One speech from Mr. Pei was worth ten years of book learning.

Hao Yun felt as if all the HR management knowledge he had studied was completely wasted, totally incompatible with Mr. Pei’s requirements!

But then again, this was Tenda Group, and this was Mr. Pei!

Mr. Pei had always been a maverick and had his unique theory when it came to talent management.

Hao Yun nodded, “Alright, Mr. Pei. Leave these matters to the Human Resources Department. We’ll handle everything properly!”

Hao Yun, having received a long-term epic challenge mission from this new NPC, left full of fighting spirit.

Pei Qian took a short break, then continued working on the movie script.

…

November 2nd, Tuesday.

At 10:30 in the morning, Pei Qian arrived at the company right on schedule, turned on his computer, opened the document, and made final modifications to the script.

He aimed to finish revising the script today so he could send it to Huang Sibo and the others.

No way around it—Mr. Pei always handled matters with such lightning efficiency.

Based on the previous story structure, Pei Qian needed to further refine some details.

The more details there were, the less likely Huang Sibo and Zhu Xiaocai were to misinterpret his intentions.

First, he needed to add some science fiction elements.

After some thought, Pei Qian decided it would be best not to add overly complicated or conventional sci-fi elements.

Things like space battleships or time travel should be avoided if possible.

Why?

Because Pei Qian planned to spend a lot of money burning through special effects. If the special effects turned out too impressive and audiences felt “just seeing the effects is worth the ticket price,” what then?

Burning money on special effects yet not letting the audience see grand scenes—that was Mr. Pei’s ultimate pursuit.

Time travel and similar elements should also be avoided because Pei Qian’s script wasn’t complete, and he feared that Huang Sibo and Zhu Xiaocai, those two imagination geniuses, would change the script beyond recognition.

The time travel genre was relatively suitable for these imagination monsters to run wild with, and Pei Qian wasn’t comfortable with that.

He certainly didn’t want to end up with some divine script where “I cheat on myself, I sleep with myself, I kill myself, I marry myself”—the kind of movie where “from beginning to end there’s only me.”

So after some thought, Pei Qian decided it would be best to simply hang up a sheep’s head to sell dog meat—dress it up with a science fiction appearance but not film those sci-fi grand scenes, only filming some extremely boring daily life instead.

When it came time for marketing and promotion, they would heavily advertise “domestic sci-fi masterpiece,” “moving storyline,” “gorgeous special effects,” and so on, raising audience expectations.

When audiences entered the theater, they would find neither gorgeous special effects nor cool scenes. Even the sci-fi elements would be extremely thin, just a modern story wrapped in sci-fi skin.

Not only that, but the plot would also be force-feeding them poison.

How infuriating would that be!

Angry audiences would definitely shout “refund,” right?

As for how exactly the plot would poison people, this was also something Pei Qian needed to carefully consider.

The male protagonist being a simp who ends up with nothing—this framework couldn’t be changed, but how exactly would he simp, and how exactly would he end up with nothing?

This was where Pei Qian needed to exercise his intelligence.

If the intensity was too low, the poisoning effect wouldn’t be obvious, and the deterrent effect wouldn’t be prominent.

So, he had to increase the intensity!

With the story framework in place, Pei Qian felt his thoughts flowing like a spring. He quickly struck the keyboard, writing down all his ideas.

…

…

In a future society, technology is highly developed.

Robots have replaced humans, taking over the vast majority of physical labor. Large numbers of manual laborers in society have lost their jobs and fallen into extreme poverty.

Fortunately, there is the most basic social welfare to provide them with housing and survival.

The male protagonist is a poor man with no job, who can only rely on the most basic social welfare and relief to survive.

He lives in a capsule-like living space where he can only sleep with his legs curled up. Sitting on the bed, he would bump his head on the ceiling with the slightest carelessness.

Every day, he receives relief meals of fast food, which appears to be a grayish-white paste. When mixed with hot water, it provides just enough nutrition to barely sustain life.

In the capsule compartment where the male protagonist lives, there is a television—currently his only entertainment.

Television programs are filled with all kinds of advertisements, and without money, he has no way to skip them.

The television can also be used for gaming and online chatting, but these require payment. The male protagonist doesn’t even have money to skip ads, let alone enjoy other entertainment activities.

The male protagonist’s daily life consists of watching advertisements and television. He only has three hours each day when he can leave the capsule and go for a walk outside.

This is because the external urban space is not freely available to everyone.

The rich can enjoy the outside world from 6 AM to 6 PM; ordinary citizens can enjoy it from 6 PM to midnight, while the extremely poor like the male protagonist can only access the outside world from midnight to 3 AM.

From 3 AM to 6 AM, the outside world undergoes major cleaning to ensure that when the rich go out at 6 AM, the entire world is clean and tidy.

For the extremely poor who go out or remain outside at incorrect times, there are very severe punishments.

Most of the extremely poor have completely reversed biological clocks. They deeply cherish the opportunity to “get fresh air” in the outside world—for them, this is the most important moment of the day.

Of course, strictly speaking, the extremely poor like the male protagonist are not completely without work.

They can choose programs they like to watch on television and vote for these programs.

Based on the viewing duration, these extremely poor people receive a small amount of virtual currency, which can be used to purchase consumer goods such as nice clothes, good food, tasty drinks or alcohol, and so on.

Each television program has gambling activities. Using this currency to participate in these gambling activities, they can earn more virtual currency if they win.

Some programs specifically invite extremely poor people who have earned a lot of money through gambling activities and have become ordinary citizens or even rich people to come on stage and share their experiences.

The male protagonist is also enthusiastic about this. He has his wins and losses, but with decent talent, he occasionally makes a small profit and rewards himself with a can of beer.

One day, the male protagonist went to the outside world again.

Here, he accidentally met the female protagonist, who was also extremely poor.

Although the female protagonist wasn’t particularly beautiful or especially charming, she was very pure and cute, with a unique appeal to the male protagonist that made him fall deeply.

The male protagonist approached her using his natural sense of humor, defeated several other competitors, and won the female protagonist’s heart.

From that day on, they would meet during these three hours every day, eating some good food together, or spending money on some inexpensive entertainment activities.

They quickly established a romantic relationship.

The male protagonist began to be frugal, carefully making each gamble, afraid of losing everything by accident.

He wanted to save money to buy a living space that both of them could use.

The male protagonist focused entirely on saving money and hadn’t bought gifts for the girl or taken her out for big meals in a long time.

The girl didn’t get angry about this. On the contrary, she was very understanding, showing understanding and support for the male protagonist’s behavior.

Until one day, the male protagonist finally saved enough money to purchase a capsule space for two people.

But at this point, the girl suggested that earning money this way was too slow—they would never be able to become ordinary citizens. She hoped to participate in a television program’s talent show. If she could get screen time on television, she would earn money much faster than now.

The male protagonist was unwilling, and they had their first argument because of this.

But the next day, the male protagonist was filled with deep remorse. After repeatedly considering, he still transferred the saved money to the girl, letting her pursue her dream.

On the day the girl participated in the television program’s talent show, the male protagonist, as a relative of the contestant, was given a day of ad-free privileges, allowing him to watch the entire talent show on television from beginning to end.

On stage, the girl worked hard to demonstrate her talents, singing and dancing. The male protagonist watched attentively, never before finding a television program so enjoyable.

After the female protagonist finished performing her talents, however, only one of the four judges nodded.

According to the program rules, only when three or more judges approved would the audition be considered successful.

The other judges pointed out the girl’s problems without mercy: her dancing was stiff, like a clumsy bear; her singing technique was incorrect, with unstable breathing and obvious off-key notes; she was too nervous on stage, lacking stage charisma.

The only male judge who nodded merely thought that the girl’s dress today looked nice—it was rented at great expense before the show, giving the girl a very pure, girl-next-door feel.

The girl left the talent show very disappointed.

The male protagonist, on the contrary, felt a small sense of relief because he knew very clearly that if the girl had passed the audition, the two of them would only grow further apart in the future.

Now that the girl’s dream was shattered, there was still hope for them to live together.

Meeting again, the male protagonist comforted the girl and continued to work hard to save money to purchase a capsule for both of them to live in.

The boy spent more time watching different television programs, studying the intricacies, and carefully participating in gambling activities.

He had to ensure that each of his gambles would be profitable.

In subsequent dates, the girl began to seem somewhat distracted, often not hearing what the male protagonist said, just nodding vaguely in agreement.

The male protagonist didn’t think much of it, just feeling that the female protagonist was temporarily impacted by the shattering of her dream, but would eventually cheer up.

Finally, the male protagonist saved enough money again to buy a capsule for both of them to live in. He very happily told the girl that they could finally live together.

However, the female protagonist got angry for the first time. She hysterically shouted at the male protagonist, “You don’t understand anything at all!” and then proposed breaking up.

The male protagonist, in his confusion and collapse, noticed the girl’s slightly bulging abdomen.

The girl confessed everything to the male protagonist—she had been with that male judge all this time.