From an individual perspective, the power wielded by these large corporations was unimaginable. Even if Meng Chang’s own strength were magnified tenfold or a hundredfold, it would still be difficult to shake even a single hair on such a major corporation.
But if one controlled resources and attention, using appropriate methods to ride the momentum, these big companies could be struck without any chance to fight back.
This was the Pei Publicity Method, this was Mr. Pei’s dragon-slaying technique!
So, seeing Zhujia Group’s stock price plummet, Meng Chang felt satisfied.
He still didn’t know exactly how much money Fan Xiaodong had invested in shorting Zhujia Group, but it was definitely more than the commission he had lost, and that was enough.
Moreover, this was another successful application of the Pei Publicity Method. From any angle, Meng Chang’s gains far outweighed those trivial commissions.
Thinking about this, he gently knocked on the door.
Then, he wiped the smile from his face.
Although he had achieved a partial victory, it was still far from Mr. Pei’s expectations.
The perfect scenario would have been to take down Zhujia Group, successfully promote the game, and still receive the full commission.
The unexpected situation with Zhujia Group had disrupted the plan, which showed that his skills weren’t fully refined yet.
He couldn’t become too complacent or arrogant, leaving a bad impression on Mr. Pei.
In front of Mr. Pei, one must always maintain humility.
“Come in.”
Mr. Pei’s voice came from inside the office. Meng Chang had already composed his expression before pushing the door open.
…
Before Meng Chang arrived, Pei Qian had been lost in thought, even starting to question his own sanity.
Who the hell was this Mr. Tian!
He was causing trouble again!
Originally, the “Real Estate Agent Simulator” game had been perfectly matching Pei Qian’s expectations: although it had an excellent reputation in small circles, it lacked the influence to break through to a wider audience. Combined with the game’s massive investment, it was impossible to recover the costs.
Moreover, Qiao Laoshi was currently suffering and wouldn’t be able to make any moves within the next two months.
Even if Qiao Laoshi released a video after two months, by then the hype for “Real Estate Agent Simulator” would have died down, and there wouldn’t be any major issues.
But despite all his calculations, he had still overlooked this Mr. Tian!
The main issue was that after the video on the Morning Dew Gaming Platform was released, Mr. Tian had disappeared without releasing any more videos. Pei Qian had thought he’d escaped this nightmare.
Now, Mr. Tian was back, and with even more popularity than his previous video!
The situation was particularly strange this time. The critical factor was that Mr. Tian’s video timing was impeccable—it coincided perfectly with Zhujia Group’s announcement of their “Caring Butler” service. He had effectively utilized the lingering heat from the previous controversy to deliver a crushing blow to Zhujia Group.
No matter how one looked at it, it seemed like a planned move.
What was especially suspicious was that Mr. Tian mentioned the game’s hidden mechanism in his video—that exploiting tenants would lead to a decline in reputation.
Pei Qian specifically searched online for players’ posts by date and found that while there were some discussions about this hidden mechanism during the same period, they were all just speculation, not as definitive as Mr. Tian’s claims.
After all, this hidden mechanism was deeply concealed, and without comparing large amounts of data, it would be difficult to confirm.
Yet Mr. Tian spoke with absolute certainty, as if he had known about it all along.
Could it be…
Was Mr. Tian actually a mole? Someone lurking right beside him?
Pei Qian couldn’t be entirely certain, but it was a potential breakthrough.
Who would know about this hidden mechanism?
Everyone at Chi Xing Studio knew about it. Additionally, departments that had collaborated with Chi Xing Studio might also know.
Even people who had private conversations with either of these two groups might know.
Chi Xing Studio had also allowed some players to experience the game early before its release. It wasn’t impossible that someone from this group had noticed the mechanism but never discussed it in the forums, choosing instead to make a video about it.
The range of possibilities was quite large and difficult to narrow down.
But at least this was a preliminary reduction in scope.
Suddenly, Pei Qian had a thought.
Could Mr. Tian… actually be Meng Chang?
Looking at how clearly he interpreted the promotional video, it was as if he and Meng Chang shared the same mind, performing a duet.
The key question was whether Meng Chang had actually intended what Mr. Tian claimed when making the promotional video.
If so, the two were definitely connected!
But Pei Qian quickly dismissed this idea, finding it unreasonable.
Because the video had been released two days ago.
If it had been released tonight, Meng Chang could have earned a commission of about 120,000-130,000 yuan; by releasing it two days early and igniting the controversy, Meng Chang’s commission was cut drastically, leaving only around 30,000 yuan.
A commission of 100,000 yuan should be an astronomical figure for Meng Chang, whose base salary was only a few thousand yuan.
If Meng Chang were Mr. Tian, he had absolutely no reason to be so hasty.
If the video had been released tonight, Pei Qian could immediately have confirmed Mr. Tian’s identity as being connected to Meng Chang.
But now, Pei Qian was confused.
From all appearances, Meng Chang seemed to be a pure victim just like himself.
Pei Qian felt something was off, as if he had taken a wrong direction or missed some crucial information.
While he was still troubled by these thoughts, Meng Chang arrived.
Pei Qian decided to put aside his concerns and ask the person involved directly about his thoughts.
“This month’s commission… all efforts wasted.” Pei Qian said as he passed the laptop over.
Meng Chang looked at the report and shook his head slightly: “What can be done? I can only blame my insufficient skill.”
His intended meaning was that his mastery of the Pei Publicity Method wasn’t refined enough, causing the explosion to happen prematurely and resulting in lost commission.
But to Pei Qian, it sounded like Meng Chang was saying he hadn’t anticipated Mr. Tian’s sudden appearance and the distorted interpretation of his promotional video.
Upon seeing the commission figure, Meng Chang’s mouth twitched violently.
Although he had mentally prepared himself, seeing such a huge loss still caused him physical pain.
Pei Qian had been closely observing Meng Chang’s subtle expressions, and seeing his grimace, he felt that pain too.
It seemed Meng Chang was indeed innocent?
Despite numerous suspicious points pointing to him, with the constraint of the commission in place, Meng Chang was relatively trustworthy.
Meng Chang handed the laptop back, raising no objections about the commission.
Still not entirely at ease, Pei Qian decided to ask a few more questions.
“Any progress on the Mr. Tian matter?”
Previously, Pei Qian had tasked Meng Chang with investigating Mr. Tian. The last time he asked, Meng Chang had said he had some leads. With Meng Chang’s abilities, even if he hadn’t fully uncovered the truth, there should be some new information surfacing, right?
Meng Chang was taken aback momentarily, then answered: “Uh… some. I’ve now determined that Mr. Tian is likely a humble, low-profile person who considers himself very ordinary, yet has remarkable insight. This might be because of his unique perspective.”
This was the character profile Meng Chang had established for Mr. Tian after careful consideration.
Pei Qian nodded slightly. What Meng Chang said did make some sense and could generally be inferred from the videos.
But Pei Qian wasn’t satisfied with this, because this limited information alone couldn’t determine who Mr. Tian actually was.
There were too many people who fit these criteria, still leaving them without any clear direction.
Pei Qian asked further: “Is that all? What else?”
“What you’ve described can all be seen from the videos. What about in real life?”
He felt that with Meng Chang’s abilities, after investigating for so long, he shouldn’t have just created a simple personality profile for Mr. Tian based on the videos. There should be some more concrete findings pointing in a clearer direction.
Meng Chang blinked, wondering what Mr. Pei meant.
Wasn’t this character profile enough?
Did he need to dig deeper, be more detailed? Even extend it to his real-life state?
But Mr. Tian was just an alternate account! In real life, wasn’t it just him?
Oh, he understood. Mr. Pei was telling him that if he was going to play a role, he should go all the way.
Since it was an alternate account, he needed to clearly define both the online image and the real-life image. The two images should correspond and influence each other, making it all seem more authentic and less likely to be exposed.
Indeed, Mr. Pei’s thinking was thorough.
After some consideration, Meng Chang said: “In real life, Mr. Tian is probably a rather quiet person who doesn’t stand out.”
“In fact, if you saw him in person, you wouldn’t be able to connect him with the Mr. Tian image at all.”
This was an extension based on the previous character profile, representing Meng Chang’s more detailed character sketch for his Mr. Tian alternate account.
Pei Qian was still not satisfied. With just this information, he still couldn’t pinpoint who Mr. Tian actually was!
After thinking for a moment, he asked another question: “Have you considered that all signs indicate Mr. Tian is very likely within Tenda Group, or has close ties to Tenda Group?”
Meng Chang blinked, momentarily failing to respond.
Yes, Mr. Tian was indeed within Tenda Group—it was him! Didn’t Mr. Pei already know this?
So what did this question mean?
Oh, he understood!
Mr. Pei was hinting that the identity of Mr. Tian could be easily exposed, and he should be more careful about hiding it!
Mr. Pei said, “All signs indicate Mr. Tian might be within Tenda,” which meant that although he had created a good character profile for the Mr. Tian account, he had still left some traces and hidden dangers during the process.
This was a hint for him to make every effort to completely separate Mr. Tian from Tenda Group, never letting others discover that Mr. Tian was actually an alternate account maintained by Tenda. Otherwise, once exposed, the consequences would be severe and difficult to manage.
Realizing this, Meng Chang immediately nodded: “It does seem that way so far. Don’t worry, Mr. Pei, I’ll continue to work hard!”
Meng Chang meant that he would continue to eliminate such connections, making the Mr. Tian character more independent and better hidden, ensuring that the outside world would never discover it.
Pei Qian nodded with satisfaction.
Good. Since Meng Chang had committed to continuing the investigation along this line of thinking, there was no problem.
The identity of Mr. Tian would eventually be revealed.
“That’s all for today then.”
“For next month’s publicity plan, you can choose between two options: one is the roller coaster project at Horror Lodge, and the other is the new web drama ‘The Successor’ filmed by Fei Huang Studio.”
“There’s still plenty of time, so you can investigate both projects before deciding which one to pursue.”
Although the publicity for “Real Estate Agent Simulator” had failed again, Pei Qian could sense that Meng Chang had tried his best.
The blame lay with this Mr. Tian for confusing right and wrong and turning everything upside down!
But what was done was done. There was no point in dwelling on it further. It was better to arrange new tasks quickly.
“Yes, Mr. Pei, I’ll examine these two projects next week!”
Meng Chang accepted the assignment and left.
Pei Qian remained seated at his computer, deep in thought.
“Meng Chang agrees with my view that based on the current situation, Mr. Tian is likely within Tenda, or someone with close ties to Tenda.”
“And according to Meng Chang’s speculation, this person is humble, low-profile, and considers himself very ordinary. In real life, he’s probably quiet and doesn’t stand out.”
“It’s even difficult to connect his real-life image with the ‘Mr. Tian’ online persona—the contrast between the two is extreme.”
“In other words, the real-life Mr. Tian might not be as clever as he appears in the videos; on the contrary, he might seem rather foolish on the surface?”
“And judging from this latest video, Mr. Tian also seems to have a profound understanding of the real estate agency industry. He might know people working in this field, or might have worked in this industry himself…”
“Hmm?”
Pei Qian suddenly realized that there was someone within Tenda who perfectly matched all these conditions!