Opening a traditional gym was quite troublesome, with the key challenge being finding talented salespeople and personal trainers.
If a gym’s sales team wasn’t effective at getting people to sign up for memberships, and if the trainers lacked muscle definition, leaving customers with an unreliable first impression, then even after opening, the gym would likely lose money.
But Starbird Fitness was different—it took another approach. The gym was filled with smart fitness equipment racks and cardio machines, with daily training schedules arranged by “Fitness Battle,” eliminating the need for salespeople and personal trainers.
They only needed to maintain positions similar to “network administrators” and “front desk staff,” plus at most three or four professional fitness coaches on site to answer questions.
This kind of staff training was much simpler than the traditional model.
Moreover, after cutting these personnel costs, the gym’s expenses were significantly reduced. Various payment models like hourly rates and monthly memberships were very flexible, without the revenue pressure of traditional gyms, allowing them to lower their fees somewhat.
This “lightweight fitness model” was actually quite popular among young people and office workers.
These past few days, Li Shi and other investors were purchasing large amounts of real estate in and around Jixiang Garden community under the company’s name.
Meanwhile, Che Rong was busy with Starbird Fitness’s expansion and opening new branches.
Everything was progressing in an orderly fashion.
…
…
July 6th, Friday.
Pei Qian was in his office reviewing reports from various departments.
“Dream Fulfillment Investment has completed its investment in Starbird Fitness. He Desheng is indeed reliable.”
“Hmm, He Desheng handled this quite discreetly, not bad.”
“As both are fitness centers, once Starbird Fitness develops, it should take away some of Tuoguan Fitness’s market, right?”
“But as for GOG…”
“This summer promotion has been going on for so long—where’s Finger Games’ response?!”
Pei Qian flipped through Tenda Games’ reports for a long time, even checking Shangyang Games’ reports, but couldn’t find any information about the summer promotion.
This indicated that the summer promotion activities had proceeded without any issues so far, everything was going according to the original plan.
But no problems was the biggest problem!
Was Finger Games just going to watch?
For this summer promotion, Pei Qian had prepared meticulously, negotiating with the system, considering Finger Games’ psychological bottom line, and finally creating a promotional plan that was relatively friendly to everyone.
But when Finger Games’ summer promotion began on June 26th, they stubbornly offered a 40% discount in the face of Tenda’s 70% to 50% off.
Disappointed, Pei Qian decided to wait a little longer.
What if Finger Games hadn’t reached internal consensus and still needed more discussion?
So he waited and waited, until today.
Seeing that the summer promotion had been going on for more than a week and would end next Wednesday, Pei Qian grew restless.
When the hell was Finger Games going to burn money with him?
He couldn’t wait any longer!
“Sigh, looking at Finger Games’ behavior, they probably won’t yield any oil in the short term.”
“Forget it, let them recover a bit. Let’s drop it this time and find them to burn money in the next cycle.”
Seeing that Finger Games was completely silent, Pei Qian felt this couldn’t continue.
Even if Finger Games didn’t respond, GOG’s summer promotion needed to enter its next phase.
Although Finger Games was now like a dead pig unafraid of boiling water, not responding to any provocation, Pei Qian still needed to continue spending money for settlement.
Previously, to be considerate of Finger Games’ fragile psyche, Pei Qian hadn’t made the first phase of the summer promotion too extreme, leaving some room.
Now he could push the promotion to its limit.
If Finger Games wouldn’t join this time, so be it. After all, there would be plenty of opportunities in the future.
Pei Qian quickly finalized the promotional plan for the latter half of the summer campaign.
Looking at this plan, Pei Qian silently sighed.
Ah, it looked so desperate.
It was like arranging to meet someone for a duel, only to be stood up, leaving him to vent his frustration by punching a sandbag after three days of psyching himself up.
High mountains and flowing waters, how difficult it was to find a kindred spirit!
…
…
July 8th, Sunday.
Magic City High-Speed Rail Station.
“Director Zhao, no need to see me off. Go back, I’ve been to Jingzhou before,” Eric said as he carried his suitcase, saying goodbye to Zhao Xuming.
Zhao Xuming felt a bit sentimental: “But when you return, you’ll just make a brief stop in Magic City before flying straight to Europe, and then we won’t have a chance to meet.”
“Although what you’re saying sounds serious… I think this is most likely just a routine report. You might be overthinking.”
Eric shook his head: “I have a feeling, and I understand what the higher-ups are thinking.”
“Having me return before the summer promotion even ends can’t be a good sign.”
Zhao Xuming said resentfully: “If you ask me, Mr. Pei’s updated second phase of the summer promotion on Friday was definitely premeditated! It’s a psychological tactic! It’s like firing all remaining ammunition as fireworks after victory, showing off!”
Eric sighed: “What can we do about it?”
Regarding this summer promotion, Eric was also helpless.
Although he wanted to burn money alongside Mr. Pei, and Finger Games could be persuaded, Dayark Group could no longer accept it.
This time, Eric wasn’t flying to Los Angeles to meet Finger Games’ executives, but to Europe to meet Dayark Group’s leadership—there was a fundamental difference between the two.
Although they hadn’t specified what the matter was, being urgently summoned by Dayark Group during the summer promotion, bypassing other Finger Games executives, was obviously not a positive signal.
As fellow Greater China Regional Directors, there was a fundamental difference between Eric and Kretien.
Kretien was originally one of Finger Games’ core designers, but Eric was originally an executive in Dayark Group’s media business.
When Eric first came to be the Greater China Regional Director, it was because Dayark Group had rejected Finger Games’ original candidate and directly appointed him instead.
Although Eric needed to report to Finger Games’ executives in his daily work, he was clearly supposed to serve Dayark Group.
Eric had a feeling that he might have a chance to return to Magic City, but even if he did, the situation would likely be different from now.
So before leaving, he decided to visit Jingzhou one more time. If he could meet Mr. Pei, that would be ideal; if not, at least he could see what Jingzhou looked like now.
From online discussions, Tenda’s various industries were rapidly expanding outward, no longer satisfied with just Jingzhou or even Handong Province. Various physical businesses had already begun to take root in capital cities and Magic City and other top-tier cities.
Even Magic City already had some branches of Slackin’ Internet Café, Slackin’ Delivery, and Tuoguan Fitness.
So what would Jingzhou, as Tenda’s headquarters, look like now?
After waving goodbye to Zhao Xuming, Eric entered the high-speed rail station.
Zhao Xuming got into his car with a dejected expression.
“Sigh, working with Eric was actually quite good. At least he would take the blame for anything that went wrong.”
“I hope they don’t change the director. Although IOI’s revenue is far below expectations, at least it’s still making a profit.”
Zhao Xuming sighed. He knew that he had no say in this matter—who knew what those people in Dayark Group’s leadership were thinking?
…
…
July 9th, Monday.
At 9 AM, while Pei Qian was still sleeping, his phone rang.
Looking at the caller ID, it was an unfamiliar number with Magic City as the location.
Pei Qian answered the phone: “Hello?”
A slightly accented foreign voice came through the phone: “Mr. Pei, getting your phone number was quite difficult…”
Pei Qian was startled for a moment but quickly recognized the voice.
Eric!
His voice wasn’t particularly distinctive, but as a foreigner with an accent, and since Pei Qian knew very few foreigners who spoke Chinese, he immediately recognized him.
Upon hearing Eric’s voice, Pei Qian instinctively felt a bit excited.
Could it be…
Was he going to burn money with him?
Was he calling to issue a challenge?
Looking at the date, it was only July 9th, still three days until the end of the summer promotion on July 11th. Although only the tail end remained, if they were willing to burn money together, he would still welcome it!
Pei Qian couldn’t help but smile: “Oh, it’s you, Brother Eric! What made you call me today?”
Eric corrected him somewhat helplessly: “It’s not that I just thought of calling today. I arrived in Jingzhou yesterday and have been trying to call you.”
“But after asking several Tenda employees, they all said you don’t work on weekends and shouldn’t be disturbed. They refused to give me your number.”
“I had to wait until office hours this morning to get your number.”
“Luckily, my flight was booked for after 8 PM tonight. Otherwise, I would have had to change my ticket just to meet you.”
“I need to take the high-speed train back to Magic City at 1 PM, so I only have a few hours. Mr. Pei, can we meet?”
Pei Qian felt a bit embarrassed.
Look at this mess!
If he had known Eric was here yesterday, he would have given up his time playing games at home to meet him.
Now there were only a few hours left, which was quite rushed—barely enough time to have a proper meal.
“Alright, let’s meet directly at Mingfu Family Banquet. Lunch is on me.”
What a pity. If it were Sunday, they could have eaten at Nameless Restaurant. Although Eric didn’t have a big appetite, he probably could have finished several large lobsters.
But today was Monday, and there were no reservations available, so they could only make do with a meal at Mr. Li’s restaurant.
Although he was still a bit sleepy, since he was meeting an old friend who helped him burn money, Pei Qian struggled to get out of bed and freshen up.
His hair was a bit messy, and Pei Qian hesitated whether to wash it, but then thought, since he was just meeting Eric, what did it matter if his hair was washed or not?
The other man had been waiting for a day already, so it was better to get there sooner.