July 2nd, Monday.
Shortly after 8 AM, Pei Qian turned off his alarm, sat up from bed, and prepared to face the new week’s challenges with vigor.
He had bought the house over the weekend, which checked off one item from his to-do list. As for decoration and furnishing, those could wait and be handled gradually.
After clearing the multi-threaded tasks in his mind, he could now focus on the final sprint before this month’s financial settlement.
While brushing his teeth, Pei Qian opened his phone to check how the online paid commenters were performing.
He had to admit that the efficiency of Mr. Hu Xiao’s team was quite impressive. Discussions about the VR headset and the game could be seen across Weibo, gaming forums, and many other media platforms.
“I heard Tenda’s new game is a VR game! It’s definitely a groundbreaking work—Qiao Laoshi was testing that exact game!”
“VR game? Isn’t that genre still quite underdeveloped?”
“No worries, Mr. Pei is personally overseeing it. What’s there to worry about? Mr. Pei can handle any game genre with ease!”
“Current VR technology isn’t that great, is it? I’ve tried several foreign VR headsets, and the resolution on all of them was poor—everything looked blurry.”
“Word is that Tenda has invested huge capital into developing a VR headset this time. It should crush all existing VR headsets on the market—it’ll be a completely different experience!”
“Seriously? That’s so exciting! But for such a major project, how come there hasn’t been any information leaked? Doesn’t seem right, does it?”
“I feel like the rumors are getting more and more exaggerated. Since when has Tenda been working on a VR project? It seems impossible when you think about it. Tenda’s gaming department is still working on updates for ‘Mission and Choice,’ and they still owe us ‘Eternal Loop.’ As for Shangyang Games, they’re continuously updating ‘Fitness Showdown’ with new outfits, characters, and gameplay mechanics. Where would they find time to develop a ‘groundbreaking VR masterpiece’?”
“Outu Technology is also busy with new phones and smart fitness clothing racks. How could they possibly spare time to make another VR headset?”
“I think you guys are just desperate to play Tenda games and have started hallucinating about VR games! Either you’re delusional or you’re taking unreliable rumors too seriously!”
“Exactly! Do you really think Tenda releases new games every month for you to play? Mr. Pei is so busy—even the production team’s sow can’t be that productive!”
Reading these discussions, Pei Qian nodded with satisfaction.
Yes, this was basically in line with his expectations.
Currently, there were two main voices online. The first was the mindless praise from paid commenters, who completely avoided mentioning the Chi Xing Studio and instead replaced the subject with “Tenda,” doing everything possible to hype up the new headset and game.
The second voice consisted of scattered skepticism in various directions. The most convincing doubts pointed out that Tenda’s two game development departments were currently busy with other projects and couldn’t possibly spare the time or manpower to develop such a large-scale VR game.
In fact, both voices contained partially correct information and partially incorrect information.
To steer the online public opinion in the desired direction, he only needed to emphasize the content that would help his reverse publicity strategy.
Pei Qian figured that the timing was about right.
If they continued hyping like this, the attention would become too high, the momentum would be unstoppable, and that would be detrimental to subsequent plans.
Now that there was some heat, with small flames just starting to rise and some skeptical voices emerging, it was the perfect time to pour cold water on it for maximum effect!
Pei Qian immediately logged into Tenda’s official Weibo account and posted the clarification announcement screenshot that he had prepared beforehand.
For this publicity plan, Pei Qian hadn’t discussed the specific details with Lin Wan’s Chi Xing Studio, but he had given them a heads-up, telling them not to be alarmed as the publicity strategy had special purposes behind it.
Therefore, after posting this Weibo, he wasn’t worried that Chi Xing Studio would undermine the plan.
Throughout the entire publicity campaign cycle, Chi Xing Studio would remain silent and quietly endure everything.
After confirmation that the post was successfully published, Pei Qian opened the image of the Weibo post and read it once more.
“Tenda Network Technology Co., Ltd.”
“Clarification Announcement”
“Recently, some false rumors have appeared online. To clarify the truth and prevent players from forming unrealistic expectations, we hereby announce the following:”
“The rumored VR headset and game projects do exist, but they are not products of any Tenda Group department. Both the VR headset and game projects are independently developed by Chi Xing Studio.”
“The relationship between Tenda Group and Chi Xing Studio is purely one of investment, with no clear subordinate relationship in organizational structure.”
“Tenda’s new phase of game projects is still under consideration and is expected to officially begin development next month. Stay tuned!”
Below were the signature, date, and the company’s official seal.
This clarification announcement was written in a very formal tone, stamped with Tenda Group’s seal, and published through the official account. Its credibility was self-evident.
Pei Qian waited patiently for a while, and soon, a large number of player comments appeared below the Weibo post.
“What the hell does this mean?”
“Distancing themselves?”
“I was really looking forward to this game and VR headset. Turns out I’ve been fooled!”
“Why does everyone seem so disappointed? Doesn’t this confirm the existence of the headset and game project?”
“Confirmation means nothing! Look carefully—this isn’t developed by Tenda at all! It’s from some unknown small company. Why should we look forward to their products?”
“I felt something was off when the online hype was so exaggerated. A small company not focusing on making good products but instead buying paid commenters to overhype… In my opinion, their final product probably won’t be anything special!”
“Didn’t they say Tenda has an investment relationship with them?”
“Don’t you know Tenda invests in everyone? Dream Fulfillment Venture Capital accepts all comers—they’ve invested in countless companies. This proves nothing about whether this company is reliable.”
“I think Tenda’s attitude is very clear. They obviously don’t want this small company riding on their coattails, which is why they issued this statement. And if you carefully consider the wording—’to prevent players from forming unrealistic expectations’—it means this company’s products aren’t nearly as amazing as the online hype suggests. Everyone, please don’t be deceived!”
“It’s also about distancing themselves, implying that this company’s actions have nothing to do with Tenda. Tenda just happened to invest in this company, that’s all.”
“Moreover, the announcement mentioned at the end that Tenda does have new projects, but they won’t start development until next month. This confirms that this VR game has no connection to Tenda.”
“Then what about Qiao Laoshi saying earlier that he was testing a Tenda game?”
“He was probably fooled by this Chi Xing Studio. They told Qiao Laoshi it was a Tenda-invested game, and he naively believed it.”
“Indeed, a game invested in by Tenda versus a game developed by Tenda are completely different concepts!”
Reading the netizens’ discussions, Pei Qian couldn’t help but smile with joy.
Look, look!
Immediate results!
As soon as this clarification announcement was posted, it immediately severed any connection between Tenda Group and Chi Xing Studio. Moreover, it caused all the previous promotional effects from the paid commenters to backfire.
Of course, the reason why the effect was so pronounced was also due to the activities of paid commenters.
However, those guiding the public opinion were all high-end paid commenters who were quite subtle in their approach.
Through this simplified version of “first praise, then suppress,” an initial image of Chi Xing Studio had been established in the players’ minds: marketing-focused, eager to ride on Tenda’s popularity, with Tenda distancing itself from them.
The first step could be considered a great success.
He had to strike while the iron was hot and capitalize on this victory.
Pei Qian immediately sent a message to Meng Chang: “How are things going on your end?”
Meng Chang quickly replied: “Everything is proceeding according to plan. Weibo post tomorrow, promotional video the day after!”
……
July 3rd, Tuesday.
Meng Chang was busy at the promotional video shooting site.
“Very good, that feeling just now was somewhat right, but it needs to be a bit more perplexing. Yes, strike a few more poses that have no clear meaning.”
“What kind of poses? You figure it out yourself—how would I know? You’re the actor, your imagination should be richer.”
“Yes, yes, yes, that’s not bad. Let’s do another one.”