Pei Qian wore a friendly smile. “Yu Fei? Come, sit down, have some tea first.”

He’d anticipated that Yu Fei would come looking for him eventually.

After all, he’d been making excuses for so long, and Yu Fei wasn’t stupid—he would eventually realize something was wrong.

But Pei Qian had no choice. Wasn’t it because Yu Fei was too important to the gaming department that he couldn’t let him leave?

At present, there really was no one better suited to lead the gaming department than Yu Fei. Pei Qian wouldn’t trust anyone else.

So, Pei Qian had already prepared his speech, determined to find a way to continue persuading Yu Fei to stay.

Yu Fei reluctantly sat down on the sofa and took a perfunctory sip of tea.

During previous conversations, he’d at least had some hope, thinking that in just over a week he could leave the gaming department and get back to writing his books properly.

But now, with Hu Xianbin transferred away, how long would he, the head designer of the gaming department, have to keep working here?

There was absolutely no clear answer!

Yu Fei looked at Mr. Pei, ready to lay his cards on the table. This couldn’t continue any longer.

“Mr. Pei, I really can’t keep covering like this.”

“My readers curse me every day, calling me a ghost who disappears. I said I’d start a new book three months ago, but there’s still no sign of it.”

“Earlier, because I’d just taken over the gaming department and wasn’t familiar with a lot of the work, I was very busy every day. So I told my reader group that I was filling in as the lead designer in the gaming department, designing a new game, and had no time to write a new book.”

“But my readers didn’t believe me at all. They said I was either stupid or malicious, that I couldn’t even make up a decent excuse, and that I just wanted to slack off and fool my readers…”

“Mr. Pei, I’m being wronged here!”

“I’ve already promised my readers that I must start a new book this month. I really can’t delay any longer!”

“Besides, the design draft for ‘Ghost General 2’ is already complete. You can just promote someone from the gaming department to be the executive lead designer to continue the work. There’s not much difficulty left!”

Yu Fei truly felt wronged.

Previously, when he was working on “Eternal Cycle,” he’d mentioned that he was helping out at Tenda’s gaming department and was involved in game design. The readers in his group had all given him thumbs up, saying he was amazing for turning his fan fiction into official canon.

But by the time “Ghost General 2” came around, things had changed.

Because his readers all thought: it made sense for a novelist to participate in the development of “Eternal Cycle,” which was based on his own creation. But what did developing a new game have to do with him?

Tenda’s gaming department was full of talented people—why would they need his help?

Oh, they understood now. This dog of an author had gotten comfortable riding on the coattails of “Eternal Cycle,” had gotten used to being lazy, and was now lying to his readers about having to continue helping out because the gaming department wouldn’t let him leave.

In plain terms, he just didn’t want to write and wanted to slack off for a few more months.

How could this be acceptable? Even a commune’s donkey wouldn’t dare rest this much!

So the atmosphere in the reader group grew increasingly hostile. Everyone began to suspect that Yu Fei was just talking about helping out while actually slacking off.

Yu Fei felt helpless. The key issue was that he couldn’t freely discuss the content of “Ghost General 2” in the reader group—new games were supposed to be kept confidential.

And when he said he was serving as the acting lead designer at Tenda, his readers simply didn’t believe him!

So now Yu Fei was speaking plainly with Mr. Pei. His meaning was very clear: since the design for “Ghost General 2” was already complete, Mr. Pei could just find someone else to take over as the lead designer of the gaming department. No matter what, he was done!

Pei Qian’s expression immediately turned serious. “There’s such a thing?”

“Well then, I’ll have Assistant Xin issue you an appointment letter or certificate with an official seal, formally appointing you as the head of the gaming department!”

“Once you show this appointment letter to your readers, I’m sure they’ll have nothing more to say.”

Yu Fei nodded. “Hmm, if there’s an official appointment letter, that would indeed…”

But he quickly caught himself. “Wait, Mr. Pei, that’s not what I was talking about!”

Goodness, he’d almost been tricked by Mr. Pei. How could he let a done deal be forced on him like this?

Yu Fei tried hard to bring the conversation back on track. “Mr. Pei, I really have to start my new book! I can’t break my promise!”

Pei Qian thought for a moment. “Didn’t you just say that the design draft for ‘Ghost General 2’ is already complete? The remaining work just needs someone to oversee the development.”

“If that’s the case, then you can free up time to start your new book. You can do both without either suffering.”

“We can even mobilize people from the gaming department—no, even all the department heads across Tenda to support your new book with donations.”

“We might as well have Ma Yiqun feature your new book on the Homepage of Endpoint Chinese Network for a week or two. How does that sound?”

Yu Fei was momentarily at a loss for words. “This…”

“While the proposal is very tempting, something… doesn’t seem right?”

Yu Fei couldn’t quite wrap his head around it.

Logically, if he were the head of the gaming department and then published a book on Endpoint Chinese Network, occupying the recommendation resources on the homepage, wouldn’t that be abusing his power for personal gain?

But his primary identity was as an author for Endpoint Chinese Network, so there wasn’t really anything wrong with getting those recommendation resources.

Pei Qian saw that Yu Fei was clearly tempted and decided to strike while the iron was hot. “Also, weren’t you previously just an author for Endpoint Chinese Network, having to watch Ma Yiqun’s face for everything you did?”

“But if you have the identity of the gaming department head, that’s a big deal. Not only would you be on the same level as Ma Yiqun in terms of position—both being department heads—but your department would be more central. Wouldn’t he have to curry favor with you instead?”

“In the future, you can start or stop writing your books whenever you want, without having to worry about what your editor thinks!”

“Keeping your position as the gaming department head has many benefits for you!”

“Besides, you’ve already been busy for more than three months. You’ve adapted to and become familiar with the work in the gaming department. You’re just getting the hang of things now, so it would be a waste to leave like this.”

“During your regular work hours, you only need to be busy for a few days when starting new projects to do some design work. The rest of the time, other designers can keep an eye on the progress, and you can use your work hours to write. That’ll be even more efficient.”

“If you occasionally don’t feel like writing, you can just take a break and tell your readers, ‘Mr. Pei has assigned me a new task, and a new game is about to be released soon.’ I don’t think your readers would have any objections.”

Yu Fei’s mouth was slightly open, clearly showing that his attitude had undergone some subtle changes.

Undeniably, many points in Mr. Pei’s speech were very appealing to him.

Pei Qian continued, “Plus, you’re now considered the fifth leader of Tenda Games. The fifth leader—that’s a good position!”

Yu Fei was puzzled. “Huh? Why?”

Pei Qian said, “Uh… mainly because… it’s big?”

“Ahem, that’s not important. Anyway, the fifth leader is a position that connects the past and the future, a position that carries forward the legacy. I believe you will create new glories!”

“Besides, we truly haven’t found a suitable person to replace you yet. You should continue for now, making games while writing books. Try it out first—what if it works out?”

“I’ll have Assistant Xin issue you an appointment letter right away to clarify things with your readers.”

Yu Fei silently nodded. “…Alright.”

Admittedly, what Mr. Pei said made quite a bit of sense.

Before coming in, Yu Fei had been in a burn-the-bridges mindset, thinking that no matter what method he used today, he had to make Mr. Pei let him go.

But as he was leaving, he suddenly felt that perhaps overseeing game development while writing books wasn’t so unacceptable after all.

So he decided to continue for a while longer. After all, for him, the busiest time for “Ghost General 2” was when he was creating the design draft.

Now that the design draft was already done, the upcoming work wouldn’t be as busy. He hadn’t left earlier, so wouldn’t it be a waste to leave now?

And Mr. Pei had a point—having the identity of the gaming department head would make many things much easier.

For example, when he wanted to take a break from writing, he could just push the blame onto Mr. Pei. Perfect!

A hardcore excuse for taking a break, guaranteed to be criticism-proof from readers.

Watching Yu Fei’s retreating figure, Pei Qian couldn’t help but smile.

Nice try, but thinking of leaving Tenda after joining?

Not a chance!

Successfully integrating Yu Fei into Tenda was a very good start.

Perhaps in the future, the selection of department heads at Tenda could be even more flexible. What if they could find more talents like Yu Fei? Wouldn’t that be a huge win?

…

Meanwhile, at the GOG project team.

Eric had already left for Europe, and Zhao Xuming had also been frequently traveling across the country recently to arrange offline viewing events, taking some subordinates with him. As a result, the project team looked much quieter.

Zhang Yuan came as usual to check the version update plan for GOG with Zhang Nan, the current head of GOG.

But as soon as he met Zhang Nan, before he could even bring up the version update, he was secretly pulled aside by her.

“You’re really not on the suffering journey this time?”

“How did you manage that?!”

Zhang Nan’s expression was full of shock.

After the list for the new suffering journey came out, it had already caused a major uproar among the department heads.

Some were thunderstruck, some secretly relieved, and others, like the members of the first suffering journey, wondered why certain people hadn’t been selected.

And Zhang Yuan was obviously the most conspicuous one.

With such a big event happening, how could he not have been selected for the suffering journey? What was going on?

Could it be that he had reached some kind of under-the-table deal with Mr. Pei? No, that couldn’t be—Mr. Pei was an objective and fair person.

It could only mean that Zhang Yuan must have some secret!

When Zhang Nan had just taken over as department head, Zhang Yuan had talked to her about his worries, saying that he felt he would definitely be on the next suffering journey and was trying to find ways to avoid such a fate.

But now he had actually succeeded!

Zhang Nan became especially curious because this also concerned her own safety.

She discovered that apart from Li Yaling, who was going as staff, there were also two female department heads on this suffering journey!

As the head of the GOG project team, Zhang Nan immediately felt immense pressure.

She had only just taken over as department head recently and wasn’t on the suffering journey list yet. But given the current trends and the importance of the GOG project team within Tenda, her name would likely appear on the third or fourth list.

Right now, Zhang Yuan was her lifeline.

Zhang Yuan gave a meaningful smile. “My successful self-rescue certainly has its tricks!”