November 3rd, Thursday.
At the Slackin’ Internet Café’s Handong University branch.
Pei Qian sipped his coffee while browsing web pages, his brows furrowed.
He was puzzled.
Why did the public opinion online change so drastically from one day to the next?
Previously on the internet, everyone had been saying that Tenda was squeezing the clubs too hard, that various clubs were planning to quit, and that Tenda would likely suffer a setback, making it impossible to establish the GPL.
In short, most people were worried or pessimistic, with some speaking up for the clubs.
Pei Qian had been quite pleased at the time.
Keep being pessimistic, he thought. If nobody wants these clubs’ GOG divisions, I’ll take them all. Buying them at a high price would be delightful, wouldn’t it?
But not even two days had passed, and the winds had completely changed!
Somehow, news had spread that three clubs had decided not to sell their GOG divisions, and that Shenhua Real Estate and Tianhuo Studio were preparing to purchase GPL qualifications. Public opinion instantly made a 180-degree turn!
“Am I seeing things right? Even Shenhua Real Estate entering the market? To play in esports? This is absolutely a dimensional strike! Can other clubs withstand this kind of money power?”
“GPL is going to have sixteen teams. How will they arrange the schedule?”
“This is a big move!”
“I’m proven wrong. I thought GPL wouldn’t get off the ground, but now, how could it not? They’re already frantically competing for spots!”
“Selling only once, limited to three days? Hurry up and grab them! Even at 20 million, getting a spot would still be a huge profit!”
“Yes, big capital entering the market means everyone is optimistic about the prospects! Perhaps just reselling a spot could earn several million, or even over ten million!”
Looking at these comments, the more Pei Qian considered them, the more he felt something was wrong.
Was there some kind of paid campaign manipulating public opinion?
Just a couple of days ago, people were saying nobody wanted GPL spots. How long had it been, and public opinion had already reversed?
It was impossible that nobody was pushing this narrative.
But even knowing this, Pei Qian was completely powerless.
Because Mr. Pei had fallen into a kind of reverse Tacitus Trap: once he became the embodiment of wealth in everyone’s eyes, no matter what Mr. Pei said, people would interpret it as some kind of wealth code.
If Mr. Pei said the GPL league would be popular, everyone believed it would indeed be popular;
If Mr. Pei said the GPL league wouldn’t catch on, everyone thought Mr. Pei was being modest, or trying to dissuade those whose resolve wasn’t firm.
In short, as long as Mr. Pei spoke, GPL would be popular!
So, Pei Qian could only fret anxiously, unable to do anything.
But on second thought, since there were only a few days until the auction, he might as well stop struggling. Whatever price they sold for would be what they sold for.
It would just mean spending a few more brain cells to think about blitz money-spending strategies.
As he was browsing web pages, his phone rang.
Picking up his phone, he saw it was Old Ma calling.
“Brother Qian! I’ve prepared the first episode of my show and am about to start streaming. Do you want to come watch on site?” Ma Yang’s excited voice came through the phone.
Pei Qian looked at the time in confusion. It was now two o’clock on Thursday afternoon.
After a momentary pause, Pei Qian quickly nodded: “Good, I’ll be right there! Uh, what’s the address?”
Ma Yang said, “I’ll send it to you right away!”
After hanging up, Pei Qian couldn’t help but sigh again. Old Ma was still reliable.
For his first livestream, wouldn’t it be better to choose a weekend? Wouldn’t it be better to choose prime time around 8 PM?
Instead, he chose a weekday afternoon when everyone was at work. How many people would come to watch his stream?
But this met Pei Qian’s expectations. After all, the fewer people watching, the less likely it would catch fire!
Pei Qian looked at the address on his phone.
This time, Old Ma had rented a dedicated office space for the livestream. Chen Yufeng and the entire professional evaluation team worked there regularly.
Pei Qian immediately set off.
…
Meanwhile, Ma Yang was carefully reading the script that Chen Yufeng had prepared.
Although he didn’t need to memorize it and could read from the teleprompter during the livestream, Ma Yang was afraid he might stutter, so he still needed to practice reading it a couple of times to ensure he would be more fluent during the stream.
Chen Yufeng had originally wanted to specially hire someone to do makeup for Mr. Ma, but Mr. Ma refused.
Ma Yang was very averse to the idea of wearing makeup, and he wasn’t interested in wearing suits either.
In the end, after Chen Yufeng’s repeated insistence, Ma Yang went to wash his hair.
On the table in front of Ma Yang lay piles of school supplies.
Plastic book covers, pencils, erasers, desk pads, file folders, glue sticks, and so on. There were several of each school supply item, all different brands.
The other staff members were busy with their respective tasks. Some were checking camera positions, some adjusting lighting, and others preparing various contingency plans.
These people were all recruited by Chen Yufeng after he joined, with talents from various fields. Now the entire team served Ma Yang alone, and their task was to provide content for Ma Yang’s livestreams.
As for whether Ma Yang could become an internet celebrity, that was hard to say—it depended on luck.
But at the very least, these teams ensured that the content provided for the livestream was accurate and error-free.
As they were busy, Mr. Pei came in from outside.
Chen Yufeng hurried over to greet him: “Mr. Pei!”
Pei Qian nodded, immediately noticing Old Ma earnestly rehearsing his script, as well as the pile of assorted school supplies on the table.
Pei Qian was taken aback: “What’s this?”
Chen Yufeng quickly explained: “Oh, Mr. Pei, these are the evaluation items we’ve prepared for Mr. Ma’s first livestream: school supplies.”
Seeing that Mr. Pei’s expression seemed somewhat surprised, Chen Yufeng hastily added: “Mr. Pei, you said we could test anything, so we decided to start with some small items. If it doesn’t work, we can change it next time…”
Pei Qian raised his hand: “No need! This is just fine.”
Chen Yufeng was afraid of offending major manufacturers and didn’t dare to evaluate popular digital products right from the start, so he picked some minor items of little consequence.
This was quite good for Pei Qian.
After all, getting criticized was also a form of traffic.
Evaluating small items meant nobody would be interested or pay attention, so naturally there would be no traffic—perfect.
Ma Yang had also noticed Pei Qian and turned his long face toward him: “Brother Qian, you’re here!”
“I’m busy right now, so I don’t have time to entertain you. Just wait and watch my performance later!”
After speaking, Ma Yang resumed rehearsing his script.
Pei Qian calmly stood to the side, took out his phone, entered Old Ma’s livestream room, and waited for the broadcast to begin so he could see the comments.
It had to be said that after this period of accumulation, Ma Yang had truly gathered several hundred thousand followers.
After all, he had been spending real money. Ma Yang posted about his Dream Fund on Weibo every day when he had nothing else to do, accumulating a large following. Previously, when he played games with DGE team members, he had directed a large number of fans to his livestream room.
Moreover, Old Ma discussed his investment experiences in the livestream room and was viewed by the audience as an “investor driven by interest,” which also attracted countless fans.
In any case, the preparations were almost complete, and they were just waiting for the broadcast to begin.
Ma Yang rehearsed the script two more times, then raised his hand to make an OK gesture: “We can start now!”
Chen Yufeng nodded: “Alright, then let’s officially prepare to start the broadcast!”
Pei Qian couldn’t help but marvel at how formal it all was.
With a professional team’s packaging, Old Ma did look somewhat like a product-promoting streamer.
It’s just that the products he was promoting seemed a bit off in terms of style.
Others promoted lipstick, cosmetics, and the like, but Ma Yang was promoting school supplies.
If you didn’t know better, you might think it was a product promotion livestream for elementary school students!
The livestream room now had a video feed, and instantly, a large number of viewers poured in. However, because it was a workday, the activity wasn’t very high.
“Mr. Ma is streaming!”
“What has Mr. Ma been busy with lately?”
“Does Mr. Ma know about the recent GPL league matters? Can you reveal any inside information?”
“Oh, Mr. Ma’s livestream background has changed. Is this a specially prepared background?”
The fans hadn’t seen Mr. Ma stream for some time, and they were all very enthusiastic. A few sporadic gifts floated by.
Ma Yang quickly said, “Who’s sending me gifts?”
“Room managers, if anyone else sends me gifts, ban them permanently, you hear me?”
“I don’t need money. Everyone, please don’t send me gifts. I’ll get angry with whoever does!”
“Alright, enough people have arrived. Let’s get straight to the point.”
“Today, I’m going to introduce several products to you all.”
Ma Yang brought the various prepared products in front of the camera.
The livestream’s comments instantly displayed a flood of question marks.
“???”
“Is Mr. Ma… going to advertise?”
“Why would Mr. Ma advertise when he’s so rich?”
“Is he going to promote some high-end luxury goods?”
“What is this? It looks like pencils, erasers, and glue sticks?”
“What the heck?”
The audience was bewildered.
They hadn’t expected Mr. Ma to start introducing products right away. What did this mean?
Ma Yang ignored the audience’s comments and began reciting his script.
“Today I’m going to introduce several items that you absolutely should not buy.”
“These brands of pencils and erasers have excessive polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; these desk pads and file folders have excessive plasticizers; these glue sticks contain large amounts of free formaldehyde; these plastic book covers have excessive polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and phthalates…”