Pursuing Her Best Friend after Confession Failed-Chapter 218 - 123 She’s Just My Reader, Wangyi Company Wants to Acquire the Copyright? (First Update, Please Subscribe)_2
Li Yuan was speechless and cursed inwardly. Damn it, Tengxun is such a garbage company. Why haven’t they developed WeChat yet? Using QQ is so unsafe.
He finally understood why WeChat would one day replace QQ. The truth was, QQ was just so inconvenient. If he had WeChat now, the likelihood of his secrets being exposed would be much lower.
I should just develop WeChat first and leave Tengxun in the dust.
No sooner had this thought formed than it began to grow uncontrollably. A gleam flickered in Li Yuan’s dark, bright eyes; he had almost forgotten about this opportunity. He realized he had been approaching it with the wrong mindset. Because of his preconceived notions, he had assumed that if he tried to develop "WeChat," he wouldn’t stand a chance against Tengxun, so he never even considered it as a serious money-making venture.
But today’s incident gave him an insight that, upon careful consideration, seemed very feasible. He didn’t need to think about creating a "WeChat" to replace QQ himself. That was simply unrealistic in China; an entity of Tengxun’s current size could easily crush him. After all, even "Fetion," with over a hundred million users, and the globally popular MSN had failed, let alone a small fry like him.
But what if he took a different approach? What if he assembled a team, developed WeChat first, and then simply waited for Tengxun’s acquisition? Wouldn’t that be a sweet deal? He could make a killing that way. Being acquired by Tengxun wasn’t shameful; all he wanted was the money.
Tengxun already had hundreds of millions of QQ users. To truly defeat them in the communications field, one would need incredibly powerful connections. Otherwise, failure was inevitable. He was just an ordinary person and had neither the ambition nor the courage to confront Tengxun and the powerful figures behind it. That would be like an egg trying to smash a rock—utterly suicidal.
As he thought it over, Li Yuan shook his head slightly. Ideals are lofty, but reality is harsh.
His current funds were stretched thin. The 20,000,000 yuan he had in cash might not even be enough for *Honor of Kings*. He would have to invest his future royalties and possibly even take out loans. Besides, Zhihu was still in its infancy and promoting it would also require a massive cash injection. In short, if you wanted to play in the internet industry, it was impossible to get anywhere without serious capital in the early stages.
Li Yuan’s mind raced, searching for ways to get rich. Aside from the Bicrown Di stock he’d seen yesterday, which offered a minor opportunity, it wouldn’t earn him that much. As for other avenues, trying to make a quick, massive profit was nothing but a pipe dream...
While Li Yuan was deep in thought about investment strategies, his phone vibrated again. It was a message from his editor, Starry Sky.
"Xia Hua, the first volume of *Battle Starry Sky* has been confirmed for publication. It’s set to be officially released nationwide on National Day, October 1st. The company is planning an offline book signing event for that day, and you absolutely have to be there." 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚
Li Yuan read the editor’s message and quickly replied, "Okay, I’ll be there on time."
According to their agreement, he would receive forty percent of the profits from the book’s publication, while Yuandian Web would take fifty percent, and Modu Publishing House would get ten percent. If a hardcover book was priced at 28 yuan per copy, the first run of one million copies would net around 20,000,000 yuan after printing costs, assuming it sold out. His forty-percent cut would amount to several million, which was no small sum.
Moreover, as time went on, the subsequent releases of the second, third, and fourth volumes would generate a continuous stream of new profits. In his original timeline, Potato had earned over a hundred million from this book alone, with revenue continuing to flow in at tens of millions per year all the way to 2024. This wasn’t just a goose that laid golden eggs; it was a golden-egg-laying fighter jet.
Soon, Starry Sky sent another message.
"Wangyi Company contacted me about buying the game rights to your book. Are you considering selling?"
Buying the game rights to *Battle Starry Sky*? Li Yuan was startled. As a game developer himself, he knew exactly how much the game rights to *Battle Starry Sky* were worth.
Just as he was about to refuse, he remembered his urgent need for money and asked, "How much is Wangyi Company willing to offer?"
"They’re willing to offer one million for the game rights," Starry Sky replied.
Li Yuan was taken aback for a moment, then laughed from pure anger. "One million? They think they can buy my game rights for that? They can dream on."
Wangyi Company sure has some nerve. One million yuan for the rights to *Battle Starry Sky*? What a joke! It’s laughable for such a large game company to even make an offer that isn’t at least eight figures. In my mind, the game rights for *Battle Starry Sky* are worth at least a hundred million. It’s one of the most classic IPs in web fiction, with enormous potential for adaptation. If it were developed into a game with real care, its value would be no less than that of games like *Legend* or *Fantasy Westward Journey*...
"Xia Hua, Wangyi Company’s offer is indeed too low," Starry Sky wrote, "but they said there’s room for discussion. What’s your asking price?"
Li Yuan countered, "What is the company’s valuation of the rights?"
"Our rights department discussed it," Starry Sky said. "We feel that the game rights would need to be valued at over ten million to be worth selling."
Li Yuan shook his head. Yuandian Web, not yet acquired by Tengxun, still didn’t understand the true value of IP rights. However, since he owned all the rights to *Battle Starry Sky*, he valued them immensely.
"My position is this: if the offer is less than one hundred million, there’s nothing to talk about."
Starry Sky was stunned by Li Yuan’s outrageous demand, replying hesitantly, "One hundred million? Isn’t that a bit much? It will never sell at that price."
Li Yuan texted back, "Just give them that number. They can take it or leave it. Besides, I’m not planning on selling anyway."
"Okay, got it," Starry Sky replied. "By the way, have your updates slowed down recently?"
"Ahem, school just started," Li Yuan typed. "As a college student, I have to attend class, you know."
"Haha, I almost forgot you’re just a freshman," Starry Sky wrote. "Wow, you’ve brought in another wave of traffic recently, and your average subscriber count keeps increasing. Your income from subscriptions, mobile reading, and other channels should exceed 3,000,000 this month. Keep it up!"
Li Yuan smiled. "I never wanted to be famous. It’s brought me a lot of trouble."
"True, as the saying goes, ’A man fears fame as a pig fears fattening,’" Starry Sky responded. "But in the writing industry, the more famous, the better. Look at people like Guo Xiaosi and Hanhan; their annual royalties are in the tens of millions. Once you build your reputation, combined with your status as a 985 university student, your future will certainly be just as bright as theirs, if not more so."
"Oh, right, one more thing. After the National Day holiday, you’ll need to make a trip to Beijing."
"What for?" Li Yuan asked, puzzled.
"Your application for the Huaxia Writers Association has been approved. You’ll probably attend a meeting there and get to know some other members of the association."
"Alright," Li Yuan replied. "If there’s nothing else urgent, I’ll make the trip to Beijing."
...
After ending the chat with his editor, Li Yuan muttered, "I’m so busy I feel like I need to clone myself. My schedule is packed every day, leaving me no time to write."
He had barely written anything in three days. If it weren’t for the stockpile of Chapters he’d built up during military training, he would have already missed an update. For the past few days, he had been busy interacting with Xia Zhijin, Zhong Tingyue, Bai Weixi, and Little Fish, which left him with almost no time to write. But he couldn’t just neglect the girls. If he didn’t spend time with them, someone else would. In today’s restless society, who could stand being left all alone?
What am I going to do about Bai’s QQ account? She’s much harder to fool than Zhijin. If she sees Little Fish’s comments on my page, she’ll definitely explode, and she’s the type who won’t be easily pacified.
For the moment, Li Yuan couldn’t think of a good solution, short of deleting all of Little Fish’s comments. But if he did that, Little Fish would definitely notice, since she visited his page to leave a footprint almost every day.
