Ma Yang looked a bit confused: “Uh… why does this sound so much like charity?”

Pei Qian quickly shook his head and explained: “It’s not charity!”

“Tenda will do charity in the future, too, but this company is truly a proper venture capital firm.”

“The difference is that charity absolutely won’t have any monetary returns.”

“But with investments, you might lose money, or you might make money. Who can say for sure?”

“I’m just saying, don’t put making money as the top priority. The key is fulfilling dreams, understand?”

“If we accidentally lose money, that’s fine too. After all, venture capital is a risky business. I believe everyone will understand.”

Ma Yang seemed to understand a bit more: “So… Qian-ge, as long as I see dreams that need fulfilling, I can invest, right?”

Pei Qian nodded vigorously: “Exactly! Old Ma, I just love your excellent comprehension!”

Ma Yang became even more excited.

At first, he had only thought that running an investment company was a game of making money from money.

But after hearing Pei Qian’s explanation, Ma Yang suddenly felt that an investment company could not only make money but also help realize the dreams of small companies on the brink of bankruptcy!

Thinking about it this way, wasn’t he essentially a guardian angel, a modern-day Hua Tuo?

This spiritual level immediately elevated!

“Qian-ge, when do we start investing? I can’t wait!”

Ma Yang could barely sit still and wanted to stand up right then.

Pei Qian quickly pressed him down: “Not so fast.”

“If you want to do a job well, you must first sharpen your tools. In the next couple of days, I need to find you a qualified investment assistant.”

Investment was a troublesome and highly technical activity.

For a normal venture capital firm, there were many steps before deciding to invest in a company.

They needed to screen and review the investment proposals submitted by enterprises, understand the investment projects from various aspects, conduct interviews with the company’s managers to understand the company’s prospects, and also conduct complex business negotiations and evaluations…

Ma Yang couldn’t do any of this.

At most, he could look at investment proposals and decide how much money to invest. When it came to specific operational matters, he would be clueless.

Of course, this was precisely why Pei Qian had entrusted him with this important task.

But to keep this company running normally, someone had to help him handle some trivial matters.

Even if Pei Qian didn’t arrange an assistant for Ma Yang, once Ma Yang discovered he couldn’t handle these things, he would spend money to hire someone, and by then, the situation would be out of control.

So Pei Qian had to make the first move!

He needed to place beside Ma Yang an assistant who knew everything and could do everything, but would never interfere with Ma Yang’s ideas.

Ideally, even if Ma Yang asked, the assistant wouldn’t answer. That would be the best.

Pei Qian asked: “So as a venture capitalist, what are your expectations for your work?”

Ma Yang confidently thumped his chest: “Rest assured, Qian-ge, I understand everything!”

“There might be many projects sent to me, and at that time, I’ll hand them all over to professionals to help me screen which ones are reliable and which ones aren’t.”

“First, filter out those companies trying to scam money! Then I’ll have them recommend the companies with the highest success rates to me, and I’ll invest cautiously!”

Pei Qian: “…”

If that’s what you’re saying, I can’t possibly entrust this investment company to you.

Ah, Old Ma, Old Ma, when will you understand your position?

Pei Qian shook his head: “Absolutely not. The screening process can’t be left to the assistant; you must do it yourself!”

Ma Yang looked confused: “Huh? Why? I can’t understand any of this at all!”

Pei Qian said seriously, “You may not understand the data, but you can understand a heart with dreams!”

“Think about it, how many of those small companies with dreams have the energy to make their investment proposals look so beautiful?”

“Dreams are lofty things, full of ideals. If they’re written in such detail, so realistically, quantified into a pile of cold data, can they still be called dreams?”

“If you let others screen for you, how many small companies with dreams, those truly in need of investment, would be filtered out!”

“So, this task must be done by you!”

“The ones with detailed data and rigorous wording, those are the ones without dreams!”

“The ones with insufficient data but beautiful, inspiring text and imaginative ideas, those are the projects that truly have dreams!”

“Only by investing more in the latter can we ensure that our Dream Fulfillment Venture Capital is truly investing money in dreams!”

“You must remember, the less reliable a company’s investment proposal, the greater dreams it often harbors!”

Ma Yang had a sudden realization and nodded: “I see, that makes sense!”

Seeing that Ma Yang was already yielding, Pei Qian quickly pressed on: “You must remember, this company is called Dream Fulfillment Venture Capital.”

“Whether we make money or not isn’t important, but we must invest in dreams!”

“All evaluation criteria can be relaxed, except for dreams. Projects without dreams absolutely cannot be invested in. Understand?”

Ma Yang nodded vigorously: “Understood!”

Seeing Ma Yang’s expression, Pei Qian was certain his brainwashing had succeeded.

As long as he wasn’t brainwashed back by someone else, this state should last for quite a long time.

“Then, Qian-ge, I’ll retreat into seclusion for a while. I’m going to buy some investment-related books and seriously brush up on relevant knowledge!”

Ma Yang looked very excited.

Pei Qian was about to stop him, but remembered Ma Yang’s behavior when he bought “game design professional books” before, and instantly stopped worrying.

Let Old Ma mess around as he pleased; the more enthusiastically he messed around, the quicker this endeavor would fail…

…

Back at Tenda, Pei Qian found Assistant Xin.

“Help me find an investment advisor who understands all aspects of investment processes.”

“No requirements for other aspects. The only requirement is that no matter how the boss asks, they should not provide any investment advice, and even less should they influence or interfere with the boss’s thinking.”

Confusion showed in Assistant Xin’s eyes.

“An investment advisor who doesn’t provide any investment advice? Then… what exactly is he supposed to ‘advise’ on?”

Pei Qian: “Only responsible for handling some execution-level issues.”

Assistant Xin thought for a moment: “Then we don’t need a specialized investment advisor; any analyst or investment assistant from an investment company would do.”

Pei Qian nodded: “That works too!”

Mr. Pei couldn’t ask for more.

Assistant Xin maintained her usual style and didn’t ask further: “Alright, I’ll start looking right away.”

Pei Qian didn’t care whether the person Assistant Xin found was an analyst, investment assistant, or investment director, as long as they didn’t provide advice to Ma Yang, everything would be fine.

…

…

Evening.

Hao Qiong, who had just left work and was preparing to go home, felt a bit disoriented.

Today at work, he had played horror games all day.

Director Lin had also drawn the curtains, supposedly to let everyone better experience the atmosphere and immersion of horror games.

The employees of Shangyang Games all wore headphones, watching the big screen, fully immersed in the atmosphere of horror games.

As a result, screams erupted one after another…

And once the screams started, they came in waves. Someone would be startled by the horror game and scream, causing those around them to be frightened and start screaming as well…

It was like it was contagious.

The atmosphere was simply unbelievable.

Hao Qiong was also quite frightened, but there was nothing he could do; Director Lin had given strict orders.

Since they were making a horror game, all employees had to seriously play horror games, so that the horror game they made would be frightening enough.

Just thinking about having to continue enduring this torment for the next few days made Hao Qiong feel exhausted.

Hao Qiong left the company and walked towards his residence.

He rented a place near the company, just a ten-minute walk away, which was very convenient.

As he was walking, Hao Qiong suddenly heard a cough from his side and behind him.

“Ah!!!”

Hao Qiong was startled, almost thinking he had seen a ghost.

As a result, the person who had coughed was also startled. Both of them jumped high, looking at each other with terrified expressions.

The person who had coughed behind and to the side of Hao Qiong was an office worker in his thirties, who now, like Hao Qiong, had a face full of terror.

Hao Qiong was bewildered: “What are you doing?”

The office worker was even more bewildered: “…I just coughed twice. Do you need to react so strongly?”

Hao Qiong thought about it and realized he was right.

It was all because he had been playing horror games at work for too long; he was overreacting.

“I’m sorry, I was scared too. Sorry, sorry.”

Hao Qiong apologized and prepared to leave.

However, the office worker came up to him: “Uh… buddy, please wait. I’m looking for you because I have something important.”

“Let me introduce myself. I’m Wu Bin, HR from Hengtu Games.”

“Brother, are you considering changing jobs?”

Hao Qiong blinked his eyes, only then realizing that the person before him was here to poach employees.

Although the recent high-intensity horror game playing was a bit overwhelming, Hao Qiong thought about the salary and bonuses he received, and then thought about the feasts at Mingyun Private Kitchen, and promptly shook his head: “No plans to change.”

Hao Qiong was about to leave when Wu Bin quickly stopped him again.

“Brother! Brother, please wait.”

“Don’t reject so quickly. Let’s go sit at the coffee shop nearby and chat a bit. As the saying goes, even if a deal doesn’t go through, friendship remains. We’re all in the same circle, let’s make friends.”

Hao Qiong still wanted to leave, but he was a person with a relatively soft disposition and couldn’t resist Wu Bin’s eloquence, so he reluctantly agreed to sit at a nearby coffee shop.

The two sat down.

Wu Bin wiped the sweat from his forehead, thinking, finally persuaded one to stay.

Hao Qiong wasn’t the first Tenda Games employee Wu Bin had approached.

Previously, Wu Bin had tried to send emails and make phone calls to people from Tenda Games and Shangyang Games, attempting many different contact methods.

As a result, no one responded to him at all.

Emails all sank like stones, and phone calls were hung up immediately after he finished his self-introduction.

But Wu Bin had a task to fulfill, and in utter desperation, he could only think of the most primitive, brute-force method: staking out at the company entrance!

Face-to-face communication increased the chances of successfully poaching someone.

He had done some simple research; this guy named Hao Qiong was a relatively marginalized ordinary employee at Shangyang Games, so he shouldn’t be too difficult to poach.

Wu Bin wouldn’t dare try to poach core business personnel like Ye Zhizhou or Li Yada. They had both fame and fortune at Tenda Games, making good games and earning good money. How could they possibly be poached?

But this guy named Hao Qiong was just doing some basic odd jobs at Tenda’s subsidiary, Shangyang Games. His salary probably wasn’t very high.

Even if Tenda’s benefits were good, how good could they be for such a peripheral employee?

As long as he was willing to offer a bit more money, he should be able to poach him, right?

Wu Bin had no choice. After all, the boss had given strict orders: they must poach several people from Tenda to learn from Tenda Games’ advanced experience.

Thinking about this, Wu Bin very generously paid for both of their coffees, preparing to use his silver tongue to lure this seemingly naive young man to his company.