Chapter 312 - My Employees Have Learned How to Fight to Answer Questions First

After leaving Shang Yang Games, Pei Qian returned to Tengda.

There was still a lot of work to be done. He had to take his time to plan everything. Apart from Shang Yang Games and Lin Wan, the thing that was causing Pei Qian the greatest headache was thinking about what Tengda Games’ next game should be.

At this point, Pei Qian felt like he had exhausted his limited abilities-no, he felt helpless.

From Ocean Stronghold to Game Designer and then to Repent and be Saved, Pei Qian had already kept pushing Tengda to create new types of games. He already worked with three different chief planners as well.

Yet, so what?

It was useless!

No matter how much he tried to change, it did not seem effective!

Pei Qian wanted to create a horror game to incur losses, but he did not even dare to hand this task to Tengda.

He felt more relieved handing the task to Shang Yang Games, which did not have much experience creating standalone games.

Now, he had another problem on his hands. What should the bunch of people at Tengda do?

They seemed to have good experience working on standalone games and online games alike. If Pei Qian allowed them to carry on working on these, they would likely recreate their former success. No idea of his seemed to be good enough.

Should he allow all of them to go on a paid holiday?

However, he did not have a good enough reason for it. In order to ensure that he incurred losses in the previous cycle, he had already maximized their benefits. It would be extremely difficult to try and give them more now.

The more Pei Qian thought about it, the more troubled he felt. Even after a long time, he could not come up with anything good.

Helpless, he accessed Aili Island and began catching up on shows.

After some time, he heard a knock on the door. Pei Qian looked up to see Huang Sibo.

“Boss Pei, I have some good news for you!”

Pei Qian’s hands trembled. He was nearly scared to death hearing the words ‘good news’.

This fellow is coming to stab me in the back again!

Yet, on further thought, he realized this was not right. Settlement was already done!

What was there to fear now?!

Pei Qian calmed down as a casual smile spread across his face. “Hmm? What’s the good news? Does it have to do with A Day in a Great Inventor’s Life?”

Huang Sibo excitedly replied, “That’s right! Boss Pei, A Day in a Great Inventor’s Life has finally turned its losses into profits!”

Pei Qian was shocked.

Was this program capable of such a thing?!

It was not that Pei Qian was looking down on this program, but the program had severe limitations indeed.

The program consisted of short episodes filmed by Fei Huang Workspace, but the latter’s work ethic had always been to produce the best of the best. Things like costumes, make-up, props, editing, and actors had always been expensive. Their productions required higher expenditure than most other online productions.

What’s more, it was very difficult for a program like A Day in a Great Inventor’s Life to obtain sponsored partnerships.

If they had been concerned about sponsored partnerships alone and not about the program’s effect, it might have been alright.

However, everyone at Fei Huang Workspace had been following Boss Pei’s instructions strictly when it came to their productions. They refused to accept any sponsorship offers that would negatively affect their program. As a result, they often only obtained one passable sponsored partnership after producing multiple episodes.

On top of that, the props used in A Day in a Great Inventor’s Life were all relatively useless.

Even if manufacturers wanted to work with them, it would be extremely difficult for the program to market their goods well. In fact, the program would more likely dissuade viewers from purchasing those products.

Take the hand-held portable washing machine in the first episode for example. There were indeed similar inventions in the market, but the video had dissuaded a huge group of consumers who initially wanted to purchase it from doing so.

Until now, A Day in a Great Inventor’s Life had already been running steadily for more than two months, and they had already finished filming their twelfth episode.

Although there was a large and stable audience, there were still no avenues for Fei Huang Workspace to monetize these views. The incentives that Aili Island provided were barely enough to fill the employees’ stomachs.

Thus, Pei Qian felt confused. How could a program like that turn its losses into profits?

Did Aili Island spend a huge sum of money to purchase exclusive broadcasting rights again? Or did they suddenly obtain a lot of sponsored partnerships?

Huang Sibo smiled and handed his cell phone to Pei Qian.

Pei Qian took it and realized that an online shop was displayed in the browser!

The online shop was called ‘Aidi Sun’s Laboratory’. Pei Qian quickly clicked on the list of products in the shop and scanned it.

Finger Trainer: In this day and age, we use our touch-screen cell phones every day. That’s why it’s important to ensure that our fingers remain active. With this Finger Trainer, you can train your finger muscles during your free time. This would boost your typing speed on your cell phone.

The picture depicted what looked like a mini treadmill. A hand was ‘standing’ on the treadmill using its index and middle fingers, seemingly pushing the caterpillar track underneath it by imitating a walking motion. The mini liquid crystal display (LCD) on top displayed an ever-changing reading and was used to record the training time and program.

LED Slippers: These slippers will light up with every step I take. Mom never has to worry about me going to the toilet at night again!

Sunlight Footbath: Replace water with fluorescent light from a lamp. The ‘sunlight’ will improve blood circulation in your feet and remove signs of exhaustion even before you go to bed. You can even get a beautiful tan while you’re at it!

Grass Slippers: Blades of fake grass grow inside the slippers, so that you can feel like you’re walking on grass every time you put these slippers on.

Spaghetti Spinning Fork: There are batteries inside the handle of the fork. You just have to lightly squeeze it to make the fork rotate, thus easily rolling the spaghetti on your plate around it!

Pei Qian browsed the shop from beginning to end and realized there were many products inside it. What’s more, most of them had appeared in the videos before.

He looked at the sales volume for each of the products. There were some which sold very few, but there were also some that sold hundreds or more than a thousand.

The most popular products were side products that were related to the program. One example was the T-shirts with the program’s title on them—more than four thousand of those had already been sold.

More than seven hundred chibi[1] dolls of a certain inventor had also been sold.

On top of these, the shop also sold snacks and other toys like chibi dolls. These were selling very well!

The revenue earned from the shop and the occasional sponsored partnerships were enough to turn the program’s losses into profits! Pei Qian suddenly smiled, relieved.

Great!

He was not happy that Fei Huang Workspace had turned their losses into profit. He was just happy that Fei Huang Workspace had timed this extremely well.

They had only started generating profits after settlement. Huang Sibo had not stabbed him in the back!

If they had generated these profits before settlement and earned the company extra tens or hundreds of thousands of yuan, Boss Pei would have been so angry that he would have vomited blood.

Yet, now, Pei Qian was completely at ease.

Was it just this small shop? There was no problem at all!

Seeing the smile on Boss Pei’s face, Huang Sibo immediately felt comforted. Boss Pei was happy with the way Fei Huang Workspace insisted on its bottom line, carefully selected their sponsored partnerships, and maintained its reputation!

However, the smile only remained on Pei Qian’s face for a short while before it disappeared.

All of a sudden, Pei Qian realized that the online shop was not safe!

Although it was not earning much for now, online shops would become extremely popular within the next few years. Many retired people would later open their own online shops to sell things like pork cubes and end up earning millions of yuan each month. What more could be said of an online shop run by professionals in Fei Huang Workspace?

In fact, Pei Qian did not even have to look that far. From the way things were going, it looked like Fei Huang Workspace would accumulate a huge profit before the next settlement!

Wouldn’t Pei Qian still have to wreck his brains to come up with a way to spend this money?!

Sh*t, he had celebrated too early!

Although he had completed the previous settlement unscathed, he still had to deal with Fei Huang Workspace’s profitable business during this cycle!

Pei Qian cleared his throat and handed the cell phone back to Huang Sibo.

“Not bad, but you have to work harder.

“What’s Fei Huang Workspace’s plan for the future?”

Huang Sibo smiled and answered, “Director Zhu Xiaoce and I have discussed this, and we decided to continue filming A Day in a Great Inventor’s Life. We’ll try to turn this program into an extremely influential IP project!

“At the moment, it looks like the online shop model is working. We’ve already accomplished our initial goal, which was to turn Fei Huang Workspace’s losses into profit. We intend to keep working hard in order to maximize our revenue!”

Pei Qian fell silent and did not reply.

Huang Sibo’s heart thudded as he realized that there was something amiss with Boss Pei’s reaction.

Why? Didn’t Boss Pei smile earlier on? Why did he look so stern now?

After all, Huang Sibo had been one of Boss Pei’s first employees. He could easily detect and understand Boss Pei’s mood.

After some thought, Huang Sibo quickly realized the reason for this.

I understand now.

Boss Pei smiled because he was happy that Fei Huang Workspace’s A Day in a Great Inventor’s Life has started generating profits. He recognized our achievements. However, he’s probably looking so stern now because he’s not satisfied with our plans for the future!

Huang Sibo instinctively recalled his past conversations with Boss Pei.

Again and again, Boss Pei had ordered him to look further into the future and not to cling to small, present achievements!

Fei Huang Workspace was now generating profits, but would this small sum mean anything to Boss Pei?

Probably not!

It looked like Boss Pei had higher hopes for Fei Huang Workspace! Pei Qian was still thinking about how to persuade Huang Sibo to spend more money. At that moment, he could not think of anything good to say.

Instead, Huang Sibo spoke first.

“Boss Pei, are you unhappy with Fei Huang Workspace’s plans for the future?

“Do you think that Fei Huang Workspace should come up with better products and not cling to our small, present achievement?”

Pei Qian was speechless.”…”

Eh? My employees have learned how to fight to answer questions first?

He looked up to see Huang Sibo’s sincere gaze and then nodded. “That’s right! That’s what I’m thinking!”

Huang Sibo smiled, comforted. Inwardly, he celebrated the fact that his relationship with Boss Pei was improving. He was increasingly able to view problems from a larger perspective! However, his smile quickly faded.

“Boss Pei, we’re not being short-sighted.

“The key problem is that Director Zhu Xiaoce and I haven’t found a good direction. We don’t even have one good idea.

“Boss Pei, if you could offer us some guidance, we would be extremely grateful!”

Pei Qian was put in a spot as he looked into Huang Sibo’s expectant eyes.

You want me to generate ideas for you? Aren’t you afraid of messing up completely?

Er, that’s not right. My ideas have always proven extremely popular.

Pei Qian fell deeper into this dilemma. If he didn’t give any ideas, Fei Huang Workspace would continue filming A Day in a Great Inventor’s Life. From the way things were going, Pei Qian guessed that the online shop would probably do better and better. The videos would also get more and more sponsored partnerships, and the profits would keep rolling in. Yet, if he gave ideas, Pei Qian worried that they would turn out successful.

[1] This is a kind of super-deformed style where the character becomes cute and small, with modifications to the anatomy ratio.