Pei Qian lay in his bed directly after he returned home from the movie theater.
What? The movie was very well-received?
What? The premiere was well-received?
Illusions, these are all illusions! Pei Qian kept telling himself that everything would be fine after he woke up from a good sleep!
Pei Qian opened his eyes unwillingly at noon the next day. He took out his cell phone to look at the time. As expected, there were many unread messages.
Huang Sibo, Zhu Xiaoce, Lin Chang... all sorts of people sent in their greetings. He did not need to guess what they would say.
Pei Qian did not dare watch it. He carefully ignored these messages for fear that one would pop up accidentally. Pei Qian then ordered a Fish-Catching Take-Out. He felt absolutely melancholy sitting in front of the computer as if life had become tasteless.
Pei Qian picked up his cell phone after a long period of internal conflict. He opened the Gou Yan application with a complex expression.
He opened 'Today's Divination', and Tomorrow is Beautiful was in the first place.
Box office today: 7.84 million yuan; estimated box office: 210 million yuan!
"What the f*ck...?"
Pei Qian felt everything go dark in front of his eyes. He nearly smashed his cell phone on the spot.
Despair. This is total despair!
It was released for only half a day, and its box office had hit 8 million yuan!
Pei Qian originally thought that the box office had to exceed 100 million yuan for the investment of 30 million yuan to break even. How could such a movie's box office hit 100 million yuan?
Yet the prediction from Gou Yan application estimated the box office to be 210 million yuan!
The film party was expected to share 73.347 million yuan!
This prediction was comprehensively inferred based on the film schedule, attendance rate, box office trend, etc. While there would be certain fluctuations due to uncertain factors which would make it not completely accurate, there would not be a big difference in general!
The box office for the other three films was hovering about one to two million yuan that day.
Pei Qian was so angry he could die.
Trash! All these trash!
All of you seem to be great contenders. There were romance movies, western action movies, and domestic big IPs; why did they suddenly wither?
Give me some strength! Take away all the schedule for Tomorrow is Beautiful!
Yes, spend some money on fake reviewers for Tomorrow is Beautiful! Indeed, spending more would definitely not be enough! Pei Qian could not wait to find the funder of these three movies and urge them to take on the battle.
Finally, he clicked open the ratings of Tomorrow is Beautiful.
8.8 points!
Pei Qian threw his cell phone aside.
Illusions, these are all illusions!
No, he had to take a breather. His small heart could not bear such stimulation...
This 8.8 points was not a particularly high score. Many classic movies that had explosive box office results had high scores between 9.5 to 9.6 points.
However, the problem was Tomorrow is Beautiful was not a cool popcorn blockbuster. There were no exciting scenes. The plot did have some connotations, but many ordinary audiences would probably not understand it.
It was normal for audiences to give low ratings for movies they did not understand. This high rating was abnormal!
The 8.8 points rating showed that the movie was not boring to ordinary audiences. It could still arouse emotions and remain a strong attraction to the audiences even though some of these contents were hard to understand!
Pei Qian felt melancholic. Bad news really came one after another, constantly impacting on his psychological defense. Moreover, according to the current situation, it was unrealistic to expect the theaters to reduce the number of slots for Tomorrow is Beautiful.
Tomorrow is Beautiful triumphed over the other current movies being screened without much of a fight. Moreover, it seemed as though those that were going to be released would not prove much of a threat either.
In this case, the theater would be able to make more money if they could screen more of Tomorrow is Beautiful.
Pei Qian choked silently.
The Fish-Catching Take-Out arrived in no time. Pei Qian took two mouthfuls of the takeout and regained some vitality.
"The stronger the adversity, the calmer I have to remain. The situation has probably yet to reach a stage of no return..."
Pei Qian began thinking of a solution as he gobbled down his food.
"The audience seemed to be mesmerized by Zhu Xiaoce's technique from the current situation.
"This special editing technique allowed the audience to temporarily be ignorant of the toxicity of the film. It's like a pill coated in sugar, tricking the audience into swallowing this poisonous core without realizing its bitter taste.
"So, I have to find a way to debunk the essence of this movie. It's not a complicated movie at all; it's just filled with poison!
"So... who should debunk this fact...?
"And how should it be done...?"
He found the direction, but he was lost when thinking about who should do it.
Fake reviewers?
Hu Xiao's fake reviewers were pretty good, but Pei Qian could only give them hints if he wanted to use system funds.
Pei Qian could not be sure if there would be any deviations from the process of information transmission. It would be very embarrassing if it became a big huha...
Moreover, fake reviewers would not take leads; they would follow the trend. Pei Qian felt that he had to find a more influential film critic to hack the movie to pieces, pierce the truth, and let the fake reviewers join in.
Of course, it was definitely impossible to turn the whole tide around.
But... persuading one audience at a time was okay as well, right?
The specific operations were also a problem. Pei Qian had learned from the lesson of fake reviewers from Repent and be Saved. He would no longer let them express their creativity.
He had to give them a clear direction.
However, it was impossible for him to tell them to criticize Tomorrow is Beautiful directly. On one hand, the system would not allow him to report the expense; on the other hand, it might stimulate reverse psychology if he did it too intensively.
Also, it was difficult to find a point to criticize in this film.
"Wait, stimulate reverse psychology? Yes, spend money to find people to brag about this movie to its death!
"Brag about the far-fetched points of the movie. It would create an impression on netizens that the good reviews were all written by fake reviewers!
"At the same time, such brainless bragging would cause some people's disgust. They would naturally devalue the movie into nothing.
"Wouldn't it allow me to achieve the effect I want this way?
"Yes, let's do it this way!"
Pei Qian made up his mind and started looking for some well-known film critics on the internet, especially those who had already published a low rating on Tomorrow is Beautiful.
He would pay them some money to change his ratings!
Wouldn't everyone be able to clearly see that he had received money and immediately associate Tomorrow is Beautiful with fake reviewers?
"Let me see... Lady Luck is smiling upon which reviewer..."
Pei Qian was a lot more excited now. He began patiently searching for his prey on Weibo and various film and television websites.
Chapter 426 Changing Movie Review Rating
Pei Qian realized that many movie reviewers had already written their reviews for Tomorrow is Beautiful while searching on the internet.
That was reasonable. There were not many good movies released recently, and these film reviewers were also eagerly waiting. They had to see a movie with such a high rating.
Pei Qian entered the keywords "Tomorrow is Beautiful' and scanned the titles one by one.
"The Triple Meaning Behind 'Tomorrow is Beautiful' "
One look, and this was eliminated.
"What Will Consumerism Bring Us?"
Neither this could be used.
"The Dark Side of Technology in the Eyes of Pessimists"
Still no!
Pei Qian read several film reviews in a row and eliminated them directly from the title.
You could figure out from the words like 'Triple Meaning', 'Dark Side of Technology', and 'Consumerism' that they were reviewed after quite a fair amount of thought.
These people were already reading too much into it without him even giving them money!
"What's in the mind of you film critics?!
"Deep meaning and pessimism again. Can't you all analyze the superficial meaning of this film, its toxicity?"
Pei Qian was speechless and continued to work tirelessly to find the right one.
He was looking for the kind of poor review which had a huge number of likes and responses. The responses would only clearly make the audience realize that the reviews were twisted and hired fake reviewers!
He did not find any valuable comments after turning two or three pages in a row.
Pei Qian could only filter the ratings, sorting them from low to high and starting from one-star ratings. As expected, it seemed much more normal now.
"Failed Works with Lack of Imagination"
"No logic, full of loopholes"
"Suitable for young people to watch, can't stand it after ten minutes"
"One-star rating because of Lu Zhiyao!"
Pei Qian nodded his head in satisfaction. Yes, this should be the case!
What a pity that there were too few of such reviews. There were not many reviews as well. It seemed like everyone was stubbornly stomping them down. There was zero desire to compete with the other critics.
Pei Qian clicked in casually to take a look and found that they did not quite meet his requirements either.
Reviews who gave one-star ratings were basically very subjective. They were very one-sided and gave such ratings because something they saw in it did not suit their taste. The content was naturally full of prejudice.
Such film reviewers were basically venting their emotions, but it was very difficult to ignite feelings in the other audiences.
They were too low-class. They wouldn't do.
One glance, and one would know that such people were uncultured. They would definitely not be able to write any film reviews that could cause controversy even if they were bribed.
The audience would probably not even notice that this reviewer had changed his rating.
Pei Qian thought about it for a while and decided to search from the three-star reviews.
There were finally some that were suitable!
"False Profoundness"
"It seems everyone is embarrassed to say it is not good? Then, let me be the kid who exposes the emperor's new clothes" "Too many loopholes, forcibly shaped the tragedy by portraying two trashes" Pei Qian had only one feeling in his heart as he read the titles of these comments. They understood me!
Moreover, there were many controversial voices under these comments. There were hundreds of likes and dislikes. Obviously, the authors of these reviews had good reputations, and the things they wrote were controversial.
"Not bad, these are good seedlings. I'll choose one from them first and change to another if it doesn't work out!"
Pei Qian clicked open the first film review —'the kid who exposes the emperor's new clothes'.
"The reviews on Weibo seemed to laud the movie as a god-like existence. I watched it with a serious pilgrimage mentality at first, but I was so disappointed."
"I only had one thought after watching this movie: the author does not understand what he was doing.
"Technology would be so advanced, but they were still giving the lower-class people relief food while they could not even skip advertisements? They even control the time that people of different classes could go out? That's too unreasonable!
Se
"There were also a variety of advertisements. Having advertisements in the movie is alright, but why does the audience need to watch the advertisements with the protagonist? Crazy!
"Isn't this story simply a cliche story of a cuckolded man? The author would be scolded if it were to happen in a novel. Why did it become a profound meaning once it turned into a movie? Are you all out of your minds?"
Pei Qian nodded his head at the criticisms.
Of course, Pei Qian did not share the same feelings with this reviewer. He just felt that he had found the right person.
Obviously, this was a person who was stubbornly living in his own world. In short, he was the kind of person who held the belief that 'this world must behave in the way I said; otherwise, something is wrong'. It was commonly known as the 'living campaign'.
The setting in the world of this film was that 'the life of the people at the bottom of the world will not necessarily change for the better with the advanced technology'. The movie surrounded this setting. His argument was that the setting itself was unreasonable. Therefore, the entire movie was awkward.
"Hm, not bad. He has character. I like it! It should be very controversial if this person were to brag awkwardly about how good the movie is!"
The author's username was very low-profile. It was 'Just Qian'. There was only contact information on his personal homepage so Pei Qian could contact him without much effort.
"Hello, I am the sponsor of Tomorrow is Beautiful'. I hope you can change that film review from three stars to five stars and rewrite the review. Of course, we will provide 1,000 yuan for you."
Time was tight, and the mission was important. Pei Qian did not intend to be too polite so he went straight to the point.
Just Qian replied in no time.
"I can change the review but not the rating for 1,000 yuan."
Pei Qian couldn't help but feel happy after reading this reply.
Yo, this guy was quite principled.
However, Pei Qian must get him to change his review. How could he arouse the resentment of other audiences and rage war if he didn't change it? Therefore, Pei Qian was very direct. "2,000 yuan."
Just Qian obviously hesitated for a while. "I'm free to write my review; you cannot interfere too much."
Review his own? How could that work?
How could it rouse disgust in the other audiences if it was not awkward enough?
Wouldn't my money be wasted if your reviews submerge instantly in the sea of five-star reviews?
It would not achieve Pei Qian's aims even though it sounded like a good idea to spend the system's money for nothing.
Pei Qian gave up directly on these empty words. "3,000 yuan."
"Okay, please tell me what to change," Just Qian replied.
Pei Qian laughed. It seemed like this was a film critic with very firm principles. He changed his opinion after raising the price twice.
Pei Qian considered his words carefully.
"Praise it to 1,000 words. You must also find an angle that no one else had praised. The more tricky and subtle, the better it is."
Just Qian hesitated again: "There are already a lot of film reviews. It is difficult to find an angle that no one has said before. Even if I did find one, it will appear to be very forceful which will arouse disgust in people."
Forceful?
Arouse disgust? That's right! That's exactly what I want! Young man, you understood my intention very accurately!
Just Qian's remarks hit the right spots with Pei Qian. However, Pei Qian could not make it clear either. He could only reply. "It's okay."
Just Qian, "Sorry, I think it matters. The request is very difficult for me..."
Pei Qian, "4,000 yuan."
Just Qian, "I don't mean that. It's not a matter of money. It's just difficult..."
Pei Qian, "5,000 yuan." Just Qian, "I will go to the cinema again right now. I'll submit the draft tonight."
Pei Qian felt uneasy even though he managed to convince Just Qian. He seemed like a lone soldier. He had to get some fake reviewers to cooperate with him.
Pei Qian found Shaohu Reviews in preparation to buy fake reviewers for that.
How would people know that this movie really bought fake reviews without actual fake reviewers?
"Bro, get me some fake reviewers. Go to the internet to find anyone who had given good reviews and had a 'tricky angled point of view' for Tomorrow is Beautiful. Rave up their popularity!"
Pei Qian could not clearly state that he was looking for awkward praises so he could only change the wording and emphasize 'tricky angled point of view'. Anything with tricky angles must be seriously over-interpreted. It was almost similar to awkward praising.
Hu Xiao replied after a while.
"No problem."
Pei Qian was about to discuss the price when the other party sent another message.
"I regard us as having a relationship since we have worked together for so long. I'll give you a piece of information. The other fake reviewers seemed to have been tasked to discredit your movie. I'll help you settle this matter if you are willing to spend some money."
Hm?
Pei Qian was momentarily stunned before becoming overjoyed. Such a good thing existed? "Who?" Pei Qian asked immediately.
Hu Xiao, "Sorry, I cannot divulge that. This is the rules of our trade."
What a pity. He was unable to know the name of this kind person again.
...but it should probably be the sponsors of other movies?
The movies being released right now were in a competitive relationship. The current attendance and reputation of Tomorrow is Beautiful was good so the film schedule for tomorrow might be more packed than today.
That would obviously squeeze the other films' schedules. That domestic romance drama and IP movie would have ample motivation to discredit Tomorrow is Beautiful.
It did not really matter who this kind soul was. He would just keep this gratitude in his heart.
As to spending money to take care of it? Was Pei Qian mad?
"No need. They can black it for all they want. You push it up; there is no impact."
Hu Xiao, "Okay, it's good that you have this confidence. Tell me if you feel like you can't take it anymore. I can still turn around the situation then."
Can't take it? Turn around the situation? No, no, no, there would not be such a situation! I would be happier if they were to black it!
Pei Qian would not hesitate to hire fake reviewers to criticize his movie if it was possible. Someone was now doing it for him, what a charitable heart!
Pei Qian gave Hu Xiao some instructions to ask his fake reviewers to madly give good reviews to those film reviews with tricky angles, giving people the impression that everyone who liked this movie was extremely fanatic and over-interpreted the movie.
This batch of brainless bluffs would create the impression that they were childish die-hard fans. His competitors were also sending out numerous fake reviewers to bring down the movie. They were all working towards the same goal. Would that not give him twice the results in half the effort?
Pei Qian finished his Fish-Catching Take-Out after he was done with the explanations. He put it outside his door and then...
He laid back into his bed. He decided to vanish for two days and not go to the office!
Many people would congratulate him if he were to go to the office. He felt despair even thinking about it. It would be much better to enjoy the peace and quiet at home alone.
Chapter 427 Boss Pei, Should We Continue to Sell the Shares?
In Otto Technologies... Chang You could not seem to sit still. Instead, he paced around the office.
"I still can't reach Boss Pei. Huang Sibo hasn't heard from him either.
"Forget it, let's make the decision." After a lot of consideration, Chang You decided that they could not hold things off any longer. He immediately gathered everyone for a meeting.
"The situation has changed. Tomorrow is Beautiful premiered at midnight last night, and it was very well-received. It completely surpassed our initial expectations!
"We can activate the second stage of our plan.
"Little Jiang, explain to everyone."
The young man beside him handed out printed proposals to everyone else at the table. Then, he walked in front of the projector screen and began to explain the chosen plan.
"We came up with different designs for the exterior of our cell phone.
"Everyone knows that most designs look the same because Boss Pei has given us clear instructions. The logo has to be big and eye-catching
"Thus, we designed different logos and matched the logos to the color scheme of the cell phone's outer cover.
"We had picked a simpler logo at first, but now that Tomorrow is Beautiful has premiered, our plans will change accordingly. "At the time, Tomorrow is Beautiful's production crew asked us for logo's advertisement plans. Now, they have shot the advertisements. What's more, those advertisements had appeared in the movie. Take this one for example." Little Jiang clicked a button, and an advertisement started playing on the projector screen.
A drone arrived to collect take-out, but the destination was too far away. Thus, the boss of the take-out business whipped out his phone to charge the drone. After that, the drone took off and traveled through the desert and sea. Along the way, it went through a sandstorm, a tempest, and various other extreme weathers. After it returned from making the delivery, it still had thirty percent of its battery life.
The logo on the cell phone was one of the logos that Otto Technologies had decided not to use.
That was the most futuristic-looking logothe one made out of the letters OTTO, that resembled the infinity symbol in mathematics and looked the most postmodern.
Little Jiang said, "We didn't choose this logo at first, mainly because we thought it would be too showy. We were afraid that our new cell phone brand would not match up to a logo like that.
"However, from the looks of the current situation, the advertisement and the exterior of this cell phone are quite well-received by the audience!
"At the same time, the movie will become more popular in the near future. If we release a cell phone with a similar-looking exterior, we would be able to capture the attention of the movie's fans.
"Further, we won't be manufacturing many of these cell phones. It might be a good idea to make it a collectible for the fans."
Once Little Jiang finished talking, everyone began discussing the idea. "I thought this logo was the nicest from the start!"
"The cell phone's advertisement looked quite good in the movie. Even after theaters stop screening the movie, we can upload the advertisements on video websites or screen them in television programs. That would save us a lot of money. That means we have to make our cell phones look like that!"
"That's what I think, too. It'll be a waste not to make use of a good commercial like that."
"Er... Boss Chang, what does Boss Pei think?"
Everyone turned to look at Chang You.
Chang You hesitated. "I can't reach Boss Pei for now. I think he's been very busy during this period."
Everyone exchanged confused looks.
"I don't think Boss Pei will reject this idea."
"I heard that Boss Pei was the one who wrote the movie's script. Boss Pei was also the one who decided not to sell the advertising space in the movie. Did Boss Pei think about doing this from the very beginning?"
"Hmm... that seems to make sense."
Everyone agreed that it made sense to use the advertisement since it had already been filmed and was well-received by the audience
Chang You immediately made the decision. "Alright, since that's the case, we can use this logo and this exterior. Come up with a new plan based on this logo as soon as possible and then hand it to the manufacturers!"
At Dream Realization Ventures...
He Desheng looked at his cell phone screen with a conflicted expression. "Boss Pei still hasn't replied to my message.
"Should I... give him a call? "Boss Pei isn't busy now, is he? I feel like it would be a bit rude of me." During this period, 'Top Student, Come Quick' had been getting increasingly popular. Not only had He Desheng arranged for publicity using their initial investment funds, but the other investors had also been paying out of their pocket to market 'Top Student, Come Quick'.
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The reason for this was simple. The more popular the application became, the more Xude Education would pay for it!
He Desheng had been following Boss Pei's instructions recently and selling their shares in 'Top Student, Come Quick' bit by bit.
Since last week, He Desheng had already sat in several shareholder meetings for 'Top Student, Come Quick'.
He Desheng was a core member of 'Top Student, Come Quick's entrepreneurial team and the in-charge of Dream Realization Ventures. He was only managing the shares on Boss Pei's behalf.
After all, Boss Pei was too busy. He could not possibly attend meetings and get caught up in the minor details every time he sold a bit of shares.
He Desheng's task during those shareholder meetings had been very simple: he had to discuss the shares transaction with Xude Education's representative.
The other shareholders were beginning to sell their shares as well. The company that Xude Education had set up for 'Top Student, Come Quick' was holding more and more shares as time passed.
An investor who had poured three million yuan into the project at first had sold all of his shares for eight million yuan at one shot. That was more than a hundred percent profit!
At the moment, the estimated value of 'Top Student, Come Quick' was close to forty million yuan. As the other investors sold their shares, Xude Education naturally tried to haggle for a lower price. Yet, even so, each of those investors ended up making a significant profit.
He Desheng could tell that Xude Education seemed to have been cheated by that group of sly, old foxes.
Of course, he could not go so far as to say they had been 'cheated'. After all, Xude Education did want the application.
As a wealthy educational organization, Xude Education had always hoped to come up with an application that could expand its influence. Thus, acquiring the application was akin to gold-plating their reputation.
Boss Li and the other investors wanted to make money, and Xude Education wanted to gold-plate its reputation. Each was a willing party, and there was nothing that He Desheng could complain about.
Of course, He Desheng would not expose the investors either. That was because he knew that everyone intended to cash out of the project from the very beginning.
Now, Boss Li and the others had already planned their exit route. Naturally, He Desheng would follow suit. There was no reason for him to interfere with anything else.
To obtain absolute control over this project, Xude Education had a strong desire to acquire all the shares. In particular, it wanted to acquire the shares that He Desheng held.
It was then that He Desheng realized why Boss Pei emphasized on selling the shares bit by bit.
Obviously, he wanted to maximize profit!
As 'Top Student, Come Quick' became more popular and Xude Education's shareholding increased, the price of the last bulk of shares would keep increasing.
After making a few transactions, He Desheng now had the minimum amount of shares that Boss Pei had asked him to keep... about twenty percent.
To obtain more control over the company and reach a 67% shareholding, Xude Education had willingly forked out a huge sum of money for the last bit of shares that He Desheng had sold to them.
Given that the project's estimated value was now at forty million yuan, He Desheng had sold his shares for an estimated sum of fifteen million yuan. Deducting the initial investment of two million yuan, he had reaped a pure profit of over ten million yuan from this project alone. What's more, he still had twenty percent of shares in the company.
Now, He Desheng was conflicted about whether he should sell the last twenty percent.
He could sell those shares for another huge sum of money!
Of course, He Desheng did not dare to call the shots. After all, Pei Qian had already told him to hold onto the last twenty percent.
Yet, holding onto the shares made He Desheng feel like he had failed to completely cash out on this project. It almost seemed to go against Boss Pei's initial intentions.
In other words... He Desheng's work felt incomplete.
After pondering over it for a long time, He Desheng decided to call Boss Pei.
Pei Qian was lying on the bed like a corpse when his cell phone rang. "Eh? He Desheng?"
Pei Qian quickly picked up. "Hello, what's the matter?"
On the other end of the line, He Desheng was stunned. He had not expected Boss Pei to pick up so quickly or to sound like he was not busy at all.
"Oh, Boss Pei, I've already done what you asked me to and sold all the shares, save for twenty percent. Should I continue to sell the shares? If I do that, we might be able to make another four or five million yuan." Pei Qian, "...?"
At that moment, he found it hard to understand what He Desheng was saying.
He sold all the shares so quickly? He can even earn another four or five million yuan if he sells the last twenty percent?
I remember I had about sixty percent earlier...
How much did I earn by selling the shares just to affect the other investors' confidence?!
Pei Qian quickly asked, "What's the project's current estimated value?"
He Desheng answered honestly, "About forty million yuan, Boss Pei."
Pei Qian, "?"
That's not right. That's not how the story was supposed to go.
Pei Qian felt confused. I kept selling to sell my shares. Logically, people should have thought I was running away. Other investors were supposed to follow suit, and everyone's confidence was supposed to crumble.
The project's estimated value was supposed to fall drastically, and no one was supposed to want to buy over my shares... Yet, the project's estimated value is continuing to rise even after I've sold so many shares?! Based on Pei Qian's memory, the project had been estimated at 25 million yuan before.
He fell into silence, not knowing what to say next.
He Desheng did not dare to chase him for a response either. He thought that Boss Pei was thinking about an even deeper investment problem or a strategy for the future.
Half a minute later, Pei Qian asked, "How about Boss Li's shares?"
He Desheng answered, "He did the same as us; he sold them all to Xude Education. Xude Education paid a lot of money for the shares. At the moment, they're already holding the controlling share of 67%.
"Of course, because of that, Xude Education no longer wants to buy the last twenty percent that we're holding so desperately. They won't buy it at the earlier price, but I think we can still make four or five million yuan if we sell them."
Pei Qian's mind was filled with question marks.
What the h*ll is Xude Education? I didn't hear this name when talking about the other investors before.
Pei Qian was stunned for a moment before a realization dawned on him.
Sh*t, I've been generating so much hype that a massive problem has occurred. An outsider has entered the picture!
This Xude Education must have seen the application and come to take over the business. It was just as well that the investors were selling their shares; the company bought them all! A bad feeling overwhelmed Pei Qian. He tried asking, "So how much did we make from selling our shares?"
He Desheng replied, "About 15.6 million yuan. I need to check the exact figure; please hold on..."
Feeling light-headed, Pei Qian said, "There's no need to check..."
Finished!
This situation has spiraled out of control!
I said that I only wanted to lose two million yuan at first. Now, after a whole mess of manipulations, I've made 13 million yuan instead!
What the h*ll did everyone do?!
Pei Qian tried hard to keep calm. After clearing his throat, he said, "What if-I mean what if-I want to buy all of those shares back. How much... Would it cost?"
He Desheng laughed. "Boss Pei, you're very humorous. That's not a matter of price. Xude Education wanted absolute control over this project, and they have just gotten that. Why would they sell their shares again?"
Pei Qian: "...it's nothing, then."
Sensing that Boss Pei was going to hang up, He Desheng quickly asked, "So should we sell the last twenty percent, Boss Pei?" Pei Qian answered, "No!" With a 'plop', Pei Qian hung up.
He Desheng looked at his cell phone screen, confused. "It looks like Boss Pei has another plan for those shares, but... why do I sense that Boss Pei is unhappy?"
Chapter 428 One Website was Extremely Stable!
Just Qian was very efficient. He published his new film review before dinner.
'Alright, the Emperor's New Clothing was Nice Indeed'
"This used to be a long review, giving the movie three-stars. However, after watching the movie a second time, I decided to change my rating
"Before, I thought that the movie was just sentimental nonsense. I thought the biggest problem was the advertisements in the film. It's absolutely despicable to force the audience to watch advertisements together with the main leads!
"However, after watching the movie a second time, I realized my mistake. Those advertisements had been meticulously planned, and each one of them had a deep meaning!
"First of all, those advertisements were not linked to any existing brand. The movie had not entered sponsored partnerships with any other company. That maintains the audience's experience. Compared to movies that did anything for sponsors, this is really worthy of praise!
"On top of that, each advertisement was very carefully designed. Not only were they well-filmed, but there was also a variety of advertisements. There were humorous ones and postmodern ones: on one hand, the audience felt immersed in the futuristic world; on the other hand, the advertisements alone were very interesting!
"Additionally, the advertisements served to link the entire story together. There's one simple example: the judge played by Zhang Zuting had already been featured in one of the advertisements on the television at the beginning of the movie. The female host who appeared at the end was also featured in one of the advertisements. You would notice this if you watch the movie again.
"Finally, the advertisements are very sharp criticisms of society! When the protagonist drank beer, the advertisements were about fried chicken and red wine. When the protagonist lost money, the advertisements were about money lending services. When the protagonist saved enough money, the advertisements were about financial instruments. This is obviously a criticism of big data and breach of privacy! "I thought that the advertisements were just advertisements, but now I know that I was wrong. The advertisements in this movie did not make me feel disgusted. Instead, they added meaning to the film. It's brilliant!
"Before this, I thought that the film was forcefully packaging itself as sci-fi because only the background was well done. However, I know my mistake now. The film is filled with reflections of what the future and technology would look like!
"Local sci-fi films have gotten it wrong so far. All of them have sought to be impressive and epic. Yet, Tomorrow is Beautiful has blazed a new trail and shown everyone a viable alternative, by focusing on the perspective of an ordinary person. Apparently, this is a good direction!
"All in all, I deeply misunderstood the movie before. I now undoubtedly give it five-stars!
"I deeply regret misunderstanding the film before. I didn't understand the film because I was shallow-minded and simple..."
The last paragraph was filled with fancy expressions of remorse. All the lines seemed to have the same underlying meaning: 'Everyone who badmouths the film is an ignorant country-bumpkin!' Obviously, he was just trying to hit the word count...
Pei Qian had asked him to write a thousand words, but he had only had three hundred words worth of content. Thus, he had had no choice but to fill up the empty space by repeating himself.
Although it looked like he was a fraudster, Pei Qian did not care.
Just Qian had done his job well!
Pei Qian had requested for him to awkwardly praise the film from a crafty angle. That was exactly what Just Qian had done: he had praised the advertisements in the film!
Pei Qian had only inserted the advertisements in the movie to pass time and drag it out. Only then could he fulfill the cinema's minimum requirement. Yet, Just Qian had made such a big deal out of them. He had made the advertisements sound even more interesting than the movie itself!
He would have sounded more legitimate if he had praised the movie's deep meaning or the actors' skills. The audience would not have suspected that the critic had been paid to write something
Yet, he praised the advertisements. His reaction had even undergone such a drastic change. Most people would probably be able to tell that he was praising the movie for the sake of it, right?
People would realize that he had changed his review because he had been paid, right?
Without a moment's hesitation, Pei Qian scrolled to the final paragraph. He could not wait to see the newest comments on this review.
Of course, it would be some time before people realized that the critic had edited his review.
Pei Qian considered waiting a while before returning to this page. In the meantime, he could check how effective his competitors' fake reviewers had been.
After surfing the net for a while, Pei Qian could not help but feel moved. His competitors seemed quite wealthy. Their fake reviewers were everywhere!
Quality was important when it came to fake reviewers, but the quantity was more so.
If one wanted many fake reviewers, they would have to spend more money. One even had to pay various classes of accounts to write bad reviews and give low ratings. Those were considerable expenses.
However, the bigger the scale, the happier Pei Qian felt!
It was true that fake reviews tended to be stereotyped and repetitive. Most of them said 'loose plot', 'actors looked out-of-character', 'inexpressive lines', 'too many advertisements', 'lacks sincerity', or other meaningless disses. Still, they continued to pass off as genuine comments.
That was because fake reviewers aimed to influence those who had not watched the movie before. If they did not diss it well enough, they would not be able to persuade others not to watch it.
On top of that, the large-scale, low-rating motion had already begun. At noon, Pei Qian saw that the movie's rating was 8.8. Now, it was 8.6 and showing signs of continuing to drop.
Pei Qian read the negative comments for an hour and immediately felt more joyful.
"I wonder which good-hearted soul hired these fake reviewers. They've really done me a favor!
"Hmm... I think it's time to read the comments under Just Qian's edited review."
Pei Qian accessed the comments section of Just Qian's edited review and then skipped past the first few pages which contained earlier comments.
"Eh? This got so many comments in just one hour?
"Did everyone find out that he had been paid to change his review? Are they roasting him right now?"
Pei Qian expectantly read the new comments.
"There is nothing better than if one can change after making a mistake!"
"Did your conscience strike you after you dissed the film for the sake of doing it?"
"I said before that the film is not a mindless one. It's an exquisite product! You swallowed everything in a single mouthful and missed out on a lot of details. Of course, you ended up thinking it was horrible! Everything changed once you rewatched it and saw those details, right?"
"It's indeed interesting to zoom in on the advertisements. I thought they just formed a background and didn't bother to look too much into them. I only remember thinking that each of those advertisements was amusing. Now, I know that they contained so much meaning!"
"Well-written. I want to re-watch it, too!"
"I had the same thoughts before!"
"The writer was quite sincere in his apologies in the last paragraph. Since you're so willing to admit your mistakes; I might consider turning into a fan."
"This review taught me that no success is accidental. Behind every successful movie are many meticulously-planned details! Director Zhu Xiaoce is awesome!"
"Author, can I share this?"
"I want to share this, too."
The fifth page...
The sixth page...
...the last page.
Pei Qian read every single one of those new comments and then scratched his head in confusion.
What the hell?! He's obviously making something out of nothing. Can't you tell?! Don't you feel disgusted at all?!
He was paid to change his review!He really was! I can attest to that!
Does anyone care?!
Pei Qian was speechless. The audience was focusing on strange things, weren't they? Why weren't they thinking about why the writer changed his review all of a sudden? Why were they focusing instead on the advertisements in the movie?
Wasn't this critic supposed to collaborate with the competitors' fake reviewers?
The collaboration ended before it even began...
Pei Qian opened Gou Yan and discovered that the film schedule for Tomorrow is Beautiful was out. Tomorrow is Beautiful's row piece rate had increased again!
It's like nothing that Pei Qian had done was effective.
"Keep going, fake reviewers, my brothers! You're fighting a lonely battle, but my heart is with you always!"
For some reason, Pei Qian felt bad for the fake reviewers.
Logically, he should hate fake reviewers because they were people who distorted the truth for their own selfish gain.
Yet, for some reason, Pei Qian felt that once those fake reviewers had come over to his side, they had turned into mantises trying to block traffic. One by one, they were being sent to their tragic deaths.
On the other hand, Boss Pei was the hostage who was tied to the car. He could only watch them get reduced to dust by car wheels while he teared and inwardly wished them a pleasant afterlife...
Pei Qian did not know why, but he felt like one of the main characters in a tragic romance story.
February 24th, Thursday, the third day of Tomorrow is Beautiful's screening...
In Shenzhen...
After ending a meet-and-greet, the staff in charge of publicity for the film could finally take a break. Zhu Xiaoce collapsed onto his seat. "I'm dead tired!"
Zhang Zuting smiled by the side. "We're doing publicity for a movie. That's the way it is. You'll get used to it, Director Zhu."
Huang Sibo was dead beat as well. As he hammered his leg with one fist, he surfed the net for reviews of the movie.
"The comments are not bad overall. It looks like our movie has become famous.
"However, fake reviewers are obviously at work. I've checked three days in a row, but the film's ratings have been consistently falling. Our rating on Gou Yan application is now 8.3."
After some thought, Zhu Xiaoce asked, "Should we talk to Boss Pei about this? He just has to say a word to Boss Lin of Shenhua Film, and the latter would settle this for us, right?"
Huang Sibo pondered about it and then shook his head. "Of course, he can settle this for us, but we shouldn't ask Boss Lin for too many favors. We've already bothered him enough with the advertising."
Zhu Xiaoce nodded. "Yes, that's right. This is our problem. What's more, it wouldn't hurt even if our ratings fall by less than 1 point. We shouldn't bother Boss Lin over something as minor as this."
Everyone fell silent. Only the sound of Huang Sibo hammering his leg filled the room.
Yet, all of a sudden, he slammed his fist on his thigh hard. "Holy sh*t!" Huang Sibo could not help but cuss.
Everyone turned to him, confused. "What's the matter?"
"Quickly, look at this!" Huang Sibo handed them the cell phone.
They looked at Huang Sibo's cell phone and saw a hot post. Its title was 'Recording Tomorrow is Beautiful's daily online ratings to see how psychotic the fake reviewers areupdated regularly'.
The contents of the post were quite simple. Tomorrow is Beautiful's daily ratings on various websites had been captured via screenshots. For example, there were screenshots of the film having a rating of 8.8 on Gou Yan application at first but then subsequently dropping to 8.3. Obviously, fake reviewers were running wild.
The situation was the same on other websites as well. The movie's ratings dropped at varying speeds.
However, one website was an exception.
On TPDb, Tomorrow is Beautiful's ratings hovered around 9.1. It was extremely stable!
Chapter 429 The Pride Only a Tengda Employee Knew
Netizens who were following this post obviously also noticed this phenomenon. The TPDb had not changed like the other website so it stuck out conspicuously like a firefly at night.
"Strange, why did the ratings on this site not change at all?"
"Did the fake reviewers not notice this site because it is too small?"
"Impossible. The fake reviewers are not picky about who they work with. Several websites much smaller than this did not escape their evil hands. How could they just let it go?"
"Moreover, there are quite a few users on this website. You would be considered ignorant if you have never heard of it, alright?"
"Huh, what website is this?"
"Tengda Project Database, containing the ratings and evaluations of every project in Tengda Group. That includes every game and every physical store."
"Tengda's own website? Then, the ratings are probably locked... no wonder no fake reviewers can move it."
"Absolutely not. If you pay attention to this website, you'll find that the ratings would change. Most projects start off with a low rating and then gradually rise. Moreover, the ratings can be basically said to be objective and fair!"
"Yes, this movie is worth nine points!"
This post was originally intended to record the tragic attacks by the fake reviewers. However, the objective of the thread began to change as there were more readers and discussions.
It became 'why are the ratings of the TPDb website not affected by the fake reviewers?'
There were different opinions, but not one of them guessed it right.
The ratings of TPDb were hidden from the beginning and were not disclosed at all.
The final ratings were calculated by taking different weightage of ratings of different parties including Tengda Senior Internal Evaluation, General Employee Comprehensive Evaluation, Authoritative Media Comprehensive Evaluation, Consumer Evaluation, and Netizen's Evaluation.
This rating mechanism could not be said to be the most perfect. An evaluation was subjective after all. However, it could avoid the influence of fake reviewers and malicious reviews. Its final ratings were infinitely closest to what each work deserved.
Everyone who read through this post would find it interesting. Huang Sibo said with a smile, "I think these people would not be able to guess what the rating system is like even if they were to ponder about it for half a year."
Zhu Xiaoce rubbed his chin. "Hmm... but would the audience question the objectivity of this website? It is our own website after all. We are both the players and the referees. It would definitely attract some rumors."
The smile on Huang Sibo's face widened. "There would definitely be audiences-oh, no — contrarians who suspect the objectivity of this website. This is unavoidable. The contrarians can always find inexplicable entry points.
"But... is this important? We don't even need to explain these things.
"The credibility of the website could not be established overnight. It would only be established when enough projects appear for a long time under the netizens' watchful eyes and fulfill the expectations of most people.
Cliy
"The TPDb website is Tengda's internal assessment mechanism. It directly determined the bonus distribution of each department. Who would dare do any tricks under the supervision of Boss Pei? "One could only stand tall and strong without desires.
"This site will always remain objective and just as long as it did not have any desires and could not be bribed. To put it in another way, this site will become an industry standard sooner or later, as long as Boss Pei is around!
"Moreover, with the help of Tomorrow is Beautiful, the TPDb website has now entered the vision of most ordinary netizens. This is a great start!
"Sooner or later, the ratings on this website would be the most authoritative rating platform and become the standard of various industries!"
Zhu Xiaoce gave it some thought. "Then, what if the other film review websites were to introduce a similar mechanism?"
Huang Sibo smiled and said with obvious pride, "I think this possibility is not likely since there are too many interests involved. I don't think the other website owners can completely ignore their personal interests like Boss Pei does.
"Of course, Tengda would have moved the entire industry if other film review websites had established a similar mechanism where the fake reviewers can no longer operate. I believe Boss Pei will also be very happy if that happens.
"Anyway, no matter how the movie is reviewed on the other websites, it would always have a fair evaluation on the TPDb website.
"It's the same for Tengda's other projects. No matter how it's being attacked or smeared by the world, TPDb will always be a safe haven. Here, projects will receive their due and fair evaluation.
"Boss Pei seemed to be saying to all the employees: 'It's okay. I can see all your hard work. I will not let anyone's hard work go to
waste!
"I believe this must be one of the original intentions of Boss Pei when he created this website."
There was a certain pride in Huang Sibo's face that only Tengda employees could understand.
"Achoo! Who's talking behind my back again....?!
Pei Qian rubbed his nose and continued to scan the web pages seriously.
He did not notice that TPDb had begun to gain visibility with the netizens because he was paying attention to something more important.
The advertisements in Tomorrow is Beautiful had been over-interpreted!
Originally, many audiences did not care about the advertisements. They only thought of them as meaningless backdrops to the movie. That was because the brands in advertisements were all original and had not collided with any existing advertisements. The logos were collated from several departments which were different from the logos existing on the market.
Therefore, no one would notice anything wrong with them at a glance.
However, more people seemed to think that the advertisements in the film had some other meanings when they went into an in-depth exploration of the film.
Some people watched the movie twice or thrice just to study all the advertisements clearly.
Everyone was surprised to find that the logos on these advertisements seemed very similar to Tengda's existing industries after comparing them to the projects on Tengda's website.
For example, the advertisements of a certain novel website in the movie were obviously made from Zhongdian Chinese Network's logo.
The logo of a certain virtual reality entertainment room in the movie also had some strange similarities to the Fish-Catching Internet Cafe. One would not recognize it at first glance, but one would find it getting more familiar the more one looked at it!
That led to a keen interest in these brands by the audiences!
Some went to Fish-Catching Internet Cafe, some ordered ROF system units... others went to Zhongdian Chinese Network to read web novels...
The one thing that threw Pei Qian into despair was the Fish-Catching Complex in Lincheng!
Pei Qian went there once when it started operation. He thought that Fish-Catching Internet Cafe 2.0 would at most have an attendance rate of 60 to 70%, but it was full on its first day of opening!
What would the situation there be then?
Imagine being someone who was a resident in Lincheng:
They came to the cinema one fine day. They casually looked at the comments on posts of 'Tomorrow is Beautiful', and they found a post titled 'Deep Analysis of Original Brands in the Advertisements of the Movie'.
They found out in surprise that the industries written in the post-including the Fish-Catching Internet Cafe, Fish-Catching Take-Out, ROF Computer-Installation, Upwind Logistics, etc.—were all nearby or even at their doorstep! They would have the following options then:
One, they could go there and take a look. They could even buy something and take a photo as a memorial. The other option would be to control curiosity and go home to bed. It was very easy to know what most people would choose!
Pei Qian did not dare ask Xiao Peng, the person-in-charge of Fish-Catching Internet Cafe, about it because he was worried his poor heart could not take the reply.
He knew that it would be bad just by imagining it...
Pei Qian closed the webpage and stared out of the window in melancholy.
Forget it, it would be better to use the time to think about what other benefits he could give his employees.