This weekend, Pei Qian was quite busy.

He had originally planned to sleep in at his rented apartment, but he tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep. Every time he closed his eyes, he saw images of the internet café unexpectedly booming and making a lot of money, making him anxious and restless.

With no other choice, he had Assistant Xin drive over to pick him up. He needed to see things for himself to feel at ease.

Of course, he naturally approved overtime pay for Assistant Xin.

First, they visited the flagship store of Moyu Internet Café, where he had a cup of coffee and sat for a while, confirming that for the time being and the foreseeable future, there would likely be no signs of turning a profit.

Next, they went to the two new Moyu Internet Café locations to check on the renovation progress.

These two stores were situated in even worse locations than the flagship store, though they were spacious. The renovations couldn’t be identical to the flagship store, but they were trying to align as much as possible with the style Pei Qian preferred.

The overall style was minimalist, without too many frills, but the tables, chairs, bar counters, bookshelves, and so on all carried a subtle air of pretentiousness.

It wasn’t that Pei Qian liked this pretentious style; mainly, this kind of furniture was generally more expensive.

The two new store managers seemed quite dedicated, both supervising the renovation workers. Pei Qian expressed his warm concern and persuaded one manager to go home, while the other remained resolute, so Pei Qian had no choice but to approve overtime pay for him.

After checking the internet cafés under renovation, Pei Qian was still uneasy, so he took a brief stroll around the neighborhood and concluded that this location was even worse than the flagship store’s, so there shouldn’t be too many customers.

On his way back, he had a sudden impulse to visit the company, where he caught Lü Mingliang and several members of the design team working overtime.

Mr. Pei was angry.

Previously, Pei Qian had tacitly allowed Huang Sibo and his team to work overtime because he thought they were playing games.

But later he discovered they weren’t playing games at all—they were genuinely working hard!

So, Pei Qian decided there should be a blanket ban, absolutely prohibiting anyone from being in the office outside working hours.

This time, Pei Qian also chased out Bao Xu, reasoning that he should go home to rest and nurture his hairline.

Thinking about the recent physical examination results, Bao Xu had no good excuse and silently packed up to leave.

Bao Xu had much more disposable income recently and had long since stopped living in internet cafés. He had rented his single room and bought a new computer, so going home to play games wasn’t a problem.

Seeing that even Bao Xu had been persuaded to leave by Mr. Pei, the others had no choice but to quietly pack up and depart.

The scene was quite bleak at one point, with everyone leaving dejectedly. An outsider might have thought they had been fired.

After driving everyone away, Pei Qian casually found a chair to sit down, feeling extremely tired.

These people were truly troublesome!

“I’m wondering if we should install a new lock for the office. Or purchase a more advanced electronic door lock? The kind that can only be opened with proper authorization on official holidays.”

Pei Qian looked at Assistant Xin.

Xin Hailu hesitated for a moment, then said, “Wouldn’t that dampen everyone’s work enthusiasm?”

Dampen their work enthusiasm?

That would be wonderful.

It would be even better if it weren’t just dampened but completely shattered.

“Let’s go with that plan, then. Remember to ask the administrative department to see if there are similar door locks and purchase one.”

“Only authorized people can open the door on official holidays. For now, let’s authorize… you, me, and those few young ladies in the administrative group.”

The administrative team had the most relaxed job, basically working nine-to-five, clocking in and out. They might be a minute late, but they would never leave a minute late.

On holidays, they would not be seen.

Authorizing them, Pei Qian felt quite at ease.

Assistant Xin made a note in her small notebook.

Just as they finished discussing this, Pei Qian thought of another issue.

How would overtime pay be calculated?

By simply locking the door, people wouldn’t come to work overtime, but then overtime pay couldn’t be distributed either.

Although this amount wasn’t very significant, it was still part of the “Many People, Great Power Plan” and an important component of “increasing revenue.”

One person’s overtime pay wasn’t much, but if there were more employees in the future, it would become a substantial sum.

Pei Qian thought for a moment. “How about this: from now on, let everyone self-report their overtime. Working overtime at home will count the same as in the office.”

Xin Hailu was taken aback. “How would we verify that?”

Verify? What was there to verify? It would be fine even if everyone falsely reported.

Of course, Pei Qian couldn’t say that directly.

He thought for a moment and said, “Trust in everyone’s self-discipline. However, if anyone is found falsely reporting overtime, all their overtime pay for the month will be deducted.”

By setting a punishment standard, he silenced the system.

After all, Pei Qian wouldn’t investigate who falsely reported overtime.

Looking at the empty company, Pei Qian felt much better. He stood up from his seat, ready to go home and sleep soundly.

Just then, his phone rang. It was Huang Sibo calling.

Pei Qian immediately became alert.

After the completion of “Mr. Pei’s Daily Life,” Huang Sibo and Bao Xu had planned to rest for half a month.

Counting the days, they should have finished resting by now and should be contemplating starting a new project, filming a new series.

Although Pei Qian had used his persuasive skills to inspire Huang Sibo’s fighting spirit and successfully convinced him not to obsess over “Mr. Pei’s Daily Life” and abandon this successful IP, Pei Qian was still uncertain about what exactly Huang Sibo and Zhu Xiaocai planned to film.

This call was either to consult with Pei Qian or to report to him.

Pei Qian hoped it was the former.

He answered the phone.

“Mr. Pei, sorry to disturb you at this hour.”

“I want to report to you about Fei Huang Studio’s upcoming work plans.”

“Your talk last time was truly enlightening. Originally, Zhu Xiaocai and I planned to continue deepening our short video content, extending ‘Mr. Pei’s Daily Life’ into a new series of short dramas, maximizing the effect of twists and contrasts, incorporating current hot topics, and discovering a series of relatable star characters from grassroots…”

Listening to this, Pei Qian was terrified.

Wasn’t this like “Unexpected” or “The Big Bang”?

Regardless of which one it resembled, it sounded extremely unpromising…

Huang Sibo continued, “However, your words that day suddenly awakened me. I believe we should step out of our comfort zone and continue pursuing our dreams!”

“Short videos are a good means of monetization and can bring laughter to everyone, but we always felt something was missing.”

“Director Zhu Xiaocai shares the same view, so after discussion, we decided that we want to film documentaries—documentaries no one has ever made before.”

“Of course, limited by our current funding, some grand-scale documentaries are impossible. We will carefully consider our subject matter. We just hope to record some meaningful events with our cameras…”

Pei Qian relaxed slightly but quickly became vigilant again.

He was relieved because Huang Sibo and Zhu Xiaocai had abandoned short videos, which was undoubtedly tremendously good news.

If they had proceeded with their original idea, it would likely have been another hit short video series. If it reached the level of “Unexpected” or “Report to Boss,” that would have been disastrous.

Now that Huang Sibo and Zhu Xiaocai wanted to film documentaries, from a subject matter perspective, the possibility of making money had decreased again, which was a good thing.