Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Pei Qian wandered around and came to Lu Mingliang’s work desk. He was preparing to give Xiao Lu a heads up. Pei Qian hired Ma Yiqun as something like a lucky charm. He wanted to neutralize his own luck.

If Lu Mingliang misunderstood this and allowed Ma Yiqun to get to work like changing the entire synopsis of the game, it would be very dangerous indeed. Ma Yiqun’s writing was really not bad. If the synopsis made the game become popular, what would Pei Qian do?!

Thus, Pei Qian had to make sure that Ma Yiqun did not do anything at all.

When he saw Boss Pei wandering over to him, Lu Mingliang became on high alert. He stood up and asked, “Boss Pei, do you have any instructions?”

Pei Qian had not been coming to the office often in recent days because he had been busy. He had to continue filming for Boss Pei, and he had to run errands outside as well. School had resumed, too. Every now and then, Pei Qian still had to attend lessons.

He would also visit the internet cafe once in a while to take a look. Every time he noted that there was the risk of the internet cafe becoming popular, he had to deal with it immediately.

Thus, Pei Qian felt exhausted.

These employees were not making his life any easier either!

“There’s nothing much. I just wanted to tell you that we hired a new plot planner,” Pei Qian said nonchalantly.

Lu Mingliang immediately inferred what Boss Pei was saying. “I understand, Boss Pei! I will ask him to redo all the synopses for the three games immediately!”

“No, no, no, no! That’s not what I meant!” Pei Qian quickly shook his head. “I meant to say… he is new and unfamiliar with games. Make sure you do not give him any work this month. Let him pick things up on his own. Understand?

“Keep him away from Game Designer especially. Do not let him touch any plot or synopsis!”

Lu Mingliang was stumped.

What?

He hired a new employee but did not want him to do any work? He just wanted him to observe things? He could not even assist?

This…

The first thing that came to Lu Mingliang’s mind was that something was strange. However, on second thought, this was quite reasonable.

Who was the one who wrote Game Designer’s plot and voice-over script?

Boss Pei personally wrote it!

Even if this plot planner was experienced, his standard could not compare to Boss Pei’s. Much less if he was an amateur. All the more, this man had to watch and learn.

Given all of these, it was very reasonable for Boss Pei to give him an entire month to observe!

Lu Mingliang quickly nodded and said, “Alright, Boss Pei! I understand! I will give him things to learn, so that he will be able to understand your game design intentions!”

Understand my game design intentions? What intentions does my game design have? Persuading players to stop playing? 

Alright, whatever… 

Pei Qian was too lazy to explain anything more. He turned around and started to leave. However, he immediately turned back around. He caught a glimpse of Lu Mingliang’s computer screen. That was… part of Game Designer’s submitted art resources!

There were animations and models.

Pei Qian only managed to catch a glimpse of the concept drafts for the animations, but he felt like they looked familiar.

That’s strange.

Why did it feel so familiar?

Pei Qian frowned and asked, “These animations…”

Lu Mingliang excitedly answered, “Eh, Boss Pei, you could tell? That’s right, they’re done by veteran Ruan Guangjian! Boss Pei and veteran Ruan Guangjian indeed have great minds that think alike; you could recognize his work with just one glance!”

Pei Qian, “????”

What the hell?!

He turned to stare at Lu Mingliang in disbelief. “I… didn’t I ask you to find the most expensive artist?”

Lu Mingliang nodded. “That’s right. Big Boss Ruan was the most expensive artist listed.”

What the f*ck!

Pei Qian nearly vomited blood. Only a few months had passed, but Ruan Guangjian had gone from being completely transparent to an expensive artist? Even property prices did not rise so quickly!

Lu Mingliang saw Pei Qian’s astonished expression and thought that he was pleasantly surprised. Excitedly, he continued, “What’s more, Big Boss Ruan heard about your project and only took a token sum as remuneration. He was very pleasant indeed!

“Boss Pei, you did not even have to show your own face, but you saved tens of thousands of yuan for the company’s research and development fund. You really are well-known in the industry!”

Pei Qian remained stunned for a moment. Then, he asked, “Can we still edit the contract?”

Lu Mingliang paused. “Huh? Boss Pei, you mean… you want to pay him more? I think it won’t be easy to change because the contract has already been certified by the platform. We’re more than halfway done as well.

“Changing the contract will be very complicated. What’s more, Big Boss Ruan might not accept it.

“Boss Pei, if you don’t feel good, you could treat Big Boss Ruan to a meal in private. Otherwise, we could build a long-term working relationship with him according to his marketed price.”

Pei Qian, “…You can get back to work.”

Pei Qian was speechless. Initially, he did not have high expectations for the art resources for this game. He only wanted to spend more money and have it look less attractive!

The result?

He did not achieve either one of those aims!

Not only did he fail to spend the money, but the game’s art concept design was done by Ruan Guangjian, a veteran pretending to be a rookie!

Pei Qian felt a sharp pain in his head.

What is the meaning of this? There are so many other artists listed on the website for resources; why am I still being hounded by this veteran, of all people?

What do you like about me?! Can I change it?! 

Pei Qian went back to his own office and slumped down on his chair.

Painful!

“Forget it, what’s done is done. I have to be positive…

“It’s impossible to break the contract. I can only wait for it to be done and review it. It’s a good thing that Game Designer is not a game that prides itself on its pictures…”

Pei Qian tried his best to calm himself down.

Knock, knock!

There was a knock on his office door.

Pei Qian looked up and saw that it was Ma Yang.

“What’s the matter? Don’t tell me something went wrong at the internet cafe?!” Pei Qian became alert at once.

Ma Yang did not come here to report good news, did he?

That would be… terribly sad!

Don’t let the saying ‘misfortunes never come singly’ come true!

Ma Yang’s expression was serious. “Brother Qian, I… I feel like I should tell you what’s happening at Fish-Catching Internet Cafe.

“Zhang Yuan already did his calculations. According to the volume of business we have been getting during this period, the internet cafe is making a loss of about three hundred thousand yuan each month…

“In other words, the internet cafe’s revenue barely pays the salaries of all the employees, as well as the utility bills. We are not making a single cent back for our biggest expense, the rent; much less the capital we poured into the internet cafe at first…

“Zhang Yuan gave some suggestions that I think are worth considering. Look…” Ma Yang took out a little book, wanting to explain Zhang Yuan’s suggestions to Pei Qian. The only strategies were lowering the prices and organizing promotional activities.

Pei Qian rejoiced in his heart. At once, he raised his hand, gesturing for Ma Yang to stop talking. They were losing three hundred thousand yuan each month? Great! Indeed, brothers were the most reliable!

Ma Yang looked at Pei Qian, confused.

Pei Qian tried hard to suppress his smile and said in a stern tone, “I already told you, I don’t care about these things. This shows that our internet cafe is on the right path!”

Ma Yang was stumped. “Huh? We’re losing three hundred thousand yuan each month! How can this be the right path?”

Pei Qian nodded. “That’s right. Fish-Catching Internet Cafe’s existence has to be publicized in this classy and elegant way! Think about it. Although Fish-Catching Internet Cafe does not have many customers, have the customers all been very satisfied with the cafe so far?”

Ma Yang pondered for a few seconds and said, “I think… they are quite satisfied.”

That’s nonsense. Anyone who had a strong opinion on the price would walk away the moment they saw the sign at the door. They would not have become customers of the internet cafe in the first place. People who saw the prices on the sign and still walked in were all rich people who could afford the expenses.

Of course, these people would be satisfied with the internet cafe. There weren’t many people inside! They could pick their favorite high-end computer out of fifty; they could pick their favorite seat in the coffee area. Many times, there were more waiters than there were customers. There was almost exclusive, one-on-one service…

How could they not be satisfied?!

Pei Qian nodded, saying, “So it’s alright to incur losses temporarily. We are paying money for people to spread the word about us! When people come because of word-of-mouth, do you think we would still have a shortage of customers?”

“If we reduce the price now, we would not be attracting the right crowd. How would we raise the price in the future, then? That’s why we have to allow things to remain as they are. We have to be patient and bear with it!”

Seeing Pei Qian’s determined expression, Ma Yang scratched his head.

It sounded… logical.

“Alright… we’ll listen to you…” Ma Yang replied weakly.