Chapter 1 What to Do

Both of them knew very well what this meeting was for, so there was no need to beat around the bush. Pei Qian didn't take Meng Chang too seriously either; this was just one of his many troubles, a relatively minor one. He needed to resolve it quickly so he could move on to other things.

Pei Qian said, "You already know the general scope of the work. I mainly want to discuss the salary with you."

"You have two options to choose from: the first is a fixed salary of 40,000 per month, and you won't get a penny less as long as you complete the work; the second is a low base salary plus commission, with a base salary of 3,000 and commissions ranging from zero to 200,000."

"The specific calculation method for the commission, of course, is linked to the promotional effect of the advertising and marketing. I will have someone specifically analyze the data and calculate your commission based on the money spent on each advertising plan, the heat generated, and the promotional effect."

"Under the premise of not insulting consumers, not violating relevant laws and regulations, and using normal marketing methods, the more money you spend, the lower the heat, and the worse the promotional effect, the higher the commission."

Meng Chang immediately said, "I choose the second opt... Wait, the lower the heat, the higher the commission?"

"Inversely proportional???"

When Meng Chang heard the preceding details, he thought it was quite normal.

A low base salary plus a high commission was exactly the model he was looking for.

Although a monthly salary of 40,000 was already a high income for most people, it was completely unsatisfactory for Meng Chang. After all, when he was a senior executive at a large company, his salary had long since exceeded this amount. Even if he didn't go to a large company now, there were plenty of places that would offer him a monthly salary of 40,000. There was no need for him to work cautiously under Boss Pei for this fixed amount.

What's more, if he used the 40,000 monthly salary to pay off his debts, after deducting taxes and miscellaneous living expenses, even if he paid off 300,000 a year, his debt would still take twenty years to repay.

How many twenty years does one have in life?

During this period, he would always be identified as a person subjected to enforcement, and there would be too many restrictions. He couldn't even take high-speed trains or planes for travel, and he shouldn't even think about buying a house, traveling, vacationing, or going abroad.

By the time he finished paying off his debts, he would almost be at retirement age. It would basically be like his whole life had passed by in a daze. He couldn't possibly think about making a comeback when he was in his fifties or sixties, right? That was simply not realistic.

Maybe it would have been possible decades earlier, but now it was impossible.

Sometimes, Meng Chang even felt that if he could go to jail for three years and have all these debts written off, he would rather go to jail. After all, there were quite a few people who started their own businesses again after being released from prison, which was better than paying off debts for twenty years.

But if he followed Boss Pei's maximum commission of 200,000, he might be able to pay off the debt in five or six years with some optimism. This was an opportunity that no other job could offer.

The only problem was... why was the heat inversely proportional to the commission?

The worse the advertising and promotional effect, the more money Boss Pei paid?

What kind of logic was this?

Meng Chang thought he had misheard, so he asked again, "Boss Pei, did you just say inversely proportional?"

Pei Qian nodded, with a confident tone that revealed a sense of assurance: "Yes."

Pei Qian didn't plan to explain, nor did he need to explain. Anyway, as long as he seemed confident enough, Meng Chang would come up with a reasonable explanation himself.

He took an agreement from the side: "Here are the detailed rules. You can take your time to read them. Fill in the time column yourself, three years, five years, ten years... The longer the agreement is signed, the higher the commission."

Meng Chang fell silent for a moment. He took the agreement and repeatedly reviewed it word by word, feeling that there was a huge crisis hidden behind it.

Could it be that Boss Pei was trying to scheme against him?

His sixth sense told him that there was a pitfall inside, but after thinking it over, he couldn't figure out where the pitfall was.

If the promotional effect was better and he was paid more, it would be easy to understand. Meng Chang was very confident in himself. He would definitely arrange the marketing and promotion clearly, and getting a high commission would be a sure thing.

But the conditions given by Boss Pei were: the more money you spend, the lower the heat, the higher the commission.

To put it plainly, it was to spend as much money as possible, but the worse the promotional effect, the better.

What benefits would this bring to Tengda? Did they think they had too much promotional funding? Were they worried that they couldn't spend it all?

That didn't make sense!

Meng Chang felt that this matter was of no benefit to Boss Pei at all, unless... the effect of Meng Chang's promotional plans exploded every time. In that case, Meng Chang could only get a base salary of 3,000, and he probably wouldn't be able to pay off his debts in this lifetime. The better he did the work, the more uncomfortable he would be.

But Meng Chang felt that this was impossible.

Many giant companies spend tens of billions on marketing every year, and the heads of the advertising and marketing departments are all hired at high salaries, precisely because this is a technical job. It's not easy to do well, but there are plenty of people who can't do it well.

Even for Meng Chang, this kind of work would be easier. He didn't even need to rack his brains to come up with various marketing plans. Wouldn't he be able to get a high commission by fooling around?

Although he instinctively felt that something was wrong, Meng Chang repeatedly read this agreement many times, but he couldn't figure out what the problem was.

Meng Chang was also an old fox. He didn't lack knowledge in finance and law. He could see that there were no pitfalls in the contract itself. In fact, it made him feel a little unreal.

The only restriction was that Meng Chang couldn't mess around. For example, he absolutely couldn't directly insult consumers in advertisements, engage in regional or gender discrimination, or engage in acts that violated advertising laws. Someone would be responsible for supervising.

But for Meng Chang, this clause was quite reasonable. It was a protective clause to prevent him from taking advantage of loopholes, which was understandable.

Thinking about the millions of debts he was carrying, Meng Chang said, "Okay, I'll sign."

"The time... the longest is ten years?"

Pei Qian nodded: "Yes, if you sign for ten years, the maximum monthly commission is 200,000. If you sign for three years, the maximum monthly commission is 100,000. The longer you sign, the higher the commission."

Meng Chang was silent for a moment, then decisively took the pen, signed his name, and filled in ten years in the year column.

Ten years it is, of course he had to get the high commission!

Meng Chang was very clear that if he signed for three years and later found that he could get a commission of 200,000, he would regret it very much.

Although according to the progress of a monthly commission of 200,000, he wouldn't need ten years to pay off all his debts, even if he paid off his debts, he could earn money for a few more years.

After ten years, he would still be in his prime. With some accumulated wealth, whether he wanted to enjoy life or start another business, it would be a good choice.

Pei Qian was very satisfied. After putting away the agreement, he smiled and said, "Okay, then I wish you all the best in paying off your debts soon!"

Meng Chang: "?"

For some reason, he felt that Boss Pei's words were full of sarcasm.

…

Leaving Round Dream Ventures, Meng Chang still had a feeling of unreality.

He took out the agreement he carried with him and looked at it carefully again. There really wasn't anything wrong with it?

"Forget it, I've already signed it, so I shouldn't think too much about it."

Meng Chang felt that it was useless for him to be worried now. This was already his best option at the moment.

According to Boss Pei, he would officially start working next month. During this time, Meng Chang could rest and adjust his mindset.

Just as he was about to leave, he saw a somewhat familiar long face walking towards him in a hurry.

Meng Chang shuddered instinctively. Wasn't this Boss Ma?

He remembered that during the Cold-Faced Girl press conference, Boss Ma pretended to be a bit slow-witted and successfully fooled him. Then, he raised two soul-searching questions that pointed directly to the core of the problem, causing the entire press conference to fail to achieve the desired effect.

How could someone who could become Boss Pei's right-hand man be an ordinary person?

Meng Chang quickly lowered his head and left in a hurry.

Ma Yang brushed past Meng Chang. He took two steps, stopped, and looked back.

"Huh, this person looks a bit familiar. When did I see him before?"

"Uh... I can't remember."

Ma Yang scratched his head. He had been quite busy recently, especially since he had been in seclusion to prepare for exam week for a long time. How could he remember every single person he met every day?

Ma Yang quickly forgot about this small episode and walked towards Round Dream Ventures happily.

…

"Brother Qian!"

Before Pei Qian could see Ma Yang's long face, he first heard his loud shout.

The next second, Ma Yang had already pushed open the door of the meeting room and entered.

Pei Qian put down the documents in his hand: "Huh? Old Ma, what brings you here?"

Ma Yang smiled: "Didn't I spend some time preparing for the exams recently, so I didn't have time to report on my work? Now that the exams are over, I should put my energy back into work."

"By the way, Brother Qian, it seems that the results were released on the academic affairs office website today. Have you checked them?"

Pei Qian instantly perked up: "Huh? The results are out? I'll check now."

He immediately took a laptop from the side, opened the academic affairs office website, logged in, and checked his grades.

"Heh! I got 72 points on that closed-book exam!"

Pei Qian couldn't help but feel a little proud.

For liberal arts majors in college, closed-book exams are the most difficult. Although the difficulty of closed-book questions is much lower than open-book questions, it can't stop most people from being too lazy to memorize.

If it were high school, it would be easy to memorize this knowledge, but in college, it's a completely different story.

The courses with the most failing grades in liberal arts majors every year are mostly closed-book exams, and most of those who fail are boys.

There's no other reason, mainly because they're lazy.

Pei Qian's score of 72 points showed that his review had paid off. If the teacher had given him a friendship score, it would probably be at most 60-something points. Every extra point was the result of Pei Qian's own efforts!

"Old Ma, how many points did you get?" Pei Qian asked.

Ma Yang smiled: "I just got a little bit higher than you, Brother Qian."

Pei Qian's smile instantly disappeared: "How many points is a little bit higher?"

Ma Yang said: "81 points."

Pei Qian was silent for a moment: "Then what about that open-book exam? I got 79."

Ma Yang looked at it: "I'm just a little bit higher than you, Brother Qian. I got 82."

Pei Qian asked about several other courses in a row, and Ma Yang actually scored higher than him in all of them.

Finally, when he asked about the last course, Ma Yang scratched his head: "I didn't get higher than you on this one. I got 74 points, one point lower than you."

Pei Qian breathed a sigh of relief, and his face finally looked a little better.

Thank goodness, from freshman year to junior year, he finally got one point more than Old Ma in one course!

It seemed that his serious review had paid off. Although it was only one point in one subject, it was a good start!