Chapter 601: Earning Five Hundred Million!

August 3rd, Wednesday…

At Fei Huang Workspace…

Huang Sibo returned to the office after a long time, feeling like he had just stepped into another world. Fei Huang Workspace was filled with life again!

Before this, when they had received Boss Pei’s orders to go into shock therapy, everyone felt confused for a long time. However, they soon discovered the true meaning behind Boss Pei’s ‘shock therapy’.

It was meant to repair everyone’s severe psychological imbalance!

Thus, Director Zhu Xiaoce gave everyone a mission to learn and register for postgraduate advanced training in Directing at Handong University. They would have lessons every weekend for two years.

At the same time, Director Zhu Xiaoce arranged for other supplementary classes like analyzing every day, learning a movie, reading works on film and television every week, writing book reviews, exchanging learning points and reflections, and so on.

After a period of learning, everyone better understood the intentions behind implementing shock therapy’!

Before this, none of them knew that they were that imbalanced inside.

After all, they had just climbed to the peak and produced an excellent move like Tomorrow is Beautiful. What’s more, others had praised them so much that, even if someone had pointed out that they were getting in over their heads, they would never have believed it.

Yet, as the saying went, someone’s skills had to match up to their place in society, or there would be dire consequences.

If they allowed themselves to bask in the ‘smooth and easy win’ as their inspiration continued to run dry and their foundation remained rocky, the next movie would probably take them off the pedestal!

The bigger they let their heads get, the higher they would set their goals. Yet, if they did not adequately train or improve themselves, they would only end up failing terribly.

However, after going through shock therapy, everyone’s mindset was different now.

First of all, they were much more grounded.

After going to learn from the professionals, they realized that their foundation had been rocky all along and that they had not even had a firm grasp of the basics. They had only managed to film a popular movie out of pure luck, but they were still a far cry from the elite film producers.

On top of that, they had renewed inspiration.

During this period, everyone’s ideas gathered and settled, but not all of them were usable.

Creators often found themselves in situations where only they thought their ideas were good. They would celebrate on their own and feel increasingly satisfied.

However, after leaving the idea on the back-burner for a while, they would return to realize that it was never that great to begin with. They had only thought it was so good because they had been hallucinating.

Most of the time, there were only two ways to break out of the hallucinations:

One could either be jolted awake by more senior creators, or one could wait for long enough that they could relook at the idea calmly and objectively and analyze or judge it afresh.

Thus, after letting it settle for a while, everyone ended up with ideas that had withstood the test of time. Now, their inspiration bank was refilled.

Thus, they all felt much more motivated and energetic than before!

Now, they could barely wait to start brainstorming and setting a direction for the new movie.

Looking at his ferocious colleagues who had just returned from ‘shock therapy’, Huang Sibo could not help but feel emotional. Boss Pei was really capable of rejuvenating everyone!

Speaking of Boss Pei… it was about time he updated Boss Pei on the current situation.

Although Boss Pei definitely remembered when Fei Huang Workspace would return from their ‘shock therapy’, Huang Sibo still thought it would be best to drop him a notification. It was not that he did not trust Boss Pei’s memory, but that he wanted to show Boss Pei how motivated everyone was and how ready they were to take on their new task.

At that thought, Huang Sibo dialed Boss Pei’s number.

…

Pei Qian was in Fish-Catching Internet Cafe, sipping his coffee and working on his mind map. Many lines connected back to Fish-Catching Take-Out, leaving Pei Qian very worried.

At that moment, his cell phone vibrated.

When he saw that it was Huang Sibo, Pei Qian jumped. All of a sudden, he recalled something.

‘This is bad!’

Fei Huang Workspace was out of shock therapy!

He had sent Fei Huang Workspace into shock therapy during the previous cycle when he still didn’t know how long the next cycle would be. Thus, he came up with a random number in his head.

However, this cycle turned out longer than any of the ones before. Now, Fei Huang Workspace had come out of shock therapy way before settlement!

What should he do?

At this point, Pei Qian was worried that Fei Huang Workspace would cause trouble for him with renewed confidence. There were less than two months to settlement. If Fei Huang Workspace embarked on a huge project and didn’t manage to finish it in time for settlement, settlement would be delayed!

That was because Otto Technologies was already using up the allowance for incomplete projects this time, to finish the cell phones’ algorithm laboratory.

“Calm down. I can just hold them off using the gift of the gab.”

Pei Qian quickly calmed himself down. After all, bluffing his employees was much easier than trying to incur losses. It came naturally to him.

Pei Qian picked up his phone. “Hello?”

Huang Sibo’s excited voice sounded at the other end of the line. “Boss Pei, Fei Huang Workspace is officially back at work! Your ‘shock therapy’ was highly effective. All of us are bursting with inspiration and motivation now. We’re about to start brainstorming to decide what movie to film next!

“I wonder when you’ll be available to provide us with some guidance.”

Pei Qian froze. Was he sharpening his sword right in front of Pei Qian?! Did that group of people really want to shoot a movie?!

No way! There were only two months to settlement, and they did not even have a script yet. The movie would not premiere before settlement. If they really started the project now, all his effort this cycle would go down the drain!

That was because, each time the date for settlement was set, Pei Qian would work hard to achieve a loss by that date. As the date neared, he would also spend as much money as possible to create a loss.

If there was a change in the date and he received a large sum of money from out of nowhere, it would be extremely difficult for him to end up with a loss.

On top of that, delaying settlement meant going into the next cycle later. The System Funds would not be topped up until then.

Thus, Pei Qian could not allow settlement to be delayed. He would much rather make a profit than allow that to happen. He quickly thought of a strategy on the spot.

“Don’t film a movie.”

Huang Sibo was stunned. “Er… should we film an online series?”

Pei Qian: “No, don’t get involved in any project that would take too much time. Just work on small projects and make sure that you finish them before September 20th.”

Huang Sibo sounded confused. “Huh? Boss Pei, you want us to work on small projects? Is there a deeper meaning to this? We’re overflowing with ideas. It seems like a waste of this state to work on small projects…”

Pei Qian was at a loss for words. This group of people was over-zealous! He had no choice but to try harder to bluff them.

In a low voice, Pei Qian said, “Do you know what ‘shock therapy’ means? You’ve just recovered from it, and so you should not engage in vigorous exercise!

“You might think you’re very strong and full of energy, but in fact, you’re still very weak. You need to recover slowly and take better care of yourselves, understand?

“Just work on a couple of small projects to train your skills and warm up. Once you’re back in the groove of work, you can work on something big.”

A realization dawned on Huang Sibo. “I see! I understand, Boss Pei. We’ll look for some small projects, then! Thank you, Boss Pei!”

After hanging up, Pei Qian heaved a long sigh of relief.

It was settled.

He had instructed Fei Huang Workspace to work on small projects that would take less than a month. That could not be too damaging. At most, the short films would be uploaded onto Aili Island, and they would earn a few hundred thousand yuan. It was no big deal.

Pei Qian could just distribute that sum of money. He now had a loss-incurring machine in his hands. With IOI’s local server burning money on his behalf, a few hundred thousand yuan would not do much damage to him.

Now that he had dealt with Fei Huang Workspace, Pei Qian felt a bit better and went back to work.

Ten minutes later, a figure entered Fish-Catching Internet Cafe hastily. He Desheng was holding a set of documents. Once he stepped into Fish-Catching Internet Cafe, he looked around for Boss Pei and finally found him.

“Boss Pei!”

He Desheng looked like he had run all the way here. He sat down across from Boss Pei.

Pei Qian had already exited his mind map and handed his laptop to the waiter in Fish-Catching Internet Cafe.

“What’s so urgent that you couldn’t tell me over the phone?” Pei Qian gestured for the waiter to serve He Desheng a drink.

He Desheng wiped the perspiration from his forehead and said, “Boss Pei, I can’t express myself clearly over the phone. In short, it has to do with Dayak Corporation!”

Pei Qian remained nonchalant. “Oh, did you convey those two words to them without making any adjustments?”

He Desheng nodded. “I did.”

Pei Qian: “And how did they react?”

He Desheng: “They seemed extremely angry.”

Pei Qian sniggered. That was understandable.

They were a corporate giant that had just been told to ‘f*ck off’ by Tengda, a company that did not have much of a reputation in the world. Of course, they would be pissed.

Yet, what could they do? They couldn’t do anything to Pei Qian.

The saying was true: one could only stand tall and strong without desires.

First of all, Tengda was across the ocean, and none of its businesses were linked to Dayak Corporation in any way.

Second, Tengda was neither on the public stock exchange nor did it accept foreign investments.

Last, Boss Pei was not at all interested in the company’s income—not unless it involved tens of billions of yuan.

The most positive thing was that, even if Dayak Corporation really caused Tengda to incur losses, Pei Qian could give them a huge red packet to thank them.

I am invincible; what is there to fear?

Pei Qian calmly sipped his coffee. “They were angry… and then?”

He Desheng held out his thumb and said, “And then they really took the bait!”

Pei Qian paused midway through sipping his coffee. His mind slowly was filled with question marks.

?

What did ‘they really took the bait’ mean? Where was the ‘really’ coming from?

What bait was there?

Pei Qian could tell that something was off as he looked at He Desheng’s expression. When Pei Qian saw He Desheng rushing over, he had thought that something so horrible had happened that caused him to perspire profusely.

Yet, on closer inspection, it looked like He Desheng was… excited?

He Desheng handed the documents in his hand to Boss Pei and excitedly explained, “Boss Pei, your battle strategy is too exciting!

“It’s comparable to Kong Ming’s smarts and Zhou Gong’s carefulness[1]!

“Dayak Corporation had only been willing to buy our shares and our management rights of IOI’s server for fifty million US dollars. However, after they heard those two words from you, they became agitated!

“Our insistence prevented them from obtaining our shares through their regular means.

“That’s why Dayak Corporation decided to use a squeeze-out[2] to force us to let go of all of Finger Games’ shares!

“To obtain a hundred percent control over Finger Games, Dayak Corporation is willing to go all out. It first bought over close to eighty percent of the shares in Finger Games, and then employed squeeze-out as the majority shareholder to forcibly buy over the remaining minority share!

“However, that means that Dayak Corporation had to buy over our shares for a premium of fifty to sixty percent compared to their original price. That amounts to a sum that we would not have been able to earn in any negotiation!

“Dayak Corporation is extremely wealthy. Boss Pei, obviously, your battle strategy had triggered them to snatch the twenty percent shares and management rights from our hands at all costs!”

The hand that Pei Qian had been using to hold onto his coffee froze, and his mind went blank.

What the hell? A squeeze-out? What was that? They could snatch the shares that I’ve been unwilling to sell?

He remained silent for a while and then asked, “So how much did they offer in the end?”

He Desheng excitedly answered, “They offered 72 million US dollars, Boss Pei!

“That’s seventy million US dollars more than Boss Ma had spent on the shares back then! We’ll earn five hundred million yuan!”

[1] Kong Ming was a famous Chinese military strategist, and Zhou Gong was a famous Chinese regent.

[2] This is the compulsory sale of minority shareholders’ shares in exchange for cash compensation.