March 19th, Monday.

Travel-weary Bao Xu and Liang Qianfan set foot once again on Jingzhou soil.

Although Liang Qianfan looked somewhat fatigued, he was still full of energy.

“Ah, finally back!”

“Although paid vacation is nice, such a long period still makes one feel a bit tired.”

“But Bao-ge, you still seem very energetic! Truly worthy of being a travel master! I’m really grateful for your guidance on this Egyptian journey!”

Beside him, Bao Xu silently rolled his eyes.

What the hell do you mean “very energetic”!

It was only after finally returning to Jingzhou that I’ve managed to regain some vitality!

If he had stayed in Egypt for another week, Bao Xu feared he might have turned into a mummy, dried up in the desert.

Anyway, this trip was finally over!

Bao Xu couldn’t wait to go home and sleep or play games—he didn’t want to stay a second longer than necessary.

But despite these thoughts, the two still had to share a taxi back.

In the taxi, Bao Xu had no interest in chatting with Liang Qianfan and instead continued pondering a question that had been tormenting him throughout the month-long journey.

What exactly could he do to avoid going on more trips?

Being “kidnapped” for travel twice in a row had made Bao Xu extremely vigilant.

Originally, Bao Xu thought that as long as he kept a low profile, lying low in the gaming department without taking responsibility for any work, he wouldn’t be targeted in the Best Employee selection.

But he had been wrong three times already.

The first time, Li Yada received second place in the Best Employee award for her outstanding work in the Tenda Gaming Department, so Bao Xu was assigned to accompany her on a trip.

The second time, Huang Sibo won second place for Best Employee, and Bao Xu was again assigned as a travel companion.

The third time, it was Liang Qianfan’s turn…

The first two instances were somewhat understandable, but what left Bao Xu speechless was that he barely even knew Liang Qianfan!

This indicated that within Tenda Group, “finding Bao Xu to accompany the second-place Best Employee winner on a trip” had become an unwritten rule, a convention.

So whenever someone won second place for Best Employee in the future, they would definitely look for Bao Xu to accompany them!

Moreover, Bao Xu’s previous strategy of keeping a low profile hadn’t achieved his goal of hiding himself, but instead had the opposite effect: everyone thought, “Since Bao-ge doesn’t have any particularly important work to handle, it’s perfect to have him accompany others on trips—it won’t interfere with anything.”

Therefore, Bao Xu felt he couldn’t continue like this and needed to make some changes!

But what changes specifically?

Currently, Bao Xu was still in the Tenda Gaming Department. If he actively took on some work, he would certainly have things to do. But the problem was, as a veteran, all eyes in the department were on him. If he achieved even slight success, he might be voted up again.

Wouldn’t that be awkward?

So, Bao Xu thought it would be better to find something to do in another department.

This way, the next time someone asked him to accompany them on a trip, he could righteously refuse: “Sorry, I have work to do. Please find someone else!”

But which department should he go to for some work?

Bao Xu didn’t actually want to transfer to another department—he still wanted to stay in the Tenda Gaming Department—so it would be best if he could just help temporarily.

But his main skills were in game design, and whether other departments needed his help was uncertain.

So Bao Xu fell into deep thought, racking his brains to escape his fate as a travel companion.

…

Meanwhile, at Tenda Group Headquarters.

Pei Qian was in his office, flipping through work reports from various departments while considering how to arrange and adjust the next phase of work plans.

Pei Qian was already aware of the situation at Rabbit Tail Streaming but felt powerless to change it.

It was absurd that the unofficial stream commentary was more popular than the official one!

It just showed how incompetent Dragon Yu Group was—how could they not manage something as simple as match commentary? They were creating so many unnecessary work difficulties for Pei Qian.

However, supposedly Dragon Yu Group was making urgent adjustments, seeking professional players from other clubs to serve as guest analysts. Presumably, the level of official commentary would quickly improve.

Pei Qian decided not to worry about it—as long as the ICL League continued to flourish with increasing popularity, that was fine.

As he was flipping through the work records of various departments, there was a knock on the office door.

Pei Qian looked up to see an unfamiliar face.

Zhang Yahui introduced himself nervously: “Mr. Pei, I’m Zhang Yahui from Cold Noodle Girl. You called me earlier and asked me to come see you on Monday to discuss the street food market project…”

Pei Qian instantly remembered: “Ah, yes, please have a seat.”

Although Pei Qian’s original intention for this street food market was to poach people from Cold Noodle Girl and limit its development, he still needed to maintain appearances.

If the conditions at the street food market weren’t good, why would any vendors from Cold Noodle Girl come?

Pei Qian poured Zhang Yahui a cup of tea and said, “Actually, this street food market is currently just a vague concept. How to specifically operate it will require your careful consideration.”

“Don’t worry about funding—I’ll give you ten million yuan to spend gradually. If that’s not enough, you can apply for more. The key is to be sufficiently attractive to the vendors!”

“As for other requirements…”

“The street food market must be located in Jingzhou, and all vendors joining the market must accept unified supervision to ensure food hygiene and safety. Ingredients should be procured uniformly, and the market should have dedicated staff for unified management…”

Pei Qian briefly explained his ideas.

Zhang Yahui’s face showed surprise: “Are those all the requirements?”

To him, Mr. Pei’s conditions seemed incredibly generous!

The funding was very abundant with no performance requirements. The location only needed to be in Jingzhou with no specific restrictions. As for unified supervision, food hygiene, and safety—these were all basic considerations that Zhang Yahui would have addressed even if Mr. Pei hadn’t mentioned them.

And there were no other requirements?

This level of freedom was too high!

Pei Qian thought for a moment and asked, “What other requirements would you like?”

Zhang Yahui said, “For example… should this street food market be located in a busy area or somewhere slightly more remote? Should it be adjacent to other Tenda industries? If we renovate, what style should we choose? How should we arrange the vendors’ business hours? Am I to determine all these things as well?”

Pei Qian considered this.

He had initially planned to tell Zhang Yahui to decide for himself, as he didn’t have many requirements for the street food market. Whether it made money or not was up to fate—it was just a legitimate excuse to poach people from Cold Noodle Girl.

Pei Qian felt there was no need to waste brain cells determining these details.

But on second thought, he felt he should still give Zhang Yahui some direction.

After all, as the ancient saying goes, “Excellence comes from diligence and is wasted by play; learning comes from thought and is destroyed by carelessness.” Many previous problems had occurred because he was too laissez-faire. Adding a few more safeguards was never wrong.

Pei Qian briefly considered the questions Zhang Yahui had raised.

The street food market definitely couldn’t be in a busy area. The vendors had excellent culinary skills, and with such a large investment, the dining environment would certainly be good. Located in a busy area with high-spending customers, it would definitely make a lot of money.

But a remote location seemed inappropriate too. In remote areas, land prices were cheap, and if the street food market became popular, it might cause surrounding land prices to rise, benefiting surrounding industries with too much growth potential.

The location certainly couldn’t be adjacent to other Tenda industries either. If it were near No-Name Restaurant, it would become a food street attracting foodies from across the country. Or if it were near Sloth Apartments or Slackin’ Internet Café, young people would come for a snack after gaming…

That wouldn’t be good either.

As for the decoration style, it should clash as much as possible with the street stall theme; for business hours, the more flexible, the better.

Pei Qian said, “Regarding location, not in a busy area, but not too remote either.”

“No Tenda industries nearby.”

“The decoration style must be high-end, trendy, and cool, clearly distinguishing it from the concept of ‘street stalls.'”

“Business hours should adopt a flexible work system with minimal restrictions, giving vendors ample freedom.”

“Just these requirements, nothing else.”

Zhang Yahui had a confused expression.

What kind of requirements were these?

But he had heard about Mr. Pei’s management style, so he wasn’t too surprised and could only silently note down all these requirements.

“Then… Mr. Pei, shall I go prepare now?” Zhang Yahui asked.

Pei Qian nodded, “Yes, go ahead!”

…

Coming out of the Shenhua Luxury Building, Zhang Yahui still felt a bit dazed.

Before Spring Festival, he had been an ordinary vendor, getting up early and staying up late to make grilled cold noodles, earning a modest living. But after participating in a street food competition, he was first spotted by Ms. Qi from Cold Noodle Girl to manage the food laboratory and promotional videos, and then by Mr. Pei to directly oversee the street food market project.

Life’s ups and downs were truly thrilling!

Now, he had substantial funding provided by Mr. Pei but felt very confused about what kind of street food market would meet Mr. Pei’s requirements.

Currently, he was a one-man show and could only plan for the long term.

However, just as he was about to leave, he saw a taxi stop at the entrance of the Shenhua Luxury Building. Liang Qianfan and Bao Xu were inside.

Zhang Yahui’s eyes lit up: “Aren’t you Designer Liang? I saw you in the Sloth Apartments promotional video!”

Liang Qianfan nodded: “And you are…?”

Zhang Yahui said, “My name is Zhang Yahui. I’m currently in charge of the ‘Street Food Market’ project that Mr. Pei just started…”

Zhang Yahui happily gave a quick introduction about how he came to be there.

Liang Qianfan’s eyes showed surprise: “Street Food Market? That sounds interesting!”

“I’m sorry, I’ve been traveling abroad for nearly a month and am not familiar with these things.”

“However… my Sloth Apartments doesn’t have much work recently. Does your Street Food Market need some design help? I can assist.”