After waiting for another hour until noon.

A young man outside the door peered in hesitantly for a long time before finally pushing the door open.

A server who had been waiting eagerly immediately approached him.

“Welcome! Would you like to use the computers or have some coffee?”

This question sounded a bit silly, but Slackin Internet Cafe was indeed a place that combined internet access with food and beverages. How else could they ask?

The young man had seen the cool computer setups through the glass and guessed this was an internet cafe, which was why he came in.

“How much is it… per hour?”

The server answered truthfully: “Ten yuan.”

The young man was bewildered, thinking he had misheard: “Huh? I’m asking about the regular area, not the private rooms.”

“That’s right, sir. The regular rate is ten yuan per hour. We don’t have private rooms.”

The young man was speechless: “Then, is there any discount for getting a membership card?”

“Yes, with a membership card, you get a 10% discount on drinks,” the server enthusiastically handed him a menu.

The young man scanned it, his body visibly swaying.

What the hell!

The front page listed various beverages and cocktails, all uniformly priced at forty to fifty yuan per glass.

The back page had home-style dishes like tomato and egg, sweet and sour pork strips, and they weren’t cheap either!

This… even with a 10% discount, he couldn’t afford it!

Moreover, the membership card didn’t offer any discount on internet usage, but instead on drinks. What kind of strange operation was this?

The young man coughed twice: “Sorry, I’m financially challenged. Goodbye.”

He turned around and left.

The servers looked at each other in dismay.

This…

They wanted to stop him.

But Mr. Pei had instructed them that service should be as natural as the spring breeze!

Like the feeling of a gentle spring breeze brushing your cheeks, customers should feel your presence without you being too conspicuous.

So the servers had to restrain themselves.

Soon, it was noon, and foot traffic gradually increased.

Quite a few people came to inquire about prices.

But just like the young man earlier, three or four people all retreated after hearing the prices.

Someone even muttered softly: “Straight-up robbery!”

Zhang Yuan had been standing at the counter, ready to demonstrate his bartending skills.

But not only was there no one ordering drinks, there wasn’t even anyone using the computers!

“Brother Qian, this won’t work!”

Ma Yang saw everything and felt anxious.

With such an inauspicious start, what were they going to do?

The more deserted it was, the fewer people would come, wouldn’t that lead to a vicious cycle?

Pei Qian nodded with a grave expression.

“Yes, this really won’t do.”

“Someone, make a sign and post the price list at the entrance!”

“People coming in to ask the price and then leaving—how absurd.”

“Let them know the prices at the door, so they don’t waste emotions coming in just to ask and leave!”

“Those who think it’s too expensive simply shouldn’t come in. It saves everyone trouble, how nice.”

Ma Yang was dumbfounded.

So that’s what you meant by “this won’t do”?

Without a sign, people might come in to ask about prices, and under the gaze of the servers, they might feel embarrassed to leave, potentially retaining some thin-skinned customers.

But with a sign, people would look at it from the outside and leave without even entering!

Wouldn’t that drive away all the potential customers with thin skin?!

Ma Yang felt resistant.

Pei Qian noticed his hesitation and urged, “Go quickly. Why hesitate about something that benefits everyone?”

Ma Yang stood up very reluctantly and arranged for someone to make the sign.

Pei Qian continued drinking his coffee.

It seemed like even ordinary coffee tasted sweeter now!

…

By afternoon, they finally had customers.

Two young men who looked like rich second-generation immigrants came to use the internet together. After seeing the prices at the door, they hesitated, but after a brief internal struggle, they still came in and sat down in the internet cafe area.

Several people who looked like white-collar workers sat down in the coffee area and ordered coffee.

This was within Pei Qian’s expectations.

Although this location wasn’t in a proper business district, it was at least adjacent to the edge of one, just a street away from a shopping mall.

With people coming and going, it was inevitable that someone might stop by for coffee or something similar.

A perfectly good internet cafe, even with inflated pricing, couldn’t possibly have zero customers. Such a scene would be too wonderful to be true.

Having a few customers was completely acceptable.

As long as they controlled the number to ensure that income couldn’t cover costs, that would be fine!

Pei Qian stayed until evening.

Several people came to drink, and Zhang Yuan also performed a couple of songs on stage. The atmosphere was decent.

It wasn’t as deserted as during the day, but there were still very few people using the computers.

Pei Qian roughly estimated that this meager income probably wouldn’t even be enough to fill a tooth gap.

Excellent!

Everything was going according to plan!

Pei Qian stood up, ready to head back.

Ma Yang, clearly somewhat discouraged, appeared mentally deflated.

Such great computers, such an excellent environment, yet on the first day of business, it was so quiet and empty!

Ma Yang couldn’t accept this.

Pei Qian suppressed the irrepressible smile at the corners of his mouth and consoled him: “It’s fine, it’s only the first day. Old Ma, remember, this is Tenda Group’s long-term strategic layout!”

“Forget one day—even if we lose money for the first three months or half a year, it’s fine! Things will gradually improve, understand?”

Ma Yang nodded, but hadn’t taken it to heart.

Pei Qian couldn’t say much more, so he just patted Ma Yang on the shoulder and left contentedly.

…

…

March 14th, Sunday.

Evening.

Zhang Yuan and Ma Yang sat at a table by the window on the second floor, both with solemn expressions.

Zhang Yuan held a pen and paper, writing and calculating.

“Rent, 315,000 yuan per month.”

“We pay commercial rates for water and electricity. Water, electricity, various material purchases, wear and tear—that’s easily over 10,000 yuan per month.”

“Wages, combined, also amount to over 60,000 yuan per month.”

“That means, even if our internet cafe does nothing, our monthly expenses are approaching 400,000 yuan!”

“And the initial investment for the internet cafe—these computers, equipment, renovation costs, and such—came to about 2 million yuan.”

“Based on our revenue these three days, we’re not even matching a small coffee shop of a dozen square meters. Estimating from the current situation…”

“Forget breaking even; we’re looking at a pure loss of about 300,000 yuan per month…”

Hearing Zhang Yuan’s calculations, Ma Yang’s long face turned pale.

This… is too extreme, isn’t it?

But thinking carefully about the business situation over the past few days, the figure seemed reasonable.

There were simply too few customers!

In the internet cafe area with dozens of computers, forget being fully occupied—often there would be just one person using an entire row of computers!

And they wouldn’t stay long either.

The situation in the coffee shop area was only slightly better, with a few more people.

But many people would order one cup of coffee and sit for an entire day, spending almost nothing.

More frightening was that even so, the coffee area couldn’t even fill half its seats, showing just how dismal business was!

In the evening, not many people came to drink, and when Zhang Yuan went on stage to sing, there were barely any people cheering or applauding.

It was embarrassingly bad!

So these past two days, Zhang Yuan and Ma Yang had been incredibly worried.

Slacking Internet Cafe was losing 300,000 yuan a month, which meant that 10,000 yuan would vanish into thin air every day without doing anything.

This was simply a bottomless pit!

How much money could withstand this drain?

Zhang Yuan said, “Brother Ma, you have a close relationship with Mr. Pei. Can you tell him that we can’t continue like this? We need to think of a solution.”

Ma Yang said with a bitter face: “Brother Qian said we should remain calm and wait another week to see how things go, no matter what.”

“Another week…”

Zhang Yuan looked at the date. Next Sunday would be the 21st.

It felt… like years.

“Alright then. Since Mr. Pei said so, let’s wait and see.”

“The key issue is that Mr. Pei won’t let us send people to distribute flyers or lower prices. This…” Zhang Yuan expressed his inability to understand.

There was still a considerable profit margin!

Lower the internet fees a bit, make the drinks cheaper, organize a membership card top-up activity…

This problem wasn’t unsolvable!

But who knew what Mr. Pei was thinking, not allowing them to do this?

So Zhang Yuan was at a loss.

If the pricing was the problem, no other improvements would help!

“We should listen to Brother Qian. Let’s see how things go after another week.”

Ma Yang didn’t overthink it. He was determined on one point: since Pei Qian had specifically instructed this, they should follow it obediently without taking matters into their own hands.

“I guess that’s all we can do.”

Zhang Yuan was a bit gloomy, wondering how many more months he could keep drawing his salary of over 10,000 yuan…