Losing Money to Become a Tycoon: Starting with Games
Chapter 427: Editing the Review
After browsing online for a bit, Pei Qian discovered that quite a few film critics had already written reviews for A Better Tomorrow.
That made sense—there hadn't been many good films released recently, so these critics were all eagerly waiting. When a movie with such a high screening rate came along, they would definitely go check it out.
Pei Qian typed in the keywords A Better Tomorrow and scanned through the titles one by one.
"The Three Layers of Meaning in A Better Tomorrow"
This one—definitely not suitable.
"What Does Consumerism Really Bring Us?"
Also no.
"The Dark Side of Technology Through the Eyes of a Pessimist"
Still no!
Pei Qian skimmed through several reviews, rejecting them immediately just based on their titles.
From these keywords alone—"three layers of meaning," "dark side of technology," "consumerism"—he could already imagine what the content would be like!
There was no need to pay them at all—these people were already overanalyzing on their own!
"What on earth are you film critics thinking about all day?!"
"Always 'deep meaning,' always 'pessimism'—can't you analyze the surface-level meaning for once? Can't you talk about how toxic this movie is?!"
Feeling exasperated, Pei Qian kept searching relentlessly.
He was specifically looking for reviews that were heavily criticizing the film, with a high number of likes and replies.
Only that kind of review would make the reversal obvious enough—so that audiences could clearly realize the movie had hired paid commenters!
After scrolling through two or three pages, he still hadn't found anything particularly useful.
So Pei Qian filtered the reviews by rating, sorting from lowest to highest, and started with the one-star reviews.
Sure enough, this looked much more normal.
"A Failed Work Lacking Imagination"
"Illogical, Full of Plot Holes"
"Only Suitable for Young People—Couldn't Watch More Than Ten Minutes"
"One Star Just Because of Lu Zhiyao!"
Pei Qian nodded in satisfaction. Yes—this was more like it!
Unfortunately, there weren't many such reviews, and they didn't have much engagement. It seemed like people were just silently downvoting, without even bothering to argue with the reviewers.
Pei Qian clicked into a few of them and quickly realized they didn't meet his needs.
These one-star reviewers were usually extremely subjective. They tended to focus narrowly on minor issues, missing the bigger picture entirely. The moment something didn't suit their taste, they would give it one star, and their reviews were filled with bias.
At best, these reviews were just emotional venting—they had little ability to influence other viewers.
Too low-level. Not good enough.
People like this clearly lacked depth. Even if he paid them, they wouldn't be able to write anything capable of sparking real debate. Their reviews would just get buried under the flood of five-star praise, making no impact at all.
Viewers might not even notice that these critics had edited their reviews.
After some thought, Pei Qian decided to look at the three-star reviews instead.
This time, the tone was finally what he was looking for!
"Pseudo-Profound"
"It Seems Everyone Is Too Embarrassed to Say It's Bad—So Let Me Be the Child Who Exposes the Emperor's New Clothes"
"Too Many Flaws—A Forced Tragedy Built Around Two Useless Characters"
Looking at these titles, Pei Qian had only one thought: Perfect.
Moreover, these reviews had much more debate in the comments—hundreds of upvotes and downvotes. Clearly, these critics had some level of influence, and their writing naturally sparked controversy.
"Not bad. These are all promising candidates. I'll pick one from here first—if it doesn't work, I'll switch to another!"
Pei Qian clicked into the first review—the one claiming to "expose the emperor's new clothes."
"On Weibo, it seems to be universally praised, hyped up to an almost mythical level. I went in with a serious, almost pilgrim-like mindset, but ended up deeply disappointed."
"After watching this movie, I only have one question: does the emperor farm with a golden hoe?"
"Technology is supposedly so advanced, yet the lower class is still forced to eat relief meals, can't even skip ads, and people from different classes are restricted to going outside at different times? Completely unreasonable!"
"And then there are all those ads in the movie. Fine, you want to include ads—but the audience has to watch them along with the protagonist? Are you insane?!"
"And when you boil it down, isn't this just a cliché story about a loser getting cheated on? If this were written as a novel, it would get flamed to death. But once it's made into a movie, suddenly it's 'deep' and 'meaningful'? Are you all schizophrenic or what?"
Pei Qian nodded repeatedly as he read.
Of course, it wasn't that he agreed with this reviewer—he just felt he had found the right person.
Clearly, this was someone stubbornly living in their own world. In simple terms, the type who believed, "If the world doesn't operate the way I think it should, then something must be wrong."
In other words, the classic "argues with the setting" type.
The film's premise was that "even with advanced technology, the lives of the lower class don't necessarily improve," and the entire story was built around that foundation. Yet this guy insisted on challenging the premise itself from the start, claiming it was unreasonable—so naturally, the whole movie felt awkward to him.
"Hmm, not bad. Has personality—I like it!"
"If someone like this starts forcefully praising the movie, it'll definitely be controversial!"
The reviewer's username was very low-key: "Qian." His contact information was listed on his profile, so Pei Qian quickly got in touch.
"Hello, I'm from the investment side of A Better Tomorrow. We'd like you to revise your review—change it from three stars to five, and rewrite the content entirely. Of course, we'll provide a fee of 1,000 yuan."
Time was tight, so Pei Qian didn't bother with pleasantries and went straight to the point.
Soon, Qian replied:
"Only change the rating, not the review. 1,000 yuan—acceptable."
Pei Qian couldn't help but chuckle.
Oh? The kid's got principles, huh?
But Pei Qian absolutely needed him to change the content. Without exaggerated praise, how could he provoke backlash and spark arguments?
So Pei Qian responded bluntly: "2,000."
Qian hesitated for a moment before replying: "I'll write the review freely. You can't interfere too much."
Freely? That wouldn't work.
If the praise wasn't awkward enough, how would it annoy people? How would it spark controversy?
If the review just blended into the sea of five-star ratings, wouldn't that make the money wasted?
Even if wasting system funds sounded like a good thing, it wouldn't achieve Pei Qian's goal.
So he dropped the vague language and went straight to the point: "3,000."
Qian replied: "Alright. How do you want it changed?"
Pei Qian smiled. As expected—such a principled reviewer, only changing his stance after two price increases.
He thought for a moment about how to phrase it.
"Praise it as much as possible. At least 1,000 words. And you must find an angle that no one has used before—the more obscure and specific, the better."
Qian hesitated again. "There are already a lot of reviews. Finding a completely new angle is difficult. Even if I do, it'll feel forced and might annoy people."
Forced?
Annoy people?
Perfect—that's exactly what I want!
Kid, you've perfectly understood my intentions!
Qian's response hit exactly what Pei Qian was aiming for.
But of course, Pei Qian couldn't say that outright. He simply replied, "It's fine."
Qian: "Sorry, I think it does matter. This requirement is very difficult for me…"
Pei Qian: "4,000."
Qian: "That's not what I meant. It's not about the money—it's just that this task itself is difficult…"
Pei Qian: "5,000."
Qian: "I'll go watch it again at the cinema now. I'll deliver the draft before tonight."
After settling things with Qian, Pei Qian still felt uneasy.
One person alone might not be enough.
He needed some paid commenters' support to back it up.
Pei Qian then contacted "Little Fox Reviews" to hire some online paid commenters for assistance.
After all, if he didn't actually hire paid commenters, how would ordinary people realize that the movie had hired paid commenters?
"Bro, get me some more paid commenters. Go online and find reviews of A Better Tomorrow. Any review that gives it high praise with a weird angle—spam it with likes like crazy!"
Since Pei Qian couldn't explicitly say he was looking for overly forced praise, he had to phrase it differently—emphasizing "unusual angles."
After all, reviews with "unusual angles" were almost always cases of excessive interpretation, which was basically the same thing as awkward overpraising.
Not long after, Hu Xiao replied:
"No problem."
Just as Pei Qian was about to discuss the pricing, another message came through.
"We've been working together for a while now, so I'll give you a heads-up. It seems other paid commenters groups have been hired to smear your movie. If you're willing to spend some money, I can help you deal with it."
Hmm?
Pei Qian froze for a moment—then was overjoyed.
There's such a good thing?!
"Who?" Pei Qian immediately asked.
Hu Xiao replied, "Sorry, I can't disclose that. It's part of the rules in our line of work."
Pei Qian felt a bit regretful—another kind-hearted person whose identity he wouldn't get to know.
Presumably, it was one of the investors behind the competing films.
The movies currently in theaters were all in competition. With A Better Tomorrow's strong attendance and positive reception, its screening rate might even increase tomorrow.
That would obviously squeeze out the screening slots of other films. The domestic romance movie and the big-budget domestic IP film both had plenty of motivation to hire paid commenters to smear A Better Tomorrow.
Well, whoever this kind benefactor was, Pei Qian would just keep his gratitude in his heart.
As for spending money to suppress the smear campaign?
Pei Qian would have to be out of his mind to do that!
"No need. Let them smear it, you just do your thing. They won't interfere with each other."
Hu Xiao replied, "Alright, if you're confident, that's fine. But if things get out of hand, let me know—I can still help salvage the situation."
Out of hand? Salvage?
No, no, no—that situation would never exist!
The harsher the criticism, the happier he'd be!
If anything, Pei Qian wished he could spend money hiring paid commenters to attack the movie himself. Now that someone else was willing to pay for it, it was like help arriving just in time!
Pei Qian gave Hu Xiao a few more instructions, telling his paid commenters to go and aggressively upvote those "unusual angle" reviews—so that casual viewers would get the impression that only extreme fans with over-the-top interpretations liked the movie.
If this wave of brainless praise could achieve the effect of "one fan equals ten haters," and the competitors simultaneously sent in paid commenters to harshly criticize it, the inside-outside combination would surely double the effectiveness with half the effort!
After arranging everything, Pei Qian cleaned up his Moyu Delivery containers and left them outside the door, then…
Went back to bed.
He decided to disappear for the next couple of days and not go to the office!
If he showed up, people would definitely come to congratulate him about the movie—and just thinking about it was already depressing.
Better to stay home alone and enjoy some peace and quiet.
<+>
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