Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Ma Yiqun returned from Boss Pei’s office, feeling less confused than he was before.

When he went back upstairs, he passed by the editors’ department and saw all the young editors vetting and editing manuscripts seriously. These young people seemed to cherish this job opportunity.

As a second-tier city, Jingzhou did not have many tech ventures. There weren’t many internet businesses either. The main source of jobs was in traditional industries. These traditional industries were known for torturing fresh graduates. They were worldly, hierarchical, and boring; most fresh graduates could not adapt to working in traditional industries.

At first, these people lacked direction for their own futures. They could not get recommendations for post-graduate studies, and their academic results did not qualify them either. Yet, they could not find jobs that they were passionate about.

Companies in traditional industries looked down on them, and they looked down on traditional jobs in return. They practically despised each other.

They watched as their own classmates became carefree after securing jobs and post-graduate positions. Some of them had even been offered high starting pays and had become the envy of many.

On the other hand, they did not have a single offer. They faced as many rejections as they did interviews, and they felt like they had already thrown their resumes into the deep sea. One could only imagine the immense pressure they were under.

Initially, some of them were prepared to retake their examinations. Others decided to go back to their hometown. None of them expected the tables to turn!

Coincidentally, a new website was set up. All of them were recruited. What’s more, they landed editing jobs that were slightly related to their majors. Their luck was extremely good!

In the beginning, some of them were unhappy with the job and even despised web novels. However, after interacting with other classmates who were already working, they realized that the job was extremely good!

In Jingzhou, the salaries they were earning were considered high for sure.

In terms of job content, reviewing manuscripts could be dull and tedious at times. However, it was much more interesting than working as an administrative staff in most offices.

On top of this, their boss was young and easy to talk to. The atmosphere in the company was relaxed and harmonious. Everyone very quickly took a liking toward their new job and decided to work hard to transition from being a student to being part of the working class.

When Ma Yiqun entered the office, a small-sized, skinny boy stood up suddenly. “Brother Ma, we have finished reviewing the manuscripts for today.”

Ma Yiqun nodded and said, “Good. Do whatever you want for now. I’ll gather everyone for a meeting later on.”

This boy’s name was Zhu Anxing. He was the liveliest person in the batch of fresh graduates. He was not as autistic as the rest, and he was much smarter as well. He was one of the few editors Ma Yiqun was happy with.

Zhu Anxing’s academic results were horrible. Even when he was about to graduate, he failed three subjects. That was why he proudly delayed graduation.

Considering the difficulty of examinations for humanities majors, he still managed to fail three subjects before graduation. It was obvious how much he hated learning.

Delayed graduation meant that Zhu Anxing would only get his graduation certificate at the end of the year. However, Ma Yiqun did not care too much about this. After all, to him, academic results were not important for determining whether one would be good at editing or not. The correlation was not strong.

This Zhu Anxing read online literature and played games while he was at university. He had a wide variety of interests. That was why he was learning the ropes of this editing job relatively quickly.

Ma Yiqun decided that once Zhu Anxing’s skills were satisfactory, he would promote the latter to become the editor-in-chief of a popular channel. This would take some burden off Ma Yiqun as well.

Ma Yiqun returned to his desk and made some minor arrangements. Then, he invited the good seedlings, who had chances of becoming editors-in-chief, to attend a meeting. There, he briefly explained what Boss Pei had instructed.

In the future, they would ease the criteria for accepting manuscripts. They would also attract authors to write for them with full-time benefits. Their main goal would be to fill the library up.

After that, Ma Yiqun addressed the problem of them not having enough work to do.

People like Zhu Anxing, who were learning quickly about online literature, could start working as editors if they were really needed to. What’s more, since there were very few manuscripts being submitted, they could quickly finish their reviewing work.

If they had no other work to do during the remaining time, they could learn from Infinite Chinese Network’s popular online literature.

Ma Yiqun scanned the group and said, “If you feel like you do not have enough work to doapart from reading popular online literature, you could also try to write something.

“You might all be editors, but who knows if you would be able to write a hot-selling novel? You must still have dreams.

“What’s more, we don’t have many manuscripts on our website at the moment. The standard of the manuscripts we are receiving is not great as well. I’m sure we could recommend any book you write in good positions on the website. You could take this opportunity to give it a shot.”

There was nothing wrong with what Ma Yiqun was saying, but it had no practical significance. If no one visited the website, it would not matter even if he recommended their books there.

Ma Yiqun paused before adding, “If you really have nothing to do, I will give you something to do: think about the theme and plot for Repent and be Saved.”

Initially, thinking about the theme for Repent and be Saved was Ma Yiqun’s job as the plot planner.

However, life was full of twists and turns. Ma Yiqun had unexpectedly been promoted. Logically, Ma Yiqun should have handed this task over to someone. However, Lu Mingliang was stunned. He said to Ma Yiqun, “If you don’t do this, no one else would be able to.”

The only other person who was fit to do the job was Boss Pei. However, Boss Pei was extremely busy. How could he personally work on the plot?

Ma Yiqun thought about it and decided that it was not a big deal. He could afford to write the theme for the game.

Thus, Ma Yiqun put on two hats. He thought about the theme for Repent and be Saved while he worked on Zhongdian Chinese Network.

Now that the initial preparation for the website was more or less complete and Boss Pei was fully supportive, Ma Yiqun felt a lot less stressed.

All of a sudden, Ma Yiqun realized a problem. He had brothers around him. He did not need to fight the battle alone. They could work on Repent and be Saved’s plot together!

When the twenty-odd people found that they had nothing to do, they could think of a plot for Repent and be Saved. The few of them who majored in Chinese, like Zhu Anxing, had a good foundation in ancient Chinese anyway.

According to Boss Pei’s request, Repent and be Saved had to have a huge amount of ancient Chinese riddles and puzzles. Ma Yiqun had to work on all of these on his own. He would be able to complete it, but if he worked on it by himself, the quality would be compromised for sure.

Now that there were so many people there to help him, he could split the workload. Wouldn’t they be acting as a plot team, then?

Ma Yiqun briefly explained the direction for Repent and be Saved’s theme to everybody.

The initial design for the theme was already complete. There would be traditional Chinese scenes and elements of Buddhism, Taoism, and ancient mythology. They would not emphasize any one element over others. Instead, there would be sprinkles of everything.

It was possible for the game to only have Buddhist-themed scenery. They could even make Sanskrit part of the art resources in the game. However, after some discussion, Ma Yiqun and Lu Mingliang decided that it would not be appropriate.

Having purely Buddhist-themed scenery would make the entire game cohesive. The style would also be very clear. However, it might not be able to accurately portray the characteristics of ancient China.

In other words, the main point of the game might be obscured.

Buddhism was a foreign religion after all. It was no indigenous enough. It did not bring out traditional China’s style.

That was why Ma Yiqun and Lu Mingliang decided that they would include elements of Buddhism, Taoism, and ancient mythology. They would come together to express a unique, traditional Chinese style.

As for whether it would look like a mess of different styles or not…

They did not have to worry. Big Boss Ruan Guangjian would be in charge of curating the style of the game. He would use the epic ink oil painting style to create art resources. Ma Yiqun trusted that the effect would be beautiful.