Pei Qian’s patch naturally had deep meaning.
The training camp had been running for a week. During this time, the authors had been eating and living together, and these individuals who already had striving tendencies now had highly unified thinking.
When Pei Qian wanted to reduce their burden, he was flatly rejected by these people, showing that this problem could not be solved overnight.
So Pei Qian thought of a method—first open up a small breach!
Give a day off to the person who wrote the most words and was the most diligent, allowing them to play for a day without pressure, interrupting their state of creative flow, letting them experience how happy it was to be a slacker.
And have the person who wrote the fewest words experience the Tenda spirit, which meant using Tenda’s entertainment atmosphere to further erode their writing enthusiasm, making them become even more of a slacker!
The person who wrote the fewest words was undoubtedly the biggest slacker among this group of authors, and also the breakthrough point.
Bring him to Tenda, treat him to good food and drink, and when he goes back, he will tell the other authors about this.
Once the other authors know that writing the fewest words means going to Tenda headquarters to eat, drink, and have fun, they would compete to slack off and write less, forming a vicious competition.
Over time, there would be a large batch of authors writing less and less, and this solid alliance of strivers would naturally collapse without a fight!
The more Pei Qian thought about it, the more he felt this plan was excellent, truly flawless!
…
In the evening.
The crew of “Beautiful Tomorrow” had their farewell dinner at Mingyun Private Kitchen, and the crew officially disbanded.
Outside the villa, everyone said their reluctant goodbyes.
“Mr. Pei, I’m really grateful for your care during this time, thank you so much! If you need anything in the future, just contact me, I’ll definitely go through fire and water for you!”
“Thanks for the hospitality! That was the most delicious meal I’ve ever had!”
“If I come to Jingzhou again as a guest, will Mr. Pei welcome me?”
“Wishing the movie a great box office!”
“Mr. Pei, I know several good distributors and some people in theater chains. If you need help, I can make introductions…”
Pei Qian said goodbye to everyone one by one and sincerely invited them to come and play anytime, promising to entertain them well.
After all, each time he treated guests, he could lose a bit more money.
Only the last suggestion did Pei Qian flatly refuse.
“Don’t worry about the movie promotion, I’ll arrange it myself!”
Finally, everyone was sent off.
Pei Qian let out a long breath. There had been quite a lot of things to do recently—as soon as one was finished, another came up.
Of course, the movie was only done with filming; he wouldn’t truly be at ease until after it was released.
But that was at least a month away, still quite distant.
He still had to focus on the immediate issues.
Pei Qian thought somewhat dejectedly: “Let’s take it one by one. First, deal with the Endpoint Chinese Web issue, then go check on the Shared Top Student…”
“Hmm, there seems to be something I’ve been forgetting…”
“Oh right, the Shared Phone Booth!”
Thinking about the Shared Top Student, Pei Qian suddenly remembered something he had wanted to check but had been too busy to remember.
The Shared Phone Booth!
He should have gone to check it on Monday, but this week had been too busy with exams, treating guests to meals, Manager Li coming to meddle, plus the unexpected developments with Ma Yiqun’s website, resulting in him forgetting about it.
“Five days, there shouldn’t be any major problems, right?”
Pei Qian thought about it—five days would be enough for Ruan Guangjian to design at most two phone booths, plus the original one, that would be at most three phone booths.
What trouble could three phone booths cause?
There shouldn’t be any major issues.
Of course, to be safe, he needed to check on it this week.
Pei Qian, afraid he might forget again, hurriedly wrote it down in his notebook.
…
…
January 21st, Friday.
Cui Geng nervously got out of the car in the underground garage and took the elevator with the driver to the 16th floor of Shenhua Luxury View.
Last night, he had already submitted a leave application along with Mingyu.
However, the reader comments below their leave notices had completely different tones.
Mingyu’s leave notice said that because he wrote the most words in the training camp, he was specially permitted a day of free activity with no updates, and he would compensate with 15,000-word updates tomorrow, the day after, and the day after that.
The comments below were basically all shouting “666!”
“Boss is awesome!”
“Relax well, waiting for your burst updates!”
“Tag those one-update beasts to come and learn!”
Cui Geng’s leave notice, on the other hand, didn’t mention a specific reason, only saying that he had important matters and needed a day off.
He had hoped to slip by unnoticed, but the reader’s comments instantly pierced his heart.
“Oh no, worked hard for a week and already going to flake? You’ve got no stamina!”
“Not even mentioning make-up updates! Truly living up to your reputation!”
“Did the kidnappers already receive the ransom and release you? Don’t do that! Keep him tied up, we’ll crowdfund however much money you need!”
“Insider info leaked from other author groups! They say the pigeon master is going for ideological education because he wrote the fewest words, hahaha!”
“The person who wrote the fewest words in the entire training camp? That sounds well-deserved indeed!”
Feeling the different treatment, Cui Geng let out a long sigh.
Ah, same people, different fates! Such discrimination!
The other guy gets a day off, carefree and happy, with readers all cheering;
And me? Coming to headquarters for ideological education, and being mocked by readers.
Unbearable!
As Cui Geng was thinking, he heard a “ding,” and they arrived at the 17th floor.
Cui Geng walked out of the elevator to the reception desk, explained his purpose to a pair of pretty twin receptionists, and soon someone came out to escort him in.
“Hello, I’m Wu Bin from the Human Resources Department.”
Wu Bin had a smile on his face, but Cui Geng still felt a chill in his heart.
Human Resources Department!
As far as Cui Geng knew, many large enterprises nowadays used their HR departments like imperial secret police.
He feared today’s learning task would not be easy…
As a professional flake, Cui Geng felt immense pressure.
However, Wu Bin simply opened the door to the entertainment room: “Please.”
Cui Geng: “?”
He peeked in and found that inside there was a big TV, game consoles, mountains of game discs, high-end computers, and even several large arcade machines.
Novels, comics, magazines… filled an entire wall.
It was hard to describe his first impression, but if summarized in one word, it would probably be… heaven?
Cui Geng looked at Wu Bin, somewhat confused, with a question mark appearing above his head.
What did this mean?
A good meal before setting off?
Just as he was about to ask, Wu Bin smiled and said, “Please enter, this is arranged by Mr. Pei.”
Hearing it was Mr. Pei’s arrangement, Cui Geng relaxed a bit.
As a renowned online novelist, Cui Geng had strong imaginative capabilities.
In that instant, the scenario of “a tiger entering the tiger’s den” had appeared in his mind.
But on second thought, he felt the idea was absurd. The probability of Mr. Pei using such tactics to trap him and the probability of this guy “falsely transmitting imperial orders” were about the same—infinitely close to zero.
Although puzzled, no slacker could resist the temptation of this entertainment room.
So Cui Geng walked in without hesitation, sat on the sofa, and picked up a controller.
Wu Bin very thoughtfully helped close the door.
Cui Geng: “…”
“Although I don’t know what’s in the gourd, let’s just go with the flow…”
Cui Geng couldn’t be bothered to think too much and started playing a game he liked.
After closing the door, Wu Bin returned to his workstation.
Today’s task was specially instructed by Mr. Pei.
As for the intention behind it, Wu Bin was also somewhat confused.
Mr. Pei had only told him to take Cui Geng to the entertainment room, provide lunch, and then everything else was up to Cui Geng—whether he wanted to leave or stay, Wu Bin shouldn’t interfere at all.
He had only mentioned: “If Cui Geng asks about the Tenda spirit, give him a little hint.”
…
At 10 AM, Pei Qian woke up naturally, sat up, and yawned.
Looking at his watch, Cui Geng should have already arrived at the company and should be receiving the influence of the Tenda spirit now, right?
Yesterday, Pei Qian had already arranged everything, having Wu Bin be responsible for receiving him.
In Pei Qian’s view, Wu Bin had passed the Tenda spirit compatibility test on his second try, so he must have valuable insights about how to slack off effectively.
Having Wu Bin take Cui Geng to the game room to play games all day—wasn’t this hint obvious enough?
If Cui Geng still didn’t understand, then Wu Bin could give him a small hint, imparting the wisdom of slacking off in a somewhat veiled manner.
Double insurance, ensuring foolproof success.
In short, by the time Cui Geng returned to the training camp, he would bring with him a seed called “slacking off,” which would take root and sprout among all the authors.
This seed would make them compete with each other to reach new lows, dismantling the entire training camp from within…
Thinking of this, Pei Qian got up to brush his teeth, in a great mood.