Pei Qian paced frantically in his office.

There was a problem, and it was a big one!

He knew very well that “Never Expected” and “Zhu Yidan’s Boring Life” were both outstanding examples of short videos—the very successful kind!

And now, “Mr. Pei’s Daily Life” that Zhu Xiaocai was shooting was fundamentally very similar to these two, which meant it would likely become popular as well!

What should he do?

“System, I want to withdraw my investment! I don’t want to invest that 1 million in Huang Sibo anymore, is that okay?”

A line of text appeared on the system screen.

[Withdrawal of investment requires legitimate reasons; otherwise, it will be deemed a violation.]

Pei Qian: “…”

Legitimate reasons?

There weren’t any!

He couldn’t say he was withdrawing the investment because the project might make money, could he?

Other reasons?

Huang Sibo embezzling funds? Not working seriously? I don’t like Zhu Xiaocai and think he’s too ugly. No reason, I just simply don’t want to invest anymore.

None of these counted as legitimate reasons!

Pei Qian racked his brains.

No way out!

He couldn’t convince the system!

He had to think of another solution.

“Stay calm. Besides withdrawing the investment, there should be other ways.”

“What if I stop filming? Would that work?”

“I won’t be the lead actor anymore! They can find whoever they want!”

“At least that would reduce the project’s profits…”

Pei Qian decided to use the excuse of being too busy with work to turn down this job!

Then, when Zhu Xiaocai and his team found other actors, it would be difficult for them to portray the same feeling. Even if they could find someone, it would delay things, postponing the video release!

With a different lead actor, maybe the videos wouldn’t become popular?

Having made up his mind, Pei Qian prepared to refuse.

Although he was reluctant to give up the 30,000 yuan performance fee, Pei Qian felt that he shouldn’t sacrifice the big picture for small gains!

At settlement time, as long as he achieved a loss, losing sixty or seventy thousand yuan wouldn’t be a problem. There was no need to quibble over the small profit of 30,000 yuan.

He prepared to call Huang Sibo to turn down the job.

But just as he picked up his phone, he suddenly realized another problem.

He had already signed a contract!

The contract stated that the penalty for breach would be three times the performance fee!

90,000 yuan!

Pei Qian’s hand trembled as he realized the situation was problematic.

“System, can the penalty fee be paid from system funds?”

The contract was signed by the host personally, with all benefits going to the host personally. Penalty fees must also be paid by the host personally.]

“Thud.”

Pei Qian’s phone dropped onto the desk.

It’s over!

Where the hell would he get 90,000 yuan to pay the penalty fee?!

He couldn’t withdraw the investment, and he couldn’t stop acting!

Pei Qian’s heart sank.

No choice! He had to continue filming!

After five minutes of blank staring, Pei Qian finally slowly came back to his senses.

“Stay calm, look on the bright side. Short videos probably won’t make too much money…”

“Yeah, I can only think that way…”

Pei Qian felt somewhat dazed.

Now he could only comfort himself that things weren’t so bad.

For low-budget videos, even if they became popular and secured some sponsored advertising, it would be difficult to recoup the million-yuan investment.

Even if they did break even, they probably wouldn’t make too much profit.

When the time came, if the game projects and physical store projects lost more money, he should still be able to ensure a loss at settlement time!

“Phew, good thing I have three backup plans.”

“Almost went off track again!”

“I’ll go tell Lü Mingliang to increase the intensity of the narration in the game, add a few more sarcastic remarks to mock the players!”

…

…

The next day.

Zhu Xiaocai came again.

“Mr. Pei! Yesterday’s video is almost finished with editing. We’re still considering when to upload it online.”

“Since we need to negotiate with video platforms to see if we can get better placement for promotion, we might need to spend money and negotiate prices.”

“But don’t worry, I have a senior schoolmate who works at Banana Potato Network. We should be able to secure good promotional resources!”

“Our work won’t be delayed. Today we’ll shoot another episode. If we work a bit harder before the New Year, we can release them according to plan during the holiday period. Higher productivity makes it easier to gain attention.”

“Mr. Pei, you don’t look too well. Is your work too exhausting?”

Pei Qian’s face did look a bit dark.

Of course, it wasn’t because his work was too exhausting!

There were no classes at school now. His days consisted of rolling around on the sofa or browsing websites and playing games in his office. Other people were handling all the work—how could he be exhausted?

He was mentally exhausted!

“It’s nothing, let’s shoot.”

Pei Qian spoke listlessly.

He couldn’t withdraw the investment, nor could he breach the contract. He had to dutifully complete all thirty episodes.

Of course, Pei Qian hadn’t given up.

He was still actively considering other solutions.

Soon, everyone took their positions.

The theme of the second episode was “Gave Nine Consecutive Awards to a Hardworking Employee.”

Seeing this title, Pei Qian’s heart sank further.

Indeed, the previous script wasn’t a coincidence!

This Director Zhu Xiaocai had something—he was talented!

If all went as expected, reaching a million views would be a piece of cake for this episode.

If possible, Pei Qian would very much like to eliminate him right now!

What to do now?

Pei Qian felt very anxious.

At this rate of updates, releasing a video every two days for three seasons, this was going too far!

No, he had to salvage the situation!

Suddenly, Pei Qian had a flash of inspiration and thought of a good idea.

He would deliberately do a poor job!

He would use terrible acting skills to destroy the reputation of this short video series!

The moment this brilliant idea occurred to him, the souls of those talentless young idols seemed to possess him!

Pei Qian tried hard to recall those exemplary acting skills.

For example, the eye-popping school, the pouting school, the expressionless school, the crying-instead-of-laughing school, the self-encouraging school, the whatever-else school…

Yes, use acting to lower the quality of this season’s short videos!

Although the profit from these videos would likely be unstoppable, he could at least reduce it a bit…

Pei Qian tried his best to mobilize his facial muscles, ready to greatly disappoint Director Zhu Xiaocai!

After all, since he wasn’t a professional actor, Zhu Xiaocai couldn’t criticize him for terrible acting!

Plan successful!

Zhu Xiaocai set up the DSLR camera and officially began shooting.

Pei Qian was ready.

He was waiting for a crucial moment to deliver the most terrible acting performance in history!

But Zhu Xiaocai remained oblivious to this and continued directing the shoot just like yesterday.

“Good, Mr. Pei, give me an expressionless face.”

“Another expressionless face.”

“A slightly smiling, expressionless face, no smile is fine too, just expressionless.”

“An expressionless face with a hint of confusion.”

“Pat his shoulder expressionlessly.”

“Hand over a business card expressionlessly.”

“Expressionlessly…”

Not a single retake, shooting completed at lightning speed.

Pei Qian was still waiting to showcase his idol-level acting skills, but today’s scenes were already finished.

Zhu Xiaocai gave Pei Qian a thumbs-up while packing up the equipment.

“Mr. Pei, your acting is so brilliant! Truly worthy of playing yourself!”

“Compared to yesterday’s performance, you’ve shown tremendous improvement!”

“You can portray that outwardly calm yet inwardly emotionally rich expression so well—it’s really beyond my expectations!”

“Every pore seems to be acting!”

“I’ll be leaving now, Mr. Pei. Tomorrow we’ll shoot the last episode before the New Year!”

“With Mr. Pei’s superb acting, this video will go viral!”

Zhu Xiaocai left excitedly, not forgetting to express his profound gratitude to Pei Qian before departing.

Only Pei Qian remained, silently contemplating life.

Did I… display any acting skills?

Why do I feel… like something isn’t right???