After taking the photo, the photographer looked at it and nodded with satisfaction.
Yes, the composition was good, and the focus was fine.
Although it was a photo from behind, Ma Yang’s profile was visible, and his long face was highly recognizable. As for Mr. Pei, his back view was quite familiar—longtime fans should recognize him.
But he quickly thought of a question.
What was Mr. Pei doing here at this time?
The roller coaster was scheduled to open at 9:00, but Mr. Pei arrived at 8:00 and left quickly.
For an inspection of the project, this time was too short. At most, he just took one ride.
But logically, shouldn’t Mr. Pei have already experienced this attraction? Why would he come to ride it again now?
While puzzling over this, he heard cheers coming from the main entrance.
The photographer hurried over and discovered that the roller coaster project had already begun admitting people.
Many of those queuing at the project entrance had arrived early before the park opened, so they were overjoyed to find that the project was opening an hour ahead of schedule.
Of course, some people had gone to browse the surrounding shops after getting their numbers.
Since this early opening of the roller coaster was a special case, Chen Kangtuo had also very thoughtfully reserved a dedicated channel for these people, had someone send notification messages through the app, and temporarily suspended the rule about missed numbers not being held.
Those who had arrived early to queue at the project entrance could enter until 10:00 AM.
Of course, those with earlier queue numbers would enter first.
The visitors on site were all excited. They had often heard of amusement parks closing temporarily or delaying openings due to special circumstances, but rarely heard of a reverse surprise like this!
Charge!
Seeing this scene and reflecting on what he had witnessed earlier, the photographer suddenly realized.
“Mr. Pei must have already experienced this project earlier, that’s for sure, no doubt about it.”
“So today, on the day the roller coaster officially opens, Mr. Pei specifically came by, took one ride on the roller coaster, and then opened the roller coaster to everyone ahead of schedule—this can only be described as a sense of ritual, right?”
“Before opening the project to visitors, Mr. Pei must experience it himself first?”
“Just like how Mr. Pei used to eat Slackin’ takeout daily, go to Slackin’ Internet Café, and use Outu phones?”
“Yes, that must be the explanation!”
“And seeing how enthusiastic the visitors were, Mr. Pei specifically had the staff open the project early—this is also a kind of kindness!”
“What ordinary boss would care about this? Even if visitors had to queue for an extra hour outside, it was their choice to come early, and normally no one would bother to change the rules. But Mr. Pei is different—he always puts user experience first!”
The photographer suddenly had an epiphany—analyzing it this way, this photo actually had historical significance!
It clearly had the same artistic effect as the previous “world-famous paintings”!
For example, the previous photo “Mr. Pei at Slackin’ Internet Café” showed Xiao Peng explaining the Slackin’ Internet Café’s e-sports living hall model, which was highly praised as crowds poured into the café, while on the other side, Mr. Pei walked away against the flow, leaving only his back view.
Another example was the previous photo “Mr. Pei at Slackin’ Takeout,” which showed Jingzhou TV interviewing Slackin’ Takeout, with Rui Yuchen giving a food box to the reporter, while on the other side, Mr. Pei quietly ate his Slackin’ takeout, similarly showing only his back view.
And now this new photo he had taken: on one side, the roller coaster project opened early with a large number of visitors pouring in to experience it, their faces beaming with smiles; on the other side, Mr. Pei and Mr. Ma walked away against the crowd, extremely low-key, with no one even noticing they had been there.
It all made sense now!
This had always been Mr. Pei’s style!
The photographer became excited at once and immediately posted the photo online with a simple explanatory text!
……
Meanwhile, in the shops around the roller coaster project, it was also packed with people.
Li Shi and Xue Zhebin were in a nearby café, drinking coffee.
There were many visitors outside, and this café was almost full too. Many people who had received their numbers would come in to rest their feet, so business was booming.
Xue Zhebin sighed: “Mr. Li, you’ve opened several more shops in this area, right? Looking at the current situation, these shops are going to make a killing.”
Li Shi very modestly waved his hand: “Making a killing is an exaggeration. Small profits, just small profits.”
“Haven’t you noticed that all the shops, including this café, have very friendly prices?”
Xue Zhebin was stunned for a moment, then realized it was indeed the case.
He hadn’t thought about it when ordering coffee earlier, but now that he considered it, weren’t these prices similar to cafés in regular shopping malls or in Slackin’ Internet Café?
They were even cheaper than some foreign coffee brands in shopping malls.
Logically, Thrilling Lodge was an amusement park, and wasn’t it natural for things inside amusement parks and scenic spots to be more expensive?
After all, this place had high foot traffic, and there’s a saying, “Since you’re already here…” Most people, just to find a place to rest, would only wince a bit at the pain in their wallets if the coffee in a café was twice as expensive as in regular shops, but they would still consume.
But according to Mr. Li, all the shops in Thrilling Lodge were actually quite inexpensive?
This was a bit magical.
“Raising prices slightly wouldn’t stimulate visitors too strongly but could significantly increase profits. Why maintain the current low prices?”
“Even the logic of ‘small profit, high volume’ doesn’t hold here. The profit is indeed small, but high volume can’t be achieved because each shop’s capacity is limited. In a situation where they’re always full, higher pricing would definitely be better, right?”
“And it’s not just one shop doing this, but all shops…”
“Could it be that this was specifically required by Mr. Pei?”
Xue Zhebin suddenly realized this point.
These shops belonged to different investors, and getting all these investors to reach a consensus and collectively not raise prices wasn’t something Mr. Li could achieve.
Of course, Mr. Li could use some methods to pressure these investors, but ultimately it would only be pressure, not willing compliance. Moreover, Mr. Li fundamentally had no motivation to do so, because Mr. Li himself would certainly want to make more money.
So the only possibility was that it was Mr. Pei’s requirement.
Li Shi nodded: “Actually, when Thrilling Lodge just opened, Mr. Pei had already emphasized that all shops couldn’t raise prices and must follow normal market prices.”
“At first, no one understood, but no one dared to go against Mr. Pei’s wishes, so we could only comply.”
“But now, with the development of this roller coaster project and the opening of the second batch of shops, I can roughly understand Mr. Pei’s intention.”
Xue Zhebin thought for a moment: “With Mr. Pei’s intelligence, he would definitely understand the logic of making more money by raising prices at Thrilling Lodge. And all these shops would give him a cut, so in terms of making money, their interests are actually aligned.”
“Then there’s only one explanation: Mr. Pei is looking for long-term benefits.”
“But that doesn’t seem to make sense either.”
“Because there are only so many shops, and the number of visitors far exceeds the capacity of the shops. Even if prices are lowered, sales can’t be further increased.”
“This is an amusement park, not a shopping mall. Visitors won’t come every week; coming twice a year would be good. In this case, they won’t be very sensitive to shop prices. Maintaining fair prices can indeed win a certain amount of goodwill, but given how popular Thrilling Lodge is now, what use is this bit of goodwill…”
Xue Zhebin couldn’t make sense of it no matter how he thought about it.
On the surface, Mr. Pei had made a decision that was very conscientious and considerate of visitors.
But everyone knew that Mr. Pei was a business genius. It wasn’t that Mr. Pei didn’t have a conscience or didn’t care about visitors, but that while being considerate of visitors, he definitely had mature business logic supporting it, thereby achieving a win-win situation for Tenda and users.
Li Shi nodded slightly, seeing that Xue Zhebin had indeed made progress and was looking at issues more clearly now.
But he was still far from understanding Mr. Pei.
“Your reasoning is certainly not wrong, but it’s based on two premises: first, there are only so many shops, and the number of visitors far exceeds the capacity of the shops; second, an amusement park is not a shopping mall, and visitors can’t come every week.”
“For most amusement parks and scenic spots, these two premises hold true, so in the vast majority of amusement parks and scenic spots, the shops are very expensive, whether it’s food, drinks, or accommodations.”
“But what if these two premises don’t hold true at Thrilling Lodge?”
“Think about it, why did Mr. Pei build the roller coaster so far from Thrilling Lodge’s original projects?”
“And what type of roller coaster is it?”
Xue Zhebin was stunned. He indeed hadn’t thought deeply about these questions before.
Logically, attractions within an amusement park definitely shouldn’t be too far apart, since visitors have to walk between various attractions. If they’re too far apart, everyone’s experience would become terrible.
But with the roller coaster project, Mr. Pei had done exactly the opposite.
Looking at the result now, with the roller coaster project being far away, more shops could be packed around it.
Moreover, there was still a large part of the old industrial area that could be transformed bit by bit, probably enough to last for ten or even twenty years.
Currently, the shops were only transformed along the main road from Thrilling Lodge to the roller coaster, and further expansion was entirely possible in the future.
In other words, as long as shops continued to expand, the point that “the number of visitors far exceeds the shops’ capacity” would gradually be disproven.
The roller coaster project was also very different from other roller coasters.
On one hand, it was as fun as indoor roller coasters in many large amusement parks; on the other hand, it could be experienced multiple times.
In fact, many people could only play popular attractions at large foreign amusement parks once or twice a year, simply because the cost was too high.
If it were convenient, many people wouldn’t get tired of playing these fun attractions once a month.
Moreover, Thrilling Lodge’s roller coaster had multiple endings.
Even after experiencing all the endings, they could bring friends to play together, and because of its strong interactivity, each play would offer some different, novel experiences.
So, the point that “an amusement park is not a shopping mall, and visitors can’t come every week” was also disproven.
Xue Zhebin suddenly realized: “Mr. Li, I understand now!”
“Mr. Pei wants to break away from the original concentrated model of amusement parks and create an open amusement park?”
“Through Tenda’s IP and game design thinking, most amusement facilities are made into replayable projects, then a large number of shops are inserted between projects, and further foot traffic is attracted through friendly pricing similar to shops, creating a new model that integrates amusement parks and commercial streets?”
“In other words, Mr. Pei isn’t pursuing immediate benefits, but long-term benefits, not even long-term benefits within three to five years, but long-term benefits ten years or even longer in the future?”
“This is forcibly transforming an abandoned old industrial area into a combination of an amusement park and commercial district!”