Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Ma Yiqun quickly explained, “This is the story in the Analects of Confucius. In summary, it says that if you take a moral standard that everyone would ordinarily be able to achieve and raise it to the extent that the majority of people would not be able to attain it, most people will become deterred from pursuing it.

“If Tengda Games increases its salary standards and benefits for its employees to such a high extent, the employees of other companies will become affected as well. Slowly, this would affect the environment in the entire game industry. Therefore, on one theory, this would backfire!”

Bao Xu nodded. “That’s right. Although I did not understand your story, that is exactly what it means. If we look at the bigger picture, the entire industry will slowly improve under Tengda’s influence in the future. However, it’s obviously still too early at the moment. We have to take things one bite at a time, one step at a time.

“Boss Pei must have thought about this as well. That was probably why he hoped to be more low-key about it all, and why he keeps repeating this to us.”

A realization dawned on Ma Yiqun. So, that was why! Boss Pei was not only being low-key for his own sake; instead, he was showing great foresight. He was considering the development of the entire industry!

“Well… should I turn down the interview?” Ma Yiqun asked.

Bao Xu, “No, you should accept it.”

“Huh?” Ma Yiqun was confused. “Wouldn’t I be acting completely against Boss Pei’s hopes and expectations?”

Bao Xu smiled. “As long as you do not expose Boss Pei’s identity or your exact remuneration and benefits, there would be no problem, would there? I feel that there is still a need to do the interview this time, so that we can fulfill Boss Pei’s requirements completely and make Tengda known!”

“However, we have to be in control of this situation. All in all, you cannot expose the actual terms in our contracts, but you can publicize our mindset and worldview.”

Ma Yiqun stared at Bao Xu, dazed. “Then… how should I do that?”

Bao Xu answered, “Boss Pei only said that we were not to expose Tengda’s salary structure or treatment of its employees. However, apart from these things, Tengda is commendable in many other aspects!

“If we can publicize these other aspects, not only would we be fulfilling Boss Pei’s requests to maintain low-key and not bring too much attention to ourselves, but we would also be getting good publicity for our company. That would be killing two birds with one stone!

“As a games company, we have to attract talent to join us by making a name for ourselves. I feel like Boss Pei would not frown upon this strategy.”

Ma Yiqun nodded profusely. “I understand, Brother Bao! I will take this interview and do a good job of it!”

…

In the office, Pei Qian summoned up the system.

<Wealth Conversion System>

<Owner: Pei Qian>

<Profit Conversion Ratio 100:1. Loss Conversion Ratio 1:1>

<System Funds: 2,130,000 (↑1,130,000)>

<Personal Wealth: 47,143.6>

<This Week’s Special Task: The company needs to own a physical shop house that is situated near a bustling city district or a university. [Complete]>

<Special Task Completion Reward: Additional Ten Percent above the final converted amount.>

Pei Qian read the words on the screen and heaved a long sigh.

According to the initial plan, he should be incurring huge losses by now. Pei Qian arranged for all employees to undergo a medical examination and increased their welfare benefits in order to incur this loss.

However, Game Designer suddenly reaped profits. Unexpectedly and strangely, Pei Qian had more than one million extra yuan flowing into his account. In just a short time, the loss turned into profit! What’s more, there was still a week to go before settlement. He estimated that there was still more than one million yuan to be earned.

In other words, the System Funds would have about three million yuan. According to the profit conversion ratio, after deducting the initial one million yuan from the System Funds, about two million yuan would remain for conversion.

“Three months, conversion of more than two million yuan. That’s akin to earning about seven thousand yuan per month on average…

“Alright, that’s not a small amount.” Pei Qian had no choice but to comfort himself in this way. Although the profit conversion ratio was 100:1, he would take as much as he could convert…

Just as he was thinking about these things, he heard a knock on the door. He looked up and saw Huang Sibo.

“Boss Pei. I’m here to report good news! The third episode of the third season of Boss Pei’s Daily Life has been posted on Aili Island. Each of the first three episodes had reached about a million views!

“We don’t know the viewership of the first two seasons across the internet. However, considering that only one company has the rights to broadcast our series, we are doing quite well in terms of popularity now!

“According to our agreement, Aili Island gave us about 530 thousand yuan for last week. The money just came into our account. After all ten episodes are out, I think this number might become three or four times greater!

“Boss Pei, I’ll transfer the money into Tengda’s account. Will you portion it?” There were pure excitement and joy on Huang Sibo’s face. He was showing such pride and joy in front of Boss Pei!

Although they still had not recovered the one million yuan they poured into the series, they had already made about five hundred thousand yuan thus far. It was more or less certain that they would soon reap in profits.

Thus, Huang Sibo could not wait to share this good news with Pei Qian.

He wanted to show Boss Pei’s Daily Life that he had not flushed the one million yuan in the Dream Fund down the drain. Now only had he created this top-class, short video series called Boss Pei’s Daily Life; but he even managed to reap in profits for it!

Pei Qian nodded. “En, not bad. Don’t be anxious about the money. We have to think about it properly…”

Pei Qian’s head was still hurting, thinking about the amount of money he had to spend. Now, there was more income. It felt like there was a hole in his roof, and he was going through a downpour lasting several days.

However, seeing the joy on Huang Sibo, he could not bring himself to frown and look gloomy. He could only try hard to smile encouragingly. Pei Qian quickly did the mental sums.

Last week, after publishing the third episode, they earned 530 thousand yuan. This week, they were publishing the fourth episode. He guessed they would earn about seven hundred thousand yuan. Three more episodes were yet to be published after settlement; Pei Qian cast them aside for now.

In other words, before settlement, Fei Huang would earn about 1.2 million yuan.

Fei Huang Workspace was a subsidiary of Tengda. Pei Qian had full freedom to allocate the money. If he transferred all the revenue into Tengda’s account, he would increase the amount of System Funds before settlement by about a million yuan.

That meant that after settlement, he would be able to transfer an additional ten thousand yuan or so into his Personal Wealth.

However, on second thought, he could not be so short-sighted. Ending up with a profit at the next settlement was almost certain. There was nothing much Pei Qian could do to change that. However, what about the next time?

Pei Qian was prepared to learn from all his lessons thus far and incur a loss the next time!

Now, there was a possibility he would earn ten thousand yuan more. However, that meant that he would have to spend about a million yuan of the System Funds each month for the following months. Wouldn’t that be adding more weight to his shoulders?

He could not do something so stupid!

When the time came and he found that he could not spend a single cent, he would only have himself to blame for making such a reckless decision at this point in time! Pei Qian pondered silently for a moment.

“Fei Huang Workspace’s profit will be split into four parts: 50% would be allocated to daily operations and future development. You and Zhu Xiaoce, the main leaders of the company, would each get 10% of the profits. The other core members will get 10% altogether. The remaining 20% will be handed in.”

The System would not allow Tengda to refrain from taking a single cent from Fei Huang Workspace’s profits. Thus, Pei Qian decided to take the minimum that the System would allow: 20%. He found valid reasons to distribute the remaining 80%.

Huang Sibo was shocked. “Boss Pei, that would not be right! You cannot do that!”