Chapter 142 A Dream-Deprived Era

Pei Qian closed the Academic Affairs Office website with satisfaction, deciding not to dwell on the grades anymore.

Although even one point was a historical improvement, there was no point in constantly boasting about it. It was best to just keep it quietly in his heart.

"It looks like you've been studying hard and diligently these past few days. How's work going?" Pei Qian asked.

Ma Yang patted his chest. "Don't worry, Brother Qian. I'm balancing work and study. I haven't neglected anything!"

"I came here today specifically to report to you."

"I've been working diligently on Weibo to fulfill people's dreams, but there are fewer and fewer dreams worth fulfilling. Many people can't even write a decent joke. How can I believe that these people truly have dreams?"

"As for those joke writers who have already received money, their wishes have already been fulfilled, and their jokes have been squeezed dry. One shouldn't be greedy, so I'm no longer fulfilling their dreams."

"In the past week, I've only given out about 100,000 yuan. Alas, it can only be said that this is a dream-deprived era."

"A good dream is more precious than gold. This is my heartfelt opinion."

Pei Qian listened, dumbfounded.

What to say about Lao Ma?

Pei Qian just wanted him to throw money around on Weibo and spend more, but Lao Ma took it too seriously.

No more money for those who already got it, no money for those who can't write good jokes. As a result, only 100,000 yuan was given out in a week? At this rate of spending, he couldn't count on him.

Pei Qian had already tried to persuade Lao Ma to relax the standards a bit and not be so strict, but Lao Ma refused, saying that dreams are rare and sacred things, not to be defiled.

Pei Qian was helpless and could only let him be.

"How's the situation with the product review live streams? How's the popularity?" Pei Qian asked again.

Ma Yang said, "The popularity? The popularity is basically stable. Not very popular, but not bad either."

Pei Qian was secretly delighted. It was just as he had estimated.

Ma Yang's reverse product review was basically like exposing counterfeit goods. It might be very popular at the beginning, but it would gradually stabilize, and there wouldn't be explosive growth in popularity.

After all, this kind of program wasn't suitable for watching every day. People would get tired of it.

The fact that the popularity didn't continue to soar but instead stabilized was good news for Pei Qian.

Ma Yang continued, "I've already done more than a dozen live streams, reviewing everything from stationery to home appliances, including food, digital products, and so on. All of them have had very good effects!"

"Some shady merchants directly took their products off the shelves and closed their online stores and ran away."

"Some big brands took their products off the shelves, apologized, and made rectifications. Consumers who had been unable to protect their rights finally received the compensation they deserved."

"Many brands have secretly approached me, wanting to pay to avoid disaster, asking me not to target them; even many brands that haven't been exposed yet have hinted that as long as their brands aren't mentioned in future live streams, everything would be fine, and they could even give our program some sponsorship fees…"

Pei Qian asked with concern, "What did you say?"

Ma Yang chuckled. "Of course, I immediately posted all the private messages they sent me!"

"Brother Qian, I've always remembered your instructions. No matter why anyone wants to give us money, it's absolutely a pipe dream! Those brands that haven't been exposed yet, we weren't planning to do a program about them in the first place, but the fact that they sent private messages means they have something to hide, so we have to do a program to expose them!"

"I have millions of followers now. Everyone says I'm a fighter, a spokesperson and vanguard for Tengda's spirit. How could I be bought off by this mere money?"

Ma Yang's long face was full of pride.

Pei Qian gave him a thumbs up. "Well done! Lao Ma, I've long seen that you're a promising talent. I can rest assured when you handle things!"

It had to be said that if someone else was doing Lao Ma's job, they might not be able to be so ruthless.

The brands he exposed on his live stream weren't all shady products. There were also some well-known manufacturers. Exposing them would offend a lot of people.

What was even more ruthless was that he directly posted all the private messages the manufacturers sent him, not giving them any face at all. Most people couldn't do something like that.

On this matter, Pei Qian was 100% satisfied with Lao Ma's work.

Although Lao Ma's number of followers had been growing, reaching several million, there were plenty of Weibo bloggers with millions of followers. Lao Ma had spent so much money to earn a few million followers, which was completely acceptable.

"Has anyone threatened you?" Pei Qian asked with concern.

Ma Yang shook his head. "A few shady small accounts sent me private messages. I directly @ the cyber police, and they were so scared that they deleted their accounts and ran away. Besides, our country is a society ruled by law, and I have bodyguards. What's there to be afraid of!"

Pei Qian nodded. "Well, that's good."

If an ordinary person did this kind of thing, the resistance would definitely be extraordinary, but Tengda was behind Lao Ma, so many things would be much easier to do. Even if someone hated Lao Ma, they would have to consider the weight of Tengda behind Ma Yang.

Speaking of Tengda…

Pei Qian asked, "Have you 'promoted' Tengda's products in your live streams?"

Ma Yang was stunned for a moment and scratched his head. "Oh… no."

Pei Qian was a little unhappy. "Didn't I tell you to pay special attention to Tengda's products?"

Ma Yang scratched the back of his head. "But Brother Qian, Tengda doesn't seem to have any new products…"

Pei Qian said, "What about the fully automatic intelligent argument machine? Do that for your next program. Show everyone the problems, shortcomings, and bad points of this thing in detail in the live stream!"

Ma Yang hesitated. "This seems to be a new product, right? Our own product's quality must be fine. There might not be much content to do for this program…"

Pei Qian's expression was serious. "Precisely because it's our own product that we must be even more strict! We must treat everyone equally. At the same time, it's also a good way to spur Otto Technologies on, to keep them improving and progressing!"

Of course, saying that he was spurring Otto Technologies was a lie. What he really wanted was to reduce the sales of the argument machine and earn less money.

The fully automatic intelligent argument machine had been on sale for more than a week. Originally, no one paid any attention to it, and everything was fine; but suddenly one day, for some unknown reason, the sales of this thing began to soar!

Part of the reason was Qiao Liang's recommended Weibo post, but that only served to fuel the flames. Pei Qian still didn't understand the root cause of its popularity.

Seeing that the inventory he had prepared for the sake of spending money was about to turn into troublesome system funds, Pei Qian didn't want to sit still and wait for death.

Therefore, he planned to use Ma Yang's "live stream product review" as a chess piece, in the hope of reducing the sales of the fully automatic intelligent argument machine.

By now, the fully automatic intelligent argument machine had been officially on sale for more than a week, and everyone's enthusiasm for blind purchases should have subsided somewhat.

Now that everyone had regained their senses, talking about the problems and shortcomings of the fully automatic intelligent argument machine at this time should have the best effect, right?

As for whether there were any problems with the product, there definitely were.

Otto Technologies didn't have its own factory. Making smart speakers must also involve designing themselves and finding other factories for OEM production. There was no particularly high technical barrier.

In other words, compared with the original manufacturer's soundbar products, the quality was about the same, but the price was raised because of the addition of an argument machine.

Moreover, the price of more than two thousand yuan could only be considered a decent entry-level product. It was just something for enthusiasts to listen to, and its sound quality was completely incomparable to those sound systems and soundbars that cost several thousand or tens of thousands.

See, as long as you want to find fault, there are plenty of faults!

Pei Qian felt that Chen Yufeng and the team responsible for preparing the live stream content for Ma Yang were a professional team, and they would definitely be better at finding fault than he was.

When the time came, they would dig deep and expose everything about the fully automatic intelligent argument machine. Even if they didn't stop everyone from buying it, they could at least dissuade some consumers, right?

As long as a batch of goods could be piled up in the warehouse before the settlement, that would be a good thing.

Ma Yang said, "Okay, Brother Qian, I'll tell Chen Yufeng to start preparing the content for the next live stream immediately. We'll do the fully automatic intelligent argument machine!"

Pei Qian nodded. "Okay, after the first draft is out, show it to me. I'll give you my opinion."

"No problem, Brother Qian. Just watch!" Ma Yang left happily.

Watching Ma Yang's departing figure, Pei Qian couldn't help but sigh silently.

It must be so happy to be a loafer like Lao Ma.

It seems that no matter what happens, he's always so optimistic, unlike himself, who is full of all kinds of worries every day, racking his brains to lose more money.

How enviable.

Pei Qian looked at the date. Today was already January 18th, and there was less than a week left until the Spring Festival. The company's various tasks were basically coming to an end.

New Year's Eve was on the 22nd, and Pei Qian planned to start the holiday directly after the annual meeting on the 20th.

Originally, the annual meeting should have been held earlier, but there were many things to do in the last month, and Pei Qian was afraid that preparing for the annual meeting would delay the settlement and lose money, so he postponed it for a few days and put it directly on the day of the holiday.

In this way, it would be quite straightforward to go home for the holiday directly after the annual meeting.

Of course, everything that should be arranged before the holiday had to be arranged properly.

Although he had earned a lot of money this cycle, Pei Qian had prepared relatively well. He had spent a lot of money on Mission and Choice, and Dream Realization Ventures had also shared a portion. Pei Qian planned to use all the remaining money to advertise.

Although advertising would have hidden dangers, he couldn't care so much for the sake of spending money. Moreover, Pei Qian's advertisements were mainly aimed at the real economy, including Touching Fish Cafes, Touching Fish Takeout, Trustee Gyms, Sloth Apartments, Reverse Wind Logistics, and so on.

These industries had one thing in common, that is, most of them were already steadily profitable, but as long as stores were opened fast enough, they wouldn't earn much more. Advertising for these industries was much safer than advertising for games, mobile phones, and other industries.

During the Spring Festival, he would launch a wave of advertisements in Jingzhou, the Imperial Capital, and the Magic Capital, which would spend a lot of money.

According to this calculation, after the system officially settled after the New Year, it should generate a relatively considerable loss.

After the settlement was completed after the New Year, Pei Qian could put all his energy into the next cycle.

Pei Qian felt that his plan was very perfect and could be described as impeccable.