The value of accounts on trading platforms would definitely fluctuate; however, it would slowly stabilize as well.
As players’ feedback and response had been rather positive-although many people were still rather upset with the quota, the unhappiness had receded.
After all—while the quota had not been increased or completely removed, this new credit rating system had made things fairer.
As for Shang Yang Games, it was still steadily making losses.
Ye Zhizhou and the others had already completed Pei Qian’s tasks for them. Although the side effect had been an about-turn for its game’s reputation-without the ballers topping up money, game revenue had fallen steeply; and it was not possible to generate any profits in the short-term.
The Fish-Catching Internet Cafes had started to experience an increase in sales from drinks after implementing the singer commission policy. However, this was still insufficient to cover costs of operation and all five outlets were still losing money.
Fei Huang Workspace had basically lost all their initial capital and profits. They had poured all their money into the documentary and also were in debt. Tengda had to step in to fill the hole.
Fish-Catching Take-Out was doing rather poorly; they basically functioned primarily to send meals to Tengda employees. As their orders were very little, the chefs and delivery men were basically idle most of the time; this business was also losing money continuously.
All these projects’ losses had finally managed to erase Tengda’s games’ profits with much difficulty.
Although this cycle was only two months, it had been a frightening time for Pei Qian.
First, Chen Lei had appeared and nearly resulted in Fish-Catching Internet Cafe turning in profits. Fortunately, Pei Qian had discovered this in time and prevented this from happening. Then, Lin Wan had helped Tengda to save a huge amount in rent. This had given Pei Qian a heavy blow. Fortunately, this had still been within the acceptable range.
Also, having found the mole, this had prevented any even more serious problems from surfacing in the future.
Pei Qian took out a small notebook as he scribbled and drew on it seriously, constantly doing his calculations.
Although the System Funds was showing a state of loss, on the 28th-the last Monday before settlement; another pool of earnings from Tengda’s games would be credited.
Pei Qian still couldn’t have a good estimate of how much money this sum would be. After all, no one could know what might happen in the upcoming week.
Pei Qian could only come up with rough figures using statistics from the games’ platforms and try to spend as much on expenses and to try his best to create more losses.
Although the current state of affairs didn’t look that great, at least there wasn’t a void of hope.
In another corner of the internet cafe.
Li Shi drank his coffee as he observed Pei Qian. “Fish-Catching Internet Cafe is actually owned by Tengda; the boss is also so young. I didn’t expect this.”
As a regular customer of Fish-Catching Internet Cafe, Li Shi frequently came here. He had also seen Pei Qian occasionally before but had not drawn the link that this youngster actually was the boss behind this internet cafe.
After doing some digging these few days, Li Shi now knew about Fish-Catching Internet Cafe’s relationship with Tengda. He had also ascertained from the way Ma Yang and Zhang Yuan interacted with Pei Qian that he was Tengda’s mysterious big boss.
Li Shi had been a little concerned whether Pei Qian was a rich second-generation heir or not or if he had some special background. However, after doing some investigation, he did not find anything of the sorts.
Based on the information he had on hand, Li Shi conjectured that Pei Qian must have made it big from his games, had nowhere to spend his money, and hence had abruptly entered the internet cafe business.
Li Shi was even more confident now.
Youngsters would often easily neglect some things.
Boss Pei might be a professional at making games and was good at it. However, he might not be good at running a physical business. Furthermore, Boss Pei was now holding onto his small notebook and unprofessionally scribbling and drawing in it.
What was he doing?
En, he was probably calculating the internet cafe’s losses.
From his serious expression, he must be very unhappy with the continuous state of losses for his internet cafes. Furthermore, he didn’t seem to have come up with any good ideas.
Perhaps, Li Shi could bring forward his plan at a partnership with Boss Pei?
Li Shi sipped his coffee again as he altered his plans slightly.
He long had the intention to invest in Fish-Catching Internet Cafe. However, he had been worried that the big boss behind this business would not accept him; Li Shi had then decided to wait for Fish-Catching Internet Cafe to make more losses first before making his offer.
Originally, Li Shi had thought that he had to wait for another couple of weeks or months. However, from the looks of it now, he actually didn’t have to wait that long.
Since this big boss was already facing a predicament, now might actually be the best time to test waters.
If he continued to wait, he might miss the golden opportunity. If this big boss suddenly decided to sell the internet cafe to someone else, wouldn’t that be Li Shi’s loss?
Thinking of this, Li Shi arranged his collar as he stood up to head outside and make a phone call.
As an investment firm’s boss, Li Shi couldn’t approach Pei Qian directly. This might seem hasty and a little childish.
He was going to ask his subordinates to initiate a commercial arrangement, to express his desire to invest in Fish-Catching Internet Cafe. Next, he would choose an appropriate venue for discussions. This would be more appropriate and logical.
In fact, most of Li Shi’s investment projects had come knocking at his door.
Entrepreneurs of all types of companies would bring detailed stacks of information and find Li Shi, requesting for him to invest in their projects. However, Li Shi would skim through them and get rid of most proposals, only keeping a small number he was really satisfied with.
Businesses like Fish-Catching Internet Cafe were considered exceptions.
Li Shi lit a cigarette quietly outside Fish-Catching Internet Cafe as he waited for his subordinate’s good news.
Pei Qian saw his scrawly handwriting in his notebook as he did a rough calculation. It seemed as if creating a loss of two to three hundred thousand was still feasible. The premise was there couldn’t be anyone pulling any stunts last minute. If yet another unexpected source of funds entered his accounts, that would be very bad.
After calculating, Pei Qian breathed easy. He hadn’t been so busy this period for nothing; he could see victory in sight!
He had just relaxed when his phone rang.
Pei Qian took a look. It was from Assistant Xin. “Boss Pei, Fu Hui Investments had just approached us. They were hoping to invest…”
Pei Qian, “Reject them.”
Assistant Xin, “They aren’t thinking of investing in Tengda but in Fish-Catching Internet Cafe. Although, Fu Hui Investments is considered a rather good venture capital firm…”
Pei Qian, “Reject them.”
Assistant Xin, “Alright.”
Pei Qian hung up the phone call briskly.
Invest in Fish-Catching Internet Cafe?
Don’t mess around at this time; I only have this one steady loss-making business. If you invest in me, aren’t you trying to mess with me?
Really, at such a crucial period before settlement, who is trying to cause unnecessary trouble?!
At the door of the internet cafe, Li Shi smoked his cigarette, very relaxed. He was waiting for his people to get back to him.
Normally, the other party would definitely gladly agree to the investment. Both sides would then arrange for a time to meet and discuss, with Li Shi banking on his wealth of investing experience to spee
dily convince the other party to accept the injection of funds.
He had not even finished his cigarette when his phone rang.
“Boss Li, the other party has rejected us.”
Li Shi was flummoxed. He didn’t know what to say all of a sudden.
They aren’t even planning on giving me a chance to meet with them? They had rejected so directly?
I haven’t even finished my cigarette!
This is not right; this is not how things are supposed to turn out!
Chapter 176 - Almost Laughed Out Loud
Li Shi silently finished his cigarette outside Fish-Catching Internet Cafe.
After hearing his subordinate’s report, Li Shi started to really question his judgment.
Although Fu Hui Investments wasn’t considered an exceptionally top-notch investment firm in the country-in a place like Jingzhou, everyone should have at least heard of it, right?
Now, even though he had proactively reached out, this Boss Pei was still not moved and had speedily rejected his offer?
This did not seem logical.
After all, within this circle, similar investments were rather common.
If any venture capitalist came knocking, most targeted companies would choose to hear them out first, to see what the terms of the offer were.
If they really weren’t pleased and a deal could not be struck, at most both parties could go their separate ways and perhaps find future opportunities to collaborate; no one would lose out from this experience.
Incidents like this where a flat-out rejection had occurred were really rare.
Li Shi was after all a seasoned investor, and he wasn’t that shaken by such a small setback. He tried to shake off the smell of smoke on him as he returned to Fish-Catching Internet Cafe again.
Li Shi noticed that Pei Qian had already stopped scribbling and drawing on his notebook. However, he continued to look seriously at it as if still thinking.
If he didn’t have complete trust in his subordinate, Li Shi might even have suspected whether Boss Pei had indeed received the olive branch he had extended or not.
“This is strange; he was actually indifferent to my offer to invest. Could it be I had made a mistake in judgment?
“Although Boss Pei was now in a tough spot and the internet cafe kept on losing money, could it be he was still adamant and hard-headed that he could turn this business around?
“While I could provide him with a huge amount of funds and opportunities to collaborate, could it be that this Boss Pei still preferred to have absolute control?
“Regardless, he seemed like a person with a strong desire to exert control, someone who would not easily allow anyone else to interfere.
“Ah, youngsters are indeed youngsters. They want to reap all the benefits on their own; this is not the thinking a good entrepreneur should have.”
Analyzing from every aspect, Li Shi found it hard to explain why Boss Pei would have so decisively rejected his offer to invest. The crux was the rejection had been so clean-cut; Boss Pei had not even bothered to hear the specifics.
Li Shi could only think of one explanation. Boss Pei was an impetuous person who was very stubborn. He had a strong desire to exert control over his businesses and did not want anyone butting in.
Of course, looking at this from another perspective, this meant that Boss Pei still firmly believed that this internet cafe was on the right track. He believed that it would definitely make money in the future and hence did not want to share these profits with anyone else.
Although Li Shi could directly approach Pei Qian to clarify this, Li Shi did not intend to do so.
He was after all a boss of an investment firm; how could he do something like that?
If he handed over his name card and Boss Pei spoke some niceties and rejected Li Shi again, wouldn’t that be embarrassing?
Furthermore, based on what had happened, the chances of him being rejected again were very high.
“Hmph, youngster, no one can reject an investment from me; you will not be an exception. Even though investments were the same thing, some companies would fawn over it while others would gladly accept it. Others, however, needed just a little push…”
Li Shi quietly observed Pei Qian as a confident smile appeared on his face.
June 24th…
In Fish-Catching Internet Cafe’s flagship store…
A rented car stopped outside as Ma Yang immediately alighted and entered the internet cafe.
“Boss Ma, is the exam over? How did it go?” Zhang Yuan saw Ma Yang entering as he warmly greeted and asked.
Ma Yang found a spot and sat down casually as he stretched. His huge face was pulled even longer by his yawn. “It isn’t a very important class; it shouldn’t be hard to pass.”
“I had even lent my take-home assignments for Brother Qian to copy so that he could at least get ten marks for them. I feel that in the upcoming one or two months, he wouldn’t hound us regarding the internet cafe and take-out businesses’ losses.”
Zhang Yuan was filled with much respect and admiration. Indeed, this is what it meant by ‘things went easy as long as one had an insider’, right?
Previously, Zhang Yuan couldn’t figure out why someone like Ma Yang could have taken on such an important position as General Manager of Fish-Catching Internet Cafe. Now, everything made sense.
He even felt that this was natural and rightfully so.
Although some might say that Ma Yang had gotten this key position because of some inappropriate connections, for Zhang Yuan, following a boss like Ma Yang was very comfortable for him.
At least he didn’t have to worry about any scolding or questioning from Boss Pei!
One of the servers had already handed over a cold drink. Ma Yang drank as he sighed and said, “Having said that, let’s continue to work hard.
“We had hoped that doing take-outs would help us turn our losses into profits. However, our take-out business is now making losses as well…”
Zhang Yuan heard Ma Yang’s words and grew worried. “Indeed. Two days ago, Boss Pei had taken out his notebook here and scribbled in it, looking very stern and serious; I wasn’t sure what he was writing about.”
Ever since Chen Lei had been sent away, Ma Yang hadn’t been able to recover from that setback. As Pei Qian wanted to find Ma Yang something to do, he had especially given the important task of Fish-Catching Take-Out to Ma Yang
Ma Yang had been rather motivated and energetic at the start. He had hired delivery men, bought dishwashing equipment, and found someone to develop an app. In the end, he realized that not many people actually ordered his take-outs.
He was paying yet another group of employees for nothing; that was another added expense.
Of course, it wasn’t entirely true that no one bought from Fish-Catching Take-Out. Some customers actually liked this service. However, it was just hard to recoup his initial investments into it.
The problems were multifold:
Boss Pei disliked ‘physical promotion’ publicity methods like distributing flyers. Hence, not many people actually knew that Fish-Catching Take-Out existed. Fish-Catching Take-Out’s app could only provide food from its own outlet; it did not collaborate with other vendors and hence was not attractive to normal customers. All items were all comfort food, and the dishes were rather simple while the prices were more expensive than ordinary.
All in all, as its visibility was low and it did not meet ordinary customers’ expectations, Fish-Catching Take-Out was not operating at full capacity; and many employees didn’t have anything to do.
Normally, one delivery man could deliver to many families at once while the collectors could collect the plates and cutlery from many families at once as well. However, as there were so few customers now, all delivery men and collectors all went on solo trips.
Although the cutlery and plates provided were rather good, it was unavoidable that there might be cases of damages or missing cookery. According to Pei Qian’s dem
ands—even if such matters occurred, they were not to pursue this with the customers unless it was a constant occurrence.
They haven’t encountered customers like this yet, but to occasionally see damaged cutlery and plates made Ma Yang’s heart ache.
It was basically impossible to make money under these conditions.
The two were a little down and kept quiet.
Ma Yang finished his drink as he looked around at the internet cafe. He frowned, “This is strange; why do I feel like there are exceptionally few people here today?”
Zhang Yuan was stunned, “Oh? Really?”
He had not noticed that. After all, Fish-Catching Internet Cafe never had many people during the day, and it was always ten-odd people surfing the net with a similar number drinking coffee.
As today was also the morning of a workday, it was normal that lesser people had come.
However, now that Ma Yang had mentioned it, Zhang Yuan indeed noticed that fewer people were here than usual!
Only two people were in the internet cafe while there was one lone customer in the coffee area.
“It might be a coincidence,” Zhang Yuan said.
The two were a little puzzled as the door of the internet cafe opened. A Fish-Catching Take-Out delivery man took a few flyers as he hurriedly rushed in.
“Boss Ma, Boss Zhang, something has happened!”
“Quick, take a look at these flyers!”
Ma Yang and Zhang Yuan looked a little perplexed as they received the flyers and took a look.
Although Fish-Catching Take-Out’s current state was not bad, there were still some customers that patronized it. Evidently, this delivery man had seen something on his way back from a delivery.
There were quite a few flyers. Some were promoting an internet cafe, a coffee house, and also a bar. A few of these flyers were duplicates, and this delivery man must have taken more than one of each in a hurry.
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