Min Jingchao instantly understood—so it was Bao Xu who had just called!
No wonder Zhou Muyan said they had met once before!
Min Jingchao had heard that during the development of “Sea Fortress,” Tenda had organized a team-building event in Yangcheng and visited Tianhuo Studio. That must have been when they met.
Of course, back then, Bao Xu was just an ordinary employee, very unremarkable, and Zhou Muyan might not have even noticed him. Saying they had “met once” was more of a courtesy.
But what they discussed was terrifying—what did “half price for everyone” mean?
Seeing Min Jingchao dumbfounded, Sun Xi’s survival instinct immediately kicked in: “Ahem, Mr. Zhou, this doesn’t seem right!”
“Just for a trip, you’re owing someone such a big favor. We can’t accept that! Why don’t we still go with the alternative plan? I think the alternative plan is quite good too!”
Zhou Muyan shook his head: “Ah, that’s the wrong way to think about it. An alternative plan is just an alternative plan. Now that the original plan no longer has budget issues, why would we need an alternative?”
“With my relationship with Mr. Pei, there’s no need to be so formal about owing favors.”
“Besides, Bao Xu said on the phone that this is also to repay a favor owed to Jingchao from before.”
“Didn’t you both say that you were very interested in the Suffering Journey, and that you absolutely must go together with other employees, sharing joys and sorrows?”
“Isn’t this solution perfectly satisfactory?”
Min Jingchao and Sun Xi were speechless, completely at a loss for what to say.
It was over. All the excuses they had used before had been strung together by Mr. Zhou!
Now there was absolutely no reason not to go!
Zhou Muyan waved his hand: “Good, this matter is perfectly resolved. Don’t worry about signing up; I’ll handle it all here. You just continue to work hard and develop ‘Bullet Mark 2’ well.”
“You may go now!”
Min Jingchao and Sun Xi walked out of Zhou Muyan’s office in a daze, returned to their workstations, and sat there like wooden chickens.
It was over. Everything was over!
Min Jingchao could hardly resist the urge to slap himself—this was a clear case of being too clever for his own good!
If only he had known from the beginning not to mention the Suffering Journey to Zhou Muyan. Now there was no way to avoid going!
Suddenly, Sun Xi seemed to think of something and asked with confusion: “Brother Chao, what did Mr. Zhou mean just now? Why does Bao Xu need to repay you a favor?”
Min Jingchao had just been about to take a sip of water to calm down, but upon hearing this, he nearly choked: “Cough, cough, cough! It’s nothing, just that I once helped Bao Xu with a small favor… a very insignificant matter, but I didn’t expect Bao Xu would still remember it…”
Sun Xi indignantly said: “Then he’s completely returning kindness with enmity!”
Min Jingchao nodded awkwardly: “Yes, exactly!”
He didn’t dare tell Sun Xi the details of how he had persuaded Bao Xu to raise the price. If the project team members knew the details, wouldn’t they tear him apart alive?
Fortunately, Bao Xu hadn’t told Zhou Muyan the details and had kept things vague.
If he had gone into detail, that would have been a disaster!
Now Sun Xi was only slightly suspicious, but he was clearly immersed in grief and didn’t probe further.
Although the situation was terribly precarious for Min Jingchao, the blame was still primarily on Mr. Zhou.
In any case, now he could only keep a low profile, lay low, and pretend he knew nothing about all this. Let Zhou Muyan take all the blame…
After enduring this period and leaving Tianhuo Studio, even if these people learned the truth, they wouldn’t be able to come after him…
Min Jingchao had been completely despondent, but now he suddenly had motivation.
Work hard! Get “Bullet Mark 2” developed as quickly as possible!
And it absolutely had to be a huge hit.
After all, “Bullet Mark 2” carried Mr. Pei’s reputation. If it wasn’t a huge hit, wouldn’t that tarnish Mr. Pei’s brand? In that case, he would definitely have to stay at Tianhuo Studio to revise the game’s content.
Every extra day meant more danger!
Now Min Jingchao could only think of one thing: complete “Bullet Mark 2” quickly and leave this place of trouble, running as far away as possible!
…
Meanwhile, Pei Qian was also paying attention to the online discussions about the Suffering Journey and its registration situation.
Judging from the netizens’ comments, the situation looked quite promising.
The price increase strategy had worked!
From the reactions of netizens, most people were discussing this with a mocking, joking attitude, without any real intention to sign up.
The fifty thousand yuan threshold had indeed deterred most people.
“Well well, I won’t ask for more—flat price, fifty thousand!”
“I could do so many better things with fifty thousand than suffer, literally paying money to find trouble!”
“I was quite curious about what this was all about, but after watching Qiao Laoshi’s livestream… Umm, excuse me, even if I won a free spot, I wouldn’t go…”
“How can this project be running its third session? Is it me who has a problem, or is it the world? This is ridiculous!”
“Surely no one will actually sign up, right? They wouldn’t, would they?”
“It seems like there are 200 spots available this time. Can they handle that many people?”
“It seems that you first register, and then staff will contact you one by one to confirm the time. It’s not easy for some people to take two months off, so it might be scheduled a year later. Anyway, arranging the personnel list is also quite a workload.”
“Anyway, it’s not fully booked yet. It would be good if they could fill 200 spots within a month.”
“Actually, these benefits are quite attractive. The ‘Sufferer’ identity is quite prestigious. If you could get it, it would probably give you a lot of face in the games.”
“Heh, spending fifty thousand yuan to suffer just for a title? Whoever wants to go can go, but I’m not going.”
“I think we should let streamers go challenge themselves. What do you all think? I’m going to stir things up in their livestream channels!”
Seeing everyone’s discussion, Pei Qian nodded with satisfaction.
Hmm, it seemed that everyone was thinking clearly. Although the “Sufferer” title had a certain appeal, in the face of the fifty thousand yuan and two months of suffering, the vast majority of people were clear-headed.
As for people saying they wanted to stir things up in livestream channels and get streamers to participate, this was indeed a problem, but it shouldn’t be a major one.
On one hand, streamers weren’t stupid; on the other hand, streamers were ultimately a minority. Even if a few of them lost their minds, it wouldn’t affect the long-term money-losing plan of the Suffering Journey.
This could be considered a good start!
Pei Qian was very happy but didn’t dare to be complacent. He planned to check the registration numbers again in the evening or tomorrow.
…
Meanwhile, at Fuhui Capital.
Li Shi had just finished dealing with the Stardust Fitness matters and started looking at the investment proposals that had accumulated during this time.
After flipping through them for a long time, Li Shi found his head aching, so he stopped to rub his temples.
Finding a good investment project was really too difficult!
Many outsiders who didn’t know the truth would say that Li Shi was an investor who didn’t live up to his name, simply investing in Tenda-related industries without thinking. They’d say, “I could do that too.”
But the problem was that other projects truly had no investment value at all!
Li Shi did want to invest in some other projects, but after going through so many investment proposals, he simply couldn’t find any projects with enough potential and value.
Since that was the case, why not invest everything in Tenda-related industries?
Sometimes Li Shi felt that looking through these investment proposals was a waste of his time. He might as well spend that time enjoying life while benefiting from Tenda’s success.
After resting for a while, there was a knock on his office door.
“Come in.”
Li Shi looked up and saw it was one of his employees.
“Mr. Li, you previously asked me to keep an eye on the Suffering Journey. They just released an announcement today saying that registration is open, and the price is fifty thousand yuan per person.”
Li Shi’s eyes lit up with interest: “Is that so? Let me look at the announcement first. Go notify the core employees of several departments in the company to meet in the main conference room shortly.”
The employee nodded and left.
Li Shi immediately found the Suffering Journey’s official website, read the announcement from beginning to end to fully understand it, and then went to the main conference room for the meeting.
Everyone was somewhat puzzled, not knowing what major project required calling all the company’s experienced employees to a meeting.
Li Shi didn’t keep them in suspense and said directly: “I’ve been following the Suffering Journey, and today they finally opened registration.”
“All of you are veteran employees of the company, the backbone. Now I’m offering you an additional benefit: for those who want to participate in the Suffering Journey, I’ll approve two months of paid leave and reimburse an extra twenty thousand yuan. You’ll only need to pay thirty thousand yuan yourselves to go.”
“This is completely voluntary. Those who are interested can register with the HR department, and the HR department will give me a list later.”
After hearing Li Shi’s words, everyone in the conference room was stunned, looking at each other in bewilderment.
Mr. Li, we have no grudge against you, and we’ve worked at Fuhui Capital for so long. Even if we don’t have great achievements, we’ve at least put in hard work. Why are you treating us like fools?
The benefit sounds good—two months of paid leave and an extra twenty thousand yuan reimbursement, meaning you only need to pay thirty thousand yuan out of pocket to go on a Suffering Journey that originally costs fifty thousand.
But… who the hell wants to go on a Suffering Journey?!
Is that a nice place?
Everyone looked at each other, and no one raised their hand.
Li Shi wasn’t in a hurry and waited calmly.
Finally, someone couldn’t hold back anymore and raised their hand to break the silence: “Mr. Li, I have a question. Why do you want us to go on the Suffering Journey? What’s good about that place? Or is it simply to support Mr. Pei’s new venture?”
Li Shi shook his head slightly: “Supporting Mr. Pei’s new venture is only a very, very small reason, not the main one.”
“It’s mainly for your consideration, and for the long-term development of the company. You are all the backbone of the company. If you develop better, it’s good for the company’s development.”
The questioning employee was even more confused: “Mr. Li, you don’t actually believe that the Suffering Journey can temper willpower, do you?”
Li Shi shook his head again: “Tempering willpower is only a very insignificant aspect. That’s certainly not what I care about.”
“What I care about is… connections!”