Losing Money to Be a Tycoon
chapter-399

Cui Geng kept silent, not saying anything. A moment later, he sorrowfully said, “Tengda is really a special company. “Other companies cannot wait to hang their mottos up on the walls and in the employee’s handbooks. Some would even make their employees memorize them.

“Yet, Tengda’s hiding their spirit and allowing employees to come to understand it on their own. It’s almost like the company is waiting for its employees to become ‘enlightened’…

“All of a sudden, I’m deeply interested in the company. Can you briefly explain how things work here to me?”

Pei Qian did not return to Tengda in the afternoon. Instead, he went to Dream Realization Ventures to listen to He Desheng’s report about ‘Top Student, Come Quick’. Advertising for ‘Top Student, Come Quick’ had been running for a few days. What’s more, they were looking quite persuasive. During the few days that Pei Qian had been studying, he had seen many posters for ‘Top Student, Come Quick’. He had also seen many students distributing flyers for it. Some of his classmates had also been discussing it.

Although he was not sure about the actual figures, his first impression was that the event was quite popular.

Thus, after weighing the pros and cons, Pei Qian finally decided to make a trip down to check on ‘Top Student, Come Quick’s actual situation.

He Desheng began to explain the project’s situation to Pei Qian. Although he sounded extremely passionate, Pei Qian could tell that he was not that confident inside.

“Boss Pei, at the moment, we’re already running s for the project. Of course, we’re still focusing on Jingzhou for now…”

The initial advertising strategy for Top Student, Come Quick’ was relatively simple and explosive.

Over the past two days, ‘Top Student, Come Quick’s posters had already gone up on several public transport stations in Jingzhou City. A group of people had also been distributing flyers near universities and high school campuses at noon and in the evening.

They had also bought a limited number of slots from TV stations in Jingzhou City. Of course, those were the less desirable slots.

On top of that, they had signed agreements with a couple of elite students from Handong University and other universities, inviting them to act as the first batch of ‘contracted top students’ for the application.

He Desheng would pay them, and they would guarantee that they would finish a set quantity of work and work for a set amount of time. Moreover, the company would look out closely for any signs of trickery. There would also be some spare funds, which would be used to subsidize users’ fees while the application was in the initial stages. In other words-as most put it, the company would be ‘burning the money’.

The money would be spent very quickly!

However, they would not really be making ducks and drakes of the money. Instead, they expect the money to bear fruit and turn people into loyal users. Still, He Desheng felt embarrassed to tell Boss Pei the actual figure because he found it embarrassing.

At the moment, they were only running tests in Jingzhou. They had not released the application to the rest of the country. How many active users could they expect?

Their sales figures were pathetic as well. They were now burning money, and they would probably continue to do so in the near future. In fact, He Desheng expected them to only burn more money from now onwards.

As for feedback… the majority still thought badly of the project. The application only had minimal functions for now.

All in all, as He Desheng reported the situation to Pei Qian, he only spoke empty words such as ‘it has great potential’ and did not go into much detail.

This was undoubtedly good news to Pei Qian. No good news was the best news he could ask for.

If even He Desheng couldn’t find anything to boast about, it meant that the project had really started off as a huge mess…

Still, Pei Qian had grown much wiser. He would not let his guard down. His own employees loved hiding good news and signs of profit from him. They would all wait until the good news had been confirmed before they reported it to Boss Pei.

He had to guard himself against such situations.

Pei Qian looked at He Desheng and said, “It looks good for a start, but I want to ask you something… how do you think the application will breakthrough in the future?”

After some consideration, He Desheng replied, “Breakthrough… I think it’ll be in its ability to establish social interaction!”

“Huh?” Pei Qian frowned, immediately becoming cautious.

However, He Desheng did not seem to realize the change in Boss Pei’s expression. Instead, he continued speaking. “Promoting social interaction would undoubtedly be the way we can expand and strengthen the application as quickly as possible in the future!

“Our application only has average figures for now, and high school students and parents think that it’s mediocre. However, it’s a hit among university students!

“Flunkies and top students alike very seriously fill in their details and upload photographs onto the application. Moreover, the probability of them meeting someone of the opposite sex is higher than that of meeting someone of the same sex.

“That means that our application offers an opportunity for social interaction. If we make good use of this…”

Pei Qian frowned, finding that something was amiss.

That was a huge hidden danger! Pei Qian had no doubt that many people were deeply interested in ‘study gods’ and ‘study goddesses’. Lonely male and female top students who were passionate about studies would probably also not be able to resist their better-looking schoolmates…

If he allowed this situation to develop, the application would become a matchmaking one for students, right?!

At that moment, Pei Qian immediately stopped He Desheng. “You’re right.” He Desheng’s eyes lit up, feeling like he had just been validated by Boss Pei. Pei Qian, “This is indeed a huge danger!”

He Desheng’s eyes widened as he looked at Pei Qian quizzically.

Pei Qian could not be bothered about his astonishment as he said, “We cannot allow these evil influences to fester!”

He Desheng felt slightly lightheaded. “Huh? Why not?”

Very somberly, Pei Qian answered, “The danger is too huge! In the short term, we can use that as an avenue to gain more popularity.

“However, in the long-term, that would generate safety hazards in our application. Many users on the application would also have impure motives. That would affect the environment in the entire platform and be the downfall of its reputation! We’ll even lose our core users!

“Thus, we have to avoid this at all costs.

“Modify the application at once. The next version should have a few more features, and the design of the personal info page should be edited. Users cannot upload their photographs or display their gender. People cannot write any comments they want about themselves. Instead, they have to choose from the limited options that we will provide.

“It’ll be like adding labels to their own profile. If we don’t let them write their own comments, they would not be able to hint at their gender and looks.

“Add a panic alarm button and allow them to display their live locations so that their friends would know where they are at any one time.

“Put this notice in a noticeable location on the website: everyone must only arrange to meet in the self-study room of schools, a cafe, or other places where there is high traffic.

“At the same time, intensify our investigation efforts. We have to verify the identities of everyone-flunkies and top students alike. We also have to check if they have criminal records or school disciplinary records. Anyone who seems problematic cannot be allowed to create an account.”

He Desheng felt slightly dizzy. If people of the opposite gender had begun to develop sparks on the original ‘Top Student, Come Quick’ application, Boss Pei’s string of modifications would not only get rid of those sparks but also get rid of any possibility that new sparks would develop.

He Desheng had thought that this could be used as a trick to make the application as popular as possible, as quickly as possible. Naturally, he had not had to worry about whether others would want to take over the application.

However, Boss Pei was completely sealing off that path.

Still, He Desheng did not dare to ask too many questions. He only nodded and said, “Alright, Boss Pei. I’ll do that at once.”

Looking at Boss Pei’s serious expression, He Desheng became very sure that the former was not joking.

Now that he had gotten rid of the hidden threat, Pei Qian felt happy. He could relax with this project for now!

At that moment, he received a message on his cell phone. It was from the HR department’s Wu Bin.

“Boss Pei, I’ve done what you asked me to do!”

Pei Qian nodded in satisfaction.

Hmm, not bad. Good things come in pairs.

Now that Cui Geng had understood the Tengda spirit, it remained to be seen how many classmates he would be able to influence once he got back.

Pei Qian had to wait a while before doing his rounds again.

“That’s right. Do you know how the shared phone booth is doing?” Pei Qian asked casually. He Desheng was still thinking about the modifications he had to make to the ‘Top Student, Come Quick’ application. Thus, he took two seconds to respond. “Ah, I’m not sure. Ever since you asked me to take charge of ‘Top Student, Come Quick’, I stopped being involved in that project. Speaking of which, I think everything is going well.” Pei Qian nodded. Although he had not gotten any useful information, at least he could confirm that Hao Desheng was obedient.

It looked like he had to personally go down and take a look.

Today was Friday. Although there would not be as many people in the shopping mall as the weekends, Pei Qian guessed that there would still be a significant number of people.

He hopped onto the car and said to Little Sun, “Go to Huanyu Tianjie.”

“There are many stories about Boss Pei. I’ve only told you some of them.

“If you’re interested, you can ask the website’s Boss Ma to collect them for you. He and many other people who are close to Boss Pei would know him very well,” said Wu Bin, smiling

Cui Geng looked like he was not yet satisfied. “I didn’t think that Boss Pei and Tengda would have such a colorful history and legend.

“A unique boss has established such a unique company…

“If I write this story in a novel, it’ll be very exciting for sure.

“However…”

Cui Geng frowned slightly, as if unable to resolve a problem. “Boss Pei’s not suitable to be the protagonist.” Wu Bin was stunned. “Why not?”

Cui Geng explained, “He’s too perfect. There are people like him in reality like the noble people, saints, and reformers…

“Successful people would have outstanding qualities and characteristics after all. However, if such a person became the protagonist of a book, he would seem too unrelatable and fake. It’ll be hard to get the readers to immerse themselves in the story.

“After all, reality doesn’t require logic, but novels do.

“A leader like Boss Pei may exist in reality; everyone would only say that he’s rare, unique, and lucky. However, if I put him in a book, readers would think that he was a fake and a hypocrite. They would have difficulty believing that he was real.

“Thus, I have to make some modifications in my book. That’ll appeal to the readers’ taste…

“Ah, anyway, thank you for today! I’ve had a very meaningful time learning about the Tengda spirit today!”

Cui Geng shook Wu Bin’s hand.

Wu Bin smiled. “This was Boss Pei’s arrangement. I’m just helping out.”

Cui Geng glanced at the time. It was past 4 PM; he did not have to get off work yet.

Wu Bin reminded him, “You can come and go anytime you wish here.”

After some thought, Cui Geng asked, “Can I borrow the computer in the entertainment room?”

Wu Bin replied, “Of course, you can.”

Cui Geng went back to the games room. This time, he did not play any games. Instead, he sat in front of the huge computer that could easily run all the large-scale games, wanting to organize his newfound ideas.

He had to get a good grip on his inspiration while it was there.

However, before that, Cui Geng signed into the author’s platform and filled in the topic for his new post: ‘Completion Forecast’! Once he finished writing the contents, Cui Geng struggled internally. He knew very well that he would be cursed and sworn at once he uploaded the forecast.

However, after hesitating for five minutes, he finally clicked the ‘publish’ button.

In the car…

Feeling bored, Pei Qian whipped out his cell phone, accessed Zhongdian Chinese Network’s application, and refreshed.

It was not 6 PM yet; it was not time for the writers in the authors’ class to upload their new chapters.

That was why the ‘Completion Forecast’ on one of the books caught Pei Qian’s eye.

Pei Qian’s mind was filled with question marks. He quickly clicked it and read its contents. A moment later, the confusion on Pei Qian’s face disappeared. A satisfied smile replaced it.

“He’s teachable! He’s very teachable!” He immediately said to Little Sun, “Let’s go to Huanyu Tianjie tomorrow morning. We’ll head back to the office first!

“I want to meet this Cui Geng!”