In the afternoon, after leaving Fei Huang Studio, Pei Qian headed toward Universal Street Mall.

He had just finished watching the rough cut of “Beautiful Tomorrow,” and overall, his feelings were mixed.

The good news was that the editing wasn’t very good yet, there were no special effects at all, and the plot was indeed quite toxic—it looked like it would flop.

The bad news was that all the actors in the film delivered solid performances. Especially the three main actors—Zhang Zuting, Lu Zhiyao, and Lin Ruyi—who seemed to be engaged in a fierce battle of acting skills, making Pei Qian feel increasingly anxious.

Lu Zhiyao had completely corrected his habitual over-acting issues, Lin Ruyi showed no signs of being a rookie actress, and as for Zhang Zuting, the award-winning actor’s performance was impeccable.

How such a film would perform after release was something Pei Qian found impossible to predict.

While Pei Qian was still conflicted, he arrived at Universal Street Mall.

“Mr. Pei, should I come up with you?” Xiao Sun asked.

Pei Qian thought for a moment: “No need, just wait for me in the car. I’ll just take a quick look and come back down.”

Pei Qian didn’t think too much about it. He just wanted to check on the safety of the shared phone booth and then head back to the area near Handong University to meet with Lin Chang.

He took the express elevator directly to the top floor.

It was Saturday afternoon, and Pei Qian was prepared for Universal Street Mall to be somewhat crowded, but when he stepped out of the elevator, he was stunned.

He glanced at the entrance to the cinema and wondered: “Huh, so many people? Is there a good movie showing today?”

However, upon closer inspection, Pei Qian was dumbfounded.

There were indeed many people at the cinema entrance, but these people didn’t seem to be there for the movies!

There was no one maintaining order, yet everyone was queuing in an orderly fashion, divided into two lines.

Both lines moved very quickly. One line consisted of people who just took a photo at the phone booth and left; the other line consisted of people who took a number from a ticket machine in front of the phone booth and then left.

Taking a closer look at the appearance of the phone booth.

Above it was a massive original painting: Justice Guardian Moditiste!

This huge original artwork occupied the main front portion of the shared phone booth. In the image, Moditiste appeared strong and imposing, with a determined gaze looking proudly ahead. The various weapons stuck all over his back further displayed his heroic spirit.

Many people were queuing simply to take a photo with this enormous original artwork.

Unlike ordinary posters or game artwork, this painting was hand-drawn by Ruan Guangjian, incorporating many unique techniques. The impasto technique made it appear particularly artistic, making people want to take photos with it as soon as they saw it.

With such outstanding artwork, no wonder shoppers all wanted to come here for pictures.

Pei Qian stood in front of the phone booth, looking at this massive original artwork, speechless.

“What the hell…”

He had indeed asked Ruan Guangjian to come and draw something to decorate this shared phone booth, but he hadn’t asked him to draw the Money-Throwing Hedgehog!

For some reason, Pei Qian had a feeling that this Money-Throwing Hedgehog was staring at him, with a faint smile on his lips, as if mocking him…

Looking at the phone booth itself.

The side facing the escalator displayed the current number: 14, with 7 minutes remaining.

Pei Qian’s heart sank as he sensed something amiss. He made his way through the crowd to take a look and was shocked to see that the number on the ticket machine had already reached 29.

This meant that since this morning, 14 people had already taken numbers to experience the shared phone booth, and there were still 15 people in line!

Of course, there might be some who took numbers but didn’t come to experience it, but such people shouldn’t be many.

When Pei Qian first saw the queue moving quickly but nobody entering the phone booth, he was slightly relieved, thinking people just liked looking at the phone booth from the outside and didn’t want to go in and spend money.

But now he understood—it wasn’t that nobody was queuing; they had upgraded to a ticketing system!

Pei Qian quickly took out his phone, scanned a code, and downloaded the shared phone booth app.

The previous app had been very basic, with only a scanning function, but now it had many more features.

The most obvious change was the addition of a queuing function.

By taking a number at the phone booth entrance, users could enter the queue and specify their expected usage time in the phone booth.

The system would add up the usage times of everyone in the queue, so users would know how long they needed to wait.

When it was almost their turn, users could arrive at the phone booth ahead of time to wait.

This page also allowed for other operations, such as abandoning the queue.

This way, people didn’t have to wait at the phone booth entrance. They could arrange other activities based on the estimated time, such as shopping or buying drinks and desserts.

Pei Qian checked the estimated waiting time on the app and was shocked to see it had reached three hours!

And people were still taking numbers nonstop.

Pei Qian calculated the price and instantly turned pale.

Ten yuan for 15 minutes, 40 yuan for an hour. By the looks of it, this phone booth hadn’t had a quiet moment since the mall opened, operating for at least eleven or twelve hours a day.

At this rate, it could earn four to five hundred yuan in a single day!

Of course, this was because it was Saturday with higher foot traffic, ensuring the phone booth was constantly in use.

On weekdays, the earnings would certainly be less.

But no matter how you calculated it, the income was quite substantial!

Pei Qian was very puzzled. What was so special about this phone booth? What could people possibly do inside it for an hour?

He tried to peek inside, but the phone booth had curtains drawn, making it impossible to see clearly. He could only faintly hear music coming from inside.

This floor was crowded and noisy, so the music was barely audible.

Not giving up, Pei Qian walked around the phone booth, but the curtains were quite effective. Although there were gaps, it wouldn’t be appropriate for the esteemed Mr. Pei to peek through them.

He vaguely saw two people inside but couldn’t make out what they were doing.

After circling the phone booth, Pei Qian found a stack of flyers on the other side of the electronic display screen.

These flyers were placed there for interested people to take freely.

Pei Qian took one and was shocked to discover this wasn’t an ordinary advertising flyer.

It contained both text and images, with the images appearing to be screenshots from a TV program.

“Customer Suffers Cardiac Arrest in Mall, Successfully Rescued by AED! Shared Phone Booth Conceals ‘Life-Saving Device'”

“Recently, in a mall in Jingzhou City, mall staff saved the life of a young man using an AED.”

“The scene shown in the image occurred on the top floor of Universal Street Mall in Jingzhou City, where a man suddenly collapsed after leaving a cinema. Mall staff who rushed to the scene immediately divided tasks, calling 120 while dispersing onlookers and immediately beginning rescue efforts.”

“In this critical moment, staff quickly retrieved an AED (Automated External Defibrillator) from the nearby ‘Shared Phone Booth’ for emergency rescue.”

“After 4 AED defibrillations, by the time 120 emergency personnel arrived at the scene, the man had regained his heartbeat and breathing.”

“Subsequently, the man was taken to the hospital for treatment. Medical staff stated that thanks to the AED assistance, the consequences would have been unimaginable otherwise.”

“Experts point out that among cardiac arrest patients, over 85% are caused by ventricular fibrillation, which can only be eliminated through defibrillation. If AED defibrillation can be used shortly after cardiac arrest, the success rate of rescue will increase significantly, hence the saying ‘Golden Four Minutes.'”

“According to statistics, more than 90% of sudden deaths occur outside hospitals, so quickly accessing an AED for electric defibrillation becomes the key to saving the lives of cardiac arrest patients.”

“However, currently in our country, AED equipment is not widely available. The reporter visited multiple subway stations in the Capital, and all responses indicated that AED equipment was not yet installed.”

“In Jingzhou, a small shared phone booth ‘hiding’ such life-saving equipment and proving effective is no coincidence, but an inevitable result of the founder’s public safety awareness and sense of social responsibility.”

“The founder of the Shared Phone Booth project, Zhang Wang, stated that in his vision, shared phone booths are not only cultural landmarks in the city and havens of tranquility amid the hustle and bustle, but also beacons of social responsibility…”

Pei Qian’s eyes widened as he looked closely and realized this wasn’t a print media report. The logo in the upper left corner of the image was CCTV-2.

“I’ve only been away for a little over a week, and it’s caused such a commotion???”

Pei Qian was stunned. He remembered that the last time he saw the shared phone booth, it was just a bare, empty booth with practically no visitors.

But now, not only were people queuing to use it, but it had even been featured in a TV report!

Suddenly, Pei Qian felt like he didn’t recognize this world anymore…

Just then, the door of the shared phone booth opened. The couple inside left, conscientiously taking their used paper cups and microphone covers with them, while the next couple was already waiting outside, seamlessly taking their turn.

Pei Qian quickly stood on his tiptoes to peek at what was inside the shared phone booth.

Beverage machine, jukebox, capsule toy machine… the shared phone booth was filled with amenities!

Pei Qian clearly remembered that the last time he came to check, there was only a lonely telephone and a water dispenser inside…

No wonder people didn’t want to leave once they went in—they could drink beverages, play with capsule toys, sing songs, and even collect stamps and check in!

The beverage machine and capsule toy machine would incur additional charges. If you added up this income as well…

And this was just one of the shared phone booths.

Pei Qian suddenly realized something and quickly headed to the express elevator, preparing to leave.

The phone booth at Universal Street Mall was already beyond salvation—it was warmly welcomed by consumers, had saved a life, and had even been featured in a TV report!

Now, even if Pei Qian wanted to remove it, it would be impossible!

But there were still other things he could do, such as immediately stopping Ruan Guangjian from beautifying the other twenty phone booths!

Initially, Pei Qian had thought that with just a telephone and a water dispenser inside, nobody would use it, so having Ruan Guangjian paint an original artwork would be a way to spend more money.

But now, this artwork had undoubtedly become a cultural landmark, attracting many people to come from far away to take photos, and these people would naturally enter the phone booth to spend money!

So, he needed to quickly stop Ruan Guangjian from painting the other phone booths!

Pei Qian calculated: Ruan Guangjian could only paint one phone booth every three days. It would take two months to paint all 20 phone booths. Only about ten days had passed, so at most he would have painted four phone booths.

There was still time!

While waiting for the elevator, Pei Qian called Ruan Guangjian.

“Hello, Mr. Pei, what’s up?” Ruan Guangjian’s end was very quiet, not sounding like he was in a mall.

Pei Qian didn’t think much of it and asked directly: “Uh… about those phone booths we discussed earlier, which one are you currently painting?”

Ruan Guangjian’s voice sounded confused: “Phone booths? Weren’t they all completed long ago?”

Pei Qian: “???”

He felt a bit dizzy: “Didn’t you say it takes three days to paint one? How could they all be completed?”

Ruan Guangjian chuckled: “Oh, yes, it takes three days to paint one phone booth—too slow! I figured that if I were to finish all 20 phone booths myself, it would take until after the New Year, and I have other work to do. It would be too time-consuming.”

“So I found more than ten friends from my group, and outsourced the work to them, each responsible for one phone booth, following the original artwork I provided.”

“Don’t worry, Mr. Pei, they’re all my friends with guaranteed skill levels. I’ve checked all these phone booths, and they’re all painted well. I’ve also corrected any occasional minor flaws.”

“Uh, Mr. Pei?”

Hearing no response for a long time, Ruan Guangjian thought the call had dropped.

After a long silence, Pei Qian finally said: “Alright then.”

After hanging up, Pei Qian silently walked into the elevator and went to the underground parking lot.

“Mr. Pei, where are we going next?” Although Pei Qian had stayed upstairs for an extended period, Xiao Sun didn’t ask further questions.

Pei Qian thought for a moment and said with a dark expression: “To Times Mall.”

He wasn’t ready to give up; he had to see the condition of all the phone booths with his own eyes!

“Certainly.” Xiao Sun didn’t ask any more questions and started driving.

Pei Qian took out his phone and first sent a message to Lin Chang.

This afternoon, he needed to visit all the shared phone booths before he could meet with Lin Chang.

Lin Chang quickly replied: “Mr. Pei, please focus on your work. I’m busy as well, no need to be formal.”

Pei Qian let out a long breath—thankfully, Mr. Lin was understanding!

After reassuring Lin Chang, Pei Qian immediately called Chen Kangtuo.

“How’s the haunted house project coming along? Speed up the progress!”