Pei Qian decided to first check the work reports sent by the department heads on his laptop.

Since arranging the “going to the grassroots” activity, most departments at Tenda had undergone a personnel change. The original department heads had gone to other departments to experience grassroots work, and these departments were now headed by people from outside Tenda.

Pei Qian had already seen this list. Although these were all old acquaintances, they might not necessarily adapt to working at Tenda!

So, Pei Qian still harbored a glimmer of hope.

If these people couldn’t adapt to working at Tenda, it would more or less show in their work reports.

Tenda now had too many departments, so there was a lot of content in the work reports. Pei Qian couldn’t possibly read them all, so he just browsed through reports from a few key departments.

After reading them, he fell silent.

It seemed… there was no difference from the work reports sent by previous department heads!

He couldn’t tell at all that the department heads had been replaced!

If Pei Qian wasn’t absolutely certain that these acting heads had strictly followed his “going to the grassroots” requirement, he would have almost thought he was being fooled or sidelined.

“What’s going on? Have these acting department heads adapted so quickly to their departmental work, and are they all so capable?”

“I can accept that Li Shi could easily pick things up. But can Qiao Liang also adapt so quickly?”

“Why am I so skeptical!”

“Or is it that the middle management in these departments is so competent that even when the department heads have just completed the handover and haven’t fully grasped the work of these departments, the middle managers are holding up the department’s operations, so on the surface, there’s no negative impact from changing department heads?”

“That’s also possible.”

“But what to do? I can’t just send all the middle managers from every department to suffer, can I? There are too many people—it would be like emptying half of Tenda, and I wouldn’t even be able to complete the settlement period!”

Pei Qian felt somewhat dejected, with a taste of reaping what he had sown.

Previously, Pei Qian had tried every means to interfere with the work of department heads, whether through the last-place elimination system or through suffering trips. In short, he tried every way to torment these department heads to death, trying as much as possible to keep them away from their work posts.

Initially, it was indeed effective.

After all, many important departmental tasks were arranged by the department head. If the department head left, even if someone was selected from the core staff to take over these tasks, they couldn’t fully adapt immediately; there would always be a process of gradual familiarization and capability improvement.

Later, Pei Qian expanded the scope of suffering trips to include the department’s core backbone employees, which further slowed progress.

But the key was that this couldn’t solve the problem at its root; it merely delayed the problem!

Precisely because department heads were frequently absent, but projects still needed to be completed before deadlines, Tenda’s various departments gradually evolved into an organizational structure quite different from other companies. Some of the department head’s responsibilities were delegated to middle management.

This ensured to the maximum extent that even in the absence of the department head, the entire department could still operate normally.

So…

No wonder these external acting department heads could smoothly take over after coming to Tenda, because the entire department structure had already changed! The middle management could sustain the entire department’s basic operations, and the acting department heads only needed to make decisions on major directions.

Moreover, these acting department heads were all old friends of Tenda Group, with ideas, capabilities, and a rather profound understanding of Tenda.

Was it strange that they could support these departments?

It didn’t seem strange at all.

Pei Qian awkwardly fell into silence.

This “going to the grassroots” plan seemed quite different from the script he had envisioned…

Not only were the people different, but the effect was also different.

But Pei Qian was helpless. He couldn’t possibly send all of Tenda’s middle management to suffer, could he? That would most likely result in projects not being completed and settlement periods not being settled.

And doing so would be too blatant and excessive, likely to arouse suspicion from others, not complying with the system’s rules.

If Pei Qian were the Ming Dynasty’s founding emperor, then he could indeed do so. After all, Emperor Zhu was a model worker; even after eliminating half the officials, he could still ensure the normal operation of the country’s machinery of violence.

But Pei Qian wasn’t. Pei Qian didn’t have Emperor Zhu’s abilities at all. To outsiders, everything at Tenda was in Boss Pei’s control, but in Pei Qian’s own view, Tenda’s development had completely escaped his control long ago…

At this moment, Pei Qian was like a railway switch worker—flip a switch and change to another track, but regardless of which track, it seemed impossible to slow down or stop this train…

“Forget it, I won’t look anymore.”

“Nothing major has happened recently, and these acting department heads aren’t stupid. Just maintaining normal department operations and writing work reports shouldn’t be beyond their abilities, and they probably won’t make obvious mistakes.”

“Let’s observe a bit more.”

Pei Qian quietly closed the work reports sent by various departments, planning not to dwell on this issue in the short term.

Having been isolated from the world for so long, Pei Qian decided to check the news online briefly, to feel the changes in the outside world.

Then, he saw the number one keyword on the trending list.

#Tenda’s Gaming Layout#!

Seeing this keyword, Pei Qian was stunned.

He sensed something was wrong.

Very wrong!

Because after seeing this word, Pei Qian couldn’t immediately imagine what its content might be!

The most recent Tenda gaming news in Pei Qian’s memory was from before his seclusion, about Tenda Games and Shangyang Games jointly developing “The Future You Choose.”

But this matter couldn’t possibly be related to #Tenda’s Gaming Layout#!

“Could it be…”

Pei Qian suddenly had a very bad premonition. With slightly trembling hands, he moved the mouse to enter the topic and view it.

Then, Pei Qian’s composure shattered.

“Damn it!”

“What kind of credit information disclosure system is this! Not coming out earlier or later, but precisely at this time—are you trying to mess with my mind?”

“Couldn’t you have come out next year? Next year, after I’ve lost over a hundred million in this cycle and made a few million in wool-pulling, you can release this thing whenever you want, and I’ll have absolutely no complaints!”

“My incubator base!”

“My Morning Dew Gaming Platform!”

“My ‘Millet Departure’!”

“Wuwuwuwu…”

Pei Qian was utterly grief-stricken.

After so much effort, everything had been well-hidden, but in one fell swoop, it was all dug up!

Not only dug up and exposed to the world, but for some reason, the heat had also taken off!

Logically speaking, how could such a matter deserve to be the number one trending topic? Even temporarily reaching number one seemed unreasonable!

It was just an indie game incubator, a gaming platform, and an excellent domestic single-player game.

Pei Qian looked at the discussions more carefully and understood.

It was all the doing of the anti-Tenda alliance!

Pei Qian’s mouth twitched slightly; he felt he was about to lose it.

“Nie Yunsheng, which side are you actually on?!”

“The anti-Tenda alliance was just established not long ago, and they directly deliver such a ‘big gift’ to my doorstep? Are you perhaps undercover agents sent by Tenda?!”

“Really, you can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear—I can’t rely on any of you!”

Pei Qian had originally thought that this anti-Tenda alliance would more or less help his money-losing enterprise, but now he found he was completely wrong!

It seemed that none of Tenda’s “arch-enemies” were reliable!

Pei Qian felt very angry.

But he still suppressed his anger and reviewed the entire incident from beginning to end once more.

“So… this has nothing to do with Qiu Hong, Yan Qi, Li Yada, and the others? They have always followed my requirements very well, keeping things confidential, but unfortunately, the enemy actively provoked, the heat was too high, and with this disclosure system online, enthusiastic netizens checked, and the secret was revealed…”

Pei Qian felt a bit dejected. This matter really couldn’t be blamed on anyone.

This wave, one could only say the coordination wasn’t very good.

But although that’s what was said, the impact and destructive power of this incident were just too great!

These three consecutive revelations seemed to have made Tenda’s reputation in the gaming circle surge again, reaching a level that completely overwhelmed all domestic gaming companies. Not only that, the increased attention on the “End of the Road Project” indie game incubator, Morning Dew Gaming Platform, and “Millet Departure” also greatly increased the risk of future profits.

Especially the Morning Dew Gaming Platform!

Masses of players were flooding in, and each player could potentially convert into real money in the future.

This trend showed no signs of slowing down; instead, it was intensifying. Pei Qian didn’t dare to look at the backend data of the Morning Dew Gaming Platform because he knew very well that after seeing it, his already high blood pressure would reach new heights.

“What a disaster!”

“I just wanted to focus on writing a thesis in seclusion, but why is it that every time I reconnect with the outside world, I get a feeling of ‘a day in heaven, a thousand years on earth’?”

“It’s supposed to be seclusion, but I just disconnected from the internet for a few days, right? Yet it truly became seclusion!”

“And now I have to emerge midway to salvage the situation.”

Pei Qian couldn’t sit still anymore.

The thesis was due on the 10th of next month, and his current progress was still acceptable, with just the conclusion remaining.

Originally, Pei Qian thought he could finish it smoothly around the 3rd to 5th of next month, and then he would have relatively ample time for revisions, timing it perfectly.

But in the current situation, it was a bit unbearable.

He needed to come out of seclusion quickly and give some instructions.

If he really waited until after submitting his thesis on April 10th to deal with these problems, it would be too late!

What specific instructions to give?

Pei Qian thought for a bit. It would mostly be impossible to block these players flooding into the Morning Dew Gaming Platform. Moreover, since the relationship between Morning Dew Gaming Platform and Tenda had been exposed, there was no point in continuing to pretend.

So, he could only move to the next stage that he had planned beforehand.

Pei Qian had originally thought that Morning Dew Gaming Platform could maintain its non-profit status for at least two to three years, but now it seemed he was too naive.

He would put Tenda’s games on the Morning Dew Gaming Platform, and then through increasing developer revenue share, discounts, promotions, free offerings, and other means, forcibly enter the “drinking poison to quench thirst” mode!

There was no alternative; Pei Qian couldn’t care about what would happen later. He just hoped that in this cycle, he could successfully pull off that fifteen million in wool!