Losing Money to Be a Tycoon c1-883

by Inebriation-seeking Blue Shirt, 青衫取醉

  All of these proved that Boss Pei had shifted his attention there.

  Boss Pei had so many businesses to take care of. He was busy enough as it was. If he did not have a plan for this branch, why would he waste that much time over there?

  Would he do all of these just to concoct false information and play Li Shi?

  How could that be? Boss Pei would not do such meaningless things.

  Thus, on the whole, the information was very likely to be true. Boss Pei was really making the Ming Yun Villas branch the center of his development plan for Fish-Catching Internet Cafe. He was already prepared with a back-up plan. He had confidence in making this commercial district popular!

  At that thought, Li Shi felt excited.

  After all, Jingzhou City was a second-tier city. There were very few good investment opportunities. Li Shi had spent money allowing other businesses to run promotions earlier, in hopes of disrupting the growth of Fish-Catching Internet Cafe. He wanted to create opportunities to invest in the business early on. In the end, his plan fell through.

  Fortunately, he did not lose that much money because he did not work at it for a long time. Once Fish-Catching Internet Cafe’s flagship store became popular, Li Shi stopped spending money.

  What’s more, ever since the flagship store became popular, more customers visited that street. The other shops profited from it, too.

  This time, Li Shi would not hope to invest in Fish-Catching Internet Cafe again. He knew that this would be wishful thinking on his part.

  Yet, even then, he wanted to do something with the information he had on hand.

  For example, he wanted to jump at the chance to develop something at Ming Yun Villas! When Fish-Catching Internet Cafe’s flagship store became popular, the shops near it became popular as well. The coffee shops, bars, and internet cafes on the same path saw more customers as well. Rent for the popular shops nearby increased as well.

  From this, Li Shi learned that Boss Pei might not be bragging when he said he wanted to turn the Ming Yun Villas area into a commercial district.

  Since that was the case, why not develop something near Ming Yun Villas? He could invest in several restaurants, coffee shops, bars, internet cafes, and board game cafes in the vicinity. He could open a shop or two and wait for business in the area to pick up. Then, his shops would start making money.

  Even if Li Shi did not plan to run these shops himself, he could probably sell the shops when the time was right. Someone would want to take over them. For all he knew, he could earn a windfall from this venture!

  The more Li Shi thought about it, the happier he became. This was why he wanted the information! Although Boss Pei was young, he had a keen eye for business. He also had a unique talent for marketing. Li Shi would be right to keep following him!

  As for how much he should pour into the venture…

  Li Shi pondered for a while. The more he invested, the more he would earn. The less he invested, the less he would earn. However, as an investor, he knew that he could not put all his eggs in one basket. Thus, he decided to invest in one high-end internet cafe, one coffee shop, one board game cafe, and the like.

  He would choose the locations carefully. The high-end internet cafe and board game cafe would be placed closer to the university. After all, university students would be the main spenders. At the same time, he might be able to attract some of Fish-Catching Internet Cafe’s customers.

  Of course, Li Shi would not personally run these businesses. He had to make use of his connections. Perhaps he could convince one of the bosses of the internet cafe chains he had already invested in to open a branch in the area. There, they could set up an internet cafe based on the trendiest model.

  Then, all Li Shi would have to do was to provide the funds.

  Since Li Shi was sure that there was no way he would be able to invest in Fish-Catching Internet Cafe anymore, he had to look for other alternatives. He had to look for other investments to make.

  Then, all he had to do was follow what Boss Pei was doing. Once he succeeded, there would be lots to earn!

  Pei Qian was not sure who was interested in obtaining inside information about the branch at Ming Yun Villas. However, it did not matter to him. Anyone who wanted the information could buy it.

  The information that Pei Qian released was fake indeed. However, it seemed more real than real information.

  Pei Qian’s real motive was quite simple. He wanted to create an illusion that the branch at Ming Yun Villas and the surrounding region were going to become extremely popular. Then, more people would want to invest in this area.

  If more internet cafes, restaurants, and coffee shops opened in the area; wouldn’t there be fewer people visiting Fish-Catching Internet Cafe?

  Ming Yun Villas had been making a steady loss because there were few customers in the vicinity. Ming Yun Villas’ occupancy was low, and there weren’t many students in Handong Jiaotong University’s East Campus. What’s more, the cafe was far from the latter.

  It was already so miserable. If more shops opened in the area, fewer customers would visit Fish-Catching Internet Cafe. Then, they would be doing even more miserably!

  As for who the unlucky b*stard was…

  All Pei Qian could say was that he willingly took the bait. In the first place, he harbored ill intentions and wanted to buy insider information about Fish-Catching Internet Cafe. What’s more, he was not buying this information from Boss Pei. Boss Pei did not earn a single cent from this venture. Of course, Pei Qian had to note it down in his notebook and take revenge!

  Pei Qian guessed that he would not see any reaction in the short-term. After all, it would take at least a month to set up shops in the area.

  Thus, Pei Qian decided not to think about this for now. Instead, he busied himself with other things.

  The preparations for Headwind Courier stations were almost complete. They had already locked down the locations for the various courier stations. They were mainly residential areas. They could not cover all of Jingzhou City, but they had covered a significant area.

  Pei Qian had been busy with recruiting people, purchasing shelves, renovations, and the like recently. If all went well, Pei Qian would be able to observe the first Headwind Courier station in about a week.

  Apart from this, there was something else: the high-end restaurant that Pei Qian had been thinking about earlier.

  Swan Lake Restaurant could no longer fulfill the requirements that Pei Qian’s team had. He had to spend a load of money on this and custom-make a restaurant.

  During this period, Pei Qian considered the best location and set-up for this restaurant.

  The problem of the location was enough to give Pei Qian a headache. At first, he wanted to choose a quiet commercial district to set up the restaurant. However, he felt that this would be inappropriate. This was because consumer review sites had already been created. The internet was also widespread. It would be very difficult for him to hide an extremely expensive restaurant like that for long.

  Pei Qian also could not turn such a high-end restaurant into an internal canteen, which was only to be enjoyed by his employees. The System would not agree to it. The high-end restaurant had to be made available to all consumers in Jingzhou City.

  Of course, ordinary consumers would not be able to afford it. However, if whales really wanted to visit the restaurant, Pei Qian could not chase them out forcefully.

  Pei Qian had several options in Jingzhou City like Guangming District and Lincheng District. However, once the restaurant was discovered, all high-class people would turn into its customer base. After all, there was only one high-end restaurant in all of Jingzhou. People would not mind traveling a distance for a good meal every now and then.

  Of course, he would not necessarily profit. However, he would definitely incur less loss.

  Thus, after some consideration, Pei Qian decided to set up the restaurant as far away from the city center as possible. The more deserted the location, the b
etter. He wanted to attract as few customers as possible!

  After looking around, he discovered that the best location was one he had already seen before. It was where Fish-Catching Internet Cafe’s Ming Yun Villas branch was located.

  Chapter 207 - Small Website, Definitely a Scam!

  Chapter 207 Small Website, Definitely a Scam!

  On further thought, this was very logical.

  When Pei Qian was scouting for suitable locations to set up Fish-Catching Internet Cafe branches, he looked for all the deserted spots. Basically, he scanned all the worst locations in Jingzhou City.

  The Ming Yun Villas branch was incurring the most losses out of all the branches. Of course, this showed that the location was also the worst of the worst. It should be no surprise that while looking for an appropriate place to start his high-end restaurant, Pei Qian narrowed his options down to this location once again.

  After thinking about all these, it seemed right.

  How about pulling off an ‘Old Temple Hidden in Mountains[1]’? There were other shops near Ming Yun Villas as well. However, most shops were unable to cope with low traffic. One by one, they closed down.

  At the time, Pei Qian chose the shop space furthest away from Ming Yun Villas. There, he set up the Fish-Catching Internet Cafe branch.

  Now, the other shops would be of use to him. Pei Qian planned to pick a more hidden location; it was best if he could find a vast space. Then, he would do some renovation and open a high-end restaurant.

  He would not leak information about the restaurant on consumer review sites. His own employees could enjoy meals here, but the restaurant would otherwise be cold and deserted. It was perfect.

  Pei Qian would not use the buffet model because there was only so much he would be able to spend. He would not be able to lose money fast enough.

  He had to create a menu with sky-high prices. When he came here with his employees, he would choose the most expensive items on the menu. Only then would he be able to spend money quickly.

  He would also choose the best and freshest ingredients. All in all, he would make use of all the best ingredients in Jingzhou City.

  What if they had few customers and all the ingredients went to waste?

  The System would probably not allow for such behavior.

  Otherwise, Pei Qian could just buy an insane amount of food and allow them to rot somewhere. However, this did not seem to tie in with the System’s requirements.

  Of course, Pei Qian had a plan for this as well.

  They could purchase ordinary ingredients as and when they wanted. They could also be used for employee meals. In any case, these would be consumed internally; there was only so much that could be wasted. Pei Qian guessed that the System would likely not mind such petty quantities.

  As for more valuable ingredients such as European lobsters, Kobe beef, white truffle, blue lobsters, and the like; they could use a pre-order system. They would reserve a day for a meal and pre-order as many ingredients as they needed.

  To Pei Qian, this was no big deal. After all, he always had a rough idea of when they would gather for a meal. Now, whenever he wanted to gather his employees for meals, he would just have to inform the restaurant in advance so that they could prepare the high-class ingredients.

  Customers who came to the restaurant would also discover that the restaurant lacked all the valuable ingredients, and all of them had to be pre-ordered. This would probably persuade them to stop visiting the restaurant as well.

  Pei Qian would be killing two birds with one stone!

  When the time came, he would also hire famous, well-known chefs from Beijing and Shanghai. Paying their monthly salaries alone would ensure that Pei Qian could spend a huge sum.

  He would be able to incur losses and enjoy feasts whenever he wanted to. Wouldn’t that be perfect?

  At that thought, Pei Qian decided to have a walk around in the next two days. He would find a location that was deserted yet big enough. There, he would set up the restaurant. They needed a big space in order to fit all the employees.

  July 19th, Monday…

  Ma Yiqun arrived at Zhongdian Chinese Network and began his daily work. There were not many manuscripts that had to be reviewed. Including the ones they received over the weekend, it was still few. He finished his reviewing work very quickly. Then, he started writing the plot for Repent and be Saved. Suddenly, he felt bored and decided to take a break.

  Thus, he opened the online literature forum and began browsing. He scanned the hot topics on the first page and found that many people were discussing Zhongdian Chinese Network.

  This was expected. After all, Ma Yiqun had spread the news that Zhongdian Chinese Network was looking for more manuscripts on several channels including forums. Naturally, many authors would discuss this.

  However, Ma Yiqun found that based on the comments on the forum, his website was not very well-received.

  “Recently, a new website was started. It’s called Zhongdian Chinese Network. Some people say that the pay is not bad. You just need to write three thousand words daily in order to earn a thousand yuan a month. It’s much better-paying than Infinite Chinese Network. Is it worth it? Can any expert offer opinions?”

  “It’s a small site. I don’t advise it.”

  “Some people have tried it. They say that the traffic on that website is way too low. It doesn’t seem like the website is buying any popular authors over or redirecting traffic from other sites either. You might have to be prepared to only receive the basic, full-time pay for a long time…”

  “That can’t be… so miserable?”

  “It really is that miserable. Someone even talked to their editors. I think the website does not offer any benefits other than the high, basic, full-time pay. If you have dreams of becoming popular, you should still try writing on Infinite Chinese Network. Even if you write good novels on that small website, nobody will subscribe to them.”

  “If you write rubbish and cannot even hope for subscriptions, you can go to that small website?”

  These were comments written by users. Ma Yiqun continued scanning the comments and found that some were even written by editors or authors from other websites.

  After all, Ma Yiqun had been keeping up with these forums for a long time. He was familiar with these IDs.

  “Everyone, don’t go there! It must be a scam!”

  “The website hasn’t done any marketing, and it does not have channels to reach out to people! Of course, it would not have any readers! The books in the library are trash as well. This will surely become a vicious cycle as time goes by. If you write for Infinite Chinese Network, even if you get less basic pay, you will still have chances of fighting for subscription!”

  “That’s right. I wonder if this website was set up for money-laundering. Otherwise, the creator must be very childish to think that providing high basic pay alone would draw good authors. It’s a joke.”

  “Exactly! He could have bought more expensive manuscripts. At least the books on the first page of the website would be readable,

  right?”

  “That’s why I’m warning all the newbies to avoid the website at all costs! It’s a scam for sure! If you want good online literature, you should go to bigger websites. If this website closes down and you don’t even get your basic pay, wouldn’t you have no choice but to cry?”

  As Ma Yiqun read these comments, he sighed. Although he wanted very badly to rebut these comments, he felt that they made sense. From Ma Yiqun’s standpoint, he had complete trust in Boss Pei. He also believed that Boss Pei would have a way of making the website popular.

  However, all outsiders would see was that Zhongdian Chinese Network looked absolutely unreliable.

  Although editors and authors from competing websites were adding oil to the flames, Ma Yiqun could not help but admit that most of what they were saying was true. They were not buying good authors over, not accepting buyouts, and not redirecting readers to their site. Based on their
meager full-time pay alone, they could not attract any good author.

  Ma Yiqun quietly closed the forum and went back to work.

  The website had already been set up. The authors of the manuscripts they had accepted were already writing new chapters. They had already filled up various areas, including the recommendation spots on the first page of the website. At the very least, they looked good on the surface.

  What’s more, the website was quite beautifully made. They had spent money on it after all.

  However, one only had to scan the books on the first page to see the truth. They were all unbearable to read! Their names all contained the words ‘God Emperor’, ‘Mad Husband’, ‘Mad Mercenary’, or something similar. Some books—such as ‘Your Naughty Wife was Disobedient, Don’t be Angry, CEO’ or ‘Masked CEO’s Young, Delicate Wife’-were even targeted at females.

  The book titles were very ordinary, and their content was even more so. Basically, all of them had cliche plots. If they had been uploaded onto Infinite Chinese Network, they would have failed for sure.

  The worst part was that these were the better books. That was why they were placed on the home page. More books were below this standard.

  Ma Yiqun shook his head and sighed. Indeed, just like Boss Pei said, they could not rush these things.

  He should focus on writing Repent and be Saved’s plot instead. There was nothing else for him to do anyway. He could focus his energy on perfecting the details of the plot. Several editors were also excited about writing Repent and be Saved’s plot. They discussed it regularly. Whenever they faced problems with the details, they would communicate and resolve them.

  The new chapters were coming in slowly. In fact, they were barely even keeping up with the basic requirements.

  However, no one really minded. After all, the welfare and remuneration they were receiving from Boss Pei were good. There was no need for them to work so hard for the sake of the additional basic pay for writing.