Li Shi silently finished a cigarette outside the entrance of Slackin’ Internet Café.

After hearing his subordinate’s report, Li Shi fell into deep doubt about his judgment.

Although Fuhui Capital wasn’t considered an especially top-tier investment company nationwide, in Jingzhou, shouldn’t every company know about them?

However, even after stating his company’s name, this Mr. Pei remained unmoved and rejected him at lightning speed.

This seemed somewhat unreasonable.

After all, in this circle, such investment behaviors were very common.

When venture capitalists came knocking, most people would choose to talk first and see what conditions were offered before deciding.

If they were truly dissatisfied or couldn’t reach an agreement, at worst, they’d part ways and look for cooperation opportunities in the future—no real loss.

The kind who refused without even asking questions was truly rare.

Li Shi, being a mature investor, wasn’t easily defeated by this small surprise. He dispersed the cigarette smell from his body and returned to Slackin’ Internet Café.

Li Shi noticed that Pei Qian had stopped writing and sketching in his notebook, though he still looked at it with a grave expression, lost in thought.

If Li Shi didn’t trust his subordinates enough, he would have doubted whether Mr. Pei had even received the olive branch he’d extended.

“Strange, he’s indifferent to my investment.”

“Could my judgment be wrong?”

“Although this Mr. Pei is temporarily in difficulties with his continuously loss-making internet café, he stubbornly believes he can turn losses into profits.”

“I can provide him with substantial funding and cooperation opportunities. Could it be that Mr. Pei considers absolute control more important than these?”

“Whatever the case, he seems like someone with strong control issues who doesn’t allow anyone else to interfere.”

“Hmph, young people will be young people, wanting to eat alone. This isn’t the mindset a good entrepreneur should have.”

From any angle of analysis, Li Shi found it difficult to understand why Mr. Pei would so decisively reject his investment.

The key was how swiftly he rejected it, without even asking about the specific proposal.

Li Shi could only think of one explanation: this Mr. Pei was a hothead, an extremely stubborn person with a strong desire to control his business, unwilling to let anyone else give orders.

Of course, it also indicated that Mr. Pei still firmly believed his internet café’s direction was correct and would eventually turn profitable, which was why he didn’t want to share the fruits of victory with others.

Although Li Shi could directly approach Pei Qian to clarify things now, he didn’t plan to do so.

After all, as the boss of an investment company, how could he do something so lacking in prestige?

What if he handed over his business card and Mr. Pei merely exchanged pleasantries without taking him seriously? Wouldn’t that be awkward?

Moreover, based on the previous situation, the possibility of being rebuffed again was high.

“Hmph, young man, no one can refuse my investment, and you won’t be an exception.”

“As with all investments, some companies desperately seek it, some accept it gladly, and some… need a little help…”

Li Shi quietly observed Pei Qian, the corner of his mouth revealing a confident smile.

……

……

June 24th.

Slackin’ Internet Café, flagship store.

A taxi stopped at the entrance. Ma Yang pushed open the car door, got out, and entered the café.

“Manager Ma, finished your exam? How did it go?” Zhang Yuan greeted Ma Yang enthusiastically when he saw him.

Ma Yang sat down casually in a seat and stretched lazily. His long face grew even longer as he yawned: “It was not a very important course, passing shouldn’t be a problem.”

“I also let Brother Qian copy my homework assignments, which should help him get at least 10 extra points for regular grades. I think for at least a month or two, he won’t pursue the losses from the internet café and food delivery.”

Zhang Yuan stood in solemn respect.

Indeed, this was the so-called “having someone on the inside makes things easier,” wasn’t it?

Previously, Zhang Yuan couldn’t quite understand why someone like Ma Yang would be appointed to the important position of Slackin’ Internet Café’s general manager, but now he completely understood.

He even felt it was perfectly reasonable.

Although saying this might make people think Ma Yang obtained this key position through some improper relationship, for Zhang Yuan, following a leader like Ma Yang was quite comfortable.

At least he didn’t have to worry about being held accountable by Mr. Pei!

A server had already brought a cold drink. Ma Yang sipped it while lamenting: “That said, we still need to keep up our efforts.”

“I was originally hoping the food delivery would turn losses into profits, but now the food delivery is losing money too…”

Zhang Yuan also felt worried hearing this: “Yeah, a few days ago Mr. Pei was here writing and sketching in a small notebook with a super serious expression. Who knows what he was writing.”

Ever since Ma Yang had sent Chen Lei away, he’d been somewhat dispirited.

To help him find something new to do, Pei Qian specifically entrusted him with the important task of Slackin’ Food Delivery.

Ma Yang was indeed initially enthusiastic, recruiting delivery staff, buying dishwashers, finding people to develop the first version of the app, only to discover in the end that hardly anyone was ordering food…

They were supporting a group of people for nothing, adding another expense.

Of course, it wasn’t that no one ordered from Slackin’ Food Delivery. There were some customers who liked their flavors, but it was difficult to recover costs.

The problems were multifaceted:

Mr. Pei was very averse to “ground promotion” advertising methods like distributing flyers, so not many people knew about Slackin’ Food Delivery so far.

The Slackin’ Food Delivery app only offered its dishes and hadn’t integrated other merchants, severely limiting its appeal to general customers.

They only served home-style dishes with a relatively limited menu, and the pricing was considerably more expensive than typical home cooking.

In short, due to low exposure and general consumer perception issues, Slackin’ Food Delivery wasn’t operating at full capacity, with many employees having nothing to do.

According to the original plan, delivery staff could deliver to several households at once, and collection staff could pick up utensils from several households in one trip, but now due to too few customers, they were making separate trips for each set of utensils.

Though the tableware was good, there were inevitably cases of damage or loss. According to Pei Qian’s requirements, even in such situations, they wouldn’t hold customers responsible unless they discovered deliberate damage happening repeatedly.

Although there hadn’t been such mischievous customers yet, the occasional tableware damage still made Ma Yang feel the pain.

Given this situation, making a profit was impossible.

Both men fell silent.

Ma Yang drank his beverage and looked around the internet café, suddenly frowning: “Strange, why does it feel like there are especially few people in the store today?”

Zhang Yuan was startled: “Oh? Really?”

He hadn’t noticed before, since Slackin’ Internet Café always had few people during the day, with consistently only a dozen or so people surfing the internet, and about the same number drinking coffee.

Today was also a weekday morning, so fewer people would be normal.

But now that Ma Yang mentioned it, Zhang Yuan did notice that today’s customer count seemed particularly low!

Only two people were playing in the internet café area, and in the coffee area, there was only one customer.

“Maybe it’s just a coincidence,” Zhang Yuan said.

As the two were puzzled, the door of the internet café opened, and a Slackin’ Food Delivery courier holding several flyers rushed in hurriedly.

“Manager Ma, Manager Zhang, something’s happened!”

“Take a look at these flyers!”

Ma Yang and Zhang Yuan were somewhat confused as they took the flyers from the delivery person.

Although Slackin’ Food Delivery’s current business situation wasn’t good, they still had some customers. This delivery person had gone out to deliver food and saw something on his way back.

There were several flyers, some for internet cafés, some for coffee shops and bars, interspersed with a few duplicate flyers, possibly taken accidentally by the delivery worker in his hurry.

Ma Yang and Zhang Yuan spread the flyers on the table and checked them one by one.

Internet café recharge discounts, limited-time promotions!

Coffee shops and bars also had drink discounts, half-price second drinks, and similar promotions!

Ma Yang was puzzled: “What does this have to do with us?”

The delivery person was still slightly out of breath: “Manager Ma, these… these stores are all around us!”

Zhang Yuan frowned instantly, realizing the situation was bad!

Looking carefully, it was indeed true. These shops were all around the Slackin’ Internet Café flagship store, all within short distances.

Ma Yang’s long face immediately tensed as he realized the seriousness of the problem: “This… could they be targeting us?”

He thought for a moment, then shook his head: “No, we haven’t offended anyone, have we? We haven’t had any price wars with them, so why would these stores target us like this?”

Ma Yang was confused. Logically, if Slackin’ Internet Café were booming and taking business from others, that would make sense.

The key was that Slackin’ Internet Café was already so quiet, so what was the point of such targeting?

Zhang Yuan’s expression grew more serious: “Not necessarily.”

“Although Slackin’ Internet Café is losing money, as long as our store remains open, we compete with these stores. Perhaps they want to kick us while we’re down and won’t rest until they see Slackin’ Internet Café go bankrupt?”

“Moreover, internet cafés, bars, coffee shops—so many stores launching discount activities together, it’s as if they’re coordinated… There might be someone behind this pushing it forward!”

Ma Yang was on high alert: “Then what should we do?”

Zhang Yuan’s brows furrowed tightly as he thought for a long time.

“It’s not easy to deal with. The other side has come prepared!”

“These few stores are initiating a price war, whether internet cafés, bars, or coffee shops—they’re all cutting prices and frantically distributing flyers.”

“If I’m not mistaken, all the intersections near our internet café have already been occupied by them.”

“This way, people who want to come to our internet café will inevitably see their flyers and promotional advertisements.”

“The customer flow in this area isn’t large to begin with, and after they absorb it all, our place will naturally become even quieter.”

Ma Yang suddenly understood and felt angry: “No wonder there are so few people in the internet café today!”

Zhang Yuan continued: “That’s not all!”

“I feel the other side has come prepared, hitting us right where we’re most vulnerable!”

“According to Mr. Pei’s plan, our internet café has had a high-end positioning from the beginning, so our prices are relatively high.”

“The other side wants to drag us down, engage us in a price war, and this is very difficult to handle.”

“If we don’t lower our prices, then we have a huge disadvantage in terms of pricing.”

“For example, our original prices were 40% higher than other places, but we had a better environment and service, so many customers were willing to pay a bit more to enjoy better service.”

“But now the other side is burning money to lower prices, our prices are 60% or even higher than theirs. Will customers still be willing to pay so much more for our environment and service?”

Ma Yang frowned: “What if we lower our prices too?”

Zhang Yuan shook his head again: “No! We’re on a high-end path, lowering prices would damage our reputation. Besides, in terms of burning money, we’ve been losing money all along, how can we compete with them?”

“Moreover, don’t you remember what Mr. Pei said the last time we proposed lowering prices?”

Ma Yang was speechless.

When Slackin’ Internet Café first started losing money, Zhang Yuan had proposed a price reduction strategy, which was directly rejected by Pei Qian.

If they proposed it again this time, the result would likely be the same.

But not lowering prices wasn’t an option either. The Slackin’ Internet Café flagship store was now surrounded. These stores just needed to frantically distribute flyers at a few intersections near Slackin’ Internet Café to divert most of the customer flow.

Even if a few wealthy customers were extremely loyal to Slackin’ Internet Café, it wouldn’t help. After all, customers who completely disregarded price were ultimately the minority—most people still considered value for money.

Zhang Yuan’s face was serious: “Let’s report to Mr. Pei. This isn’t something we can decide!”

……

In his rented apartment, Pei Qian was enjoying a sweet sleep.

The phone rang.

Pei Qian was awakened from his dream, feeling very unhappy.

However, seeing it was Ma Yang calling, considering that he had just lent him his class assignments for reference, Pei Qian forgave him.

“What’s up, Old Ma?”

On the phone, Ma Yang quickly described the major crisis that Slackin’ Internet Café was facing.

“Brother Qian, that’s the situation.”

“Zhang Yuan and I analyzed it, and all of this isn’t so simple. Someone must be stirring things up behind the scenes!”

“What should we do now?”

Ma Yang’s voice was very anxious.

Pei Qian instantly became wide awake.

Could such good things happen?!

Pei Qian almost laughed out loud. The pressure of losses for this cycle was already great, and he had been struggling with whether he could successfully manufacture losses when the time came.

As a result, just as he was about to sleep, someone came to deliver a pillow!

Currently, the Slackin’ Internet Café flagship store was losing about 300,000 yuan a month, but this was on the premise that the drink and internet café businesses had certain revenues.

Although Chen Lei had left, his influence remained. Many old customers still liked to come to Slackin’ Internet Café to sit around when they had nothing to do, so the losses of the internet café had decreased considerably compared to the beginning.

Now, with surrounding stores launching a price war, Slackin’ Internet Café’s customer flow was being cut off, meaning Pei Qian would have less income before settlement!

If these stores could persist, it meant that in the next cycle, Slackin’ Internet Café’s income would continue to plummet, which was…

Fantastic!

Currently, there was only a week left until settlement, and part of Slackin’ Internet Café’s income—maybe seventy or eighty thousand yuan—would go down the drain.

Don’t underestimate this seventy or eighty thousand. Perhaps with this reduced income of seventy or eighty thousand, profit would turn into loss—a world of difference!

Pei Qian struggled to calm himself, preventing himself from laughing out loud.

Ma Yang heard Pei Qian’s silence on the other end and felt the situation was even more serious: “What should we do, Brother Qian?”

Pei Qian rubbed his uncontrollably upturned mouth corners and said in as calm a voice as possible: “Don’t panic. At times like this, stillness is better than action.”

“Don’t do anything. I have my arrangements!”