According to Meng Chang’s explanation, different groups would definitely argue fiercely after “The Successor” was released.
When people look at promotional content, they tend to focus on what interests them.
The promotion process for many movies is somewhat like a “Frankenstein’s monster,” designed to attract as many viewers who like different genres as possible.
But this approach often gets heavily criticized.
Take “The Successor” as an example. Through this promotional method, viewers who enjoy superhero themes would come to watch. They might have never heard of the original novel and assume “The Successor” is just a normal superhero film. Meanwhile, those familiar with “The Successor’s” content would also come to watch with completely different expectations.
This would inevitably create polarized reviews.
After watching the first three episodes, these two groups would definitely have different reactions. Some might harshly criticize it, even getting into arguments with each other.
By then, some would inevitably give retaliatory low scores, achieving the goal of “despite having an original novel, some people were still deceived by the promotional content.”
Those giving negative reviews would either finish the first three episodes or leave after the first one, generating minimal views while lowering the ratings—wouldn’t that be perfect?
Pei Qian nodded and handed the plan back: “Good, proceed with this plan.”
Although he felt it wasn’t perfect, reverse promotion itself was quite challenging.
Pei Qian had attempted reverse promotion many times, with plenty of failures. This current plan already satisfied him quite well.
Meng Chang accepted the plan with both hands, very happy.
Great! The plan had received Mr. Pei’s approval!
This indicated that his understanding of the Pei-style promotion method was correct.
Of course, he had only written half of this plan, not including how to reverse the promotional momentum in the latter stages.
On one hand, this was because Mr. Pei would surely guess the second half after seeing the first half, making it unnecessary; on the other hand, the latter part of the plan wasn’t fully confirmed yet.
In reality, they would need to wait for the initial promotional plan to roll out, observe the audience’s actual feedback, and then make some adjustments to subsequent operations.
Regardless, Meng Chang felt he had made significant progress.
Working at Tenda to pay off debt was indeed hard, but what if he changed his perspective?
He owed Mr. Pei money, yet Mr. Pei was teaching him real skills—wasn’t that a huge win?
The debtor is the boss, after all!
Meng Chang happily took the plan and went to implement it.
…
After watching Meng Chang leave, Pei Qian briefly looked at the work reports sent by various departments.
With so many departments now and increasingly diverse business operations, even though Pei Qian had emphasized keeping these reports as simple as possible, their length inevitably kept growing.
Pei Qian felt dizzy reading them. After a quick scan, he eagerly opened the AiLiDao website to continue watching his shows.
After lunch, he took a short nap, had a cup of coffee to refresh himself, then browsed the forums to check discussions about the GOG and IOI world championships.
Looking at the time, it was almost 3 PM. Pei Qian figured ending his hard day’s work and leaving early still seemed a bit too early.
So what should he do?
He suddenly realized he hadn’t checked his source of joy today, so he quickly opened Rabbit Tail Live to watch Qiao Laoshi’s stream.
He had already used up his focus mode time while napping at noon, so he could watch directly now.
Seeing Qiao Laoshi at the bottom of the rankings among all participants in the second session despite his best efforts, Pei Qian felt a long-absent joy.
“Ah, Old Qiao is truly my source of joy!”
“Is there anything more delightful in this world than watching Qiao Laoshi suffer? No, absolutely not!”
“It’s just a pity that such suffering happens only once.”
“How can I relive this joy in the future? I can’t just watch recordings—that would be too boring.”
Pei Qian understood clearly that Qiao Liang came mainly because he was selected through the rigged lottery draw. With so many people watching, he couldn’t refuse under public scrutiny.
Moreover, Qiao Liang had obviously underestimated the level of suffering here.
Next time, tricking him wouldn’t be possible.
First, the lottery method could only be used once—if Qiao Liang was drawn again, it would clearly be rigged and too fake. Second, Qiao Liang had already experienced Suffering Travel, so even if he was drawn again, he could legitimately say he had already participated and give the opportunity to someone else.
In short, this should be Qiao Liang’s first performance in Suffering Travel, and also his last.
Better cherish it while it lasts!
After watching for a while, Pei Qian felt something was odd.
“Huh, why don’t I see Bao Xu today? It’s all Sa Ziran leading the group’s training.”
“Could it be that Bao Xu had a gaming urge and went to play games?”
Just as he was wondering, there was a knock on the door.
Pei Qian looked up and saw it was Bao Xu!
“Why are you here?” Pei Qian was surprised.
No wonder he hadn’t seen Bao Xu—he had come to the office.
Bao Xu handed over a proposal: “Mr. Pei, this is the new plan I’ve made for Suffering Travel. The main points are raising the price from 35,000 to 50,000 yuan, while adding some additional content.”
“Additional content?” Pei Qian took the proposal and quickly browsed through it.
“This…”
Pei Qian frowned slightly, unsure whether these measures were good or bad for the moment.
The price had increased significantly, from 35,000 to 50,000 yuan, which should better discourage those who would pay their own way to participate.
But the problem was that there were too many benefits!
Having a “Sufferer” title and receiving special treatment everywhere would be quite attractive to many of Tenda’s die-hard fans.
Pei Qian initially wanted to refuse, but seeing Qiao Liang suffering in the livestream, he suddenly had an inspiration.
Wait, with this rule, couldn’t he get Qiao Liang to actively come back for multiple rounds of Suffering Travel?
With Qiao Liang’s personality, he definitely wouldn’t be content with being in last place.
Without Bao Xu’s plan, it wouldn’t matter what place Qiao Liang got, but after implementing this plan, Qiao Liang would likely come back to improve his ranking!
Then, every month or two, he could watch Qiao Liang suffering—how delightful!
To gain such joy, it was worth earning a little money!
Moreover, Pei Qian’s little notebook contained many people outside the company, like Li Shi and Lin Chang. The lottery method couldn’t reach them.
But once this “Sufferer” identity was widely recognized, it might lure them in too.
Trick them in once, and they could be tricked in a second time, as they would want to improve their rankings.
Thinking about it this way, the plan did have some merit. At least it would be easier to entice outsiders, and the price increase was justified!
With this in mind, Pei Qian nodded slightly: “Hmm… it’s a decent attempt.”
“But there’s one issue. These benefits require cooperation from various departments. Have they agreed?”
Bao Xu nodded: “They have!”
“This morning, I sent this plan to all relevant departments, and they quickly replied, fully agreeing and willing to cooperate completely!”
Pei Qian: “…”
Impressive, Lord Bao, your official authority is quite significant.
Send out a plan, and everyone fully cooperates, seemingly afraid of you.
But this wasn’t a big problem. As long as Bao Xu was wholeheartedly making everyone suffer, he was a trusted aide, and there was no harm in him having more power.
Besides, the real decision-making authority over Suffering Travel still rested with Pei Qian himself.
After thinking for a moment, Pei Qian said: “The overall plan is okay, but there’s a small issue that needs adjustment.”
“The benefits for Sufferers are a bit too generous.”
“I think the rewards for Sufferers should focus more on identity recognition rather than direct benefits.”
“In my view, the account login titles and records, commemorative medals, certificates, and Sufferer group chats are all fine.”
“But the benefits should be modified: First, participating in Suffering Travel once shouldn’t immediately grant maximum benefits. There should be an upgrade process. Of course, this level shouldn’t be set too high—participating in Suffering Travel three times should roughly cap it. After that, the experience gained from participating in Suffering Travel should be greatly reduced.”
“Second, these benefits must be significantly cut. For example, bypassing the one-hour limit on Rabbit Tail Live lacks flexibility. I think periodically issuing time-exemption vouchers to Sufferers, some for a few minutes, some for half an hour, with flexibility based on the Sufferer’s level, would be sufficient.”
“Also, consider distributing these benefits on a limited basis to core users within the industries. This would allow users to gradually obtain these benefits through other channels within these industries, instead of getting them all at once by becoming a Sufferer.”
“As for special VIP treatment for Sufferers in places like Slackin’ Internet Café and takeout services, we can implement this, but don’t write it in the announcement. Don’t let people join Suffering Travel for these reasons—that would distort its purpose.”
“Suffering Travel should emphasize an internal spiritual elevation, not be driven by so much utilitarianism.”
Everything Pei Qian cut was tailor-made for Qiao Liang.
Qiao Liang would certainly care more about the title. As for these benefits, they wouldn’t be as important to him.
Given that, it was best to cut and hide as much as possible, trying to prevent uninformed passersby from being tempted, while precisely targeting people like Qiao Liang, encouraging them to come multiple times—that seemed good.
Bao Xu hesitated slightly: “But Mr. Pei, this would greatly reduce Suffering Travel’s appeal to everyone. If few people come to suffer, wouldn’t that be a shame…”
Pei Qian smiled slightly: “No worries, aren’t there enough people within Tenda for you to arrange?”
“Besides, Suffering Travel’s capacity is limited. If you suddenly attract too many people, they would have to queue slowly anyway. It’s better to discourage some of them. If we’re short on people later, we can think of other methods.”
After considering for a moment, Bao Xu nodded slightly: “Hmm… that’s true.”
“I’ll arrange it right away, aiming to release the announcement today and officially open registration tomorrow.”
Adding benefits required approval from other departments, but cutting benefits didn’t, so it was very convenient.
Pei Qian nodded: “Good, go ahead!”
He was a bit impatient to see Qiao Laoshi’s “second entry” into Suffering Travel—delightful!