I Really Didn't Mean to Make Money

Chapter 293: The Streamer Who Played It Too Well

Still thinking about expanding the publicity?

Chen Mo snapped back to reality at the sound of Su Dan’s voice.

He had been racking his brain on how to keep this matter under wraps, and here she was, talking about ramping up the exposure.

“Absolutely not.”

He took a deep breath and looked calmly at Su Dan and Song Xia.

“President Chen, is there something wrong with the plan?” Su Dan asked, puzzled. She couldn’t figure out what part of her proposal had gone awry.

“It’s very wrong,” Chen Mo said seriously, nodding.

“What you’re suggesting is essentially using Nanhe Coffee’s public welfare efforts as a marketing tool—leveraging people’s sympathy and goodwill to drive them into our shops.”

“How is that any different from those people online who play the victim just to win over their audience?”

“If we’re going to do public welfare, then we should do it purely for the sake of it—without expecting anything in return. We can’t let our charitable efforts be tainted by profit motives. That would make it impure.”

“We shouldn’t be doing public welfare just because it makes money. Nor should we do it because it might bring us greater benefits down the line…”

“Public welfare is public welfare. The moment it becomes entangled with profit, it stops being charity and turns into business.”

“So that’s the end of it. We don’t have the right to interfere with those streamers, but our own employees must be properly trained. When you get back, hold a meeting with all the store managers and have them tell their staff not to talk about the charity work like it’s some kind of selling point.”

“Especially the Beijing branch—they need some serious training.”

Chen Mo gritted his teeth as he spoke.

If it hadn’t been for those twin sisters in Beijing carelessly blabbing about it, Nanhe Coffee wouldn’t be facing a potential profit crisis right now.

“Understood, President Chen,” Su Dan said, bowing her head in shame.

President Chen was President Chen for a reason—his vision and principles were on a level they could only look up to.

“As long as you understand. That’s the end of this matter. No more publicity.”

With that, Chen Mo stood up and left without even touching his coffee.

Back in the car,

Chen Mo pulled out his phone and opened Tiger Head Live.

Yes, Tiger Head Live again.

He felt like this platform was just destined to mess with him.

He searched for Du Xiaoxiao’s streaming room. Seeing that she was live, he clicked in.

After watching for a while and confirming that she wasn’t promoting the coffee shop, he felt somewhat relieved.

As long as she didn’t promote it every day, it was fine. Besides, her audience was limited to her current fanbase—it wasn’t easy to expand beyond that.

With that thought, he exited the stream.

Still, he couldn’t help but sigh. She looked so cute—how could she have done something like that?

Back on the platform’s homepage, he happened to spot Gan Jiudi’s stream.

Today’s challenge: Win with grenades only.

Viewers currently watching: 2.24 million.

Damn it!

Chen Mo frowned and immediately closed the app.

…

Beijing,

Sky Pavilion Game Club,

Inside an eSports room, Jiang Jiu sat in front of a computer, fully immersed in his game.

As his stream gained popularity, he’d been adding all sorts of quirky challenges to keep things interesting.

Win without killing anyone, win using only a pistol…

Today’s challenge was to win using only grenades.

He’d been at it all morning and still hadn’t succeeded.

“Alright, guys, we’re almost in the final circle. I’ve got a great position—still in the zone and right in the middle of the final circle. I’ve got over twenty grenades in my backpack. Once we hit the final fight, I’m turning this place into a war zone.”

Jiang Jiu looked at the newly updated safe zone with excitement.

This circle was perfect for him—he didn’t even need to move. He could just observe the battlefield, figure out where the enemies were hiding, and then bombard them with grenades.

The chat in his stream started buzzing.

“Damn, what kind of luck is that?”

“Lame. This is getting boring. I’m out.”

“Wait… is he actually gonna pull this off today?”

“…”

Jiang Jiu was too focused on the game to pay attention to the chat.

As the safe zone shrank, he started hearing footsteps. He even spotted a few figures crawling slowly across the ground in the distance.

If he had a gun, those guys would be toast.

But all he had were grenades, so he had to stay put.

Rat-a-tat-tat!

More gunfire erupted.

Jiang Jiu glanced at the kill feed in the top left corner of the screen and quickly pieced together where the remaining players were.

Just as he was about to make his move, there was a knock at the door. A club member walked in. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

“Jiu-ge, it’s time for the meeting. We’ve gotta go.”

Crap!

Jiang Jiu checked the time and realized he’d completely lost track.

He’d gotten so into the game, he’d nearly forgotten about the meeting.

He looked at the game interface, then at his stream, and sighed.

“Sorry, guys. Gotta head to a meeting. I’ll be back later. My bad.”

In the meeting room,

Chen Cong and Du Ziteng were already there.

Jiang Jiu quickly bowed in apology.

“Sorry to keep you waiting. Got too into the game and lost track of time.”

“Take a seat,” Chen Cong said.

He and Du Ziteng exchanged a helpless glance and nodded.

They didn’t doubt Jiang Jiu’s explanation in the slightest.

Once Jiang Jiu was seated,

Chen Cong began.

“Today’s meeting is mainly about one thing—the Sky Pavilion Cup.”

“With Extreme Survival opening up team registration directly in the game interface, the number of participating teams has already reached a staggering level.”

“To that end, we’ve held open auditions and have now selected 99 teams to participate in the offline tournament. In addition, there will be one team representing our club.”

“The captain of that team will be you, Jiang Jiu. As for the remaining three members, you’ll choose them yourself.”

“Got it, Cong-ge.”

Jiang Jiu nodded. Chen Cong had already discussed this with him beforehand.

He often teamed up with other club members for practice matches, so he already had a few candidates in mind.

“Next is the tournament venue. After some discussion and consideration, we’ve decided to host it in Jiangcheng.”

“First, the cost of living in Jiangcheng is lower than in Beijing, which makes it more appealing for participants to come.”

“Second, Cangxue Games—the developers of *Extreme Survival*—are based in Jiangcheng. I’ve already been in touch with them. We’ll be visiting their company and doing some collaborative content.”

“When the time comes, we’ll produce a short documentary to be played before the tournament begins.”

Chen Cong spoke slowly. The visit to Cangxue Games was the result of discussions between him and Fang Chang, the project lead for *Extreme Survival*.

He needed to leverage Cangxue Games to boost Sky Pavilion Game Club’s official recognition.

Meanwhile, Cangxue Games could use the tournament to increase exposure for *Extreme Survival*.

It was a win-win situation, and the partnership came together naturally.