Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

"Don't worry, tell me the truth. How many customers have visited the restaurant in the past two days? How many people dined here? How many people pre-ordered food?" Pei Qian asked patiently and systematically.

Lin Canrong answered truthfully. "A total of eight customers came over the past two days. Three of them dined here. One of them pre-ordered dinner for tomorrow."

"Hmm… eh?"

When he heard the first two numbers, Pei Qian was happy. These numbers were practically negligible. In a few days, Zhang Zuting would make a new Weibo post. This Weibo post would be pushed down, and even these few customers would be lost.

Yet, one of the customers had actually pre-ordered dinner for the next day? There were many rich people indeed.

Pei Qian pondered for a moment and asked, "What did he pre-order?"

Lin Canrong reported the man's orders to Pei Qian. Among these were Tomahawk Steak, caviar, and Matsutake. He had not ordered a lot; it looked enough for two or three people. However, all of these dishes added up to over ten thousand yuan.

What's more, this customer had already paid 20% of the bill as a deposit.

Pei Qian was silent. He really did not understand rich people.

Although Pei Qian would also wolf these dishes down and invite his employees to do the same while he was at it, it was only because he was trying to spend as much money as he could!

If he could finish spending all the money, he would be able to benefit from the System. What's more, the System would replenish his funds. Those were the only reasons that Pei Qian could spend without restraint.

However, if Pei Qian had been asked to spend his own money on this food, he would find even a common home-cooked dish costing three to four hundred yuan expensive!

Yet, this customer had ordered more than ten thousand yuan worth of dishes.

Pei Qian was positive at first. Until now, the number of customers who had visited Ming Yun Private Kitchen was in the single-digits. The situation looked ideal. He did not expect a baller to be hidden among these few customers.

At that moment, Pei Qian felt confused.

Seeing Boss Pei fall silent, Lin Canrong became confused as to what the latter was thinking.

This should be good news, right? Why isn't there even a hint of a smile on Boss Pei's face?

Pei Qian pondered for a moment and then asked, "Can you identify the man's accent?"

After thinking, Lin Canrong replied, "He spoke Mandarin, but he had an accent. I don't think he's from Jingzhou. I think he's from Pingcheng."

A coal boss?

That was Pei Qian's first reaction.

However, he quickly looked on the bright side. He was not a local of Jingzhou. Perhaps he was here on a business trip. He probably would not be staying here for a long time.

Since that was the case, it was good.

Even if he was a baller, he could not come here frequently. At most, he would entertain his guests here and only make reservations when he had to host business meals. Thinking about it this way, it should not… generate too much revenue for Ming Yun Private Kitchen, right?

At that thought, Pei Qian relaxed slightly. He felt like he had been panicking and treating everyone as an enemy recently. Ever since he opened this private kitchen, he had been treating his own employees to meals here. How could he expect it to remain completely hidden from the outside world?

Having a few ballers eat here had been in Pei Qian's original plan anyway. In the long-term, this private kitchen would still incur losses.

Thus, there was no need to get so nervous.

When he heard that the baller was not from Jingzhou, Pei Qian relaxed considerably.

Both of them chatted about the daily operations of the private kitchen until Little Sun's car drove into sight.

"That's that for now then. Remember what I told you about the service. Even if they're ballers, do not break the rules. Just ask the waiters to treat them like ordinary customers.

"Also, do not spread the name of our restaurant."

Pei Qian left some more instructions before boarding the car.

After seeing Boss Pei out, Lin Canrong tried to decipher the hidden intention in Boss Pei's words.

"Is Boss Pei trying to tell us not to get too nervous upon seeing ballers because there will be tons of such ballers in Ming Yun Private Kitchen in the future? If we break the rules for one baller, when more ballers visit us in the future, the rules would be useless.

"Mm, that makes sense!

"Boss Pei is far-sighted indeed. He has already thought about what Ming Yun Private Kitchen would look like when business picks up in the future. He's really well-prepared.

"Boss Pei is also reminding me not to be easily satisfied. How can I become so excited over just a single baller? I'm a branch manager after all; I have to remain calm. When more ballers come and visit us in the future, I must maintain my composure.

"That is how I can pass down Boss Pei's spirit to the employees."

Lin Canrong saw a bright future for Ming Yun Private Kitchen. Happily, he returned to share the good news with the others.

…

…

August 21st, Saturday…

Ming Yun Private Kitchen was setting up for a dinner.

Qiao Liang planned to walk around Jingzhou in the morning and have some fun. He would work overtime and play Repent and be Saved from the afternoon. Boss Pei had been so nice to him. He had to make sure that he completed the job properly.

Over at Shang Yang Games, research and development for Bloody Battle Song: The Powerful Version was already complete. They were now running final tests. Then, they could officially advertise it and publish it.

Today was Saturday. According to Boss Pei's instructions, they could not work overtime on weekends.

As the director, Lin Wan tried to persuade everyone to return home in the beginning. However, the thought of the game's publishing date approaching made Wang Xiaobin and Ye Zhizhou restless at home. They insisted on working overtime, and Lin Wan had no choice but to allow it.

Of course, Lin Wan could hardly sit still either.

Thinking about the game they spent so much time on being officially published for gamers to try in a week made everyone feel agitated and apprehensive.

In the end, they kept the size of Bloody Battle Song: The Powerful Version's mini-client to 370 MB. This was far more than anyone expected in the beginning.

Initially, Bloody Battle Song was a browser game that people could open whenever they wanted to play. Mini-clients for most browser games could be kept under 5 MB. A few web-based games' mini-clients added up to 30 to 50 MB.

Any bigger than that, and they would not be called mini-clients. Taking web-based games as the standard, it would take far too long to download 370 MB worth of data. Gamers would probably be better off downloading client-side games.

Most web-based gamers would find it hard to tolerate downloading 370 MB of data.

However, Lin Wan did not have a better solution. According to what they agreed on earlier, Bloody Battle Song: The Powerful Version would be changed from a two-dimensional to a three-dimensional game. The art resources had been redone. No matter how they tried to compress them and improve them, they could not lower their size any further.

They had spent a lot of effort compressing and improving the resources to get the game to 370 MB.

There was a huge risk, but what was done had already been done. There was no turning back. They had to look on the bright side. Perhaps they could rely on the far-superior quality and fair gameplay to forcefully change the taste of traditional web-based gamers.

What's more, Boss Pei had personally crafted the advertisement.

Lin Wan had no idea what to expect, but she trusted that Boss Pei had it all planned in advance.

Wang Xiaobin knocked on the door gently. "Director Lin, we have finished initial preparations for advertising. At the moment, we plan to place advertisements on various websites, including novel websites, video websites, game websites, comic websites, and website navigation sites.

"According to what we agreed, we will not use pop-up windows and <anno data-annotation-id="f557b308-eae4-4197-a8ef-f8d9f0b5fda3">Psoriasis-style</anno> advertisements. People will only be transported to the game's registration and download page after they click on the advertisement."

Although these are considered common ways of advertising—at Lin Wan's insistence, the more irritating styles of advertising were done away with.

In fact, there were still all sorts of messy advertising methods out there, such as windows that pop out of nowhere and Psoriasis-style advertisements in the bottom right corner of webpages. These were considered run-of-the-mill advertising. Many of them also destroyed netizens' gaming experience.

Still, one had to admit that these unashamed pop-up windows were the most effective.

Rejecting methods like that would reduce the effectiveness of advertisements. At the same time, it would not help with the game's reputation at all since netizens might not even notice the conscious avoidance of such methods.

Still, Lin Wan discussed this with everyone and decided to avoid using such advertising methods.

After all, Shang Yang Games was not the same as before. They had to differentiate themselves from web-based game manufacturers with no bottom line.

After hearing Wang Xiaobin's report, Lin Wan felt satisfied. "Thank you. Our next task is to continue working hard on the game. It might be hard to change gamers' taste, but at least we can say we tried our best."

Wang Xiaobin nodded, fully agreeing with Lin Wan's words.

Although Director Lin had not micro-managed the entire research and development process for the game, this positive and uplifting spirit was definitely similar to Boss Pei's. It was very rare indeed.

"Everyone can make the necessary preparations then. In about a week, we will run final tests. We'll invite old gamers to try the game out and give us some feedback. A week later, the game will be published officially. The advertising work will then start in full force!"

…

…

At night, in Ming Yun Private Kitchen…

"Look, I told you that this is an excellent restaurant, but you didn't believe me. Do you believe me now? The promoters you found are not professional enough!"

Xue Zhebin sat cross-legged with a huge grin on his face. He felt especially proud of himself. He had really earned from the meal he pre-ordered yesterday!

The moment they walked through the door, Xue Zhebin felt the difference. The decorations, dining table, and cutlery in the private room had all been changed!

Xue Zhebin had chosen that private room in the afternoon because there were not many people in Ming Yun Private Kitchen at the time. However, since he did not make a reservation, the decorations in the private room were all ordinary. The environment was good, but there was nothing special about it.

Things were different today. Xue Zhebin had made a reservation in advance. Thus, the decorations, table, and cutlery had all been laid out according to his orders. Everything was of the same style, including the tablecloth and the decorations on the table. The restaurant had obviously been meticulous in setting this up.

All in all, his eyes lit up the moment he walked in!

The young man seated opposite Xue Zhebin looked slightly older than him but still under thirty years old.

He was a direct contrast to Xue Zhebin's nouveau riche vibe. This young man was dressed in a suit, and he looked entirely business-like. At first sight, one could tell that he was the cream of the crop in the business world.

At that moment, he was tasting the food and looking confusedly at his reviewing application on his phone.

"Jingzhou City has a private kitchen of such good quality, and yet our promoters did not manage to find it. How did you find it?"

The map on the reviewing application displayed this location as an empty plot of land. There was not supposed to be anything here.

Xue Zhebin smiled, elated. "Why do you care how I found it? You lost the bet; this meal is your treat!"

The young man seated opposite him was called Wang Peng. He was one of the creators of Quanmin Reviews.

As one of the winners of the close competition among various websites, Quanmin Reviews had been expanding quickly from first-tier cities to second- and third-tier cities. Jingzhou City was one of the key cities in this expansion.

In order to speed up the expansion of their market and rope in more businesses, Wang Peng suggested introducing promoters in every city. These promoters' jobs would be to find shops that haven't been discovered yet and persuade them to partner with Quanmin Reviews.

Promoters have achieved good results indeed. Quanmin Reviews was expanding quickly in Jingzhou. At the moment, most businesses were already partners of Quanmin Reviews.

This was especially so for high-end restaurants with outstanding dishes. After successfully negotiating with owners of these restaurants, promoters would be paid a significant commission. Thus, Quanmin Reviews' promoters worked hard to find restaurants like that.

Even if businesses were not willing to partner with Quanmin Reviews, Quanmin Reviews would at least mark these businesses out on their website. The map should not show an empty plot of land like it was doing now.

For this reason, Wang Peng did not believe Xue Zhebin. He even felt quite indignant.

He did not think that a high-end restaurant like that, which was outstanding in almost every way, would remain undiscovered by Quanmin Reviews' promoters in Jingzhou.

The waiters smiled as they remained by the side, waiting to be of help.

Wang Peng asked, "How long has your restaurant been open?"

A waiter smiled as he answered, "Slightly over half a month."

Wang Peng was even more confused.

He could not figure this out. Quanmin Reviews had so many promoters around Jingzhou. Each day, they were sent out to look for businesses that had not yet been discovered. Yet, this restaurant managed to remain hidden from the public for over half a month. Promoters had not managed to find it, but Xue Zhebin had instead.

This was ridiculous.

Wang Peng asked, "What's the name of your restaurant?"

He thought about talking to the boss of this restaurant and discussing a partnership with Quanmin Reviews.

Still smiling, the waiter answered, "Sir, our restaurant doesn't have a name. We hope that what you'll remember would be this place's beautiful environment, meticulous service, and memorable food—not its superficial name."

<annotations style="display: none;"><ol class="tinymce-annotation-container"><li data-annotation-id="f557b308-eae4-4197-a8ef-f8d9f0b5fda3">This is a common Chinese description for advertisements that are stuck in a certain position on the screen.</li></ol></annotations>",