Pei Qian hadn’t paid much attention initially. After all, with snacks, people eat them if they want and don’t if they don’t. Tenda didn’t have any snack-eating quotas internally, so there was nothing to make a fuss about.
But Pei Qian felt that these employees’ attitudes seemed a bit strange.
The originally relaxed atmosphere seemed to have disappeared, replaced by a somewhat heavy atmosphere. There were even several employees secretly observing him.
This made Pei Qian feel that something was definitely going on!
He came to an employee’s desk and asked: “I remember you always ate a lot of snacks before, but today you haven’t eaten any? Are you tired of the current snacks? Should we change to a new batch tomorrow?”
The employee hurriedly shook his head: “No, no, no, Mr. Pei, I just want to lose some weight, so I’m cutting out snacks for a while.”
“Lose weight?” Pei Qian looked him up and down. This guy was over 1.7 meters tall and weighed maybe just over 60 kilograms—what weight did he need to lose?
Couldn’t he come up with a more believable excuse?
Pei Qian looked at another employee nearby.
This employee quickly said: “Yes, yes, Mr. Pei, I’m also on a diet.”
Pei Qian looked suspicious: “Doesn’t the snack area have low-calorie snacks? Those won’t make you gain weight.”
“What’s really going on? If you don’t tell me, I’ll have administration bring in a whole new batch of snacks!”
Upon hearing that a new batch of snacks would be brought in, the two employees couldn’t keep their composure.
Because their intention in not eating snacks was to save some funds for Mr. Pei and reduce the company’s daily expenses. If Mr. Pei misunderstood and brought in a new batch of snacks, wouldn’t that be even more wasteful?
The two employees looked at each other, knowing that their weight-loss excuse didn’t hold water, and had to say: “Mr. Pei, we heard that the company has a small financial issue… We’re all part of Tenda, so saving expenses is everyone’s responsibility…”
The other employee immediately added: “Yes, Mr. Pei, rest assured, in critical moments, we absolutely won’t drag the company down!”
Pei Qian raised an eyebrow, immediately displeased.
Saving expenses is everyone’s responsibility?
What kind of nonsense is this?
How much money could be saved by not eating snacks? You’re not even willing to spend this little money for me, and you still have the nerve to be my employees?!
You call this not dragging the company down?
You’re indeed not dragging the company down—you’re dragging ME down!
Pei Qian initially wanted to reprimand them, but seeing other employees also eagerly watching him, he held back.
No, he couldn’t reprimand them.
Now his every move was under the employees’ observation. If he displayed any extreme reactions, it might further confirm the employees’ original suspicions and might even spread to other departments through rumors.
What if all Tenda employees believed the company was in trouble and needed to pull together, causing all company expenses to decrease? Wouldn’t that be a disaster?
In such situations, one must handle it calmly.
With this in mind, Pei Qian put on a kind expression, smiling warmly: “How could you have such thoughts?”
“When has the company ever faced funding problems? Don’t believe those rumors from outside; they’re false news spread by other companies, baseless attacks on our company!”
“You’ve all seen the success of the ‘Mission and Choice’ movie and game, and Outu Technology’s new phone and the Smart Fitness Clothes Rack have also been well-received—how could there possibly be funding problems?”
“Our company’s cash flow is more than sufficient; everyone, please don’t worry unnecessarily!”
“Besides, a company’s development doesn’t come from saving money. How much can be saved from your occasional snacks, taxi reimbursements, and other benefits?”
“It’s better to focus this energy on work. Eat more snacks, do better work—that’s the real contribution to the company!”
The two employees hurriedly nodded: “Yes, Mr. Pei, we understand!”
Pei Qian immediately said: “Quick, go get some snacks. Before leaving work, hurry and eat more. Go, all of you!”
Under Pei Qian’s urging, employees flocked to the refreshment area, each taking several packs of snacks back to their workstations.
Seeing this, Pei Qian nodded with satisfaction.
Good, that’s how it should be.
Now he didn’t have many other demands for these employees. Expecting them to slack off and delay work progress seemed a bit too much to hope for, but they should at least eat more snacks and drink more beverages, right?
If even this was gone, what would be the point of keeping them?!
Hearing the sound of chip-crunching echo across the office area, Pei Qian left, satisfied.
Tomorrow, he might find a buyer for the building. Wonderful!
As soon as Mr. Pei left, the two employees whispered to each other while eating snacks.
“This is bad. It seems the funding issue is almost certainly true.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Mr. Pei in adversity! You saw how Mr. Pei spoke to us kindly, acting all calm and relaxed, as if everything was fine. But veteran employees know that the more he acts like this, the more it shows Mr. Pei is facing adversity! Otherwise, why would he need to explain so much to us?”
“Exactly! When things are going well, Mr. Pei calmly thinks about problems and worries about the next stage of development; when facing adversity, Mr. Pei inspires everyone with his optimistic spirit. Looking at it this way, he’s definitely facing adversity!”
“What should we do?”
“I think we should trust Mr. Pei and not let his efforts go to waste. Mr. Pei is right—not eating snacks won’t save much money. We should work hard and create more achievements for the company! As for this time, I believe Mr. Pei will definitely lead us through this difficult period!”
“Yes, trust Mr. Pei!”
The two continued working diligently while eating snacks.
Meanwhile, some employees opened the internal chat software and began discussing this matter with colleagues and friends from other departments…
…
That evening.
In a villa at Mingyun Villas.
Lin Chang from Shenhui Entertainment, Li Shi from Fuhui Capital, rich second-generation Xue Zhebin, Zhou Muyan from Tianhuo Studio, Yao Bo from Jinding Group, Ding Gan the owner of SUG Club, and several other investors from Jingzhou who came with Li Shi, all gathered together.
Several of them weren’t originally in Jingzhou and had just arrived earlier that day.
Lin Chang looked at Li Shi: “Is the information reliable? Is Mr. Pei really selling a building?”
Li Shi nodded: “It’s absolutely true!”
Zhou Muyan seemed surprised: “Is that necessary? Mr. Pei’s two new games were both hugely successful—how could he be short on cash?”
Having been busy with Tianhuo Studio in Magic City for years, he hadn’t paid much attention to Tenda’s situation, so he instinctively didn’t believe this news.
Li Shi nodded slightly: “Just calculate Tenda’s recent expenses, and you’ll understand. With Mr. Pei’s spending habits, it would be miraculous if their capital chain could withstand it.”
He briefly analyzed Tenda’s situation, including how “Mission and Choice” had not yet received payment, how the Smart Fitness Clothes Rack had accumulated large inventory, and how the 515 Game Festival was spending massively to compete with Finger Company and Longyu Group.
After explaining briefly, Li Shi said: “Tenda has indeed released intentions to sell a building and hopes the funds can be credited quickly.”
Lin Chang slapped his thigh in frustration: “This is really happening? This is my fault!”
“If Mr. Pei hadn’t contributed a large sum to help establish the Chixing Studio, he wouldn’t need to sell buildings just for this bit of working capital!”
“At the time, Mr. Pei very generously offered to fund the establishment of Chixing Studio with us, even personally designing the first game and finalizing the first product, and even had people from Shangyang Games help out. I didn’t think much of it then—who would have thought that Tenda’s internal funding was actually quite tight?”
“Under such circumstances, Mr. Pei still squeezed out a sum of money, preferring to sell buildings rather than not help. I really feel ashamed!”
Tenda Group’s revenue-generating ability was undoubtedly unquestionable.
The newly released games and two digital products were all highly successful and certainly making a lot of money. So Mr. Pei selling a building was definitely not due to internal company problems; it must be to manage cash flow and respond to the price war with Finger Company and Longyu Group.
But even so, taking the company’s precious liquid assets to help establish Chixing Studio was a very touching gesture!
Li Shi looked serious: “We’ve received many favors from Mr. Pei in the past. Now that Mr. Pei is encountering a small difficulty, we absolutely cannot stand by and do nothing!”
Everyone nodded in agreement.
Li Shi and the local Jingzhou investors needn’t be mentioned—they had made a lot of money following Mr. Pei’s lead, and they practically worshipped him like a god of wealth.
As for the others, like Zhou Muyan from Tianhuo Studio and Yao Bo from Jinding Group, although they didn’t have much business interaction with Tenda, they had all benefited greatly from the GPL League.
Back then, they had all paid high prices to buy GPL League slots, which proved to be absolutely the right decision.
Because GPL League slots were now out of print, if any other clubs wanted to join, they would have to buy slots from these people.
With the GPL League’s current popularity, slot prices had nearly doubled, and they would definitely continue to rise in the future!
Even without considering slot prices, the GPL League’s high popularity had brought them advertising effects that had already earned back the costs of buying the slots.
Moreover, Mr. Pei had been relentless in promoting the GPL League, and they were all beneficiaries.
Yao Bo said: “Although on the surface, it’s GOG and IOI having a price war, involving Tenda Group and Finger Company, it obviously affects us too.”
“Finger Company and Longyu Group created the ICL League to counter the GPL. We all rely on the GPL’s popularity—it’s a relationship where we rise and fall together!”
Zhou Muyan also nodded: “Yes, for both emotional and rational reasons, we must help!”
Since Tianhuo Studio bought a GPL slot, they had also tasted success, channeling traffic to their own games through the GPL’s popularity, significantly increasing their game revenue.
The GPL’s popularity directly translated to Tianhuo Studio’s income—how could they not care?
Seeing that everyone quickly reached a consensus, Li Shi asked: “So how exactly should we help?”