Chapter 19 A Loss of Imagination

"I've long heard that President Pei and Tenda Games are dark horses that have recently risen in Jingzhou City. Every game they make is a hit, and they frequently top the trending searches. It's really enviable," Du Ruijie said with emotion as he sipped his tea.

Pei Qian said politely, "Not at all, I'm actually very envious of President Du."

Du Ruijie was taken aback. "Envious of what?"

"Uh... I'm envious of President Du's good fortune." Pei Qian originally wanted to say "envious of your ability to lose money," but he immediately realized that this would be very inappropriate, so he quickly made a mental U-turn.

Du Ruijie laughed. "President Pei, you're really joking. But I suppose my luck has been pretty good."

"If any other company faced this situation, they would probably go bankrupt quickly. I'm really lucky that President Pei is willing to take over."

"President Pei, I'm very grateful that you're willing to save Shang Yang Games from the fire. So, I won't play any games with you. Today, I'll be frank and tell you the truth."

"Honestly, the company's poor management is mainly my responsibility as the boss. If President Pei can really bring Shang Yang Games back to life, I'd be happy to give you the company directly."

"But..."

"First, this company was started by me and another friend, and we both put a lot of effort into it. Second, the employees of this company are all my brothers, and I hope to find a good home for them as much as possible..."

Du Ruijie chatted on and on, sipping his tea.

He was saying all the right things, but Pei Qian knew that President Du was still thinking about how to raise the price.

The part after the "but" was the key.

What President Du was saying, in essence, was that he emphasized how difficult it was to start this company, how excellent the employees were, and that the two games still in operation hadn't completely died and could start generating revenue again with a little effort...

Pei Qian listened silently, smiling without saying a word.

Du Ruijie gave a long-winded speech for ten minutes, introducing the situation of Shang Yang Games while inserting his own agenda, making a great show of it.

Pei Qian didn't take the bait. He wasn't interested in any of this.

President Du probably thought that Pei Qian was young and wanted to swindle him a little, to get as high a price as possible.

But he never expected that Pei Qian wasn't interested in these things at all and wouldn't care. That was all Assistant Xin's job.

Assistant Xin listened quietly behind Pei Qian, constantly taking notes, waiting for Pei Qian's command to start haggling at any time.

"President Pei, that's about the situation. I'll give you an honest price, round it down to a million. What do you think?"

President Du looked as if he was saying, "This is too good to be true."

Pei Qian didn't answer but casually asked, "I remember your company's previous main planner was surnamed Liu. Where is he?"

Du Ruijie was stunned, then shook his head slightly. "Oh, Old Liu. He just resigned a few days ago. He probably found another job."

"President Pei, don't worry, Xiao Bin has always been our numerical planner. His work ability is very strong, and he's been promoted to main planner. He can definitely replace Old Liu's work! Oh, no, maybe he can do even better than Old Liu!"

Resigned?

This…

Pei Qian felt a little pained.

Old Liu realized that the company was going down the drain and found another job in advance.

That's right, a senior planner like Old Liu with such a good resume wouldn't have trouble finding a job.

It's just a little unfortunate. Such a good company wasn't complete when he got it.

But Pei Qian didn't care and didn't plan to bring Old Liu back.

Isn't it just a missing main planner? Just find someone to replace him.

However, Pei Qian glanced at Wang Xiaobin and felt that there might be a problem with letting him be the main planner.

According to President Du, he was previously the project's numerical planner, knew the project very well, and was very capable.

That's probably true.

In that case, Pei Qian definitely couldn't let him be the main planner. What if he was better than Old Liu?

He had to find someone else.

Pei Qian slowly calculated these things in his mind, without revealing them.

"Can I play your company's two games for a bit?" Pei Qian asked.

Du Ruijie nodded. "Of course. Xiao Bin, go get a laptop and let President Pei experience our games."

Wang Xiaobin nodded and went out, bringing a laptop from outside.

Pei Qian noticed that there was already a laptop on Du Ruijie's desk.

This meant that Du Ruijie himself didn't usually play his own games at all.

Pei Qian couldn't help but feel envious.

Look at them. Their company is a mature company. The boss doesn't care, and the company will lose money on its own!

Unlike Tenda, he had to stare at it all the time, and it still gave him trouble.

Before long, Wang Xiaobin brought a laptop.

Shang Yang Games currently had two games, one called *Fengliu Daoshi* (The Amorous Taoist), and the other called *Rexue Zhange* (Hot-Blooded Battle Song), both web games, but the former was a management simulation game, while the latter was a national war RPG game.

Pei Qian first clicked on *Fengliu Daoshi*.

As soon as he registered an account and entered, he was met with a scene that made his blood boil. A huge beautiful woman's illustration appeared in the center of the screen, with a scantily clad young lady that made people's noses bleed.

Du Ruijie and Wang Xiaobin's expressions were a little unnatural, with a kind of "ugly daughter-in-law meeting her parents-in-law" awkwardness.

They had long heard that the President Pei in front of them was not only the boss but also the chief designer of Tenda Games.

Take the recently popular *Game Producer*, which gave an in-depth analysis and merciless satire of the domestic game industry. Whether it was the gameplay, graphics, or spiritual core, it was on par with the top foreign companies.

Looking at Shang Yang Games, it was basically still in the stage of playing on the edge.

The level of style was simply hundreds of thousands of miles away…

What if President Pei was unhappy and didn't buy it if they showed him this kind of game. What would they do?

Pei Qian quickly browsed and quickly determined that this game was just a clickbait…

It was just an ordinary web management game with an added beauty system. A new beauty would be unlocked every so often.

In all aspects, it was very terrible, and it was no wonder that it was about to stop operating.

Pei Qian closed the game and silently clicked on *Rexue Zhange*.

The graphics looked much better than the former, but it was still rough.

This was a standard "Come and Cut Me, Brothers" type of game. The 2D graphics made Pei Qian feel like he had returned to the Stone Age.

The fact that this game could still generate a lot of revenue a month or two ago and maintain Shang Yang Games' monthly operating expenses of about 300,000 was simply a miracle.

After watching these two games, Pei Qian suddenly felt a little emotional.

He seemed to understand why he couldn't lose money.

A lack of imagination!

As a person with memories of 2019, his taste and aesthetics had been spoiled by various classic masterpieces.

Even if he deliberately made trash games, what he could think of might be some of the highly criticized krypton games on the market.

But, all the krypton games that Pei Qian could remember were games that had fought to the death in the market and survived to make money!

That's where Pei Qian's imagination ended. No matter how trashy the game, he really couldn't imagine what it would be like.

But now he knew.

It was like *Fengliu Daoshi* and *Rexue Zhange*…

If you clicked in and played for two minutes, you could feel your IQ being rubbed on the ground.

Sure enough, losing money still required professionals.

This deal seemed very worthwhile!