Huang Sibo hadn’t expected Meng Chang to have such strong faith in Mr. Pei.

But he himself still felt the risk was far too high.

This was a national election, not child’s play!

Yuclia was a country with a population of twenty to thirty million. With so many people participating in the vote, could Mr. Pei be so certain they would elect a comedy actor as president? Most media outlets believed the incumbent president’s re-election was highly probable!

But thinking about it now, Mr. Pei must have planned to tie “The Successor” series with this foreign drama from the very beginning of its broadcast. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been so strict about the timing.

How was this kind of binding any different from gambling?

If Vasily was elected, it would be a huge win, and “The Successor” would take off instantly.

But what if Vasily wasn’t elected? Then it wouldn’t even be news, and people using this to mock “The Successor” would be the best possible outcome. More likely, no one in China would pay attention to this matter, and all of Mr. Pei’s preparations would be completely wasted and come to nothing.

In other words, Mr. Pei had staked the fate of “The Successor” on a country thousands of kilometers away that had no connection whatsoever.

Win the bet, achieve immediate godhood.

Lose the bet, and all the enormous initial investment in “The Successor” would be wasted, even damaging Fei Huang Studio’s reputation.

But at this point, there was nothing else they could do.

Huang Sibo had sought Meng Chang’s advice hoping he could find a way to turn the situation around.

After thinking for a long time, Meng Chang discovered that Mr. Pei had already left a brilliant strategy.

But the content of this strategy was simply to continue waiting for the results of Yuclia’s general election.

In the end, there was still nothing they could do.

“Well, at this point we can only choose to believe in Mr. Pei.”

Huang Sibo had no choice but to get up and leave, continuing with his own work and waiting patiently.

At the entrance to the Advertising and Marketing Department, Huang Sibo took out his phone and called Cui Geng.

“Did you pay attention to Yuclia’s election before?” Huang Sibo asked.

Cui Geng’s confused voice came through the phone: “Yuclia’s election? This year?”

Huang Sibo: “Never mind.”

It seemed Meng Chang’s speculation was correct. Cui Geng knew nothing about this. When he wrote “The Successor,” there wasn’t even a hint of this event; it was purely coincidental.

It was indeed Mr. Pei’s strategic thinking and keen awareness of the connection between these two events that had arranged their linkage while everyone else was unaware.

However, this kind of thing couldn’t be guaranteed, so they could only wait patiently.

…

After Huang Sibo left, Meng Chang began to modify his promotional plan.

Since the situation had changed, he needed to adapt and make immediate adjustments.

Just like with the previous promotional plan, when he discovered that Zhujia Group was trying to ride the wave, he had released a video as Master Tian in advance. Although this directly led to a sharp decrease in commission income, the Pei Promotion Method was still a great success, and Meng Chang earned far more than his commission by shorting Zhujia Group’s stock through Fan Xiaodong.

The same principle applied this time.

The original plan was no longer viable. Mr. Qian’s review had completely blocked Meng Chang’s path.

But it didn’t matter. Mr. Pei had already pointed out a clear way forward.

Meng Chang decided to adjust the plan and have Master Tian release a video at the end of this month to directly refute Mr. Qian’s claims!

Before Mr. Qian’s statements could widely influence the audience and form stereotypical impressions of “The Successor,” they would maintain “The Successor’s” last public opinion stronghold through head-on debate, while looking for opportunities to counterattack.

After the final episode of “The Successor” aired and Yuclia’s election results were announced, it would be time for Master Tian to lead “The Successor” in a full-scale counterattack!

Of course, all of this was based on the major premise that Vasily, the comedy actor, would actually win in Yuclia’s general election.

If he wasn’t elected, then it would be a complete disaster.

In that case, “The Successor” would be ruined, all the production and promotional expenses would be wasted, Master Tian’s account would be ruined, and Fei Huang Studio’s reputation, though not completely destroyed, would certainly be affected. Most crucially, within Tenda, Mr. Pei’s unbeatable reputation would be shattered.

It had to be said, this was a huge gamble.

But Meng Chang didn’t care at all, since Mr. Pei was providing all the promotional funds. If Mr. Pei was willing to go all-in and take a big bet, then so be it!

Of course, this was absolutely not encouraging mindless gambling. Gambling dogs must be despised, that’s for sure. In any situation, a gambler’s mentality is unacceptable, and foolish gambling has only one result: ruined families and lives worse than death.

But Mr. Pei’s huge gamble was clearly based on an analysis of social reality, insights into human nature, and an estimation of what would happen in the future.

Like venture investment and buying stocks, it wasn’t based on vague probabilities and luck, but on one’s logical judgment.

Mr. Pei was extremely steady when steadiness was required, strategic and flawless, but when risks needed to be taken, he didn’t hesitate.

Meng Chang felt that even if Master Tian’s account was ruined, it didn’t matter, since he hadn’t invested much in it anyway. It was merely a derivative of the Pei Promotion Method.

Next, Meng Chang would invest a lot of funds for the second round of promotional campaigns around this promotional plan, to increase the discussion and popularity of “The Successor.”

In other words, putting more chips on the table.

Win, earn more; lose, lose more.

After finalizing the plan, Meng Chang was prepared for his commission to be halved this month.

Originally, with “The Successor’s” extremely low popularity and ratings plummeting under Mr. Qian’s hit piece, Meng Chang could have earned a high commission by doing nothing.

But if he released a video as Master Tian, directly opposing Mr. Qian, “The Successor’s” popularity would definitely increase, and its reputation might slightly improve.

Although the popularity wouldn’t explode completely until the middle of next month, this month’s commission certainly wouldn’t be much.

Meng Chang felt very reluctant, but for the success of the Pei Promotion Method, he had to sacrifice these commissions, just like last time.

“Is there any way to earn some extra income to recover, like last time?”

Since tasting sweetness from Fan Xiaodong last time, Meng Chang had become insatiable, finding commissions somewhat less appealing.

After all, using the Pei Promotion Method, such a dragon-slaying technique, merely to earn some commission was truly a waste of resources.

But this time it had nothing to do with the company, so shorting stocks wasn’t very likely.

After considering for a long time, Meng Chang suddenly had an inspiration. He searched the odds for this Yuclia election on foreign websites and found that Vasily’s odds had reached over 5:1!

Of course, this would be illegal in China, and Meng Chang certainly wouldn’t dare to mess around with it.

But Fan Xiaodong was abroad, and under local laws, it was legal.

Meng Chang immediately called Fan Xiaodong.

“Xiaodong, how much of my money do you have now?” Meng Chang asked.

Fan Xiaodong seemed to make a rough estimate and said, “Just over 200,000 dollars.”

Meng Chang paused slightly, as if making up his mind: “If you agree, I want to place all this money on Vasily in the Yuclia election.”

Fan Xiaodong was completely confused: “What is there for me to disagree with? It’s your money, you can use it however you want.”

“But…”

“Yuclia? Who is Vasily? I don’t understand what you’re talking about at all.”

Meng Chang said, “Yuclia’s general election. Look it up yourself.”

Fan Xiaodong was silent for a moment, then exclaimed in shock: “General election? You want to bet on this person being elected as Yuclia’s president? Brother, have you lost your mind?”

“This guy is an actor who’s participating in the election just for fun. Although the odds of 5.something look tempting, what’s the point of high odds for something that can’t possibly happen? Your behavior is suicidal!”

“That’s 200,000 dollars!”

“Or are you saying you’ve received insider information from within Tenda again…”

“But that doesn’t make sense either… Tenda is just an ordinary company, how could it manipulate Yuclia’s general election…”

Meng Chang’s behavior completely confused Fan Xiaodong.

For the previous Zhujia Group incident, Fan Xiaodong had genuinely been convinced.

But that was business behavior, equivalent to Mr. Pei setting a trap for Zhujia Group through Zhixing Studio.

Fan Xiaodong believed Mr. Pei could control such things.

But what about Yuclia’s general election? Let alone influencing it, getting inside information was impossible!

This depended on the final voting results, and everyone’s judgments could only be predictions, which might be accurate or inaccurate. There were too many uncontrollable factors to ensure accurate predictions.

Throwing in 200,000 dollars at once was simply too crazy.

Meng Chang was very firm: “I can’t explain too much, but since I want to do this, I definitely have a basis.”

“If it really fails, it’s just 200,000 dollars down the drain. Just pretend the Zhujia Group incident never happened. It’s just material wealth; I won’t be heartbroken if I lose it.”

“But if it succeeds, I can immediately pay off all my debts and even have some left over!”

“If I don’t take a chance now, there won’t be such an opportunity again.”

Meng Chang felt that if Mr. Pei dared to stake so much, including “The Successor’s” production and promotional expenses, and even Fei Huang Studio’s reputation, wouldn’t his loss be much greater than Meng Chang’s if it failed?

What was 200,000 dollars compared to Mr. Pei’s investment?

Moreover, Meng Chang’s personality was very inclined towards risk-taking, with a gambler’s mentality. If he hadn’t known about this opportunity, that would be one thing, but now that he knew, he definitely wouldn’t pass it up.

Mr. Pei said he wasn’t very confident, but that definitely included some element of modesty. In any case, it was worth a try.

Fan Xiaodong was silent on the other end, clearly completely shocked by Meng Chang.

He even began to doubt Tenda’s background, wondering if Meng Chang was really working for Tenda or had joined some strange mysterious organization…

After a long time, Fan Xiaodong said, “Alright, we’ll do as you say. I’ll also invest 50,000 symbolically. If it really succeeds, we’ll make a fortune.”