Zhu Xiaoce nodded. “Okay, Boss Pei. We’ll set it on February 22nd then. However… the publicity pressure of our movie would be very great scheduling it on such a day.”
Whatever…
Pei Qian was indifferent about it. What was there to publicize about a street movie? The best outcome would be no schedule time slots after it was released and for everyone not to know about this movie.
“That’s settled then. Let’s eat.”
Appetites were satisfied.
Pei Qian said goodbye to everyone, one by one.
The schedule of the crew for the next three days had been arranged. There would be a specific person to bring them around Jingzhou so that Pei Qian would not need to worry.
Of course, the tour this time was not a roller coaster ride but a normal tour. Pei Qian knew very well how to treat friends and enemies differently.
These people worked so hard to help film a lousy film to burn money. They might even have to bear some infamy because the quality of the movie was too bad. Would Pei Qian still be human if he were to send them on a roller coaster ride now?
“Boss Pei, let’s sit for a while?” Li Shi asked when he came to the door.
Pei Qian nodded, feeling that he had something he wanted to say. “Sure.”
They headed back to the restaurant and found an empty seat. The waiter brought a pot of tea for them.
“Boss Li, just tell me what’s on your mind directly.” Boss Pei wanted to get around all the politeness. He wanted to get to bed early and get up for review tomorrow morning.
Li Shi was a little emotional. “I thought that Boss Pei was just being polite when you said that you would support my business. I did not think that you’d really mean it.
“I was just open for about a week, and Boss Pei has booked the entire venue twice…”
Pei Qian took a sip and found that the tea was indeed good. “Boss Li, I told you many times not to read too much into things. This is just a normal gathering. Boss Li, you aren’t just going to talk about this, right?”
Li Shi laughed as though he had decided. “Boss Pei, I’ve given it some thought.
“I’m prepared to invest a sum of money into your haunted house! It’s alright even if it made ducks and drakes! It will all be a sense of gratefulness towards Boss Pei!”
Pei Qian sipped his tea as a question mark slowly floated over his head.
Chapter 394 - Boss Pei is Threatened?
Pei Qian did not believe a single word Li Shi said.
Business was business. Boss Li was a veteran investor. How was it possible for him to invest money in projects he could not recover from?
Pei Qian had revealed the haunted house project to Boss Li quite some time ago and pretended to invite him to join hands. Boss Li just laughed it away.
Obviously, Li Shi felt that the haunted house could not be successful so he did not want to be involved in it.
Why did he change his mind now?
Obviously, ‘being grateful to Boss Pei’ was just an excuse, a cover.
Was it possible that Li Shi saw the possibility of success with the Haunted house after a period of thinking and investigation?
Pei Qian thought about it for a while. It had been almost a month since the Thriller Hostel had been under construction.
The progress was pretty fast because they had been working on the small projects. They might be able to have the first-hand experience for one or two of the small projects in the next few days.
In that case, Boss Li would naturally find out that Boss Pei was working on the haunted house very seriously with speedy progress if he were to check on it.
In any case, there must be some misunderstanding somewhere. Pei Qian sighed softly. “Boss Li, I remember that you were not optimistic about the haunted house project before. Can you share with me why you changed your mind?”
What he meant was why did Boss Li suddenly feel that the haunted house was a reliable project? I’ll make changes to it.
Li Shi smiled. “Well… this may sound absurd.”
Pei Qian smiled. No problem, I’ll get Chen Kangtuo to change it no matter how absurd the reason was!
Li Shi continued, “In fact, I’m now optimistic about the haunted house not because of the project itself… but because of some realizations I had recently when opening this restaurant.”
Pei Qian, “?”
What had realizations from opening a restaurant had to do with a haunted house?
“Ming House had a bad start. I had been reflecting on it. Why was it that way?” Li Shi said.
“Thinking about it carefully, the key was in the details. These details directly affected the experience of the customers which determined the reputation of high-end restaurants…”
Li Shi started analyzing very seriously.
Pei Qian tried very hard to maintain a straight face as he drank his tea.
Boss Li, you’re overthinking it! Ming House had a bad start because I accidentally brought Little Tang with me and caused the troubles by mistake…
However, he could not reveal these so he could only put these words in his heart as he sipped on.
“Therefore, I understand how difficult it must have been for you, Boss Pei, to start the nameless restaurant in the first place!” Li Shi declared with emotion after a series of crazy analyses. “The situation for the nameless restaurant was very similar to this haunted house!”
“Even so, the nameless restaurant still made it!”
“I realized that no matter how ridiculous the project is, it would seem as though life had been injected into it long as it had gone through Boss Pei’s hands!”
“Boss Pei, you must be completely sure since you’ve decided to make a haunted house. Therefore, I believe in you even though I have no idea how you plan to promote this haunted house!”
Boss Li was very sincere.
Pei Qian was momentarily speechless.
Just because of this?
Pei Qian was still thinking about changing whatever parts of the haunted house Boss Li felt good about.
In the end, it was actually because of such an absurd reason.
Pei Qian was speechless. “Boss Li, I appreciate your kindness, but the risk of the haunted house project is really high. I’m sincerely advising you against it.”
Pei Qian spoke very sincerely, and he did not intend to let Boss Li come in to stir up trouble. The success rate of the Thriller Hostel might be extremely low, but he should not forget the lesson learned from Ming Yun Private Kitchen.
In case Boss Li built some support facilities for Thriller Hostel to attract other investors to follow suit and turn the entire neighborhood into a hot new business district…
That would be the end of it. However, Li Shi smiled, obviously not buying it.
“Boss Pei, don’t refuse it since you feel that it is with good intentions. We don’t need to be so polite between us; just accept it.”
“Don’t worry, I will definitely not intrude on the running of the business. I just want to earn a bit from the dividends. Let’s earn some money together, won’t that be nice?” “Or, if Boss Pei feels that the haunted house is an inappropriate investment, perhaps you can recommend some other investments? For example, the Fish-Catching Internet Cafe, perhaps we can open more branches?”
“Or… maybe I can invest some money casually into Lincheng?”
Boss Li’s expression was very serious.
Pei Qian was speechless.
A threat, this was a very obvious threat!
Pei Qian understood as soon as he heard ‘Lincheng’. He had cautioned Zhang Yuan to keep a low profile, but obviously, the movement on Zhang Yuan’s side could not hide from Boss Li’s eyes.
Previously, ROF made a lot of money due to the increase in the price of RAMs. Pei Qian reluctantly allowed Zhang Yuan to enter Lincheng, hoping that it would consume the excess funds by bringing the Fish-Catching integrated body to a backcountry.
However, it was impossible for Li
Shi not to know since he had his eyes on Pei Qian and was so well-informed.
Pei Qian was caught in a dilemma.
He could ignore Li Shi, but Li Shi would then invest his money into Lincheng and then invest in a few bars, cafes, and a few stores in the commercial district.
The brand of Fish-Catching Internet Cafe plus the hot flushes of funds from Boss Li and various investment institutions from Handong Province would lead the Lincheng to an uncertain future…
Pei Qian felt that he was in a very difficult situation now. Li Shi’s words basically meant ‘think of the merits, or I’ll help you with it’.
If he were to disallow Boss Li from investing in the haunted house, this amount of money would probably end up in Lincheng. He could not stop it.
Pick one of the two.
Pei Qian felt vexed. After weighing the pros and cons, Pei Qian felt that Lincheng was more dangerous.
The Fish-Catching Internet Cafe was a successful project after all. Lincheng might be a brand new market, but Li Shi’s intervention would probably bring it down… Pei Qian did not expect to be threatened by such matters.
Li Shi was secretly puzzled as he looked at Boss Pei’s reaction.
What’s the matter? Why is Boss Pei so reluctant for me to give money to him? Why does he look as though a piece of meat is being carved out from him?
They fell silent for a while.
“Boss Li, are you really not afraid of losing money?” Pei Qian gave it some thought and asked.
Li Shi nodded. “No.”
Pei Qian sighed slightly. “Alright, I have two projects on hand now. Boss Li, if you really want to thank you, just pick one of them for investment.”
“The first is the Haunted house project, which is the Thriller Hostel. The second is the ‘Top Student, Come Quick’; it is an education app I have been working on…”
Pei Qian said while observing Boss Li’s expression.
Boss Li obviously was listening very carefully to the ‘Top Student, Come Quick’ project which he had no information about.
Pei Qian did not know the specifics of this project since he had never asked He Desheng who was working on the proposal. Pei Qian only briefly spoke about the general direction.
In Pei Qian’s view, these two projects would inevitably make losses. Since Boss Li was not afraid of making losses, he should invest in whichever he wanted.
Li Shi thought about it for a while. “Okay, I’ll invest in ‘Top Student, Come Quick’!”.
Obviously comparing these two projects, Li Shi felt that the ‘Top Student, Come Quick’ was more reliable.
Pei Qian nodded. Everything could be negotiated as long as Boss Li did not invest in
Lincheng.
January 18th, Tuesday…
Dream Realization Ventures…
“Boss Pei, the app is done. Please take a look.
“This is the promotional material for the early stage of ‘Top Student, Come Quick’ project.
“Also, about Fu Hui Investments…”
Pei Qian suddenly felt an impending headache when he saw the pile of information handed over by He Desheng.
He glanced at it and threw it aside. Instead, he took the cell phone with the ‘Top Student, Come Quick’ app installed.
It was done a lot faster than Pei Qian imagined. The framework was up in about a week.
According to He Desheng, this company had done similar projects before so they only changed the code of the previously failed project, replaced the UI, and added two new functions to create the first edition of “Top Student, Come Quick’.
He Desheng seemed to be afraid that Boss Pei would be unhappy so he added, “You can rest assured, Boss Pei. There is no problem with its quality. They might be outsourced, but they are responsible…”
Pei Qian did not care about that. It was better if the app had problems with its quality. It would cool off faster. He just wanted to spend some money casually. Pei Qian played with this app for a while and found that it only had the most basic functions.
The app had two entry points, namely the ‘Top Students’ Entry’ and ‘Flunkies Entry’.
One could enter from the Top students’ entry and then fill up one’s own particulars, including academic qualifications, subjects, knowledge, etc. They also had to submit some necessary information for authentication.
It was much simpler to enter from the Flunkies’ Entry. They only needed to send their demand, and a top student would accept the order. The two parties should reach a consensus and meet for the tuition session, and then the flunkie would have to pay the balance.
It had a feeling similar to taxi-hailing software to Pei Qian.
In fact, He Desheng had planned more functions for this APP such as online video answers, search questions, etc.; but there was not enough time to make them.
Moreover, the current basic functions were essentially just ‘matchmaking’, but they were far from complete.
The app would have no problem in the beginning when there were few users. When more users get on board, the bandwidth of the server would need to be expanded. The architecture and stability of the software itself would need to be improved.
Of course, there was no need to worry about these for the time being because the app had no users yet.
He Desheng set up a company to allocate shares in proportion of 60% to the entrepreneurial team, 30% to Dream Realization Ventures, and 10% to Fu Hui Investments for this ‘Top Student, Come Quick’ project.
Dream Realization Ventures invested two million yuan; Fu Hui Investments invested one million yuan.
Boss Li wanted to invest more but was rejected by Pei Qian.
Boss Li made a lot of money with the investment by tagging with him. Making a small loss of one million yuan could drench Boss Li in cold water, and at the same time, Boss Li would not stick to Boss Pei like a bootlicker. He could experience much peace next time.
On the other hand, Pei Qian was still compassionate and did not want to cause Boss Li to lose too much.
Of course, part of the reason was to control risk. Too much money could easily cause trouble for this project.
Therefore, he told Boss Li to invest one million yuan first because they did not need that much money in the early stage. It was not too late to pump in more money if the situation proved to be good afterward.
Of course, the entrepreneurial team was all their own people. In fact, Pei Qian and the Dream Realization Ventures controlled 90% of the shares. Boss Li had no interest in the operation of this project. He said that he wanted to return Boss Pei a favor, but he was actually trying to profit from the side.
Therefore, the specific development of this project depended entirely on Pei Qian’s decisions.
Pei Qian did not look at it carefully and handed the cell phone back to He Desheng. “Okay, let’s start advertising.”
He Desheng was taken aback. “Uh, Boss Pei, isn’t that a little too rushed?”
He wanted to say that they had to prepare it well even if it was to fool people, right?
If this app was launched with such a low degree of completion, wasn’t that a bit wrong even if it was to fool people?
Pei Qian waved his hand dismissively. “It doesn’t matter. Spread the advertisement first.”
Low degree of completion? All the better.
Pei Qian was afraid that Boss Li would lead a group of investors if they publicize the app with a high level of completion. It would result in enthusiasm in this project which would cause big trouble.
They could publicize it, vigorously taking advantage of the low level of completion of the app. Getting scolded after spending money, no one would be optimistic about this project then. Boss Pei’s objective would be achieved if the project failed on the spot.
Chapter 395 - Danger!
January 20th, Thursday…
Cui Geng ate his Fish-Catching Take-Out and listened to everyone else’s conversations.
“Ai, I was criticized badly by my reade
rs for ending my chapter with a cliffhanger again yesterday.”
“What does that count for? Isn’t it normal to get criticized for leaving cliffhangers?” “That’s right, cliffhanger endings are so commonplace.”
“Huh? Is this normal to all of you?”
“Nonsense. Look at dramas and comics; won’t they have to end each episode with an unresolved problem, too? Readers might criticize the surface, but they cannot hide their genuine reactions. Once you upload the next chapter, they will come back and read it. Cliffhanger endings are good for making readers stick around.”
“If you don’t leave cliffhangers, your readers will stop reading after this chapter. Your next chapter will have fewer readers, then!”
“Writers who don’t write cliffhanger endings are bad writers!”
Everyone was engaged in this discussion. A significant number of people nodded profusely while a few writers smiled subtly, neither confirming nor denying that last statement.
Cui Geng looked at his calendar. He had arrived in Jingzhou last Thursday. Exactly one week had passed since then.
At the start, everyone had been unfamiliar with one another. Thus, they had only discussed very superficial topics.
Now, most people knew one another well. For some particularly close writers, nothing was taboo to talk about.
Naturally, they began to discuss topics related to writing as well.
Cui Geng whipped out his phone and read the comments section for his novel.
“This is so scary. The no-show has been uploading five chapters each day. At the start, I suspected that he had really been kidnapped. Now, there’s no need to suspect anymore; he’s definitely been kidnapped!”
“The novel’s quality seems to have dropped slightly, but it’s still nice to read!”
“No-Show, hang in there. If you do this for one more week, all of my votes will go to you!”
As Cui Geng read these comments, he had mixed feelings. He had to say that it was effective to upload as many chapters as he could…
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