At night…
In Fish-Catching Internet Cafe's flagship store…
Ma Yang and Zhang Yuan were seated against the window. As they sipped their cocktails, they watched the few customers in the shop. Somehow, this atmosphere was making them feel sorrowful.
There were still very few customers!
Now, two more Fish-Catching Internet Cafes were under renovation. They should be opening for business soon enough.
However, Fish-Catching Internet Cafe's flagship store was still steadily incurring losses.
The volume of business had more or less stabilized. A few loyal customers already made friends with the employees in the shop. However, no matter how they calculated, these few people would not be able to sustain the maintenance of the cafe's business.
Between Ma Zhang and Zhang Yuan, one was the manager of Fish-Catching Internet Cafes; and one was the regional manager of the Fish-Catching Internet Cafe in Jingzhou.
Zhang Yuan finished his cocktail in one gulp and said, "I'm going to sing two more songs."
Ma Yang reached out and stopped him. "Forget it. No matter how much you sing, nobody will come and listen…"
Including the two of them, there were a total of just eight people sitting at the coffee area drinking alcohol.
Zhang Yuan stood up anyway and said, "It doesn't matter. I'll sing my heart out to get it out of my system."
When he got to the stage, Zhang Yuan began strumming on his guitar just like he did before. He began to think about what he should sing today. The people who were seated in front of him drinking alcohol were all familiar customers. They were not shocked to see him on stage at all.
What's more, which internet cafe did not have regular singers? This was nothing new to them.
Fish-Catching Internet Cafe had only opened a while ago. Every night, without fail, Zhang Yuan went on stage and sang passionately. Still, there was no use. Although the atmosphere improved, the improvement was limited.
As time went by, he sang less and less. Tonight, under the influence of alcohol, he went up on stage.
Zhang Yuan wasted no time exchanging pleasantries. He made the necessary adjustments and began singing. He did not sound perfect, but he sang pretty well. After all, regular singers at bars could not be that bad.
His low, hoarse voice echoed throughout the area.
In the past, Zhang Yuan always sang intense rock music. However, he very quickly realized that the audience was not playing along with him. They were not excited at all. Subsequently, he sang slower songs and ballads.
This way, at least the atmosphere would not be as awkward.
As Ma Yang sipped his alcohol, he listened to Zhang Yuan's singing. He began to daydream. All of a sudden, he noticed a faint silhouette standing outside the glass panel. He was hesitating by the main entrance.
It was already nighttime. The internet cafe was brighter than outside. That meant that people could see clearly into the internet cafe from the outside. However, people inside could not see the outside environment that clearly.
Nevertheless, Ma Yang was sure he could see someone outside, pacing in front of the main entrance.
"A new customer? He's even hesitating outside. This means there's a fighting chance!"
Ma Yang immediately perked up. Although he had already become the General Manager of the Fish-Catching Internet Cafe, who was to say that he was not allowed to persuade guests to come in?
The manager held no airs as the General Manager at all.
He opened the entrance to the internet cafe with a warm expression. "Hey, Mister! Do you want to come in and play?"
The young man standing at the door got a shock. While he was pacing outside the entrance thinking, he did not realize that the main door had opened. All of a sudden, there was a huge face there, staring at him.
The young man looked embarrassed as he lowered his head. "I… I did not come here to surf the internet."
"That's alright. You can come in and drink alcohol," Ma Yang replied warmly.
He studied the young man carefully. He looked slightly unsightly. His hair was a mess, and his clothes looked quite torn and tattered. He also looked untidy.
The young man scratched his head of messy hair and said, "I… I want to ask if you are recruiting a resident singer here."
Ma Yang, "…"
He looked disappointed. They were not short of employees; they were short of customers!
Without customers, it does not matter how well you sing.
The young man witnessed Ma Yang's huge, long face fall immediately. He quickly said, "I think I am better than that man. That's why I came to try out."
Ma Yang pondered for a moment and decided that there was no harm.
Zhang Yuan was already considered the Regional Manager of the Fish-Catching Internet Cafes in Jingzhou. He could not go on stage to sing every day.
Hiring a resident singer was not a bad idea.
"Alright, what is your name?"
"Chen Lei."
"Come, come in."
Ma Yang led Chen Lei into Fish-Catching Internet Cafe and to a random seat. After a while, Zhang Yuan finished singing another song. He got off the stage to take a break.
Ma Yang gestured to the stage and said, "Go ahead. Don't be nervous."
Ma Yang had no musical talent as well. He could not differentiate between good and bad. He was thinking that if the young man proved to be satisfactory, he could at least be hired to take Zhang Yuan's place on stage.
Zhang Yuan poured a cup of water, turned around, and found that his place on stage had been taken over.
A young man whom he had never seen before was making adjustments to the guitar. He looked like he was preparing to sing a song.
Zhang Yuan looked at Ma Yang, confused. "Brother Ma, who is that?"
"His name is Chen Lei. He came to audition as a resident singer. I'm thinking if he sings well, we can let him take the stage and sing. You can rest in the future."
Ma Yang continued, concerned, "Your job scope is heavy. We have already recruited a new person to mix cocktails. Recruiting a resident singer would allow you to focus on managing internet cafes."
Zhang Yuan really wanted to say that he had nothing better to do anyway. However, on hearing Ma Yang's kind words, he felt slightly touched.
Ai, that's not right. We have never recruited a resident singer.
Zhang Yuan was just about to ask this question when he heard a clear but slightly hoarse voice echo throughout the internet cafe.
"The flowers of spring, the wind of autumn, and the sunset of winter[1]…"
Zhang Yuan was stunned. "He's singing an oldie."
This song was very widely-known. Almost everyone in the cafe had heard it before. The moment Chen Lei began singing, almost everyone in the internet cafe who had been drinking turned to face the stage. It was almost like spring water was flowing from the stage onto the ground, surrounding everyone in the audience.
Zhang Yuan was still dazed. He could not help but hum along to himself.
Ma Yang continued drinking his alcohol and quietly said to Zhang Yuan, "I don't think he sings as well as you do."
Zhang Yuan cast a sideward glance at Ma Yang, frustrated. "Brother Ma… he sings so much better than I do."
"Is that right?" Ma Yang was shocked. "His voice is neither that high nor that low. How is he better?"
Zhang Yuan felt like he was speaking an alien language to Ma Yang. However, recalling that Ma Yang was still his supervisor, he maintained his smile. "A good voice always manages to move its audience. Ballads sung with a voice like his sound heavenly."
"I can't appreciate it."
"If you don't believe me, look at everyone's reactions."
Ma Yang watched the audience.
Before this, when Zhang Yuan was singing, everyone focused on their own drinks and their own conversations. Although they were listening to Zhang Yuan, it was obvious that they took him as a background singer.
However, the moment Chen Lei began performing, everyone seemed to be captivated.
Everyone held their glasses and sang along. No one was speaking or chatting. A few people even stared at the stage in a daze. One could only imagine what kind of memories this song had dug up in their heads.
Zhang Yuan was moved. "Brother Ma, where did you meet such a talent?"
Ma Yang kept quiet for two seconds. "…he came on his own."
"What a coincidence."
"Not really," Ma Yang replied, "He said he heard you singing from outside. He thought he could sing better than you so he plucked up the courage and came to the door. I think you should take the most credit for this."
Zhang Yuan, "…"
"Brother Ma, I changed my mind. Let's not hire him, alright?"
"No."
[1] This is the first line to the song 'The Story of Time' by Lo Ta-yu.
Chapter 151 Open the Server and Test Waters
A week later, on May 18th, Tuesday…
Shang Yang Games…
The edits on the earliest version of the games were already completed, but Ye Zhizhou still could not bring himself to submit them and update the game. Just the thought of changing Shang Yang Games' fate and moving it towards an entirely new direction with just a single command from him made Ye Zhizhou's hands tremble.
A full week after the meeting, what had to be edited was already edited.
According to Boss Pei's instructions, all the purchase options in Romantic Taoist and Bloody Battle Song were wiped clean. Each of those games only had one purchase option left.
Romantic Taoist was an RPG[1]. There was no competition between players. That was why it was much easier to edit the game. Ye Zhizhou kept the most basic accelerator card as the only purchase option. After all, this game could be withdrawn at any time. It was no longer the company's main focus.
The main focus was Bloody Battle Song.
After much consideration, Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin decided on the only purchase option to retain in the game: the strength potion. They increased the price of the strength potion. Each person would only be able to spend a maximum of a hundred ingots every day. That was equivalent to ten yuan.
In order to achieve the aim of retaining only one purchase option, Wang Xiaobin practically redid the entire game's level design. The other plans were edited according to these changes as well. They also introduced new functions as substitutes, such as the 'Chosen One system', which Ye Zhizhou suggested a while ago.
After making the changes, the game still appeared the same on the outside, but it was completely different at its core.
Wang Xiaobin sat down next to Ye Zhizhou and asked, "Are there any other problems?"
Ye Zhizhou shook his head and said, "No other problem. I am… just worried.
"We made huge changes. What's more, we don't have any successful games to refer to. We're completely dependent on ideas that we thought of. I don't know what the outcome will be like. I am putting myself out there completely."
In the old Shang Yang Games—if a new idea was raised at a meeting, Old Liu would always ask, 'Are there other games that have done this successfully?' If the answer was no, the idea would be thrown out most of the time. Ye Zhizhou was already used to this way of thinking. That was why he was completely lost now.
"Brother Wang, you have a lot of experience. Do you think we'll succeed?"
Wang Xiaobin sighed softly and addressed Ye Zhizhou seriously. "Little Ye, you are the chief planner now. You have to make these decisions. You cannot ask others anymore. Whether these changes succeed or not, the glory and responsibility will both be yours. As the chief planner, these are things that you have to be prepared for.
"Do you remember Game Designer? Everybody else's opinions are just voice-overs in the game. Apart from throwing you off, they have not much effect." Ye Zhizhou nodded slightly and sighed. "That's right."
Game Designer was a game that Ye Zhizhou played many times before. He already knew many options and outcomes like the back of his hand.
He could ignore the voice-overs completely in the game and choose all the right answers. However, although he understood all of these principles, he could not confidently ignore all the comments in reality.
Wang Xiaobin stood up and added, "It's normal to feel confused. You just have to remember that you are doing the job that Boss Pei asked you to do."
Ye Zhizhou's eyes brightened.
That's right. No matter what anyone else says, this was what Boss Pei asked him to do! Whether he succeeded or failed, it would be alright as long as he was following Boss Pei's instructions, right?
At that thought, Ye Zhizhou hesitated no more. He quickly checked the games once more and sent a message to the group.
"Update the games."
A few hours later…
Bloody Battle Song became a large-scale chat room for people.
Huge groups of gamers on various servers gathered in the city plaza of the main city to discuss the latest announcement about the update.
Ever since Bloody Battle Song was published, it had been updated tens of times. Each time, they would make an announcement about the updates. However, the announcements had never drawn a reaction such as this one before.
Gamers were no longer interested in fighting or leveling up. All of them were discussing the latest update.
"Which big boss can explain to us what the announcement means? The shop is only going to have the basic strength potion from now on? The others… are not going to be up for sale?"
"I think they said that they're giving the others away."
"Giving… away? Is this game going to be withdrawn? Is this the final revelry?"
"The moment that 888-yuan sword was put up for sale the last time, many people quit the game. I guess the game is going to be withdrawn sooner or later. We'll play as long as it remains."
"I feel like something is amiss. Are they making this ruthless move while there are few in the game? Why are they giving away all the good stuff? Are they retarded? Are they trying to push all the whales out of the game?"
"They can still spend money if they want to. They can buy the strength potion again and again. They are limited to ten a day. The more they buy, the more expensive it becomes. If they buy the maximum number each day, they can spend a hundred ingots."
"Don't be silly. A hundred ingots is only equal to ten dollars! The whales aside, this is a petty sum to even poor people like me."
"I am absolutely confused by this huge move by the officials."
"Our club president has gone to recharge his currencies. He says he wants to buy all the equipment before the update. Otherwise, he would not be able to buy anymore!"
"It's too late. The changes have been made. Nobody is allowed to recharge their currencies anymore."
"…I can't recharge money even if I wanted to. That's really something!"
"This reminds me of Ghost General."
"I have a question. According to the way things are going-once the server is open, would we all start from zero again? Will we have to spend ten yuan each day to reach the peak of our battle power?"
"According to the official release by the company, that's it."
"That's not right. How will we fight wars, then? If everyone has the same battle power, wouldn't it become a numbers game?"
"No, I think there's going to be a 'Chosen One' system. Based on the number of people each side has, they will strike a balance in terms of their skills. They'll also select players on each side according to chances to have better skills."
"You mean if I get chosen, then I will be able to experience taking on multiple enemies at a time?"
"Then, what are we still doing in this old server? Sell it, sell it! Sell it all! I'm going to the new server!"
Since the system first made the public announcement until the update was complete, gamers did not stop discussing the updates.
The normally silent official platform was suddenly filled with huge batches of new posts as well. People were discussing it very passionately!
Ye Zhizhou knew that gamers would not be able to understand the changes to the game that quickly. It was normal for so many people to be engaged in the discussion. In fact, it was a good thing that so many people were discussing the update. He had been afraid that people would remain silent even after such a big update. That would be terrifying
Ye Zhizhou started an alternate account to observe gamers' reactions.
Unexpectedly, people were not opposing aggressively!
Ye Zhizhou thought that the whales would be cursing non-stop. However, after entering the game, he realized that many unsatisfied comments were quickly shot down. Nobody echoed these negative comments.
Everyone was discussing how the new changes would affect the wars or when the new server would be open.
"Everyone is interested in playing the new version. Are they really that excited?"
Ye Zhizhou looked at Wang Xiaobin and said, "Brother Wang, how about we open the server and allow people to test waters?"
[1] This is an acronym for Role-Playing Game.
Chapter 152 Boss Pei Cuts Off an Infected Limb to Save the Entire Body
Wang Xiaobin paused. "Open the new server?"
It was not troublesome to do that, but the only problem was there might not be any gamers in it. Bloody Battle Song was already steadily deteriorating. They had no money to publicize or market it, and there were no ratings for the game as well. No new gamers were logging in.
The people still playing the game were old gamers who had stuck with the game from the very beginning. They could be said to be fiercely loyal; nothing could drive them away.
All of these people had accounts on the old servers. They had already spent huge amounts of money and time on those accounts. Even if they opened the new server, who would play on it?
Still, Wang Xiaobin held up an okay-sign with his hand and said, "No problem. It'll be ready soon."
The game was going to fail sooner or later; whether they opened the new server or not, it would not make a difference.
Ye Zhizhou immediately created an alternate account in the new server and quietly waited.
A few minutes later, the world channel in the new server became lively!
"They've really opened a new server!"
"Ah, ah, ah! I'm so sad that I did not get the couch!"
"Are there any guilds?"
"Comrades, look here! Our guild is developing harmoniously. We're banding together and being led by whales. There is no battle we cannot win! We're going to specially offer help to grandfathers and grandmothers prone to falling down. We welcome you to join us so that we can help more grandmothers cross roads!"
"The previous commenter, you've just copied and pasted the advertisement, haven't you? There are no more whales now; how can they lead the guild?"
"How are there no more whales? Our guild's whales have spoken; whoever joins our guild will get the maximum number of strength potions every day!"
"Holy sh*t! Quickly add me!"
More world channels were being added, one by one. Ye Zhizhou could not keep up with the various channels.
"Our game… still has so many players?"
Ye Zhizhou was stunned. He only opened this new server to test waters after seeing a good number of people request for it in the previous channel. He did not expect that so many people would hop over to the new server to play the game!
What were they after? Did they want to abandon their old accounts?
Ye Zhizhou felt like everything was strange. He had not seen such passion for their game in a long time. Bloody Battle Song always opened new servers before this. After all, constantly opening new servers was a common marketing method for games with paywalls.
Yet, they had never seen a reaction as lively as what they were seeing today!
As Ye Zhizhou trained, he considered looking for a guild to hide in and spy. He wanted to ask the players for their opinions on the new game.
In the end, after playing for a while, his game got jammed. On the screen, the words 'reading resources' appeared. The image became a mosaic as well. However, this soon passed. The game quickly became smooth again.
Ye Zhizhou was just about to ask what just happened when he heard Wang Xiaobin shout, "Holy sh*t, there were too many gamers just then. Our server was overloaded. The new server is full?"
Ye Zhizhou quickly opened the platform to check.
The old servers that they had been maintaining were emptying out. There was practically nobody left. The new server, on the other hand, was so popular that it was exploding at that moment. It was overflowing!
New players could no longer enter the server. They had no choice but to wait outside.
Ye Zhizhou was shocked. Ever since he started at Shang Yang Games, he had not seen people queuing outside the server! Now, he finally understood that the players crowding in the new server were those from old servers!
The players had been distributed over tens of different servers before this. That was why each server looked empty and quiet.
However, now, the active players were all rushing into the new server at the same time. They were crowding together and making the entire game seem much livelier.
Ye Zhizhou quickly said, "Brother Wang, quick, open another server!"
Wang Xiaobin's mouse was moving at top speed. "I'll get it done at once. Once the newest servers are full, the system would automatically open a new one."
Lowering his voice, he mumbled to himself, "How strange. Gamers are becoming so excited about the new servers? Have the changes we made really taken effect? The results were instant."
Everyone in the design team was getting excited. Many people had not played Bloody Battle Song in a long time. At that moment, they created an alternate account for the first time.
"Go to different servers and observe the situation in each one of them. It'll be best if you could join a big guild and join their conversations. See how the whales and ordinary gamers are reacting to the changes we made to the game!"
Ye Zhizhou was extremely excited. He quickly gave each person in the design team tasks to hide in the new servers and observe how gamers were reacting to the new version of the game!
When Old Liu was still the chief planner, he never did things like this. That was because he had never seen the meaning behind it.
It was enough to keep an eye on the statistics of the games. What was the point in hiding among gamers and gathering feedback?
However, Ye Zhizhou thought differently.
He always thought that as a chief planner, one had to try out his own game, be among the players, and understand the reaction on the ground. If the designer himself did not like his own game, why would gamers like it?
After playing for a few minutes, people began to invite Ye Zhizhou into their guild. Then, they invited him into their conversations. Once he joined the group, he was bombarded by various messages.
"Hurry, go to the world channel and recruit people!"
"I have to get to level twenty today. Our guild will have to prepare for war sooner or later!"
"Do you all have friends who have stopped playing the game? Ask them to come back quickly!"
"I'm going to my old group to ask around now. I'll try to get ten more people here. They're all old gamers and old chauffeurs!"
Ye Zhizhou only turned away for a while before he had 99 unread messages. There was no time for him to read them all.
What shocked Ye Zhizhou even more was that this group of people was taking the initiative to pull back their friends who stopped playing the game a long time ago.
Ye Zhizhou had never seen passion like this in any other gamer. Even when he just joined Shang Yang Games and Bloody Battle Song was at its peak, he did not witness this!
Ye Zhizhou looked at the posts on the forum.
Back when Old Liu introduced the 888-weapon, the forums nearly exploded with criticism. People were spamming the official notices with curses until there were hundreds of pages of comments. For the two to three weeks that followed, people did not stop.
Later on, as they lost players, the forum slowly settled down as well. Still, most of the new posts there were people criticizing the officials.
However, after updating the game this time, the entire forum looked very different!
Before, people posted curses at the chief planner every day. Now, there was none to be seen. Players were discussing how to form guilds, prepare for wars, and trying to solve other problems in the game.
Ye Zhizhou read these posts and the conversations in his guild in disbelief. He started to think hard about how all of these happened.
"Could it be… a resurrection?" Ye Zhizhou finally understood.
The original Bloody Battle Song was a pool of still water. In order to maintain the business, Old Liu and Du Ruijie had tried all ways and means to salvage the situation, but the game was beyond cure.
Conflicts between gamers and the design team, as well as whales and ordinary players, had already reached their extremes. There was no way these conflicts could be dealt with.
Later on, due to the high paywalls, they lost huge groups of ordinary gamers. There was no way the remaining players could continue their group activities within the game. No matter how much whales paid if there was nobody to play the game with them, the money would not seem worth it.
Thus, ordinary players left, and whales followed. Only a small group of old players hung on. The game continued to slip down the slippery slope.
However, now, all the purchase options had been taken away. Only the basic strength potion remained.
This unassuming change was life-changing for the environment of the game!
To ordinary gamers—without many paywalls in the game, they could now afford to play it. The items that they could only get if they paid actual money before were now being given out for free. In the new server, they now had the opportunity to experience what it used to be like for whales that could fight multiple enemies at once.
This was a great deal. Naturally, they came to the new server without any hesitation! Indeed, a significant number of whales left the game as well. However, as Pei Qian would put it, it was up to them!
What's more, not all the whales had left. There was still a group of them left.
Although their sales dropped by twenty to thirty percent, the remaining players had completely forgotten about their conflicts from before. Now, they were feeling the passion and excitement for the game all over again!
Ye Zhizhou finally understood.
"Indeed, Boss Pei could tell what the problem was with Bloody Battle Song. He knew that introducing new gameplay or improving the art resources would be useless. That was why he made us take away all but one purchase?option!"
"This is… cutting off an infected limb to save the entire body! We cut off revenue to save our reputation. That's the only way to save Bloody Battle Song!"
It looked like an unsolvable problem at first, but just a single move by Boss Pei turned the entire situation around!
Ye Zhizhou could not help but feel deep respect and admiration for Boss Pei. Of course, he also knew that this was only the first of many steps. This action might have saved the game's reputation, but it came at a high cost: this game was no longer making much money!
Without the whales recharging their game currencies, their income had fallen to just eighty percent.
Bloody Battle Song's monthly income had been about three to four hundred thousand yuan before the changes were made. Now, after the changes, Ye Zhizhou was not sure if they would even earn eighty thousand yuan monthly.
What's more, they were not going to introduce any new purchase options in the future. Otherwise, the players would immediately start cursing the game once again. Then, they would all quit the game, and even Boss Pei would find it difficult to salvage the situation!
Ye Zhizhou felt like he was holding a clearance sale. Although life was injected back into the game, they could not go on burning money and not reaping profits in the long-term!
"Forget it. I'll cast these worries aside for now. Would Boss Pei not have thought about the problems I thought about? These must all be in Boss Pei's plan. As long as I obediently follow his instructions, we will be alright."
Ye Zhizhou suddenly became filled with confidence in himself and in the future of Shang Yang Games!
Chapter 153 Give the Singer a Commission
In the evening, at Fish-Catching Internet Cafe…
Suddenly, a significant number of people entered the ordinarily quiet and deserted internet cafe. Many young people came in groups of threes and fives to the internet cafe. Other people remained outside, observing and confirming that this was the right place, before pushing the door open.
"Are you sure this is the place? How come there isn't even a sign?"
"That's right, this is it." "What are the rows of computers here for?'
"This isn't just a bar; you can surf the net here, too."
"Surf the net…? Why wouldn't I go to an internet cafe for that? I'm here to drink alcohol."
"You can also drink alcohol. The cocktails here are much better than ordinary bars. We came here mainly to listen to music! Listen to music!"
"Is it really that good?"
"The resident singer is just different from those in other bars. Just have a listen, and you'll understand."
A few young people pushed the door open and entered. The waiters immediately put on smiles and led them to their seats. After handing them the wet hand towels, they courteously asked them for their orders.
Among this group of people, the liveliest was a trendy-looking, young lady. After everyone ordered their drinks, she excitedly explained to the group how she found a treasure like this.
"Do you know how I discovered this place?
"Actually, I passed by this place before. However, when I scanned the menu, I realized that the items sold in here are very expensive. There were very few people in here as well so I decided not to enter.
"When I passed by this place by chance last week, I heard someone singing! I had just gotten off work at the time. I stood outside, listening for a while, before entering. I ordered a drink and listened all the way until the singer ended for the night!
"It was very good. What's more, he doesn't try to hype the crowd up. He's just plain and leisurely. There's also a bit of melancholy to him. Coupled with the drinks, the atmosphere makes me feel very emotional.
"After coming here several times, I discovered that although this place is expensive, the service is particularly good. All the waiters take very good care of the customers. You don't even need to shout; all it takes is one glance in their direction, and they will make their way over at once. It's very comfortable!"
Someone interrupted, "Is that true? Do the waiters know how to read minds?"
The young lady cast a sideways glance at him and said, "Of course, it's not mind-reading. This just shows that they're very responsible in doing their job. They keep an eye on the customers the entire time. They notice even the slightest movements and expressions of their customers; once they realize that the customer needs assistance, they would make their way over.
"What's more, the waiters here do not waste time spouting nonsense. They would not recommend drinks to you or ask you to become a member. They're very polite. Subsequently, I came here even in the day. I ordered coffee and read books and still felt very satisfied.
"Don't be anxious; the singer will appear very soon.
"His name is Chen Lei. I heard that he lives nearby. After graduating from high school, he did not study anymore. Instead, he stayed at home and focused on music. I don't know how this shop managed to dig such a talent out. Quick, look on stage! He's here, he's here!"
Chen Lei was holding onto his guitar as he walked up the stage. Applause and cheers could immediately be heard coming from the audience. A girl even shouted, "Chen Lei, I love you!"
Chen Lei blushed. He adjusted his microphone and strummed his guitar a couple of times, acting like he had not heard the confession. There was a low giggle coming from off-stage. There were no pleasantries or greetings. He did not even bother getting familiar with the audience. Chen Lei was not good with words.
He cleared his throat and then began strumming as he sang into the microphone
"The light is out. The moon is the eye of loneliness, looking quietly for people who are having difficulty sleeping[1]…"
A pleasant melody echoed throughout the internet cafe. The audience off-stage sipped their cocktails and quietly basked in this atmosphere.
"It's beautiful."
"It's so different from the original version, but its flavor is so similar."
"Chen Lei is like this. No matter what he sings, he injects his own style. It is particularly relaxing, and yet on closer inspection, you would realize that you feel a bit sad."
"It's great."
A slightly-aged man took a sip of his alcohol and looked out of the glass panel, into the dimly-lit outdoors. One could only imagine the kind of memories such lighting dug up in his mind. All of a sudden, he looked at the glass of alcohol in his hands in confusion.
"What's the matter?" His female partner asked.
The man took another sip.
"This alcohol… is real?"
The lady scoffed and said, "Are you spouting nonsense? This place has a real business license. Could they possibly sell fake alcohol to cheat you?"
The man shook his head. "You don't understand. Many bars these days put fake alcohol in the branded bottles. Alcohol that costs hundreds of yuan is poured out into empty bottles while alcohol that costs about a hundred to two hundred yuan takes its place. Once they are made into cocktails, how many people would be able to tell?
"This is not considered fake alcohol; they are just cheaper alternatives. Fake alcohol will go to your head, and you might even get sent to the hospital after drinking them. However, cheap alternatives would only leave a slightly different taste in your mouth. They will end up in your stomach all the same."
His lady partner did not seem to believe him. "Are you able to tell?"
The man laughed. "Of course. Alcohol that costs a few hundred yuan and alcohol that costs a hundred to two hundred yuan… they might all be alcohol, but they taste different. Otherwise, why would people spend all that extra money?
"People who know a bit about alcohol would be able to tell the difference."
He gently swayed the glass in his hands and then looked at Chen Lei, who was singing on stage. "This place is quite interesting. We can ask a couple of old friends to come here one day."
At the bar counter…
Ma Yang held onto his own glass of alcohol and sipped from it. As he watched Chen Lei perform on stage, he felt moved. "It feels like… he really does sing better than you."
Zhang Yuan, humble and pleased, said, "That's right. Brother Ma, are you finally able to tell now?"
Ma Yang shook his head honestly. "I can't tell, but I can see the results. When you sang, not many people listened to you, and not many people ordered drinks. Now, everyone is listening intently—".
Zhang Yuan, "…Brother Ma, on account of this glass of alcohol, can you not hurt my heart anymore?"
Ma Yang was a real son of a b*tch. Chen Lei was here as a gift from the heavens; why did he have to keep comparing Zhang Yuan to him?!
"So how are we going to pay him?"
Ma Yang asked a very serious question. Last week, after hearing Zhang Yuan sing, Chen Lei felt strangely confident. He took the initiative to step up onto stage and sing. After he finished singing, the results were obvious. Ma Yang immediately invited him to stay and sing for the week.
If he were satisfied by the end of the week, they would sign a contract. Otherwise, he would give the man a thousand yuan and ask him to leave. Now, the week was almost over. Ma Yang was very pleased with Chen Lei's performance.
However, there was another problem. That was the problem of remuneration.
"How much are resident singers in bars normally paid?" Ma Yang wanted to see if he could consider the market price for such jobs.
Zhang Yuan was very clear about this. After all, he used to work in this line. "Brother Ma, small bars normally pay their resident singers about three thousand yuan a month. Of course, that's the remuneration for singers who are not very famous.
"Exactly how much they are paid depends on what tier the bar belongs to, the fame of the singer, and how generous the boss is.
"Some bars have high traffic. In order to rise to fame, many singers agree to sing there for free. On the flip side—if smaller bars want to hire famous singers, they have to be prepared to fork out more money.
"According to Chen Lei's standard, I think giving him four to five thousand yuan would not be too much. We might even be underpaying him."
Four to five thousand yuan…
Ma Yang began to hesitate.
"This… it's not that I don't want to pay him, but I feel like Chen Lei is not worth that much. The main problem is that our internet cafe is still incurring losses. What do you think of this? Let's offer him 1,500 yuan as his base salary. The rest will be left to commission."
Zhang Yuan paused. "Commission? How would that work?"
Ma Yang pointed at the alcohol on the bar counter. "We'll pay him commission based on our alcohol sales. In the future, we can tell the customers that while he is singing, half of the profits of the alcohol would go to Chen Lei."
Zhang Yuan sucked in a deep breath. "Brother Ma, giving him half of the profits is a bit too much, right?"
"It's alright. We don't sell that much alcohol to begin with…" Ma Yang did not seem too bothered.
Zhang Yuan was momentarily speechless. "That's true. What's more, we only sell real alcohol. The profit margin would not be that high. On second thought, it seems acceptable…"
If they followed the model of regular bars, the alcohol would be their main source of profits.
Many bars, nightclubs, KTVs, and the like would take part in a bit of adulteration. Take XO for example; they would keep the empty bottles and add in cheap alcohol before putting it up for sale again. This was very common.
Selling alcohol in this manner would guarantee profits.
However, from the beginning, Boss Pei instructed all of them-time and time again —that the alcohol sold by Fish-Catching Internet Cafe must be real. Selling fake alcohol aside, they were not even allowed to sell a drop of ordinary wine.
They had to sell whatever alcohol they said they were selling.
Therefore, while they were all selling alcohol and Fish-Catching Internet Cafe had included a profit margin in their prices for alcohol, the profits Fish-Catching Internet Cafe was earning could not compare to ordinary bars.
What's more, given the number of people in the internet cafe each day, they could not sell much alcohol to begin with.
Zhang Yuan pondered for a moment, and then said, "You can make the call, Brother Ma. If you want to pay him based on commission, that works. For all we know, he might help us sell more alcohol."
Ma Yang slapped the countertop and said, "Alright, that's decided, then. Once Chen Lei finishes for the night, I will speak to him and settle the terms of the contract.
"If we really follow this method, I have a suggestion," Zhang Yuan suddenly said, having thought of an idea. "We can come up with a new menu. Next to the prices of all the alcohols, we can put another number in brackets. That number would represent the amount of commission Chen Lei would get.
"Take the Aurora Jungle-Juice, for example. We sell them for sixty yuan a cup. Our cost is about thirty yuan. Add in the place and the salary for the employees; that makes the total cost of each glass about forty yuan. Our profit is twenty yuan. If we give half to Chen Lei, that's ten yuan.
"We can immediately add a '(10)' next to the 60 on the menu. That way, everybody would know that ten yuan out of this drink goes to paying Chen Lei commission."
Ma Yang frowned and hesitated. "Wouldn't everyone be able to guess our profit margin, then?"
Zhang Yuan shook his head. "Brother Ma, even if you don't write it down, wouldn't people be able to guess our profit margin? You can find out the price of these alcohols on the internet. Most people who come to bars to drink have a good idea of the bars' profit margins. If that's the way the entire industry works, nobody would take these numbers too seriously.
"If we write the amount of commission Chen Lei gets on the menus, it would show how nice we are to our resident singer. We might look very generous."
A realization dawned on Ma Yang. "Oh, that's right! That suggestion sounds good; let's do that!"
[1] These are the lyrics to the song 'Does Any Song Remind You of Me?' by Wakin Chau.
Chapter 154 Cannot Suffer For No Clear Reason!
After singing for more than an hour, Chen Lei took a break. Ma Yang immediately called him over to explain to him simply how his wages and the alcohol commission would work. Chen Lei scratched his head as he decisively said, "Alright."
Ma Yang was now a little abashed.
"It's alright; if you feel that the basic salary is too low, I can add to it." Ma Yang said.
Chen Lei blinked, "In that case… let's add a little to it."
Ma Yang, "…"
Look at this lad's honesty! Ma Yang felt as if he had been cheated. He had thought that Chen Lei would be polite and say 'no, it's okay'; Ma Yang could then follow suit and conveniently end the conversation.
In the end, Chen Lei had conveniently managed to ask for more pay from Ma Yang's words. However, since Ma Yang had said as much, he couldn't go back on his word now.
Ma Yang was conflicted for a while, "Alright, I'll give you 1800 yuan for the base pay, together with the alcohol commission. The next time you go up to sing, you must encourage people to buy more drinks, understand?"
Chen Lei looked a little uncomfortable as he said bashfully, "Brother Ma, I'm not very comfortable with that. Why don't I just take the 1500 yuan? Please don't make me talk to the audience."
Ma Yang was speechless; this kid was so thin-skinned.
"Forget it; you'll just focus on singing while I'll do the announcement. Your base pay will still be 1800 yuan, but you do not need to care about anything else."
Chen Lei nodded as he went to drink some water and take a break.
Ma Yang gave Zhang Yuan a look as the latter immediately understood what that meant and went up the platform.
"Hello, hello. Hello, everyone, let me introduce myself a little. I am the manager of Fish-Catching Internet Cafe; my family name is Zhang."
Someone among the crowd tittered, "Weren't you the resident singer last week? Once Chen Lei had replaced you, you actually have been promoted?"
Zhang Yuan saw that many people weren't very interested in what he was going to say as he hurriedly spoke, "I appreciate everyone for your continued support. This time, I want to share with everyone a special perk for our resident singer!
"From today onwards, whenever Chen Lei sings—from seven to eleven at night, these four hours; a portion of all drinks expenses would become his commission.
"As for the specifics of this…
"In a few days, we'll have new custom-made menus; and the cut for Chen Lei would be written clearly. In any case-if everyone likes our singers, you guys can order a few more drinks to support them. Thank you, everyone!"
Zhang Yuan immediately got off the stage after speaking and did not waste his breath further. This also was in line with Fish-Catching Internet Cafe's mantra: saying less and doing more while service needed to be like a breeze, only to be felt by customers when they needed it.
The customers immediately started to talk among themselves.
"To give a cut for the singer?"
"They're so generous?" "They're giving half of the stated price as well! If I go up and sing now; will that work?"
"Hehe, only if you can sing better than Chen Lei."
"That's great; I'll support him! Please give me another glass!"
"Me too."
"Over here, over here!"
The few servers actually started to get busy. Ever since Fish-Catching Internet Cafe opened for business, this was their first time!
Ma Yang and Zhang Yuan smiled and looked at each other. This actually seemed to work!
Late night…
Many people were already tipsy but still were not willing to leave. Before Chen Lei got off the stage, he kept on thanking everyone as he blushed and hid himself in the internet area.
Ma Yang, Zhang Yuan, and the few servers all went to send the customers on their way.
"Thank you for your support!"
"Please take care."
"We await your next visit!"
All the way till ten-thirty did the customers finally all leave.
"Hurry up and tabulate how much we have sold for drinks!" Ma Yang couldn't wait as he rushed to the cashier.
A few minutes later, Ma Yang's excited state receded.
"We had sold quite a lot of drinks; however… we only made this little?"
Ma Yang was very disappointed. He thought that he could immediately start making profits. However, after looking at the sales figure, he became dejected. They indeed sold many drinks tonight; it was also an eighty percent increase from the previous few days' average!
That meant that many of the customers here had ordered a second drink after hearing that part of the money would go to Chen Lei. Furthermore, some expensive cocktails had been ordered as well.
However, they were still very far away from making a profit.
Zhang Yuan was more rational. "This is very normal. Brother Ma, although our drinks sales have gone up, we have too few customers.
"Think about it. We only have these many seats; even if we hit full capacity with some people even standing around, selling more than a hundred drinks, would that be enough? We would only earn a few hundred or at most a thousand a night. Minus off the half that goes to Chen Lei, that would only be twenty to thirty thousand a month."
"Wait." Ma Yang frowned. "Doesn't that mean that if we made twenty to thirty thousand, Chen Lei would earn that much commission as well?"
Zhang Yuan was rather speechless, "Brother Ma, what are you saying? Of course, this is the case; you were the one who decided that Chen Lei would get fifty percent…"
Ma Yang's face collapsed, "…I regret that decision now. How about we don't give half to Chen Lei? Just five percent; maybe one percent?"
Zhang Yuan was livid. "Brother Ma, you can't possibly go back on your word on the same night. Are you trying to chase him away? You were the one who decided on fifty percent commission."
"It was me. However, I didn't expect it to be so much money…" Ma Yang was rather pained as he scratched his head repeatedly.
Zhang Yuan was speechless for a while.
No wonder Ma Yang had been so generous; he had not done the sums up at all! However, seeing that Ma Yang seemed to really be considering going against his word, Zhang Yuan hurriedly tried to dissuade him.
"Brother Ma, there's really no need. We are making losses of three hundred thousand monthly now. Even if you took all of Chen Lei's commission, that would at most be twenty or thirty thousand more; it is not feasible in the long term."
"If we give Chen Lei more, the audience would support him more as well. When this place becomes popular, we would naturally have more customers; and things would look better then."
Ma Yang frowned. "What would be considered enough? Based on your calculations, we need to sell more than a thousand drinks a night to recoup our losses; that is not possible. For this size of a place, we can't even sit two hundred—what more a thousand?"
Zhang Yuan didn't know what to say at the moment. "Err… in any case, now that our drinks sales have gone up, let's monitor the situation a while more. We definitely cannot kick someone to the curb when he outlived his usefulness."
"I'm still feeling vexed." Ma Yang massaged his temple as he was so pained he almost couldn't breathe. He was really unhappy with this.
"No, I cannot suffer just like this! We must let our customers feel this as well!'
Zhang Yuan was bewildered, "How can we let our customers feel this?"
Ma Yang looked over at the wall next to the stage; there still was some empty space there. He pointed, "Hang a small screen there.
"Every time someone orders a drink, a message will appear on that screen with the table number, what type of drink, as well as how much money goes to Chen Lei. After that, a well-wishing message to Chen Lei would follow.
"This way, every time someone orders a drink, everyone would be able to see. Let's add a line on the top of the screen tabulating how much Chen Lei was going to get each night.
"I've paid such a heavy price; I cannot suffer silently. I must let all customers know that I have given so much!"
Zhang Yuan contemplated this. "This could work; it's only a small screen and wouldn't cost much. Leave this matter to me. I'll have it done by daytime tomorrow."