Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

A single sentence from Boss Pei could undo ten years of education.

Hao Yun felt as if everything she learned about human resources management in school had become useless. They did not fit at all with what Boss Pei required!

However, that was the way Tengda and Boss Pei operated!

Boss Pei had always been unique. Obviously, he also had a unique theory and method of managing his employees.

Hao Yun nodded. "Alright, Boss Pei. Leave these things to the HR department. We will get everything done properly!"

Hao Yun had just received an epic, long-term mission from this NPC. Filled with renewed motivation and determination, she left.

Pei Qian took a short break and then continued to work on the movie script.

…

November 2nd, Tuesday…

At 10 AM sharp, Pei Qian walked into the office. He opened his laptop, opened a document, and then began making final edits to the movie script. He wanted to complete the script today and then send it over to Huang Sibo and the others.

There was no other way about it; Pei Qian had always worked swiftly and decisively.

With the story's earlier framework as the foundation, Pei Qian perfected the details. The more details he came up with, the less likely Huang Sibo and Zhu Xiaoce would misunderstand his intentions.

First, he had to add more sci-fi elements.

Pei Qian pondered for a moment and decided that it would be best to avoid adding complicated, commonplace sci-fi elements.

That meant no space warships and time traveling.

Why was that?

That was because Pei Qian's primary aim was to spend as much money as possible on special effects. If the special effects ended up being too well done, the audience might think that they were worth paying for to watch. What would Pei Qian do then?

Boss Pei had to ensure that while he spent money on these special effects, the audience would not enjoy them.

It would be best to avoid things like time travel because Pei Qian was coming up with an incomplete script. There was a chance that Huang Sibo and Zhu Xiaoce—these imaginative b*stards—would be able to change it beyond recognition.

There would be a lot of room for them to get creative with things like time travel. This worried Pei Qian.

He did not want them to come up with a script that ended up being only about one person, in which the protagonist recorded himself, slept with himself, killed himself, or married himself.

Thus, after some thought, Pei Qian decided to carry out wicked deeds under the banner of virtue. He would give the movie a sci-fi appearance but not film any huge scenes involving sci-fi. The movie would purely revolve around everyday life.

When advertising the movie, he would call it a 'locally-produced sci-fi film' with a 'moving plot' and 'beautiful special effects'. That would give the audience high expectations.

They would enter the cinema and realize there were no special effects, no cool scenes, and very few sci-fi elements. The movie would just be a modern story wrapped in sci-fi packaging.

On top of that, the plot would be extremely toxic.

It would piss them all off!

The angry audience would immediately cry for refunds.

As for how to make the plot as toxic as possible, Pei Qian had to keep coming up with details.

The male protagonist was going to be a bootlicker who would end up with nothing. This general framework could not be changed. However, how exactly should he bootlick and end up with nothing?

Pei Qian had to rack his brains to come up with this.

If he came up with something too subtle, the plot would not be toxic enough, and people would not be repelled strongly enough.

Thus, he had to ramp up the intensity!

Now that he had the general framework for the story, Pei Qian felt inspired to write the rest of the details. He quickly tapped away on his keyboard, expressing all his thoughts in words.

…

…

Technology would have flourished in the future.

Robots would replace humans and take over most of the manual labor. Most manual laborers would lose their jobs and become poverty-stricken. Fortunately, they could depend on basic social welfare services for their food and lodging.

The male protagonist was a jobless, poor man who had to depend on basic social welfare services and emergency relief to survive.

He lived in something like a capsule and could only sleep curled up. If he was not careful when he tried to sit up on his bed, he could knock his head against the ceiling

He would receive instant food every day thanks to the emergency relief services. He would have to add boiling water into what looked like a gray flour paste. This would barely meet his daily nutritional needs.

There was a television in the capsule that the male protagonist lived in. This was the only form of entertainment available to him.

The television programs were filled with all sorts of advertisements, which he could not skip over because he had insufficient money.

He could play games and chat with others on the television, but he had to pay to do all of these. Since the male protagonist could not even afford to skip advertisements, he naturally also could not afford other forms of entertainment.

Thus, the male protagonist spent his days watching advertisements and television programs. Each day, he had three hours to leave his capsule and walk around outside.

This was because the outside space could not be freely enjoyed by humans.

Rich people could roam around outside from 6 am to 6 pm every day, ordinary citizens from 6 pm to 12 am, and poverty-stricken people like the male protagonist from 12 am to 3 am.

From 3 am to 6 am, the outside world would undergo mass cleaning, so that the rich people could enjoy it once again from 6 am onwards.

If poverty-stricken people went out or remained outside past their allocated time slot, they would be severely punished.

Most poverty-stricken people's body clocks were completely messed up as a result. They treasured the time slot that they were allocated to roam around outside. To them, this was the most important part of their days.

Of course, strictly speaking, poverty-stricken people like the male protagonist were not completely jobless.

They were allowed to watch their favorite television programs and vote for them.

Depending on how long they spent watching these programs, they would be paid some fictitious money that could be used to purchase certain items. These included nice clothes, delicious food, tasty drinks or alcohol, and the like.

Every television program would also contain a quiz. If one decided to spend their money on these quizzes and ended up winning, they could earn even more fictitious money.

Some programs would even invite ordinary or rich people, who rose out of poverty by earning money through quizzes, to share their experiences during the program.

The male protagonist was very into this. He won some and lost some, but he was quite gifted. Thus, he would win small sums from time to time and reward himself with some beer.

One day, the male protagonist ventured outside once again.

By chance, he met the similarly poverty-stricken female protagonist. The female protagonist was not especially beautiful or charming, but she was pure and adorable. To the male protagonist, she was uniquely attractive. He began to fall in love with her.

The male protagonist struck up a conversation with her using his innate sense of humor. He defeated other competitors and won the female protagonist's heart.

From that day onward, they would meet in their allocated three hours to eat good food or spend money on cheap forms of entertainment.

Both of them quickly developed a romantic relationship.

The male protagonist began to scrimp and save and carefully take part in quizzes, for fear that he would lose all of his hard-earned money.

He wanted to save enough money to buy a space where both of them could live together.

Since his heart was set on this, he did not buy the female protagonist any gifts or treat her to feasts for a long time.

The female protagonist did not get upset. Instead, she was very forgiving and expressed understanding and support for the male protagonist.

That was until one day, the male protagonist finally saved enough money to buy a capsule big enough for the two of them.

It was then that the female protagonist suggested that he had been earning money too slowly for them to ever become ordinary citizens. She said that she wanted to take part in a talent show, so that they could earn money much faster if she was given a chance to star in it.

The male protagonist refused, and they had their first quarrel.

The next day, the male protagonist felt immensely guilty. After considering for a long time, he decided to give the female all the money he had saved up, so that she could chase her dreams.

On the day that the female tried out for the talent show, the male protagonist—as her loved one—was awarded an entire day free of advertisements. That meant he could watch the entire episode from beginning to end without being interrupted by any advertisements.

The female tried to display her talents while on stage by singing and dancing. The male protagonist watched closely but did not think that the program was that interesting at all.

The female protagonist finally ended her performance, but only one out of the four judges gave her the nod.

According to the rules of the competition, participants would only succeed if they got three or more nods.

The other judges ruthlessly pointed out the female's problem: she was too stiff when she danced, making her look like a clumsy bear. Her singing technique was also wrong, her breathing was unsteady, and she was out of tune. She was also too nervous on stage, so that she lost her stage presence.

The only one who gave her the nod was a male judge who only thought her dress looked nice. They had spent a huge sum of money to rent that dress for the show, so that the female protagonist would look like the innocent girl-next-door.

She left the talent show, feeling extremely disappointed.

Yet, the male protagonist inwardly celebrated. That was because he knew that if she had succeeded, they would only grow further and further apart.

Now that the female's dreams were crushed, he could hope for a future together.

When they met again, the male protagonist comforted the female and then began to save up money again in order to buy a capsule that they could live in together.

He spent more time watching different television programs and studying their ways, so that he could carefully take part in the quizzes.

He had to make sure that he won every quiz he took part in.

Subsequently, the female protagonist became increasingly distracted on their dates. She often zoned out while the male protagonist was talking and nodded while in a daze.

The male protagonist did not overthink this. Instead, he wrote it off as the female protagonist being crushed about her dashed dreams and was certain that she would recover one day.

At last, the male protagonist earned enough to purchase a bigger capsule. He happily announced this to the female, saying that they could finally live together.

However, the female protagonist lost her temper for the first time, becoming hysterical towards the male. She kept shouting 'you don't know anything' and suggested they broke up.

Confused and on the verge of breaking down, the male protagonist suddenly realized that the female had a small baby bump.

The female protagonist came clean with him and admitted to having an affair with that judge from the talent show the entire time.