After hearing Mr. Pei’s speech, the authors’ expressions quickly changed from anxiety to shock, and then from shock to wild delight.

When they first saw Mr. Pei, all the authors had been quite nervous.

After all, the treatment at the Inspiration Class was indeed too good, yet the works they ultimately produced were rarely satisfactory to themselves, which left everyone feeling more or less guilty.

When Mr. Pei first said that the results of the Inspiration Class were satisfactory, many authors still didn’t quite believe it, thinking that Mr. Pei was just saying this to console them, afraid of hurting their fragile hearts.

But now that Mr. Pei had announced plans to develop the rights for three movies, the authors instantly believed him without a doubt.

It seemed these works had indeed satisfied Mr. Pei!

Otherwise, how would they qualify for rights development?

Every year, so many excellent web novels emerged, but those that actually qualified for rights development were an extremely small number—only the very top tier.

On one hand, this was because the conditions for rights development were quite strict; on the other hand, rights development required significant investment, and failure would mean substantial losses, so careful consideration was necessary.

Writing a novel was a one-person affair, but adapting a novel into animation or a web series often required the close cooperation of an entire team, not to mention the corresponding promotional channels…

And what author wouldn’t hope for their novel’s rights to be successfully developed?

Transforming text into images would elevate the story’s reach and recognition to a whole new level.

The authors of the three selected books were all excited because they had never imagined they would have such an opportunity.

And the authors who weren’t selected didn’t feel any disappointment at all, because none of them had expected their books to qualify for selection. Instead, they were even more motivated, hoping that their works would be on the next list of rights development!

“Mr. Pei is awesome!”

“I’ll definitely write well and not let Mr. Pei down!”

“What are we waiting for? Everyone should get back to work right away!”

The previously lifeless authors suddenly came back to life, returning to their posts as if they’d been injected with adrenaline. Some continued to hurriedly collect materials, while others were eager to start typing and creating.

Those authors who had originally planned to return to their old professions after completing their novels mostly abandoned this idea.

Anyone with eyes could see that writing in this Inspiration Class gave their rights a far greater chance of being developed than regular web novels on Endpoint Chinese Network or any other site!

Out of just over twenty works, three had been picked out to be adapted into games, web series, and animation—this ratio was simply sky-high!

With such temptation, who would want to leave?

Even if their current book wasn’t working out, there was still hope for the next one!

Even if they wrote three or four books in a row without getting the opportunity for rights development, that was fine too, but they at least had to try. Such an excellent opportunity would never come again if missed!

As for the three authors whose works had been selected, they were even more excited, and their previously extinguished creative passion burned brightly once again.

Although the main parts of their novels were already mostly complete, there were still many details that needed polishing.

If there had been no hope for adaptation, they might have just gone through the motions—after all, the influence wouldn’t be that great, so what was the point of spending so much energy obsessing over those details?

But now that they were being adapted for viewers across the internet, the situation was completely different.

Not only did they need to avoid any errors in the details, but they also had to try hard to improve and enrich the already-written plots, striving for perfection.

These three works had all been handpicked by Mr. Pei. If the screenwriters responsible for adaptation took one look and found the content to be a mess, wouldn’t that embarrass Mr. Pei?

That situation absolutely could not happen!

Seeing the authors once again enthusiastically throwing themselves into creation, Pei Qian nodded with satisfaction and turned to leave.

It looked like these authors wouldn’t be leaving anytime soon; the Inspiration Class was secure.

Pei Qian considered that since the Inspiration Class was so effective, he could think about further expanding its scale in the next cycle—perhaps renting another floor and bringing in twenty or thirty more authors.

At that point, expenses would directly double, and wouldn’t that be wonderful?

But that was a matter for the next cycle; for now, he wouldn’t think about it for the next two months.

Just as Pei Qian left the Inspiration Class, his phone vibrated, displaying a reminder notification.

“Hmm? Today’s the day to calculate Meng Chang’s commission again.”

Time flew by quickly, and the end of the month was approaching.

Speaking of last month, Pei Qian found it hard to describe.

He had already helped Meng Chang eliminate one wrong answer and hadn’t let him work on the promotional plan for the Outu G1 smartphone, only working on the Smart Fitness Clothes Rack.

But it still didn’t work!

Meng Chang had brought in Lin Jiaqiang to create the promotional plan, producing a widely circulated promotional video. Even more troublesome was that Lin Jiaqiang himself had achieved excellent weight loss results using the Smart Fitness Clothes Rack and had edited and posted the video on AiLiDao’s website, generating tremendous buzz!

Pei Qian didn’t even need to see the analysis report to know that Meng Chang’s commission this month was probably zero again.

What could be done about this?

Even Pei Qian himself was worried for Meng Chang.

Settlement time was approaching, and for several months now, Meng Chang had been earning only his base salary most of the time, which was just too pitiful!

Pei Qian still hoped that Meng Chang could earn a little commission before settlement—even if it was just a thousand yuan, it would be something to celebrate.

But Pei Qian didn’t have any good solutions. If he had a solution, he would have handled the promotional plans himself rather than relying on Meng Chang.

All he could say was, let’s work hard together!

Pei Qian went straight back to the office by car and hurried to meet with Meng Chang before the end of the workday to arrange the next month’s promotional work.

…

“This month, it’s still just the base salary.” Pei Qian handed the analysis report to Meng Chang.

Meng Chang didn’t even take it, nodding weakly in acceptance.

After all, it wasn’t the first time he had received only the base salary; he was almost numb to it by now.

Seeing Meng Chang’s expression of complete resignation, Pei Qian became worried.

Was he going to slack off?

Pei Qian quickly put on a serious expression and said, “Meng Chang, promotional work is crucial—don’t you dare slack off on me.”

“You need to be 120 percent focused and carefully think through each promotional plan, understand?”

“Look how good I’ve been to you. Last month, I even helped you eliminate one wrong answer, and you still didn’t get a commission. That’s just too unfortunate!”

Pei Qian was thinking that Meng Chang had been wracking his brains trying to reduce the impact of promotional plans and reverse-promote products, yet the products still kept becoming popular one after another.

If Meng Chang completely gave up and just casually threw together a few promotional plans to muddle through, wouldn’t the products become even more popular?

Meng Chang was the first line of defense. Even if he couldn’t keep the enemy outside the gates, he should at least weaken their forces!

So Pei Qian wasn’t saying a single false word; everything came from the bottom of his heart.

However, Meng Chang’s mouth twitched slightly as he listened, and blue veins faintly appeared on his forehead.

It was too infuriating!

You have the nerve to say you helped me eliminate one wrong answer?

Both of those projects last month were all wrong answers!

What good did it do to eliminate just one? Making a promotional plan for the Smart Fitness Clothes Rack was still a complete waste of time!

But even though Meng Chang was as puffed up as a pufferfish with anger, he couldn’t think of any way to refute, so he could only protest silently with his silence.

Seeing that Meng Chang had fallen into a state of complete resignation, Pei Qian became even more worried.

This couldn’t go on.

He needed to find a way to give Meng Chang some hope; otherwise, under such repeated blows, even the most spirited person would become depressed.

Pei Qian cleared his throat a couple of times: “How about this, Meng Chang. I think the agreement we signed before was a bit too difficult. Considering that Tenda’s products naturally have good name recognition, this has also created many difficulties for developing promotional plans.”

“So I’m considering making some slight changes to the agreement, appropriately relaxing some standards. This way, your success rate will be higher. What do you think?”

Meng Chang’s eyes widened slightly, hardly believing what he was hearing.

Could such a good thing be true?

Mr. Pei was actually taking the initiative to relax the standards?

Meng Chang finally broke his silence and asked, “What specific changes?”

Pei Qian thought for a moment: “First, let’s increase your base salary a bit, to four thousand yuan. Second, let’s relax the conditions for promotional plan commissions a bit. As long as you spend enough on promotional expenses and maintain promotional effectiveness below costs for half a month, you’ll get a guaranteed minimum commission of 2,000 yuan. Even if the promotional effectiveness suddenly improves later, these 2,000 yuan will still be yours.”

Meng Chang’s previously dead eyes gradually began to show a glimmer of light.

This condition sounded good!

It was essentially a double guarantee.

Previously, the base salary was only three thousand yuan, but now the base salary plus the guaranteed minimum commission reached 6,000 yuan—a full doubling!

Of course, to get this 2,000 yuan guaranteed minimum commission, he needed to ensure that the promotional effectiveness remained poor for at least half a month.

But that shouldn’t be difficult.

When Meng Chang had created the promotional plan for “Mission and Choice,” this situation had persisted for a long time. If Mr. Pei hadn’t suddenly changed the game’s release date and tricked him, he might have already earned that month’s commission.

In short, compared to the original plan, the new plan was definitely completely beneficial for Meng Chang.

Meng Chang nodded: “Okay.”

He had instinctively wanted to say “thank you,” but then felt that something wasn’t quite right. Saying “thank you” would have been rather out of place and somewhat darkly humorous, so in the end, he only squeezed out an “okay.”

Pei Qian said, “Then let’s implement this starting next month.”

“Next month’s promotional plan is a choice of one out of four options; you decide which one yourself.”

“They are: Endpoint Chinese Network’s Inspiration Class, the Food Court, Tenda Experience Store, or the Summer Promotion activity.”

“I can help you eliminate one wrong answer again: you’d better not touch the Summer Promotion.”

Meng Chang thought to himself, “Do you think I’m stupid?”

Every time Tenda burned money, they did it on an earth-shaking scale. He would have to be out of his mind to choose the Summer Promotion activity for reverse promotion.

But as for how to choose among the first three, Meng Chang hadn’t made up his mind yet, because he wasn’t very familiar with any of these projects.

He thought for a moment: “Mr. Pei, can I spend some time researching the specific situations of these three projects before making a decision?”

Pei Qian was delighted and immediately nodded: “Of course you can! You should have been doing more research all along!”

“Research thoroughly and in depth, and if you have any needs, have the person in charge of that area cooperate with you.”

“You must plan carefully before taking action. Promotional plans require deep thought, understand?”

Meng Chang had somewhat gotten used to Mr. Pei’s strange tone and silently nodded.

He figured that no matter how badly he failed, holding out for fifteen days shouldn’t be a problem, right?

The base salary going from 3,000 to 6,000 might not be much, but at least the guaranteed minimum had doubled. And if he did well, there was still a chance to get a 100,000 yuan commission!

Meng Chang suddenly felt that Mr. Pei wasn’t so hateful after all.

It seemed this person still had some conscience!