Chapter 312: My Employees Have Learned to Answer Before I Speak
Chapter 312: My Employees Have Learned to Answer Before I Speak
After leaving Shangyang Games, Pei Qian returned to Tengda.
There was still a lot of work that needed to be arranged slowly.
Aside from the issues with Shangyang Games and Lin Wan, what troubled Pei Qian the most was this: what should Tengda’s game department make as their next title?
At this point, Pei Qian genuinely felt a bit like a “stranded donkey”—no, more like completely powerless.
From “Ocean Fortress” to “Game Producer”, and then to “Turn Back Before It’s Too Late,” Pei Qian had continually pushed Tengda’s game department into making entirely new genres, even switching out the lead executive designers three times.
But so what?
It didn’t work!
No matter how he changed things, it seemed completely impossible to achieve the intended outcome!
Pei Qian wanted to use a horror game to lose a nice chunk of money, but he didn’t even dare entrust this task to Tengda.
He could only hand it to Shangyang Games, which lacked experience in developing single-player games—only then could he relax a little.
But now a new problem arose: what should he have Tengda’s people do?
Whether it was making single-player games or online games, this group already had experience producing successful titles. Whatever they made next would likely repeat past success. The more Pei Qian thought about it, the more anxious he became.
Maybe… give them a full-staff paid vacation?
But there wasn’t a good excuse for that. In the last cycle, in order to manufacture losses, he had already pushed employee benefits to the limit. Adding anything now would be extremely difficult.
The more Pei Qian thought, the more lost he felt. After thinking for a long time, he still couldn’t come up with a good solution.
He could only casually open Aili Island and start watching some shows.
After a while, someone knocked on the door.
Pei Qian looked up—it was Huang Sibo.
“President Pei, I have good news to share with you!”
Pei Qian’s hand trembled—the phrase good news scared him badly.
This guy’s here to backstab me again!
But then he remembered—no, the settlement is already done!
The settlement is done, so what am I afraid of!?
Pei Qian instantly regained his calm, showing a serene smile. “Hm? What good news? Is it about A Day in the Life of a Great Inventor?”
Huang Sibo looked excited. “Exactly! President Pei, A Day in the Life of a Great Inventor is finally about to turn a profit!”
Pei Qian was a little surprised.
This program can turn a profit??
It wasn’t that Pei Qian underestimated the show—the problem was simply that this kind of program had very strong limitations.
Although Feihuang Studio produced short videos, they always adhered to a “pursuit of perfection” approach. Their production costs—costumes, makeup, props, post-editing, actors—were all quite high, making the show one of the more expensive types among web series.
And A Day in the Life of a Great Inventor had an especially hard time securing suitable sponsorship deals.
If they were willing to accept any random ad, it wouldn’t be that hard.
But Feihuang strictly followed President Pei’s standards: any sponsorship that harmed the show’s quality was rejected. As a result, they often had to release several episodes in a row before finally landing one acceptable sponsorship deal.
Moreover, the props used in A Day in the Life of a Great Inventor were all bizarre and utterly useless contraptions.
Even if some manufacturers wanted to sponsor them, the videos made it extremely hard to “sell products.” Instead, the show tended to scare potential buyers away.
Take the portable washing machine from the first episode, for example. There are similar products on the market, but after watching the video, it actually scared off a large number of consumers who originally intended to buy such a thing.
Up to now, A Day in the Life of a Great Inventor had been updating steadily twice a week for over two months, and they had reached episode twelve.
Although the show had built a huge and loyal viewer base, it still had no effective monetization channel. With just the incentive program from Aili Island, they simply couldn’t make a living.
So Pei Qian was puzzled—how could this program possibly turn a profit?
Did Aili Island suddenly pay a huge amount for exclusive broadcasting rights?
Or did they suddenly receive a flood of sponsorship deals?
Huang Sibo smiled and handed his phone to Pei Qian.
Pei Qian took it—and saw an online shop!
The shop was called “Edison’s Laboratory.” He opened the product list, and Pei Qian’s eyes quickly swept through the catalog.
Finger Exercise Machine:
Nowadays, we all use our phones constantly, so keeping your fingers in good condition is important. With this finger exercise machine, you can train your finger muscles in your spare time and further improve your typing speed!
The picture showed a tiny treadmill-like device. You placed your index and middle fingers on it, moved the belt with your fingers, and the small LCD screen above displayed the workout time and distance.
LED Slippers:
Step on the soles and they light up! Mom will never worry again about me going to the bathroom alone at night!
Sunlight Foot Bath:
Uses a daylight lamp instead of water. “Sunbathing” your feet helps improve circulation and relieve fatigue before bed. Also provides a slight tanning effect!
Grass Slippers:
The soles are covered with fluffy artificial grass, giving you the sensation of stepping on a lawn as you walk.
Automatic Pasta-Rotating Fork:
The handle contains a battery and motor. Press a button and the fork head rotates automatically, easily winding spaghetti around itself!
…
Pei Qian scrolled through the entire shop. There were quite a lot of items—and most of them were products that had appeared in the videos before.
Checking the sales numbers, some were extremely low, but some had sold hundreds or even thousands of units.
The top sellers were the related merchandise. For example, a themed T-shirt had already sold over four thousand units.
A chibi figurine of one of the “great inventors” had sold over seven hundred.
Besides that, the store also sold snacks and small novelty items like chibi keychains, and even those had decent sales!
With these sales combined with the occasional sponsorship deal, the studio had actually turned profitable!
Pei Qian showed a relieved smile.
Excellent!
It wasn’t that he was happy for Feihuang Studio’s profitability—he was simply grateful that their timing was perfect.
They had turned profitable right after the settlement. They didn’t backstab him!
If they had turned profitable before the settlement, suddenly generating tens of thousands more revenue out of nowhere… wouldn’t President Pei have been furious enough to spit blood?
But now, Pei Qian felt completely at ease.
Just a tiny online store?
That’s nothing!
Seeing President Pei’s faint smile, Huang Sibo felt touched. It seemed that Feihuang Studio’s persistence in maintaining their standards—refusing bad sponsorships and protecting their reputation—had earned President Pei’s approval!
But the smile on Pei Qian’s face only lasted a moment before disappearing.
Pei Qian suddenly realized… an online store wasn’t safe either!
Although the store wasn’t earning much right now, the next few years would be exactly when online shops exploded in popularity. Plenty of retired pro players opened online stores and made millions a month selling things like pork jerky—so how could Feihuang Studio’s professionally managed shop not earn even more?
No need to look far. At this pace, by the time the next settlement came around, Feihuang Studio would definitely have accumulated another large pile of funds!
At that point, wouldn’t he have to rack his brains again on how to lose it?
Crap. He celebrated too early!
Even though he dodged a bullet in the previous settlement cycle, Feihuang Studio’s profit problem still had to be resolved during this cycle.
Pei Qian coughed lightly and handed the phone back to Huang Sibo.
“Not bad. But you still need to keep working harder.”
“What plans does Feihuang Studio have for the coming period?”
Huang Sibo smiled. “Director Zhu Xiaoce and I discussed it a bit. We’ve decided to continue filming A Day in the Life of a Great Inventor, and aim to turn it into a widely influential major IP!”
“Right now, the online shop model looks promising too, and we’ve already achieved our initial goal of making Feihuang Studio profitable. We plan to push even further and earn more revenue!”
Pei Qian fell silent, giving no response.
Huang Sibo’s heart thumped—he sensed a trace of displeasure from President Pei.
Why?
Wasn’t President Pei just smiling earlier? How did he turn so serious all of a sudden?
But Huang Sibo had been one of President Pei’s earliest followers. He wasn’t lacking in observational skill.
After just a moment of thought, he understood.
‘I get it.’
‘President Pei was smiling earlier because he was happy that Feihuang Studio and A Day in the Life of a Great Inventor finally turned profitable. That was his acknowledgment of our work.’
‘But now he looks serious—he must be dissatisfied with our upcoming plans!’
Huang Sibo recalled many past conversations with President Pei.
President Pei had repeatedly emphasized: one must look far ahead, and never be fixated on short-term petty profits!
Feihuang Studio may have started earning money, but would President Pei care about such small change?
Definitely not.
It seemed President Pei had far greater expectations of Feihuang Studio!
Meanwhile, Pei Qian was still struggling to come up with a way to persuade Huang Sibo to stop earning so much money. He hadn’t thought of any good excuses yet.
But Huang Sibo spoke first.
“President Pei, are you dissatisfied with Feihuang Studio’s plans for the near future?”
“Do you think Feihuang Studio should create even better works instead of focusing on short-term profits?”
Pei Qian: “……”
Huh?
My employees have started answering their own questions now?
He looked up and met Huang Sibo’s sincerely earnest gaze, then silently nodded.
“Correct. That’s exactly what I meant.”
Huang Sibo revealed a relieved smile. Inwardly, he felt that he had indeed grown under President Pei’s guidance—he was getting better and better at thinking from a higher, broader perspective!
But his smile quickly faded.
“President Pei, it’s really not that we’re being short-sighted.”
“The key issue is that Director Zhu Xiaoce and I haven’t found any good direction. We don’t even have a ready-made idea to start with.”
“If President Pei could offer us a bit of guidance, that would be ideal!”
Seeing the expectation in Huang Sibo’s eyes, Pei Qian felt torn.
They want me to give them ideas?
Aren’t they afraid they won’t survive the New Year if I do?
… No, wait.
Everything I’ve suggested so far has indeed become wildly successful.
Pei Qian fell into a dilemma.
If he didn’t give them any ideas, Feihuang Studio would continue filming A Day in the Life of a Great Inventor. And judging by current trends, the shop’s sales would only rise, and the videos would attract more and more sponsorship deals. They would definitely make even more money.
But if he did give them an idea… he was worried that it might become a hit again.
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