July 13th, Friday.
In his office, Pei Qian reviewed work summaries from various departments while sighing repeatedly.
How difficult!
This week had been incredibly challenging.
Monday’s subway news was bad enough—it had dealt Pei Qian a heavy blow, causing him to stay home for two days to recover.
Then came the summer promotion that ended on Wednesday.
Pei Qian could only describe this summer promotion with one phrase: “utterly flavorless”!
It should have been a good exchange of moves with Finger Games, but unexpectedly, they didn’t respond at all.
This made Tenda seem quite one-sided.
Not only that, but more bad news came in succession. Eric had made a special trip to say goodbye and should have returned to Dayark Group headquarters by now, his future uncertain.
Pei Qian couldn’t help feeling a sense of sympathy for the fallen.
Most frustrating of all, Pei Qian still hadn’t used the mysterious reward given by the system!
During the last settlement, the system had given him a reward allowing Pei Qian to convert up to 100,000 of his personal assets into a 100-fold user discount quota. This was a permanent option available once per cycle.
In other words, at a critical moment, Pei Qian could directly spend 100,000 yuan from his own pocket to unconditionally give away 10 million yuan to users.
Pei Qian had originally planned to use this reward at a crucial moment in the money-burning war with Finger Games.
Imagine the scenario: Finger Games coming on strong, both sides frantically lowering discount rates, locked in a fierce battle.
At that moment, Tenda suddenly splurging ten million yuan, giving it away completely—how grand that would be!
It would certainly give Finger Games a shock.
But now there was no chance. The opponent had already decided to exit the battlefield, so who was this quota for?
Of course, it couldn’t be wasted. If he really couldn’t find a way to spend the money, he could use this method to forcibly spend the final ten million.
It just wouldn’t be as satisfying.
After that, Endpoint Chinese Website also brought bad news.
Since the announcement of “Eternal Cycle’s” development plan, the Inspiration Class’s copyright development plan had inevitably spread.
During this period, numerous authors had continuously joined Endpoint Chinese Website, with a large number of new writers emerging. Many successful authors from other novel websites had even switched over.
Because of this copyright development plan, it had unintentionally achieved the effect of “spending a thousand gold to buy a horse’s bones”!
What was most important to authors?
Ranked first were of course readers, subscriptions, and remuneration. They needed to make a living for their writing to continue.
But there was another significant aspect: the higher, seemingly ethereal copyright development!
For a book, copyright development transcended subscription data because it meant transforming a story fundamentally from text into images.
Whether as a web drama, animation, film, or game, the expressiveness and fame would be much higher than pure text.
For an author, if their work could receive a copyright adaptation, regardless of success, this opportunity was extremely rare.
Many classic works, though excellent, never received copyright development opportunities, which was regrettable.
Seeing works like “Eternal Cycle” being officially developed by Tenda and becoming DLC for the classic game “Turn Back to Shore,” many authors were envious.
A fan fiction forcibly becoming an officially endorsed canonical sequel—how fortunate!
Many authors pondered: at this level, perhaps I could do it too?
Moreover, even if unsuccessful, the buyout fee from Endpoint Chinese Website’s Inspiration Class was substantial, ensuring a good living.
Thus, Endpoint Chinese Website’s standing in the web novel circle rose again!
Pei Qian was worried again.
It seemed that in the next cycle, he would need to find a way to ruin these three copyright adaptation works.
On one hand to lose money, and on the other to discourage these authors from other sites!
Otherwise, if all authors flocked here, the number of good works would increase, naturally attracting readers as well—this was self-evident.
Then there was the matter of Chi Xing Studio’s VR glasses.
On Thursday, just yesterday, Pei Qian had checked the online public opinion and felt the timing was about right.
So, he contacted Chi Xing Studio and officially began selling Doubt VR glasses.
But he had imposed strict limitations on sales quantities: selling twice a week, only 1,000 units each time.
Although VR was a niche product with relatively few players truly willing to pay for it, this quantity was clearly far from meeting market demand.
And this was precisely the effect Pei Qian wanted to achieve.
Currently, the mainstream online opinion about Doubt VR glasses was very negative. Regardless of the actual quality of these glasses, most people’s negative evaluations mainly focused on “marketing,” “hype,” and “paid comments.”
Moreover, due to the special circumstances of VR glasses, without “Animal Island” releasing, streamers couldn’t demonstrate the awesomeness of these glasses through livestreams.
Many streamers, due to past incidents, were considered to be paid when praising these VR glasses.
This limited sale was designed to ensure that only a small portion of interested netizens could purchase the actual product.
This way, even if many who bought the product changed their opinion about the glasses and said online that they were excellent, others still wouldn’t believe them.
This approach would maximize the duration of negative publicity while using hunger marketing to further provoke netizens’ resentment, enhancing the reverse publicity effect.
Of course, this couldn’t be dragged on indefinitely.
The end of this month was settlement time, and these products needed to be officially released one month in advance, including “Animal Island VR.”
After all, Chi Xing Studio had already completed the game development. Delaying launch for a week could be explained as wanting them to test more and fix bugs, but any longer would be inappropriate.
In short, Pei Qian’s goal was to delay until the 18th, next Wednesday, to ensure Meng Chang received his minimum commission.
Life, why was it so difficult!
Pei Qian leaned back in his chair, emptying his mind, not knowing what to say.
After a few minutes, there was a knock at the office door.
“Come in.”
Pei Qian looked up and was surprised.
The visitor was Lu Zhiyao.
Although Lu Zhiyao was wearing a baseball cap and mask, completely covering his face, they had worked together many times, so Pei Qian recognized him immediately.
Lu Zhiyao removed his hat and glasses, beaming: “Mr. Pei!”
Pei Qian was surprised: “What brings you here?”
Lu Zhiyao smiled: “Well, my schedule just happened to clear up recently, and I don’t have much going on.”
“I was thinking, the movie ‘Mission and Choice’ ends its theatrical run tomorrow, which is a Saturday, and next Friday happens to be the 20th…”
“It’s perfect timing to invite Uncle Zhang and a few old friends to come to Jingzhou, have some fun, and grab a meal!”
“I heard that recently, Jingzhou has added a Food Market and a Tenda Experience Store, and the subway will be extended there? Congratulations, Mr. Pei!”
Pei Qian: “…”
Coming to freeload a meal so brazenly, what shamelessness!
After working together for so long, Lu Zhiyao had figured out the pattern.
He discovered that whenever a film wrapped up shooting, Mr. Pei would definitely treat everyone to a meal; when a film ended its theatrical run and everyone got together, Mr. Pei would definitely treat them to a meal again.
And every month, Mr. Pei typically arranged private rooms on Saturdays and Sundays, and full restaurant reservations for gatherings on the 20th.
Calculating carefully, the timing was perfect!
The film’s end coincided with a weekend—perfect for one meal; then spend a week in Jingzhou until the 20th for another meal.
Perfect!
Just thinking about Nameless Restaurant’s delicacies made Lu Zhiyao’s mouth water.
And there was nothing to be embarrassed about.
Lu Zhiyao felt that as the lead actor in “Mission and Choice,” which had been pushed to a 1.6 billion yuan box office in its final stage, breaking records, Mr. Pei must have made at least 500 million yuan in profit, right?
What’s wrong with freeloading a meal from Mr. Pei!
Wasn’t that justified?
Upon hearing the words “Mission and Choice,” Pei Qian felt his temples throb.
The film was finally ending its run!
Although the two-month extension had pushed the box office up a bit more, for Pei Qian, extending was a necessary choice.
Because after the extension, the film’s box office revenue would definitely be settled in the next cycle.
Without the extension, given this world’s extremely fast payment speed, what if a sudden influx of 500 million yuan appeared before settlement?
In that case, he would have to tearfully accept a 500,000 yuan profit conversion.
Not only would that be 400,000 yuan less than the 800,000-900,000 yuan loss conversion, but most crucially, he would miss the mysterious reward with significant impact that came with wealth conversion values exceeding 800,000 yuan.
That would be a devastating loss!
Anyway, it was over now.
This nightmare had finally passed.
Lu Zhiyao made himself at home on the sofa, pouring himself a cup of tea: “Mr. Pei, what’s the next film? I can’t wait!”
Pei Qian almost rolled his eyes in anger.
Film my ass!
Are you addicted or something?!
You guys make the most money for me, but also cause the most trouble!
Lu Zhiyao was indeed addicted. Where else could he find such a good deal where each film he made became a hit?
If actors knew before filming that a movie would definitely be successful, probably the entire crew would be pumped with adrenaline to start work immediately—who could remain patient?
Working with Mr. Pei on films gave exactly that feeling.
No matter how they filmed, it was always a double success in box office and reviews!
Pei Qian said: “Nothing in the short term. Fei Huang Studio’s next project is a web series, and it will be filmed abroad. There’s no suitable role for you.”
Lu Zhiyao immediately became displeased, putting down his teacup: “How can there be no suitable role for me? My foreign language skills are good too. Just arrange a Chinese diaspora character for me, and it’ll be fine!”
Pei Qian patiently advised: “The main characters have all been determined, and they’re all foreigners. Even if we arrange a Chinese diaspora character for you, it would only be a minor supporting role, a bit part.”
Pei Qian thought, Lu Zhiyao, you’re just one significant award away from being an award-winning actor, and you’re arguably the hottest male actor in the country right now. Surely there must be a long line of productions waiting to cast you as the lead?
With so many films available to you, why follow Fei Huang Studio to film a web series? And only play a bit part?
If you do this, wouldn’t you be out of your mind?
However, Lu Zhiyao seriously said: “What’s wrong with a supporting role? I’ve never looked down on supporting roles!”
“Nothing more to say, regardless of this web series’ theme or what kind of supporting role it is, I’m definitely in!”
“Mr. Pei, please don’t hesitate to ask. I’m not an ungrateful person!”
Lu Zhiyao had clearly misunderstood.
He thought Mr. Pei wasn’t asking because he felt that Lu Zhiyao’s status was too high now, and it would be awkward to ask him to play a supporting role in a web series.
So Lu Zhiyao needed to make it clear that given his relationship with Fei Huang Studio, what did it matter if it was a supporting role? He definitely had to help!
It was his duty!
Pei Qian looked at Lu Zhiyao, speechless.
What a mess!
He now wanted to post online.
“An award-winning actor insists on taking a bit part for me and won’t leave no matter what. What should I do? Need urgent advice!”