Thursday, November 29th.

Cai Jiadong got a cup of coffee from the water bar, then sat down at his workstation to check the sales changes for “Real Estate Agent Simulator.”

When he checked before leaving work yesterday, the day’s sales had a slight increase but no significant change.

They were still quite far from the number they had hoped for.

So after getting home, Cai Jiadong didn’t continue to follow this matter but went to bed early.

Actually, Cai Jiadong knew clearly that since Chisinau Studio hadn’t arranged any follow-up promotional work or applied for additional promotional funds, how could things suddenly take a turn?

Although he had been hoping Meng Chang would do something, it’s hard to make bricks without straw. The initial promotion wasn’t very successful, and now that the game had already been released, turning the situation around would be exceptionally difficult.

Cai Jiadong hadn’t held much hope, but when he opened the backend to check, he discovered that “Real Estate Agent Simulator” sales seemed to have increased significantly!

Breaking down the sales data by hour made this change even clearer.

Cai Jiadong found that this sales increase trend had started last night and continued until this morning, showing a clear increase compared to yesterday’s data!

Moreover, the sales figures were still clearly rising, with no signs of declining!

Although the current situation still couldn’t be declared a big success, compared to the previous state, it was a fundamental improvement.

“What’s going on? Have players finally figured it out? Realized what makes this game fun?”

“No, there must be some catalyst that has sparked widespread attention and discussion among players, causing this sales growth!”

Cai Jiadong quickly checked various forums for discussions about “Real Estate Agent Simulator” and soon located the source of it all: Young Master Tian’s latest video!

After watching the video from beginning to end and reading viewers’ danmu comments and messages, Cai Jiadong understood completely.

Young Master Tian’s video had connected all the heat and successfully directed it to “Real Estate Agent Simulator” and Sloth Apartments!

Looking solely at the results, this could almost be called “leading someone into a trap.”

First, Chisinau Studio conducted a series of promotions including a trailer to advertise “Real Estate Agent Simulator,” then Zhujia Group, seeing the change in popularity and needing to warm up for their new butler service, also joined in, investing a large amount of promotional resources.

One after another, the topic of real estate agencies received high attention online.

But Zhujia Group probably didn’t expect that the heat they had worked so hard to generate wouldn’t benefit their “Attentive Butler” service. Instead, Young Master Tian’s video directly undermined the foundation of this service at its roots, redirecting all the attention back to “Real Estate Agent Simulator”!

It all seemed too coincidental.

Cai Jiadong couldn’t help but think: “Could this Young Master Tian actually be Meng Chang’s alternate account?”

This plot within a plot was so exquisite that any misstep would have led to failure.

Everything else was manageable, but the key was ensuring Young Master Tian’s video would be released at the most appropriate moment.

The timing was so perfect, it must have been Meng Chang’s deliberate action.

In other words, this Young Master Tian was very likely to have released this video under Meng Chang’s instruction, or Young Master Tian might even be Meng Chang’s alternate account.

This perfectly matched Meng Chang’s persona as someone who had learned promotional and marketing methods from Mr. Pei.

Thinking of this, Cai Jiadong decided to call Meng Chang to express his gratitude.

Looking at the results, this promotion’s effect was nothing short of perfect. Though the promotional budget was large, every cent could be said to have been spent effectively.

With such success, expressing thanks was appropriate.

Soon, the call connected.

Cai Jiadong said excitedly: “Brother Meng! I watched your video, it’s excellently done! I never imagined you had already thought of such a follow-up when filming the trailer. I’m impressed, truly impressed!”

However, Meng Chang on the other end of the phone was silent for a moment, then said: “What video? I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”

Cai Jiadong was stunned.

What did this mean?

Was Meng Chang saying he didn’t know Young Master Tian at all?

Impossible.

Suddenly, a flash of insight struck Cai Jiadong, and he understood.

Even if Meng Chang was Young Master Tian, this absolutely couldn’t be publicized!

Because some things change flavor when done under a different identity.

Young Master Tian released his analysis video from an objective, neutral, outsider’s perspective, which is why viewers were willing to listen. But if everyone knew Young Master Tian was Meng Chang, then the stance and motivation behind the video would change. Even if every word came from the heart, viewers might not listen anymore.

Therefore, Meng Chang would never admit to being Young Master Tian and would even try every means to hide it.

Because revealing his identity now would be suicide, nullifying all previous efforts.

Realizing this, Cai Jiadong quickly changed his tone: “Oh, right, right, I meant that Young Master Tian’s video was such a coincidence! Really grateful that he made such a video!”

Meng Chang coughed lightly: “If you’re grateful to him, then be grateful to him. You can like, donate coins, or power up his video, there’s no need to specifically inform me. I don’t know him, and besides, I just simply completed the work assigned by Mr. Pei.”

“Alright, if there’s nothing else, I’ll hang up now. I still need to report back to Mr. Pei later.”

Cai Jiadong nodded: “Okay! I’ll go power up the video now. See you later.”

After hanging up, Cai Jiadong was even more convinced that Young Master Tian was Meng Chang.

But he didn’t plan to mention this to anyone and would even help Meng Chang conceal this fact.

After all, it was beneficial for Chisinau Studio’s future business.

If Young Master Tian’s identity was exposed and Meng Chang’s method no longer worked, who would help promote the next game to achieve such good results? Wouldn’t that be like cutting off one’s own arm?

Cai Jiadong wouldn’t do such a foolish thing.

Seeing the game’s discussion level and sales rapidly rising, Cai Jiadong felt full of motivation.

Time to work!

Although “Real Estate Agent Simulator” had achieved initial success, it was still far from being a hit or a big money-maker.

Cai Jiadong began to seriously plan the subsequent version development.

Actually, after the game development was completed, Cai Jiadong had already made a preliminary new version development plan, mainly including some small functional optimizations and richer dialogue content, etc.

Since it was the first revision, the focus was mainly on optimizing the game’s existing content, without much planning for new features.

Just then, Lin Wan sent a message: “The new version planning is temporarily on hold. We’ll have a meeting tomorrow to discuss some important matters that might lead to completely scrapping and redoing the new version planning. Don’t waste effort for now.”

Cai Jiadong was a bit surprised.

Tomorrow’s meeting might lead to completely scrapping and redoing the new version planning?

Cai Jiadong’s first reaction was a major revision to the game, but the key point was that the game hadn’t flopped! After all the promotion, sales were clearly rising, and the situation looked promising!

Which meant that the so-called scrapping and redoing wasn’t about the game’s content, but about the original new version planning?

Previously, they hadn’t planned many new features, but now they had suddenly decided to develop more new features?

What new features?

Cai Jiadong had some guesses, but he didn’t ask further, just replied: “Understood!”

…

…

Friday morning, November 30th.

Meng Chang strode confidently to the door of Mr. Pei’s office.

Yesterday, he had checked the US stock market and found that Zhujia Group’s stock had already plummeted.

Clearly, it was because public opinion had taken effect!

Young Master Tian’s video was a trigger, a fuse, while Chisinau Studio and Zhujia Group’s previous extensive marketing and promotion of real estate agencies were the fuel. What finally exploded was the long-accumulated anger of all domestic tenants toward the distorted rental market.

Zhujia Group had originally thought their “Attentive Butler Service” would go smoothly and be well-received, but unexpectedly, it was severely criticized and even widely boycotted!

Tenants simply didn’t buy into this attentive butler service and weren’t willing to pay a penny more!

Because after Young Master Tian’s analysis, everyone had reached a consensus: the so-called attentive butler service was ostensibly to provide better service to tenants, but in reality, it was just an excuse to collect an additional fee, with the ultimate conflict still transferred to tenants and agents.

In short, no matter how sweet your words, you absolutely won’t fool me!

Not only were players angry, but many of Zhujia Group’s competitors also seized the opportunity to hire internet trolls and kick them while they were down.

Although their own records weren’t clean, perhaps even worse than Zhujia Group’s, this didn’t prevent them from taking this opportunity to promote themselves.

For a time, Zhujia Group became the target of public criticism!

Even worse, Zhujia Group could offer no defense and had only issued an ineffectual statement so far.

Because this attentive butler service was indeed just as Young Master Tian had said—simply a business, not a service upgrade at all.

Even if there was a so-called service upgrade, it was merely superficial.

Zhujia Group couldn’t fundamentally change all this because this was what they relied on for profit. If they truly changed the service model, conducted internal restructuring, and launched genuine “Safe Housing” or “Attentive Butler” services, it wouldn’t be something that could be accomplished overnight. It would inevitably mean a significant reduction in profits and an even more severe drop in stock price.

But without making substantive changes, any explanation would be futile.

Zhujia Group’s predicament gave Meng Chang an unprecedented sense of satisfaction.

He had never imagined before that a seemingly massive listed company could be so vulnerable, so fragile.