What’s more, Fish-Catching Internet Cafe was mainly earning revenue from the sale of alcohol and coffee, as well as a cut of the tips offered to singers. Getting rid of singers in the new branch meant that customers would not be able to tip them. That also meant that the internet cafe would not get a cut of the tips.
Of course, there was no need to make changes to the five existing branches. He would leave them as they were.
Only the new branch in the shopping center would purely be an internet cafe.
Zhang Yuan looked at the map, feeling perplexed. “Boss Pei, are we really opening a branch here?”
Opening a branch in the shopping center would ensure high traffic flow, but the rent would be too expensive!
They were now paying about three to four yuan per square meter for most of Fish-Catching Internet Cafe’s branches. An area of three thousand square meters cost about three hundred thousand yuan a month.
However, the rent in a big shopping center like that would not be as cheap! It could cost at least seven or eight yuan per square meter, and perhaps even more. The rent would be doubled just like that.
These shopping centers mostly contained international clothing, jewelry, bags, and cosmetics brands. Ordinary businesses would not be able to afford such high rent.
Fish-Catching Internet Cafe was not even earning that much money at the moment. They would surely incur loss if they spent so much money on rent now.
What’s more, the new Fish-Catching Internet Cafe branch would go down a different path from the existing ones. Their existing branches were diversified. Each branch contained an internet cafe, a coffee shop, and a bar.
If the new branch followed this model, they would at least be able to generate revenue from the sale of alcohol and drinks in the shopping center.
However, Boss Pei was introducing the second stage of Fish-Catching Internet Cafe’s plan. He wanted to ’emphasize the true nature of the business—the internet cafe’. That meant the new branch would only allow people to surf the net.
It sounded unfeasible!
Who would travel all the way to a high-end shopping center in Jingzhou City, just to play games by themselves in an internet cafe?
Wasn’t that akin to burning money?
Of course, Zhang Yuan knew some men might feel frustrated while shopping in the shopping center. They might have the need to vent their frustrations by playing games. However, that was not considered the norm at the moment.
Even if their girlfriends were so benevolent as to allow their boyfriends to play games while they shopped on their own, how long could the boyfriends play for?
They could play for an hour in the morning before it would be time for lunch. If the girlfriends continued to shop after a movie in the afternoon, they could only shop for a maximum of an hour before they would have to return home for dinner.
At most, these men would only be able to play games for about two hours. What’s more, that was on the pretext that their girlfriends were benevolent people.
People like that would probably have poor gaming experience. What’s more, the internet cafe would not earn much money from them. Based on these considerations, the chances of the internet cafe recouping its capital were negligible.
That was unless… they raised the price! Zhang Yuan quickly asked, “Boss Pei, shouldn’t we raise the prices for this new branch as well? We could charge twenty yuan per hour.”
Pei Qian shook his head at once. “No, Fish-Catching Internet Cafe’s official guiding price is ten yuan. We shouldn’t raise the price as and when we want to.”
Zhang Yuan, “…”
Ma Yang was silent the entire time, but at that moment, he raised up his thumb. “Good! Brother Qian, that’s a good idea. Fish-Catching Internet Cafe is making a name for itself. We cannot keep renting such deserted locations. In order to become famous, we have to move into shopping centers like that!
“Then, we would be lumped together with international cosmetics, clothing, and jewelry brands. The effect would be significant!”
Pei Qian and Ma Yang high-fived. “Great minds think alike!”
Zhang Yuan, “…” As if noticing Zhang Yuan’s confusion, Ma Yang smiled. “It doesn’t matter even if we incur losses in the short term. Our long-term goal is to build a good name for ourselves. “Look at Fish-Catching Internet Cafe’s flagship store. Didn’t it incur significant losses in the beginning? Slowly, we started to generate revenue and make profits. Now, it’s doing so well!
“Look at everyone’s comments about Fish-Catching Internet Cafe on Quanmin Reviews. They’re all positive. What do you call this? These are the fruits of our labor. We persisted in building a name for ourselves and are now reaping the rewards!
“Do you understand?”
Pei Qian, “…”
This Old Ma-he’s stealing all of my lines!
However, on second thought, it seemed natural. Pei Qian had said these words to Old Ma four or five times now. The constant brainwashing ensured that Old Ma would remember these words, no matter how forgetful he was.
Although his lines had been stolen and his wounds had been exposed, Pei Qian did not feel upset. Instead, he felt comforted.
Old Ma understands me more and more! If all my employees could understand me the way Old Ma does, I would not have to suffer so much worry and anxiety as the boss.
After leaving a few more instructions, Pei Qian entrusted the preparations for the new branch to Ma Yang
As he thought about the new branch incurring losses, Pei Qian felt less upset.
Ming Yun Private Kitchen had gone awry. However, the situation was still under control. As long as Pei Qian lost more money through the new Fish-Catching Internet Cafe branch and opened more Upwind Courier stations, he would still be able to incur losses in the end. There should be no problem.
Chapter 260 - Good Friends Should Stay Together
August 9th, Wednesday…
In the afternoon…
Pei Qian took two sips of cola after finishing the employee packed lunch delivered by Fish-Catching Take-Out. He felt very satisfied and lay motionless on the executive office chair for a while.
The Fish-Catching Take-Out was one of Pei Qian’s most satisfying services. Not only could it settle the meals of all employees perfectly, but it was also losing money steadily. It showed no signs of possible profits.
The only problem was that its development depended on that of the Fish-Catching Internet Cafes. It could only cater to the regions around the Fish-Catching Internet Cafes and thus could not expand in scale at a similar speed as the Upwind Courier stations.
However, Pei Qian was not anxious about that. As long as the Fish-Catching Internet Cafe 2.0 plan could commence quickly, the market for the Fish-Catching Take-Out would expand further; and the loss it suffered would also increase rapidly naturally. After eating and drinking to his heart’s content, Pei Qian closed the Repent and be Saved window on his computer.
He had suffered yet another tormenting morning, but he could almost see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Pei Qian was already very familiar with the ‘Pudu’ weapon. If he could persevere for around a week and clear the ending segments of the six realms of rebirth and existence, he could then consider himself as achieving a huge success.
Not only would he be free and did not have to open the game and suffer ever again, but that also meant that the game had finally reached the system’s requirements and could successfully be released.
When the sales of the game flopped and it caused the company to suffer a huge loss, the happy times could finally begin for Pei Qian!
Whenever he thought about that, Pei Qian could not stop a smile from creeping up his face.
He opened Aili Island and planned to watch a few random funny short videos while letting the food he had eaten digest.
First, he ignored the 99+ private messages that were urging him to upload another video.
Being a famous UP Master on a website like Aili Island was pre
tty troublesome. Every time he opened the web page, there would be tons of messages. Most of those were private messages that urged him to upload more videos.
Boss Pei had so much work to do every day. How could he find time to upload new videos daily?
Currently, Hardcore Reviews had been destroying digital products for the past dozens of videos. Even Pei Qian was a little bored of making the series. However, the viewers were not tired of that at all. Every time a new digital product was released, they would urge him to upload a video regarding that new product. They wanted Pei Qian to continue destroying this and that and were not tired of watching those videos at
all.
Furthermore, everyone had been having increasingly inflated expectations. Initially, the viewers were only asking him to destroy cell phones that cost around three to five thousand yuan, and yet they were now eyeing laptops and headphones that cost more than ten thousand yuan.
If not for the money he earned from Aili Island’s incentive plan, Pei Qian would have quit long ago! Pei Qian planned to destroy a new digital product every now and then once he saw a new release to maintain his popularity on the platform. That was especially so for the free products that Shenhua sent to him.
Anyways, when this cycle ended, the hundreds of thousands that he had lost would be enough for him to spend. There was no longer a need for him to upload those videos so painstakingly anymore. After that, Pei Qian watched Fei Huang Workspace’s new video—the fourth episode of A Day in a Great Inventor’s Life-at the electronics area of the website.
Fei Huang Workspace had been very consistent in their uploads. Although the video was evidently much longer than Boss Pei’s Daily Life, they still managed to upload a new episode weekly. That was considered relatively more hardworking as compared to other UP Masters in Aili Island.
After all, many UP Masters were part-time content creators while Fei Huang Workspace was a company that could work on the videos on a full-time basis. They had the manpower and money; thus, they could produce their videos even faster and upload them more frequently.
Pei Qian did not click on the video. The main reason was that he was afraid his heart could not handle it.
If the video series really managed to receive sponsored partnerships from some international huge brands someday, that was similar to the end of the world to Boss Pei. He could picture himself having to eat an immediate-release aspirin tablet before clicking into every episode. Moreover, Pei Qian did not have a good solution to stop them. Therefore, the only thing he could do was to bury his head into the sand and pretend as though he did not see anything.
Pei Qian looked at the updates section of the website to see if there were any new videos by the funny UP Masters that he had subscribed to.
Finally, Pei Qian looked at his favorite otoMAD area where video creators would parody or remix videos and audio clips that have been edited and re-arranged mainly for comical effect.
OtoMAD was the path to progress for the human population. However, Pei Qian noticed something different when he opened the otoMAD area this time.
There was a newcomer in the otoMAD all-stars!
He scanned through the titles of the recently uploaded otoMAD videos. It was clear to see who the new lucky fellow was.
Pei Qian clicked on a few random videos and found the songs to be quite nice.
Moreover, the views for these videos were also pretty high. It should almost be confirmed that Zhang Zuting was officially a member of the otoMAD all-stars team.
The only uncertain thing was if there would be a video that exceeded three million views and sent him directly into the annual hall of fame for the otoMAD section.
Pei Qian was smiling happily. All of a sudden, he stopped smiling.
He opened the platform statistics for Bloody Battle Song: The Powerful Version and took a closer look.
After closer inspection, Pei Qian heaved a sigh of relief.
Huff…
Fortunately, there were no drastic changes to the statistics.
Although the statistics took a turn for the better, it was still far from the numbers needed to recover the production cost.
That was within Pei Qian’s expectations. After all, they had been placing so many advertisements. The quality of the game was pretty good, and the game had an incredible reputation among advanced players. It would be impossible for the statistics of the game to remain unchanged after such a long time.
Pei Qian was content as long as the increase in the statistics was sufficiently slow.
Evidently, the advertisements and mini-client acted as two huge filters that sieved a large group of players. The number of players who truly downloaded and played the game was less than two- or three-tenths of the total number of people who clicked into the advertisements.
Therefore, Pei Qian was currently still at ease. Even if the otoMAD video went viral, there was still nothing he had to worry about currently.
Maybe I’m overthinking.
Zhang Jiahui’s otoMAD videos were also very popular then. Almost everyone heard about that. However, how many B-site viewers would try out the game that Zhang Jiahui advertised for just because of an otoMAD video?
There were definitely some who did that, but I’m sure that’s not the majority. After he released the psychological burden he had, Pei Qian clicked on the search results for the keyword ‘Zha Zhuti’ with interest and started viewing the relevant videos.
There were huge numbers of otoMAD videos. Other than the videos produced by marketing accounts that tried to ride the wave of popularity, there were also some interview recordings of Zhang Zuting.
Zhang Zuting did not spend his time lazing around. Although he was less popular than before, he had earned several supporting roles in many movies.
In one of the interview recordings, the interviewer asked for his opinions about his nickname ‘Zha Zhuti’ which meant fried pig trotter.
In the video, Zhang Zuting appeared reluctant and helpless.
“Everyone in the country is laughing at me now.
“They are imitating how I speak. Hello, eberyone! I am Zha Zhuti. If you’re my brother, come nibble at me…
“Many of my fans asked me this question. Why was I so awkward in the commercial when I won the best actor in the Film Award?
“Actually, I treated my performance bery seriously that day. During the first take, I was so passionate and devoted to my performance. However, the business partner wanted me to be more languid and casual. They wanted me to be less serious so I can appear more approachable to the viewers.
“After that, I just said my lines very casually. Never did I expect that take would be used.
“I have emphasized and suggested that we should find a dubbing actor. I do not really speak good Mandarin Chinese. (Many Hong Kongers speak Cantonese, which is a Chinese dialect, instead of Mandarin Chinese.) However, they did not do so in the end and just used my original recording. I do not really understand what happened either.
“When the advertisement became viral, I suggested that we should replace some shots, and yet the business partner declined the offer. That’s how things turned out dis way. “Actually, I am also still very unsure why tings turned out dis way either.”
The interview was laughing at his accent. “Have you ever thought about terminating the partnership with the other party?”
Zhang Zuting shook his head reluctantly. “No. Other than this advertisement, I had enjoyed working with the business partner. They were great.
“Since everyone likes to call me Zha Zhuti, just go ahead with it as long as that makes everyone happy. If everyone thinks that the nickname was more approachable and fun, you can just call me that. I’m fine with that.”
The intervi
ewer asked, “So, the advertisement did not actually cause such a huge burden to you, is that so?”
Zhang Zuting did not know how to answer that question instantly. He thought for a while before replying, “Burden… not really. The most troubling thing for me was that my friends are laughing at me for that, including Ah Jian, Ah Xiong, and Jiaqiang.
“Every time we went out to eat together, they would bring up this issue. That’s just really annoying.”
As Pei Qian closed the video, he felt a little apologetic.
Haiz. Although that commercial helped Old Zhang gain some popularity, it also embarrassed him in front of his friends. Pei Qian was a little apologetic to him.
If that’s the case, Pei Qian felt that he was Old Zhang’s friend; and he must help him with the problem.
Pei Qian looked up those friends that Zhang Zuting mentioned.
He discovered that birds of a feather did flock together. Those friends of his were all celebrity has-beens, too.
Zhang Zuting was at least a best-actor winner. His friends mostly acted as supporting roles. They were now worse off than him and could not even secure a supporting role nowadays, much less a commercial.
Some even had to perform at property-launching ceremonies.
The person living the most miserably was not stuck in a contract dispute with his current management company because he could not secure roles in any shows. He was having trouble making ends meet and had to depend on Zhang Zuting and other friends for his day-to-day expenses. Of course, although some of Zhang Zuting’s friends were better off than the rest, they were very close to one another. They definitely did not mean it when they mocked Zhang Zuting because of the commercial. Those were all jokes among the group of friends.
When Pei Qian looked up the current plight of those people, he started to tear up.
Life was tough.
As a kind-hearted person, Pei Qian decided to offer them a helping hand.
Pei Qian randomly selected four of them who were closer to Zhang Zuting and handed the name list to Lin Wan. Those whom he selected were the ones who were named by Zhang Zuting in the video.
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