Chapter 261: Good Friends Should Suffer Together
September 8th, Wednesday.
Noon.
After finishing the lunch delivered by Moyu Delivery, Pei Qian took a couple of sips of "fat otaku happy water" (a.k.a. soda) and leaned back lazily in his boss chair, resting like a corpse.
Moyu Delivery was one of the businesses Pei Qian was currently most satisfied with. It not only perfectly solved all employee meal problems, but also kept losing money steadily with no signs of turning a profit anytime soon.
The only drawback was that it could only operate around existing Moyu Internet Café branches—it didn't have the same rapid expansion potential as Against the Wind Logistics.
But Pei Qian wasn't in a hurry. As long as the Moyu Internet Café 2.0 project could launch quickly, the service area for Moyu Delivery would expand accordingly—meaning its losses would grow even faster.
Satisfied and full, Pei Qian closed the game Turn Back Before It's Too Late on his computer.
Another morning of pure suffering… but at least he could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.
He had now become very proficient with the weapon Pudu in-game. As long as he persevered for another week or so and unlocked the Six Paths of Reincarnation ending, that would count as a major success for him.
That would not only mean he was finally free—no more torture from this game—but also that the game had reached the system's release requirements. It could finally go public.
And once the game launched and flopped spectacularly, losing mountains of money, his happy days would finally begin!
Just thinking about it made Pei Qian smile uncontrollably.
He opened Aili Island and prepared to watch a few funny short videos to digest his lunch.
First, he ignored the 99+ unread private messages urging him to upload new content.
Such was the pain of being a famous content creator on Aili Island—every time he logged in, he was buried under a flood of DMs, most of which were just viewers pestering him to post new videos.
How could President Pei, with his busy schedule, possibly find time to update videos every day?
At this point, Hardcore Review had already smashed more than a dozen electronic devices. Even Pei Qian himself felt the show was getting stale.
Yet, his viewers were still loving it—every time a new piece of tech came out, they'd flood the comments begging him to "smash this one too" or "try breaking that one," never getting tired of it.
Worse still, their requests had grown bolder over time. At first, they only wanted him to destroy phones worth three or five thousand yuan. Now they were asking him to smash laptops and headphones costing over ten thousand!
If it weren't for the decent bonus payouts from Aili Island's Creator Incentive Program, he would have quit ages ago!
His current plan was simple—whenever he saw a new gadget, he'd casually smash one every now and then just to keep the channel alive. Especially if Shenhua Corporation sent him free products—those were fair game.
Then, while browsing the tech section, Pei Qian noticed a new video from Feihuang Studio—"A Day in the Life of a Great Inventor – Episode 4."
Feihuang Studio had maintained a remarkably consistent upload schedule. Although this new video was noticeably longer than "President Pei's Daily Life", they were still releasing one episode per week—making them one of the most hardworking creators on Aili Island.
After all, most creators were part-timers. But Feihuang Studio was a full-time company—with manpower and funding—so naturally, their production was faster and steadier.
Pei Qian didn't open the video. Mainly because… he was worried his poor heart couldn't take it.
If this series ever landed a sponsorship deal with some international big-name brands, it would be nothing short of a catastrophe for him. Just thinking about it made him want to keep a bottle of heart medicine nearby before watching any new episode.
And since he currently had no way to stop them, he could only bury his head in the sand and pretend he hadn't seen it.
He scrolled through his feed. None of the meme creators he followed had uploaded anything interesting recently.
So, in the end, Pei Qian turned to his favorite section—the Remix Zone.
But this time, as soon as he opened the Remix Zone, he immediately noticed something different.
There was a new member among the Remix All-Stars!
One glance at the video titles was all it took to see who the newest "lucky celebrity" was.
"Fried Pig Trotter: The Brand-New Version You Haven't Experienced"
"Congratulations to 'Fried Pig Trotter' for Joining the All-Star Remix Lineup!"
"Fried Pig Trotter: Sing Along with Me to the Blood War Anthem Song!"
"Blood War Anthem Enhanced Edition: Sing with Fried Pig Trotter!"
Pei Qian clicked on a few of the videos at random, and surprisingly, they were actually pretty catchy?
What was worse, their view counts weren't low either.
It looked like Zhang Zuting's official induction into the Remix All-Stars was already a done deal.
Pei Qian couldn't help but wonder if one of these videos might break three million views and get Zhang Zuting enshrined in the annual Remix Hall of Fame.
He was smiling—until he wasn't.
Suddenly nervous, Pei Qian hurriedly opened the backend data for Blood War Anthem: Enhanced Edition.
After a quick look, he let out a long sigh of relief.
Whew~
Good. No major fluctuations in the numbers.
There had been a slight improvement compared to before, but overall, the game was still a long way from breaking even.
That was within Pei Qian's expectations. After all, they had run so many ads, and the game's quality wasn't bad. The old players' reviews were even glowing. It would be unrealistic if there hadn't been any growth at all.
As long as the growth rate stayed slow, everything would be fine.
Clearly, the combination of ads and the micro-client setup had filtered out a huge chunk of potential players. Only about one-twentieth or one-thirtieth of those who clicked on the ads actually downloaded and played the game.
So Pei Qian relaxed for the moment—even if the remix videos were blowing up, he could still sleep soundly for now.
"Maybe I'm overthinking this," he muttered.
"Back then, those remix videos of Zhazhahui were insanely popular too—everyone and their grandma knew them. But how many people from Bilibili actually went and played the game he endorsed?"
"Some did, sure—but definitely not many."
Feeling reassured, Pei Qian typed "Fried Pig Trotter" into the search bar and started browsing the related videos with interest.
Aside from the flood of remix edits and clickbait marketing clips, there were also some recent interviews featuring Zhang Zuting himself.
Apparently, Zhang Zuting hadn't been idle lately. Though his fame had faded a bit, he was still playing supporting roles in various films.
One of the interviews asked him directly about the nickname "Fried Pig Trotter."
On camera, Zhang Zuting looked helpless and weary.
"Now the whole country's laughing at me."
"Everyone's imitating the way I talk—'Hello everyone, I'm Fried Pig Trotter! If you're a real bro, come take a bite of me.'"
"A lot of my fans have asked why, as a former Best Actor, I'd shoot such a cringe-worthy commercial."
"Honestly, I was really serious that day. My first take was full of emotion and conviction—but then the client told me to sound more relaxed and casual, to give people a sense of friendliness."
"So I just said the line offhandedly—and somehow that was the one they used."
"I even told them they should probably get a voice actor, since my Mandarin isn't great. But they didn't bother and just used my raw voice. I still don't really get what they were thinking."
"Then the ad went viral. I even offered to reshoot it, but the client said it wasn't necessary. And… well, here we are."
"Honestly, I still don't understand how it blew up this much."
The host couldn't stop laughing.
"So have you ever thought about ending your contract with them?"
Zhang Zuting shook his head helplessly.
"No. Apart from that one awkward ad, they've actually been great to work with—very professional. Everything else went smoothly."
"And hey, if people want to call me 'Fried Pig Trotter,' then so be it. As long as everyone's happy, that's fine by me."
"If they think it's funny and endearing, I don't mind at all."
The host smiled.
"So this ad… hasn't really caused you too much trouble, then?"
Zhang Zuting looked momentarily at a loss for words.
After thinking for a bit, he said, "Trouble? Hmm… I guess it's not that bad. The main thing is my friends—like Ah Jian, Ah Xiong, and Jia Qiang—they all keep laughing at me."
"Every time we go out to eat, they just have to bring it up. It's honestly driving me crazy."
After closing the video, Pei Qian suddenly felt a pang of guilt.
Sigh~ Sure, the whole "Fried Pig Trotter" thing gave Old Zhang Zuting a ton of exposure, but if it also made him lose face in front of his friends… that did feel kind of cruel.
Since that's the case—well, as his friend, Pei Qian should lend him a hand.
So, out of curiosity, Pei Qian searched up the few friends Zhang Zuting had mentioned by name.
And sure enough, the old saying was true—birds of a feather flock together.
Zhang Zuting's friends were even more washed-up than he was.
Zhang Zuting, at least, had once been a Best Actor.
But these guys had only ever played supporting roles, and now they weren't even getting those.
Forget commercials—some of them had fallen so far that they were performing at real estate opening ceremonies.
The unluckiest one of the bunch couldn't land any acting gigs at all and was stuck in a messy contract dispute with his agency.
His life had gotten so bad that he was surviving on help from Zhang Zuting and a few other buddies.
Of course, even though some of them were doing better and some worse, they'd all known each other for years.
So teasing Zhang Zuting about his ad wasn't meant maliciously—it was just friends joking around.
Still, after looking through their current situations, Pei Qian's eyes grew misty.
Life really isn't easy…
Being the kind-hearted man that he was, Pei Qian decided to pull them up a little.
He picked out four of Zhang Zuting's closer friends—the ones Zhang Zuting had specifically mentioned in the interview—and sent their names over to Lin Wan.
"Here's another two million. Bring these four in to shoot a set of Blood War Anthem: Enhanced Edition commercials. Mix their ads in rotation with Zhang Zuting's."
Since all four of them were long past their prime, they wouldn't be expensive to hire anyway.
Fife hundred thousand apiece for a two-year endorsement sounded perfectly reasonable.
Good friends should stick together—neatly and uniformly.
That way, Zhang Zuting wouldn't be the only one people made fun of, and his struggling friends could earn a little money too.
Two birds with one stone. Perfect.
Pei Qian couldn't help but sigh with satisfaction.
Ah~ I really am such a benevolent man.
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