The male protagonist thanked the judge profusely, savoring the moment.
At that very moment, he was the main star on stage.
That night, after the television program ended, the male protagonist was served very well by two hot, fair, and young ladies. He moved into a bungalow, drove a luxurious car, and lived the life that he had always dreamed about.
One day, someone requested to meet him. The female protagonist had really watched his television program and expressed her hopes to meet the male protagonist again and pick up where they had left off.
The male protagonist immediately invited the female to his house.
He was now a rich man. He could invite anyone to his bungalow at any time in the day to meet him.
When the female protagonist saw him, her eyes welled up.
However, with one young girl in each of his arms, the male protagonist coolly mocked the female for having the cheek to turn up at his bungalow.
She crumbled, knelt on the ground, and begged for the male protagonist to give her some money so that she could raise her son up.
The male protagonist felt even more irritated when he heard the word ‘son’, but he refrained from kicking her out immediately.
After some consideration, he decided to transfer a sum of money to her and asked her to stop looking for him.
After dealing with this matter once and for all, the male protagonist leaned back on the sofa, sipped his red wine, and heaved a sigh of relief.
He had not transferred her the sum of money because he felt bad or because he still had feelings for her.
Instead, he did it because he still had to film his television program that night and emotionally narrate his and the female protagonist’s love story.
He knew that the audience did not really care who the female protagonist was. If they managed to find her, they might quickly lose interest in the television program.
The female protagonist would look the most beautiful as a question mark in the audience’s mind.
If the audience was allowed to see how haggard she really looked, the image of the ‘dream woman’ that the male protagonist had worked so hard to create would fall apart at once.
Before stepping onto the stage, the male protagonist saw the judge.
He had once hated the judge to the core. However, the latter was now his financial backer and his Bole. He had given the male protagonist a new lease of life.
Thus, the male protagonist now respected him immensely.
The judge congratulated him, telling him that today’s episode would be extremely important and that he hoped the male protagonist would perform well.
The judge also said that he had prepared a surprise for the male protagonist. The male protagonist tried to recall what the occasion was and realized that it seemed to be his birthday.
When he stepped onto stage, the male protagonist began to speak in a tearful voice. He described his and the female protagonist’s love story and chatted with a couple of lucky fans, to whom he explained the true meaning of love.
Then, the connection broke, and the image of the male protagonist mocking the female in his living room appeared on the screen.
The male protagonist began to panic. He kept trying to block the screen, but it proved to be useless during the livestream because the video was being fed directly to the audience’s screens. The male protagonist’s panicky behavior was only making him look more like a joke.
The audience began to get worked up. Many angry viewers scolded and cursed at the male protagonist in the channel’s column.
The male protagonist’s reputation and image were completely destroyed.
The judge showed no intention of helping him out of his predicament. Instead, he instructed a lawyer to retrieve the contract they had signed at the beginning. The male protagonist’s behavior had gravely affected the company’s image. Thus, he had to compensate the company with a sum that he would spend his entire life trying to pay.
As he looked at the male protagonist who had just lost everything, the judge smiled treacherously.
Not only had he taken revenge for the time that the male protagonist cursed and swore at him on stage, but he had also increased his television program’s viewership and rose to fame in the process.
He pulled the beautiful, young woman beside him closer and arranged for her host the next episode of the program.
The camera panned. The male protagonist was lying in bed in a tiny capsule, looking at the ceiling, which he could reach out and touch. He looked just like a zombie.
After he finished writing the script, Pei Qian read it once through. It looked quite good, considering that this was his first time writing a script.
The story was complete, at least! He had achieved all the goals that he had set in the beginning
Take the male protagonist for example. His life was pitiful at first. He was lucky to chance upon a lady that he fancied. Then, he began his brown-nosing journey. In the end, the female protagonist’s heart was stolen by the judge, making a cuckold of the male protagonist.
The male protagonist continued brown-nosing until the female protagonist completely gave up on him and asked for a clean break.
Subsequently, the male protagonist won a huge sum of money and tried looking for the female protagonist once more. While on stage, he lashed out at the judge and released his pent-up frustrations.
However, the judge soon managed to buy him over. The male protagonist willingly cheapened himself for money and behaved in a completely opposite manner compared to before. He became despicable.
When the female protagonist finally returned, the male protagonist threw away every last bit of warmth and kindness left in him. He mocked her and gave her money in exchange for her promise never to look for him again.
In the end, the male protagonist fell for the judge’s trap. The wealthy, blissful life he had always dreamed about had been right under his nose, but it was reduced to dust in an instant. Not only did he become penniless like before, but he also owed a huge debt now. His life was devoid of all hope. Wasn’t that absolutely miserable?! Wasn’t that absolutely cruel?!
Even Pei Qian felt that the plot was extremely toxic. It was so tragic!
The male protagonist was not just a brown-noser, but he was also a coward and a despicable man. The female protagonist was not any better. They deserved to live with each other for the rest of their lives.
All in all, this plot would definitely disgust the movie’s viewers.
It housed all toxic points!
Pei Qian read his script again and again and found one last flaw-it was not long enough.
He pondered for a moment and then added one more line at the end of the script.
‘If the script is too short, lengthen the part where the male protagonist watches television programs and advertisements in his room.’
By doing this, Pei Qian would have no problems diluting the plot until the movie lasted two and a half hours, much less one and a half!
It worked!
Of course, Boss Pei was a benevolent man. He only wanted to dissuade the audience from buying tickets. He did not really want them to develop hatred for the movie.
Thus, he decided to be kind to them and limit the movie’s duration to an hour and a half.
Pei Qian had no intention to come up with the other contents, like the characters’ names, the exact lines, actions, backdrops, and transitions. He decided to leave these things to Huang Sibo and the others completely.
As long as they did not mess up the story, there should not be any problems!
Pei Qian had just completed his task and earned a hundred thousand yuan!
He could not help but feel moved. It was getting easier and easier for him to earn money!
At Fei Huang Workspace…
Huang Sibo had just received the script from Boss Pei.
“Boss Pei is so efficient!”
Huang Sibo was filled with respect once again.
Other
scriptwriters normally took three to five months to write scripts, even if it was urgent. If they were aiming to produce an excellent movie, they could even take up to a year and a half.
Of course, this did not include scriptwriters who were full of stunts and who improvised during filming.
Yet, Boss Pei had written an entire script in just two to three days!
Strictly speaking, what Boss Pei had written was merely an outline of the story. It was a long way from being a perfect script.
Still, coming up with a story outline was no easy task!
Huang Sibo quickly called Zhu Xiaoce over, and they read the script together.
After seeing the script’s unconventional format, Zhu Xiaoce became slightly light-headed.
Huang Sibo quickly said, “Boss Pei works in the game industry. Naturally, he wouldn’t know the format for movie scripts. That’s understandable.
“The format isn’t important. What’s important is that we draw what we need from Boss Pei’s idea.”
Zhu Xiaoce pondered for a moment, realized what Huang Sibo had said was true, and then quickly adjusted his attitude.
Both of them read the script once through, from beginning to end.
Huang Sibo felt slightly dizzy. “This… why do I feel like this story would depress the audience?
“The male protagonist is a penniless brown-noser. He works hard throughout the movie and almost attains bliss, but then he is immediately thrown from heaven to hell.
“The female protagonist is equally miserable. She’s dumped by the judge and has a tough time raising her child. She works hard to locate the male protagonist but then is shamed.
“The most infuriating thing is that both of them practically asked for it. They had their chance to live a better life, but they wasted it.
“How can that be?”
He turned to face Zhu Xiaoce.
Zhu Xiaoce did not respond immediately. Instead, he remained quiet for a long time before he suddenly held up his thumb and shouted, “It can!
“This script is great!
“The story is deeply moving and invokes deep reflection. It criticizes how consumerism leads to exploitation, how the bourgeoisie suppresses humanity, and how wealth alienates people. It’s extremely deep!
“The events in the story are unexpected but reasonable. The twists and turns would make the audience applaud the movie in the end!
“Boss Pei could actually come up with such an exciting story in just two or three days…?
“I can only say that Boss Pei is extremely gifted. No matter which industry he’s placed in, he shows that he’s entirely worthy of honor!”
Huang Sibo looked slightly confused. He had not expected Zhu Xiaoce to have such high praises for the script.
“Until now, we have only produced jocular and humorous short videos. Are you sure our audience would like this story?”
Zhu Xiaoce nodded confidently. “I’m very sure!
“After reading this script, I feel like I have a telepathic connection with Boss Pei. I think I can see what Boss Pei is truly driving at. The audience might not like it, and that would mean the movie might not sell very well.
“However, in the eyes of people who can understand it, the movie would definitely be a masterpiece!”
Chapter 318 - Dream Realization Ventures
Chapter 318 Dream Realization Ventures
Pei Qian felt great relief after settling the movie script.
However, it was not time to relax yet.
Boss Pei already had 1.8 million yuan. He had enough money to buy a new house for his parents.
As for where he would say he got the money from…
That was simple. He could say that he was now working in the management of Fei Huang Workspace. Since the company had made quite a large sum of money from their short videos, he was given a huge bonus as well.
Strictly speaking, there was nothing wrong with saying that. Boss Pei was indeed in the management of Fei Huang Workspace, and he had earned a lot of money from it.
Pei Qian decided to make some time to go home and explain these things to his parents.
However, before that, he had to make sure that everything was settled for the company. The settlement cycle was going to last five months this time. It sounded long, but it would pass quickly. This was because everything that Pei Qian was going to work on during this cycleproducing a movie, starting a cell phone business, and so on-would take some time.
Take the movie, for example. Even though the contents were simple and there would not be many special effects, it would take at least a month to prepare, two months to film, and another month to edit and tidy it up. The movie would be produced barely in time for settlement.
Luckily, Pei Qian had gained some benefits after the System was upgraded to version 2.0. He was now allowed to carry one unannounced product over to the next cycle.
If he could not complete the movie in time for this cycle, settlement would not be affected. He could carry it to the next.
Then, he would definitely have to release it before settlement.
Still, Pei Qian thought it would be best to finish whatever he could within this cycle.
He decided to take this particular benefit as his security net instead. Otherwise, if he made too big a deal out of it and purposely slowed down work on his projects, he could mess everything up in the end.
Pei Qian flipped through his notebook and turned his attention to Ma Yang. Although he did not want to incessantly bother this good friend of his, he had no other choice.
The able were bound to get more work!
Ma Yang had been in charge of Fish-Catching Internet Cafe and had mildly stabbed Pei Qian in the back during the previous cycle. However, Pei Qian knew that it had not been his intention to do so.
Fish-Catching Internet Cafe’s success could mainly be credited to Boss Pei’s Repent and be Saved. Ma Yang had done nothing to earn any of it.
Also, Zhang Yuan—not Ma Yang—had been the one to start the computer-installation brand, ROF.
Thus, Pei Qian could still trust Old Ma. He was one of Boss Pei’s most important employees indeed!
However, at the rate things were going, Pei Qian decided that he had to separate Ma Yang and Zhang Yuan now. Pei Qian was already certain that Zhang Yuan was a traitor. On the surface, he looked like a mere genius from Tieba. However, problems in his thinking were beginning to surface.
If Pei Qian allowed him to continue brainwashing Old Ma, the situation could worsen. Pei Qian began thinking hard. He could either leave Old Ma in his current position and give Zhang Yuan something else to do or leave Zhang Yuan in his current position and give Old Ma something else to do.
After much consideration, he decided that the latter would be better.
This was because the new business direction that Boss Pei had in mind would best bring out Ma Yang’s potential.
Pei Qian did not feel safe handing this business over to anyone except Ma Yang!
He wanted to start an investment firm.
In fact, he had thought about this a long time ago. However, because of some cash flow problems, he never got around to it.
Before this, Tengda’s cash had been poured into manufacturing. A lot of money had been spent on producing games and physical shops, so that they did not have much spare cash left in their account.
Taking everything into account, he had a total of three or four million yuan left. Of course, he could have started an investment firm, but it would have been meaningless. He had been better off opening a few more Fish-Catching Internet Cafes and Upwind Courier stations.
Things were different now. The side effects of spending as much money as he could in the previous cycle were going to hit him soon. He could no longer depend on the same methods of spending money.
Thus, Pei Qian thought about opening an investment firm.
Of course, he was not entirely willing to either.
Investing could be very risky, but if he succeeded, h
e could earn a terrifying windfall.
Pei Qian knew his own luck very well. Every time he had tried to create rubbish games, they succeeded. He guessed that even if he invested in pants, he would probably profit as well.
However, now that things were the way they were, he hardly had any other choice. Pei Qian could barely finish squandering off all the System Funds on his own. He needed help.
Therefore, after much deliberation, Pei Qian reluctantly decided to start an investment firm.
As for why he could not manage it on his own…
On one hand, Boss Pei was already very busy. He had to personally keep an eye on the other businesses. If he put himself in charge of the investment firm as well, the other businesses would probably betray him like crazy.
On the other hand, Boss Pei seriously doubted his own judgment. That was why he decided to put Old Ma responsible. He was not even asking for Old Ma to lose everything. He was only asking for Old Ma to make a few investments and incur some losses. That would be enough.
October 3rd…
Fish-Catching Internet Cafe…
“Brother Qian, we’re depending on you! Quick, quick, quick…”
Ma Yang stared at Pei Qian’s screen, shouting more excitedly than anyone else. Yet, the words ‘GAME OVER’ appeared on Pei Qian’s screen. The latter became speechless.
In their last team war—as the talented Boss Pei pushed a lane, his team members tried to fight the enemies one by one and ended up dying. Boss Pei was left to fight the four enemies alone.
Ma Yang had not been the first to feed the enemies. In fact, he had been the last.
If Ma Yang had survived, he could have worked together with Boss Pei to fight the four enemies. They would have had hopes of winning.
However, Ma Yang ended up trying to fight the enemies on his own as well. Once left alone, Pei Qian only managed to kill two enemies even after exhausting all his means. Then, he could only stand by and watch helplessly as their base exploded.
“Ai, what a pity, Brother Qian. Let’s go again!”
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