July 28, Sunday.

Li Shi and several investors came to the Frightening Inn to examine its current state.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve seen such a completely packed situation. This doesn’t fall behind many large amusement parks at all,” exclaimed one investor, looking at the massive crowds at the entrance of the Frightening Inn.

Although the Frightening Inn had been popular for a period before, people had played these three haunted house projects for quite some time. Whether local visitors from Handong Province or tourists from across the country, most potential visitors had already been attracted and those who wanted to visit had already done so.

No matter how fun a project is, people will eventually tire of it.

Later, after the Frightening Inn opened a roller coaster project and commercial area, it was able to maintain a fairly good daily visitor count through local Jingzhou customer traffic, but such unprecedented full capacity hadn’t appeared for a long time.

Li Shi smiled slightly: “Would Mr. Pei miss problems that we can all see? Look, new projects are coming soon.”

“Everyone has seen the public opinion online yesterday, right? People have been unanimously praising these two new projects!”

The other investors all nodded in agreement.

The popularity of the Frightening Inn certainly couldn’t escape these investors’ notice, as they had direct investment relationships with the Frightening Inn and could benefit from it.

These past couple of days, after the Frightening Inn’s new projects—Foreign Traveler and Hot and Cold Animal Park—opened, many leaks and reviews appeared online immediately. After all, the Frightening Inn was considered a unique amusement park in China, and many local Jingzhou players were closely following the birth of new projects.

These investors had been scrolling through these user comments for a while, secretly delighted!

“I heard that this new haunted house project called Foreign Traveler is very interesting. It’s very flexible with the number of participants—you can go as a team without fixed requirements. Inside, they’ve used some common scenes, but there are clues to solve, ghost role-playing, and many completely unexpected special gameplay modes. It’s so much better than ordinary escape rooms!”

“I heard that Bao Xu and the coordinators personally tested it—definitely worth experiencing!”

“Also, many people have reported that the scare level of this haunted house project is moderate, unlike other haunted houses with many malicious designs like jump scares!”

“Exactly! Other haunted houses often scare you so much that you don’t dare open your eyes, but the scare level of this haunted house has clearly been deliberately calibrated. While maintaining a sense of horror, it also allows more timid people to muster the courage to come in and experience it. And by adjusting the team size and specific gameplay, they can adjust the scare level, thus maximizing the expansion of the player base.”

“If you ask me, this Hot and Cold Animal Park is also a stroke of genius! On one hand, it interacts with the new haunted house project, allowing those who’ve been frightened to go to the zoo to see animals. On the other hand, the unique design of this zoo easily creates a marketing effect, naturally making it popular!”

“I think Mr. Pei’s decision not to purchase wild animals on a large scale was absolutely wise. Wild animals have more stringent requirements, and it would overlap with Jingzhou’s Wild Animal Park. Now, the model of the Hot and Cold Animal Park is unique.”

“Yes! I completely agree. Actually, many people have a curiosity about wild animals that drives them to buy tickets—they’re just satisfying their curiosity. After seeing it once, few people want to go see it every day. But if the animals are more like pets, that’s different—visitors are willing to watch repeatedly, like meeting old friends.”

“That’s right. The Hot and Cold Animal Park has also given these animals names and provides QR codes so you can see these animals’ activities at any time. All of these efforts are building connections between the animals and visitors. Some animals are even being turned into internet celebrities, making them more recognizable and memorable, distinguishing them from other wild animals.”

“Having employees perform on stage instead of animal performances—that idea is brilliant! I wonder who came up with it!”

“By the way, these employees are all so talented—they can perform in stage plays, do crosstalk comedy, and sing. Where did they find them?”

“Could it be that Tenda employees naturally have multi-talented attributes?”

“That’s definitely not possible. I think Mr. Pei must have secretly discovered these people and hired these talented individuals as animal keepers with high salaries. This creates great talking points—though it’s a marketing technique, I think it’s very clever.”

These coordinators were all full of praise.

The better the Frightening Inn project performed, the greater the benefits they could gain from it.

Over the past two days, they had repeatedly scrolled through user comments online and watched videos of the crosstalk comedy and stage play, all applauding and marveling at how Mr. Pei often gave them such surprises at unexpected moments.

At the same time, they became even more impressed with Mr. Li’s foresight!

Thinking back to when Mr. Pei said he wanted to build an amusement park in the old industrial area, no one except Mr. Li had been optimistic about it.

Fortunately, these investors ultimately chose to trust Mr. Li and gritted their teeth to follow along.

Looking back now, from the initial poor performance of the Frightening Inn, to its later success, to the subsequent continuous success of new projects one after another, becoming China’s maybe not largest but definitely most unique amusement park—it seemed that every step had been exquisitely planned by Mr. Pei, each step bringing endless surprises.

One investor praised: “Mr. Li, you and Mr. Pei are truly like-minded friends—just like Yu Boya and Zhong Ziqi from ancient times.”

Li Shi smiled slightly: “Oh my, that’s quite an exaggeration—you’re flattering me too much.”

“Mr. Pei is the true natural talent. I merely happened to see his outstanding brilliance.”

“Well, let’s not just talk without taking action. I have VIP tickets here—shall we go in for a tour?”

“If you’re willing, I can talk to Chen Kangtuo and ask him to arrange a separate session of the Foreign Traveler project for us to experience?”

Several investors immediately looked alarmed: “Mr. Li, that’s really not necessary. Although we know the Foreign Traveler project is very fun, our old bones aren’t suitable for such experiences.”

Other investors also chimed in: “Yes, Mr. Li, these good projects should be left for young people—we won’t compete with them.”

“Right! Older people like us are more suited to going to the zoo to play with cats, walk dogs, watch parrots, and such.”

Li Shi joked: “How is it that this project is directly related to your interests, yet you don’t want to personally experience it? Mr. Pei plays every game he makes himself.”

The investors all shook their heads like bobbleheads: “Not necessary, not necessary. How can we compare ourselves to Mr. Pei?”

Someone also exposed Li Shi’s trick on the spot: “Mr. Li, I think you’re just trying to scare us. Would you dare to experience the Foreign Traveler project yourself? If you dare to go, I’ll dare to follow! How about that?”

Li Shi laughed: “Haha, then let’s go see the animals instead.”

“Watching animals can make the mind and body happy—suitable for us elderly people to enjoy our golden years.”

The investors directly bypassed the entrance to Foreign Traveler, taking a look at the automatic ticket machine at the entrance, which already had many people waiting.

This large-scale project could accommodate more than ten people experiencing it together at once, and most people couldn’t persist to the end, fleeing in disarray after at most half an hour, but even so, there were still many people queuing.

The investors silently offered their blessings to these brave warriors.

Everyone strolled to the Hot and Cold Animal Park and, checking the time, saw that the stage play hadn’t started yet. So they dispersed, each going to see their favorite animals.

Li Shi strolled leisurely, feeling the atmosphere of the Hot and Cold Animal Park.

It had to be said that this name was very fitting.

Actually, every zoo has its unique atmosphere, but because the vast majority of zoos are very similar, their atmospheres don’t differ much.

But the Hot and Cold Animal Park gave people a very warm and sweet feeling, allowing them to feel the vibrant vitality of animals without feeling like they were deep in the wild being eroded by wildness.

Perhaps this was the meaning of “hot and cold awareness.”

After a brief stroll, Li Shi found that fluffy animals attracted the most visitors, like some cute canines, alpacas, arctic foxes, and so on—all of which had gathered large numbers of visitors, mostly girls.

He noticed a very proud parrot not far away, with an automatic argument machine placed beside it. This area had few people and seemed very quiet.

“Hmm, in such a large animal park, why are there so few people at the parrot area?”

“I remember reading online that the parrot at the Hot and Cold Animal Park is a must-see. Were the online comments wrong?”

Li Shi was puzzled because he had previously read some reviews about the Hot and Cold Animal Park online, and many users said there was a very talkative parrot in this zoo that shouldn’t be missed when visiting!

But now, it didn’t seem to have any popularity?

Of course, the online users hadn’t specified how exactly this parrot talked or what it said, but rather suggested visitors experience it for themselves.

Li Shi approached the parrot and tentatively asked: “Hello?”

The parrot countered: “Do you really think so?”

Li Shi was stunned, full of question marks.

Before he could gather his thoughts to answer the parrot’s question, he heard the parrot continue: “Argument mode activated!”

…

After a while, the investors had more or less finished looking at the animals they wanted to see and were preparing to gather to watch the stage play.

Someone noticed that Li Shi’s face was flushed, his chest rising and falling slowly, as if he had just had an intense argument with someone.

An investor asked in great surprise: “Mr. Li, what happened to you?”

In their impression, Li Shi had always been a gentle and very easy-going person. They rarely saw him get so angry.

Li Shi revealed a meaningful smile: “It’s nothing, I just met a very talkative parrot over there and couldn’t help but debate with it for a while. It was quite enlightening—everyone should try it.”

The investors were very surprised: “A very talkative parrot? There’s such a rare thing! How did we not notice it before? Let’s all go see it quickly.”

Watching the investors all hurry off to find the parrot called Ganggang, Li Shi couldn’t help but display a satisfied smile.