Monday morning, November 12th.
Pei Qian arrived at his office as usual to begin the new work week.
Over the weekend, he had stayed home watching the GOG and ioi world championships. While the atmosphere was lively, there wasn’t anything particularly memorable when examined closely.
After all, both tournaments were still in the group stage. To accommodate teams from various regions globally, there were many new teams and faces with varying skill levels, inevitably leading to some decline in competitive quality.
Of course, while the group stage matches might not match the competitive level of domestic leagues like GPL and ICL, seeing different regions clash and watching home teams dominate weaker opponents was still enjoyable in its own way.
Pei Qian had initially worried that Finger Corporation might cut corners and make the world championships look shabby to save money.
After watching the matches, Pei Qian realized he had overthought it—they weren’t that stupid.
Clearly, both Dayark Group and Finger Corporation understood that world championships were about prestige and couldn’t be compromised. This time, the standards nearly matched the GOG Global Invitational, and even last year’s relatively poor accommodation and food conditions had been improved.
In short, with the competition just starting, apart from GOG having clear advantages in offline viewing events and match scheduling, there wasn’t much difference between the two tournaments yet.
Pei Qian didn’t expect ioi to surpass GOG anymore. If they could maintain the current state until the end of the tournament, that would be a blessing.
Pei Qian’s first task after arriving at work was to finalize the list for the second phase of the suffering journey.
The first phase was about to end, with department heads returning from their suffering, so he needed to quickly finalize the second phase list. Though a seamless transition would be difficult—Bao Xu needed rest, and other department heads needed time to hand over work and gather—it was still better to move quickly.
A place like the suffering journey should always have people suffering; that was maximizing resource utilization!
There was already a draft list on his computer that Pei Qian had prepared last week.
However, now it seemed this draft could use some minor adjustments and changes.
The first phase list included: Huang Sibo, Hu Xianbin, Xiao Peng, Rui Yuchen, Ye Zhizhou, Shen Renjie, Guo Licheng, He Desheng, and Ma Yiqun.
The second phase list was originally: Zhu Xiaocai, Zhang Yuan, Wang Xiaobin, Ou Tu Technology’s Chang You and Jiang Yuan, Useful APP’s Yu Ping’an, Rabbit Tail Livestream’s Chen Yufeng, Cold Noodle Girl’s Qi Yan, Human Resources Department’s Hao Yun, and Tuoguan Fitness’s Li Yaling.
Compared to the first phase, the most notable characteristic of this list was the addition of three female department heads.
Women could hold up half the sky, so why couldn’t they join the suffering journey?
Gender equality was important!
Of course, considering the natural physical differences between men and women, some accommodation had to be made.
That’s why Li Yaling was specifically arranged to join them.
Logically, Li Yaling was just a coach at DGE, occasionally teaching players from other clubs, not making much money for the company, so she wasn’t very harmful.
But she was a professional fitness coach, and if she adapted well to this suffering journey, she could be reassigned to specialize in training female department heads.
After all, DGE Club didn’t really need her anymore, and a talent like Yaling should be placed where she was most needed.
The training content for male and female department heads might not be identical, but the spirit of suffering had to be equal!
Before long, Qi Yan and Hao Yun would probably be grateful to be on the second phase list.
Since this was the first time female department heads were included, they would likely take it a bit easier.
After a while, once Bao Xu and Li Yaling figured out the appropriate difficulty level for women, it would probably become much worse.
These two formidable women were also of great concern to Pei Qian.
After a series of events whitewashed its reputation, Qi Yan’s Cold Noodle Girl was now in a period of rapid development. It was enthusiastically collaborating with Slackin’ Delivery, sharing delivery staff and menus, and with good taste and promotion, branches were opening rapidly.
Pei Qian seemed to see the possibility of the Slackin’ Delivery tragedy happening again.
But there was nothing he could do except hope that Qi Yan would restrain herself a bit after suffering.
As for Hao Yun’s Human Resources Department, Pei Qian always felt something was off about this department, slightly different from what he had envisioned.
Especially in terms of misinterpreting his philosophy, the Human Resources Department could be considered the prime culprit.
Regarding specific personnel, Pei Qian had long deliberated between Hao Yun and Wu Bin, but then thought: since Hao Yun was the department head, some of Wu Bin’s mistakes should fall on her shoulders—she had failed to properly manage her subordinate!
This time, she would go suffer first, and Wu Bin would be arranged for next time.
Additionally, Zhu Xiaocai and Wang Xiaobin were high on Pei Qian’s priority list.
Zhu Xiaocai had been hiding behind Huang Sibo and managed to avoid suffering until now, which was absurd.
Wang Xiaobin was in a similar situation; since Ye Zhizhou had already gone, it was definitely his turn next.
From Ou Tu Technology, both Chang You and Jiang Yuan were highly disruptive, so it was best to send them together so they could look after each other.
As for Yu Ping’an from Useful APP, Pei Qian was initially quite satisfied with him, but recently felt his direction was veering off course. He needed to be sent on the suffering journey as a warning—correct what needed correction, reinforce what was already good.
Regarding Chen Yufeng… although Rabbit Tail Livestream was currently in good shape, that was mainly due to Pei Qian’s brilliant leadership and Old Ma’s presence, having nothing to do with Chen Yufeng.
On the contrary, Chen Yufeng was a major unstable factor who needed the suffering journey to straighten him out.
There was one special case—Zhang Yuan.
Originally, as the head of DGE Club and the Esports Business Division, Zhang Yuan couldn’t escape, especially with the momentum of the GOG Global Invitational.
So Pei Qian had placed him second on the list, right after Zhu Xiaocai, showing how important he considered him.
But after watching Zhang Yuan sing yesterday, Pei Qian changed his mind.
He suddenly felt that although this guy was somewhat idling, his attitude toward entertaining the public seemed slightly better than other department heads.
He could be temporarily removed from the list and postponed for observation.
Of course, besides Zhang Yuan, there were some department heads who never appeared on this list at all.
For example, Chen Kangtuo and Hao Qiong from Thrill Lodge, Lü Mingliang from Headwind Logistics, Liang Qingfan from Sloth Apartments, and those who had actively or passively become peripheral members, like Qiu Hong, Min Jingchao, Li Yada, and others.
These people had either made tremendous contributions to Pei Qian’s money-losing plans, held irreplaceable positions, or had already been dispatched elsewhere and weren’t in his way, so their priority could be delayed.
Of course, this list contained strong subjective factors. Take Chen Kangtuo from Thrill Lodge for instance: Pei Qian felt that wandering around the haunted house daily was miserable enough. Although he was making some profit, his priority for suffering didn’t need to be so high.
After sorting through the general situation, Pei Qian realized he had too many people to arrange—even two phases wouldn’t be enough just for the department heads.
What about the core members, backbone staff, and middle management from each department?
Goodness, it was unimaginable.
It seemed the suffering journey needed to become a regular activity; otherwise, it couldn’t keep up with the rapid emergence of talent at Tenda.
After some consideration, Pei Qian decided to remove Zhang Yuan, Yu Ping’an, and Li Yaling from the list.
Zhang Yuan’s attitude was worth encouraging, while Yu Ping’an wasn’t that harmful yet.
Li Yaling would still go, but not as a participant—rather as staff, primarily responsible for training and taking care of the female department heads, arranging training volume according to female physical conditions.
This freed up three positions.
Pei Qian pondered that he could trick some outsiders to join.
People like Qiao Liang, Ruan Guangjian, Li Shi, Lin Chang, Xue Zhebin—all old enemies—and Yao Bo from Golden Tripod Group, who had also interfered with the experience store affair.
All these people could be added to the list.
Of course, the chances of them falling for it were slim, but whoever could be tricked would fill the remaining three spots.
Pei Qian organized the list and nodded with satisfaction.
Preparations could begin now, aiming for a seamless transition from the first batch to the second batch as soon as the first group returned!
After all, the first month would be indoor training in Jingzhou. It might be tiring for Bao Xu, but he was clearly enjoying it.
Just as he saved the list, there was a knock at the office door.
Pei Qian looked up to see Li Yada.
“What’s up? Is there something with Morning Dew Game Platform?” Pei Qian was instantly alert.
But then he thought, if it were about the game platform, shouldn’t Tang Yishu be the one coming?
Li Yada explained: “Mr. Pei, I’m not here about the game platform, but to report an investment proposal for a game project.”
“He Desheng should have reported this, but after visiting Dream Realization Venture Capital, I remembered… he’s still in Shennongjia.”
Pei Qian was surprised: “A game investment proposal? Let me see.”
Li Yada handed over an investment plan and her own risk analysis report for the game.
“‘Shuli’?”
Seeing the game’s title, Pei Qian felt it was a bit obscure, not looking like the type that would become popular.
However, Pei Qian was instinctively wary of games recommended by Li Yada.
After all, as the third generation of Tenda Games, Pei Qian didn’t quite trust Li Yada’s judgment.
After briefly flipping through the materials, Pei Qian felt somewhat overwhelmed.
These materials were quite complex.
It appeared to be a game similar to “Turn Back and See the Shore,” but with a completely redesigned system? Four auxiliary systems—Confucian, Buddhist, Taoist, and Military—a background story of wartime chaos and rampant monsters, plus dozens of endings after all these combinations…
It was all a bit foggy.
More importantly, both the proposal and Li Yada’s risk analysis report used concise wording. The content was comprehensive but not detailed, with many aspects only briefly mentioned.