Chapter 155 Sincerity

Li Shi returned to the conference room with some melancholy.

However, as he entered the conference room and saw the investors, a look of understanding appeared on his face.

The other investors had all arrived one after another, with Chen Kangtuo and Hao Qiong also present.

Based on the current progress, the Thriller Hostel should be officially open for business at the beginning of next month, so the promotional plan for the Thriller Hostel must be finalized as soon as possible.

After all, a lot of preparation work is needed before the publicity work is officially launched, and the production of various publicity materials also takes time.

The head of the conference table was empty, but Li Shi didn't sit there. Instead, he sat in the first empty seat on the left-hand side of the head of the table.

Obviously, that position was originally intended for Boss Pei.

Li Shi looked around at everyone and said, "Everyone, I have good news and bad news."

Everyone: "?"

Li Shi explained, "The good news is that Boss Pei was wandering around the Thriller Hostel just now, but he deliberately avoided us. This is enough to show that he still attaches great importance to this project."

"The bad news is... he made an excuse that he had something to do and didn't want to participate in our discussion about publicity work."

Everyone: "??"

Obviously, most of the investors were also confused by Boss Pei's feint.

Boss Pei, if you don't want to come, then don't come. We didn't really expect you to come anyway. But you're already here, and it's only a few steps away, but you don't come to the meeting. What does that mean?

Seeing the blank reactions of the crowd, Li Shi knocked on the table.

"Don't you understand Boss Pei's attitude yet?"

"This attitude is so clear!"

"Boss Pei came to the Thriller Hostel to check on the progress, which shows that he still attaches great importance to this project, but he just doesn't want to show it too obviously."

"He didn't come to this meeting, obviously to see what kind of sincerity we can come up with in the publicity work!"

"If we are full of sincerity, Boss Pei will see it and will definitely show something!"

The other investors thought carefully and showed expressions of understanding.

That seemed to be the case!

Previously, Boss Pei had always seemed indifferent, but when everyone took the initiative to propose to raise funds to build a shopping mall and give Boss Pei half of the profits, Boss Pei instantly became serious and created a Golden Maze.

It seemed that the publicity matter was probably the same. Boss Pei was waiting for our performance!

Thinking of this, Boss Pei's behavior became understandable.

Having unified their thinking, Li Shi said, "Okay, everyone, let's be open and honest about the publicity methods you have. Don't hide anything."

The investors quickly spoke one after another.

"I'm considering buying some advertisements on the buses and platforms in Jingzhou, and also chartering a bus to run a special line from nearby bus stops to the Thriller Hostel."

"I can go to the major shopping malls and university campuses in Jingzhou and organize people to distribute leaflets. Young people should be more interested."

"I'm considering... advertising online? But I need to think more about how to do it specifically, otherwise I may not be able to guarantee the effect."

"Doesn't President Li know President Wang of Quanmin Dianping? It should be possible to have a discounted ticket purchase event on Quanmin Dianping, right?"

Everyone spoke one after another. Soon, the publicity plan had spread to every corner of Jingzhou.

Everyone was already used to this way of working.

After all, there had been some wrangling when they first determined their respective supporting industries, but President Li forcibly twisted them into one rope.

Now everyone was in the same boat. They had all invested a lot of money. If this project failed, it wouldn't necessarily lead to immediate death and queuing on the roof, but they would definitely suffer a big loss.

Li Shi nodded. "I'll go to President Wang about Quanmin Dianping."

"The problem now... it seems that all the publicity is concentrated in Jingzhou, and at most it will spread to Handong Province."

"Well, there's no way around it. It's still a bit too much to promote it nationwide now."

Everyone knew in their hearts that the main flow of customers for the Thriller Hostel in the early stage would still come from Jingzhou, and at most it would radiate to Handong Province.

It was unrealistic to expect tourists from all over the country to make a special trip to Jingzhou just to be frightened at the Thriller Hostel.

What's more, how much would it cost to advertise nationwide?

Either go to some large variety shows or TV stations that are watched nationwide to advertise, or spend a lot of money to promote it in various cities. No matter how you think about it, the cost performance ratio is very low.

So, that's all they could do for the time being.

They could only wait until the Thriller Hostel became a hit, was very popular, and its reputation spread slowly, and then promote it nationwide.

Li Shi looked at Chen Kangtuo. "Little Brother Chen, what about Boss Pei's side..."

Chen Kangtuo said helplessly, "President Li, you also know what kind of person Boss Pei is. It's impossible for my words to influence Boss Pei's plans."

Li Shi nodded. "Yes, yes, I understand. I'm just saying that everyone should do their best."

Chen Kangtuo: "That's for sure."

Li Shi looked at the finalized publicity plan and still felt a little uneasy.

But with their current strength, that was all they could do.

...

A motion capture studio in Jingzhou.

Zhang Zuting was explaining the scene to a group of motion capture actors in English.

Because these actors were all extras from *Wonderful Tomorrow*, and they all knew Zhang Zuting, they listened very carefully.

Zhang Zuting didn't dwell on the details of each scene, but was talking about the overall performance ideas.

"From what I know about Boss Pei, since he has decided to make the characters stereotypical, he definitely wants everyone to use relatively exaggerated acting skills. That is, to magnify every subtle expression as much as possible, and make the performance more inclined to drama and stage play."

"On the theatrical stage, because the audience is relatively far away, they cannot see some subtle expressions. In order to enhance the stage performance, the performance must be exaggerated."

"This game can be seen as an interactive movie, which is connected in a certain sense. Using stereotypical characters and exaggerated performances can well strip away the players' sense of immersion. Although it will seem less real, it will also strengthen the symbolic meaning of the characters and stories, and trigger players' thinking..."

"I sent everyone a piece of paper before, which wrote about the stereotypical characteristics of the characters. Everyone should carefully study these characteristics and express them in an exaggerated way as much as possible..."

The actors listened carefully, nodding from time to time.

Before Zhang Zuting came, they didn't know what kind of method to use to interpret the characters. Everyone had their own ideas, and the final effect would obviously be very chaotic and would not meet Hu Xianbin's requirements.

But after Zhang Zuting's analysis and explanation, everyone had a deeper understanding of their roles, and their performance methods were unified.

Seeing this, Hu Xianbin was overjoyed and hurriedly said, "Okay, everyone, work harder, let's reshoot the unsatisfactory shots from before!"

"We must meet Boss Pei's expectations!"

...

"Ah sneeze!"

Pei Qian was lying on the sofa sunbathing when he suddenly sneezed for no reason.

"That President Li, he's talking bad about me behind my back again..."

...

...

Thursday, June 23rd.

In a coffee shop near Handong University, He An's third lesson for "Ma Yang" officially began.

The publicity activities for the Thriller Hostel seemed to have already started. On the way to the coffee shop, Pei Qian had already seen a billboard for the Thriller Hostel at a bus stop.

However, Pei Qian didn't have any good ideas now. He could only let it go and pray that these publicity activities wouldn't have a very good publicity effect.

He An handed today's textbook to "Ma Yang", took a sip of coffee, and prepared to start the lecture.

Pei Qian still had a humble and eager-to-learn smile on his face, but his slightly trembling fingers had mercilessly betrayed him.

Today, it seemed that there really wouldn't be any more lectures on Tengda's cases!

At least from the content of the textbook, that was the case.

The title of the textbook was: *Lecture 3 on Successful Cases: Restraint of Personal Agendas and the Desire to Express Oneself*.

Just in case, Pei Qian flipped through the specific content of the textbook and found that the case inside was He An's own successful game from a long time ago, called *Landlord Game*.

If Pei Qian had seen this name before, he might have thought of the three-player card game "Seventeen Cards, Can You Beat Me?", but after all, he had already done his homework and studied the successful games that He An had developed.

For Pei Qian, *Landlord Game* could find another familiar name in his memory: *Monopoly*.

Although the name was different and the packaging was different, the gameplay was still the same.

Pei Qian couldn't help but look forward to this lesson a little.

He An said, "The main content of this lesson will no longer be about Tengda's cases."

"Because in this issue, Tengda's cases have no learning value."

Pei Qian was a little surprised. "Huh? Teacher He, what do you mean by that?"

He An smiled. "What I'm going to talk about today is the restraint of personal agendas and the desire to express oneself. Whether it's novels, movies, or games, the reason why every content outputter becomes an outputter is because they have a very strong desire to express themselves."

"And what they express, strictly speaking, is 'personal agenda', because this content comes from his own knowledge reserves and is not necessarily recognized by everyone."

"When most people agree, we will say: His expression evoked empathy, revealed the truth, contained philosophy, and was thought-provoking."

"And when most people disagree, we will say: His expression has a personal agenda, produced a wrong induction, and his intentions are punishable."

"However, if the creator does not 'insert a personal agenda', then he is not a qualified creator, because the content he outputs will have no thoughts and will be empty."

"Therefore, if a creator wants to succeed, he must maintain restraint. The personal agenda he inserts cannot be too much, nor can it be too little; it cannot be too extreme, nor can it be too clichéd."

"As for why Tengda's cases have no reference value..."

"Because Tengda's games and movies have already surpassed this stage. No matter how much personal agenda they insert, everyone will accept it. So don't learn from them."

Pei Qian: "..."

For a moment, he didn't know whether to be happy or sad.