Losing Money to Become a Tycoon: Starting with Games
Chapter 445: He Desheng, the Master of Bargaining
Online, the most heated debate revolved around the "1,000 units in stock" meme, with complaints everywhere.
"I've seen plenty of hunger marketing before, but never something this blatant!"
"Yeah, other companies at least stock tens or hundreds of thousands of units. These guys? Just 1,000 units, all sold out instantly at the launch to create the illusion that their phone is super popular. Same old tricks!"
"They probably even hired people to fake the audience at the launch event!"
"Not just the audience—I bet most of those review outlets were paid off too!"
"The company could've pre-sold the phones to scalpers, staged a 'sold out on the spot' moment, and then let the scalpers jack up the price. Perfect plan! Teaming up to scam idiots while both sides profit!"
"Damn scalpers!"
"Alright, I'm out. This phone clearly isn't meant to be sold seriously. Stop pushing this stuff to me!"
"Just wait, they'll keep doing hunger marketing—releasing only 1,000 units each time and selling out instantly to maintain the illusion of high demand and keep prices high. The moment they open full supply, people will realize the phone isn't worth it, and it'll collapse immediately!"
"People should've figured it out by now, right?"
"Don't say that. I still trust Tengda Group's reputation. Besides, Mr. Chang already said they're rushing production—2,000 units will be available tomorrow."
"Haha, 2,000 units? That's your 'rushed production'? And you're telling me this isn't hunger marketing?"
Seeing these comments, a warm feeling rose in Pei Qian's heart.
As expected, consumers had sharp eyes—there were still plenty of sensible people!
Keep it up, just keep it up!
As long as this precious skepticism lasts until the end of the month, you'll all be my benefactors!
Buzz… buzz…
Just as he was savoring the moment, the phone on his desk vibrated.
Pei Qian picked it up—it was a call from He Desheng.
"Hm? Is this about the Top Student, Come Quickly app?"
He quickly answered.
Earlier, he had already instructed He Desheng: however the money was earned, spend it all!
Had it finally been spent?
"President Pei, we've bought back the Top Student, Come Quickly project! All the shares!" He Desheng sounded excited. "Oh, and we also found the former person in charge at Moral Education. There's no need for us to poach him—he got fired!"
Pei Qian was stunned. That smooth?
They bought it back just like that?
If he remembered correctly, Moral Education had acquired the Top Student, Come Quickly project less than a month ago.
For He Desheng to buy it back so quickly, they must have spent quite a lot, right?
Pei Qian couldn't help but feel a surge of excitement. "How much did it cost?"
On the other end, He Desheng replied, "President Pei, a little over 5 million!"
Pei Qian: "?"
Why was it only 5 million???
They had previously made 15 million just by selling shares—and that was without even selling the final 20%!
And now it only took a third of that to buy everything back?
And what was wrong with Moral Education? Didn't you spend 40 million acquiring this project? Why sell it for 5 million?!
Couldn't you at least raise the price a bit? Seriously?!
Hearing President Pei fall silent on the other end, He Desheng thought he was dissatisfied with the price and hurried to explain.
"President Pei, actually, this price is already very low."
"After Moral Education acquired the project, they made a big show of it—forcing their students to invite others to register, selling courses within the app, and so on. But it quickly backfired, with complaints everywhere and a sharp drop in user data!"
"On top of that, the project simply couldn't turn a profit—it's been burning money every single day!"
"Many of Moral Education's senior executives were extremely dissatisfied with this investment. There were already internal conflicts, so several of them took the opportunity to attack and push out the executive who had led the acquisition. As a result, the project became an abandoned asset…"
"Once no one was in charge, the project lost access to Moral Education's resources and declined even further, turning into a complete money sink with no returns."
"To avoid further losses, Moral Education decided to cut their losses. Since we still held 20% of the shares and had priority acquisition rights, they came to me."
"Of course, their initial asking price was very high—they tried to fool me."
"But how could I be fooled? I've been in charge of this project from the beginning. I know exactly what it's worth. After a few words, I left them speechless!"
"At that point, they wanted to sell it to someone else, so I casually hinted that I fully understood the project's situation. If I leaked even a little information, they wouldn't be able to sell it at a high price anyway."
"So after several rounds of negotiation, they lost patience. I swung the butcher's knife and slashed the price down to 5 million!"
"I told them plainly—this project is only worth this much now. If they delay any longer, even 5 million might be too much!"
"If we dragged it out a bit more, we could've probably pushed the price even lower. But I figured you might be in a hurry, President Pei, and didn't want to delay things. This price seemed about right, so I closed the deal."
"Oh right, the person in charge of the project at Moral Education was fired along with that executive. I remembered you wanted to recruit him, so I reached out and brought him over."
"If you'd like to meet him, you can do so anytime!"
"That's about the situation. So, President Pei, did I handle this efficiently?"
On the other end of the call, Pei Qian was silent for a long while.
"You… did a great job." His tone carried both melancholy and a hint of gritted teeth.
He Desheng chuckled modestly. "Not at all, not at all. It's really thanks to your clear strategy, President Pei. I just followed your approach to get this result!"
"If you hadn't kept some shares instead of selling everything, and then instructed me to buy it back, I would never have thought of this angle!"
Pei Qian: "…"
Fine. My fault again.
It was already bought back—what else could he say?
After a moment of gloom, Pei Qian said, "About that manager—have him come to Dream Fulfillment Ventures at 2 PM this afternoon. I want to meet him."
He Desheng replied, "Got it, no problem, President Pei!"
After hanging up, Pei Qian felt deeply depressed.
Who would've thought that He Desheng was actually so good at bargaining?
And yet, this was clearly the most useless skill in the entire Tengda Group!
Still, since the Top Student, Come Quickly project—a bottomless pit that could continuously burn money—had been bought back, that 10 million would eventually be spent if they just kept pouring money into it.
Well… better than not being able to buy it back at all!
…
At 2 PM, Pei Qian arrived at Dream Fulfillment Ventures.
He Desheng and the project manager were already waiting.
"Hello, President Pei!"
"President Pei, this is the department head in charge of the Top Student, Come Quickly project at Moral Education. His name is Yu Ping'an."
"And this is President Pei of Tengda Group."
He Desheng introduced them.
Pei Qian stepped forward and firmly grasped Yu Ping'an's hand. "Hello! You've worked hard!"
His face was full of eagerness to recruit talent.
Yu Ping'an was a bit flattered. "President Pei… I—I haven't worked that hard."
Pei Qian sized him up and down. He looked honest and simple—probably the sneaky type underneath.
"Come, have a seat."
"Let's get straight to the point. I want you to continue managing the Top Student, Come Quickly project. We'll raise your salary according to Tengda Group's standards, with full benefits. How does that sound?" Pei Qian's face was full of anticipation.
Yu Ping'an was even more flattered. "President Pei… I—I will definitely live up to your expectations!"
Pei Qian nodded in satisfaction. "Good. Then what's your plan?"
Yu Ping'an thought for a moment. "Those executives at Moral Education were clueless—they just messed everything up! They forced user registrations and stuffed the app with course advertisements, turning it into a complete mess!"
"Once I take over, I'll cut out all that garbage—completely!"
"I'll restore Top Student, Come Quickly to its original clean and simple state and win back the users' trust!"
Pei Qian said nothing.
This Yu Ping'an was good at shifting blame, but the problem was—if they really "de-Moral Education" the app, wouldn't it just revert to its original state?
That wouldn't do. Wouldn't that make the ten million he planned to burn pointless?
No, it had to stay exactly as it was. No messing around!
After thinking for a moment, Pei Qian said, "Not appropriate."
"You will keep the app exactly as it is. Don't remove any of the existing content. Understood?"
"And don't add any new features either."
"In the early stage, stability is key. At this time, doing nothing is better than doing something."
Yu Ping'an froze and instinctively glanced at He Desheng beside him.
He Desheng frowned slightly and said in a low voice, "Why are you looking at me? Here, whatever President Pei says, you just follow it completely. Think more, ask less. Got it?"
Yu Ping'an quickly nodded. "Yes, yes. President Pei, I will do exactly as you say!"
Pei Qian nodded in satisfaction. Hmm, this Yu Ping'an seemed honest and had a good attitude. With some training, he might become the next Lu Mingliang.
If he could obediently carry out instructions while secretly losing some money on the side, that would be perfect!
"Alright, that's it for now." Pei Qian stood up, preparing to leave.
He Desheng quickly added, "President Pei, one more thing!"
"There's still less than ten million left in the company account. What should we do with it?"
Pei Qian: "…"
Originally, this money was all meant to be used to buy back Top Student, Come Quickly. But with He Desheng's decisive bargaining, the deal was closed at just over five million.
The remaining money was still sitting in Dream Fulfillment Ventures' account—which, for an investment company, felt a bit embarrassing…
Pei Qian felt a wave of melancholy.
Should he burn the money on the Top Student, Come Quickly project?
No. The project had finally been restored to its original state. What if pouring money into it somehow made it popular again?
Until he was certain that the project could incur massive losses, he absolutely couldn't act rashly.
Use the ten million to stock up inventory for the phone?
It wasn't entirely out of the question, but it would be better to wait until tomorrow and see how the phone sales went first. If the phone didn't sell well, then stocking up could be considered. But if it sold out, then that was absolutely not an option.
After thinking it over again and again, Pei Qian couldn't come up with any project that was guaranteed to lose money. So he said, "Let it sit for now. Remind me again in a couple of days."
He Desheng quickly nodded. "Alright, President Pei."
After seeing President Pei off, He Desheng began handing over work to Yu Ping'an.
Starting today, Yu Ping'an would officially take over responsibility for the Top Student, Come Quickly app.
"Uh, I have one more question," Yu Ping'an said hesitantly.
He Desheng replied, "Hmm? Go ahead."
Yu Ping'an carefully chose his words. "President Pei said that the app's existing features shouldn't be removed or added, and that we should maintain the current state… Does that also include the course advertisements originally placed by Moral Education?"
He Desheng smiled slightly. "What do you think? President Pei said 'maintain the current state,' so we should do everything possible to maintain it."
Yu Ping'an looked troubled. "But… there are a lot of ads for Moral Education's courses on the app. It doesn't seem appropriate for our app to advertise for them! Besides, Moral Education probably wouldn't allow us to keep using their content for promotion. Keeping their materials might even lead to legal disputes."
He Desheng thought for a moment. "Hmm, that's true. But no matter what, we still have to fulfill President Pei's instructions."
"How about this… we keep those entry points, but replace the content with other businesses under Tengda Group? Choose things that are somewhat related or at least loosely connected to the app."
"That way, we're not removing any features. We're fulfilling President Pei's requirements while also avoiding legal risks. Best of both worlds."
Yu Ping'an nodded. "Yes, that's what I was thinking too! I'll proceed with that plan."
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