Losing Money to Become a Tycoon: Starting with Games
Chapter 388: President Pei, I Understand—I'm Not a Three-Year-Old
Hearing those four words, He Desheng was visibly stunned.
"Ah? Another 'shared' project?"
He felt a little dizzy.
Previously, when Zhang Wang proposed the "Shared Phone Booth" design, He Desheng had already found it ridiculous, but at least that thing had a physical form.
And after observing it for a while, he realized that the unreliability was only on the surface. In reality, the phone booth still had potential.
But this time—Shared Top Student?
How do you "share" a top student?
Human trafficking was illegal!
Pei Qian smiled. He had expected this reaction.
To give He Desheng and the Dream Fulfillment Ventures team something to do, he couldn't wait for the next project.
There were only so many business proposals. They had already gone through all of them last time, and aside from "Shared Phone Booth," Pei Qian hadn't taken a liking to any of the others.
They were all too reliable!
So this time, inspired by the trend, Pei Qian had a sudden idea.
"Sharing" was a good thing!
Thinking carefully, most so-called "sharing economy" projects were just hype. Very few actually made money, it was basically a fake trend.
That said, Pei Qian still didn't dare touch something like shared bicycles.
After all, once certain projects were labeled "shared," they could still appear very promising.
If he stood at the so-called trend's forefront and actually got blown upward by capital, the consequences would be disastrous.
So, combining it with his own needs, Pei Qian came up with an extremely unreliable idea: Shared Top Student!
To put it bluntly, it was just paying someone to tutor you.
Previously, Pei Qian had struggled painfully while reviewing for exams and kept thinking—if only he could pay someone to study in his place, that would be great.
Of course, that was impossible. There were no shortcuts to learning. That was precisely why knowledge was priceless and hadn't been monopolized by the wealthy.
But that didn't mean the situation couldn't be improved at all.
Looking at He Desheng's confused expression, Pei Qian cleared his throat.
"Shared Top Student is essentially about sharing knowledge!"
"Our model is simple: create an app that builds a communication platform between top students and struggling students!"
"In every city, there are many top students—and even more struggling students. The struggling ones want knowledge and tutoring, while many top students naturally enjoy helping others and explaining problems. Of course, if they could receive a bit of financial compensation along the way, that would be even better."
Hearing this, He Desheng suddenly understood.
"I get it, President Pei! You want to create a tutoring platform!"
"Great project!"
"The education industry is a sunrise industry right now. As economic conditions improve, parents are paying more and more attention to their children's education. From elementary school to high school, many parents are willing to hire tutors, but there isn't a fair and convenient platform, most rely on personal connections."
"If we launch this app, it will perfectly address that pain point. I can already see a ten-billion-yuan valuation education software rising on the horizon!"
Pei Qian: "?"
A tutoring platform?
No, no, that's not it at all!
How did the exact same explanation suddenly sound so reliable coming from him?
Pei Qian started to panic and quickly corrected him.
"No, you misunderstood. Strictly speaking, it's not a tutoring platform."
"Our core concept is sharing—sharing, understand? The fees definitely can't be as high as traditional tutoring. What we're doing is more of a semi-public welfare project."
"And our project will have a broader scope than tutoring."
He Desheng thought for a moment and nodded.
"I understand! So it's not just a tutoring platform, it's also an online question bank!"
"For questions that have clear answers, there's no need for a top student to come in person. We just need to build a solid question bank. Users can search for the original problem and get a detailed solution. That way, the coverage will be much broader!"
Pei Qian: "..."
He suddenly felt like he understood why every project he touched somehow ended up succeeding.
Today, right in front of him, He Desheng had demonstrated how a normal person could overinterpret things to an absurd degree.
Twisting his words right to his face—was that even acceptable?
Pei Qian's face darkened. For a moment, he almost wanted to fire this dangerous individual on the spot.
But after thinking it over, he calmed himself. He had experienced this sort of thing far too many times already.
Overinterpretation beforehand was still better than overinterpretation afterward.
Pei Qian carefully considered his next words and decided to change his phrasing.
To be fair, he truly didn't believe that either Shared Phone Booth or Shared Top Student had any chance of success.
Especially Shared Top Student. If such a project could succeed, someone would have done it already.
In Pei Qian's memory, during the height of the sharing economy craze, he had never heard of a similar app succeeding. That alone proved the model had inherent flaws.
The biggest issue was that the market simply wasn't that large—and top students weren't that free.
Top students were busy studying every day. The fact that some could spare time to tutor was already impressive. Why would they travel long distances to explain problems to strangers just to earn a little pocket money?
After all, private tutoring fees were usually high, only wealthier families could afford them.
Most ordinary families, even if they wanted academic help for their children, would probably enroll them in cram schools instead.
In short, in Pei Qian's view, this project had too many fundamental weaknesses that couldn't be resolved.
Thinking this through, Pei Qian lowered his voice and said to He Desheng, "To be honest, the probability of this project failing is very, very high."
"So even if it fails, you shouldn't feel any psychological burden."
"Just treat it as a public welfare endeavor, understand?"
He Desheng froze.
What did President Pei mean by that?
In He Desheng's impression, President Pei's investments could be summarized in four words: steady, precise, ruthless, and unconventional.
President Pei always managed to spot opportunities in projects that looked completely unreliable. And once he decided on one, he would invest heavily without hesitation.
And the results had proven it—every project President Pei chose had made money!
But now, before this project had even taken shape, why was President Pei already hinting that the probability of failure was very high?
Did that mean President Pei himself wasn't optimistic about it?
But if he wasn't optimistic, why invest at all?
Was he really treating it as a charitable venture?
That didn't make sense. If President Pei wanted to do charity, he could simply donate directly. Why go through all this trouble?
He Desheng fell into deep confusion.
He felt that President Pei's unusual behavior must conceal a deeper meaning.
Suddenly, a flash of insight struck him.
'President Pei is hinting at something!'
'He's hinting that this project has inherent flaws and will ultimately fail.'
'President Pei is far-sighted. His judgment is most likely correct.'
'If that's the case, then as an investor, what should I do?'
'Find a way to cash out at the peak and exit!'
He Desheng instantly grasped the "meaning" and nodded.
"I understand, President Pei!"
He didn't say it explicitly—this sort of thing couldn't be said out loud.
Just like how President Pei was only hinting at it now; he would never state it so bluntly.
Pei Qian looked at him with suspicion and tested him cautiously.
"You really understand?"
He Desheng chuckled. "President Pei, don't worry. I'm not a three-year-old. It's such a simple sentence, what kind of comprehension does it even require?"
Pei Qian felt a deep resonance with those words.
Exactly. Even a three-year-old could understand what I'm saying. What kind of comprehension is needed?
Then why does everyone else always misunderstand?
Seriously!
Seeing that He Desheng seemed so "on the same page," Pei Qian felt slightly reassured.
"In that case, stop helping Zhang Wang with the Shared Phone Booth and focus entirely on the Shared Top Student project."
"Oh, and the name 'Shared Top Student' isn't quite appropriate."
"I think 'Top Student, Come Quickly App' would be more suitable."
Pei Qian was worried that the "sharing" concept might attract the attention of certain opportunistic investment firms and get hyped up as the next big trend—that would be troublesome.
Renaming it to "Top Student, Come Quickly" gave it a slightly unserious tone. Other investment institutions probably wouldn't jump in to meddle, right?
…
Terminal Chinese Web.
After two days of arrangements, the first batch of trainees for the training program had been finalized, and the preliminary preparations were almost complete.
Ma Yiqun had asked the current editor-in-chief, Zhu Anxing, to contact the website's mid- to upper-tier authors and have them apply voluntarily. After screening, the final list was produced.
From the list, it was clear that most of the authors in the first training session were young—generally under 25.
On one hand, older authors were often already married with families and many responsibilities, making it unlikely they could come alone to Jingzhou. On the other hand, the website had intentionally favored younger authors during selection.
With a base salary, full social insurance and housing fund benefits, and the chance to meet other authors in person, this opportunity was quite appealing to them.
…
…
January 13th, Thursday.
Huanyu Sky Street Mall.
Zhang Wang grunted as he stuffed all the equipment he had brought into the Shared Phone Booth, installing each item one by one.
While Ruan Guangjian had been "painting the skin" of the booth, other tasks hadn't been delayed at all.
That was largely thanks to the help of He Desheng and the others.
Although He Desheng's team soon received a new assignment, fortunately most of the work on the phone booth had already been completed.
Now, most of the equipment inside the booth was in place—including a coffee and beverage machine, a jukebox, a capsule toy machine, a weighing scale, an AED, and so on.
All of these items were fixed securely inside the booth and couldn't be moved.
This was a large shopping mall. Whether it was the cinema staff or the employees at the beverage shops, they could all keep an eye on the phone booth at any time. Zhang Wang had already spoken with the mall staff, and they agreed to help keep an eye on it.
Moreover, there were surveillance cameras both at the entrance of the cinema and around the phone booth. If anyone deliberately vandalized it, they would be caught within minutes.
Most of the equipment had undergone simple modifications.
Take the beverage machine for example: Zhang Wang had purchased a commercial multi-function drink machine that supported both QR code payment and coin insertion. The machine also had an automatic cup-dispensing function and could clean itself automatically. If it ran out of paper cups or purified water, it would issue a prompt.
Zhang Wang had coordinated with the mall staff to regularly replace paper cups, refill purified water barrels, clean the machine, and tidy up the booth. The entire maintenance process wouldn't take much time.
After customers scanned the code to enter, they could use the jukebox freely. However, the beverage machine only allowed two cups; after that, users would have to scan again or insert coins.
The capsule toy machine worked the same way, if you wanted to use it, you had to pay extra.
In addition, there was a themed stamp of Guardian of Justice Zadkiel, placed on the right-hand side, just below the retro telephone.
Once everything was set up, Zhang Wang nodded in satisfaction.
Hmph, this is the complete form of the Shared Phone Booth!
The entire booth was packed from top to bottom. From above downward, there were the telephone, a small scrolling display screen, the beverage machine, the jukebox, the capsule toy machine, a three-port charger, wireless Wi-Fi, another jukebox interface, a foldable seat, an AED, a weighing scale, a blood pressure monitor…
In short, the layout was extremely well arranged. There was virtually no wasted space, yet it didn't make customers feel cramped.
Zhang Wang checked everything once more. All the equipment inside was properly set up and functioning normally. Only then did he close the door.
On the front mural, Guardian of Justice Zadkiel wore a confident expression, as if hinting that this Shared Phone Booth was bound to succeed!
Zhang Wang felt immensely satisfied. The Shared Phone Booth was finally ready to be officially put into operation and opened for users to experience!
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