Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Back then, when Qiao Liang dissed The Lonely Desert Road, he did not think about doing any marketing for Tengda. He was purely doing it to satisfy his own interest. His main intention was to become popular…

Although it turned out to be a win-win situation, where both the game and Qiao Liang became popular, the segment was meant to be a dissing segment. He dissed the game so badly; how could the creator of the game not bear a grudge against him?

He could only hope that the creator would be magnanimous.

Lu Mingliang replied very quickly: “Boss Pei is very happy. He says that the video must be published under the New Recommended Games of the Month segment. The script cannot be changed. What’s more, you cannot let your audience think it’s sarcasm. You must play the role well; it must sound genuine.”

He was confounded. He’s finished; this Boss Pei bears a grudge indeed! He wanted to watch Qiao Liang make a fool out of himself!

Although New Recommended Games of the Month was used especially for sponsored partnerships and the audience knew this very well, he could not publicize a game without any standard. He would be cursed by his audience for sure!

What’s more, since this segment was meant for sponsored partnerships to begin with, the audience would not think that he’s being sarcastic or using reverse psychology.

In addition to Boss Pei’s request for him to play the role well and sound genuine…

He could predict that once they saw the video, the audience would think he was shameless when it came to accepting sponsored partnerships. They would think Teacher Qiao was going against his own values!

Boss Pei was doing this on purpose, wasn’t he? He was taking revenge; everything about this situation made that clear! He could not accept this job, no matter how much they were offering him!

Qiao Liang immediately typed a reply: “I’m sorry, Boss Lu. You are asking too much of me. I don’t think I’ll be able to do it. Please find someone else for the job.”

Lu Mingliang, “Six thousand, Teacher Qiao!”

Qiao Liang, “…”

You’re not giving up, are you? 

Are you going to keep adding to your offer to see where my bottom line is? Aren’t you trying to shame me? 

This is not about the money… although, six thousand really is tempting… 

Qiao Liang’s heart was bleeding.

That was a lot of money! If he used the six thousand yuan sparingly, it would be able to make him last for two months. He would not have to work for two months. He could play whatever he wanted. How tempting was that…?

He was struggling intensely inside. Ai, alas, he could not take this step. He just could not set his pride down.

Qiao Liang pondered over it for a long time before he began typing: “This is not about the remuneration.”

He had only types several words before a new message came in.

“Teacher Qiao, I just asked Boss Pei about this. He says he can pay you up to ten thousand yuan. Of course, this is the final price. I know that you are a content creator who cares a lot about your reputation. If you don’t want to accept this job, we will not force you.”

Qiao Liang’s hands trembled. He accidentally hit the Return key.

“This is not about the remuneration.”

The message was sent immediately after the previous one. It looked as if Qiao Liang was rejecting him.

Lu Mingliang: “Alright, we wish you all the best in your career. We will not bother you any further.”

Qiao Liang began to panic. Holy shit, that’s not what I meant! Don’t go! 

He quickly hit his keyboard. The typing speed of this single man in his twenties suddenly peaked: “This is not about the remuneration. Boss Pei is my old friend. I will do him this favor for sure!”

The message had been sent.

Qiao Liang heaved a long sigh. It was a good thing that Lu Mingliang did not blow up in anger and send a whole load of curses to him.

Lu Mingliang, “Really? That’s great! I will send you more video materials right now.”

Qiao Liang downloaded these new video materials. In just a couple of minutes, he went from being angry, to worried, to shocked… to excited. All in all, his heart was set.

Would posting it in New Recommended Games of the Month ruin his reputation? He was accepting sponsored partnerships; there was nothing to be ashamed of! The audience would surely understand. En, that would be the case!

…

…

“Teacher Qiao accepted it?”

“En, that’s right.”

Boss Pei listened to Lu Mingliang’s update in his office. Satisfied, he nodded.

Who told you to mess with me back then?! 

Without you, I would have incurred that loss of fifty thousand yuan. By now, my entire life would be different!

Pei Qian had to make Qiao Liang be the first to post this video. He had to see how he would get out of this one. Of course, Pei Qian was not doing this purely for revenge. Part of him was afraid that the same disastrous outcome as The Lonely Desert Road would happen again.

If he allowed the video to be posted in Trash Games Diss as Teacher Qiao suggested and the game became famous again because of it, he would kill himself immediately.

Thus, the video had to be posted in New Recommended Games of the Month, where there were much less traffic and much fewer viewers. In addition, if ‘I am doing this for the money’ was written all over the video, the plan would be fool-proof!

Just thinking about this simple pleasure made Pei Qian smile uncontrollably: he had just easily gotten rid of ten thousand yuan from the System Funds.

However, in front of Lu Mingliang, he had to control his expression. He could not ruin his image.

“How about the other UP Masters?” Pei Qian asked.

Lu Mingliang answered truthfully, “Some of them refused to accept the job even after we raised the price. However, quite a significant number of content creators accepted the job; I would say more than half of them.

“At first, after reading the script, most of them rejected me. However, I told them that other content creators would have to say the exact same thing and that they would not be the only ones or the first ones to say it. I also told them that they could delete the video after a month, and then increased the offering price. After that, a lot of them agreed.”

Pei Qian was happy to hear this. Indeed, people would be willing to read even the most shameful scripts as long as someone gave them more money for it. What’s more, to other content creators, this was not that serious at all. At the very most, it would only become a bad memory.

If a certain number of UP Masters were posting the same video, each of them would just be adding a new voice-over to the video. It was no big deal.

The first content creator to upload the video would have the hardest time. This was because the audience would not see the full picture when that content creator posted the video. After being fed sh*t, all of their anger would be taken out on him.

Pei Qian planned to make Teacher Qiao the first person.

As for why…

Hehe, Boss Pei was a petty man, wasn’t he?

…

…

In the rental home…

Feeling like he was being tortured in silence, Qiao Liang finally finished watching the video that he recorded.

“What have I done…?”

Qiao Liang’s heart was filled with mixed emotions.

On one hand, now that he was finished with the video, he was ten thousand yuan richer. Money had corroded his determination.

On the other hand, his head was hurting. Eating sh*t was much harder than he thought.

Logically speaking, this job was quite an easy one. All he had to do was read the script and then add in the video materials that Tengda had sent him. In one or two days, he could finish it.

However, Qiao Liang struggled with it for a full five days. It was only when the deadline was nearing that he could force himself to be satisfied with the job.

Qiao Liang practiced the slurping and gulping in the script alone seven or eight times. It was only then that he could make it not sound strange.

All his time was spent on this!

The next day was April the 1st. It was April Fool’s Day.

According to the original plan, Tengda’s new game would be published on that day. Qiao Liang was supposed to publish his own video on this day as well.

He felt slightly moved. It looked like Boss Pei had some conscience left!

Posting a video like that on April Fool’s Day would allow his audience to believe that this was an April Fool’s joke. That would ease the curses that would rain down on Qiao Liang.

However…

Since that day was April Fool’s Day, there would probably be more people watching his videos.

“Forget it, I don’t care anymore. I am being paid to do this. At the very most, I can avoid logging in once I post the video. I’ll be a coward.

“Once I get the ten thousand yuan, I can play games every day and disappear from the world until everything blows over!”