Chapter 272: Ma Yiqun's Suggestion
After seeing Qiao Liang off, Pei Qian returned to the Shenghua Elegance complex and made a stop at Tengda's upstairs division—Terminal Chinese Web Site.
At present, the site's operations had stabilized. Most employees were in a sort of "self-entertainment" mode.
Although site traffic was slowly inching upward, the overall numbers were still abysmal, with no sign of improvement in the short term.
Across many webnovel forums, Terminal Chinese Web's reputation was terrible. Most authors regarded it as a shady, dead-end little site and strongly advised newcomers against joining for the "full-attendance" bonuses.
Only authors completely lacking ambition chose Terminal Chinese Web as their home base—just to chase that tiny attendance reward.
As a result, the editors generally had only two things to do each day:
Review submissions, or amuse themselves by writing stories for fun.
Of course, a few people—including Zhu Anxing—were currently "entertaining themselves" by writing the official storyline novel for Turn Back Before It's Too Late.
However, because that official novel was always pinned on the site's homepage, it naturally became a magnet for ridicule and complaints.
If Zhu Anxing didn't have such a strong mentality and high tolerance for abuse, he probably would've quit long ago.
Readers' criticisms were simple: the plot was scattered and confusing, lacked any sense of payoff, and was overall just bewildering to read.
After all, this wasn't really a "novel" in the conventional sense—it was more like a collection of narrative design drafts for the game. It completely failed to meet what readers typically expected from an online novel.
Everyone was used to it by now. Let them rant—it was written to serve the game anyway.
Meanwhile, Ma Yiqun had been managing both Terminal Chinese Web and the TPDb project, which had recently begun to show some results.
When he saw President Pei arrive, Ma Yiqun quickly had someone pour tea and personally began reporting on the recent progress.
Five minutes later.
Despite Ma Yiqun's best efforts to sugarcoat Terminal Chinese Web's "achievements," Pei Qian could still clearly discern the truth: the site remained utterly and gloriously unprofitable.
"Very good," Pei Qian said seriously.
"Terminal Chinese Web's performance has been excellent. The TPDb platform is also coming along well."
"Don't rush things, just keep maintaining this pace."
Pei Qian was genuinely satisfied with Ma Yiqun as an employee.
While Ma Yiqun did have strong business skills, under Pei Qian's strategic guidance, those skills had been effectively neutralized—a true managerial triumph.
Ever since Ma Yiqun took over Terminal Chinese Web, the site had continued losing money steadily: few readers, almost no reliable authors—a perfect display of "outstanding work performance."
Pei Qian sighed inwardly. A rare employee I can actually trust to keep losing money properly!
Seeing that President Pei seemed to be in a good mood today, Ma Yiqun hesitated. He'd been thinking about something for a while but wasn't sure whether he should bring it up.
After some deliberation, he decided to speak.
"President Pei, regarding the Terminal Chinese Web, I have an idea—or rather, a suggestion."
"Oh? Let's hear it," Pei Qian said, slightly surprised but not alarmed.
Although Ma Yiqun's understanding of webnovels was… questionable, his intelligence was perfectly fine.
Having been CEO of Terminal Chinese Web for this long, it was only natural he'd have some opinions on the site's development.
Ma Yiqun began, "President Pei, I've been thinking. The biggest problem Terminal Chinese Web faces right now is that our mid-tier authors can't earn enough."
"Our lower-tier authors can still scrape by thanks to the full-attendance bonus, which gives them some basic financial stability."
"But once they want to move upward—to become mid-tier authors who hope to live off their writing—it's basically impossible."
"Because our site has so few readers, there aren't enough paid subscriptions. Even if an author writes a genuinely good novel, the platform's low ceiling prevents them from gaining traction or becoming popular."
Pei Qian nodded thoughtfully.
That's right, this was something he had already anticipated long ago.
The only reason he'd been pretending not to notice was to let the site burn a bit more money.
But now that Ma Yiqun had brought it up, he couldn't keep pretending ignorance. He had no choice but to nod thoughtfully, pretending to agree.
After all, a smart and insightful boss like President Pei couldn't possibly fail to understand something this simple—that would seem far too suspicious.
Ma Yiqun continued, "So, I came up with a way to improve the situation."
"We should artificially raise the income of mid-level writers—and potentially, top-tier authors as well. If the current number of paying readers isn't enough, then we should pay the difference ourselves."
"Let's say there's a pretty good book on our site—something comparable to the quality of an Infinite Chinese Web premium title—then we'll step in and make up the author's royalties out of pocket."
"In this way, the lower-tier writers won't have to worry about being buried on our site, and they'll also be more motivated to improve."
Pei Qian was silent for a moment. "Make sense. But how do you judge whether a book truly reaches that premium level?"
Ma Yiqun said, "On one hand, we can judge by site data—for example, the percentage of subscribers among all paying readers, as well as votes, clicks, and other stats. On the other hand, there's human evaluation."
"This part… can only really be done by me."
This issue wasn't something Ma Yiqun had only just noticed today.
But coming up with this solution—and then mustering the courage to propose it—hadn't been easy.
Even now, Ma Yiqun felt a little nervous, afraid that President Pei might get angry.
Because he knew very well that this suggestion was rather bold—the amount of discretionary power he was asking for was enormous.
If a premium author's monthly royalty was ten thousand yuan, while Terminal Chinese Web's full attendance bonus was only a few hundred, then that meant the site would have to pay the entire difference.
If ten or twenty authors reached that "premium" level, the monthly subsidies could reach hundreds of thousands—or even more.
And all of that money would be distributed at his discretion.
Sure, he'd have to refer to the site's data—but with such a tiny user base right now, tweaking those numbers wouldn't exactly be difficult, would it?
So, in the end, it would still come down to his decision about who got paid.
If one were to think of the worst-case scenario, he could easily have his friends or relatives set up dummy author accounts, translate some obscure works, and funnel the "royalties" straight into his own pocket.
So while the problem Ma Yiqun raised was real, his proposed solution wasn't exactly appropriate.
It was an overly idealistic plan—one that could easily go off the rails if the person in charge had even a hint of selfish intent.
If corruption were to break out in management and the authors caught wind of it, the site's reputation would be completely ruined—a huge risk indeed.
However, Ma Yiqun simply couldn't think of a better alternative.
With so few readers, even a talented lower-tier author couldn't earn much from their work, which severely hurt their motivation to write. This was a problem that had to be solved.
So whether President Pei approved or not, Ma Yiqun had decided to bring up the proposal anyway.
Pei Qian didn't respond immediately—he took a moment to think.
Letting Ma Yiqun handle the funds?
Actually… that might not be such a bad idea.
Pei Qian trusted Ma Yiqun—mainly because he trusted his terrible judgment in web novels.
After all, Ma Yiqun had written flop after flop. That alone proved that his perspective on web fiction was fundamentally flawed.
In that case, any books he thought were high-quality probably wouldn't be very good at all.
Which meant that even if he picked out those books, filled the recommendation slots with them, and paid all those "premium" bonuses—it wouldn't make much of a positive impact on Terminal Chinese Web.
At the same time, the site would be bleeding a lot of extra money!
For Pei Qian, who was desperate to spend money, this was nothing short of a gift from heaven!
After weighing the risks and benefits, Pei Qian immediately nodded. "Alright, no problem."
"In addition to the full-attendance bonuses for our contracted authors, I'll allocate you another two million. Use it as you see fit."
Ma Yiqun was stunned. He quickly said, "President Pei, two million is a bit too much!"
"Right now, there really aren't that many authors on the site capable of producing premium-quality work. I think twenty to thirty thousand per month should be plenty."
Pei Qian waved his hand dismissively. "It's fine!"
"Giving premium authors a little extra isn't a big deal. It's worth spending heavily once in a while to attract talent. There's nothing wrong with paying writers more."
"And don't be so stingy. Since we've decided to make up their royalties, might as well give them a little extra to strengthen their sense of belonging to Terminal Chinese Web."
Pei Qian wasn't the least bit worried.
After all, the books Ma Yiqun would pick were all garbage anyway. So what if they got paid more?
If the books were bad and couldn't attract readers, that money would just go straight down the drain—and Pei Qian couldn't be happier about it.
Plus, there was only a month left before the next financial settlement. Pei Qian was itching to burn through more cash.
Two million might sound excessive to Ma Yiqun, but Pei Qian would've gladly thrown in even more if he could.
Ma Yiqun, however, was deeply moved.
As expected of President Pei—so generous and visionary!
If they could offer higher royalties to authors capable of writing premium-level works, then Terminal Chinese Web would have a competitive edge over other small platforms. Over time, it might even create a virtuous cycle!
What moved Ma Yiqun even more was the sheer trust President Pei had placed in him.
This two million was basically being handed over to him with full discretionary control.
Such absolute trust—what kind of boss does that?
Could any ordinary leader show that kind of confidence?
If he didn't work himself to the bone for President Pei, could he even call himself human?
Ma Yiqun pounded his chest firmly. "President Pei, don't worry! I'll give it my all to select a group of truly capable, premium authors. I won't let a single cent of this money go to waste!"
Pei Qian smiled faintly on the surface—but inwardly, he was laughing coldly.
As long as you give it your all, this money is guaranteed to be wasted.
And that's exactly why Pei Qian valued this employee so much.
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