Chapter 255: When Fortune Arrives, a Turn of Events Follows Naturally
Seeing how warm and enthusiastic President Pei was, Lin Wan almost forgot why she'd come in the first place.
Why did it feel like the game had sold like crazy and they were about to throw a huge celebration?
The two of them entered the meeting room, where Pei Qian invited Lin Wan to take a seat on the sofa and personally poured her a cup of tea.
A meritorious subordinate deserved this kind of treatment!
As for the current state of Blood War Anthem: Enhanced Edition, Pei Qian couldn't be more satisfied.
Eight million spent—and it actually lost money.
Better yet, Lin Wan was probably devastated by this failure. Maybe she couldn't handle the pressure anymore and would go back home to inherit her family business.
Truly, a double blessing.
Once again, the decision to acquire Shangyang Games had proven absolutely correct!
The only pity was that the TPDb rating was a bit too low. If it could rise to an 8, that'd trigger another 400,000 yuan bonus payout.
Don't underestimate that extra 400,000—for all he knew, that might be exactly what he needed to push the project into a proper loss!
Of course, Lin Wan and Shangyang Games had already done an excellent job overall, and President Pei was a man who knew how to be content.
Pei Qian personally poured the tea, leaving Lin Wan flattered and a little overwhelmed. She sipped it twice, almost forgetting again why she was here.
Oh, right—she'd come to report.
Lin Wan briefly summarized the problems Shangyang Games was facing at the moment.
"President Pei, there are two main issues I came to discuss today."
"First, Zhang Zuting's commercial has been getting absolutely slammed online. Not only has it tanked our game's reputation among regular users, but it's also caused Mr. Zhang a lot of distress."
"Yesterday, he actually contacted our staff at Shangyang Games himself to ask if he could come back to Jingzhou and reshoot the ad."
"He said he'd do it for free—not a single cent."
"I know the ad was meant to appeal to traditional browser game players, but it's really hurt Zhang Zuting's image. Maybe we should reshoot something a little more tasteful, as a form of compensation?"
Reshoot the ad?
Absolutely not!
Pei Qian didn't even hesitate. He shook his head right away. "No need."
"I understand how Old Zhang feels, but reshooting won't solve anything."
"The ad's already out. People's impressions are set. It's not like we can brainwash the entire audience and make them collectively forget."
"Besides, the ad went viral—that's brought Old Zhang a bunch of new fans. Taking a few hits online won't kill him."
Lin Wan still looked uneasy. "But… there are so many people calling him 'Fried Pig Trotter' on Weibo. He says it's hard for him to accept that nickname…"
Pei Qian chuckled. "And why do you think his popularity dropped in the first place? Because he's too hung up on his old idol image. He just doesn't get what the younger generation likes anymore."
"If he keeps clinging to outdated ideas, how's he ever going to make a comeback? People calling him 'Fried Pig Trotter'—that's a term of endearment! It means they like him. How can he not understand something so simple?"
Lin Wan blinked, confused. "Uh…?"
Well… President Pei's reasoning did kind of make sense.
But still, the person involved clearly wasn't happy about it!
Pei Qian continued, "Just talk to Old Zhang a bit more. Help him adjust his mindset. Personally, I think 'Fried Pig Trotter' is a great nickname—feels down-to-earth."
"It even sounds appetizing. Young people will love it."
"If you check Zhang Zuting's Weibo, hasn't he gained a lot of followers lately? His engagement's way up, right?"
Lin Wan hesitated, checked her phone, and blinked. "Huh… looks like he has gained a lot of fans."
"See? There you go. Help him see the bright side."
And just like that, Lin Wan was half-bewildered into agreement. That problem was now "resolved."
"There's also the second issue," she continued. "You've seen the data for Blood War Anthem: Enhanced Edition, right?"
"The numbers don't look great, but I think it's too early to call it a failure. I plan to observe for another week, and if the data still doesn't improve by then, I'll make some adjustments."
Huh? Adjustments after a week?
Adjust what? Everything's perfect right now!
Don't you dare change a thing!
Pei Qian's expression suddenly turned serious as he spoke in a solemn tone.
"Failure? Where do you see failure?"
"On TPDb, the consumer score is 9.2—that's what I call overwhelmingly positive feedback!"
"I also checked the forums. The veteran players are all very satisfied with this game."
"At Tengda, we judge success by reputation, not profit. So this game isn't a failure at all—in fact, it's a huge success that's perfectly achieved its original goal."
"As for the fact that it isn't making much money right now, that's no big deal. You have to look at the long term."
"As long as the game has a good reputation, it'll make money eventually."
Lin Wan still looked conflicted. "Um…"
"Well, that may be true, but… the netizen rating online is really low. Only 4.3."
Pei Qian took a sip of tea and scoffed. "Just a bunch of bandwagon-hopping cloud gamers."
"They haven't even played the game. They saw one ad and went straight to give it a one-star review. Why bother caring what they think?"
"The 4.3 user score is mostly because TPDb doesn't have a large enough user base yet. Many people misunderstand Blood War Anthem: Enhanced Edition, so that number isn't accurate."
"You have to believe that a good game will never be buried. Since consumers recognize its quality, all we need to do is keep going—the truth will shine through eventually."
Lin Wan silently nodded.
Yes, as expected, President Pei's mindset was far more open and serene than she'd imagined.
The online reviews had been troubling her deeply, but to President Pei, it wasn't even worth mentioning.
Pei Qian smiled calmly. "Haven't I said it again and again? You need to look at the bigger picture."
"Blood War Anthem: Enhanced Edition represents everyone's hard work. Since we all agree it's a truly great game, why bother fretting about short-term profit and loss?"
"Don't panic, and don't make changes. Just maintain the current state."
Lin Wan nodded firmly. Of course—President Pei saw things with such clarity!
If even he believed the game shouldn't be altered, then she'd leave it as-is.
Still… just waiting around didn't feel quite right either.
She hesitated for a moment. "Then I'll have them make some small optimizations—fix a few bugs and such, without changing the core content."
Pei Qian nodded, satisfied. "Good. Very good."
As long as they didn't make major changes, everything would be fine.
"But… President Pei," Lin Wan asked hesitantly, "when do you think Blood War Anthem: Enhanced Edition will turn things around?"
When will it turn around?
Now that was a tough question. How should I know?
If it were up to me, I'd rather it never turn around…
But looking at Lin Wan's hopeful, expectant gaze, Pei Qian felt he had to say something encouraging to calm her down.
"That depends on the timing," he said solemnly. "When the time is right, the turnaround will come naturally."
…
…
After seeing Lin Wan off, Pei Qian finally exhaled in relief.
Everything was pretty much settled!
The recent failure of Mingyun Private Kitchen had kept him on edge, but now, with good news from Shangyang Games, he could finally relax a little.
As for Zhang Zuting, Pei Qian was content to let Lin Wan handle it. After all, they'd paid him, treated him to meals, and even helped him gain some extra attention online. He didn't owe Old Zhang a thing.
So what if the guy took a few insults? No big deal.
If Old Zhang still felt upset about it, next time they could just bring in a few more Hong Kong stars to shoot another commercial together—something like, "If you're a real brother, come take a bite of me!"
Worst case, if Old Zhang came back to Jingzhou, Pei Qian could treat him to another nice meal.
But when Pei Qian remembered that from now on, he'd have to book a reservation before eating at Mingyun Private Kitchen—no more casual walk-ins—his mood sank again.
"Oh, right! I need to call Lin Canrong!"
Pei Qian suddenly remembered something important.
He had been far too optimistic about Mingyun Private Kitchen's situation before—the number of reserved dates he'd set aside was completely insufficient.
Although the restaurant was already fully booked until the week after next, there was still time to secure a few more reservations further down the line.
He called Lin Canrong and added several more bookings.
Originally, he had reserved full-venue bookings for the 20th of every even month, and the largest private room for the first and third Sundays of each month.
Now, he changed it to every 20th of the month for full-venue bookings, and the largest private room for the first and third Sundays and the second and fourth Saturdays of each month.
In short—he doubled his previous reservations.
Pei Qian would've liked to reserve even more, but every group dinner had to have a "legitimate reason."
Weekly private room use and monthly full-venue reservations should be enough for now.
After finalizing the bookings, Pei Qian let out a long breath of relief.
This Sunday, he'd invite Qiao Liang to dinner—to comfort that poor man's wounded soul.
Then, on the 20th, he'd treat the whole Shangyang Games team to a big meal as a reward.
With Shangyang Games settled for the time being, Pei Qian felt much lighter. He picked up his game controller again, ready to continue his suffering in Turn Back Before It's Too Late.
Just then, his phone lit up.
It was a message from Lin Chang.
"President Pei, that Hardcore Review channel… that's you, isn't it?"
Pei Qian froze.
Oh? So he'd been found out this quickly?
He had assumed Lin Chang was too busy to notice a small account like Hardcore Review.
Pei Qian had originally planned to tell him after all twenty videos were uploaded. He hadn't expected Lin Chang to discover it on his own.
Since last month, Hardcore Review had released eleven videos—over halfway to the original goal of twenty.
Pei Qian's initial plan was simple: make twenty throwaway videos, hit the quota, and then happily spend the allocated 200,000 yuan.
But the results had far exceeded his expectations. The channel's popularity had been steadily growing, now boasting over 600,000 followers.
Especially the first three phone reviews—their comment sections had become battlegrounds where fans of three different brands were still arguing to this day, driving the view count higher and higher.
Of course, even with 600,000 followers, the channel's overall influence on Aili Island wasn't that big—it was just modestly well-known within the tech niche.
Pei Qian genuinely hadn't expected Lin Chang to have noticed it.
Could it be… President Lin actually spends his free time scrolling through Aili Island videos?
For most people, even if they had seen Hardcore Review, they would never connect it to Pei Qian.
After all, he never showed his face, and his tone of voice in the videos was completely different from how he usually spoke. Plus, who would believe that a wealthy man like President Pei would be personally filming product reviews for fun?
But Lin Chang was a different story.
He had sponsored the project himself and knew Pei Qian was conducting a kind of "performance art" experiment. Between that and recognizing Pei Qian's build and accent from the videos, he managed to piece it together.
There was no need to hide it anyway—the entire thing had been meant for Lin Chang to see from the start.
So Pei Qian simply replied:
"Yeah, that's me."
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