Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Pei Qian went back into his room, feeling like he had made a huge, historical step forward. On a certain level, he had broken Old Pei’s stereotypes slightly! Pei Qian knew that if he outrightly laid his cards on the table for Old Pei to see, it would be much more difficult.

However, now that he could use Director Zhu as his mouthpiece, he looked like an objective third party in the equation. That was how he could sound more convincing to Old Pei!

Indeed, Old Pei obviously agreed with these views.

Had his biases against games completely disappeared? Of course not.

However, at the very least, Old Pei agreed that some video games were bad, but some were just like movies and novels. Games were meant to be normal, healthy forms of entertainment.

This was a huge step forward!

Pei Qian pondered about his future plans. If he could make an outstanding game in the future, he would allow Old Pei to try it out. Once he became addicted to it, he would take the chance to lay his cards on the table!

Then, Old Pei would surely accept him!

Pei Qian believed that nobody would be able to escape the curse of loving games, even though they hate them at first!

…

It was only then that Pei Qian found the time to read the comments below.

Potato Web still did not have the bullet screen function¹ yet. Pei Qian guessed that it would be at least two more years before such a function would be introduced to Potato Web.

However, there would be no use even if Potato Web had such a function. It would be overtaken very quickly, and it’ll decline rapidly as a result. In any case, it was still a very influential video giant right now. There were still many outstanding content producers.

There were many comments below Boss Pei’s Daily Life. Although some of them were written by people who just wanted to pick fights, most of them were praises for the video!

“I thought this would be an ordinary short video. However, once I saw it, I realized there was such deep meaning behind it. It’s absurd and comical, but on further thought, it seems quite realistic. It made me shiver…”

“This young actor’s acting skills are very good. He very accurately portrayed the character of a nouveau riche with too much money. He looks very natural, too. He’s so much better than many other young actors!”

“Uses dark humor to expose society’s faults. This video made me reflect deeply about life. It also offers biting criticism, mocking the industry’s chaos!”

“His expression is quite accurate. It’s filled with contempt for the world. Is this really the world of the rich?”

“Not only does Boss Pei carry himself well, but even his expressions are very on point. The way he slumped on the sofa convinced me that he was the boss of a company! He truly is a movie king, attracting so many fans!”

“The previous commenter, haven’t we already gotten rid of all the fake commenters? You’re so dedicated!”

“Although this video does not seem to have high production value and I can tell from a visual inspection that it was shot using a DSLR, I still think it’s quite deep. There’s a lot of thought behind it. It’s much better than the short videos that are filled with pompous special effects.”

“Who told you that it did not have high production value? Wouldn’t it cost money to buy the props and the costumes? Wouldn’t it cost them money to purchase a custom-made suit and a Rolex watch? I already took a close look at the Rolex watch; it’s the real thing and not an imitation!”

“My guess is they invested a total of two hundred thousand yuan, 180 thousand of which was used to purchase the watch, hahaha.”

“In the video, they said they spent fifty thousand yuan creating a game about driving cars that lasted for eight hours. They’re not referring to The Lonely Desert Road, are they?”

“What? This video is connected to reality? That’s super awesome!”

“It’s inspired by reality, right?”

“You don’t say… that might really be the way this game was created!”

“Hahaha, how could that be? This is an artistic exaggeration, understand? The Lonely Desert Road might be lame, but the designer must have put a lot of thought into it!”

The lame netizens in the comments were wrecking their brains. There was also a significant number of people trying to draw a connection between the video and Tengda. However, the people who suspected the video had something to do with Tengda had no evidence. Of course, they did not dare to cause too big of a commotion.

Every game that Pei Qian published was done under the name of Tengda Network Technology Co., Ltd. People who did not specifically research into the legal owner of this company would never discover that Pei Qian was the boss; much less would they figure out that Pei Qian was also the actor in the video.

Even if ordinary people wanted to look into the legal owners of companies, they would find it very difficult to do so. This was because of software like Tian Yan Cha¹ would only appear in the real world four years later.

This world was still in 2010. Such software did not exist. Thus, most of the audience saw Pei Qian as an ordinary, young actor.

There were also a few people who picked fights at the bottom of the video.

“Rough production! I don’t know what this video is driving at!”

“The maker of this video is hilarious. He has no general knowledge whatsoever! Do you think that every boss wears custom-made suits and owns Rolex watches? These are such stereotypes. Real bosses wear polo shirts and bermudas; they wouldn’t care that much about their own appearance.”

“That’s right! You even say that they spent fifty thousand yuan creating a game that became a huge hit. What a joke. That’s not the way you make a video exciting! The Lonely Desert Road might not have been expensive to produce, but it definitely cost more than fifty thousand yuan!”

“I think you should look for a middle-aged man to act as Boss Pei. Boss Pei’s acting is good, but I just feel like he’s too young. It doesn’t look realistic!”

Although these comments were the minority, there was still a sizeable number of people who thought the same way.

However, Pei Qian did not really care.

“Ah, everyone has very poor imagination. Fifty thousand yuan to create a popular game. I wouldn’t believe it either, but this really happened. Who should I reason with…?”

Pei Qian kept watching the number of views on the video.

From the looks of the situation, it was not good!

Pei Qian still had a sliver of hope that people would not enjoy the video. What if people felt disgusted at such obvious flaunting of wealth?

As it turned out, no such thing happened!

Now, Pei Qian had no choice but to keep praying and hoping that Director Zhu Xiaoce would not accept any advertising jobs! As long as they did not earn income from advertising, the number of views would be useless to them no matter how high it became; they would not be able to generate profits!

…

On the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, the second episode of Boss Pei’s Daily Life was published.

On the seventh day of the Lunar New Year, Pei Qian left his home and went back to work.

He wanted to change the electrical appliances in his house, but no matter what he said, his parents refused. He had no choice but to leave it at that for now.

To Old Pei, it was a good thing that his son was earning money. However, since he had just earned thirty thousand yuan, it was best that he kept it for his own use. That was why he insisted on turning down the money.

Pei Qian could only wait.

If he brought new electrical appliances home that helped them to cook rice, his parents would agree to change all the electrical appliances even though they objected at first! Although Pei Qian could wait for the winter break to end before he returned to work, someone had to keep an eye on the situation in the office.

He was not afraid that the company’s projects would fail while he was gone; he was afraid that they would not fail!

After much hard work, he finally tasted the fruits of his labor the last time by incurring a loss of over twenty thousand yuan. This time, if he continued to work hard, he believed that he would easily be able to incur losses of seven to eight hundred thousand yuan.

Then, he could say that his short videos became popular, and he earned big bucks. With that excuse, he could spend money on his household without his parents objecting.

En, that was the plan!

…

On February 22nd, the third episode of Boss Pei’s Daily Life was published.

Once again, Pei Qian logged into the website and watched the video. Ho, all three videos had reached almost five hundred thousand views! The group of two or three hundred fans was rapidly expanding as well!

The recommendation spot the videos had on Potato Web was becoming better and better as well. What’s more, it was obvious that there was a possibility these videos would spread to other channels like Weibo.

Pei Qian quietly closed the video. He tried hard to keep calm.

It’s alright, it’s alright. It’s just one short video…

I poured a million yuan into this. There’s still a long way to go before I make that money back.

There’s no guarantee that they would get sponsored partnerships. Even if they did, they would probably not earn much from it.

Pei Qian could only comfort himself in this manner. Just as he was thinking hard about these things, he faintly heard greetings coming from outside his office.

“Director Zhu is here!

“Director Zhu, the short videos are becoming popular! Are you giving us a treat?

“Director Zhu, when will you do a special segment featuring me?”

Most people in the office were involved in the acting as well. Take Xiao Lu for example; he had many roles to play. For instance, in the first episode, he was the one who played the intern that created the game out of fifty thousand yuan.

Although the remuneration they got from acting was not much, they were very passionate! It was not important that they earned money. In any case, no matter how much Director Zhu offered them, he could not offer them more than the salary Boss Pei was paying!

What was most important to them was that their faces were featured.

Who did not want to become famous? Thus, when they saw Zhu Xiaoce arrive, everybody became especially warm.

They all wanted to become closer to Director Zhu, so that they would be given more roles in the later episodes. If possible, they even wanted their own special segments, such as A Day in the Life of Boss Pei’s Intern.

Zhu Xiaoce held onto his DSLR as he made promises to various people in the office. “Don’t worry! You will have more roles to play later on! You will all get a series of short videos after this!”

“However, you have to do your job well now. Otherwise, Boss Pei will not let me off.”

Once he appeased the crowd, Zhu Xiaoce finally approached the door to Pei Qian’s office. Gently, he knocked.