December 10th, Monday.

The door to the Tenda Group President’s office hadn’t opened yet. Meng Chang and Huang Sibo were waiting in the adjacent rest room.

“Huh, why is Mr. Pei late today? Doesn’t he usually come in as soon as work starts on Mondays?”

“No idea. Maybe he has other business to handle?”

“Hmm, how’s your promotional plan coming along?”

“It’s going well, I have a general outline. Has it been decided which website ‘The Successor’ will be released on?”

“Not yet. Several websites are competing for it, offering different prices, so I’m here to get Mr. Pei’s decision.”

Getting a bit bored with waiting, the two began to chat.

After careful consideration, Meng Chang had decided to use “The Successor” for promotion, which meant he would allocate most of his promotional resources to this project.

After thinking about it for some time, he had a general idea for the promotional plan, but whether it was feasible still needed Mr. Pei’s approval.

As for Huang Sibo, he had already been in contact with several domestic video platforms.

Indeed, several video platforms, including AiLiDao, had shown considerable interest in “The Successor” and made substantial offers.

Of course, Huang Sibo understood clearly that this was probably not due to confidence in the content of “The Successor,” but merely out of respect for Fei Huang Studio’s previous achievements.

Since its establishment, Fei Huang Studio had produced short dramas, documentaries, and even big-budget films, all of which had been hugely successful.

Even the documentaries, which didn’t make much money, had generated enthusiastic responses online. They might not have earned profits, but they had won tremendous acclaim.

This time, Fei Huang Studio was taking another unconventional approach by investing so much money to film a web series in the US for domestic broadcast. Although this approach seemed somewhat unreliable, considering the miracles Fei Huang Studio had repeatedly created, these video websites were still willing to pay to acquire the series.

Of course, specific details of the cooperation—whether to buy exclusive rights, how much to pay, how many platform resources to provide for promotion after acquiring the series—needed careful consideration.

Different platforms offered different conditions, and Huang Sibo was having trouble deciding, so he came to consult Mr. Pei.

However, Mr. Pei, who should have been in his office on time this morning, hadn’t arrived, so the two had no choice but to wait and chat.

After all, both of them were ultimately responsible for “The Successor” project and needed to work closely together, so sharing information was necessary.

Meng Chang asked Huang Sibo in detail about the terms offered by various streaming platforms, then fell into deep thought.

“I think Mr. Pei will most likely choose AiLiDao as the partner.”

Huang Sibo was a bit surprised: “Oh? Is that so? But AiLiDao’s offer doesn’t have any obvious advantage compared to other video websites.”

“Is it because of AiLiDao’s user base and activity level?”

Meng Chang shook his head: “That’s just one aspect. I think Mr. Pei will care more about AiLiDao’s… environment and atmosphere.”

“This is a rather metaphysical thing, but each video website has viewers with different tastes and habits, and different user groups will have varying evaluations of the same series.”

“And these evaluations will influence newcomers’ impressions of the series.”

“‘The Successor’ is more suited to AiLiDao’s style, and it also aligns better with my promotional plan.”

“As for the price… that’s not an issue. Mr. Pei definitely won’t accept a lump-sum buyout but will most likely adopt a revenue-sharing model linked to metrics like view counts and ratings.”

Huang Sibo looked worried: “That may be true, but I’m a bit concerned.”

“The lump-sum buyouts offered by various video websites are quite high now, enough to cover our filming costs, which is indeed a safer choice.”

“But if we use a revenue-sharing model, what if things go slightly wrong? Won’t we lose money then?”

“If ‘The Successor’ were a proper commercial film, that would be one thing, but it’s a very special niche production. The probability of commercial failure is not low.”

Meng Chang said: “If he were afraid of losing money, he wouldn’t be Mr. Pei. Didn’t Mr. Pei seem quite satisfied when watching the sample episodes last week? That shows he’s very pleased with this series.”

Huang Sibo nodded: “That makes sense. By the way, how are you planning to handle the promotion?”

Meng Chang took out his plan: “This plan will have some small differences from previous ones, but at its core, it’s still the same approach. Basically…”

Before he could finish, he saw Mr. Pei walking past the rest room door to his office.

Meng Chang and Huang Sibo quickly gathered their respective plans, preparing to report to Mr. Pei.

Huang Sibo was puzzled: “Why does Mr. Pei look displeased today? Has something gone wrong with one of the businesses?”

Meng Chang thought for a moment: “Not necessarily. He might be thinking about longer-term plans, estimating some worst-case scenarios in advance, which is showing in his expression.”

“Um… would you like to go first?”

Huang Sibo shook his head: “You go first.”

Meng Chang: “Let’s first decide which website ‘The Successor’ will be on. That way, we can roughly deduce Mr. Pei’s promotional intentions, and then I can make some minor adjustments to the promotional plan.”

Huang Sibo thought about it and agreed it made sense, so he didn’t decline further: “Alright, I’ll be quick.”

…

Meanwhile, Pei Qian was brooding in his office.

Just look at Finger Corporation and Longyu Group—how could they be so incompetent!

Over the weekend, Pei Qian had continued watching matches at home.

As a result, he had become quite angry.

The quarterfinals had been over for more than a week, and the semifinals had already begun, yet there was still no movement from Finger Corporation. They hadn’t done anything!

Previously, GOG had collaborated with Rabbit Tail Live to launch a spectator function for PC and mobile clients, which had been extremely well-received. Discussions and analyses related to GOG matches had surged on various forums and video websites, completely overshadowing the heat of the IOI World Championship.

GOG already had more players and higher attention, and now with this spectator function bringing out many “microbiologists” from the audience, each holding magnifying glasses to watch matches, it had triggered a comprehensive surge in discussion heat.

If this function had been out for several months, the enthusiasm might have died down, but it had just been released, and players were still excited, enjoying it immensely.

Even foreign countries were falling under its spell, not to mention the domestic scene.

Facing such enormous pressure, IOI’s side had done absolutely nothing—it was absurd!

Of course, saying they did nothing wasn’t entirely objective. They had spent some promotional funds, but it hadn’t yielded much effect.

The only commendable thing was their marketing around the FV club, successfully creating a “world’s other clubs besieging the FV overlord” stance, barely maintaining some heat.

But the problem was that the competitive aspect of GOG was not inferior!

The previous week was the quarterfinals, last week was the semifinals. GOG had five foreign teams in the quarterfinals, and two foreign teams remained in the semifinals.

Although in the end, two domestic teams from GPL emerged victorious and advanced to the finals, the foreign teams had plenty of screen time in both the quarterfinals and semifinals.

Especially in the semifinals, these two foreign teams had worked hard to create exciting content, employing some flashy tactics. One team won a game, while the other team won two games and almost took the match.

This was because as GOG became more popular abroad, various clubs paid more attention to their GOG divisions. The establishment of the league system allowed these foreign teams to gradually catch up, and GPL teams no longer had such a significant head start.

For foreign viewers, these teams delivered highly exciting matches, and they could be said to have lost with honor.

The discussion levels for the quarterfinals and semifinals were off the charts.

In contrast, on IOI’s side, the FV team had advanced to the semifinals and then to the finals with some suspense but no real danger. The process was slightly bumpy, not as dominating as last year, but overall, it was clear that even after being targeted and weakened by Finger Corporation, FV’s raw strength remained formidable.

Although whether FV could defend their championship was a good suspense, compared to the topics on GOG’s side, it wasn’t qualitatively different.

Combined with the impact of the spectator mode, this made IOI’s popularity quite concerning.

Pei Qian had stayed up late to watch IOI’s matches and then browsed the forums, getting increasingly angry.

Because hardly anyone was discussing IOI’s matters, and even those who did were just discussing whether FV could defend their championship.

How could this not make one angry!

Many IOI viewers still held hope that the finals would generate more heat, after all, IOI had international teams while GOG had domestic ones facing each other.

But the problem was, if the quarterfinals and semifinals had already been overshadowed, how could the finals suddenly surpass GOG? Was that even possible?

The more Pei Qian thought about it, the angrier he became, resulting in him getting up late this morning, arriving an hour late.

Still brooding, he heard a knock on the door.

Pei Qian looked up and saw Huang Sibo.

“Mr. Pei, I’ve already spoken with several video platforms. They’re all very interested in ‘The Successor.’ These are the preliminary prices we’ve negotiated, for your review.”

Seeing the offers from various platforms on the proposal, Pei Qian frowned instinctively.

What did “very interested” mean?

For this kind of series, you’re actually very interested? And willing to pay a high price for exclusive rights?

Don’t you have your own aesthetic pursuits? Don’t you have the most basic judgment about the quality of a series?

This was ridiculous!

Could it be that they were blindly buying just because they saw the Fei Huang Studio brand?

If you’re going to do that, I can’t help you. Don’t blame me if you lose money!

Some of these websites were ones Pei Qian had rarely visited in the past two years, like Banana Potato Network. Since the rise of AiLiDao, Banana Potato Network had continued on its original path, not removing ads at the beginning of videos, so Pei Qian had rarely visited it.

Although a membership would remove ads, Pei Qian would rather pay for an AiLiDao membership than a Banana Potato Network membership.

Because one was voluntary, and the other was forced—there was a fundamental difference in nature!

I can give you money, but I don’t want to. You can’t rob me.

Pei Qian had thought Banana Potato Network might have died out, but seeing this offer, he realized they were still doing well, proving that advertising was indeed profitable.

Pei Qian casually flipped through the offers and then said: “Let’s just work with AiLiDao.”

“However… the specific cooperation model needs to be changed. No buyout. We want to calculate payment based on data like the series’ view count, comment volume, ratings, and so on.”

Since the offers from video websites were all similar, and he’d be criticized no matter which one he chose, he might as well pick AiLiDao.

But he definitely couldn’t accept a buyout, because a buyout meant breaking even, which was unacceptable.

Once this series was released, it would probably be severely criticized. The comment volume might be unpredictable, as criticism also increases comments, but the view count and ratings would definitely be poor.

After being disgusted by the first three episodes, viewers definitely wouldn’t continue watching.

As for the possibility of a sudden reversal in ratings, that was extremely unlikely. Most series’ ratings only gradually decline; cases of rising from low to high ratings were too rare.

Calculating payment this way, they could lose money!

After all, only a very small portion of the original novel’s readers would come to watch “The Successor”; most viewers would be completely unaware of the plot.

For first-time viewers, “The Successor’s” plot would definitely be worth criticizing, with many points to complain about.

Huang Sibo was a bit surprised.

Huh, Meng Chang had guessed everything correctly?

No wonder Mr. Pei seemed to value Meng Chang more and more lately. Meng Chang really did have something special about him!