May 28th, Monday.

Pei Qian arrived at the company early to check the weekly work briefings from various departments.

He first opened Outu Technology’s briefing.

After glancing at it for two seconds, Pei Qian immediately closed it with a look of utter despair.

“As expected, the clothes racks are selling like crazy…”

Pei Qian often spent his free time intensely browsing the AiLiDao website, so he naturally saw the video Lin Jiaqiang had posted.

Upon seeing that video, Pei Qian knew things were going terribly wrong!

But he still harbored a sliver of hope.

What if the video just had high views but didn’t significantly promote the Smart Fitness Clothes Rack?

Now, after looking at Outu Technology’s briefing, Pei Qian realized he had been overthinking.

The newly released G1 phone and the Smart Fitness Clothes Rack were all sold out, and they were currently in an on-and-off state of being out of stock.

The OEM factory was rushing to produce at full capacity. After receiving larger orders, the factory producing the Smart Fitness Clothes Rack had even opened new production lines, going all out to prepare inventory.

Pei Qian felt dizzy just glancing at the inventory figures for the Smart Fitness Clothes Rack.

Initially, he had pushed Chang You to prepare stock, but they had only prepared 10,000 units.

But now, those 10,000 units were completely sold out, and another order for 10,000 units had been placed!

Though the numbers were the same, the initial 10,000 units had been prepared over a long period, intended to be sold gradually over a year or more. Who would have thought they’d run out so quickly!

And the second batch of 10,000 units probably wouldn’t last long either.

Most frightening of all, there were some large orders—a gym called “Star Bird Fitness” had directly ordered over 100 units, with plans to buy more in the future!

Outu Technology’s products were all expensive, but once they started selling, the profits flowed like water.

The Smart Fitness Clothes Rack didn’t have a high profit margin. Besides the material costs that couldn’t be reduced due to quality requirements, logistics, warehousing, home delivery, and moving services were also significant expenses.

Without considering Headwind Logistics’ costs, each Smart Fitness Clothes Rack generated only about 200 yuan in profit.

But with volume, 10,000 units meant 2 million yuan.

Although with Tenda’s current profitability, 2 million wouldn’t even cover a single money-burning activity, don’t forget about the in-app purchases in Fitness Battle!

So far, Fitness Battle had attracted a large number of players. As a mobile game, its monthly revenue on the official platform alone had reached the 30 million level.

Compared to other games with similar income levels, Fitness Battle’s active user count was even two or three times higher, and its registered user count was more than ten times that of those games!

In other words, the game was indeed very well-known. Even if players didn’t have the equipment or couldn’t stick with it, they would still register an account to check it out.

Because of the large total number of players, even if many dropped out, many also stayed.

With more players staying, there were more players spending money.

Although Fitness Battle’s payment system was overly generous, which to some extent reduced income, the refundable payment system also stimulated many players’ desire to spend, so the income was still good.

Considering the high revenue share given to the official platform, this game could earn Tenda nearly 20 million a month.

Even more terrifying was that the official platform wasn’t the only channel for Fitness Battle.

When Tenda was in crisis, Zhou Muyan had stepped forward to contact some game channel partners, getting Tenda’s games onto some smaller platforms.

These platforms might be small with low revenue shares, but they made up for it in quantity.

Combined with recommendations from major channels like Shenhua phone’s app store, Fitness Battle’s net income in its first month could double again!

Of course, the high initial income benefited from the special payment model.

Because refunds were freely available, players had absolutely no psychological burden, so they spent aggressively.

Even with many refunds, many orders would still be retained.

In the coming months, once players obtained the items they wanted, their desire to spend would naturally decline sharply, and the game’s income would decrease accordingly.

But…

Shangyang Games would obviously continue to update Fitness Battle with various attractive items, scenes, effects, and even characters. Subsequent expansion packs would be released continuously.

Pei Qian couldn’t bear to look anymore.

It was truly despair-inducing!

Who could have imagined that Pei Qian, now sick of counting money, was just a week ago happily fantasizing about selling a building.

Reality proved this was pure wishful thinking.

After closing Outu Technology’s briefing, Pei Qian looked at briefings from other departments.

Overall, all departments were developing steadily and orderly.

Pei Qian’s mood improved slightly; after all, no bad news was the best news.

As long as these departments didn’t suddenly make huge profits, they could all remain friends.

While reviewing the briefings, someone suddenly knocked on the door.

Pei Qian looked up and saw Huang Sibo from Fei Huang Studio.

“Mr. Pei! I need to consult you about something.”

“Previously, with Director Lin’s introduction, we’ve been negotiating with AiLiDao website about the copyright for Mission and Choice.”

“The preliminary intentions have been communicated, and I’m here to ask for your decision—should we sell it outright or go with a revenue-sharing model?”

Pei Qian’s face instantly darkened.

Sure enough, it had come!

Whether blessing or curse, a curse couldn’t be avoided.

On the day Mission and Choice’s box office exploded, Pei Qian knew the film’s copyright would eventually be sold to a video website at a high price; it was just a matter of time.

Now, that day had come.

Fortunately, Pei Qian was mentally prepared.

He considered briefly, feeling a little conflicted.

Logically, he should blindly choose revenue-sharing.

Because an outright sale meant a large sum of money coming in at once, which would cause significant settlement issues.

While revenue-sharing money came gradually, spread over each month, putting less pressure.

But Pei Qian had already been burned once with Beautiful Tomorrow.

He had the same thinking then and chose revenue-sharing for Beautiful Tomorrow. But to his surprise, the film’s popularity on AiLiDao was so high that the revenue-sharing ultimately earned far more than an outright sale would have!

That was extremely awkward.

Another factor to consider was the impact of the screening extension.

The screening extension meant the film would stay in theaters longer. While this could increase box office earnings, it would further satisfy viewers’ demand, resulting in fewer people paying attention when it reached the video website, and thus a lower price offered by the website.

Beautiful Tomorrow wasn’t extended at that time. After the film left theaters, audience enthusiasm remained high, with more viewers and thus more revenue-sharing income.

But Mission and Choice had been extended by two months. This meant most viewers’ enthusiasm had been satisfied, with many people having watched it two or three times. The price the website would be willing to offer should also be lower.

Thinking that revenue-sharing would likely earn more, Pei Qian could only choose the lesser of two evils.

“Let’s go with an outright sale,” Pei Qian made a very difficult decision.

Huang Sibo nodded: “Very well, Mr. Pei, we’ll sell it outright.”

He didn’t ask further.

Mr. Pei had thought for so long, clearly having thoroughly considered all factors and weighed the pros and cons before making the most correct choice.

What was there to question?

Huang Sibo turned to leave.

Having made up his mind, Pei Qian felt much relieved.

As he picked up his teacup and took a sip, he casually asked, “For this outright sale, roughly how much will it be?”

Huang Sibo replied, “Oh, barring any unforeseen circumstances, it should be around 55 million.”

“How much?” Pei Qian nearly spat out his tea, completely unable to believe his ears.

Huang Sibo repeated: “55 million, Mr. Pei. Are you… thinking it’s too little?”

Pei Qian: “…”

This is madness, absolute madness!

He’d been fine not asking, but once he heard the specific number, Pei Qian completely lost his composure.

He asked in utter confusion: “I remember when Beautiful Tomorrow was sold, AiLiDao offered only 18 million, right?”

“How did it increase so much?!”

Huang Sibo smiled: “Oh, Mr. Pei, you probably haven’t been following these matters, so you’re not familiar.”

“That 18 million was the market rate from over a year ago!”

“Back when Beautiful Tomorrow was released, films with box office over 100 million and starring big celebrities had copyright purchase fees starting at 10 million, with a maximum of no more than 50 million.”

“Mission and Choice has broken the domestic film box office record and is regarded by many as a milestone for Chinese industrial films. Lu Zhiyao also has a good chance of competing for a real Best Actor award with this film… the copyright fee being at the maximum is clearly not enough.”

“Moreover, AiLiDao isn’t just buying the film copyright this time. They’re planning to create a special feature and promote it to drive traffic to their site.”

“They want to gather all the high-quality videos related to Mission and Choice on AiLiDao website, forming a monopoly on similar content to some extent. For them, it’s incredibly cost-effective!”

“So although 55 million is relatively expensive, it can only be considered a normal price.”

“Domestically, apart from AiLiDao, basically no other video websites would be willing to pay this price. And considering that AiLiDao has high traffic, which also benefits us to some extent, I accepted this price.”

Pei Qian was speechless.

He had thought it better to endure short-term pain than long-term suffering, but this short-term pain was far too intense!

How was he going to spend 50 million?!

But then he thought that revenue-sharing might earn even more than 50 million, so he didn’t say anything more.

Either way, it was a done deal. Rather than agonizing over it, he might as well start thinking about how to spend the money.

After Huang Sibo left, Pei Qian thought for a long time before calling Liang Qianfan.

Although Pei Qian had been developing a new money-burning plan, he had originally intended to save it for next month’s June 26th summer promotion; he couldn’t implement it this month.

After some thought, he decided to stick with the old, clumsy method.

Buy property!

The system’s basic fund value for this cycle was 50 million, and currently, Tenda’s fixed assets were about 170 million, mainly concentrated in Sloth Apartments’ buildings.

Fortunately, Slackin’ Internet Café, Headwind Stations, Tuoguan Fitness, and other physical businesses, including the new experience store, were all rented, which kept the fixed assets from exceeding the limit.

According to the system’s calculation method, fixed assets would be divided by 10 and then counted toward the system fund.

This meant that even if Pei Qian lost all his system funds, the system fund at settlement would still be calculated as 17 million, leaving Pei Qian with a convertible quota of only 33 million.

Pei Qian considered that reducing this quota further might not be a bad idea.

Even if he bought another 120 million in property, the system fund would still have a 20 million operational space. If he tried hard to lose money, earning a few hundred thousand or a million wouldn’t be a problem.

At least burning the few tens of millions from selling the copyright shouldn’t be an issue.

So, Pei Qian called Liang Qianfan, telling him to look for new property in advance.

If they found something suitable early, they could spend the money immediately once it became available.

On the other end of the phone, Liang Qianfan thought for a moment, then asked, “Mr. Pei, are we still buying residential buildings? Could we consider commercial properties?”

Pei Qian was taken aback: “Commercial properties?”

“What location?”

Liang Qianfan said, “Uh… relatively remote locations, with appreciation potential not guaranteed, but it should still be acceptable.”

Pei Qian felt slightly relieved.

If it were commercial property in the city center, buying it would definitely lead to huge profits.

Because for commercial properties, location was the most important factor. The difference in customer flow between good and poor locations could be more than tenfold, directly determining the property’s appreciation potential.

If it was in a relatively remote location, that would be better.

Although there was still potential for appreciation, it probably couldn’t compare to prime commercial properties.

Whether buying residential buildings or commercial properties, whether in prime or remote locations, Pei Qian had profited from all of them.

Since that was the case, buying some commercial properties in slightly more remote areas would diversify his fixed asset portfolio a bit more and could slightly reduce the risk of suddenly making huge profits.

With this in mind, Pei Qian nodded: “Fine, buy as you see fit. If the money isn’t enough, let me know.”