However, men should always leave themselves room for improvement.
Lin Wan saw herself as an ordinary person when it came to business. She could not peg herself against Boss Pei all the time, just because she was his employee. That would only hurt herself and destroy her motivation to work harder.
In any case, she was sure that she would never reach Boss Pei’s level no matter how hard she worked. Thus, she focused on staying grounded and took one step at a time to do a good job. All research and development work was done for now, but there were still loose ends to tie up. For example, Be Quiet was an online game. On one hand, they had to keep repairing bugs and improving the system’s functions. On the other hand, they had to keep releasing new content so that players would remain interested.
As for Otto E1, they had to do updating and maintenance work as well.
Obviously, her current workload could not be compared to that during the research and development period.
Lin Wan felt much more relaxed now. She could browse online shopping sites, buy bags, or play some games. One could say that she was very content.
At the same time, she had to wait for Boss Pei to give her a new task at any moment.
She recalled when Boss Pei had tasked her with two huge tasks: Shang Yang Games and the cell phone business. Lin Wan had thought that she would not be able to cope and that she would make a mess of everything.
Yet, everything had turned out well!
Lin Wan could not help but feel moved. It was almost as if Boss Pei had a keen eye for the upper limit of his employees’ potential.
It was amazing! Lin Wan was already looking forward to informing her family of her achievements and showing off to Lin Yu especially.
“Can Shenhua sell its flagship model for more than eight thousand yuan? Can it?! Our Tengda can!”
Lin Wan imagined Lin Yu’s blank expression and could not help but feel excited!
Just as she was fantasizing, she received a message on her cell phone: “Our workspace will be officially moving to Jingzhou tomorrow! We’ll be neighbors from now on. Please look out for us!”
It was from Ruan Guangjian.
Lin Wan’s eyes lit up. The big boss had finally dealt with all of his work in Shanghai? Great!
In December last year, Ruan Guangjian had come to Jingzhou to help with the concept art for GOG’s heroes. At the time, Boss Pei had tried very hard to rope him in.
He had invited Big Boss Ruan to take roller coasters, showed off Tengda’s benefits, and created a haunted house just for Big Boss Ruan. All of those actions pointed to one clear message:
‘Come to Jingzhou! Jingzhou is a good place!’
Big Boss Ruan had understood that as well. After finishing the art resources for two games, he rushed back to Shanghai and spent some time finishing up his work there.
Now, he was finally done, and he could officially move!
Lin Wan guessed that Ruan Guangjian had already been in Jingzhou for some time. However, he probably knew that Tengda had been busy during this period and did not want to cause more trouble. Thus, he quietly managed his own rent, shopped for furniture and office supplies, and the like.
Now that all of that had been settled, he was officially informing Lin Wan.
Lin Wan quickly asked, “Does Boss Pei know about this?”
Ruan Guangjian answered, “I sent him a message, but he hasn’t replied because he’s probably busy.”
Lin Wan nodded silently. Boss Pei was probably very busy, or he would warmly welcome Big Boss Ruan for sure. He would have planned a whole series of activities for him.
Lin Wan wondered what Boss Pei was busy with. Since that was the case, she decided not to disturb him.
Ruan Guangjian had offered a lot of help during the research and development stage of Be Quiet. As the head of Shang Yang Games, Lin Wan felt the need to welcome and thank Ruan Guangjian properly. “Big Boss, where’s your workspace? I’ll bring Ye Zhizhou and the others there to visit,” said Lin Wan.
Soon, Ruan Guangjian sent her a location. Lin Wan clicked on it and grew stunned. “Eh? That’s… just opposite Fish-Catching Internet Cafe’s Handong University branch, right?”
At a two-story shop, just a street away from Fish-Catching Internet Cafe’s Handong University branch… This had been a bookstore before. Its position close to Handong University gave it an advantage, allowing it to profit from the sale of best-selling novels and academic books. However, with the rise of online shopping, the bookstore’s sales steadily declined.
This bookstore had held on for the longest among all the others. Still, it could not fend against the overwhelming online shopping trend. Thus, it silently closed down.
At that moment, all the books and furniture in the bookstore had been moved out. Some simple renovations had been done, and high-end office furniture now took their place.
A line of passers-by stopped to look into the shop, but they lost interest once they realized that it was not selling anything. The crowd slowly dissipated.
One street away-in Fish-Catching Internet Cafe, Pei Qian sat, sitting his coffee and pondering life.
The conversation that he had had with Boss Li the day before still hurt him today. Thus, Pei Qian could not help but disappear for the day.
He was not even in the mood to take revenge on He Desheng and Yu Pingan.
After thinking about it carefully, Pei Qian thought it would be weird to just punish the two of them since so many projects were now proving successful.
As the saying went, there was no point in worrying about one debt when there were so many others. Pei Qian had been backstabbed by so many employees that he was starting to have difficulty keeping track of his feuds.
He realized that there was a very serious problem with the management of the company.
First, the first-place-elimination system was no longer useful. In the face of so many profitable projects, eliminating the head of the most profitable project would not make much of a difference in the grand scheme of things.
He had to think of something else.
Pei Qian sipped his coffee, feeling melancholic as he tried to strategize. During his disappearance, a few people had tried to contact him. However, Pei Qian neither read their messages nor replied to them. He was mainly afraid that he would break down upon receiving bad news. That could hinder his strategizing and prevent him from thinking of ways to turn profits into losses.
His subordinates had obviously gotten used to Boss Pei disappearing from the face of the earth, too. Even if he did not reply to their messages, they would complete their tasks on their own.
As Pei Qian looked out of the window, he noticed some movement in the two-story shop across the street. The bookstore had already closed down two weeks ago, but the shop had undergone renovations two days ago. Pei Qian wondered who the brave warrior was.
In fact, this location was not that good. Otherwise, Pei Qian would not have chosen this place to set up a Fish-Catching Internet Cafe branch back then.
People were starting to find opening their shops here advantageous, only because Fish-Catching Internet Cafe had livened up the entire area recently.
Still, Pei Qian did not have high hopes for
them.
“The shop could fail in less than three months. We might not be neighbors for long. Ai, how I admire them.”
Pei Qian had thought about taking over the bookstore before, but after several cycles, he was beginning to understand one foundational principle: most loss-incurring projects would generate profits once he took over.
At least, it had been like that for Shang Yang Games and ‘Top Student, Come Quick’.
If Boss Pei just sat back to observe, the loss-incurring projects would continue to incur losses. However, once Boss Pei interfered, the project would start generating profits.
What’s more, a bookstore would only be able to lose that much money in the end. Thus, Pei Qian did not take over it. Someone else did instead.
“Forget it. Whoever it is would have no relation to me whatsoever. I cannot incur the necessary losses just by taking over one rotten bookstore. I’d better think about how to incur losses before the end of this cycle…”
Pei Qian sipped his coffee and turned back around.
However, at that very moment, from the corner of his eyes; he noticed some familiar-looking figures walk towards the entrance of the two-story shop.
They were Lin Wan, Ye Zhizhou, Hu Xianbin, and Chen Kangtuo…
“Eh?”
Pei Qian thought that he was seeing things. He turned back around and took a closer look. He was right; Lin Wan was heading the group!
What were they doing here?
Just as he was feeling confused, he saw Ruan Guangjian walk out to warmly welcome the group. Then, Ruan Guangjian led all of them into the shop.
Pei Qian’s mind was filled with question marks. The scene before him felt like a dream.
He rubbed his eyes and then took a closer look at the sign hanging outside the second story. There were an artistic logo and beautiful words.
Halo Workspace!
The hand that Pei Qian was using to hold his coffee cup trembled.
Holy sh*t… you’ve moved over so quickly?!
Chapter 460 - This is the Friendship Between Boss Pei and Big Boss Ruan!
After recovering from his momentary shock, Pei Qian regained his composure and decided to act as if he had not seen them! He could not allow pre-decided things to affect him and his train of thought now!
Although there were less than two weeks to settlement, the situation was looking sufficiently positive already.
Pei Qian waved his hand at the waiter, and the latter immediately understood what he wanted. He brought Pei Qian his personal laptop.
Pei Qian liked to ponder about life at this branch especially. Thus, he had left his laptop here so that he could work whenever he wanted.
Of course, he called it ‘work’, but he was only recording simple notes in a document.
It was often nothing urgent. In fact, he would normally delete the document once he had organized his thoughts. That saved him from worrying about his secrets being leaked.
Pei Qian opened the laptop, created a new document, and began to write his thoughts out.
Although the next cycle would only start in April, it was never too early for Pei Qian to prepare for rainy days. Coming up with a new plan now would save him from being flustered come April.
At the moment, he had several avenues to spend money: Distributing prizes to top players of GOG four times a year…
Distributing bonuses to employees based on their projects’ ratings on TPDb, according to the normal rules. On top of that, he could provide various benefits like paying different types of allowances and arranging for physical examinations…
Holding regular celebration parties so that employees could help spend a portion of his money…
Lastly, investing huge amounts of money into Thriller Hostel…
After thinking for a long time, Pei Qian still felt that this was not enough.
Although it was more or less sufficient for now, they were less than two weeks from settlement. What’s more, Glory of Gods’ client-side game would be released soon. That would generate even more revenue, which Pei Qian had to account for as soon as possible.
Thus, Pei Qian added another avenue.
Fish-Catching Internet Cafe, ROF Computer-Installation, Fish-Catching Take-Out, Zhongdian Chinese Network, and Upwind Logistics… he could burn a week’s worth of money for all of those businesses!
He could distribute allowances, whether people helped him with incurring losses or not.
Take Zhongdian Chinese Network for instance. He could give readers a subsidy for reading books and give writers an additional allowance. That would be achieving double the happiness at a single go! All of his money would disappear in no time!
This would be viewed as publicity efforts by the System. It would be allowed.
Of course, while doing this would increase his chances of incurring losses during this cycle, it would make his life much harder at the beginning of the next cycle.
Thus, Pei Qian had to think of ways to eliminate all hidden threats! He would have to employ new measures from the next cycle onwards!
Pei Qian started a new line in his document and then continued brainstorming. The first-place-elimination system could not hold the fort any longer.
However, Pei Qian had no intention of getting rid of it. The system could help him eliminate some hidden threats after all. Without it, Tengda Games would probably earn even more money than it was earning now.
What he had to do was supplement and perfect the system.
Pei Qian wrote the words ‘Cyclical Shock Therapy’ on the document.
He had many businesses to take care of now. There was no way he could take care of them all.
Even if he handed them to others, he would have no time or effort to check in on things. Everything could easily go haywire.
Thus, Pei Qian decided to use Cyclical Shock Therapy on the businesses!
In every cycle, one portion of Tengda’s businesses would be operating while the rest undergo shock therapy.
Of course, the System prohibited employees from remaining passive or slacking at work. They had to release new products every once in a while.
So… Pei Qian decided to negotiate with the System. According to his understanding of the System, there was room for negotiation.
“System, if a certain company has made outstanding contributions to the development of the entire group of companies, it would be perfectly reasonable to give that company a few months off so that employees can upgrade their skills, right? Not only would their knowledge improve, but they would also be able to contribute more to the group of companies in the future.”
Soon, Pei Qian got a positive answer.
However, there were limitations. Only one company could take a few months off during each cycle. What’s more, while he had to continue paying the necessary expenses for the company, he could not make any investments.
In other words, he could pay the employees their salaries, but he could not invest in any projects.
Pei Qian was extremely satisfied. He could do that!
There was no need for any more discussion. Fei Huang Workspace would go into shock therapy first! Judging by their current speed, they could produce three or four films each year. If each film earned tens of millions of yuan, wouldn’t the income be incredible?
On top of that, Pei Qian had learned one thing. The first-place-elimination system was effective, but there were still shortcomings. For example, it could encourage employees to work even harder.
Thus, Pei Qian had to offer consolation to what he thought were ‘outstanding companies’, the companies that incurred sustained losses.
He would supplement the ‘first-place-elimination system’ with a “last-place-reward system’!
Pei Qian had already thought about whom to give this reward.
Upwind Logistics…
Ever since it had been established, Upwind Logistics had been steadily incurring losses for Boss Pei. Lu Mingliang had not turned the losses into profits, and he had thus gained Boss Pei’s deep trust.
Pei Qian had even thought about what the reward would be.
It would be called the ‘Tengda Cornerstone Award’.
He could forcibly explain the award by saying that Upwind Logistics had fought hard to serve the other companies and was thus the ‘cornerstone’ for Tengda Corporation’s rapid growth.
Of course, they would be rewarded solely because they had been incurring the most losses.
Through this award, Pei Qian hoped to hint something to the other companies: even if you’re incurring losses, you would be rewarded instead of punished!
He could not delay this. Pei Qian would award Upwind Logistics with the ‘Cornerstone Award’ before the end of this cycle.
Lastly, Pei Qian would
spend more money on the companies and departments that had worked together with Tengda. All along, Tengda had been working with many other companies. Those companies helped to provide the game departments with art resources, the internet cafe with equipment, the restaurant with ingredients, the cell phone department with a supply chain, Thriller Hostel with decorations and props, and the like.
Modern society emphasized the need for specialization and division of labor. Tengda had had to work closely with various other companies to produce good products.
In accordance with the well-known Tengda spirit, Tengda had always insisted on paying the best price to obtain the best results when working with those other companies. All the expenses in those areas had been maximized.
Yet, that was precisely why Pei Qian had to think out of the box to continue throwing money in their direction!
Take the purchasing of ingredients for instance.
Pei Qian could add ten percent to the highest market price and request for the other party to supply ingredients of the highest standard exclusively to Tengda. Of course, the other party would only be able to pick the best ingredients from among their good ingredients. The difference in taste would not be huge, and most customers would not even be able to detect the difference once the ingredients had been cooked.
Yet, more money would be spent on purchasing those ingredients.
The same could be done for the other businesses. All in all, Pei Qian could try to throw more money at Tengda’s partners by creating an illusion of a ‘Tengda standard’ above the highest standards in the market!
After writing everything down, Pei Qian read the document from beginning to end and then nodded in satisfaction.
Yes, I feel much better now!
At once, he sent the document to Assistant Xin and instructed her to send the plan to the various companies so that they could make the necessary preparations.
After that, Pei Qian deleted the document from his laptop and handed the laptop back to the waiter who then put it away safely.
As he stood up and prepared to leave, Pei Qian saw Ruan Guangjian and the others walking across the street, smiling. They pushed open the door to the internet cafe and entered.
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