Chapter 62: Grand Ambitions

Shen Mo didn't think it was excessive; he even felt he had done the right thing.

He replied decisively beneath that triggered big brother's comment: "Not only do I not think it's excessive, I also feel I did the right thing."

"Otherwise, why would you bother to take screenshots?"

"If you hadn't bothered to take screenshots, how would you have discovered you possess such superb craftsmanship?"

"I was just drinking water in the video, and you managed to screenshot it to a point of being suggestive—if you took this skill and used it to start a livestream, posting videos, wouldn't you blow up overnight?"

"If you're so sensitive to images and videos, why not record videos restoring female influencers' original looks—wouldn't that blow up too?"

"So, I feel I did the right thing."

Shen Mo's long string of replies left that triggered big brother speechless.

Within a few days, that triggered big brother's account gradually posted some videos that looked suggestive on the surface but were actually utterly mundane.

For example: up close you'd think it was something risqué, but from a distance it was just a few pieces of fruit.

In an extremely short time, this big brother became internet-famous.

Soon this big brother opened another account, mainly restoring influencer videos, triggering a whole bunch of beautiful female influencers.

Of course, he also unearthed a bunch of genuinely beautiful influencers.

Shen Mo earned the title Super Judge of People for this.

After blowing up, the triggered big brother publicly thanked Shen Mo and traveled all the way to Jinghai to treat Shen Mo to a meal.

Shen Mo was very happy—turning an enemy into a friend. I've got the makings of a boss too.

Because of this triggered big brother, Shen Mo caught another wave of internet fame.

Riding this wave, Xiao Zhi launched the new game Subway Surfers.

A very simple game—just keep running.

There are speed boosts and special outfits, but no special items.

It's just a simple game where you run nonstop and jump over some obstacles.

Shen Mo's review of the game: it's trash.

What decent person would sit down and play this?

Anyway, Shen Mo felt it was impossible.

Then this game blew up again thanks to promotional videos from Shen Mo and Liu Yue.

Netizens' review: a good game for killing time.

Clearly a game that threw money at it.

Why say so? Because every single frame is so perfect.

One has to marvel at Li Li's excellent art skills.

The friends ranking among them is also a point that attracted many players.

For many players, the logic is: I might not play, but I absolutely cannot be last on my friends list.

To fight for first place, many players with free time flooded into this single-player game.

Xiao Zhi changed the profit model—not only memberships and screen ads, but also watching ads to earn skins. One ad of a few dozen seconds gets you a set of glossy, beautiful skins.

Especially the skins Li Li designed—the main selling point being handsome guys and pretty girls.

Li Li said: I might not be good at designing other things, but designing skins, I'm top-tier.

This satisfied many players—no money? I can watch an ad and get 24 hours of skin usage.

On top of that, this game's main promotion channel is short-video platforms, which have a complete ad system and abundant ad sources.

Shen Mo was utterly speechless at Subway Surfers' success, at a loss for words.

A game where you just keep running, with at most some pretty skins—and you all love it this much?

Especially when Shen Mo saw a gaming streamer come to the company to discuss collaboration, wanting to livestream Subway Surfers, Shen Mo was even more stunned—aren't you afraid of wasting your own reputation?

But Shen Mo didn't say anything, leaving it all to the operations lady and PR manager Qiang Ni to negotiate.

All Shen Mo did was one thing: pay out money.

Game design went to Xiao Zhi.

Project progress went to Li Qiang.

Personnel recruitment went to HR.

Company administration, operations, and external work went to the operations lady.

Company image went to Qiang Ni.

In the end, what Shen Mo mainly did was attend the weekly meeting, listen to everyone's ideas, add some perks to the break area, pay salaries on time, and not touch the money in the account casually.

However, this kind of life made Shen Mo nervous, so he secretly went online to look up how the richest people on the rankings live.

He found that some real estate boss works eighteen hours a day.

Some internet company boss works overtime year-round.

Some ice cream factory boss eats twenty ice creams a day to test products.

Some game company boss is so socially anxious he can't speak.

Some courier company boss flies to ten cities in ten days for inspections.

Shen Mo felt it was too absurd.

His wife Liu Yue is also the president of a hundred-billion company—Liu Group's various subsidiaries add up to over fifty, many of them publicly listed—yet Liu Yue has never been that exhausted either. She also works nine-to-five daily, occasionally putting in some overtime.

Liu Xinhua is even more absurd—he even has the time to keep over twenty mistresses, going out to have fun from time to time. Probably, that's just marketing.

Still, Shen Mo went back and asked Liu Yue about it.

【Hoping wife can give me an answer to my question.】

Liu Yue shrugged, holding a tablet to check emails while saying casually: "Don't panic. Everyone has their own way of working."

"You just need to play to your strengths and avoid your weaknesses."

"Otherwise, go try the front line yourself, take command for a bit."

Liu Yue said it very casually.

Shen Mo massaged Liu Yue's legs and asked, puzzled: "So wifey, what you're saying is, my current behavior—handing out money, listening to reports, looking at data every day, slacking off—is also a form of management?"

Liu Yue nodded: "That's right."

"It is a form of management."

Shen Mo was stunned.

【This is way too absurd.】

【Can this kind of slacking off actually be classified as management?】

With a light laugh, Liu Yue explained on her own: "Management—there aren't that many things to it."

"Besides, you're not some immortal; you definitely can't handle everything personally. So like now, hand out some money, look after your employees' physical and mental well-being, improve benefits, learn to glance at reports—that's enough."

Pausing, Liu Yue set down her tablet, sat in Shen Mo's lap, gave him a hard kiss, and said with a grin: "Don't look at me signing tons of documents every day and handling tons of emails. Actually, most of them are organized by subordinates following standard procedures."

"We're not the kind of large internet company that needs regular layoffs and a high-efficiency, intense-processing work model."

"For traditional industries like ours that focus on physical goods, you only need to do three things well: sales, employee loyalty, and cash on the books."

"The rest is internal supervision and normal operation—it's not that hard."

"For your games, running them yourself, what you need to think about is just these things."

"The main thing is to keep the books in good shape, and not let a single game break the cash flow chain."

Liu Yue began to explain the importance of cash flow chains to Shen Mo.

"The companies and groups that go bankrupt on the market now basically all die from failed investments and broken cash flow chains."

"Large groups that can be passed down for three generations or more basically all share one common trait: a massive cash flow chain."

"Take our Liu Group—my grandfather's personal private assets alone amount to several hundred billion, all pure cash."

"My old man, though he's pretty unreliable, I figure he's got several billion in pure cash on hand too."

"Same goes for me."

"For your Shen family, the cash flow is even more enormous, with plenty in the reserves."

Shen Mo nodded.

So this is also why rich people find it easier to succeed than the poor.

However, Shen Mo suddenly thought of a question.

"Don't companies all take out loans?"

"Do they still take loans even when the cash flow is sufficient?"

【This is just absurd.】

Liu Yue sighed and said, in a subdued voice: "Sometimes, loans are used to exchange for policy support."

"Because when we take loans, we pay the bank interest—that's one of the bank's profit models."

"For outstanding enterprises like the Liu Group and the Shen family, banks are all fighting to work with us."

"Sometimes the authorities, to get us to take loans, will offer some policy support."

"Husband, your management style is fine. Just do it your own way."

Liu Yue had also noticed a little problem with Shen Mo—he was too cautious.

In everything he did, he was too cautious, terrified of making mistakes.

The runaway success of the parkour game also triggered some problems.

A flood of pirated games came pouring in.

This made Shen Mo's teeth itch with fury.

These bastards are such scumbags—have they no morals at all?

Shen Mo was so angry he wanted to sue them.

Xiao Zhi, on the other hand, said with a grin that this was all normal, that the domestic game environment was just like this, and there wasn't much anyone could do about it.

What we can do is try our best to innovate, develop new games, and build our own company brand.

The best outcome would be creating a game for the entire nation.

Xiao Zhi's ambitions were grand.

Far grander than Shen Mo could imagine.

"Are we just going to let them pirate our stuff like this?"

(End of Chapter)