Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Chapter 1076: One Bad News After Another

May 28th, Monday...

Pei Qian arrived at the office early in the morning to check the work summary from the various departments last week.

The first thing he opened was Otto Technologies’ summary.

After taking a few glances, Pei Qian closed the door with a look of despair.

“Indeed, the drying rack has sold out...”

When Pei Qian would frequently surf Aili Island’s website when he had nothing to do. Naturally, he saw the video that Lin Jiaqiang uploaded.

Pei Qian knew that things were not looking good looking at this video!

However, he still had some hope in his heart.

What if it was just hot, but it did not have a significant effect on the smart fitness drying rack?

Pei Qian realized that he had been overthinking after reading Otto Technologies’ summary.

The new G1 cell phones and smart fitness drying rack had all been sold out. Until now, they had been sold out intermittently.

The manufacturing factory was taking the time to produce. After receiving larger orders from the smart fitness drying rack, they even opened a new production line. It could be said that they were fully stocked.

Pei Qian glanced at the number on the smart fitness drying rack and felt a little dizzy.

In the beginning, he had asked Chang You to grit his teeth and prepare the goods. However, he had only prepared 10,000 units.

But now, 10,000 units have been sold out. Another 10,000 orders had been sent!

The numbers were the same but the initial 10,000 units had been in stock for a long time. He had intended to sell them for a year and a half, but he had not expected them to collapse so quickly!

The second batch of 10,000 units would not last long either.

The scariest thing was that there were actually huge orders inside. A gym called “Star Bird Fitness” had ordered more than a 100 units, and they would buy more in the future!

Otto Technologies’ products were all very expensive. However, once it started selling, it would make money like running water.

The profits of the smart fitness drying rack were not high. Apart from the cost of raw materials that the equipment could not be reduced due to high quality requirements, logistics, storage, delivery, and moving services were also a huge cost.

Each smart fitness drying rack would only earn about 200 yuan without considering Upwind Logistics’ expenses.

However, when the number increased, 10,000 units would still be two million yuan in profit.

Given Tengda’s current profitability, two million yuan was not even enough to burn money once. However, don’t forget that there was still the internal purchase of Fitness Battle!

The Fitness Battle had attracted a large number of players so far. As a mobile game, the monthly flow on the official platform had reached 30 million yuan.

The number of active players in Fitness Battle was two or three times more than games with the same income level. The number of registered players was more than 10 times more than those games!

In other words, this game was indeed very famous. Many players would register an account to take a look even if they did not have the equipment and could not persevere.

There were many players, so even if many of them were lost, many of them remained.

There were many players who stayed and many of them charged money.

Fitness Battle was too conscientious and reduced income to a certain extent with the system that could be refunded at will stimulated many players’ desire to recharge. Thus, the income was still quite good.

This game could earn nearly 20 million yuan a month considering the high dividends that the official platform had given Tengda.

What was even scarier was that the official platform was not the only channel for the Fitness Battle.

When Tengda was in a crisis, Zhou Muyan contacted some game developers and uploaded Tengda’s games onto smaller platforms.

These platforms were small and the profits were not high but there were many of them.

The net income of Fitness Battle could double in the first month coupled with Shenhua’s application store and other large channels’ recommendations!

Of course, the high income in the early stages was due to the special charging mode.

Players did not feel burdened at all since they could refund the game at will. Thus, they were charging even more furiously.

There would still be many orders that would be retained even if there were many refunds.

In the next few months, gamers would obtain all the props that they wanted. Naturally, their desire to top up would plummet, and the income of the game would also decrease.

However...

Obviously, Shang Yang Games would continue to update all sorts of beautiful props, scenes, special effects, and even characters for Fitness Battle. The expansion pack would continue to be released.

Pei Qian could not bear to watch.

How hopeless!

Who would have thought that Pei Qian, who was counting money until he felt like vomiting, had been fantasizing about selling a building a week ago?

Reality proved that this was pure wishful thinking.

Pei Qian looked at the other departments’ summary after closing Otto Technologies’ summary.

All in all, the various departments were developing steadily and orderly.

Pei Qian calmed down a little. After all, no bad news was the best news.

As long as these departments did not suddenly make huge profits, everyone would still be good friends.

Someone knocked on the door just as he was reading the brief.

Pei Qian looked up. It was Huang Sibo from Fei Huang Workspace.

“Boss Pei! I have something to ask you.”

“Previously, we have been discussing ‘Mission and Choice’ copyrights with Aili Island’s website under Boss Lin’s lead.”

“The initial intentions have been mostly communicated. I’m here to ask you about our decision. Should we do a fixed-rate contract or split the profits?”

Pei Qian’s face could not help but turn black.

Indeed, it was here!

He could not avoid it.

Pei Qian knew that the movie’s copyright would definitely be sold to the video websites at a high price the day the movie ‘Mission and Choice’ exploded in the box office. It would only be a matter of time.

Now, that day has finally arrived.

Fortunately, Pei Qian had made sufficient mental preparations.

He thought about it briefly and felt a little conflicted.

Logically speaking, he should have thoughtlessly chosen to split the profits.

That was because a huge sum of money would be transferred directly if it was a fixed-rate contract, which would cause a lot of trouble for the settlement.

On the other hand, splitting the profits was done slowly. It would not be that stressful if they were to distribute it evenly every month.

However, Pei Qian had already lost once in Tomorrow is Beautiful.

That was what he had thought at the time. That was why he had given Tomorrow is Beautiful a share of the profits. However, he had not expected the movie to be so popular on Aili Island. In the end, the profits earned far exceeded the fixed-rate contract!

This was a very stiff situation.

There was one more thing to consider: the impact of the screening extension.

The screening extension meant that the movie would be broadcasted in the cinema for a longer period of time. It could increase the box office but the audience’s demand to watch the movie would decrease further. There would be fewer people paying attention to the video website, and the price that the website was willing to offer would be even lower.

The screening of Tomorrow is Beautiful was not supposed to be extended at that time. The audience was still very passionate after the movie stopped screening. There were many people watching it, so naturally, there was a lot of dividend.

However, Mission and Choice had been extended for two months. That way, most audiences’ enthusiasm for watching the movie would be satisfied. Many people would watch it twice or thrice. The price that the website was willing to offer should also be reduced.

Pei Qian could only choose to shorten the pain at the thought that he would probably earn more from the profits.

“Fixed-rate Contract then.” Pei Qian made a very difficult decision.

Huang Sibo nodded. “Alright, Boss Pei. We’ll go with the fixed-rate contract.”

He did not ask further.

Boss Pei had thought for a long time. Obviously, he had made the right choice after weighing the pros and cons.

What was there to doubt?

Huang Sibo turned to leave.

Pei Qian felt much more relaxed after making up his mind.

He picked up his teacup and sipped his as he casually asked, “How much would it cost to buy out this time?”

Huang Sibo answered, “Oh, if nothing goes wrong, it should be around 55 million yuan.”

“How much?” Pei Qian almost spat out his tea. He could not believe his ears.

Huang Sibo repeated, “55 million yuan. Boss Pei, do you think it’s too little?”

Pei Qian: “...”

Crazy, really crazy!

It would have been better if he had not asked. However, Pei Qian could not remain calm after hearing the exact figure.

He asked in confusion, “I remember that the price offered by the website of Tomorrow is Beautiful was only 18 million yuan, right?”

“Why did it increase so much?!”

Huang Sibo smiled. “Oh, Boss Pei, you might not have paid attention to these things, so you don’t understand.”

“18 million yuan was the price a year ago!”

“At that time, Tomorrow is Beautiful had a box office of over a hundred million yuan, and there were big-name actors involved. The copyright purchase fee was at least 10 million yuan and not more than 50 million yuan.”

“‘Mission and Choice’ has refreshed the box office records of domestic movies. Many people view it as a milestone for domestic heavy industry movies. It’s very close to making use of this film to aim for a true Best Actor award... The copyright fee is only the bare minimum. Obviously, it’s not enough.”

“What’s more, Aili Island is not just going to buy movie rights this time. They are planning to create a special topic to publicize and bring popularity to the website.”

“Concentrate all the premium videos related to ‘Mission and Choice’ on Aili Island’s website. To a certain extent, they can monopolize similar content. It’s a good deal for them!”

“Therefore, 55 million yuan might be a little more expensive, but it can only be said to be a normal price.”

“There are basically no other video websites in the country that are willing to pay this price other than Aili Island. What’s more, I thought that Aili Island’s website has a huge traffic flow and would be of some help to us. That’s why I accepted this price.”

Pei Qian was really speechless.

Initially, he had thought that it would be better to shorten the pain, but this short pain was a little too painful!

How could he spend 50 million yuan?!

However, Pei Qian did not say anything else when he thought about how he might earn more than 50 million yuan if he went with the other method.

There was a knife in every corner. Instead of worrying about this, it was better to think about how to spend the money.

Pei Qian pondered for a long time before calling Liang Qingfan after Huang Sibo left.

Pei Qian had prepared a new money-burning plan even though he had originally planned to save it for the summer of June 26th next month. He could not do it this month.

After some thought, he decided to use the same stupid method.

Buy real estate!

The System Funds’ base value for this cycle was 50 million yuan. At the moment, Tengda’s fixed assets were about 170 million yuan. They were mainly concentrated on the buildings in Sloth Apartments.

Fortunately, Fish-Catching Internet Cafe, Upwind Courier stations, Deposit Fitness, and other physical industries, including the new experience store, were all rented. That was why this fixed asset figure had not been surpassed.

According to the System’s calculation method, fixed assets would be deducted into the System Funds after dividing by 10.

In other words, even if Pei Qian were to lose all of the System Funds, the System Funds would still be calculated according to 17 million yuan. Pei Qian could only convert 33 million yuan.

Pei Qian decided to lower the quota after some consideration.

He still had 20 million yuan left to operate the System Funds even if he bought another 120 million yuan building. If he were to seriously incur losses, it would not be a problem to earn hundreds of thousands or a million yuan.

At the very least, it would not be a problem to burn the tens of millions of yuan that he had earned from selling the copyrights.

Thus, Pei Qian called Liang Qingfan and told him to look for a new building in advance.

He had to keep an eye on it in advance so that he could spend it immediately once the money was in place.

On the other end of the line, Liang Qingfan pondered for a moment and asked, “Boss Pei, should we continue to buy residential buildings? Can we consider shops?”

Pei Qian was stunned. “Shops?”

“Which location?”

Liang Qingfan said, “Er... it’s in a more remote area. There’s no guarantee of its appreciation potential, but it should be alright.”

Pei Qian was a little more relaxed now.

He would definitely make a huge profit if it was a shop in the city center.

That was because the most important thing about a shop was its location. The difference in customer traffic between good and bad zones was more than ten fold. It directly determined the potential of the shop to appreciate.

It would be alright if it was in a more remote area.

There was the potential for appreciation but it should not be comparable to those prosperous shops.

Pei Qian would earn no matter whether he bought residential buildings or shops, in prime locations or in remote areas.

Since that was the case, he could buy some shops in a slightly more remote place. The fixed assets in his hands would be more diversified, and it could reduce the risk of suddenly making a huge profit.

At that thought, Pei Qian nodded. “Alright, buy as much as you want. Tell me if you don’t have enough money.”