Chapter 1281 - Grasshopper on a Rope

After hearing Zhou Muyan’s words, Sun Xi was stunned.

Boss Zhou, you usually don’t partake in such matters!

Previously, when he heard that it was a paid holiday, his first reaction was to reject it. Now that he saw this documentary, he realized that it was to make his employees suffer and agreed readily!

Sun Xi’s only thought now was regret.

Why did he mention this!

Now that he thought about it, Min Jingchao had not been to Versailles at the beginning. He had been sincerely advising them!

He had mentioned from the start that it was not a good thing. It was just a ‘paid holiday’ on the surface, but in fact, it was a ‘paid torture’!

Nature was vastly different even though they are both paid!

Sun Xi’s expression turned sour. He was tongue-tied and speechless.

He really had nothing to say. It was too late to regret now…

Zhou Muyan looked at Min Jingchao. “Brother Min, as the chief designer of the project, you must go together and cultivate your relationship with the team.”

Min Jingchao’s expression changed immediately. “That’s not necessary!”

“Boss Zhou, I’m going back to Tengda after this project is done. I have too many such opportunities in Tengda. You should leave this opportunity to your colleagues at Sun Strike Studios!”

Zhou Muyan waved his hand. “Sigh, how can that be? Tengda is Tengda, Sun Strike Studios is Sun Strike Studios. What you do in Tengda is Boss Pei’s business. However, I cannot treat you badly in all aspects.”

“A paid holiday is a benefit for everyone in the project team. How could I just leave you out? Wouldn’t Boss Pei say that I’m treating you badly if he found out?”

“There’s no need to reject. Sun Strike Studios might not be rich but we still have this bit of money!”

Min Jingchao: “…”

Finished.

Initially, he had wanted to divert the trouble. However, he did not expect to be the one who caused the trouble!

After Zhou Muyan left, Min Jingchao and Sun Xi looked at each other and saw despair in each other’s eyes.

Finished! This matter has blown up!

One could only describe this in one sentence. When would the cycles of vengeance end?

At first, both of them had had some thoughts about it. However, now, both of them had fallen into it together. They had become ants on a rope and could not move anymore.

Min Jingchao cleared his throat and asked, “Is there any way to salvage the situation…? Given Boss Zhou’s character, what do you think will make him cancel the trip?”

Sun Xi’s face was also filled with despair. “Since he has already decided, I’m afraid he can’t cancel…”

“However…”

He suddenly had a flash of inspiration. “There might be a method, the price!”

“If the price of Suffering Travels is so high that it is ridiculous… Boss Zhou might give up then!”

“Or perhaps, he would look for alternatives that are relatively cheaper.”

“However, the prerequisite is that the price must be very high. It must be so high that it would look ridiculous at a glance.”

The official website of the Suffering Travels had only updated the promotional videos and documentaries. They had not introduced specific factors like price and schedule.

What if the price was particularly high?

Zhou Muyan did his calculations and arranged for the entire project team to have tens or hundreds of people. The price was especially high and the cost was especially high. Naturally, he would consider giving up or changing to other alternatives.

If it was another paid travel project, even if the content was still survival in the wild, it would be much more comfortable than Suffering Travels.

This was the difference between going deep into the Eighteen Levels of Hell and walking around the Bridge of Forgetfulness.

Min Jingchao’s eyes lit up. “That makes sense!”

This was a stroke of genius. He immediately thought of a solution when he heard that he would be arranged to suffer.

What’s more, this method was indeed feasible.

Zhou Muyan was not like Boss Pei. Even though he was rather generous to his employees after the projects earned money, he was still a meticulous person.

The generosity of distributing bonuses was also based on meticulous planning. The exact amount of the bonus was very fixed.

If he found that Suffering Travels was indeed beyond his budget, he would probably cancel this trip or change to another travel company.

Needless to say, the price of Suffering Travels… was definitely very expensive.

Based on Min Jingchao’s understanding of Suffering Travels, not only did he have to undergo special training, but he also had to choose locations carefully and come up with a complete safety plan. He also had to make his own special training base in the future.

All of these were arranged and the expenses were huge. The price was unlikely to be cheap.

What’s more, Min Jingchao could think of a way to make Bao Xu raise the price further.

Of course, he could not raise the price explicitly, but he could raise the quality of the treatment!

If the quality of the service increased, the price would naturally increase.

At the thought of this, Min Jingchao felt like he had just been rescued from a hopeless situation.

“This method is feasible! We can still be saved!”

Min Jingchao felt much more at ease now. As he worked, he slowly thought about how to hoodwink Bao Xu so that he could raise the price. That would prevent the entire Bullet Hole 2 project team from suffering with salaries.

There was no hurry. After all, it would take a few months for Bullet Hole 2 to be developed even if they were to suffer.

During this period, he would wait and see. He would choose the most suitable time to strike so that he would not be too obvious and be targeted by Bao Xu.

…

…

October 29th, Monday…

At Fei Huang Workspace…

Fei Huang Workspace, which used to be very lively, now looked a little deserted. Many work desks were empty. At a glance, it looked like a holiday.

In fact, it was because Huang Sibo was still suffering in Shennongjia while Zhu Xiaoce had brought a group of people to the United States to film ‘Successor’. Thus, there were not many people left in Fei Huang Workspace. A large portion of them was in charge of the animation project.

The Executer Academy was also on Zhongdian Chinese Network’s adapted works list. What’s more, Pei Qian had requested to acquire an animation workspace to produce it.

At that time, he did not think too much about it. He purely felt that buying over the animation workspace would cost more.

Subsequently, Pei Qian was extremely busy. Thus, he decided not to bother about this matter and left it to Huang Sibo and Zhu Xiaoce.

The two of them were quite busy as well. One was suffering in Shennongjia, and the other was busy filming ‘Successor’. Thus, this job was given to an old employee who was relatively good at animation, Wu Chuan.

There were many animation workspaces in the industry, but not every one of them could be bought over. Some animation workspaces were doing very well themselves and were very popular. Why should they sell themselves to others?

As for those animation workspaces that could be bought over, there were more or less some problems internally. They had to be carefully inspected before deciding.

The workload was huge. Therefore, Wu Chuan began to understand the situation from industry insiders ever since he received this task. He flew around the country to understand the specific situation of these workspaces.

Subsequently, he produced some reports and submitted them. However, he did not receive any news.

That was because Zhu Xiaoce did not understand these contents and could not make a decision. He could only share it with Boss Pei, and Boss Pei might not be able to see it…

On top of that, the animation studio’s matters were considered to be at the back of Pei Qian’s priority. Thus, he had not paid much attention to it and had delayed it slightly.

However, that did not matter. There was still time. What’s more, there was no harm in inspecting.

Now, Pei Qian finally had time to make a trip to Fei Huang Workspace to settle this matter.

In the conference room, Wu Chuan handed his research report to Pei Qian.

“Boss Pei, this is the situation of the few animation companies that I have inspected.”

“These animation companies’ operating conditions are average. We can consider acquiring them.”

“Apart from these, we can also consider some outstanding animation companies in the industry. We might not be able to acquire them directly but we can use them as a direction to raise their needs and let them create an ‘Executor Academy’.”

“Boss Pei, which workspace do you want to know more about? I can focus on the answers.”

Pei Qian flipped through the research report casually.

It was obvious that Wu Chuan had done a lot of homework. The information on it was quite detailed, including the year of establishment of these workspaces, the content of the representative works, and so on.

What’s more, Wu Chuan was right. The acquisition was not the only choice. They could also choose to outsource. In other words, they would not buy a studio. They would purely work together based on animation.

That way, even though his control over the workspace would be greatly reduced, the workspace that he worked with would definitely be top-notch and top workspace in the industry. As long as he gave enough money, the quality of the works would be guaranteed.

He quickly scanned the workspaces and frowned.

It seemed too reliable!

He had heard or seen the representative works of many studios before. He knew that they were all very reliable choices in the circle of domestic animations.

What would happen after the acquisition, coupled with Tengda’s reputation?

While Pei Qian felt that the script for ‘Executor Academy’ was quite ordinary, with the addition of these animation workspaces, it might become popular for no reason.

There was still a risk.

Pei Qian pondered for a moment and said, “These animation workspaces… seem to have their own problems.”

Wu Chuan nodded slightly. Boss Pei’s requirements were indeed high.

So many of the top workspaces in the industry actually had their own ‘problems’. It was enough to show how unique and sharp Boss Pei’s eyes were.

However, the problem was… he had no other choice.

Wu Chuan said, “Boss Pei, that’s all we have at the moment. If you’re not satisfied, there’s no better option.”

“How about I look for foreign companies? However, it would definitely be more troublesome for foreign companies to cooperate.”

Pei Qian waved his hand. “There’s no need for that.”

“What I mean is that we might as well build an animation studio from scratch.”

He had wanted to buy a ready-made one. It would be best if he could buy one that would incur huge losses.

However, after some observation, he realized that such a good thing was not easy to pick up. The risk was still a little high.

Since that was the case, what should he do?

On the whole, animation was a field that required accumulation and professional talents. Wouldn’t it be more likely to fail if he built an animation studio instead of acquiring a ready-made workspace that had already been polished up and had a perfect workflow?

Wu Chuan hesitated for a moment and said, “But Boss Pei, as we said at the beginning, we don’t have any technical accumulation in this area. It would probably be more difficult for this studio to get on the right track.”

“Many things cannot be solved with money.”

Pei Qian sniggered. That’s great!

Problems that could not be solved with money were the most expensive!