Losing Money to Be a Tycoon c1-883

by Inebriation-seeking Blue Shirt, 青衫取醉

  On the other hand, this Boss Li was hinting to Pei Qian that if he continued to act stubbornly, he would fight all the way to the end. He would lower his prices and cause Pei Qian to lose all his customers. So what if Pei Qian knew that Boss Li was behind it? In order to cut his losses, wouldn’t Pei Qian still have to give in eventually? This was the stick.

  If other people had been in the same situation —without any way out, they might really have accepted the investment.

  However, Pei Qian was completely different.

  You’re willing to spend money to help me incur more losses? I have to thank you for that!

  Pei Qian wanted to reject him at first. However, on second thought, he realized that would not be right.

  This Boss Li took joy in helping others. Shouldn’t Pei Qian cooperate with him?

  If he turned Boss Li down directly once again, Boss Li might give up sooner. After all, this man was the boss of an investment company. He had many things to do, and he could not afford to keep chasing after Fish-Catching Internet Cafe.

  The moment he lost Boss Li’s interest, the businesses around Fish-Catching Internet Cafe would stop burning money, too. Then, the human traffic in Fish-Catching Internet Cafe would revert to the way it was.

  Pei Qian would not be able to incur this much loss anymore!

  Pei Qian smiled and came up with a plan in his mind.

  “Old Ma, do you really think that Boss Li is doing this for our good? Do you think he’s really being kind? Think about it carefully. The shops around us are all holding promotions at the same time. Are you sure there isn’t someone helping them behind the scenes?”

  Pei Qian said a couple of simple sentences to enlighten Ma Yang.

  Of course, this was not really considered enlightening him. Ma Yang was very easy to lie to. If people were trying to lie to him one after another, the last one would have the greatest advantage.

  Pei Qian said a couple more sentences to make matters sound worse. He exaggerated the dangers of selling shares in the business and immediately managed to turn Ma Yang around, just as he expected.

  “Holy sh*t! I didn’t know this Boss Li had such venomous intentions! I’ll turn him down at once!”

  Pei Qian said, “You don’t have to do that. If his frustration turns to anger and he decides to squeeze Fish-Catching Internet Cafe dry, we’ll be in trouble.

  “Tell him that I am very frustrated by the fact that we are making losses now. Say that I didn’t want to accept investments, but I’m faltering. Tell him that I’m struggling to decide and that as long as the internet cafe continues to make losses, I might change my mind…”

  Ma Yang sounded confused. “Brother Qian, you want us to continue to make losses? That wouldn’t be good for us, would it? I don’t think we can afford it.”

  Pei Qian smiled. “If we make losses, wouldn’t the same happen for them?

  “These shops are incurring losses like us. At the very most, we’ll drag all of them down with us. What is there to be afraid of?

  “What’s more, if they continue burning money in this way, all the customers nearby would be attracted to come out. The people in other areas of Jingzhou City might even be attracted to go there and spend their money.

  “In the long term, this would improve business in the area. We will not be making losses at all.”

  A realization dawned on Ma Yang. “I see! I understand, Brother Qian!”

  “That’s good. Go and tell Boss Li this, then…”

  Pei Qin hung up, smiling.

  Boss Li, you must have been so proud of your own ability to hoodwink Ma Yang. You were wrong. Anybody could have lied to him…

  You threw him a couple of simple lies, but all I had to do was lie more to bring him back to my side.

  Pei Qian hoodwinked Ma Yang by telling him a mixture of truth and lies. What he said about improving business in the area, especially, was a bunch of bullsh*t.

  The business environment was affected by different factors working together. How could the business environment be changed just because a few shops were holding promotions at the same time? Just the thought of it seemed impossible.

  However, it was worthwhile to look for any reason to lie to Ma Yang.

  As long as he could rope Boss Li in and allow the surrounding shops to continue holding promotions, Fish-Catching Internet Cafe would continue to incur losses. How could Pei Qian let go of a chance to reap the benefits of others’ loss?

  After hanging up, Ma Yang quickly rubbed his own long face in order to quickly prepare himself. Just the thought of being lied to by Boss Li made him furious.

  It’s a good thing that my brother is so smart; I was almost cheated by you!

  Although Ma Yang was not good at acting, just thinking about Boss Li scheming to destroy his rice bowl motivated him to take revenge.

  He would turn this rage into acting skills!

  He returned to the table and immediately put on a smile. “Boss Li, I just spoke to Boss Pei on the phone. I tried to find out his intentions.

  “The losses we’ve been incurring have been worrying indeed. However, he does not want to allow outsiders to join the company so easily. He said that we’ll give it another month. If things still do not improve by then, he will think of other ways.”

  Li Shi nodded subtly.

  This was exactly as he had expected.

  According to his calculations, this Boss Pei was a hard-headed man. If his subordinate were able to change his mind with just a couple of sentences, that would be strange.

  A month…

  He had to continue burning money for a month. That hurt, but it was still do-able.

  Li Shi’s heart hurt, but he could not display the hurt on his face. After all, it seemed like Ma Yang still had no clue that he was the one who organized for the surrounding shops to hold promotions at the same time.

  Boss Pei might have been able to tell, but he probably did not tell Ma Yang about it. After all, there was no evidence. Boss Pei probably did not want to run his mouth off without proof.

  After all, as long as Li Shi could successfully buy Fish-Catching Internet Cafe over in the end, it did not matter how much money he had to burn. He was sure he would be able to make it all back.

  At that thought, Li Shi suddenly grinned.

  “Of course. I’m in no rush at all. Boss Ma, you don’t have to rush Boss Pei either. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink. Boss Pei has to come around on his own.

  “However…

  “I’m worried about you all. You might make huge losses in one month. What if you cannot hang on for that long? Boss Ma, I think you can test waters again in a week. For all we know, Boss Pei might have changed his mind.”

  “Alright.” Ma Yang nodded and then turned to the bartender. “Give me another Margarita. I’ll treat Boss Li to a drink!”

  Tengda Network Technology Co., Ltd…

  Pei Qian had not been going to the office recently because he had been busy with Fish-Catching Internet Cafe and his exams. Since he was in the mood today, he decided to go and make his rounds.

  The settlement was drawing near. Pei Qian was finding it hard to balance all his commitments at the same time.

  The good thing was that the downloadable content for Tengda’s games had already been published. Apart from the split of the profits that the official games’ platforms gave them earlier, there had been no more unexpected shocks. Pei Qian guessed that he could begin to relax.

  Pei Qian could not help but feel happy when he thought about Fish-Catching Internet Cafe’s current situation. Happily, he sauntered into his own office.

  In the office area, Lu Mingliang and Bao Xu were engaged in whispered discussion.

  “Boss Pei has not been coming to the office much these days. Do you think he has been busy?”

  “I heard that Fish-Catching Internet Cafe is not doing well. I guess he must be helping out over there.”

  “Looking at Boss Pei’s expression, I
don’t think the problem is that huge.”

  “That’s not for certain. You know Boss Pei’s character well. He does not show his emotions on his face. The problem might be huge, but Boss Pei might just not be showing it.”

  “Well… should we report to Boss Pei about Ocean Stronghold, then? We shouldn’t distract him, right?”

  Bao Xu pondered for a moment and said, “Compared to Fish-Catching Internet Cafe, this does not seem that urgent. Let’s wait for a couple of days.

  “What’s more, it was expected that accounts would raise the prices on trading platforms. It’s a good thing that the amount of top-ups and the number of active players have increased these few days. I don’t think we have to specially report this.”

  Lu Mingliang nodded. “That’s true. We’ll wait until Boss Pei has time before we inform him, then.”

  Chapter 179 - Putting Out One Fire While Another Burns

  In the office, Pei Qian took a look at the platform to see how Tengda’s games were doing.

  “This group of people only knows how to give me the bad news; all of them are unreliable! In the end, I must take everything into my own hands.”

  Pei Qian was filled with resentment.

  Everyone else’s employees all gave them good news instead of bad; only his employees were the exact opposite. Whenever there was good news, he would be the last to know.

  Pei Qian had reflected on this before. This might be because, right from the start, Tengda was a company that had a rather flat hierarchy; it did not have such a stringent superior-subordinate system. Furthermore, Huang Sibo and Bao Xu were both people that hunkered down and did their work, not having any airs at all.

  Whenever they encountered problems, his employees would think of resolving them themselves, not wanting to give Boss Pei trouble. Even if they succeeded, they would think that everything had been arranged by Pei Qian and would not appear surprised at all. They most definitely would not try to claim credit for their success.

  This made Pei Qian very pained. Whenever profits appeared from some aspect of his businesses, he was always the last to know; this hindered him immensely.

  The crux was he couldn’t act as if he knew nothing. This would be very incompatible with his image and standing; it would make things awkward!

  Pei Qian felt that he couldn’t make the same mistake twice.

  Only a few days were left until the next settlement; he had to constantly keep track of the statistics of his profitable profits; he would not tolerate any mistakes.

  Pei Qian had intentionally made a trip to the company today precisely because of this.

  After opening the platform, Pei Qian hurriedly took a look at the statistics of Tengda’s games.

  Income from the games was all growing. This was as expected. After all, Tengda had just released downloadable contents while the official platform was still recommending Tengda’s games on its front page; it was impossible that the income would not rise.

  Looking at the rows of rising numbers, Pei Qian was a little jittery. However, after taking a closer look, most of the increases in income were actually still acceptable. Then again… there were places where the increase was a little abnormal.

  Ocean Stronghold!

  Pei Qian immediately noticed that the income stream from this game was higher than he had predicted; it was much higher!

  Even taking into account the recommendation from the official platform, the altering of the profit-sharing agreement, and the popularity of the game after the launch of the downloadable content, the figures were rather high!

  Pei Qian immediately grew a little wary and a little unhappy.

  Such a serious thing had happened; no one had bothered to report this to me!

  What were Lu Mingliang and Bao Xu thinking about; they saw these numbers and didn’t hurry to inform me? What were they waiting for?

  Luckily, I had come to the company today to take a look. If not, I would be cheated again!

  Pei Qian was now rather angry but also happy that he had discovered this. Now that he had found this out early, he might still be able to do something to remedy the situation! The crux of the problem was finding out why such an increase in income had been experienced for this game.

  If it was something that happened by chance and this increase in income was short-term, Pei Qian wouldn’t pay too much attention to it. He could spend a little more money to offset this.

  However, if it was some long-term factor that would continue to propel a rise in income and perhaps even a potential explosive increase, Pei Qian would have to be wary right in this instance and take decisive action.

  Pei Qian went into Ocean Stronghold’s game forum as he searched in detail for the most recent discussion thread.

  “I did not expect Li Zhengwei would also become a traitor and join the revolution. Sigh! Could it be that Counter Strike was really going to become redundant as times progressed?”

  “I think you’re thinking too much; Brother Li must have just done a normal sponsored partnership.”

  “Brother Li had said in his fan group that he wasn’t doing a sponsored partnership. Primarily because Fei Huang Workspace’s documentary had been so well-done; that’s why he wants to lend his name to help Tengda publicize their game to return the favor.”

  “I feel that there isn’t anything wrong with this. Ocean Stronghold is a domestically-produced game with a heart; I think it’s good to promote it.”

  “I started to play because even Brother Li had lent his support; this game is actually really good.”

  “When it comes to competitiveness and hand sensitivity, Counter Strike is indeed good. However, it is an old game after all; and its online system is rather bad while the gameplay is not abundant enough. After changing to play Ocean Stronghold, I feel that going online to play it for a while when I’m free is actually rather nice. All thanks to Brother Li’s recommendation!”

  Pei Qian placed his hand on his forehead; he was speechless.

  It was impossible to guard against everything!

  Fei Huang Workspace’s Coming Out of the Cocoon as a Butterfly had not turned in a profit yet; it was that hard to earn money from it. Even Huang Sibo and Zhu Xiaoce had given up and were already preparing their next video.

  Hence, Pei Qian had also not considered what impact this documentary would bring. He had not expected that this documentary had impacted Ocean Stronghold!

  Evidently, even people in the Fei Huang Workspace could not have expected this.

  Presently, FPS games were a rather hot genre in the gaming field. As Li Zhengwei was known as the ‘number-one FPS gamer in the country’, he was rather influential among his fans while his journey to becoming a professional player had been filled with difficulties; there had been more content to film about him.

  Hence, Fei Huang Workspace had decided to choose him for the documentary.

  After the documentary had finished filming, Li Zhengwei was very appreciative of Fei Huang Workspace. After all, this documentary had been for public interest and the public good. It had helped raise Li Zhengwei’s profile while it had also given the gaming profession a slight nudge in a positive direction.

  During filming, when Li Zhengwei had chatted casually with Huang Sibo, he had discovered that the latter was actually the chief planner behind Ocean Stronghold.

  Hence, after the documentary had been completed, Li Zhengwei had done much publicity work for Ocean Stronghold!

  As Pei Qian had not been paying attention to the FPS gamers’ circle, he had not known any of these things at all.

  Li Zhengwei was also rather influential among Counter Strike’s players. As he had gone all out to promote Ocean Stronghold, another huge wave of players had started playing the game naturally!

  As such, many Counter Strike players had shifted allegiances as well; this had created a chain-reaction.

  The official games platform had given its recommendation while Ocean Stronghold’s new epic weapon had been selling well, and so
Pei Qian had not noticed anything amiss with the game’s statistics immediately…

  Until today.

  Pei Qian kept his hand on his forehead. “… Damn.”

  Although he had found the problem, Pei Qian was powerless to do anything.

  It was… too late!

  Although Li Zhengwei had a certain amount of influence among FPS gamers, promoting Ocean Stronghold could at most only result in a surge in popularity for the game for a few days. Now that a few days had gone by, Ocean Stronghold’s popularity was not increasing that much. Most gamers that started on the game had already done so; what else could Pei Qian do?

  “I have overextended myself; it’s really like putting out one fire as another burns…

  “Calm down. From another perspective, this is not that bad a thing. This time, it had just been an unexpected occurrence; Li Zhengwei’s influence was soon going to lose its effect. As long as this won’t continuously affect Ocean Stronghold and raise its income, all is still well.

  “Hu… all in all, this is now over. At least I can rest easy for the moment.”

  In a mere half-hour, Pei Qian had experienced such a fluctuation in his emotions; fortunately, it had just been a scare.

  According to Pei Qian’s estimates, this flood of new players could only persist for two to three days. If he spent more on shopping or employee benefits, this would not affect the settlement.

  After triple-checking that the other games were doing alright and that only Ocean Stronghold had experienced this irregular rise in income, Pei Qian rested easy as he prepared to leave.

  In the working area, Lu Mingliang and Bao Xu swiftly exchanged a glance.

  “Boss Pei is coming out; should we report to him?”

  “I don’t think it’s necessary.”

  “…let’s report it in any case.”

  Although Bao Xu thought there wasn’t a need, Lu Mingliang felt that they should still casually mention this to Pei Qian as he stood up from his seat.