Half an hour later, at the office building where the online writers’ training camp was located.

Ma Yiqun led Pei Qian toward the “isolation room” rented by the Endpoint Chinese Web.

Although Ma Yiqun had already handed over all matters here to Zhu Xing’an, since Mr. Pei was here, Ma Yiqun naturally had to personally receive him and report on their work.

“Mr. Pei, this is our plan for this training camp.”

“This is the template agreement signed with the authors.”

“And here are the daily living arrangements…”

Ma Yiqun introduced everything to Pei Qian one by one, his words exuding pride.

He was indeed quite proud because the website’s traffic data had improved during this period!

When a single author does a burst of updates, the effect can usually only influence their book, and the effect on the website’s data is negligible.

But what if many authors update in bursts together?

The website regularly organizes activities like double voting tickets and such, precisely to stimulate authors to update in bursts, thereby raising the website’s overall data.

Now, with these mid-tier authors from the training camp updating in bursts, the reader stickiness for each book was increasing, and the website’s data naturally looked much better.

“Mr. Pei, this is the website’s recent data growth.”

“These are reader feedback.”

“In short, this training camp has been extremely successful! It can be said to be a win-win-win situation for readers, authors, and the website!”

“So, I plan to immediately organize the next training camp after this one concludes, continuing to include some new authors, making the training camp a regular activity…”

“Of course, ultimately it’s all because Mr. Pei’s policy is correct!”

“You were right, Mr. Pei, top authors can’t be poached; they must be cultivated by ourselves.”

“I’ve thought about it—even if we poached top authors from other sites and gave them favorable buyout prices, the website would still be unable to retain that heat for long due to lack of fertile ground and lack of backbone.”

“Now with this training camp, even if we can’t cultivate top authors, as long as we can nurture these mid-tier authors well, our website will flourish. And it’s only a matter of time before a top author emerges from these mid-tier authors!”

Pei Qian: “…”

If Ma Yiqun hadn’t mentioned it, Pei Qian wouldn’t have known that the problem had already become this serious.

At this moment, the authors and Zhu Xing’an were still wandering around Jingzhou and hadn’t returned yet.

So, Pei Qian and Ma Yiqun could talk here without being disturbed.

Pei Qian casually turned on a computer and discovered that as soon as it booted up, it automatically entered isolation room mode, basically making it impossible to engage in too many entertainment activities.

Looking at the contents written in this agreement…

As a professional slacker, Pei Qian instinctively felt a chill in his heart.

What deep scheming!

Wasn’t this just a sweatshop that batch-converted slackers into strivers???

Pei Qian very much wanted to use the Tenda spirit as a reason to destroy this sweatshop and rescue the exploited authors.

But on second thought, it wasn’t good to force the issue.

Because Ma Yiqun had stipulated an eight-hour workday for these authors, not making them work overtime for even a minute!

Nominally, it didn’t violate Tenda’s regulations, and they provided food and accommodation, plus a base salary and social insurance—this treatment was already good enough.

The only problem might be that the computers automatically entered isolation room mode as soon as they were turned on.

Pei Qian felt he could start from this point.

But this needed a pretext, requiring cooperation from the authors.

Pei Qian didn’t reveal his thoughts but continued discussing some details of the training camp with Ma Yiqun while waiting for the authors to return.

They had gone out at 1 PM, and by now they should be back soon.

Not long after, footsteps were heard outside.

“The scenic spots in Jingzhou are quite ordinary, nothing special to see, but I took a few photos, so it wasn’t a waste of time.”

“Slackin’ Internet Café is nice, why haven’t I seen it in other cities?”

“Jingzhou seems like a livable place.”

Today’s afternoon schedule was simple. The authors first visited a few not-so-famous historical sites in Jingzhou to experience the historical atmosphere, and then sat for a while in the nearest Slackin’ Internet Café.

The itinerary was relatively relaxed, and no one was tired.

Now, as the authors returned to their daily office “isolation room,” they found the door open with Ma Yiqun inside, sitting next to a young man.

Everyone was startled, then quickly greeted him: “Boss Ma!”

Ma Yiqun stood up with a smile: “Did everyone have a good time? Let me introduce you—this is the president of our Tenda Group, Mr. Pei Qian, who came specially today to look after everyone…”

After Ma Yiqun’s brief introduction, the authors all greeted him politely.

This was the boss’s boss, definitely not someone they could be careless with.

Although most authors neither liked nor were skilled at these social niceties, they still maintained basic courtesy.

Pei Qian didn’t care about these formalities. He had waited until now with an ulterior motive, so he went straight to the point.

“Everyone has worked hard during this period!”

“If there are any shortcomings in our hospitality, please feel free to bring them up, and we will correct them immediately.”

“How do you all feel about this online authors’ training camp?”

Seeing how polite Mr. Pei was, the authors hurriedly replied: “You’re too kind, Mr. Pei! Boss Ma has taken very good care of us—we only feel grateful, no complaints!”

The effect of this training camp is excellent. We create faster, live more regularly, and are healthier. In short, we are very grateful to Mr. Pei and the website for giving us this opportunity!”

Other authors also chimed in with agreement.

Pei Qian: “…”

How disappointing!

He had originally hoped these authors would pick up some flaws. As long as any one author picked a flaw, Pei Qian could go with the flow and have Ma Yiqun make changes.

For example, if an author said, “not being able to play games or watch videos on the computer is too inconvenient,” Pei Qian could naturally ask Ma Yiqun to remove the isolation room mode from all computers.

But all he got was flattery!

Pei Qian was speechless, but the more these authors spoke like this, the more it strengthened his resolve.

Since the effect was so good, it was even more necessary to change it!

Pei Qian coughed lightly and decided to give them some hints: “I wonder if everyone is accustomed to the computers’ isolation room mode?”

“I think writing novels is a creative activity, and isolation rooms might stifle your imagination and creativity.”

“How about we cancel the isolation mode?”

Pei Qian had originally thought these authors would cheer in jubilation and applaud this suggestion, so that he could “follow public opinion” and have Ma Yiqun remove the isolation mode from all computers.

But the first few authors were shocked and shook their heads vigorously.

“Mr. Pei, absolutely not!”

“The isolation room helps us avoid outside distractions, improving work efficiency—it absolutely cannot be canceled!”

“If canceled, it would be impossible to continue updating eight thousand or ten thousand words daily!”

Others also chimed in: “Yes, yes, don’t cancel it!”

Pei Qian: “???”

Oh no, I’ve encountered a group of obstinate authors…

I’m offering to remove the isolation mode for you, and you’re unwilling???

In the last row, Cui Geng originally wanted to agree with Mr. Pei but thought better of it and kept quiet.

It wasn’t because he was embarrassed—he had thick skin.

If it had been a week ago, Cui Geng would have been the first to stand up and ask Mr. Pei to remove his isolation mode.

But now, he was hesitant.

Because after adapting for these past few days, Cui Geng found that in this special environment, with the help of the isolation room, he could indeed achieve the goal of updating eight thousand or ten thousand words daily.

Without the isolation room, he would regress to his previous one-update-per-day beast status.

That would also mean his performance, income, reader reputation, etc., would quickly decline to their original state.

Then, while all the other training camp authors’ performance was thriving and getting better, only his would be languishing…

That would be truly embarrassing.

Moreover, although this Mr. Pei was smiling, who knew if he was fishing for troublemakers?

If I raise my hand, what if I’m singled out as a negative example? What then?

So Cui Geng silently kept his mouth shut.

Pei Qian looked around and found that none of the authors supported canceling the isolation room.

Pei Qian felt weary.

Damn, I’ve encountered a roomful of strivers!

What can I do now?!

He looked at Ma Yiqun, who smiled back with an approving gaze.

As if saying: “Mr. Pei, your feint attack strategy is excellent! Too bad no one fell for it.”

Pei Qian was speechless, feeling like his good intentions had been misunderstood.

Since the direct approach didn’t work, he could only take a step back.

These authors had formed a collective, with the striver mindset dominating. At this point, he needed some method to divide and dismantle this unity…

Pei Qian looked around at everyone: “Alright, since everyone likes the isolation room, we’ll keep it.”

“However… I think the current mechanism only has communal dining without rewards or punishments, which is certainly not adequate.”

“So, we must establish a system of rewards and punishments!”

The authors’ expressions turned solemn, thinking that indeed, these leaders were never simple.

This Mr. Pei, had he come to establish authority?

But no one dared to ask more questions, they could only listen obediently.

Pei Qian coughed lightly: “The author with the most daily updates can take the next day off, free to do whatever they want as a reward—of course, strictly prohibited from writing more; the author with the least daily updates must go to Tenda headquarters the next day to receive re-education in Tenda spirit, as punishment!”

“Neither will be bound by the original agreement.”

“Let me see, how are everyone’s updates today?”

Pei Qian looked toward Ma Yiqun.

Ma Yiqun silently pulled up the backend data on the computer: “Today, Mingyu updated the most with 8,712 words, and Cui Geng the least with 3,287 words.”

Because of the group activity this afternoon, these were the results from three hours in the morning.

Nearly 9,000 words in 3 hours—truly an ultimate writing machine.

Cui Geng’s face immediately turned pale: “Mr. Pei, let me explain! I was mainly sorting out my outline this morning, I wasn’t slacking off…”

Before he could finish speaking, Pei Qian smiled at him: “Someone will come to pick you up tomorrow.”

After saying this, Pei Qian turned and left.

Cui Geng felt dizzy and almost couldn’t stand steady.

This is bad!

Go to Tenda headquarters to receive re-education in the Tenda spirit?

In his mind appeared mountains of knives, vats of oil, and the dungeons of imperial guards…

Meanwhile, Mingyu, who had written the most, scratched his head: “Free time? What about my updates?”

“Forget it, I’ll just continue writing in the hotel…”

Just as he muttered this, Ma Yiqun came over and patted his shoulder, sighing softly.

“Don’t think about those tricks. The ‘free time’ Mr. Pei mentioned means doing anything except work.”

“Hurry up and write your leave application.”