The first impression that the audience got from watching this video was that the life of a whale could indeed be extremely boring, meaningless, uninteresting, and even uncomfortable!
However, the more they watched, the more they got used to this feeling!
Two advantages stood out about the style of the video.
First, it was distinctive; second, it was metaphorical.
The longer one watched, the more easily they could decipher the deeper meaning behind what was happening on screen. From the portrait shooting angle to the unchanging background music and the intentionally boring narration, everything seemed particularly memorable!
As for the metaphors…
Without ruling out the possibility of people reading too much into it, the director seemed to have added many subtle messages in the videos. This type of dark humor made this video seem a cut above the vulgar, hillbilly-type comedies!
Pei Qian stood behind his parents, watching himself on the screen. He could not help but smile.
Why do I look so handsome on camera?!
I’m also really good at acting!
Look at that expression; how natural! Look at that face; how photogenic!
It’s no wonder that Director Zhu Xiaoce did not have to yell ‘cut’! It was not because I am his boss and his investor, but because my acting was so good!
Pei Qian began to feel extremely proud of himself.
In a one-minute-long video, there were several twists and turns in the plot and multiple humorous puns in the script. When it finally ended, it left a sense of thirst for more!
“That’s it? I’ve not watched enough!”
“Son, your short video is a bit too short, isn’t it?”
Old Pei thought that a short video would last at least ten minutes per episode. However, this one was much better; it lasted a minute per episode!
Pei Qian explained, “Videos this short are trendier these days!”
His mother played the video again and again. “I feel like my son has a talent for acting! Look at how well he plays the boss. He looks like a natural. It’s almost as if he started this company!”
Old Pei nodded subtly as well. “It’s not bad indeed, but our son is still so young. It doesn’t seem very convincing for him to act as a boss at such a young age, right? Why didn’t the director put on a mustache for you or something? And that voice…”
Pei Qian quickly interrupted, “It’s someone else’s voice.”
Old Pei nodded. “I know, but it just doesn’t sound like ordinary big bosses.”
Pei Qian’s mother shot Old Pei a look of disapproval. “You’re talking as if you’ve met a lot of big bosses before in your life.”
Old Pei immediately fell silent. He remained that way for five seconds before he said, “Eh, you haven’t seen any either, have you?”
“I haven’t, but I’ve seen more movies than you have! This is the way all the big bosses in those movies act. I just think our son is particularly good at acting; what’s wrong with that?” Mom was starting to become unreasonable.
“Alright, alright, alright… in any case, this brat is earning money filming now. He’s grown up, and he’s become capable. That’s a good thing,” Old Pei said, looking comforted.
Seeing that Old Pei was in a pretty good mood, Pei Qian quickly struck the iron while it was hot. “Dad, we made these short videos to make fun of the game industry!”
“Look, the boss set aside two hundred thousand yuan for research and development, but at every level down the line, people took a cut out of the money. By the time the money reached the hands of the person who was supposed to do the job, there was only fifty thousand yuan left. This is a stab at the internal chaos taking place in the management of many games companies!
“They created a meaningless game with this fifty thousand yuan, and yet players kept buying the game. This is a stab at the mess of the games market!
“This is a type of dark humor, meant to achieve the effects of a satire and an exposé. It was how the director planned it from the beginning.”
Old Pei’s expression turned from strict, to curious… to realization.
“Oh… I see.”
Pei Qian felt like he had finally gained Old Pei’s interest. He quickly tried to break Old Pei’s stereotypes. “What’s more, this plot is quite deep. Director Zhu wanted to create the image of a good-hearted boss, in charge of a games company. This creates a distinction between this company and the traditional games companies!”
“Oh? How does he create that?” Old Pei was curious now.
Old Pei was a typical man of the older generation. The stereotype he had of games was not entirely his fault; it was mainly caused by advertising. Games were considered an emerging trend. How could people like Old Pei keep up with them? What he knew about games, he heard either from the television or from other parents.
Every day, he watched the news and heard of yet another student skipping classes to go to an internet cafe. As a result, the student’s grades suffer and the parents’ hard-earned money would be poured down the drain or into topping up game currencies.
Of course, he did not have a good impression of games overall.
For this, unscrupulous merchants and the media—who liked to fan the flames—had to take responsibility!
Now, Pei Qian had to work hard to break the stereotypes Old Pei had of the game industry.
“This was how Director Zhu planned it.
“He wanted to show the other side to this boss of the games company: a designer who brings positive energy to everyone and who cheers people up and moves them with his games.
“For instance, there was a student who was maliciously attacked by a gangster while he was trying to catch a car thief. Unfortunately, he died in the end. This designer took it upon himself to create a statue of the student in his game so that the players of the game could remember him.
“Not only that, but this boss is also very different from the bosses of other games companies. He purposely created his games good-heartedly, without tempting people to recharge the game currencies and without inducing hatred. Instead, his only goal was to give players the purest, happiest experience.
“Guess what happened in the end? His games became wildly popular!”
Old Pei had never heard of these things. Obviously, his interest was piqued now. “This is the character you are playing?”
Pei Qian nodded and said, “That’s right!”
“That’s not bad,” Old Pei said, nodding as well.
Pei Qian continued, “Honestly, the game industry in this country is really in a state of chaos. However, gaming is a type of entertainment. The most important thing is what the person who creates the games is like.
“If the game creator is hell-bent on making a profit, he would surely induce children to steal money from their parents in order to recharge game currencies. On the flip side, what would happen if the game creator’s goal is to bring pure joy to the players?
“The working class can play games after a day of being stressed out at work. It would be just the same as going out to the movies or reading a book. It would be a way for them to de-stress and relax. Wouldn’t that be great?”
“That’s why we cannot deal with this problem in a cookie-cutter way. We have to try our best to guide everyone, so that they can have fun and relax when playing games without getting addicted. I think that’s the right direction.
“That’s the message that Director Zhu is trying to convey through these short videos. That’s also the aim of my character in the videos.”
Old Pei nodded subtly as he listened.
These words sounded much more convincing when Director Zhu said them! Pei Qian could tell that Old Pei’s attitude towards games had relaxed considerably!
“This director really isn’t bad, then. He has a clear direction! What is his name?”
Pei Qian answered, “Zhu Xiaoce.”
“How old is Director Zhu?”
“He’s
in his final year of university.”
“He’s young and promising!” Old Pei gave a look of admiration. “He’s so young, and yet he speaks so much sense. If he really becomes the boss of a games company, that would be great.”
Pei Qian nodded profusely. “Who says he isn’t?!”
Mom was still holding onto the laptop, watching the videos. “Son, you act very well. I want to watch it a few more times. Son, copy this into our home computer.”
There was an old desktop at home which Pei Qian bought when he was in high school. It was already terribly slow.
Pei Qian transferred the video into
Chapter 94 - Boss Pei’s Daily Life Becomes Popular!
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Pei Qian went back into his room, feeling like he had made a huge, historical step forward. On a certain level, he had broken Old Pei’s stereotypes slightly! Pei Qian knew that if he outrightly laid his cards on the table for Old Pei to see, it would be much more difficult.
However, now that he could use Director Zhu as his mouthpiece, he looked like an objective third party in the equation. That was how he could sound more convincing to Old Pei!
Indeed, Old Pei obviously agreed with these views.
Had his biases against games completely disappeared? Of course not.
However, at the very least, Old Pei agreed that some video games were bad, but some were just like movies and novels. Games were meant to be normal, healthy forms of entertainment.
This was a huge step forward!
Pei Qian pondered about his future plans. If he could make an outstanding game in the future, he would allow Old Pei to try it out. Once he became addicted to it, he would take the chance to lay his cards on the table!
Then, Old Pei would surely accept him!
Pei Qian believed that nobody would be able to escape the curse of loving games, even though they hate them at first!
…
It was only then that Pei Qian found the time to read the comments below.
Potato Web still did not have the bullet screen function1 yet. Pei Qian guessed that it would be at least two more years before such a function would be introduced to Potato Web.
However, there would be no use even if Potato Web had such a function. It would be overtaken very quickly, and it’ll decline rapidly as a result. In any case, it was still a very influential video giant right now. There were still many outstanding content producers.
There were many comments below Boss Pei’s Daily Life. Although some of them were written by people who just wanted to pick fights, most of them were praises for the video!
“I thought this would be an ordinary short video. However, once I saw it, I realized there was such deep meaning behind it. It’s absurd and comical, but on further thought, it seems quite realistic. It made me shiver…”
“This young actor’s acting skills are very good. He very accurately portrayed the character of a nouveau riche with too much money. He looks very natural, too. He’s so much better than many other young actors!”
“Uses dark humor to expose society’s faults. This video made me reflect deeply about life. It also offers biting criticism, mocking the industry’s chaos!”
“His expression is quite accurate. It’s filled with contempt for the world. Is this really the world of the rich?”
“Not only does Boss Pei carry himself well, but even his expressions are very on point. The way he slumped on the sofa convinced me that he was the boss of a company! He truly is a movie king, attracting so many fans!”
“The previous commenter, haven’t we already gotten rid of all the fake commenters? You’re so dedicated!”
“Although this video does not seem to have high production value and I can tell from a visual inspection that it was shot using a DSLR, I still think it’s quite deep. There’s a lot of thought behind it. It’s much better than the short videos that are filled with pompous special effects.”
“Who told you that it did not have high production value? Wouldn’t it cost money to buy the props and the costumes? Wouldn’t it cost them money to purchase a custom-made suit and a Rolex watch? I already took a close look at the Rolex watch; it’s the real thing and not an imitation!”
“My guess is they invested a total of two hundred thousand yuan, 180 thousand of which was used to purchase the watch, hahaha.”
“In the video, they said they spent fifty thousand yuan creating a game about driving cars that lasted for eight hours. They’re not referring to The Lonely Desert Road, are they?”
“What? This video is connected to reality? That’s super awesome!”
“It’s inspired by reality, right?”
“You don’t say… that might really be the way this game was created!”
“Hahaha, how could that be? This is an artistic exaggeration, understand? The Lonely Desert Road might be lame, but the designer must have put a lot of thought into it!”
The lame netizens in the comments were wrecking their brains. There was also a significant number of people trying to draw a connection between the video and Tengda. However, the people who suspected the video had something to do with Tengda had no evidence. Of course, they did not dare to cause too big of a commotion.
Every game that Pei Qian published was done under the name of Tengda Network Technology Co., Ltd. People who did not specifically research into the legal owner of this company would never discover that Pei Qian was the boss; much less would they figure out that Pei Qian was also the actor in the video.
Even if ordinary people wanted to look into the legal owners of companies, they would find it very difficult to do so. This was because of software like Tian Yan Cha1 would only appear in the real world four years later.
This world was still in 2010. Such software did not exist. Thus, most of the audience saw Pei Qian as an ordinary, young actor.
There were also a few people who picked fights at the bottom of the video.
“Rough production! I don’t know what this video is driving at!”
“The maker of this video is hilarious. He has no general knowledge whatsoever! Do you think that every boss wears custom-made suits and owns Rolex watches? These are such stereotypes. Real bosses wear polo shirts and bermudas; they wouldn’t care that much about their own appearance.”
“That’s right! You even say that they spent fifty thousand yuan creating a game that became a huge hit. What a joke. That’s not the way you make a video exciting! The Lonely Desert Road might not have been expensive to produce, but it definitely cost more than fifty thousand yuan!”
“I think you should look for a middle-aged man to act as Boss Pei. Boss Pei’s acting is good, but I just feel like he’s too young. It doesn’t look realistic!”
Although these comments were the minority, there was still a sizeable number of people who thought the same way.
However, Pei Qian did not really care.
“Ah, everyone has very poor imagination. Fifty thousand yuan to create a popular game. I wouldn’t believe it either, but this really happened. Who should I reason with…?”
Pei Qian kept watching the number of views on the video.
From the looks of the situation, it was not good!
Pei Qian still had a sliver of hope that people would not enjoy the video. What if people felt disgusted at such obvious flaunting of wealth?
As it turned out, no such thing happened!
Now, Pei Qian had no choice but to keep praying and hoping that Director Zhu Xiaoce would not accept any advertising jobs! As long as they did not earn income from advertising, the number of views would be useless to them no matter how high it became; they would not be able to generate profits!
…
On the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, the second episode of Boss Pei’s Daily Life was published.
On the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, Pei Qian left his home and went back to work.
He wanted to change the electrical appliances in h
is house, but no matter what he said, his parents refused. He had no choice but to leave it at that for now.
To Old Pei, it was a good thing that his son was earning money. However, since he had just earned thirty thousand yuan, it was best that he kept it for his own use. That was why he insisted on turning down the money.
Pei Qian could only wait.
If he brought new electrical appliances home that helped them to cook rice, his parents would agree to change all the electrical appliances even though they objected at first! Although Pei Qian could wait for the winter break to end before he returned to work, someone had to keep an eye on the situation in the office.
He was not afraid that the company’s projects would fail while he was gone; he was afraid that they would not fail!
After much hard work, he finally tasted the fruits of his labor the last time by incurring a loss of over twenty thousand yuan. This time, if he continued to work hard, he believed that he would easily be able to incur losses of seven to eight hundred thousand yuan.
Then, he could say that his short videos became popular, and he earned big bucks. With that excuse, he could spend money on his household without his parents objecting.
En, that was the plan!
…
On February 22nd, the third episode of Boss Pei’s Daily Life was published.
Once again, Pei Qian logged into the website and watched the video. Ho, all three videos had reached almost five hundred thousand views! The group of two or three hundred fans was rapidly expanding as well!
The recommendation spot the videos had on Potato Web was becoming better and better as well. What’s more, it was obvious that there was a possibility these videos would spread to other channels like Weibo.
Pei Qian quietly closed the video. He tried hard to keep calm.
It’s alright, it’s alright. It’s just one short video…
I poured a million yuan into this. There’s still a long way to go before I make that money back.
Losing Money to Be a Tycoon c1-883 Page 51