is a brown-noser.
As the saying went, brown-nosers deserved horrible deaths.
If the male protagonist managed to win the female protagonist over in the end, the toxicity of the plot would be greatly reduced.
Thus, Pei Qian wrote another line: 'The brown-noser ends up with nothing'.
After some thought, he decided that the plot was not harsh enough.
'The male protagonist was made a cuckold.'
'The child was not his.'
'The male protagonist wanted to raise the child, but the child absolutely hated him.'
'After suffering blow after blow, the male protagonist lost his mind and decided to take revenge on society.'
Pei Qian pondered for a moment and realized something was amiss. "…No, the male protagonist cannot take revenge on society. After all, he's a weakling."
Pei Qian did not want this movie to become a superhero film about 'Green Hat Man[2]' or something. If the movie accidentally spread overseas and he won another award, he would be in deep trouble.
'After suffering blow after blow, the male protagonist breaks down and chooses to kill himself.'
Again, Pei Qian felt uncomfortable. "Er… if he kills himself, it would serve as a mini climax for the movie. It'll take the path of traditional sad films. That doesn't sound good.
"The male protagonist should live the rest of his life in misery."
Yet, Pei Qian struggled with this as well. "That doesn't seem right either. It feels a bit too plain. I should give the male protagonist some hope for better times nearing the end and then ruthlessly destroy it."
Then again, what kind of hope should he give the protagonist, and how should he destroy it?
Pei Qian could not think of good ideas at the moment.
However, he was not in a rush either. After all, he only needed to come up with a rough script in two or three days.
Just as he wanted to close the document, Pei Qian thought about something else and intentionally bolded the words 'science fiction'.
He could not forget that this was supposed to be a sci-fi movie.
He had to make sure that sci-fi elements appeared in the plot, so that he could spend more money on props and special effects.
Of course, as to what kind of sci-fi elements he should add…
He had to think about it tomorrow.
Satisfied, Pei Qian read the general framework for the plot once through, from beginning to end. He nearly passed out from the toxicity.
The plot was toxic—it was incredibly toxic! One could say that this plot was going to house all the toxic points throughout history. Pei Qian could not leave even one toxic point out.
Then, he would just have to enrich the plot, add a sci-fi packaging, and dilute the story.
After all that, his work would be done!
"Ai, I am such a 'huge villain'."
Pei Qian felt like he was naturally gifted in creating lousy movies! He should have entered the movie industry a long time ago! [1] Brown nosing is akin to bootlicking.
[2] The 'green hat' is a symbol of a cuckold in China.
Chapter 314 The Recruitment Mailbox is Full!
Since Pei Qian was done with the script's general framework for now, he felt satisfied. Looking at the way things were going, Pei Qian would only have to add a couple more details tomorrow before tossing it to Huang Sibo and the others.
"Alright, I'm almost done with my work for today. I'll take a short break!"
Out of habit, Pei Qian accessed Aili Island and prepared to catch up on shows.
A short while later, there was a knock on his office door. Pei Qian looked up to see Assistant Xin.
"Boss Pei, our company's email inbox is almost filled with emails. Our colleagues in the human resources department have been busy sorting them out and moving them to the relevant folders. However, too many people are sending in their resumes. We need to come up with a way to shortlist them as soon as possible."
Assistant Xin stared expectantly at Pei Qian. Her words had a clear meaning: she was telling Pei Qian to come up with some criteria to shortlist the applications. Pei Qian's mind was filled with question marks. Pei Qian, who had been prepared to chase his shows happily, looked flabbergasted.
The inbox is almost filled?
How can that be?!
The extremely cautious Boss Pei immediately detected signs of danger. At once, he accessed the company's email inbox using his computer and found that there were indeed a ton of unread emails. The red number beside the inbox indicated '999+' emails!
"What… is going on?" Pei Qian felt light-headed.
Assistant Xin smiled subtly. "I think this is a result of your exclusive interview with the official platform and your internal letter.
"Take a look at the hot searches on Weibo, and you'll understand.
"However, this matter is urgent. You should come up with some shortlisting criteria first. After all, there are so many resumes. If we arrange to interview all of them, we won't have enough manpower."
Pei Qian was momentarily stumped. After a while, he waved his hand and said, "Alright, get back to work for now. I'll tell you when I'm ready."
Assistant Xin nodded and walked out.
Pei Qian felt like there was more to this than met the eye. He could not solve the underlying problem by simply coming up with some shortlisting criteria. He quickly accessed Weibo.
In the end, he found 'Tengda's internal letter' ranked seventh on the hot searches chart!
"What's going on?! I posted my letter on the intranet. How did it end up on Weibo's hot searches?!"
Pei Qian had almost forgotten about his letter altogether.
His intention in sending the internal letter had only been to encourage his employees to skive off and slack more, in order to ease his loss-incurring burdens.
Yet, it only proved marginally effective after he posted it on the intranet. Several employees even resorted to bootlicking him in the comments. Boss Pei had been very disappointed.
Thus, he decided not to pay attention to it anymore.
He never thought that the next time he saw the letter would be in Weibo's hot searches!
Pei Qian quickly clicked it and realized that his internal letter had become a longshot, which netizens were sharing rapidly. After seeing some netizens' discussions, Pei Qian's heart grew colder. "I'm not seeing things, am I? Is this really a boss' internal letter?"
"Don't believe anything a capitalist says… eh? Why is this so different from what I imagined?"
"I'm moved to tears. Where can we find such good bosses? Give me a dozen!"
"This is Tengda's internal letter? Is Tengda still hiring? I want to work there even if it means I have to take a pay cut!"
"Don't fall for this trap! I think it's a scam! Even if this internal letter is real, it's probably a set-up!"
"But a friend of mine works at Tengda. Tengda's benefits and welfare are indeed so good that even I'm envious. It's true!"
"Did someone say this is a set-up? Other bosses can do the same! You can create similar set-ups and pull similar stuntswould you dare to post an internal letter like that?"
"Eh, did anyone realize that this open letter seems to be a copy of another open letter? It was titled 'You Have to Work Hard for a Better
Life'!"
"That's true. He said the opposite of that letter? Was he mocking that letter on purpose?"
"Oh, my goodness, this is too comedic! I'm a fan of this boss!"
"Holy sh*t, I'm not going to say anything more! I'm going to send my resume to Tengda now!"
The entertaining netizens were responding too well to Pei Qian's internal letter. He had not been prepared for this at all.
When he posted this internal letter in the Intranet, it had achieved the opposite effect, but it had not been this popular.
The sticky post remained in the internal forum, and new replies were being uploaded every day. However, most employees only felt more motivated after reading it and then moved on.
That was because only Tengda's employees had access to the internal forum. They were probably like Hao Qiong and very used to Tengda's generous treatment.
Thus, even though the internal letter was novel to them, they did not feel too moved. After all, everyone already knew how good of a boss Boss Pei was.
However, the situation was completely different on Weibo!
Of course, the netizens had never come across such a divine company and boss before!
The official platform had already praised Tengda in the exclusive interview, thereby improving its public reception. With this internal letter, Tengda was going to permanently reside in the hearts of many netizens!
Until now, this was what most gamers thought about Tengda:
Its boss was like Bole, excellent at scouting talents.
Its employees were all outstanding. The atmosphere in the company was free and lively, and it was not as hierarchical as other large companies.
Finally, the benefits were good, and the company did not exploit its employees.
By now, Tengda had ventured into various industries and performed very well.
There was another important point. Tengda was located in Jingzhou City, a second-tier city. Not only were there good facilities, but the pressure-cooker environment common in first-tier cities was also absent.
All of these factors made Tengda look perfect in the eyes of job-seekers!
As the saying went, the true value of something could only be determined through comparison.
Other companies' bosses pushed for their employees to have a fighting spirit, develop a wolf culture, and work 996[1]. On the other hand, Tengda's boss did the complete opposite by sending an internal letter asking employees to rest more and take care of their bodies.
This genuine care and concern for humanity moved many slaves of other companies to tears!
Thus, many people started advertising for Tengda of their own accord by praising it. Some even went a step further and sent in their resumes!
A few days had passed. Tengda's email inbox was filled to the brim. There were 999+ emails with various types of resumes attached.
Pei Qian had expected that his interview with the official platform would give rise to negative consequences, but he never thought that it would get so serious!
Seeing 999+ emails in his inbox, Pei Qian's head began to hurt as much as the staff in Tengda's human resources department.
However, their heads were hurting for different reasons.
The HR staff's heads were hurting in a good way. So many people were trying to get into Tengda. Of course, it would be easier for them to find outstanding talents among the applicants.
On the other hand, Pei Qian's head was hurting because this was disastrous.
He did not mind hiring more employees, but what if there were impressive people among the applicants? If he hired these impressive people, and they easily brought loss-incurring projects to success, wouldn't Pei Qian be shooting himself in the foot?
Yet, he could not possibly turn all of them down.
Tengda was no longer the small, transparent company that it used to be. Many people had their eyes on it now.
If people found out that Tengda was only hiring rubbish workers and not outstanding talents, they might become suspicious of Tengda or Boss Pei's motives.
Pei Qian could not allow people to become suspicious of his motives; much less suspect the presence of the System or the challenges it posed.
"I have to think of an appropriate way to deal with this recruitment problem. Otherwise, there would be dangerous repercussions."
Pei Qian thought about the fact that Tengda was now a large company.
As his business expanded, he had to hire more and more employees. Pei Qian could not do whatever he wanted and personally select people to hire like he did before.
In other words, the HR staff would probably focus on looking for outstanding people.
Wouldn't that mean that there would be more and more people stabbing Boss Pei in the back? Who could tolerate such a thing?! "I have to think of a way to only select the slackers.
"Outstanding people can shine wherever they go. However, they would definitely stab me in the back once I hire them; I won't be able to stop it. It wouldn't be a waste of society's resources even if I don't hire them and allow them to shine in another company.
"At the same time, I would attract too much attention if I hire rubbish employees. Particularly stupid people might even cause scandals. That wouldn't match Tengda's low-profile. I should avoid hiring them, too.
"That means I need to find a way to recruit mediocre applicants. Slackers like Old Ma would be the best; they would do whatever their superiors tell them to do. As long as I point them in the wrong direction, they would be sure to incur losses for me.
"Yes, that's right. I need to shortlist the slackers!"
Pei Qian quickly thought of a strategy.
Half an hour later, he called Assistant Xin in once again.
"Publish an official notice to tell everyone that Tengda has no plans for large-scale recruitment at the moment. Tell the human resources department to store the talents' resumes somewhere. We'll look at them in the future.
"Tengda will recruit properly in the future. For now, I will ask the human resources department to come up with some general recruitment standards, so that Tengda can hire based on those standards at allocated times."
Assistant Xin noted down these instructions.
"Boss Pei, the human resources department has already selected a couple of potential candidates. Their resumes look very good, and they're quite holistically developed. Should we arrange to interview these candidates first?"
Pei Qian immediately rejected this suggestion. "No!
"Their resumes might look good, but they might lack practical experience. Tengda is the perfect option for many job-seekers now; many people among those the human resources department have selected are probably fish in troubled waters.
"We have never selected people based on their resumes, and we never will! One's practical skills remain the most important."
Assistant Xin nodded. "Yes, that's true. It's quite common for people to put false information on their resumes now. Since Boss Pei has a better way of filtering the candidates, we will go with your plan!"
Xin Hailu knew very well that Boss Pei had a unique way of hiring employees. For instance, Huang Sibo and Lu Mingliang had been raised up from nothing. Yet, the facts had proven that they were both rare talents.
It was fine if Boss Pei was not fond of job-seekers with bright and colorful resumes.
Pei Qian heaved a sigh of relief. One could say that he had just dodged a close-up, back-stabbing attempt.
Assistant Xin spoke again. "However, Boss Pei, many departments have plans to expand now. We need to hire a batch of people to fill up these empty positions."
Pei Qian pondered for a moment and said, "Alright, departments that are in dire need of extra help can use their discretion to hire more people, but departments that do not need extra help should not take this chance to hire 'back-up talents'."
Assistant Xin nodded and said, "Alright."
Pei Qian asked, "Who's in charge of the human resources department now?"
Assistant Xin replied, "Little Hao."
Pei Qian blinked. "Who's Little Hao?"
"…Hao Yun," replied Assistant Xin.
"Oh, it's Hao Yun." Pei Qian acted like he knew this person very well, but he had never even heard this name before. In fact, he was not even sure if Hao Yun was male or female.
One could not blame Boss Pei for not caring enough about his employees. He just had way too many employees to take care of!
The human resources department was insignificant in Boss Pei's eyes. Of course, he did not care to remember the employees in that department.
[1] This is a work system where employees work from 9 AM to 9 PM for 6 days