Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Pei Qian was pacing around his office madly.

There was something wrong. There was something terribly wrong!

He knew very well that Surprise and Zhu Yidan's Boring Life were both well-known in the realm of short videos. They were both very successful!

Boss Pei's Daily Life—the show that Zhu Xiaoce wanted to shoot now—was very similar to both of these shows at the core. It would most likely become very popular as well!

What should he do?

"System, I want to divest! I don't want to invest the one million yuan in Huang Sibo anymore. Is that possible?"

A line of words appeared on the system's screen:

<You need a valid reason to divest, or it would be considered a violation.>

Pei Qian, "…"

A valid reason?

I don't have one!

I can't possibly request to divest because I think that this project is going to make me too much money, right?

Are there other reasons?

Could I say that Huang Sibo is taking bribes or that he's not serious about his job? Could I say that I don't like Zhu Xiaoce and I think he's too ugly? How about purely not wanting to make the investment without a reason?

None of these were valid!

Pei Qian pondered hard.

There's no way! There was no way he could persuade the System!

He had to think of something else.

"Calm down. Apart from divesting, there should be another way out. I don't want to shoot the movie. Will that do? I don't want to become the main lead! They can look for whoever they want to!

"At the very least, I can reduce the amount of profits this project brings in…"

Pei Qian had decided. He would turn down this job for the simple reason that he was way too busy.

Then, Zhu Xiaoce and the others would have to look for another actor to take his place. It would be extremely difficult for them to find an actor with the same vibe as him. Even if they could find someone like that, at least the production of the videos would have been delayed by the search!

What if the videos did not become popular because of the change in actors?

He made up his mind and decided to turn down the job. Although it pained Pei Qian to part with the thirty-thousand-yuan remuneration, he knew that he could not lose sight of the big picture because of this small sum!

As long as he could record a loss when settling accounts—even a loss of six or seven hundred thousand yuan, there would be no need for him to be too concerned about earning a petty sum like thirty thousand yuan.

He was prepared to call Huang Sibo and turn down this job. However, the moment he picked up his phone, he realized that there was another problem.

He had already signed the contract!

On the contract, it was written that he would need to pay three times the remuneration in the event of default!

That was ninety thousand yuan!

Pei Qian's hand trembled when he realized that something was amiss.

"System, can I use the System Funds to pay for my defaulting of a contract?"

<The contract is signed by the owner in his personal capacity. All the benefits earned under the contract would belong only to the owner. Therefore, any compensation for default of the contract would have to be borne by the owner.>

Piak!

Pei Qian's phone dropped onto the ground.

Done for!

Where the hell am I going to get ninety thousand yuan to pay the compensation?!

I can't divest the money; neither can I act in the videos!

His heart turned cold.

I have no choice! I'm going to act!

After sitting in a daze for five minutes, Pei Qian finally regained his composure. "Calm down. Think about this positively. The short films would not make that much money…

"En, that's the only way I can think…"

Pei Qian felt like he was in a trance. All he could do now was comfort himself and keep telling himself that things were not as bad as he thought. Even if films of such low production value became popular and took on several advertising opportunities, they would likely not be able to recover the principal of a million-dollar-investment.

Even if they could recover the principal, they likely would not make much profit.

When the time came for settlement—if the gaming projects and physical store projects incurred losses, Pei Qian still had a chance of incurring a loss overall!

"Phew, fortunately, I was well-prepared. I nearly got myself in deep trouble again!

"I have to go and talk to Lu Mingliang again and tell him to increase the vigor of the voice-overs. He needs to mock the players much more!"

…

…

The next day…

Zhu Xiaoce appeared once again.

"Boss Pei! We're more or less done editing the videos from yesterday. We are still thinking about when we should upload it.

"We still have to discuss the terms of cooperation with the video website and see if they can give us better spots for advertising. We might have to spend some money on that, but we'll have to negotiate the exact cost.

"However, rest assured! I have a senior working at Potato Web; I'm pretty sure we can find good sources of resources for advertising!

"We won't delay our work either; we'll film another episode today. It's better to get busy at the start of the year, so that we can schedule releases over the new year. The more we produce, the more likely we would catch the public's attention.

"Boss Pei, you don't look too good today. Are you working too hard?"

Pei Qian's face was indeed looking a little dark. Of course, this was not because he was working too hard!

He was hardly attending lessons in school anymore. Apart from rolling around on his couch, he kept himself in his office all day to surf the web and play games. He had employees to do work for him; why would he be working at all?

His heart was just tired!

"I'm alright. Go ahead and film." Pei Qian sounded listless. Since he could not divest or default on the contract, he would have to obediently finish filming these thirty episodes.

Of course, Pei Qian was not giving up either. He was trying hard to think of another way out.

Very quickly, the employees took their respective positions.

The title of the second episode was 'Giving Nine Bonuses in a Row to the Hardworking Employees'.

Pei Qian got a shock just reading this title. Indeed, the previous script was no coincidence!

This Director Zhu Xiaoce was really something; he was very talented! If nothing went wrong, Pei Qian guessed that this episode would easily get at least a million views.

If he could, he would want to do away with filming at once!

What should he do now?

Pei Qian was beginning to panic.

At the rate they were updating, they would likely upload a video every two days. If this happened throughout all three seasons, what would Pei Qian do?!

No way, he had to salvage the situation!

Suddenly, Pei Qian's eyes lit up. He just thought of a brilliant plan.

He had to slack off!

He needed to act horribly and destroy the reputation of these short videos! The moment he thought about this ingenious plan, the fresh meat that had no experience acting seemed to become possessed!

Pei Qian tried hard to recall all the interesting acting skills.

He thought about the various schools of acting, like the glaring school, the pouting school, the facial paralysis school, the laughing-or-crying school, the self-encouragement school, and all the other schools.

En, he would act horribly for this season!

Although it would probably be hard to stop these videos from making profits—as much as possible, Pei Qian would try to reduce the amount of profits they earn.

Pei Qian worked hard to move his facial features, preparing himself to greatly disappoint Director Zhu Xiaoce! After all, he was not a professional actor. Even if he acted badly, Zhu Xiaoce could not blame him!

The plan was in motion!

Zhu Xiaoce adjusted his DSLR and officially started recording.

Pei Qian readied himself. He wanted to wait until the most important moment to display the world's worst acting skills! Zhu Xiaoce remained blissfully unaware of Pei Qian's plan and continued to direct the scenes as he did the day before.

"Good, Boss Pei, give me an expressionless face.

"Give me another expressionless face.

"Put a bit of a smile that doesn't seem like it's there on your expressionless face.

"Give me a slightly suspicious, expressionless face.

"Tap his shoulder expressionlessly.

"Give him a name card expressionlessly.

"Expressionlessly…"

They continued filming all the way, without any break from beginning to end.

Pei Qian was still waiting to display his amateur acting skills, but before he knew it, filming was complete for the day.

As Zhu Xiaoce packed up his equipment, he held up his thumb towards Pei Qian. "Boss Pei, your acting skills are superb! You really are starring as yourself! Compared to your performance yesterday, you've improved!

"You've mastered the skill of remaining expressionless, but displaying all the rich emotions you are feeling on the inside. You have absolutely surprised me! Every single pore on your body seems to be invested in the act!

"I'll make a move first, Boss Pei. Tomorrow, we can film the last episode before the new year! With Boss Pei's superb acting skills, I'm confident that these videos will become very popular!"

Zhu Xiaoce left excitedly, but before he left, he did not forget to thank Pei Qian profusely.

Pei Qian was the only one left in the room. He silently reflected on his life.

Have I… displayed any acting skills?

Why do I feel… like something is very wrong?