August 3rd, Wednesday.

Fei Huang Studio.

Huang Sibo returned to the long-absent office with a feeling of being in another world.

Fei Huang Studio was back at full strength!

After receiving Mr. Pei’s orders to enter a “shock state,” everyone had indeed gone through a period of confusion, but quickly, they had analyzed the true meaning behind Mr. Pei’s “shock therapy.”

It was to save everyone from their “severely unbalanced” mental state!

So, Director Zhu Xiaocai had arranged unified learning tasks for everyone. All members enrolled in Handing University’s part-time Advanced Film Director Training Program, with classes on Saturdays and Sundays, which would continue for two years.

At the same time, Director Zhu Xiaocai also arranged other supplementary learning tasks, such as analyzing and studying one film each day, reading one book on film and television every week, writing reading notes, and exchanging experiences and insights.

After this period of study, everyone had gained a deeper understanding of the importance of “shock therapy”!

Previously, no one had felt that their mentality was unbalanced.

After all, they had just reached the peak, producing a film like “Beautiful Tomorrow” that was both critically acclaimed and commercially successful, and being praised in various ways. Even if they had become arrogant, no one had been willing to admit it.

But as the saying goes, when virtue doesn’t match position, disaster follows.

If this mentality of “seemingly effortless, natural success” spread, combined with the effects of depleted inspiration and weak foundations, the next film would likely fall from grace!

Flying too high often means the target also becomes higher, but lacking the matching ability would only result in a painful fall.

But now, after the shock therapy, everyone’s mentality had changed.

First, in terms of attitude, everyone had become more grounded.

After studying this professional knowledge, they discovered their foundations were weak, and they hadn’t mastered many basic concepts. They realized they had only been lucky to produce a popular work, and compared to truly top-tier film production teams, they still had a huge gap.

Second was replenishing inspiration.

After this period of accumulation and settling, everyone had many ideas, though these ideas might not necessarily be useful.

As creators, they often encountered situations of “feeling good about themselves,” becoming particularly happy when coming up with a new idea, and feeling increasingly satisfied with it. But after setting it aside for a while and looking back, they would realize the idea wasn’t good.

Their delusional belief in the idea’s brilliance had merely been an illusion.

In most cases, there were only two ways to break this illusion:

Either a higher-level creator would enlighten you, or after enough time, you could re-examine these ideas with a calmer, more objective mindset and re-evaluate them.

So, after this period of settling, everyone had accumulated some tested good ideas, and their inspiration reserves had been replenished.

Thus, everyone’s fighting spirit was at an unprecedented high!

They couldn’t wait to start a brainstorming session right now to decide the direction of their next film.

Looking at his colleagues who had returned from “shock” full of vitality, Huang Sibo couldn’t help but marvel at Mr. Pei’s miraculous healing powers!

Speaking of Mr. Pei, he should probably report the current situation to him.

Although Mr. Pei surely remembered the end date of Fei Huang Studio’s “shock” period, Huang Sibo felt it was better to remind him. It wasn’t distrust in Mr. Pei’s memory, but simply wanting to show Mr. Pei their attitude—that everyone was now full of fighting spirit and ready to take on any work tasks.

With this in mind, Huang Sibo immediately called Mr. Pei.

…

Pei Qian was at Slackin’ Internet Café, drinking coffee while organizing a mind map.

There were several more lines around “Slackin’ Delivery” on the map, causing Pei Qian’s face to be filled with worry.

The phone on the table vibrated.

Seeing that it was Huang Sibo calling, Pei Qian suddenly jolted, instantly remembering something.

Oh no!

It seemed the shock period for Fei Huang Studio was over!

Arranging Fei Huang Studio’s shock therapy had been done in the previous accounting cycle, when Pei Qian didn’t know how long this accounting cycle would be, so he had just made up a time frame off the top of his head.

As a result, this accounting cycle was longer than previous ones, so before the accounting cycle ended, Fei Huang Studio had already finished its shock state!

What should he do?

Pei Qian was now very worried that Fei Huang Studio would confidently start doing something big. With less than two months until the accounting period ended, if Fei Huang Studio spread itself too thin and couldn’t finish by settlement time, it would cause a delayed settlement!

Because the only delayed settlement quota for this cycle had already been given to OTTO Technology for the mobile phone imaging laboratory.

“Stay calm.”

“Just use your silver tongue to keep them steady.”

Pei Qian quickly composed himself. After all, fooling employees compared to losing money was only at EASY+ mode—he could do it on the spot.

Pei Qian answered the phone: “Hello?”

Huang Sibo’s excited voice came from the other end: “Mr. Pei, Fei Huang Studio is officially back to work!”

“Your ‘shock therapy’ has shown remarkable results. Now each of us is bursting with inspiration and energy. We’re about to start a brainstorming session to decide what our next film will be!”

“When might you have time to come and give us some guidance?”

Pei Qian felt alarmed hearing this.

They were sharpening their knives!

These people wanted to make a film?

That definitely wouldn’t work. There were less than two months until settlement, and they hadn’t even finalized the script yet. It would be impossible to release before settlement. If they started filming, all his efforts this cycle would be wasted!

Because after each cycle’s settlement date was set, Pei Qian would work toward breaking even according to this date, and then rush to spend money as the settlement period approached, to create losses.

Once the date changed and an unexpected sum suddenly arrived, creating such a loss state would become very difficult.

Moreover, a delayed settlement meant the next cycle would come later, and initial system funds and other data wouldn’t refresh.

Therefore, delayed settlement was absolutely unacceptable to Pei Qian—he would rather make money than have a delay.

Pei Qian quickly thought of a strategy.

“Don’t make a film.”

Huang Sibo was stunned: “Uh… then make a web series?”

Pei Qian: “Don’t make a web series either. Don’t work on any time-consuming projects. Just do some small projects that can be completed before September 20th.”

Huang Sibo was confused: “Huh? Mr. Pei, only small projects? Is there some deeper meaning? We’re all in a state of overflowing inspiration right now. Doing small projects seems like a waste of this state…”

Pei Qian was speechless. These people were too enthusiastic!

There was no choice but to increase the deception.

Pei Qian said solemnly: “Do you know what ‘shock’ means? You’ve just recovered from shock—you absolutely cannot engage in strenuous activity!”

“You feel strong and energetic, but in reality, your bodies are still weak and need to recover gradually, to convalesce slowly, understand?”

“First, find some small projects to work on, practice, warm up. After everyone regains their working state, then do larger projects.”

Huang Sibo suddenly understood: “I see! Understood, Mr. Pei.”

“Then we’ll find small projects ourselves!”

“Thank you for your guidance, Mr. Pei!”

After hanging up, Pei Qian let out a long breath.

That was handled.

Letting Fei Huang Studio do a small project with less than a month, it shouldn’t have too much destructive power. At most, they would make a short film and upload it to AiLiDao, earning at most a few hundred thousand, not a big problem.

This small amount of money could be easily spent.

Pei Qian now had his money-burning tree, and with IOI’s domestic server to urgently spend money, a mere few hundred thousand wasn’t worth mentioning.

Having resolved the Fei Huang Studio issue, Pei Qian felt slightly relieved and continued with his own business.

More than ten minutes later, a figure pushed open the door to Slackin’ Internet Café, looking hurried.

He Desheng, holding some materials, searched for Mr. Pei’s location after entering the café and, unsurprisingly, found him.

“Mr. Pei!”

He Desheng almost jogged up to sit across from Mr. Pei.

Pei Qian had already closed the mind map and handed the computer to a Slackin’ Internet Café attendant.

“What’s so urgent that you couldn’t say it over the phone?” Pei Qian gestured for the attendant to bring He Desheng a drink.

He Desheng wiped the sweat from his forehead: “Mr. Pei, this is something I couldn’t explain clearly on the phone.”

“Anyway, it’s about the Dyarco Group!”

Pei Qian was unconcerned: “Oh, did you relay my two words to them verbatim?”

He Desheng nodded: “I did.”

Pei Qian: “And their reaction?”

He Desheng: “They seemed very angry.”

Pei Qian chuckled. That was understandable.

A multinational corporate giant being directly told “FUCK OFF” by Tenda, a gaming company with little international reputation, would naturally be angry.

But what could they do to him?

They had no leverage over him.

As the saying goes, standing like a thousand-foot cliff, desireless and therefore strong.

First, Tenda was across the ocean, with almost no business overlap with the Dyarco Group.

Second, Tenda was not publicly listed and did not accept external investment.

Finally, Mr. Pei had essentially no interest in company-level income, unless they offered him tens of billions.

More optimistically, if the Dyarco Group could make Tenda suffer losses, Pei Qian would have to give them a big red envelope to thank them properly.

He was in an invincible state—what was there to worry about?

Pei Qian calmly took a sip of coffee: “They’re very angry, and then?”

He Desheng gave a thumbs up: “Then they took the bait, as expected!”

Pei Qian stopped mid-sip, a question mark slowly floating above his head.

What did he mean they ‘took the bait, as expected”?

What was “as expected” about it?

And what “bait” had they taken?

From He Desheng’s expression, Pei Qian caught a whiff of something ominous.

Originally, seeing He Desheng rushing over, Pei Qian had thought it was some dire situation that had made him sweat profusely.

But looking more carefully now, his expression seemed… excited?

He Desheng handed the materials to Mr. Pei and excitedly explained: “Mr. Pei, your reverse psychology tactic was brilliant!”

“It’s comparable to Kongming provoking Zhou Gongjin!”

“Originally, the Dyarco Group was only willing to pay 50 million dollars for our shares and IOI’s domestic server operating rights, but your two words instantly enraged them!”

“Our resolute attitude made it impossible for them to reclaim all shares through conventional means.”

“So, the Dyarco Group decided to forcibly buy back all of Finger Company’s shares through a privatization offer!”

“To achieve 100% ownership, the Dyarco Group spared no expense, first acquiring nearly 80% of Finger Company’s shares at a high price, so they could use majority shareholder voting to approve the offer and force the purchase of the remaining minority shares!”

“But this also meant that the Dyarco Group had to pay an additional premium of 50% to 60% above the original price to acquire our portion of shares, a figure almost impossible to reach in any normal share transaction negotiation!”

“The Dyarco Group, with its deep pockets, was provoked by your ‘reverse psychology’ and didn’t hesitate to use this bleeding strategy to seize our 20% shares and domestic server operating rights!”

Pei Qian’s hand holding the coffee froze, and his mind went blank.

What was this?

Privatization offer?

What was that?

The shares I refused to sell, can you forcibly buy them from me?

He was silent for a moment, then asked: “So, how much did they offer in the end?”

He Desheng, excitedly said: “They eventually offered 72 million dollars, Mr. Pei!”

Compared to the price when Mr. Ma bought the shares, we’ve made a net profit of 70 million dollars! Five hundred million yuan!!”