Four to five thousand yuan…
Ma Yang began to hesitate.
“This… it’s not that I don’t want to pay him, but I feel like Chen Lei is not worth that much. The main problem is that our internet cafe is still incurring losses. What do you think of this? Let’s offer him 1,500 yuan as his base salary. The rest will be left to commission.”
Zhang Yuan paused. “Commission? How would that work?”
Ma Yang pointed at the alcohol on the bar counter. “We’ll pay him commission based on our alcohol sales. In the future, we can tell the customers that while he is singing, half of the profits of the alcohol would go to Chen Lei.”
Zhang Yuan sucked in a deep breath. “Brother Ma, giving him half of the profits is a bit too much, right?”
“It’s alright. We don’t sell that much alcohol to begin with…” Ma Yang did not seem too bothered.
Zhang Yuan was momentarily speechless. “That’s true. What’s more, we only sell real alcohol. The profit margin would not be that high. On second thought, it seems acceptable…”
If they followed the model of regular bars, the alcohol would be their main source of profits.
Many bars, nightclubs, KTVs, and the like would take part in a bit of adulteration. Take XO for example; they would keep the empty bottles and add in cheap alcohol before putting it up for sale again. This was very common.
Selling alcohol in this manner would guarantee profits.
However, from the beginning, Boss Pei instructed all of them-time and time again —that the alcohol sold by Fish-Catching Internet Cafe must be real. Selling fake alcohol aside, they were not even allowed to sell a drop of ordinary wine.
They had to sell whatever alcohol they said they were selling.
Therefore, while they were all selling alcohol and Fish-Catching Internet Cafe had included a profit margin in their prices for alcohol, the profits Fish-Catching Internet Cafe was earning could not compare to ordinary bars.
What’s more, given the number of people in the internet cafe each day, they could not sell much alcohol to begin with.
Zhang Yuan pondered for a moment, and then said, “You can make the call, Brother Ma. If you want to pay him based on commission, that works. For all we know, he might help us sell more alcohol.”
Ma Yang slapped the countertop and said, “Alright, that’s decided, then. Once Chen Lei finishes for the night, I will speak to him and settle the terms of the contract.
“If we really follow this method, I have a suggestion,” Zhang Yuan suddenly said, having thought of an idea. “We can come up with a new menu. Next to the prices of all the alcohols, we can put another number in brackets. That number would represent the amount of commission Chen Lei would get.
“Take the Aurora Jungle-Juice, for example. We sell them for sixty yuan a cup. Our cost is about thirty yuan. Add in the place and the salary for the employees; that makes the total cost of each glass about forty yuan. Our profit is twenty yuan. If we give half to Chen Lei, that’s ten yuan.
“We can immediately add a ‘(10)’ next to the 60 on the menu. That way, everybody would know that ten yuan out of this drink goes to paying Chen Lei commission.”
Ma Yang frowned and hesitated. “Wouldn’t everyone be able to guess our profit margin, then?”
Zhang Yuan shook his head. “Brother Ma, even if you don’t write it down, wouldn’t people be able to guess our profit margin? You can find out the price of these alcohols on the internet. Most people who come to bars to drink have a good idea of the bars’ profit margins. If that’s the way the entire industry works, nobody would take these numbers too seriously.
“If we write the amount of commission Chen Lei gets on the menus, it would show how nice we are to our resident singer. We might look very generous.”
A realization dawned on Ma Yang. “Oh, that’s right! That suggestion sounds good; let’s do that!”
[1] These are the lyrics to the song ‘Does Any Song Remind You of Me?’ by Wakin Chau.
Chapter 154 - Cannot Suffer For No Clear Reason!
After singing for more than an hour, Chen Lei took a break. Ma Yang immediately called him over to explain to him simply how his wages and the alcohol commission would work. Chen Lei scratched his head as he decisively said, “Alright.”
Ma Yang was now a little abashed.
“It’s alright; if you feel that the basic salary is too low, I can add to it.” Ma Yang said.
Chen Lei blinked, “In that case… let’s add a little to it.”
Ma Yang, “…”
Look at this lad’s honesty! Ma Yang felt as if he had been cheated. He had thought that Chen Lei would be polite and say ‘no, it’s okay’; Ma Yang could then follow suit and conveniently end the conversation.
In the end, Chen Lei had conveniently managed to ask for more pay from Ma Yang’s words. However, since Ma Yang had said as much, he couldn’t go back on his word now.
Ma Yang was conflicted for a while, “Alright, I’ll give you 1800 yuan for the base pay, together with the alcohol commission. The next time you go up to sing, you must encourage people to buy more drinks, understand?”
Chen Lei looked a little uncomfortable as he said bashfully, “Brother Ma, I’m not very comfortable with that. Why don’t I just take the 1500 yuan? Please don’t make me talk to the audience.”
Ma Yang was speechless; this kid was so thin-skinned.
“Forget it; you’ll just focus on singing while I’ll do the announcement. Your base pay will still be 1800 yuan, but you do not need to care about anything else.”
Chen Lei nodded as he went to drink some water and take a break.
Ma Yang gave Zhang Yuan a look as the latter immediately understood what that meant and went up the platform.
“Hello, hello. Hello, everyone, let me introduce myself a little. I am the manager of Fish-Catching Internet Cafe; my family name is Zhang.”
Someone among the crowd tittered, “Weren’t you the resident singer last week? Once Chen Lei had replaced you, you actually have been promoted?”
Zhang Yuan saw that many people weren’t very interested in what he was going to say as he hurriedly spoke, “I appreciate everyone for your continued support. This time, I want to share with everyone a special perk for our resident singer!
“From today onwards, whenever Chen Lei sings—from seven to eleven at night, these four hours; a portion of all drinks expenses would become his commission.
“As for the specifics of this…
“In a few days, we’ll have new custom-made menus; and the cut for Chen Lei would be written clearly. In any case-if everyone likes our singers, you guys can order a few more drinks to support them. Thank you, everyone!”
Zhang Yuan immediately got off the stage after speaking and did not waste his breath further. This also was in line with Fish-Catching Internet Cafe’s mantra: saying less and doing more while service needed to be like a breeze, only to be felt by customers when they needed it.
The customers immediately started to talk among themselves.
“To give a cut for the singer?”
“They’re so generous?” “They’re giving half of the stated price as well! If I go up and sing now; will that work?”
“Hehe, only if you can sing better than Chen Lei.”
“That’s great; I’ll support him! Please give me another glass!”
“Me too.”
“Over here, over here!”
The few servers actually started to get busy. Ever since Fish-Catching Internet Cafe opened for business, this was their first time!
Ma Yang and Zhang Yuan smiled and looked at each other. This actually seemed to work!
Late night…
Many people were already tipsy but still were not willing to leave. Before Chen Lei got off the stage, he kept on thanking everyone as he blushed and hid himself in the internet area.
Ma Yang, Zhang Yuan, and the few servers all went to send the customers on their way.
“Thank you for you
r support!”
“Please take care.”
“We await your next visit!”
All the way till ten-thirty did the customers finally all leave.
“Hurry up and tabulate how much we have sold for drinks!” Ma Yang couldn’t wait as he rushed to the cashier.
A few minutes later, Ma Yang’s excited state receded.
“We had sold quite a lot of drinks; however… we only made this little?”
Ma Yang was very disappointed. He thought that he could immediately start making profits. However, after looking at the sales figure, he became dejected. They indeed sold many drinks tonight; it was also an eighty percent increase from the previous few days’ average!
That meant that many of the customers here had ordered a second drink after hearing that part of the money would go to Chen Lei. Furthermore, some expensive cocktails had been ordered as well.
However, they were still very far away from making a profit.
Zhang Yuan was more rational. “This is very normal. Brother Ma, although our drinks sales have gone up, we have too few customers.
“Think about it. We only have these many seats; even if we hit full capacity with some people even standing around, selling more than a hundred drinks, would that be enough? We would only earn a few hundred or at most a thousand a night. Minus off the half that goes to Chen Lei, that would only be twenty to thirty thousand a month.”
“Wait.” Ma Yang frowned. “Doesn’t that mean that if we made twenty to thirty thousand, Chen Lei would earn that much commission as well?”
Zhang Yuan was rather speechless, “Brother Ma, what are you saying? Of course, this is the case; you were the one who decided that Chen Lei would get fifty percent…”
Ma Yang’s face collapsed, “…I regret that decision now. How about we don’t give half to Chen Lei? Just five percent; maybe one percent?”
Zhang Yuan was livid. “Brother Ma, you can’t possibly go back on your word on the same night. Are you trying to chase him away? You were the one who decided on fifty percent commission.”
“It was me. However, I didn’t expect it to be so much money…” Ma Yang was rather pained as he scratched his head repeatedly.
Zhang Yuan was speechless for a while.
No wonder Ma Yang had been so generous; he had not done the sums up at all! However, seeing that Ma Yang seemed to really be considering going against his word, Zhang Yuan hurriedly tried to dissuade him.
“Brother Ma, there’s really no need. We are making losses of three hundred thousand monthly now. Even if you took all of Chen Lei’s commission, that would at most be twenty or thirty thousand more; it is not feasible in the long term.”
“If we give Chen Lei more, the audience would support him more as well. When this place becomes popular, we would naturally have more customers; and things would look better then.”
Ma Yang frowned. “What would be considered enough? Based on your calculations, we need to sell more than a thousand drinks a night to recoup our losses; that is not possible. For this size of a place, we can’t even sit two hundred—what more a thousand?”
Zhang Yuan didn’t know what to say at the moment. “Err… in any case, now that our drinks sales have gone up, let’s monitor the situation a while more. We definitely cannot kick someone to the curb when he outlived his usefulness.”
“I’m still feeling vexed.” Ma Yang massaged his temple as he was so pained he almost couldn’t breathe. He was really unhappy with this.
“No, I cannot suffer just like this! We must let our customers feel this as well!’
Zhang Yuan was bewildered, “How can we let our customers feel this?”
Ma Yang looked over at the wall next to the stage; there still was some empty space there. He pointed, “Hang a small screen there.
“Every time someone orders a drink, a message will appear on that screen with the table number, what type of drink, as well as how much money goes to Chen Lei. After that, a well-wishing message to Chen Lei would follow.
“This way, every time someone orders a drink, everyone would be able to see. Let’s add a line on the top of the screen tabulating how much Chen Lei was going to get each night.
“I’ve paid such a heavy price; I cannot suffer silently. I must let all customers know that I have given so much!”
Zhang Yuan contemplated this. “This could work; it’s only a small screen and wouldn’t cost much. Leave this matter to me. I’ll have it done by daytime tomorrow.”
Chapter 155 - Giving Brother Qian a Surprise
Afternoon…
“Ah-chu!”
In the office, Pei Qian was just enjoying his air conditioning when he sneezed.
“This is weird; is there too much cold wind blowing at me?”
Pei Qian tugged at the small blanket on him as he turned off the drama he was watching and was intending to take a nap on his office chair.
A knock rang out; it was Lu Mingliang. “Boss Pei, I have a few things to report to you.”
Pei Qian nodded, “Speak.”
Lu Mingliang saw that Pei Qian was wrapped in a blanket and looked about to fall asleep as he felt a little touched.
Boss Pei looked like he wasn’t feeling well; he could go home and rest but was still remaining at work to work alongside us!
Indeed, no matter how much success one had, maintaining a fighting spirit was important!
Lu Mingliang was afraid he was interrupting Boss Pei’s rest as he hurriedly reported.
“First is regarding the new edition.
“Everything is going according to plan. However, for some reason, when the news regarding limits on the sales of Ocean Stronghold’s epic weapon was spread, all the existing players started to protest violently.
“Boss Pei, should we relax the quantity restriction on this epic weapon a little? Say… to five thousand?”
Pei Qian adamantly shook his head, “No.”
Five thousand weapons a month? What a
joke!
5000 x 888 was how much; do you know how to count?
Pei Qian said with a straight face, “A limit has been set for a reason. If it becomes so widely available, why would it be called a limited sale in the first place? Don’t bother with their grumblings. Five hundred will be five hundred; we will not sell even one more.”
Seeing Boss Pei’s determined expression, Lu Mingliang couldn’t do anything as he nodded, “Alright, Boss Pei.
“Second is regarding Ma Yiqun’s responsibilities.
“He has already given feedback to me many times that he strongly wishes to take part in the development of the new editions for our existing games. I thought for a while, and for Ghost General and Game Designer, their new editions really needed an expert at synopsis like him to do the work.
“Could we let him try it out and polish his skills?”
Pei Qian did not reply immediately. He could not think of any good reasons to reject. However, if he didn’t reject, Pei Qian was very reluctant to let Ma Yiqun take care of these synopses.
Ma Yiqun’s expertise in this area was outstanding. The few synopses he had done for Shang Yang Games’ games had been very well done. If he did a great job for Ghost General and Game Designer, the consequences would be dire!
However, how could he reject this?
Ma Yiqun had entered the company in March; it had been two months already. If he asked to continue to understudy, that was a little too much. Even if Ma Yiqun was not allowed to touch the games synopses, he had to be given some order work to do.
Send to Huang Sibo to film short videos? That didn’t seem right. His writing prowess could probably also be fully used in the short videos.
Sent to Fish-Catching Internet Cafe? This was not a bad idea. However, Pei Qian did not have a suitable reason to just suddenly send Ma Yiqun away.
After thinking for a while, Pei Qian really didn’t have any good suggestions. He could only begrudgingly nod. Pei Qian said unwillingly, “Alright; he has already u
nderstudied for so long. Ask him to be responsible for some basic tasks.”
Lu Mingliang hurriedly nodded. “Alright, Boss Pei. Do continue to rest; I’ll go and work
now.”
Pei Qian leaned into his chair as he tugged at his blanket again. Somehow, he was a little restless; and he couldn’t seem to fall asleep.
“This is strange; where is this feeling of danger coming from all directions coming from? It can’t be Shang Yang Games, right?” Pei Qian speedily reviewed each of his projects in his mind.
For Tengda, the new editions would probably make money. However, this was controllable; and it wasn’t that big an issue. As for Fei Huang Workspace, they said they wanted to film a documentary; but there have been no updates yet.
The Fish-Catching Internet Cafe was in a traditional position of strength; two new branches have just finished renovations and were preparing to open. As for the flagship store, he had gone over to take a look slightly more than a week ago; and there had not been any lurking dangers.
Thinking more about this, it seemed like the risks at Shang Yang Games were still the biggest! Pei Qian had requested for them to remove all their purchase options for their existing two games, leaving only one such purchase option. This was indeed a risky
move.
Removing the purchase options would definitely be beneficial for the game’s reputation; this was given. However, reputation and income were two separate matters.
For a game like Bloody Battle Song that had trashy graphics and ordinary gameplay; its only selling point had been that ballers could whack and kill people within the game. In other words, this game’s core selling point was in ‘revenge buying’.
After one hacked another, the latter would immediately top up more money to hack the first person back. This was a core attraction of this kind of game.
Precisely because these games had a ‘revenge buying’ mentality that triggered the negative emotions of players—no matter how bad the graphics were and how inferior the gameplay was, people would still play this game.
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