May 24th, Thursday.

After having brunch at Slackin’ Internet Café around 10 AM, Pei Qian leisurely arrived at the company.

The previous two days, he had come in very early, mainly because he was eagerly anticipating selling the building.

Now that the building wasn’t being sold, naturally he had no motivation to arrive early.

As soon as he entered the office area, he saw employees taking lots of snacks and coffee from the bar area, seemingly returning to their previous habits.

No, actually they seemed to be taking even more than before?

Pei Qian nodded slightly.

Good! These are my good employees!

Although employees couldn’t eat enough to spend much money, it was still something that pleased Mr. Pei to see.

He should have been smiling, but thinking about the enormous pressure to spend money, Pei Qian couldn’t be happy.

So he silently entered his office.

Two employees glanced at Mr. Pei’s back and began whispering to each other.

“Seeing Mr. Pei like this, has our company’s crisis really passed?”

“Yes, this is Mr. Pei in good times. Look at Mr. Pei’s serious expression—the company’s funding problem must be solved, and we can eat without worry!”

“Resolved so quickly… I wonder if the problem wasn’t that big to begin with, or if Mr. Pei is just too amazing.”

“It must be because Mr. Pei is too amazing! The funding problem is essentially a money problem. How could getting money be easy? But Mr. Pei just sat in his office for a few days, and immediately large amounts of funds started coming in. Players all pulled out their wallets, other companies all extended helping hands. Difficulties that would be insurmountable for others were resolved just like that by Tenda!”

“By the way, I heard that this crisis event helped establish Tenda’s high prestige! It had a deterrent effect on competitors!”

“How so?”

“Tenda has some competitors in various fields, right? I heard that some companies were actually planning to kick Tenda while it was down when the capital chain had problems, but before these companies could use their underhanded tactics, Tenda’s crisis was already resolved!”

“Ah, that’s just preventing trouble before it happens, right? How is that deterring opponents?”

“Think about it—when ordinary companies face funding problems, they’re often in a frantic state, robbing Peter to pay Paul, in complete disarray. But what about Tenda when facing funding problems? Calm and collected, turning disadvantage into advantage, handling it with ease! Players willingly paid money, other companies extended helping hands, and the problem was solved effortlessly! Seeing this situation, would those competing companies dare to engage in a price war with Tenda?”

“I see! What about Finger Company and Longyu Group?”

“Hah, them? They’re probably the most shocked. They originally thought they could deliver a fatal blow while Tenda was weak, but never expected Mr. Pei to resolve it so easily. I think they’ll probably quiet down for a while, at least not dare to cause trouble in the short term.”

“But I think Mr. Pei might not let them off. As the saying goes, it’s better to cut off one finger than wound all ten. When we recover, shouldn’t we settle accounts properly?”

“That’s hard to say, but with Mr. Pei’s personality, he definitely won’t let them off easily…”

…

In the office, Pei Qian sneezed.

“Achoo!”

“The air conditioning is a bit strong…”

Pei Qian silently wrapped himself tighter in his small blanket.

It was almost June, and the weather in Jingzhou was getting hotter day by day, so the air conditioning in the building was set quite cool.

Everyone had to bring a jacket to work to avoid catching a cold from the office air conditioning.

Pei Qian’s small blanket, which he hadn’t used much all winter, was once again put to use.

He opened his computer and checked Finger China’s official website.

He didn’t find what he was looking for.

He also checked Longyu Group’s official website, as well as Finger Company and Longyu Group’s official Weibo accounts and various other related channels.

The result: nothing!

“What’s going on?”

“Shouldn’t it be time for Eric to counterattack by now?”

“Why is there absolutely no movement?”

Pei Qian had predicted that Eric would continue burning money after the 515 Gaming Festival, continuously putting pressure on Tenda. For this reason, he had specifically reserved a portion of funds to respond to Eric’s money-burning plans.

If the enemy doesn’t move, I don’t move; if the enemy moves, I make chaotic moves.

In any case, as long as Eric started burning money, Pei Qian would have found a reason to fool the system… no, to launch a legitimate counterattack. He could then formulate a money-burning plan based on the approximate scale of the opponent’s spending, with some increase.

But he never expected that the other side would be as silent as death, with no movement at all!

“Their efficiency is too low. Shouldn’t they have already formulated a new plan during the 515 Gaming Festival? Why hasn’t it come out yet?”

“Let’s wait a bit longer.”

Pei Qian wrapped himself in his small blanket, leaned back in his executive chair, and comfortably watched a movie, followed a few episodes of anime, and then played some games.

In the blink of an eye, more than four hours had passed, and it was almost 3 PM.

Since Pei Qian had eaten what was essentially brunch at 10 AM, he wasn’t hungry at all now. He planned to slip out at 4 PM and have another meal at Slackin’ Internet Café, taking care of his meals for the day.

But before that, he needed to spend an hour finalizing the new money-burning plan and arranging the previously reserved funds so he could leave with peace of mind.

However, after opening Finger Company and Longyu Group’s official websites, as well as their official Weibo accounts and checking them again, Pei Qian was dumbfounded.

There were still no new announcements!

Pei Qian finally realized something was wrong!

The 515 Gaming Festival had ended yesterday, and even if Eric’s efficiency was low, new money-burning plans should have emerged by today, right? But it was already 3 PM, and there was still no movement.

This meant… Eric would likely not have any new moves in the short term.

Pei Qian felt like a naive youth who had been deceived.

“What a liar!”

“Didn’t he say before that he would burn money to the bitter end? How could he give up after encountering a small setback?”

“What am I supposed to do with my newly earned money?”

Pei Qian was speechless because if Eric’s side stopped burning money, although he could continue running activities to burn money, he would definitely face many restrictions regarding the amount.

For ordinary marketing activities, the system wouldn’t intervene, but these activities would mostly generate profit. For pure money giveaways, the system’s supervision was flexible—the more intense the market competition, the higher the money-burning allowance permitted by the system.

If the opponent stopped while he was still giving away money, Pei Qian wouldn’t be able to justify continuing to give away money!

Thinking about this, what little goodwill Pei Qian had left for Eric was further depleted.

It was Eric who had wanted to wage a money-burning war, and Pei Qian had been overjoyed and immediately obliged. But who could have imagined that Eric would suddenly become timid midway, while Pei Qian’s money-burning had produced results, with players spending money in support, and Smart Fitness Clothes Racks selling well… This back-and-forth not only earned money but also earned goodwill!

And now that Pei Qian wanted to spend the earned money, Eric was no longer playing!

Isn’t that frustrating?

Pei Qian refreshed the page a few more times before very reluctantly accepting the fact that “Eric would not wage a money-burning war in the short term.”

All that anticipation for nothing!

Pei Qian instantly felt disinterested. Had he known this would happen, he wouldn’t have come to the company at all. Wouldn’t it have been nicer to stay at home and comfortably sleep in?

Of course, Pei Qian didn’t plan to let Eric off so easily.

You stop burning money when you don’t want to burn anymore? Where in the world does such a good thing exist!

Pei Qian had already reserved a portion of money for promoting GOG’s overseas leagues. In the future, Tenda would have more funds coming in, and when the time was right, he would launch another round of money-burning activities, forcing Eric to keep pace!

You think you can just tease and run? It’s not that easy!

Just as Pei Qian was about to leave the company and go home to sleep, his phone rang.

Looking at the caller ID, it was surprisingly Lin Wan.

“Hmm?”

“Is Slow Walker Studio facing some difficulties?”

Pei Qian quickly answered.

“Mr. Pei, there’s something I’d like to discuss with you. The VR headset development is already underway, but after several revisions to the plan, we’ve found that the originally allocated R&D funds seem somewhat insufficient. Now, to achieve the best performance, we need to either add more money or slightly lower the hardware configuration level…”

Pei Qian perked up immediately upon hearing this.

Not enough money?

That’s great!

This is exactly what I needed!

Pei Qian immediately said: “Why hesitate? Add money! How much exactly? Uh… wait a moment, I’ll come over right away!”

…

Less than half an hour later, Pei Qian had already arrived at Slow Walker Studio.

This visit wasn’t just about the money issue; he also wanted to check on how Slow Walker Studio was doing.

The office area, which had almost the same configuration as Tenda’s, was filled with people, with few empty seats remaining. All employees were focused on their respective duties, working diligently.

Lin Wan introduced: “Mr. Pei, these people were all carefully selected and recruited by me. Only a small portion are local to Jingzhou; many were poached from Yangcheng, Imperial Capital, Magic City, and other places, bringing their families with them.”

“What do you think of everyone’s work attitude? Is there anything that needs improvement?”

Slow Walker Studio’s first game was determined to be a VR game, and although the VR headset was being developed by Shenhua Group, Slow Walker Studio also needed to participate in design and coordination to ensure high compatibility between the game and the device.

Therefore, some core employees at Slow Walker Studio had to have experience in VR-related design, or at least a deep understanding of it.

After all, VR games differ significantly from traditional PC games and mobile games in terms of game interface layout, operation methods, and gameplay.

There weren’t that many professionals in Jingzhou locally, so Lin Wan had sent people to poach talent from first-tier cities like Imperial Capital, Magic City, and Yangcheng to assemble the current team.

Many of these people were originally unwilling to change cities, but Slow Walker Studio offered high compensation and many subsidies. Additionally, Tenda Group’s operations over the past few years had made Jingzhou a holy land in the eyes of many office workers, making it possible to successfully poach them.

Pei Qian scanned the office area: “If I had to suggest an improvement… I think everyone is eating too few snacks.”