August 6th, Monday.

Pei Qian slept until he naturally woke up, then lay in bed playing on his phone for two hours, until his Slackin’ takeout lunch arrived at his door, which finally made him get up reluctantly.

Being a complete slacker was so enjoyable!

Over the weekend, Pei Qian played games at home until he lost track of day and night.

After all, last month’s financial settlement had been completed, and he felt completely unburdened.

This cycle would last more than half a year, and it had just begun, so there was absolutely no rush.

He could play for two months first before worrying about anything else!

Of course, this was just an exaggeration. Pei Qian still needed to keep an eye on the company, fearing that if some project unexpectedly became popular, he might be caught off guard. He needed to discover and arrange for such possibilities early.

But regardless, these two months could indeed be a time to relax a bit.

“It’s supposed to be summer vacation, yet I still have to work miserably.”

“I’m so unfortunate!”

Pei Qian felt quite distressed.

He had enrolled in university in 2009, and now it was already August 2012. School would officially start in one month, and Pei Qian would formally enter his senior year.

He hadn’t failed any courses in his junior year; the most dangerous time had passed.

For Pei Qian, not failing any courses was obviously a bit abnormal, considering he had hardly attended any classes properly because he was busy trying to lose money.

As for why he hadn’t failed any courses, the reasons might be complex. For instance, Pei Qian was a liberal arts student, and cramming with borrowed notes from classmates before exams was quite effective; Old Ma hadn’t failed any courses either, which had created a huge motivation for Pei Qian—the belief that he couldn’t lose to Old Ma drove him not to give up on his studies.

Of course, the more likely reason was probably that the elderly professors responsible for grading papers had lost a few more strands of hair while working together with Pei Qian, who had tried his best to fill up his exam papers, to achieve this feat.

After selecting the Best Employee last week, Bao Xu had immediately begun preparing for the travel agency.

He, who had always been extremely resistant to travel, was now paying extraordinary attention to the preparations for the travel agency, even showing full motivation.

As for Huang Sibo and others… they were left trembling in fear.

Pei Qian felt that this was a very satisfactory outcome—it hadn’t abandoned the glorious tradition of Bao Xu traveling, hadn’t wasted Bao Xu’s rich travel experience, and had also punished those malicious people who enjoyed watching Bao Xu travel.

Most importantly, arranging for more people to travel would slow down Tenda’s work, wouldn’t it?

Simply perfect!

However, this travel agency obviously still needed some time to prepare. Sending the first batch of guinea pigs on their way would probably take another month.

He really hoped that day would come soon!

…

After finishing lunch, Pei Qian strolled to the office, planning to symbolically sit for a couple of hours, look at the work reports sent by various departments, and then go back to continue playing games.

After all, it was Monday, and no matter how busy Mr. Pei was, he needed to come to the company to check in—that was tradition.

However, just as he arrived at the entrance of Shenhua Luxury View, he saw Hu Xianbin waiting for a taxi with his suitcase.

Pei Qian was stunned: “What are you…?”

Hu Xianbin said: “Oh, Mr. Pei, I’ve handed over all my work this morning, and now I’m ready to depart immediately for my trip.”

“I’ve also found someone to accompany me—I’m bringing Brother Huang along.”

Pei Qian felt slightly confused: “Huang Sibo?”

“Uh… you guys are moving so fast. What I mean is, is Bao Xu’s side all ready?”

“And, are you planning to travel within China?”

Huang Sibo accompanying Hu Xianbin on the trip was certainly no problem. As the lead manager of Fei Huang Studio, Huang Sibo going away for a month could slow down the work progress at the studio, which was exactly what Pei Qian wanted.

These two moving so quickly, completing the handover in just one morning, wasn’t a problem either. After all, the quicker the handover, the more issues would be left behind, which could also slow down work progress somewhat.

Pei Qian’s question was: was Bao Xu’s side ready for them to go on this trip?

They couldn’t work on weekends, so there was no way Bao Xu could have set up the travel agency at lightning speed in just a day or two. Forget about recruiting people and planning itineraries—he probably wouldn’t even have had time to register the company.

Moreover, this kind of “leave-at-a-moment’s-notice travel” was obviously very limited in terms of destinations. They could only play within China or go to a few countries that didn’t require visas.

Whether domestic or international, the reimbursement would be the same, so why not go abroad to play?

Hu Xianbin coughed awkwardly a couple of times: “Ahem, Mr. Pei, I’ve been working too hard and can’t wait to go out traveling to relax a bit.”

“Besides, Brother Huang and I don’t really like going abroad. There are still many fun places in China that we haven’t been to, so we’ll just travel domestically this time.”

Pei Qian didn’t pay much attention to this. The travel arrangements were always the employees’ choice of destination; the only requirement was that the duration met the standard. Where they went specifically wasn’t restricted.

As long as the employees were actually traveling for that month, not just sleeping in the hotel all day or playing games, it was fine.

Since Hu Xianbin was too tired from work and couldn’t wait to go out to play, Pei Qian had no reason to stop him.

As for domestic or international… that didn’t matter either. It was up to personal preference.

Pei Qian nodded: “Alright, you guys go ahead. Be safe on your journey and have fun.”

“Will do! Goodbye, Mr. Pei!” Hu Xianbin happily dragged his suitcase away.

Watching Hu Xianbin’s departing figure, Pei Qian entered the building with satisfaction and pressed the elevator button.

Every time Bao Xu went traveling, he had a deeply aggrieved expression, which subconsciously made people feel that traveling was a miserable thing.

Going traveling happily like Hu Xianbin was the normal situation!

In the future, they should promote the culture of “happy travel” more within the company, to make everyone fall in love with traveling and with the feeling of wandering around the world.

He pressed the button for the 16th floor, and the elevator doors closed.

Pei Qian idly watched the numbers on the elevator change, indicating the floors. For some reason, Hu Xianbin’s final smile remained imprinted in his mind, difficult to erase.

“Hmm?”

“Something’s not right.”

As the elevator doors opened with a “ding,” Pei Qian suddenly realized that Hu Xianbin’s smile seemed somewhat complex!

That smile was definitely not just happiness about going on a trip, at least not entirely.

There were some other complicated emotions in there!

But what emotions exactly…

They were in a hurry to leave, and they had asked Huang Sibo to accompany them…

Pei Qian walked out of the elevator and suddenly realized.

“Damn! Hu Xianbin has grown bold enough to even trick me!”

“Are you and Huang Sibo really tired from work and can’t wait to go traveling to relax? That’s clearly just fear of Bao Xu’s revenge!”

Earlier, Pei Qian hadn’t figured it out, but having outmaneuvered employees many times, he instantly sensed something was off.

Obviously, after Bao Xu had decided to go down together with everyone, he had begun planning a department specifically responsible for travel. Once this department was established, the first targets would definitely be Hu Xianbin and Huang Sibo.

Hu Xianbin was targeted because he had just won second place as Best Employee and was required to travel according to the rules, while Huang Sibo was targeted because of a “personal grudge”—he was definitely number one on Bao Xu’s hit list.

So these two were trying to slip away before Bao Xu’s travel agency was ready!

This way, when Bao Xu arranged the first batch of names for the travel agency, Hu Xianbin and Huang Sibo would be able to escape because they were already traveling.

After all, if they chose for themselves, they could choose to play in some cities within China, which would be relatively relaxed and comfortable.

But if Bao Xu arranged it, they would likely end up in places like the Sahara Desert, the Arctic or Antarctic, Siberia, or the East African plains—definitely not comfortable at all.

Which of these two options to choose? Did it even need saying?

Pei Qian quite admired them.

“You two are quite clever, aren’t you.”

“Well, I must let you understand what it means to be ‘too clever for your own good’!”

“I’ll tell Bao Xu to plan the travel agency slowly, taking at least a month. When these two happily return from their trip, immediately arrange for them to go out again without a break!”

“Let them experience the joy of ‘seamless transition’!”

Pei Qian didn’t immediately call them back but decided to let them be happy for a month and settle accounts afterward.

…

Arriving at the office, Pei Qian poured himself a cup of coffee, then opened the work reports from various departments to review.

Overall, there weren’t any particularly noteworthy points.

After all, Tenda’s various departmental projects basically followed Pei Qian’s settlement cycle. Now many projects had just begun development and hadn’t yet reached the critical point.

Finally, Pei Qian opened the report from Tenda’s game department.

“Hmm, as expected, ‘Eternal Cycle’ has officially begun development.”

“There aren’t any particularly big moves on GOG’s side either.”

“Hmm…?”

“What is this!”

The work report contained not only daily work content but also some news related to the department.

But there was one seemingly inconspicuous piece of news that struck Pei Qian like lightning!

“The official platform has once again upgraded our company’s status. Due to the outstanding contributions made by Tenda Games, Shangyang Games, and Chi Xing Studio to the gaming industry, the official platform has decided to change our revenue sharing from a 30-70 split to a 10-90 split, with us taking 90%.”

This sentence in the report didn’t sound particularly excited, as clearly both Hu Xianbin and Min Jingchao believed that this change in revenue sharing was inevitable, and had even come a bit late.

The official platform had always strongly supported excellent creators. As early as June 2010, they had already changed Tenda’s revenue sharing from 50-50 to 30-70.

But changing from 30-70 to 10-90 was much more difficult. It required not only good sales figures for games but also significant influence and excellent reputation.

After all, a 10-90 split, where the official platform only took 10%, was an extremely generous policy.

The official platform wasn’t just a platform; besides providing various recommendation resources, it also continuously updated and maintained the official editor, provided channels for designers and artists to communicate and connect, and had large daily operating expenses.

Therefore, only a very, very small number of game companies could obtain a 10-90 split.

Tenda Group had achieved this honor after two years of accumulation and after releasing many popular classic games.