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.

To Ma Yiqun, this was a good thing. At the very least, there would be no unnecessary padding for the plots that were being written.

As the saying went, ‘a slow artisan produces skilled work’. There was no guarantee that they would write better if they wrote slowly. However, if they wrote any quicker, their writing would most definitely be flawed.

Repent and be Saved’s plot was meant to be a service to the game. Their aim was not to hit any number of words. The fewer the number of words, the better.

[1] This is a famous Chinese painting which does not actually contain a temple despite its title.