At this moment, Meng Chang had just gotten out of bed.
He was so excited the night before that he couldn’t fall asleep until three or four in the morning.
As soon as the election results from Ukraya came out, Meng Chang knew that everything had been settled.
Everything that happened afterward was predictable.
Of course, what mattered most to Meng Chang was the money!
Was this what it felt like to clear all debts and feel completely unburdened?
Certainly, the money from Fan Xiaodong hadn’t been transferred yet—that would take some time. It also depended on whether Fan Xiaodong was a trustworthy friend who wouldn’t be tempted by the money, donate it, and disappear.
But Meng Chang thought this was a highly improbable scenario.
Although he hadn’t actually paid off all his debts yet, he could do so very soon if he wanted to.
This was the first time since becoming a deadbeat debtor that Meng Chang felt so relaxed, and even his sleep was sweeter.
As for this month’s commission?
Who cared about that tiny commission anymore?
Last night, Meng Chang had been so excited that he couldn’t fall asleep. He kept browsing news about the Ukraya election while dreaming about what he would do after paying off all his debts.
He had originally thought of many options, but after waking up, he changed his mind.
He suddenly thought of a question: if he paid off all his debts, would Mr. Pei still keep him as the head of Tenda’s advertising and marketing department?
This seemed like a nonsensical question. Since Mr. Pei valued him so highly and went to great lengths to personally teach him the Pei-style propaganda method, he obviously saw Meng Chang as the future successor for Tenda Group’s advertising and marketing.
If he was the successor, then of course he would stay at Tenda.
But Mr. Pei always did unexpected things.
What if Mr. Pei didn’t approve of the way Meng Chang had made money by taking the “wrong path” and, in a fit of anger, kicked him out of Tenda?
This wasn’t completely impossible.
Meng Chang had noticed that all of Mr. Pei’s methods of making money were very aboveboard: cultural industries, physical industries, investments… Everything he did was meaningful.
As for stocks, real estate speculation, and other obviously easier ways to make money, Mr. Pei wouldn’t touch them at all.
Meng Chang’s income came from activities that were legal overseas but had no equivalent in China. Even if there were, Mr. Pei would definitely not support such methods.
So… how would he explain the source of this money to Mr. Pei?
If it were the old Meng Chang, he wouldn’t have worried about this issue at all. Why should he care if Mr. Pei got angry? If Mr. Pei kicked him out of Tenda, he might even be glad!
After paying off his debts, the world would be his oyster—he could go anywhere!
But now, Meng Chang didn’t think that way.
He realized that at Tenda, he could learn many things, especially the Pei-style propaganda method.
At his current level, he was only a half-expert. He couldn’t say he’d only learned the superficial aspects of the Pei-style propaganda method—he had certainly gone deeper than that—but he was still far from fully mastering the essence of it.
Having learned half of the dragon-slaying technique, how could he abandon it halfway?
This always reminded Meng Chang of plots from certain novels: a disciple learning martial arts from a master, then being expelled due to impure intentions. The disciple would then use the half-learned martial arts to do evil, but because of his incomplete training, the martial arts themselves would have inherent flaws…
In such plots, the fate of such people usually ended up being particularly miserable.
Only by accumulating knowledge deeply could one achieve success easily. Meng Chang was absolutely certain that once he left Tenda, he would never have any chance to fully master the Pei-style propaganda method.
At that point, he would be like someone who had learned only half of an unparalleled martial art, with natural vulnerabilities.
So Meng Chang was in a dilemma. He wanted to immediately pay off all his debts but was afraid he wouldn’t be able to continue staying at Tenda to learn. He felt very conflicted.
Just as he was struggling with this, his phone rang.
It was Fan Xiaodong calling.
“Brother, it’s amazing, simply amazing!”
“Five times!”
“Your $200,000 directly became $1,000,000!”
“Even after deducting various fees and loose ends, that’s still a solid million dollars!”
“You’re so brave, I can’t help but admire you.”
“I regret it now. Although I also made a profit by putting in $50,000 at the time, I really regret not putting in more!”
Fan Xiaodong’s voice was filled with undisguised envy and excitement.
He had been too cautious.
But that couldn’t be helped; it was human nature. Fan Xiaodong didn’t know Mr. Pei, so he couldn’t unconditionally trust him like Meng Chang did, betting his entire fortune on a huge gamble.
“But… brother, I have a question.”
“Tenda couldn’t possibly have such immense power to manipulate another country’s election, right? That’s too outlandish—I wouldn’t believe it no matter what!”
Obviously, amid his excitement, Fan Xiaodong was also full of confusion.
How was this possible?
Meng Chang smiled. “Of course Tenda doesn’t have that kind of power yet. Don’t overthink it.”
“This time, it was completely due to Mr. Pei’s foresight and insight. True geniuses don’t limit their perspective to a specific field but elevate their viewpoint to the level of philosophy and sociology, drawing analogies and seeing the connections between different things.”
“Mr. Pei’s success in business is definitely not a coincidence, nor is it solely due to business principles. It’s success that comes from understanding deeper patterns and human nature. With this kind of vision, predicting the results of the Ukraya election isn’t a difficult task.”
Fan Xiaodong sighed with emotion: “Mr. Pei is truly an extraordinary person. I’m completely convinced this time. Is there anything Mr. Pei can’t do?”
Meng Chang was silent for a moment before saying, “I’ve been wondering the same thing.”
“And from my observations during my time by Mr. Pei’s side… those things he hasn’t done probably aren’t because he can’t do them, but because he doesn’t want to do them.”
The other end of the phone also fell into a brief silence, as Fan Xiaodong was evidently deep in thought.
After a while, Fan Xiaodong said, “Do you want to pay off all your debts now, or use this money to invest elsewhere? It’s fine to pay off your debts first; after all, you’ll still have some left over.”
“If this kind of success can continue, rolling this money into more is just a matter of time—sooner or later, it’s all the same.”
“After paying off your debts, at least you can remove your status as a person subject to enforcement. Right now, it’s not even convenient for you to go out.”
After considering for a moment, Meng Chang said, “There’s no rush. I need to confirm some things with Mr. Pei first. It’s possible that after I pay off my debts, I won’t be able to stay at Tenda anymore, and then these opportunities would naturally be gone.”
Fan Xiaodong was stunned. “Why? Isn’t Mr. Pei your creditor? Shouldn’t he be eager for you to pay back the money?”
Meng Chang smiled helplessly. “This is where you don’t understand Mr. Pei. Forget it, it’s not easy to explain. Anyway, you keep the money for now, and I’ll let you know when I’ve made up my mind.”
Fan Xiaodong: “Fine, it’s up to you.”
After hanging up, Meng Chang felt a bit hungry, so he ordered takeout from Slackin’, planning to go to the company for a while after lunch.
His main job this month was to promote “The Successor,” but now that it had achieved great success and he wouldn’t get a commission anyway, the work for the second half of the month didn’t matter to him. He could just slack off as much as he wanted, or not even go to work at all.
However, just after finishing lunch, he received a message from Mr. Pei.
“Mr. Pei wants me to go to his office around 3 PM?”
“This…”
“Is he going to praise me for the promotional strategy I made for ‘The Successor’? Or has he found out about the little schemes I’ve been running on the side?”
Meng Chang suddenly felt a bit nervous.
Logically, even if the results of the promotional strategy were out and the commission had been reduced to zero, the strategy would only be evaluated at the end of the month.
Calling him over in the middle of the month definitely meant something was up.
Meng Chang didn’t dare to delay and hurriedly got ready to go to the company.
…
As it approached 3 PM.
Pei Qian was in his office, rapidly typing on his keyboard, calculating his plan for a spending spree this cycle.
Currently, Pei Qian still had four cards he could play.
First, the construction of the Tenda headquarters building that was being planned required a large amount of funds. This wouldn’t affect the settlement, so he could pour more money into it.
Second, there was a project this month that could be delayed for settlement until next month. As long as he could think of a project that could use more money in the short term and ensure it would be officially operational before the settlement next month, he could spend another large sum of money.
Third, Pei Qian still had 30 million yuan of charitable funds, which was half of the system’s initial funds for the cycle.
Finally, he could take 100,000 yuan out of his own pocket, converting it into 10 million yuan of additional allowance for unconditional giveaways.
Now that he had more ways to spend money quickly, Pei Qian was no longer like before when he could only accept his fate if he made money close to settlement time.
He could still struggle a bit more.
However, he didn’t have particularly concrete ideas on how to implement these plans.
The Tenda headquarters building was simple enough—he could just force the money on Liang Qingfan and let him coordinate the planning.
Pei Qian had also pretty much decided on the charitable funds.
Initially, Pei Qian had donated the charitable funds directly to poor students at his alma mater, Handong University. Later, when the charitable funds increased, there weren’t enough poor students at Handong University, so he donated to other universities and even high schools in Handong Province.
But soon, even that wouldn’t be enough.
Because these charitable funds were basically added every half year, and they would continue to grow compared to before.
So Pei Qian was thinking, why not include elementary and middle school students as well?
Moreover, helping poor students might involve a certain survivorship bias. The so-called poor students were indeed poor, but they were poor students who could still attend school.
What about those poor students who couldn’t go to school? Wouldn’t they be left out of the aid?
Although there was nine years of compulsory education, there were indeed some children who couldn’t attend school. Since he wanted to expand the scope to elementary and middle school students, the method of subsidies would need to be adjusted slightly.