Both of them knew very well what the purpose of this meeting was, so there was no need to keep them in suspense. Pei Qian did not think much of Meng Chang either. He was just one of the less troublesome ones. He would have to settle the other things as soon as possible.
Pei Qian said, “You already know the general contents of the job. I’m mainly here to talk to you about the salary.”
“You are free to choose between the two models. The first is a fixed salary of 40,000 yuan per month. As long as you complete your work, you will not lose a single cent. The second is a low base salary with a commission of 3,000 yuan. The commission will range from zero to 200,000 yuan.”
“The specific calculation method for the commission is, of course, related to the publicity effect of advertising marketing. I’ll have specific people on data analysis to give you a commission based on the money spent on each advertising plan, the popularity created, and the publicity effect.”
“The more money you spend, the less popular the advertisement was, the worse the publicity effect, and the higher the commission.”
Meng Chang immediately said, “I’ll choose the second option… Wait, the lower the popularity, the higher the commission?”
“Inverse target???”
Meng Chang felt that it was quite normal when he heard the first part.
A low base salary and high commission was exactly what he was looking forward to.
Although 40,000 yuan a month was already a high income for most people, it was completely unsatisfactory for Meng Chang. After all, his salary had long surpassed that figure when he was an executive in a big company. There were many places that could give him 40,000 yuan a month now even if he did not enter a big company. There was no need for him to take this dead 40,000 yuan from Boss Pei.
What’s more, he could use his 40,000 monthly salary to repay his debts. If he deducted his taxes and miscellaneous living expenses and managed to pay 300,000 a year, he would still need to repay the debt for 20 years.
How many decades could one live?
During this period, he would always be a judgment debtor. There were too many restrictions on him. He could not even take a high-speed plane when he went out. He could forget about buying a house, traveling, vacation, and going overseas.
By the time he was done repaying his debts, he would be at the age of retirement. Basically, he would be muddle-headed for the rest of his life. He could not possibly think about making a comeback in his fifties or sixties, right? That would be unrealistic.
If it was a few decades earlier, there might have been a chance. However, it was impossible now.
Sometimes, Meng Chang even felt that he would rather go to jail for three years if it could rid him of his debts. After all, there were many people who started their own businesses after being released from jail. It was better than paying twenty years of debt.
On the other hand, if he were to calculate based on the two hundred thousand commissions that Boss Pei had given him, he would probably be able to repay the money in five to six years. That was an opportunity that no other job could give him.
The only problem was… why was the popularity inversely proportional to the commission?
The worse the marketing effect, the more money Boss Pei would give?
What kind of logic was that?
Meng Chang thought that he had heard wrongly and asked again, “Boss Pei, did you just say that the ratio is inverse?”
Pei Qian nodded and said confidently, “Yes.”
Pei Qian did not intend to explain nor did he need to. Meng Chang would always imagine a reasonable explanation for it as long as he acted confident enough.
He took an agreement from the side. “Here are the details. You can take your time to read it. You can fill in the timeline yourself. Three years, five years, ten years… The longer the agreement signed, the higher the commission.”
Meng Chang fell silent for a moment. He took the agreement and read it over and over again, word for word. He kept feeling that there was a huge danger hidden behind this.
Could Boss Pei be plotting against him?
His sixth sense told him that there was a pit inside. However, he could not figure out where the pit was after much thought.
It would be very easy to understand if the publicity effect was better and the more money was paid. Meng Chang was very confident in himself. He would definitely make clear arrangements for marketing and publicity. He would definitely get a high commission.
However, Boss Pei’s condition was that the more money he spent and the less popular it was would mean a higher the commission.
To put it in simpler terms, it was to spend as much money as possible, but the worse the publicity, the better.
What benefits would that bring to Tengda? Did they feel they had too much budget to spend on publicity? Were they worried if they could not spend all of it?
It didn’t make sense!
Meng Chang felt that this would not benefit Boss Pei at all. Unless… Meng Chang’s publicity plans exploded every time. In that case, Meng Chang would only be able to get a base salary of three thousand yuan. He would probably never be able to repay his debts in this lifetime. The better his work was, the more miserable he would feel.
However, Meng Chang felt that it was impossible.
Many big companies spent tens of billions of yuan on marketing every year. The heads of the advertising and marketing departments were hired with high salaries because this was a job that required skills. It was not easy to do well, and there were many people who could not do well.
In fact, such a job would be even easier for Meng Chang. He wouldn’t even have to rack his brains to think of various marketing plans. Wouldn’t he be able to get a high commission just by fooling around?
Meng Chang read the agreement many times but could not figure out what was wrong even though he instinctively felt that something was amiss.
Meng Chang was a wily old fox. He was not lacking in financial nor legal knowledge. He could tell that the contract was not a scam. It even made him feel unreal.
The only limitation was that Meng Chang could not mess around. For example, he could not directly scold consumers in advertisements, engage in regional or gender discrimination, or violate advertising laws. Someone would be responsible for supervising him.
However, this clause was quite reasonable to Meng Chang. It was considered a protective clause to prevent him from exploiting loopholes. It was understandable.
After thinking about the millions of debt he had to bear, Meng Chang said, “Alright, I’ll sign it.”
“The longest period is… ten years?”
Pei Qian nodded. “That’s right. If you sign for ten years, the highest commission per month would be two hundred thousand yuan. If you sign for three years, the highest commission would be one hundred thousand yuan. The longer you sign, the higher the commission.”
Meng Chang was silent for a moment before he decisively took the pen and signed it. After signing it, he filled in the year column for ten years.
Ten years it was then. Of course he had to get a high commission!
Meng Chang knew very well that if he signed the contract for three years and realized that he could have easily gotten a commission of two hundred thousand yuan after that, he would feel very regretful.
Even though he would not need ten years to pay all of his debts if he signed on for 10 years, he could still earn for a few more years.
Ten years later, he would still be considered rich and powerful. If he accumulated some wealth, it would be a good choice be it to enjoy life or to start a business.
Pei Qian was very satisfied. After keeping the agreement, he smiled and said, “Alright, I wish you the best of luck in paying your debts!”
Meng Chang: “?”
For some reason, he felt like Boss Pei was mocking him.
…
Meng Chang still felt surreal after leaving Dream Realization Ventures.
He took out the agreement that he carried with him and read it carefully. There was indeed no problem?
“Forget it, I’ve already signed it. Don’t think too much.”
Meng Chang felt that it was useless to worry about his personal gains and losses now. This was already his best choice at the moment.
Work would only officially start next month according to Boss Pei. Meng Chang could take a break during this period to adjust his mentality.
He was just about to leave when he saw a familiar long face walking over hurriedly.
Meng Chang instinctively shivered. Wasn’t that Boss Ma?
He still remembered Boss Ma pretending to be slow-witted at the Cold-Faced Lady’s news conference to successfully deceive him. Then, Boss Ma threw out two soulful questions to the core of the problem, causing the entire news conference to fail to achieve the expected effect.
How could Boss Pei’s right-hand man be an ordinary person?
Meng Chang quickly lowered his head and left in a hurry.
Ma Yang walked past Meng Chang and stopped after taking two steps. He turned around to take a look.
“Eh, why does this person look familiar? Where did I see him before?”
“Er… I can’t remember.”
Ma Yang scratched his head. He had a lot on his plate recently, especially since he had been in seclusion for a long time to prepare for the exam week. How could he remember everyone from the mountain of people he had to meet everyday?
Ma Yang quickly forgot about this small episode and walked excitedly towards Dream Realization Ventures.
…
“Brother Qian!”
Pei Qian heard Ma Yang’s loud voice before he saw his long face.
The next second, Ma Yang pushed open the door to the guest room and entered.
Pei Qian put down the documents in his hand. “Eh? Old Ma, why are you here?”
Ma Yang sniggered. “I’ve been preparing for the exam some time ago and didn’t have the time to report on my work. Now that the exam is over, I should focus on my work again.”
“By the way, Brother Qian, our results seem to be published on the Academic Affairs Office website today. Have you checked?”
Pei Qian immediately perked up. “Eh? Results are out? I’ll check now.”
He immediately took a laptop from the side and opened the Academic Affairs Office website. After logging in, he checked the results.
“Heh! I scored 72 points for that closed-book paper!”
Pei Qian could not help but feel proud.
For the humanities and arts majors in university, the closed book exam was the most difficult. The difficulty of the closed book exam was much lower than the open book exam but most people were too lazy to memorize it.
If they were in high school, it would be easy to memorize this knowledge. However, it was completely different in university.
Most of the subjects failed in the humanities course were closed book examinations, and many of those who failed were males.
There was no other reason but laziness.
Pei Qian had scored 72 points, which meant that his revision had been effective. If it had been a friendly score given by the teacher, Pei Qian would have given at most 60 points. Every extra point was his own hard work!
“Old Ma, how many marks did you get?” Pei Qian asked.
Ma Yang sniggered. “I’m only slightly higher than you, Brother Qian.”
Pei Qian’s smile disappeared in an instant. “What’s slightly higher?”
Ma Yang replied, “81 points.”
Pei Qian remained silent for a moment. “What about this open book exam? I scored 79 points.”
Ma Yang took a look. “Brother Qian, I scored slightly higher than you. I obtained 82 points.”
Pei Qian asked a few in a row, but Ma Yang actually scored higher than him in all of them.
Finally, when he reached the last paper, Ma Yang scratched his head. “I didn’t score as high as you in this one. I scored 74 points, lower than you by one point.”
Pei Qian heaved a sigh of relief, his expression finally looking better.
That’s good, that’s good. From first year to third year, there was finally one subject that he scored one point higher than Old Ma!
It seemed like his serious revision had paid off. It was a great start even though it was one point in one subject!