All the investors present were shocked.

Well now, Mr. Li’s skill at showing off had improved again!

Inadvertently, they had been shown up by him once more. How infuriating!

So casually, he had dropped such major news.

“What’s going on? Mr. Pei arranged everything? ‘Millet Departure’ is a project invested in by Mr. Pei? What exactly is going on here?”

“Something’s not right. If ‘Millet Departure’ is a project invested in by Mr. Pei, why is the anti-Tenda alliance using this game to make trouble? Have they short-circuited? Aren’t they just slapping their own faces?”

“If ‘Millet Departure’ is Mr. Pei’s project, why isn’t anyone saying so? Is there still any need to keep this secret?!”

The investors were all shocked, both surprised and finding it somewhat difficult to accept.

So after all this commotion, it turned out the anti-Tenda alliance had created a massive blunder??

Li Shi smiled slightly: “If Mr. Pei had made it clear from the beginning that he was investing in ‘Millet Departure,’ would there have been any show of the anti-Tenda alliance taking the bait?”

“Mr. Pei was like Jiang Taigong fishing—whoever wants to bite, will bite!”

“We can’t blame the anti-Tenda alliance for being too stupid. To be honest, before I looked through Dream Realization Venture Capital’s internal documents, I wouldn’t have thought that the investor behind ‘Millet Departure’ was actually Mr. Pei!”

“After all, according to normal logic, this would be considered a supportive investment where risk and return are completely disproportionate. Making such an investment couldn’t be for profit, but more for reputation, so it would definitely be publicized widely.”

“But Mr. Pei truly had no intention of publicizing it widely. He required the entire investment project to remain strictly confidential. Even when the anti-Tenda alliance was using this to attack frantically, Mr. Pei remained very patient, still not revealing anything. He’s so steady, such a great leader!”

“As for why it was kept confidential, there can be many interpretations.”

“Perhaps Mr. Pei is indifferent to fame and gain, doesn’t want this kind of empty reputation, doesn’t want to elevate Tenda too high and turn it into a moral model.”

“Or perhaps Mr. Pei anticipated that one day, some people with ulterior motives would use similar excuses to attack Tenda, so he arranged a countermeasure in advance.”

One investor exclaimed in surprise: “Could Mr. Pei calculate so ingeniously? He invested in ‘Millet Departure,’ and the anti-Tenda alliance people just happened to notice ‘Millet Departure,’ and just happened to use it to attack Tenda?”

Li Shi shook his head: “I think there’s probably about 30% luck involved here.”

“First, if the anti-Tenda alliance had used other games to attack Tenda, Tenda could still have brought out ‘Millet Departure’ to counter, proving that they truly invested in and supported promising domestic games. And the reason they didn’t invest in that particular project was because they felt its quality was average or it didn’t align with Tenda’s philosophy.”

“In any case, with ‘Millet Departure’ as a benchmark, the accusation that Tenda doesn’t invest in domestic games naturally wouldn’t stand.”

“Second, there aren’t many excellent single-player projects domestically to begin with, and outstanding projects are even fewer. The excellent quality of ‘Millet Departure’ stands out among many domestic games like a crane among chickens. It’s like bait, too attractive—the anti-Tenda alliance could hardly not notice it!”

“Finally, and most crucially: Tenda’s investment in ‘Millet Departure’ came first, providing it with startup capital, creating a game demo, achieving certain results—that’s why it caught the attention of the anti-Tenda alliance!”

“These companies in the anti-Tenda alliance all share one characteristic: they can only add flowers to the brocade, never sending charcoal in snow. Sometimes they’re not even adding flowers to brocade; they’re purely seeing that the fruit is about to ripen and forcibly cutting in line to pick it.”

“For them, if ‘Millet Departure’ only had an initial design draft, they absolutely wouldn’t invest; only when ‘Millet Departure’ had shown results and they saw hope for success would they crowd around.”

“So ‘Millet Departure’ was a huge piece of bait. Under such temptation, the anti-Tenda alliance taking the bait was almost inevitable!”

“Those companies in the anti-Tenda alliance all thought the Yan Qi team was developing ‘Millet Departure’ with money earned from the mobile game ‘Empire’s Edge.’ They didn’t expect that the Yan Qi team truly had an investor willing to back them!”

After hearing Li Shi’s explanation, all the investors expressed their admiration.

Brilliant, truly brilliant!

Mr. Pei’s strategy of “Jiang Taigong fishing—whoever wants to bite, will bite” had truly caught the fish of the anti-Tenda alliance!

“In that case… Mr. Pei really is far-sighted and has grand vision!”

“Even if this isn’t purely predictive reasoning ability, at least it shows a profound insight into the current situation and a deep understanding of these companies in the anti-Tenda alliance, to make such a forward-thinking judgment!”

“No wonder you said it’s boring at Dream Realization Venture Capital, Mr. Li. Each time you encounter a problem, you can always find a solution that Mr. Pei had already left behind. That indeed lacks some challenge!”

“By the way, Mr. Li, this information should still be confidential, right? Is it okay to tell us?”

The investors were satisfied after consuming this major piece of gossip.

Li Shi smiled slightly: “Actually, it’s only a matter of time before this news spreads. Last month, the Enterprise Credit Information Disclosure System came online. Tenda’s layout through Dream Realization Venture Capital in the Independent Game Incubator Base, the Morning Dew Gaming Platform, and the ‘Millet Departure’ project team can no longer be hidden!”

“I think it’s precisely for this reason that Mr. Pei didn’t choose to release the news himself to slap the anti-Tenda alliance in the face.”

“Because having someone else expose this news has more impact!”

“The higher the interest in this matter, the more people will want to uncover the truth. Eventually, someone will discover the real investor behind ‘Millet Departure’ through this disclosure system.”

“So Tenda isn’t worried at all now. No matter how big the storm gets outside, Mr. Pei just sits calmly at his fishing spot. The bigger the waves, the more disastrously the anti-Tenda alliance will lose. It seems like they’re launching a full-scale attack on Tenda, but in reality, they’re just like arrows being collected by Mr. Pei from his straw-covered boats!”

As Li Shi was speaking, his phone vibrated.

He picked it up, looked at it, and a smile appeared on his face.

“Look at this! I told you someone would discover this sooner or later, and here it is!”

The two investors next to him immediately leaned in curiously.

Li Shi smiled smugly: “I’ll forward it to you.”

Although he hadn’t planned this layout like Mr. Pei had, and hadn’t even participated in it, as someone who took over midway, he was still part of this arrangement. Being able to witness such a brilliant prediction, Li Shi felt extremely proud.

The investors all took out their phones to check what Li Shi had forwarded.

It was a special report on “Millet Departure” from the official gaming platform!

This special report looked quite impressive, placed directly in the most prominent position on the official gaming platform, impossible to miss.

Of course, what Li Shi forwarded wasn’t the original report from the official gaming platform, but one that had been re-shared by other media.

That’s because the official platform’s reports are all published on the platform itself, only visible after logging in. But this news was so explosive that once it was released, it was reposted by various media outlets and instantly spread across the entire internet!

…

The interview’s title was: Exclusive Interview with “Millet Departure” Producer Yan Qi: Carefully Nurturing the Spark in Your Heart, Once It Meets Kindling, It Naturally Blazes into a Prairie Fire!

The first half of the interview was relatively standard, mainly describing Yan Qi’s journey and career as a game producer.

He had loved action games since his youth and always had the dream of “making excellent domestic action games.” After entering the workforce, he resolutely joined the gaming industry, but the dream was too distant. Pressured by livelihood, he could only make mobile games first, working for others before becoming a producer himself.

Although “Empire’s Edge” achieved commercial success, material wealth didn’t stop his journey; instead, it made him yearn even more for his initial dream. The money earned from “Empire’s Edge” didn’t become a burden but instead became a boost for his takeoff.

And this was exactly what the title meant: carefully nurturing the spark in your heart, not letting it die out, and when conditions are right, it will naturally blaze up.

Looking only at the first half, this was a fairly standard interview.

After all, Yan Qi’s experience could be said to be a microcosm of many domestic game producers. Although there were leaps, overall, he took solid steps one at a time, and everyone’s path isn’t too different.

The key was in the latter half.

“When discussing the game ‘Millet Departure,’ Yan Qi indicated that this game had external sources of inspiration, and it was the help and support of investors that was the fundamental driving force allowing him to develop this game to the extreme regardless of cost. Otherwise, the money earned from ‘Empire’s Edge’ would not have been enough to support him in developing ‘Millet Departure’ to the extreme…”

At this point, the interview became somewhat strange.

Because the content suddenly became vague!

Yan Qi mentioned external help multiple times during the interview but never explicitly stated where this external help came from.

The sources of inspiration and funding weren’t detailed; instead, the Morning Dew Gaming Platform was praised extensively, with thanks given for the help it provided.

Everyone was somewhat puzzled—is this even an interview?

After all that interviewing, they got absolutely nothing!

How could such important information not be clarified? Or rather, why even include these vague, ambiguous things in the report at all?

Were they playing a guessing game, toying with everyone?

How could professional journalists from the official platform make such a basic mistake?

Although it seemed a bit ridiculous, the content of this interview wasn’t over yet, so everyone patiently continued reading.

Until the end of the interview, Yan Qi never revealed the exact sources of inspiration and funding for “Millet Departure”; he kept his lips sealed.

But just because Yan Qi didn’t say it doesn’t mean the article didn’t mention it!

After all the interview content had ended, there was one final paragraph in the article.

“Regarding this mysterious investor, Yan Qi’s face always radiated with a smile he couldn’t suppress, but he consistently refused to reveal any details.”

“However, just last month, the Enterprise Credit Information Disclosure Platform went online. One only needs to check there, and all the truth will naturally come to light.”

“This writer sincerely hopes that companies that genuinely contribute to domestic games in a down-to-earth manner will increase, while companies that provoke conflicts, launch attacks, and use support for domestic games for moral kidnapping will decrease as much as possible!”

“The eyes of the masses, though occasionally blinded by carefully manufactured illusions, are ultimately bright as snow. All the despicable tricks of petty people will eventually melt away like ice and snow under the sunshine, and the truth will inevitably come to light!”