Evening.
Swan Lake Restaurant, team-building dinner.
For Pei Qian, this had already become a routine method for forced spending, while for all employees, gathering for a celebratory dinner after completing game development had become a tradition.
Now, Mr. Pei’s direct employees had reached nearly two hundred people, so they simply booked the entire Swan Lake Restaurant.
This included new employees from several Slackin’ Internet Cafés, as well as members of Fei Huang Studio who had just returned from Magic City.
Shangyang Games employees were not included for now.
Pei Qian planned to gradually incorporate Shangyang Games starting from the next settlement cycle, so they didn’t join this dinner with the rest of the employees.
However, the necessary expenditures were not overlooked.
Pei Qian had Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin organize their dinner, paid for by the company, also at this restaurant, just at a different time.
He even felt that this most expensive buffet restaurant in Jingzhou City could no longer meet their needs.
If he could fly to the Imperial Capital to eat something better, Pei Qian certainly wouldn’t be stingy, but the system wouldn’t allow it.
“At this rate of expansion, soon Swan Lake Restaurant won’t be able to accommodate all employees dining together.”
“Need to find a solution.”
“…I do worry about everything.”
While others were eating ravenously, Pei Qian was quietly pondering future dinner arrangements.
Swan Lake Restaurant couldn’t accommodate many diners at once, as it was a high-end establishment catering to Jingzhou City’s elite. With spacious seating and beautiful surroundings, its capacity was limited.
Now Tenda’s direct employees were enough to book the entire place, so for the next dinner, with continued personnel growth, there definitely wouldn’t be enough seats.
“Got it, next time we’ll have separate dinners.”
“I’ll dine with all department heads first, then each department can have its dinner separately.”
“This way we can spend extra money, perfect!”
“It’s just a shame there aren’t any more upscale restaurants in Jingzhou.”
“Wait, why don’t I just open my restaurant that’s even more high-end than Swan Lake?”
Pei Qian naturally thought of a good idea.
Previously, with Slackin’ Internet Café and Slackin’ Takeout, he had already dipped into the food industry, as a sort of trial run, and so far it had been exactly what Pei Qian expected.
On one hand, it provided excellent work meals for employees; on the other hand, it continued to generate losses, making tremendous contributions to Pei Qian’s money-losing enterprise!
This was a great, successful experience!
However, the only problem was that Slackin’ Takeout wasn’t high-end enough.
Slackin’ Takeout’s starting point was to provide healthy home-style meals for employees. Although it was more expensive than ordinary restaurants, it was far from meeting Pei Qian’s specifications for forced spending.
After all, they used common ingredients, and the system limited food prices, preventing unlimited markup.
No matter how delicious a tomato and egg dish might be, it would be difficult to sell at an exorbitant price unless the chef had supernatural skills.
Pei Qian didn’t have such a chef at present.
Creating a high-end restaurant would solve this problem nicely.
He could open a small restaurant in an out-of-the-way location, stock it with all kinds of expensive ingredients, and set prices as high as possible.
Although employees would essentially be eating at a discount, as long as the ingredients were expensive, it wouldn’t be a problem.
They could eat there before each settlement, while maintaining it year-round to let it lose money freely. Quite nice.
Thinking about this, Pei Qian had it figured out.
In the next cycle, with several games still making money, Pei Qian wouldn’t need to worry about where to spend money. Investing in a high-end restaurant might cost more than three Slackin’ Internet Cafés combined.
Of course, such a high-end restaurant would certainly attract some wealthy customers, so it couldn’t be completely without patrons.
But considering that Jingzhou was only a second-tier city without too many wealthy people, it should still generate losses, with little chance of profitability.
As Pei Qian contemplated this, he glanced at Lin Wan, who was sitting two tables away.
Lin Wan thought Pei Qian hadn’t figured out her true identity, but in fact, Pei Qian was well aware and had already quietly made arrangements for her.
Of course, Pei Qian wouldn’t alarm her now. He was just waiting for the next settlement cycle to transfer Lin Wan to Shangyang Games, quickly ruin a few games, and consider it mission accomplished.
Meanwhile, Lin Wan was tapping on her phone, replying to messages.
On her screen was a message from Chen Sha.
“Great beauty, Lin, young miss, I’m begging you, please help me get a Barrett Destruction from the inside! Aren’t you in charge of this area? Surely there must be internal quotas?”
“Really can’t help with this, my hands are tied. Why not try paying extra to scalpers?” Lin Wan quickly replied. “Don’t just ask me, even our team’s most trusted and outstanding employee, Bao Xu, who has Pei’s full confidence, had to buy his Barrett Destruction from scalpers.”
Chen Sha: “…”
Since Chen Sha had been lured into Sea Fortress by Lin Wan, he had become a hardcore player of this game.
At first, Chen Sha still frequently played Anti-Terrorism Plan, as it had stronger competitive elements and longer gameplay history, while Sea Fortress, as an FPS game more oriented toward beginners, lagged behind Anti-Terrorism Plan in many aspects.
But gradually, Chen Sha defected.
As Sea Fortress became increasingly popular with more and more players, Chen Sha was slowly won over.
He never imagined that the game he once heavily criticized would one day replace the Anti-Terrorism Plan in his heart…
With the release of Barrett Destruction, Chen Sha, like other players, desperately wanted one. After all, who plays FPS games doesn’t like using sniper rifles?
However, limited to only five hundred units, they were impossible to get.
Use scalpers? Two to three thousand per account, and still no guarantee.
It wasn’t entirely about the money. Mainly, Chen Sha’s account had the Fire Qilin and many other hard-earned weapons, so he couldn’t easily abandon them.
Chen Sha persisted: “But I’ve contributed to Tenda! When Sea Fortress became a huge success, wasn’t my help in promoting it part of the reason?”
“I’m at least a small opinion leader and veteran FPS player. In other domestic FPS games, I’m someone who commands respect. How come here, wanting just one weapon is so difficult…”
Lin Wan: “Hmmmm, I remember last time when we asked you to promote the game, we gave you a Fire Qilin, and you were pretty dismissive. You even said it was just game data, which idiot would pay 888 for it? How does that saying go? Yesterday you ignored me, tomorrow…”
Chen Sha: “Ahem, I’m the idiot! This idiot now wants a Barrett Destruction, please!”
“Ahem.” Seeing Chen Sha so humble, Lin Wan felt a bit embarrassed. “Alright, seeing how sincere you are, I’ll ask Mr. Pei, but I can’t promise anything.”
Chen Sha: “Thank you, thank you!”
Lin Wan looked at the pensive Pei Qian in the distance, feeling somewhat anxious, unsure if he had discovered her identity.
Logically speaking, this rent reduction was a bit excessive.
Reducing it directly from four yuan to one point five would likely arouse Mr. Pei’s suspicion.
A smaller reduction might have eluded Mr. Pei’s notice, but for Lin Wan, that wouldn’t have been meaningful. It wouldn’t adequately reciprocate Mr. Pei’s care for his employees and would seem a bit stingy.
Lin Wan never considered herself stingy.
Now, Lin Wan wasn’t sure whether Pei Qian had become suspicious of her.
Following the usual pattern, if he suspected her, shouldn’t he have come to question her immediately?
But Mr. Pei acted as if nothing had happened, showing no particular attention to her.
“Maybe Mr. Pei is just too busy? Perhaps he hasn’t yet noticed these small matters of rent?”
“Yes, that’s quite possible.”
“Then I’ll continue to act as if nothing has happened.”
Lin Wan wouldn’t bring this up with Pei Qian on her initiative. Her principle was to do good deeds anonymously, preferring to interact with everyone as an ordinary person.
Having made up her mind, Lin Wan approached Pei Qian.
Both had their secret agendas, yet both wore smiles, each pretending not to know whether the other knew their true thoughts.