Chapter 1282 Grasshoppers on the Same Rope

Sun Xi was stunned after hearing Zhou Muyan's words.

President Zhou, you're not doing anything remotely human!

When he first heard about the paid vacation, his first reaction was to decline politely. But now that he's seen this documentary, he's happily agreed to make the employees suffer!

Sun Xi's only thought now was regret.

Why did he have to say that?!

Thinking about it now, Min Jingchao wasn't just showing off at the beginning; he was giving sincere advice!

He had said long ago that this hardship trip wasn't a good thing. It was just a "paid vacation" on the surface, but in reality, it was "paid suffering"!

They're both "paid," but there's a fundamental difference!

Sun Xi's face instantly turned bitter, and he was dumbfounded, unable to speak.

He really had nothing to say; it was too late to regret it now…

Zhou Muyan looked at Min Jingchao. "Brother Min, as the project's chief designer, you'll definitely be going as well, to cultivate a good relationship with the team."

Min Jingchao's expression changed instantly. "There's really no need!"

"President Zhou, I'm going back to Tengda after this project. I have too many opportunities like this at Tengda. You should leave this opportunity for the colleagues at Tianhuo Studio!"

Zhou Muyan waved his hand. "Hey, how can that be? Tengda is Tengda, and Tianhuo is Tianhuo. What happens to you at Tengda is President Pei's business, but here, I certainly can't mistreat you in terms of benefits."

"A paid vacation is a benefit for everyone on the project team. How can I leave you out? If President Pei finds out, wouldn't he say that I'm being biased and mistreating you?"

"Don't decline. Although Tianhuo Studio isn't rich, we still have this much money!"

Min Jingchao: "..."

Crap.

He wanted to pass the buck, but he never expected it to backfire!

Zhou Muyan left, and Min Jingchao and Sun Xi looked at each other, seeing despair in each other's eyes.

It's over. This has blown up!

There was only one way to describe it: an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

Originally, both of them had some small thoughts, but now, they've both fallen in together, becoming grasshoppers on the same rope, unable to move.

Min Jingchao cleared his throat twice and asked, "Is there any way to salvage this… What do you think it would take for President Zhou to cancel this trip, given his personality?"

Sun Xi also had a look of despair. "Now that he's decided, I'm afraid there's no way to cancel it…"

"However…"

He suddenly had a flash of inspiration. "Maybe there's still a way, and that's the price!"

"If the price of the suffering trip is particularly high, so high that it's outrageous… then President Zhou might give up!"

"Or, he'll look for other, relatively affordable alternatives."

"But the prerequisite is that the price must be very high, so high that it looks outrageous at a glance."

The Suffering Travel website has only updated the promotional video and documentary, and has not yet introduced the specific factors such as price and itinerary selection.

What if the price is particularly high?

If Zhou Muyan calculates that arranging for dozens or hundreds of people from the entire project team will be particularly expensive and costly, he will naturally consider giving up, or switching to another alternative project.

If it's another paid vacation project, even if the content is still wilderness survival, it's always much more comfortable than the Suffering Travel.

It's the difference between going deep into the eighteenth level of hell and taking a walk on the Naihe Bridge.

Min Jingchao's eyes lit up. "That makes sense!"

This is called quick thinking. As soon as he heard that he was going to be arranged for a suffering trip, he immediately thought of a way.

And this method is indeed feasible.

Zhou Muyan isn't like President Pei. Although he's generally generous to his employees after the project makes money, he's still a relatively thrifty person.

His generosity in giving bonuses is also based on careful calculations. The specific percentage of bonuses to be given is very fixed.

If he finds that going on a suffering trip is over budget, he will probably cancel the trip, or switch to another travel company.

And the price of suffering travel… needless to say, it must be very expensive.

Based on Min Jingchao's understanding of Suffering Travel, it not only requires special training, but also careful site selection and a complete set of safety plans, and in the future, it will also need to build its own special training base.

With all of these arranged, the expenses are huge, and the price is unlikely to be cheap.

Moreover, Min Jingchao can also find a way to subtly hint at Bao Xu, so that he can further increase the price.

Of course, he can't explicitly say to raise the price, but he can ask him to improve the quality of the treatment!

If the quality of service is improved, the price will naturally be higher.

Min Jingchao, who thought of this method, felt like he had found a way out of a desperate situation.

"This method is feasible! We're saved!"

Min Jingchao felt much more at ease, and while working, he slowly calculated how to trick Bao Xu into raising the price, so as to avoid the tragedy of the entire Bullet Marks 2 project team going on a paid suffering trip.

This matter is not urgent, after all, even if they go to suffer, it will have to be after the development of Bullet Marks 2 is completed, and there are still several months to go.

During this period, he will wait and see, and choose the most suitable time to strike, so as not to expose himself too obviously and be targeted by Bao Xu in turn.

…

…

October 29th, Monday.

Feihuang Studio.

Feihuang Studio, which used to be very lively, now seemed a little deserted. Many work stations were empty, and it looked like a holiday at a glance.

In fact, it was because Huang Sibo was still suffering in Shennongjia, and Zhu Xiaoce was taking a group of people to the United States to co-produce The Successor, so there were not many people left at Feihuang Studio. A large part of them were responsible for animation projects.

The Institute of Eschatology was also on the list of adaptations from Qidian Chinese Website, and Pei Qian's requirement at the time was to acquire an animation studio to produce it.

He didn't think too much at the time. He simply thought that acquiring an animation studio would cost more money.

Later, Pei Qian was busy with work, so he didn't bother with this matter anymore, and handed it over to Huang Sibo and Zhu Xiaoce to promote.

They were also quite busy, one suffering in Shennongjia, and the other busy filming The Successor, so this work was assigned to Wu Chuan, a veteran employee under their command who was relatively familiar with animation.

There are many animation studios in the industry, but not every one can be acquired. Some animation studios are doing very well and are very popular, so why sell themselves?

As for those animation studios that can be acquired, there are more or less some problems inside, and they must be carefully examined before a decision can be made.

This workload was very huge, so since receiving this task, Wu Chuan began to learn about the situation from people in the industry, flying all over the country to understand the specific situation of these studios.

Later, he also issued some reports one after another and submitted them, but he did not receive any news.

Because Zhu Xiaoce didn't understand these contents, and couldn't make a decision, he could only forward them to President Pei, but President Pei couldn't necessarily see them…

In addition, Pei Qian considered the animation studio's affairs to be a matter of relatively low priority, so he didn't pay much attention to it and delayed it a little.

But it didn't matter, there was still plenty of time, and it wouldn't hurt to investigate more.

Now, Pei Qian finally managed to find time to come to Feihuang Studio to finalize this matter.

In the conference room, Wu Chuan handed the research report he had prepared to Pei Qian.

"President Pei, this is the situation of the animation companies I investigated."

"These animation companies are all in general operating condition and can be considered for acquisition."

"In addition to these, some excellent animation companies in the industry can also be considered. Although we can't directly acquire them, we can make demands to them as Party A and let them produce The Institute of Eschatology."

"President Pei, which studio's situation do you want to know about? I can answer in detail."

Pei Qian casually flipped through the research report.

It could be seen that Wu Chuan had done a lot of work. The information on it was quite detailed, including the year of establishment and representative works of these studios, everything was available.

Moreover, Wu Chuan was right. Acquisition wasn't the only option. He could also choose outsourcing, which meant not buying the studio, but simply cooperating on animation.

In this way, although the control over the studio would be greatly reduced, the cooperating studios would definitely be the best and top-notch studios in the industry. As long as enough money was given, the quality of the produced works would be more guaranteed.

Quickly scanning through the representative works of these studios, Pei Qian couldn't help but frown.

It seemed too reliable!

He had heard of or seen the representative works of many of these studios, and knew that they were very reliable choices in the domestic animation circle.

Then if they were acquired, coupled with Tengda's reputation, what would happen?

Although Pei Qian thought that the script of The Institute of Eschatology was quite average, with the addition of these animation studios, and a little bit of popularity for no reason, might it become a hit?

This risk still existed.

Pei Qian pondered for a moment and said, "These animation studios… seem to have their own problems."

Wu Chuan nodded slightly. As expected, President Pei's requirements were very high.

So many top-ranked studios in the industry "each have their own problems." This was enough to show President Pei's unique and sharp vision.

But the problem was… there were no other choices.

Wu Chuan said, "President Pei, the current research results are these. If you're not satisfied, there are no better options."

"Or, I can look for foreign companies again, but it will definitely be more troublesome to cooperate with foreign companies."

Pei Qian waved his hand. "There's no need for that."

"What I mean is, why don't we just start from scratch and build our own animation studio?"

Originally, he wanted to buy a ready-made one directly, preferably one that could lose a lot of money.

But after investigating, he realized that it wasn't easy to find such a good thing, and the risk was still a bit high.

If that was the case, what about doing it himself?

Animation as a whole was still a field that required accumulation and specialized talent. Instead of acquiring a ready-made studio that had been fully integrated and had a perfect workflow, wouldn't the possibility of failure be higher if he built an animation studio himself?

Wu Chuan hesitated for a moment and said, "But President Pei, as I said at the beginning, we don't have any technical accumulation in this area. If we want this studio to get on the right track, I'm afraid it will be more difficult."

"Many things can't be solved simply with money."

Pei Qian smiled. Isn't that just right?

The problems that can't be solved with money are the most expensive!

I have something to go out today, and then I'll sort out the outline. There's only one update for the time being…