July 17th, Wednesday.

Pei Qian sat in his office, carefully reviewing Tenda Games’ related industries, and reluctantly reached a heartbreaking conclusion.

Tenda’s gaming industry seemed… beyond salvation.

In truth, when the gaming router became a hot seller, Pei Qian had already roughly recognized several cruel realities, though at the time he was unwilling to accept them.

But after calming down for two days and thoroughly considering the current state of Tenda’s gaming-related industries, Pei Qian finally acknowledged this reality from the bottom of his heart.

Currently, Tenda Group had established a complete and massive gaming empire in the domestic market. Not only did it have outstanding strengths, but it also lacked obvious weaknesses in any area.

In terms of development, there were three main development departments: Tenda Games, Shangyang Games, and Chixing Studio, responsible for AAA games and VR game development.

For indie games, there was the Last Resort Project and nationwide independent game incubation bases, with all sorts of excellent domestic indie game developers already brought into the fold.

Regarding game distribution channels, the Morning Dew gaming platform had achieved tremendous success, and after officially announcing itself as Tenda’s gaming platform, a large number of players had flooded in.

In addition, Tenda’s cooperation department had boosted several domestic game companies and subtly influenced them. Under the influence of Tianhuo Studio, Longyu Group, and other game developers and distribution channels, the entire domestic gaming environment would gradually converge toward Tenda Group’s model.

Now, the gaming router had also conquered the most difficult and crucial hardware problem. From now on, Tenda had established the ultimate closed loop from content to hardware to distribution channels. As long as Tenda continued to steadily release good games in the future, this gaming empire would persist indefinitely.

Even if Tenda’s games declined in quality later, the independent game incubation bases and distribution channels would be enough to ensure Tenda’s gaming business maintained high revenue in the future.

This was truly a sad story!

Looking back, Pei Qian realized that his continuous expansion in the gaming field had been rooted in his desire to venture into more unfamiliar and difficult territories, thereby generating losses and spending all the profits earned from game development.

But now there was nowhere else to go!

Pei Qian’s last hope could only be placed on the game “The Future You Choose”—this was his final struggle.

But Pei Qian also had to prepare for the worst scenario: this game might also make huge profits.

In short, in the gaming field, Pei Qian had basically reached a state of giving up and playing dead—letting everything take its natural course.

Pei Qian shifted his gaze to other areas.

“The new zoo and haunted house projects should officially open in the second half of the month.”

“Relatively speaking, the Thriller Lodge has a lower probability of failure, while the zoo is a new field worthy of more investment.”

“How can I increase the probability of the zoo not making money?”

“Hmm… since the gaming platform has already been given up on, could Little Tang be moved somewhere else?”

The zoo and Thriller Lodge’s new projects were both physical projects, requiring enormous investment with slow cost recovery, so they were much beloved by Pei Qian.

But considering that Thriller Lodge already had several successful projects and significant foot traffic, comparatively speaking, the zoo held greater hope for losing money.

Although the zoo was also located in Jingzhou’s old industrial zone, it was at some distance from Thriller Lodge. Generally, unless particularly attracted, visitors wouldn’t go out of their way to visit the zoo.

After all, besides the haunted house, Thriller Lodge had its own roller coaster, various shops, and experience stores, offering many attractions—whether one visited the zoo or not made little difference.

Therefore, the success or failure of the zoo was of paramount importance!

Pei Qian happened to think of Tang Yishu.

Previously, to ensure the gaming platform would lose money, Pei Qian had specifically assigned Tang Yishu there. In the early stages, she did create many difficulties for small companies wanting to join the platform, but by now, one or two bugs could no longer stop these companies.

Of course, with Tang Yishu overseeing the gaming platform, she could still slow down the development of the Tenda Game Editor.

But considering the time that had passed, the Tenda Game Editor development should already be on track. He just needed to throw Little Tang back there when the editor was about to be completed, causing bugs to explode all at once.

This gap period was perfect for transferring Little Tang to the zoo to stabilize the situation.

With this thought, Pei Qian called Little Tang, sent a driver to pick her up, and headed directly to the zoo.

…

Jingzhou City’s old industrial zone, Know Your Own Warmth Animal Park.

Pei Qian and Little Tang got out of their cars one after another, and the zoo director, Tan Xinzhang, was already waiting at the entrance.

Hearing that Mr. Pei was coming, he was somewhat nervous.

After all, the zoo had been in preparation for so long, and Mr. Pei had never come to see it, yet all funding was fully provided, and all support and guarantees were in place—clearly showing Mr. Pei’s great emphasis on the zoo’s work.

Now that the zoo was finally about to open for business, Mr. Pei’s arrival should be to inspect the results.

If the zoo’s condition didn’t satisfy Mr. Pei, wouldn’t that betray Mr. Pei’s trust and expectations?

After working here for some time, Tan Xinzhang had fallen in love with this animal park.

In terms of environment and conditions, it was much better than the zoo he and his father had previously managed.

So, as they say, money isn’t everything, but without money, nothing is possible.

Without money, even with careful care, animals could live well, but the overall experience would still have major deficiencies.

With Mr. Pei’s funding, Tan Xinzhang could finally fully utilize his talents on a larger stage.

“Mr. Pei, first, there’s an issue I need to report to you.”

“You previously suggested that we could arrange some interactive small animals for visitors to touch, for example, by learning from some overseas owl cafes.”

“However, after carefully reviewing materials and consulting relevant professionals, I found that randomly touching owls might cause stress responses, which isn’t friendly to the animals’ physical and mental health, so similar animals have all been removed.”

“For animals that are naturally more human-friendly and won’t have severe stress responses from close contact, we can arrange those.”

Pei Qian nodded: “Yes, that’s how it should be!”

“My previous suggestion was just something I thought of off the top of my head, without understanding the professional aspects. Since we call ourselves an animal park, we definitely can’t do things that harm animals.”

“As the zoo director, you need to strictly control this aspect. Do what’s right, and don’t damage the animals’ physical and mental health for profit and income.”

“The name of this animal park is a constant reminder to all staff to adhere to this principle!”

Tan Xinzhang nodded, thinking that Mr. Pei was indeed a rare good boss.

Often, for a boss to be ‘reasonable’ is already very rare! Laypeople directing professionals often leads to tragedy, but many laypeople don’t have this awareness.

The name “Know Your Own Warmth Animal Park” was actually telling all zoo staff that whether animals are doing well is something they know themselves—whether you’ve put your heart and soul into caring for these animals, you know in your heart!

Many times, one must seek a clear conscience.

Tan Xinzhang led Pei Qian and Tang Yishu further inside.

Pei Qian’s first impression was that the greenery seemed to have improved.

The entire animal park covered a large area. Although the main animal park interaction halls were converted from large factory buildings in the old industrial zone, the open spaces outside the buildings had also been transformed, with rest areas, fountains, lawns, and flowing water.

The animals all lived in air-conditioned rooms in the venues, adjusted to the most suitable temperatures, but the external environment also required effort.

Otherwise, too great a contrast between internal and external environments would easily deter visitors.

Relatively speaking, the greenery in the animal park area was the best in the entire old industrial zone, clearly distinguishable from the Thriller Lodge area.

Pei Qian was satisfied with this.

Although improving the greenery made visitors feel better, it also cost money.

Such a large area of greenery with so many modifications must have cost a fortune—well done!

The functions of several large venues were similar, merely divided simply according to animal types.

This animal park didn’t yet have many rare protected animals; most were common zoo animals, plus many that were between wild animals and pets.

Animals like servals, alpacas, Tibetan foxes, and parrots all belonged to the type that wouldn’t seem strange in a zoo but might also be reasonable as pets.

Based on these animals’ different habits, different zones were arranged, and the scenery and decorations in each zone were coordinated with the animals.

The zoo had three entrances, leading to different locations in the old industrial zone. Visitors could choose to visit Thriller Lodge first, then the zoo, or go directly to the zoo based on their preferences.

Pei Qian’s group entered directly through the main entrance from the street, which also created some differences in the tour route.

After teasing a handsome serval and feeding a recently sheared round, fluffy little alpaca, the three came to the parrot area.

Pei Qian immediately spotted a handsome Amazon parrot. Its feathers were mostly gray, with orange iris eyes and a yellow tuft on its head like a hat. The turns of its wings had a few red accents, and its primary flight feathers were iridescent blue—very beautiful!

This parrot was perched on a wooden stand, proudly gazing into the distance.

Tang Yishu exclaimed: “Oh my, it’s so beautiful!”

As soon as she spoke, the wooden stand the parrot was perched on suddenly collapsed.

The parrot let out a “What the hell!” and immediately flapped its wings to take flight, looking at the three visitors with a completely confused expression.