Losing Money to Be a Tycoon c1-883

by Inebriation-seeking Blue Shirt, 青衫取醉

  “We’ll have to continue working hard behind Boss Pei!”

  March 17th, Thursday…

  Pei Qian stayed asleep until noon before getting up. That was because his Otto E1 phone arrived last night. He had to say that Chang You knew a lot about it. He sent one to Boss Pei as soon as the new batch of goods arrived.

  Pei Qian played GOG until 2am before sleeping as a result.

  Pei Qian only had one feeling when he woke up in the morning. Gaming was really harmful to his body! Especially for his liver!

  MOBA games were worse.

  However, the feeling was still rather impressive to play a game ‘made by yourself with your exclusive skin on a cell phone made by you’. Pei Qian could understand now why a certain designer used the Blade Dancer several times a month and why some producers were so loyal to the Sledgehammer. When the designer himself was also playing a certain profession or hero in the game, it was difficult to design without partiality.

  Of course, he did not intend to strengthen the hero Modest.

  It would probably be snatched up if it was strengthened. Otherwise, it might be banned the second they went for ranked games, and he wouldn’t be able to use it. It was best to maintain the current state.

  He had to say that the coin-scattering effect was great. Pei Qian could intuitively feel more players. He needed to queue for about four to five minutes yesterday. Today, it had been shortened to about a minute or two. Sometimes, he could even enter in 20 or 30 seconds.

  Of course, this was just an ordinary match. He would probably have to wait if he actually went for a ranked match.

  Even Pei Qian himself was greedy for the 100,000 yuan bonus.

  However, he knew that it was impossible. Boss Pei knew very well that he could not be ranked as a Great Master. On the other hand, it was because his company would make heaps of money if he were to concentrate all his time in ranking.

  Therefore, Pei Qian still felt that losing money was more important after weighing! Playing games could only be regarded as a hobby after all. Losing money was his business.

  As for losing money…

  Pei Qian opened the platform and took a look at the data of Be Quiet. He found that while the sales volume was rising within an acceptable range even after Teacher Qiao’s video was released.

  However, the scoring of this game on the TPDb website has been rising and has almost reached 9 points.

  Pei Qian originally thought about taking some remedial measures. However, it seemed as though it was not necessary, seeing how the sales volume did not skyrocket.

  As for the word of mouth, let it grow. It would not bring about an additional burden anyway.

  Pei Qian strolled to Fish-Catching Internet Cafe near Handong University. He planned while having lunch. He should have a quick treat-no, he should hold a celebration party.

  He would bring the staff who worked on the successful projects to Boss Li’s Ming House to eat every day for at least a week without repeated dishes. They had too many successful projects so new reasons could be found every day. Ming Yun Private Kitchen was available on the 20th of this month, which was a Sunday. Pei Qian felt a little melancholy thinking about this. His staff might be big eaters, but they were better at making money! Counting on them to spend all the money from the profits of the projects would be like waiting for a cold day in hell.

  Despair…

  The waiter came over to clean up all the tableware after the meal. Pei Qian looked up at the sky sadly while sipping his coffee. He was feeling more inadequate as he realized that his knowledge could not match the losses required.

  Someone suddenly sat down in front of him. It was Boss Li. They usually bump into each other in this store so Pei Qian did not feel strange at all. However, Boss Pei was in a bad mood recently so he just nodded casually without saying anything Boss Li’s first few sentences shocked Pei Qian. “Boss Pei, Dream Realization Ventures’ taichi is really too good. You’re too clever. All the investors, including me for Top Student, Come Quick are really ashamed of ourselves!

  “Therefore, I’ve decided. Even though I do not see any possibility of profitability in the Thriller Hostel, i’ll invest a sum into it! The others will follow me into it if there is no accident.

  “You won’t mind, will you, Boss Pei?”

  The hand holding Pei Qian’s cup of coffee froze in midair, his whole being dazed.

  “Huh?”

  Chapter 458 - Boss Pei, You Said You Won’t Invest!

  Boss Pei minded. In fact, he minded very much!

  Why do all of you have to come and screw things up for me? I just want to find a place with no one and lose some money!

  It was just a teeny weeny dream!

  Why do you have to be like a b*tch and follow me wherever I go? I’m being forced by you to build a haunted house—what more do you want! Do I really need to build a rocket before you stop following me?

  Pei Qian was utterly speechless. He would transfer money to people like Boss Li if he could to keep them away from him! However, Boss Pei was a cultured person after all. He had to maintain calm even if the other party said something so cruel.

  Pei Qian sighed lightly. “Boss Li, I always wanted to say that there is a very serious misunderstanding between us. I have been trying very hard to explain, but you don’t believe me.

  “I told you a long time ago that my Dream Realization Ventures is just to invest for fun and to fulfill unfinished dreams. I have never expected it to be profitable.

  “This situation is all because of a series of coincidences, do you understand?”

  Boss Li smiled slightly and nodded. “I completely understand!”

  Pei Qian, “?”

  Do you really f*cking understand?! Boss Li ordered a cup of coffee as well and sipped on it leisurely. “The act of investing itself is filled with coincidence. Many a time even the smartest investors cannot fight luck. This is where man proposes and God disposes.

  “That’s why even a smart investor like Boss Pei is full of awe of the element of luck itself. This is a quality worthy to be learned by all of us investors.”

  Pei Qian, “…”

  What you say might make sense, but are you sure you are referring to the same luck as I am?

  Pei Qian fell silent. “I am not a smart investor; neither do I have any good methods.”

  Li Shi grinned slightly. “That’s right, every successful investor is as humble as you.”

  Pei Qian, “…”

  Li Shi continued speaking seeing how Boss Pei fell silent. “Boss Pei, how do you explain your moves in ‘Top Student, Come Quick’ if you say you don’t have any methods in your investment?

  “The person who decided to do this project was you. You were the one who gave the project its name; you are the one burning the money to make it popular; you are the one who decided to sell it at a high point; you were the one who found someone to buy back everything at a low price after kicking everyone out… “Boss Pei, please tell, if taking one right decision is luck; then what is a series of right decisions?”

  Pei Qian could only sigh silently. “It’s heavenly bad luck.”

  Li Shi couldn’t help but chuckle. “Boss Pei, eh, Boss Pei, as humorous as ever.”

  “I know that you are always on the guard with other investors. Your clever maneuvers in ‘Top Student, Come Quick’ illustrated this point. However, we don’t mind in the least. This is absolutely natural. We would not think you are a qualified investor otherwise, because that would mean you are not ruthless enough.

  “In short, you are already very generous to allow us to take a sip from your bowl.

  “Therefore, it is alright even if your words are always bordering between truth and falsehoods. I’m used to such a communication method.”

  Pei Qian, “…”

  Are you crazy?! Boss Li, why did a CEO of a good investment firm like you suddenly become an extreme masochist!

  Everything I told you is true, the key is whether you believe it or n
ot!

  Two creatures in the same world, same family, same program, same class, same species, same sex, speaking the same language could actually ignite a chain of suspicion?

  How unbelievable.

  Boss Li’s lips turned upwards seeing how Boss Pei kept mum. It seemed as though Boss Pei was still pretending to be dumb. If that was the case, he could only deduce Boss Pei’s methods to make him speechless!

  Li Shi took a sip of coffee calmly. “Alright, if it was just the operation of the ‘Top Student, Come Quick’ app, I can still think it is just luck. But Boss Pei, how do you explain the shared phone booth project?”

  Pei Qian, “That was all done by Zhang Wang. I was not involved at all.”

  “Em, ok.” Li Shi still kept the faint smile on his face. “What about the Glory of Gods then? Was it all developed independently by the designer?”

  Pei Qian nodded. “Yes!”

  Li Shi’s smile became even brighter now. “Alright, you want to attribute all the credit for these projects to your subordinates. Okay, but who is the one pushing behind the Glory of Gods, shared phone booth, and the Shared Top Student application?” Pei Qian cursed in his heart. He looked at Li Shi, his eyes widened and his face full of consternation. Was there a combined event between GOG, shared phone booth, and ‘Top Student, Come Quick’?

  What combined event? How come I don’t know about it…?

  Li Shi couldn’t help but feel delighted with the crushed look on Boss Pei’s face.

  Boss Pei, eh, Boss Pei, do you think that you can hide from my eyes? You didn’t think that I would be able to think of it, right!

  Li Shi took an Otto E1 cell phone out of his phone with pride and showed Pei Qian a photo that turned his astonishment to speechlessness. The picture was a place very familiar to Pei Qian. It was on the top floor of Huanyu Tianjie. Modest’s phone booth was there.

  There was a long queue in front of the phone booth.

  Pei Qian felt light-headed. That was because the photo was taken yesterday from the details of the photo!

  What was this? Didn’t the traffic for the phone booth stabilize? Why was there a need for the long lines?

  What was this?

  Li Shi smiled slightly. “Similar situations are happening for more than 20 other phone booths. These GOG players seemed to be taking photos with these heroes and getting a stamp with the heroes within.

  “So, Boss Pei, decorating the phone booths with the theme ‘GOG heroes’ and having the heroes’ stamps within are not your idea as well, right?” Pei Qian, “…”

  Li Shi continued. “And, Boss Pei, if my information is correct, the shared phone booths have spread across all major shopping malls in Jingzhou. You’re also entering the other cities with the franchise model.

  “Major shopping malls place orders directly and are responsible for their own operation and maintenance, and they can pay back in a few months. However, the shared phone booth business has turned to selling phone booths and getting commissions to make a profit, right?

  “The GOG-themed phone booths are so popular to the point where you can order a full set of GOG Heroes at once when you order phone booths. Originally, you only sold two or three, but now, it’s more than twenty…”

  “This has nothing to do with Boss Pei as well, right?”

  Pei Qian flexed his mouth, but no sound came out of it. He cursed a million ‘f*cks’ in his mind. He did think that the GOG hero-themed booths would become an attraction when the game went live, but he did not take it to heart at all.

  He originally thought that people would check in and take some phones with the booth. It would definitely have no impact on the income.

  However, he never thought that it would increase the sales volume of the phone booth!

  The other cities were now more included to purchase a full set of GOG-hero-themed phone booths together in the shopping malls so that the GOG players in the city could check in and for the sale of the phone booth to increase!

  Pei Qian was now in a state of daze. He did not know what to say for quite a while.

  Li Shi was more certain that he hit the nail on the head looking at Boss Pei’s expression. He smiled and he continued. “Then, what about the ‘Top Student, Come Quick’ and the phone booth’s combined event?”

  Li Shi opened the ‘Top Student, Come Quick’ application on his cell phone.

  “The advertisements of Xude Education were cleaned up, and reputation via word of mouth was quickly restored. The return of the previous users brought back not only users lost during the management of the Xude Education but also the students and their parents.

  “The number of active users in the app showed a miraculous rapid increase in the short period when Dream Realization Ventures took it back. “Not only that, but the offline teaching section of the app would also automatically search for nearby Fish-Catching Internet Cafe and shared phone booths as meeting places to greatly reduce their expenses.

  “As for the life section of the ‘Top Student, Come Quick’, it promoted Fish-Catching Take-Out, Zhongdian Chinese Network, and some light games under its charge under the banner of ‘Work and Rest’. That has nothing to do with Boss Pei as well, right?”

  Pei Qian was utterly speechless. To be honest, every single one of them had no connection with him! He did not even know some of them until Boss Li mentioned them.

  However, Pei Qian finally fully understood what was going on, seeing Boss Li’s expression.

  Boss Li had his answers no matter what Pei Qian said!

  Boss Li would only wear a meaningful smile on his face even if Boss Pei denied it. He would take everything as a kind of humor between friends. Or perhaps, even worse, he might take it as a form of… posture?

  Pei Qian felt very tired. He did not even have the mood to settle the accounts with the person-in-charge of the ‘Top Student, Come Quick’ application.

  Li Shi put on a victor’s posture, his face full of pride.

  See, Boss Pei’s exquisite plans were seen through by me. He’s rendered speechless! I don’t feel as much happiness from gaining from my investments!

  Pei Qian took another sip of coffee and calmed himself down. He then said very reluctantly, “So, how do you plan to invest?”

  Li Shi smiled. “Boss Pei, don’t worry, we will not snatch anything from you. We just want a teeny bit. We will definitely not invest blindly into the Thriller Hostel.

  “We’ll just pick a random plot in the huge industrial zone and open a small store like food, entertainment, or whatever. We’ll definitely not make any trouble for you.”

  Pei Qian was utterly speechless.

  You guys are already creating trouble for me by opening stores!

  What could he say then? Pei Qian would not be able to swallow such a large piece of land in the old industrial zones even if he wanted to. Pei Qian had no reason to stop Boss Li and the rest from investing in the industrial zones.

  He could not stop them even if he didn’t agree to it.

  “Alright, whatever you want. Don’t say I didn’t warn you if you make a loss,” Pei Qian said helplessly. Li Shi laughed. “Of course, Boss Pei, we’ve been in this circle for so long. We have a clear understanding of the risks of investment.

  “Moreover, Boss Pei has helped us earn so much money. We can only think of it as giving back to Boss Pei even if it makes a loss. What’s there to worry about?”

  Pei Qian, “…”

  I don’t have any counter-argument to that since what you said seems to make sense.

  Chapter 459 - You’ve Moved Over So Quickly?!

  March 18th, Friday…

  At Shang Yang Games…

  Lin Wan held an Otto E1 in her hands, fiddling around with it admiringly.

  “Actually, once I get used to it, it’s not that heavy.

  “What’s more, I found it hard to navigate such a huge screen with a single hand in the beginning. However, I now find trying to see things on a smaller screen torturous.

  “
Once one has had a taste of screens with high refresh rates and powerful batteries, it’s hard to go back.

  “It looks like Boss Pei had thought of everything before setting the direction for research and development of the cell phone. He has a lot of foresight.”

  Lin Wan had been using Shenhua’s flagship model before. When she switched to the Otto E1, she had found it difficult to adapt. However, the problem slowly dissipated over the last few days.

  In fact, after playing GOG for a couple of days, she paid for all the skins as well.

  Lin Wan could not have felt more grateful after completing this stage of work.

  She had not had an easy time over the last few months. She had been in charge of Shang Yang Games and Otto Technologies at the same time, and it had been extremely difficult juggling both roles.

  Shang Yang Games had been developing a horror game, no less. That made things all the more difficult. Luckily, after Lin Wan repeatedly visited a famous haunted house overseas with a few core members, got help from Big Boss Ruan Guangjian, and after having Boss Pei add finishing touches to the game; Be Quiet was completed.

  Although sales had not gone through the roof, the game’s reputation was extremely good. That could pay off for a long time in the future. Boss Pei would probably be pleased, right? As for the cell phone business, Lin Wan had had no choice but to trust Chang You because she could not juggle too much work.

  Still, Lin Wan had to be given due credit for her hard work as well. She had suggested using Tengda’s other arms to boost the value of the cell phone, and she had conducted the negotiations with the other subsidiaries. All in all, Lin Wan was very satisfied with her performance during this period!

  Of course, there were some flaws. For example, Be Quiet’s sales had not gone through the roof, and Otto E1 was mainly only selling in Jingzhou, especially to Tengda’s gamers. The cell phone had not been termed a ‘divine creation’ or become a necessity in every household.