After much contemplation, Pei Qian had another friendly and harmonious conversation with the system, finally settling on two directions.

Housing and fitness.

Actually, Tenda Group already had corresponding benefits for both projects. There were rent subsidies for housing, and the company reimbursed gym memberships and a certain number of personal training sessions.

However, the current benefit amounts seemed insufficient to meet Mr. Pei’s needs.

Pei Qian now had only one feeling: money comes crashing down like a mountain, but spending it is like pulling a silk thread!

Of course, letting all employees share this pain seemed like a good choice too, but such sharing had limitations.

Pei Qian certainly wanted to buy buildings on a large scale and let all employees live in luxury homes, but this clearly couldn’t be approved by the system.

That’s why Pei Qian had previously settled for housing subsidies instead.

Now, as Tenda Group grew larger and earned more money, the system’s restrictions on employee benefits began to gradually relax.

The idea of providing luxury homes for every employee was still restricted, but it seemed possible to achieve this through other methods.

Pei Qian had discovered that for the system, different ways of spending money had varying degrees of restriction.

“Charity” was most strictly limited, with only a tiny quota each cycle.

“Benefits” had slightly looser restrictions, with standards that increased as the company expanded, and could benefit all employees.

“Reimbursements” had even fewer restrictions, but required plausible reasons and had to appear work-related.

“Investment” had the fewest restrictions, with seemingly no upper limit on capital input. The main restriction was that there had to be a profit potential, giving the project a theoretical possibility of making money.

In some extremely special cases, even if the profit possibility was minuscule, as long as it could obtain excellent reputation and social influence, the system wouldn’t interfere. Examples included the documentary Huang Sibo and his team had filmed previously, and the consistently loss-making Headwind Logistics.

Therefore, using pure “benefits” or “reimbursements” to provide housing for employees had many restrictions.

Even if it could be done, they would probably at most manage four-person or two-person rooms, with standards that couldn’t be raised too high.

But with a change in thinking, if using the “investment” approach, the system’s standards became much more relaxed!

For instance, if Pei Qian used the money to invest in an apartment project, spent money on renovations, and then set a price to rent it out to the public.

If some of those rooms were used as employee dormitories, the system wouldn’t be too strict about it.

It was like how setting up employee meals was troublesome, but first creating Slackin’ Delivery, then having Slackin’ Delivery provide employee meals and reimburse it through company accounts was no problem.

If the apartments couldn’t be rented out to the public, that would be even better—Mr. Pei could seize the opportunity to lose a large sum.

As for why he chose housing and fitness…

Because both projects had physical facilities, both required renovation costs and rent, and maintenance and operating costs were relatively high. For the same expenditure, they had a greater possibility of losing money.

Moreover, Pei Qian himself could benefit, naturally moving to a new place!

Although his current place was acceptable, it was ultimately just an ordinary two-bedroom apartment.

As a homebody, Pei Qian certainly hoped his living space could be larger and better.

From the current situation, hoping to buy a large house while losing money seemed a bit distant.

Besides, Pei Qian considered that if it was just for living purposes, there might be no need to obsess over buying a house with his own money.

Even if the house belonged to the company, as long as he could live there indefinitely and make changes freely, what difference did ownership make?

After lengthy consideration, Pei Qian added “apartments” and “gym” to his next cycle’s plan.

It was too late for this cycle.

On one hand, there was only about a month left before settlement, and starting these projects now would be too late. The Horror Lodge wouldn’t be completed this cycle, and adding another incomplete project would affect the settlement.

On the other hand, the film’s returns wouldn’t arrive so quickly.

Generally, films run for a month before closing, and only after closing can the box office figures be determined. Then the box office income would flow from theaters to cinema chains, going through several stages and processes, possibly taking 3-6 months.

However, in this world’s film industry, there were “rapid settlement and return” companies, similar to bank factoring services, which paid returns in advance based on box office sharing contracts and charged a handling fee.

In simple terms, it was similar to the “express refund” offered by many shopping websites.

Even so, the money would only arrive next cycle.

For Pei Qian, this was good news, as he wouldn’t need to bear such heavy pressure this cycle—spending tens of millions in less than a month…

But next cycle, the pressure would be immense.

So, Pei Qian planned to spend this “unexpected windfall” from the movie on apartment and gym projects as soon as the next cycle began.

As for the extra money other industries earned due to the film’s influence…

Apart from regular expenses, it seemed the only option was to blindly pour it into the Horror Lodge project.

Given that the Horror Lodge needed to be properly completed and opened in the next settlement cycle, it would absorb as much excess funding as possible…

Pei Qian tossed his notebook aside, feeling somewhat despondent.

…

…

February 25th, Friday.

The fourth day of deciding to disappear.

Pei Qian browsed the web, feeling like the sun was setting on his empire.

The paid commenters’ activities were declining because not only had they failed to achieve the desired effect, but they had also made “A Better Tomorrow” even more popular!

It seemed the competitors who had hired these commenters had also given up, not wanting to waste more money.

Pei Qian glanced at the Dog’s Eye app and saw that… the screening arrangements had increased again!

This was truly a sad story.

Pei Qian and his competitors probably felt the same way at this moment.

Pei Qian silently uninstalled the Dog’s Eye app, adopting the attitude that what he didn’t see wouldn’t hurt him.

In short, as long as I don’t see the box office numbers, the box office doesn’t exist!

For these few days, Pei Qian had been cooped up in his rented apartment, feeling somewhat bored. He subconsciously opened Weibo, hoping to find recent hot news topics, to see if joke writers had any new creations to slightly adjust his depressed mood.

However, as soon as he opened Weibo, he saw three trending topics.

#Movie A Better Tomorrow#

#Lu Zhiyao’s Acting#

#A Better Tomorrow Real-life Brands#

Pei Qian: “…”

Inescapable!

Yesterday, the latter two trending topics weren’t even there!

Casually clicking on the #Lu Zhiyao’s Acting# topic, Pei Qian saw an interview article.

…

**”Interview with Lu Zhiyao: Acting Breakthrough Thanks to Guidance from a Benefactor”**

“‘A Better Tomorrow’ was released on February 22nd, a satirical story with a future sci-fi theme that broke audiences’ stereotypes about domestic sci-fi films. With box office exceeding 80 million yuan in four days, it has sparked discussions across the internet.”

“Lu Zhiyao delivered a brilliant performance in the film, vividly portraying the various emotions of a person from the future. His scenes with veteran actor Zhang Zuting left audiences thoroughly satisfied.”

“During the roadshow, he heard audience comments that ‘as the movie progressed, they completely forgot the person on screen was Lu Zhiyao,’ which he considers the highest praise he has received so far.”

“[A Better Tomorrow – Lu Zhiyao poster]”

“Lu Zhiyao’s ‘box office poison’ attribute has long been a topic of discussion. Audiences have summarized various ‘curses,’ suggesting that any film featuring Lu Zhiyao, regardless of whether it has famous directors or is a big production, is ultimately doomed to box office failure.”

“If this claim still carries some teasing connotations, then the audience discussions about ‘whether Lu Zhiyao has acting skills’ seem more pointed and harsh.”

“Comments like ‘trying too hard,’ ‘plays everyone like himself,’ and ‘breaks immersion’ have constantly troubled Lu Zhiyao, tormenting him after each film release.”

“However, the great success of ‘A Better Tomorrow’ has completely ‘washed away his toxicity,’ and the box office performance so far has shattered the ‘box office poison’ claim!”

“[Scene from the film where Lu Zhiyao drinks beer]”

“Regarding this, Lu Zhiyao reflected that actors encounter roles of extreme importance at many stages in their lives, as well as benefactors who greatly help their careers.”

“During the filming of ‘A Better Tomorrow,’ the scenes with veteran actor Zhang Zuting were immensely beneficial to Lu Zhiyao, teaching him deeper performance techniques such as how to understand character psychology and how to immerse himself in roles.”

“More importantly, there was a benefactor on set who precisely identified the issues in Lu Zhiyao’s performance, leading to his sudden realization that an actor shouldn’t work hard to play a character, but should become the character.”

“Lu Zhiyao stated that this benefactor not only brought him an epiphany in acting but also gave him a new understanding of life planning and even life philosophy.”

“The path from idol star to mature character actor isn’t easy, but he has been working hard. Lu Zhiyao now says he prefers complex characters that reflect human nature, focusing more on portraying characters’ weaknesses and flaws. Correspondingly, his performance style has shifted from flamboyant to restrained.”

“In terms of life planning, Lu Zhiyao indicated that he wants to slow down and take each step solidly. As the benefactor said, ‘Normal acting is the most difficult’ and ‘Play the character as it is.'”

“Extended to life philosophy, this means focusing on the core work of being an actor, continuously refining one’s acting skills rather than putting energy into things unrelated to one’s professional work.”

“Having received guidance from a benefactor, Lu Zhiyao has finally found his path as an actor.”