Pei Qian considered for a moment and asked, “This is my first time acquiring a company. Are there any precautions I should take?”

Assistant Xin flipped through her notebook: “There are many risks involved. For instance, similar companies often have registered capital issues. We need to check if there’s any false capital contribution or capital withdrawal.”

“Additionally, there are company assets, liabilities, owner’s equity, and other factors such as fixed asset depreciation, intangible asset amortization, and non-recoverable asset situations…”

“However, this company is a relatively small private enterprise. The boss is called Du Ruijie, who holds all shares with another partner, though the company is mainly operated by Du Ruijie himself.”

“I believe he’s eager to sell now, considering the company has completely turned into a negative asset and loses money every month. If we put some pressure on the price, we should be able to acquire it for just a few hundred thousand. If you’re patient, you might negotiate an even lower price.”

Pei Qian was taken aback. “That cheap?”

This left Pei Qian somewhat disappointed. He thought it would cost at least one or two million, but it could be acquired for just a few hundred thousand?

Assistant Xin nodded: “Of course, Mr. Pei. This company was initially funded by Du Ruijie and his partner with a total investment of just one million. It’s only because they had some luck and their games made some profit that they’ve developed to their current scale.”

“Du Ruijie himself has already made plenty of money. If he can earn another few hundred thousand by selling this mess, he’d be more than satisfied and wouldn’t dare to raise the price.”

“If no one takes over, all company assets would likely be sold at bargain prices. I’ve heard that Du Ruijie even planned to let employees take their office computers home as compensation for unpaid wages.”

Pei Qian: “…”

How imaginative!

On one hand, it saved the trouble of selling a large number of office computers second-hand, and on the other hand, it resolved the issue of owing employees’ salaries. This Mr. Du was a little genius!

Pei Qian had no intention of raising the price. For one thing, artificially raising the price seemed too fake—when you could acquire it for a few hundred thousand, insisting on paying over a million would be too obvious and might arouse suspicion.

On the other hand, Pei Qian now needed to concentrate funds on opening several Moyu Internet Cafes, so he didn’t have that much liquid capital available.

Therefore, paying the normal price would be fine.

Assistant Xin briefly mentioned other matters, such as checking shareholder changes, reviewing company account transactions, collecting employee labor contracts, insurance, salary details, finding notaries to certify relevant materials…

Pei Qian wouldn’t worry about these things. After all, he was only responsible for spending money; these details would naturally be handled by professionals.

Assistant Xin closed her notebook: “Those are roughly the precautions. Mr. Pei, would you like to make an ‘undercover visit’?”

Pei Qian was startled: “Undercover visit for what?”

“If you’ve agreed with Mr. Du on the acquisition, when you go for inspection, Mr. Du will certainly make careful preparations, which won’t be conducive to seeing the true situation at Shang Yang Games,” Assistant Xin explained. “If you don’t reveal your identity first and just look around to observe the employees’ working state and the office conditions, it will help us negotiate a better price.”

Pei Qian understood—this was like a surprise inspection from superior leaders.

If the other party knew in advance, they would certainly put on a show, and the true situation wouldn’t be visible.

Pei Qian shook his head: “No need. A bit of superficial work is all they can do. Some things cannot be disguised, no matter how hard they try.”

Seeing Mr. Pei’s confident demeanor, it seemed he already had this company firmly in his grasp.

Assistant Xin didn’t ask further: “Well then, Mr. Pei, I’ll contact them right away and arrange for you to meet with Mr. Du.”

Pei Qian nodded: “The sooner the better!”

…

The next morning.

Pei Qian arrived at the entrance of the Shang Yang Games.

Just as he opened the door of his Cayenne, a man who appeared to be less than thirty years old and wearing glasses immediately approached him.

“Are you Mr. Pei? Hello! I’m Wang Xiaobin, the lead game designer at Shang Yang Games. Our Mr. Du is waiting for you upstairs.”

Wang Xiaobin was very enthusiastic.

But Pei Qian was puzzled: “Isn’t your lead designer Old Liu?”

Although he didn’t know much about Shang Yang Games, he was quite familiar with Lead Designer Old Liu, who was something of an old acquaintance.

Pei Qian had met Old Liu once when he came to Tenda for an interview, and later heard about him from Huang Sibo and Ma Yi’s group.

After learning about Old Liu’s various achievements, Pei Qian often felt regretful.

He had missed out on a talent during that interview!

If he had hired Old Liu, perhaps the games would have been ruined much earlier, and he wouldn’t have had to work so hard to lose money.

Fortunately, it wasn’t too late to remedy the situation.

This time, Pei Qian had come hoping to retain the entire original team of Shang Yang Games, and Old Liu, as the lead designer, was an indispensable member of this group.

So why was it not Old Liu but a stranger coming to greet him today?

Wang Xiaobin looked somewhat embarrassed: “I didn’t expect Mr. Pei to know our company in such detail. I’ll explain this to you later. Please, come inside first.”

With some doubt, Pei Qian followed Wang Xiaobin into the building, heading to Shang Yang Games on the second floor.

They first passed through the work area.

The densely packed workstations made Pei Qian feel a bit uncomfortable.

Having become accustomed to Tenda’s spacious workstation layout, seeing these crowded workstations felt somewhat stifling.

The overall environment was quite good—clean floors and tidy desks. Employees were sitting in front of their computers, typing on keyboards or using editors, all appearing to be working diligently.

Pei Qian knew very well that this was a state prepared for a surprise inspection.

If one looked carefully, one would notice that most people weren’t working; they were just putting on a show.

Many people had documents open, but could barely write a few words in a long time—they were just staring blankly, their minds wandering who knows where.

Pei Qian didn’t expose this and continued inside with Assistant Xin, following Wang Xiaobin to Du Ruijie’s office, the boss of Shang Yang Games.

Du Ruijie was already waiting at the office door.

This Mr. Du appeared to be less than forty years old, with thinning hair but no weight gain, the image of a successful middle-aged businessman who looked quite shrewd.

“Mr. Pei!”

“Welcome, welcome! I’ve long heard that Mr. Pei is accomplished at such a young age, and today I see the reputation is well-deserved.”

Du Ruijie came forward to welcome Pei Qian and Assistant Xin into the office. Wang Xiaobin hurriedly went to make tea.

Logically, this should be the job of an assistant or administrative staff, but it was obvious that Shang Yang Games didn’t have an administrative position at all, so these tasks had to be done by other employees.

This was the norm for most small game companies. After all, employing an administrative staff member meant paying another salary, and when the company’s scale wasn’t large enough, this cost was best avoided if possible.

Like Pei Qian, who hired two beautiful receptionists before even making a game—that wasn’t something an ordinary person would do.

Soon, Wang Xiaobin brought the tea.

Pei Qian glanced at it, thinking it probably wasn’t very good tea. He just took it symbolically, sipped it once, and then put it down.

“Xiaobin, please sit down too. If Mr. Pei asks about game-related matters, you can answer,” Du Ruijie gestured for Wang Xiaobin to sit beside him.

Mr. Du was only responsible for collecting money and didn’t know much about his games.

He had heard that Mr. Pei was not only a boss but also a very capable designer, so he feared that if Mr. Pei asked something about games that he didn’t know, and thus had Wang Xiaobin nearby as backup.

Realizing that the company’s hope for survival rested entirely on his shoulders, Wang Xiaobin couldn’t help feeling anxious.