June 27th, Sunday evening.

Slackin’ Internet Café.

Li Shi sat by the window, leisurely drinking.

Pei Qian sat in another corner, scrolling through his phone.

The two knew each other, but both harbored ulterior motives, pretending to be strangers.

Pei Qian had no intention of making any rash moves. All he needed to do now was continue his brilliant acting performance to keep Li Shi fooled, and everything would be fine.

These past few days, the nearby stores continued their discount activities. One could feel that the street where Slackin’ Internet Café was located had become considerably livelier.

The small commercial district next door, which usually didn’t have much foot traffic, had recently begun experiencing traffic jams.

Many people came after hearing about the promotions at nearby stores, and even many who hadn’t planned to go out decided to take a stroll around the area.

This created quite a striking scene: all the surrounding businesses were packed with customers and had large foot traffic, while Slackin’ Internet Café’s entrance remained deserted, forming a stark contrast.

Many uninformed passersby instinctively assumed that Slackin’ Internet Café was also having a sale. They would come in to inquire, only to discover that the prices here were many times more expensive than the surrounding stores, immediately frightening them away.

Pei Qian was somewhat puzzled: hadn’t he placed a price list at the entrance? Why were so many people still coming in to ask?

After thinking about it, he figured it was probably because these people were hopeful, assuming that since all the nearby stores were having promotions, Slackin’ Internet Café might have forgotten to write it on their sign, and they needed to come in and ask to be sure.

Pei Qian had Ma Yang specifically add three prominent characters to the sign: “NO DISCOUNT!”

Soon after, nobody came to ask about prices anymore.

Slackin’ Internet Café’s situation could be described with a line of poetry: “The hustle and bustle belongs to them; I have nothing.”

And this was exactly the scene Pei Qian had been dreaming of.

After confirming that there were no major issues with the games at Tenda, Pei Qian would frequently come here when he had nothing to do.

Sometimes he would coincidentally meet Li Shi, and Pei Qian would put on an appearance of deep concern and extreme inner conflict.

As long as he kept Li Shi on the hook and the surrounding shops continued their promotional activities, further cutting off Slackin’ Internet Café’s customer flow, there was great hope for losses this cycle!

…

Li Shi quietly drank his alcohol, his eyes secretly glancing in Pei Qian’s direction.

Previously, Pei Qian didn’t often come to the internet café, so Li Shi didn’t have many opportunities to observe him.

Now, Li Shi had a good chance to observe.

“To become a boss at such a young age, he has many exceptional qualities.”

“Despite being extremely anxious inside, he still maintains his composure, only revealing a tiny bit… this psychological quality is beyond what ordinary people can achieve.”

“Not bad, this further strengthens my determination to invest.”

Li Shi’s mindset was also undergoing a slight transformation.

The key to investment is investing in people.

For a company, encountering an opportunity wave isn’t anything special.

When hitting such a wave, the vast majority of companies only end up crashing, while a very small number take flight.

The key difference lies with the company’s leader.

Li Shi did indeed have money, but having money didn’t mean he had to roll up his sleeves and get involved personally.

Li Shi wasn’t skilled at managing internet cafés. What he could provide was funding and connections. The specific management and operation of the internet café still require specialized people to be responsible.

Li Shi was very clear about this. He wasn’t just interested in Slackin’ Internet Café’s model; he was more interested in Pei Qian as a leader.

Therefore, Li Shi was more eager to invest in Slackin’ Internet Café rather than copying it himself.

Creating his own copy of Slackin’ Internet Café would be time-consuming, laborious, and expensive, plus he would have to find people to manage it himself—a poor value proposition.

Investors like Li Shi would not roll up their sleeves to do such dirty, exhausting work personally.

Moreover, in his view, he was about to succeed anyway.

Li Shi took a sip of his drink, savoring it carefully.

“I still feel a bit uneasy.”

“Am I overlooking something?”

Li Shi considered carefully. There was indeed one questionable point in this matter.

“By logical reasoning, this Mr. Pei, who has achieved so much at such a young age, should be a very capable person.”

“But it seems that until now, he hasn’t suspected me? At least he hasn’t shown it.”

“This is very unreasonable.”

“This Mr. Pei hasn’t resisted at all, allowing the surrounding stores to cut off his customer flow, yet hasn’t made any changes to Slackin’ Internet Café.”

“No discounts, no promotional activities, and he even specifically wrote ‘NO DISCOUNT’ on the sign at the entrance, turning away customers who came to inquire about prices.”

“Is he overly confident in Slackin’ Internet Café?”

“Has he given up resistance?”

“Or… does he have another plan?”

After considering for a long time, Li Shi finally shook his head.

“Heh, I’m probably overthinking. In this situation, most people would indeed be at a loss.”

“He can’t lower prices because a price war would damage Slackin’ Internet Café’s high-end image, which would be more harmful than beneficial in the long run. This is indeed a very unsolvable issue.”

“It’s also possible that this is his deliberate action?”

“No, no, no, that would be too unreasonable.”

“Other stores are at least burning money to increase their reputation, while Slackin’ Internet Café is now purely burning money. He would have to be crazy to hold out in such a situation with no returns.”

“Unless he has some backup plan that even I can’t see through…”

“Forget it, I’m probably overthinking. A young person like him, what tricks could he possibly play?”

By the end of his thoughts, Li Shi was smiling to himself.

Mr. Pei’s actions didn’t follow conventional logic, making him somewhat unpredictable to Li Shi, which led to him inadvertently overestimating him.

Li Shi thought about it: having been in the investment circle for so many years, what storms hadn’t he weathered?

Even if this Mr. Pei was a heaven-sent talent, he was still just an inexperienced young person. Overestimating him too much would be pointless.

Having finished his drink, Li Shi prepared to leave.

It was Sunday evening, and Slackin’ Internet Café remained quiet with few visitors. The outcome seemed decided, and there was no need for him to keep watch anymore.

He would go home and relax for a few days, waiting patiently. Perhaps they could soon celebrate with champagne.

Just then, Pei Qian’s phone rang.

Li Shi, who was about to stand up, paused.

Although he didn’t think he would hear any confidential information from this call, it wouldn’t hurt to listen casually.

Pei Qian was also a bit surprised. Who would call so late in the evening?

Looking at his phone, he saw it was Huang Sibo.

Thinking about how Huang Sibo’s “Breaking Out of the Cocoon” had almost sabotaged him again, Pei Qian instinctively didn’t want to answer. But on second thought, this time Huang Sibo had at least openly completed the task of losing money, leaving him with a big hole, which made him somewhat meritorious.

So he decided to answer.

“Boss Pei!”

“Do you have a TV nearby? Quick, look at Magic City TV!”

Pei Qian was confused: “What’s going on?”

Huang Sibo: “Don’t ask! Just turn on Magic City TV and you’ll know! Congratulations in advance, Boss Pei!”