Losing Money to Be a Tycoon c1-883

by Inebriation-seeking Blue Shirt, 青衫取醉

  Pei Qian nodded. “That’s right. Where’s Dad?”

  “He went out to entertain clients. He’ll be back late tonight.” Pei Qian’s mother looked at the huge appliances moving around her house and began to panic. “Child, how many things did you buy exactly? How much money did you have to spend?!”

  “Don’t worry. I only spent over twenty thousand yuan. My remuneration just about covers it. I’ve discussed with the store about the old appliances. They’re running a trade-in system, so I got a discount on the new appliances. Don’t worry about it.”

  Pei Qian knew that all of these things had to be done quickly. He could not give his mother time to react. All the new appliances had to be unpacked in his home, and the old appliances had to be taken out.

  “This…”

  His mother looked at the new television, opened the new refrigerator, and surveyed the new washing machine. At that moment, she did not know exactly what to say.

  “The air-conditioner will come tomorrow morning. We’ll have it installed in your bedroom. If you can’t sleep during the day because it’s too hot, just switch the AC on. Just adjust it accordingly; that’s all to it.

  “There’s this sweeping robot as well. Let me teach you how to use it.”

  Pei Qian began to explain to his mother how to use the new appliances. At the same time, he took a dirty bedsheet and threw it into the washing machine to be washed. The tumbling-box washing machine made soft buzzing noises. The feet had already been adjusted, and the washing machine did not even swing around.

  “You don’t say, this washing machine is really so easy to use!” Pei Qian’s mother exclaimed.

  Pei Qian nodded. “Of course. Not only is it easy to use, but it saves water as well. The refrigerator saves more energy than our previous one as well. Changing the appliances was not cheap, but we will save on our utilities and electricity bills.”

  Mom nodded and said, “That’s true.”

  Very quickly, the refrigerator was filled with food. The washing machine had a load of laundry being washed. The sweeping robot was spinning around on the ground. A program was being played on the television.

  Mom was very satisfied with the new tumbling-box washing machine. She gathered all the clothes that had to be washed, looking like she wanted to make good use of this new washing machine.

  Pei Qian lay down on the sofa, looking at the double door refrigerator that looked a bit too big for this house. He began to feel emotional.

  “If only this house was bigger…

  “I have to work harder to incur losses…”

  On the 4th, at the end of the long weekend…

  He was back at the office. Pei Qian’s Personal Wealth had shrunk to about fifty thousand yuan. His desire to incur losses intensified.

  “Have you planned the contents for the new update?” Pei Qian casually asked as he walked by Lu Mingliang’s work desk.

  Lu Mingliang immediately nodded. “They’re all ready, Boss Pei!”

  “En?” Pei Qian suddenly realized something was amiss. “Did you work over the Labor Day holiday?”

  Lu Mingliang paused. Boss Pei was waiting for me?

  There was not much he could do! It did not seem possible not to work overtime.

  He was given the task on April 30th. May 1st to 3rd was a holiday. It was May 4th, and it was his first day back at work. Yet, the plan was already done. If he said that he did not work overtime, who would believe him?

  Lu Mingliang quickly explained, “No, Boss Pei. I had nothing to do at home over the past few days. I was just thinking about the plan for the new update.”

  Pei Qian kept a poker face. “You worked at home so you worked overtime! As the rules stipulate, pay yourself three times the salary for working over the holiday.”

  Lu Mingliang, “…Yes, Boss Pei.”

  Pei Qian turned around and walked towards the conference room. “Alright, don’t let it happen again. Everyone, come in for a meeting. We will touch base on the new update.”

  Very quickly, everyone from the research and development team arrived. Ma Yiqun sat quietly in the corner as he did before. He held on to his notebook, ready to take notes

  Lu Mingliang began to introduce the plan for the few games they had on hand. They were largely similar to the instructions Pei Qian gave to them some time ago.

  For The Lonely Desert Road, there was going to be Endless Mode, multiplayer function, and a new map. They were to be priced at one yuan.

  For Ghost General, there was going to be a new set of generals, priced at five yuan.

  For Ocean Stronghold, there was going to be a new epic weapon, priced at 888 yuan. There was going to be a limit of five hundred weapons for sale each month.

  For Game Designer, there was going to be a new language package and setting style, priced at five yuan.

  The only difference was that the briefing Lu Mingliang was giving was much more detailed than the one Pei Qian gave. For example, for Ghost General, Lu Mingliang explained who would be in the new set of generals, what abilities they would have, and what their animations would generally look like.

  This was a more detailed plan. What’s more, through this plan, they could begin estimating the total costs.

  Chapter 139 - New Branches’ Locations!

  Pei Qian was rather satisfied with this plan.

  After all, Lu Mingliang had a key quality that Huang Sibo didn’t have: Lu Mingliang was very obedient and did not try to adapt and change. Whatever Pei Qian asked him to do, he would honestly do it. He didn’t desire to gain credit but hoped to not make any mistakes.

  However, this had also brought a problem: he wasn’t very enterprising. Take this plan for example; the amount to be spent was rather little. Now that the pricing had been confirmed, the more money spent was better of course!

  Pei Qian stewed in his thoughts for a while. “The Lonely Desert Road’s new map only has three new settings; that’s too little. Let’s add more. Ghost General was only going to add ten new generals? That’s not enough; let’s do fifty. Although Game Designer was only going to add one setting style; how could it be on the same level as the previous one?

  “If we wanted Ruan Guangjian to do the animation for Ghost General; he might not have the time for this. Let’s find another big boss that is around Ruan Guangjian’s level and double the work time on this. The work must be done precisely and exquisitely; this new style must be better than the previous!”

  “As for Ocean Stronghold… en. Besides this new epic weapon, two more hours should be added to the story mode as well as a new setting. Let’s also put in another three new character roles and ten new weapons.

  “Let’s work according to this. We need to hurry up and start work; we have to finish all the updating before June 18th.”

  Lu Mingliang was stumped. He had only planned for a minimal amount of new content primarily as he was worried that the downloadable contents might not sell well; they might not be able to recoup costs!

  According to Lu Mingliang’s plan, there was a ceiling to the amount of new content to be added.

  Take The Lonely Desert Road for example. One new setting template would cost forty thousand while the original plan had been to add three such settings. Since the downloadable content for this was set at one yuan, they had to sell one hundred and twenty thousand copies of downloadable content to recoup their capital!

  In the end, Pei Qian had immediately changed this figure to ten new settings; they had to sell four hundred thousand downloadable contents to get back their money.

  Wasn’t this a little preposterous?

  Ghost General’s animation was to be handled by Ruan Guangjian. Of course, Ruan Guangjian had many friends that could help him with this. However, regardless, they couldn’t pay Ruan Guangjian any less than expected.

  Previously, Ghost General’s animation for its generals had gone at four animations per general, three thousand yuan in total. Now that Ruan Guangjian was much more famous, his rate naturally ha
d gone up. Boss Pei also insisted on not asking for a friendship discount from Ruan Guangjian and to pay according to the market rate. That meant that each set of animations would cost five thousand.

  For fifty new generals, that would be two hundred and fifty thousand. As these generals would cost five yuan, they had to sell a hundred thousand copies to recoup their capital.

  As for Ocean Stronghold, the new story, new setting, new characters, new weapons… all these basically were being given to players for free. The only chargeable thing was that new epic weapon; however, that weapon was limited in quantities monthly!

  “Boss Pei, this… We might not be able to get back our costs…” Lu Mingliang hurriedly did the math in his notebook as he started to feel nervous.

  Pei Qian smiled calmly, “That won’t be the case. Remember, we must be sincere with people. If you treat players with sincerity, players naturally would repay that with their sincerity as well. Furthermore, so what if we didn’t make back our money? Our players have already given us so much money; we should compensate them appropriately.”

  Lu Mingliang looked stunned as he blinked his eyes. He felt as if Boss Pei’s words were rather righteous and awe-inspiring and made him see the light.

  However, he still felt that something somewhere was a little amiss.

  “Alright, time is of the essence. Hurry up and allocate the tasks; we must finish all these by June 18th.”

  Pei Qian had made June 18th the deadline as this was the last working day the week before the next settlement. The 19th and 20th were the weekend while Pei Qian wanted to keep 21st to 23rd as a buffer just in case something happened.

  Before 24th, all developing work had to be completed while all the downloadable contents had to be renewed. If not, that would affect the settlement.

  Pei Qian left the conference room rather elegantly and unrestrained while Lu Mingliang hurriedly scrambled to allocate work.

  Although the workload this time was more than before, as most of it had to do with art resources, as long as they rushed a little; they could finish everything within the given deadline.

  The only problem was they were spending rather a lot.

  May 6th, Thursday…

  Ma Yang and Zhang Yuan came to Pei Qian’s office as they introduced to him a few locations they had gone to survey. Ma Yang’s laptop connected to the projector in the office as some details regarding these locations were shown.

  Zhang Yuan had done most of the work this time, choosing some places with better locations, while Ma Yang had also tried to make up the number.

  To open four new branches, Pei Qian had requested for ten location options; they had all been found.

  This time, Zhang Yuan had much pent-up frustration.

  Why was it that all of Boss Pei’s other projects had done so well while only Fish-Catching Internet Cafe had kept on making losses?

  It was so embarrassing!

  Furthermore, Boss Pei looked so highly on us and trusted us; we really have to buck up this time and turn the losses into a profit!

  Opening new branches this time was the perfect opportunity. From Zhang Yuan’s perspective, the reason why the current internet cafe had been making losses persistently had a huge part to do with its location.

  No big-scale commercial district was nearby while there weren’t high-rise office buildings as well; it wasn’t near a high-end residential area either. Without enough human traffic and consumers in a few-kilometer radius, how was this high-class internet cafe going to carry on?

  They couldn’t possibly hope that ballers would drive all the way here to drink alcohol, right?

  Of course, some rather impressive bars could indeed make that happen. However, Fish-Catching Internet Cafe wasn’t a proper bar but an internet cafe, coffee house, restaurant, and book shop all mixed together. Without any particularly strong selling point, it could not attract people to come from far away; this wasn’t the way to profitability.

  Hence, Zhang Yuan thought about it for long and decided to put much effort into finding suitable locations; they must be within bustling commercial districts!

  “Boss Pei, I especially recommend these three locations.

  “This one is near Handong University’s south gate; it is also very close to a few male hostels while opposite it is a high-end residential area.

  “Although a few internet cafes already exist, they are always bursting with people. Since our Fish-Catching Internet Cafe’s environment is good and our computers are high-tech, we can definitely attract university students who are more particular about the playing atmosphere, as well as rich second-generation heirs with some purchasing power.”

  “This place was originally a coffee house; it also rather complements our internet cafe setup. The floor area is not small either. This is my number-one recommended location!”

  Pei Qian did not say anything. He knew this location very well. After all, he had studied at Handong University while the apartment Assistant Xin had found for him to rent was just opposite this road.

  The internet cafes in this area were constantly packed with people; Zhang Yuan was right about this.

  However… Pei Qian would definitely not choose this. If he chose this place and they really started to make money, who could he blame?

  Seeing that Pei Qian did not react, Zhang Yuan could only continue to recommend the next location.

  “This place is within the biggest shopping mall in Jingzhou City, on the first floor. The only flaw is that the rental is very expensive. However, I did my research; this mall actually doesn’t have many places to rest and relax. Many males who accompany their wives or girlfriends to shop do not have places to rest when they are tired; that’s rather sad.

  “If we open an internet cafe here, those successful males accompanying their wives to shop could come and surf the net or drink coffee when they are tired; their purchasing power should be good.

  “Based on this human traffic flow—even if the rental is high, we would definitely be able to make money!”

  Pei Qian still had no reaction.

  Zhang Yuan grew even more nervous as he continued to introduce the others. As he went down the list, the localities grew worse and worse.

  This couldn’t be helped. As Pei Qian had limited Fish-Catching Internet Cafe’s branches could only be opened in Jingzhou City while he had many requirements, it was already not easy that Zhang Yuan had managed to find so many shops ready to be rented out.

  After Zhang Yuan had introduced all of them, Zhang Yuan looked uneasily at Pei Qian. Boss Pei had not spoken even once; what did this mean? Was he not happy?

  Pei Qian nodded approvingly, “Not bad; you’ve worked quite hard.”

  Zhang Yuan breathed out a sigh of relief.

  Boss Pei wasn’t unhappy; that’s great!

  Pei Qian looked at the projector screen as he praised, “I feel that the last four places you had recommended are not bad.”

  The last four places?

  Zhang Yuan turned and looked at the screen and then at Boss Pei again. He couldn’t manage to recover in time.

  These… had been included only to hit the quota of ten that Boss Pei had wanted!

  Chapter 140 - Taking a Closer Look at Shang Yang Games

  Zhang Yuan had been most pleased with the first three shops he had recommended; he was very confident about making money from these three. Further down the list, the fourth to sixth options were all so-so locations. Although they might incur losses, at least they wouldn’t do so badly.

  As for the last four; their locations were rather bad-even worse than Fish-Catching Internet Cafe’s flagship store. They had been included just to hit the quota of ten locations.

  After all, Pei Qian had been very specific about needing to find ten possible locations.

  Zhang Yuan was a little conflicted as he finally said, “Boss Pei, it’s not that these four locations are not good. However, they might not be as suitable as the first three…”

  Zhang Yuan co
uldn’t directly fault these four places. They were indeed part of the list of options he and Ma Yang had submitted. If he directly said they were bad, wasn’t that shooting himself in the foot?

  What if Boss Pei then asked why they chose these four when they weren’t good in the first place? How was he going to reply? Hence, Zhang Yuan could only use a rather indirect method to hint to Boss Pei, that the first three options are better.

  Pei Qian stood up as he energetically walked towards the projector screen as he looked at the locations in detail. “I actually feel that these four locations are not bad.

  “I think that Fish-Catching Internet Cafe should give people a feeling that it is a good place that is not easy to come by; I want people to have a seeking mentality… to experience unexpected joy when they finally find it!

  “To open branches in a bustling city district? No, no, no. That would be too noisy; it would be incompatible with our internet cafes. Our internet cafe’s mood is quieter, relaxed; this was the atmosphere we had decided on right from the start.

  “We only have fifty computers while we ban smoking; we have many storybooks, and even when we have gigs at night, the songs sung are not rock songs but folk songs… these all exemplify the mood of our internet cafe!

  “If we’re like others and open in a place with a huge amount of human traffic that ruins the atmosphere, wouldn’t our internet cafe be like a chaotic vegetable market? That would be out of character and sully Tengda’s image.”

  Zhang Yuan was stunned.

  Boss Pei had even gone so far as to say this would sully Tengda’s reputation? I can’t bear this responsibility that Boss Pei is putting on me!

  Pei Qian pointed at the last four locations. “These areas are better. They are quiet, relaxed, and are especially suitable for one to empty one’s mind and allow them to think about life.”

  Zhang Yuan was even more baffled. Why did they want customers to think about life? Shouldn’t they make customers think about spending more money?