February 18th, Friday.
School hadn’t started yet, but Pei Qian was already overwhelmingly busy.
Next Tuesday, “Beautiful Tomorrow” would be released, yet Pei Qian still hadn’t found time to visit Fei Huang Studio to see how the movie had been edited.
Pei Qian’s upcoming schedule was packed. He considered that if he really couldn’t make it, he’d just skip watching it and leave it to fate.
Anyway, there was no point in watching the final cut of “Beautiful Tomorrow” now. Even if he discovered problems, it would be impossible to make changes.
At the moment, Pei Qian was in a car heading to Lin City.
The “Slackin’ Integrated Complex” in Lin City was ready—a Slackin’ Internet Café 2.0 in the core commercial district, three Slackin’ Internet Café 1.0 locations in secondary commercial areas, Slackin’ Takeout, 20 Headwind Stations, a large warehouse prepared for ROF computer assembly, and four distribution points around the Slackin’ Internet Cafés.
This entire setup had taken nearly two months to complete, and it was finally finished recently.
Today was the opening day, and Pei Qian planned to go see how well Lin City accepted the Slackin’ Internet Café.
He thought the acceptance probably wouldn’t be very high, right?
Slackin’ Internet Café, Slackin’ Takeout, and ROF assembly were all relatively expensive services. The overall consumption level in Lin City was relatively low, so people probably wouldn’t appreciate these businesses much.
As for Headwind Logistics, everyone would like it, but it didn’t make money.
Of course, there were other possibilities—some rather unpleasant ones.
If that happened, Pei Qian would need to plan and think carefully about where to spend the money earned.
In the car, Pei Qian sneezed.
Then, he suddenly thought of something and took out his phone to call He Desheng.
“Why does the Academic Express project seem… even more popular now?”
On the other end of the phone, He Desheng was also confused: “Mr. Pei, I’m not sure either…”
Previously, Pei Qian had asked He Desheng how to make everyone lose confidence in this project, and He Desheng’s answer was “sell shares,” which Pei Qian strongly agreed with.
On Tuesday morning, Pei Qian had explicitly told Li Shi to start selling shares as well, hoping to undermine other investors’ confidence.
However, strangely, the shares Pei Qian had instructed He Desheng to sell were mostly bought up by other investors in small portions, seemingly without causing panic among them.
Manager Li hadn’t sold his shares, and Pei Qian didn’t know what he was thinking.
Could it be that Manager Li didn’t believe him?
…Very likely, since it wouldn’t be the first time.
What made Pei Qian anxious was that the Academic Express APP was still burning money continuously, the metrics looked better and better, and its popularity continued to rise!
With each day of delay, Pei Qian felt uneasy.
After much hesitation, Pei Qian very reluctantly said: “Keep selling…”
There was no other way. Pei Qian had a bad feeling that if they dragged on any longer, major problems would arise.
They needed to hurry and sell more shares to continue undermining other investors’ confidence, making them dump all their shares during this period!
Even if selling shares now would make money, they had no choice but to cut losses promptly.
“Yes, Mr. Pei,” said He Desheng. “Sell everything? Or stop after reaching a certain point?”
Pei Qian thought about it. No matter what, he definitely couldn’t sell everything.
Selling everything would mean pure profit, wouldn’t it?
Pei Qian considered: “Well… sell down to a minimum of 20%, absolutely no lower! And sell no more than 5% each time.”
Previously, Pei Qian’s shares had been diluted to about 60%. After selling a few times, he now had less than 50% left, but he was still the largest shareholder and actual controller.
But after a few more sales, he would eventually reach 20%.
Pei Qian figured losing control didn’t matter. Once everyone sold off and the project cooled down, he would find an opportunity to buy back these shares and regain control, to continue losing money.
After the project failed, probably no one would compete with him for these shares. Buying back these unwanted shares would help the bagholders cut their losses, which they should be happy about.
Keeping around 20% of the shares served two purposes: to make less profit and to maintain shareholder status so he could have priority when buying shares in the future.
He Desheng didn’t quite understand what Mr. Pei was trying to do, but he was already used to it and didn’t ask further questions.
“Alright, Mr. Pei, rest assured, I’ll handle it properly.”
After hanging up, Pei Qian thought about other frustrating projects.
Like the shared phone booths.
Regarding this project, Pei Qian had originally given up struggling, but recently, there was good news.
Zhang Wang had reinvested all the money earned from the current shared phone booths into production, planning to expand in Jingzhou’s shopping malls by setting up more shared phone booths.
However, the situation with the new phone booths wasn’t as smooth as the initial batch!
The reason was simple: Jingzhou only had so many high-traffic malls, and forcibly adding more shared phone booths meant fewer people would use each one!
This was the only piece of good news Pei Qian had heard recently.
On another front, the situation at the Finish Line Chinese Website seemed to be improving as well, at least the authors in the training class were updating less frequently.
As for the two game departments, mobile phones, and so on…
There was no time to deal with them temporarily.
…
“Hello, Mr. Pei, I’m Xiao Peng, the person in charge of Slackin’ Internet Café in Lin City.”
A spirited young man with a crew cut opened the car door for Pei Qian, introducing himself very respectfully.
Pei Qian shook hands with Xiao Peng, and together they left the mall’s underground parking garage to take the elevator.
This was the largest mall in Lin City, the core of the Slackin’ Integrated Complex. Slackin’ Internet Café 2.0 was on the fifth floor of this mall.
“So, how’s the situation now?” Pei Qian asked casually.
Xiao Peng smiled slightly, saying very proudly: “Mr. Pei, the situation is excellent!”
Pei Qian was stunned: “Huh?”
Xiao Peng completely failed to notice the bewilderment on Mr. Pei’s face and continued proudly: “All four Slackin’ Internet Cafés, Slackin’ Takeout, Headwind Logistics, and everything else officially launched today. We strictly followed your instructions not to have any promotional activities.”
“But clearly, the brand image of Slackin’ Internet Café has already deeply penetrated people’s minds. People were queuing outside before opening, and now all internet cafés are full!”
“The response to Slackin’ Takeout has also been unexpectedly enthusiastic, especially among office workers who choose it for their work meals. The acceptance rate is even higher than in Jingzhou!”
“Not to mention Headwind Logistics and ROF assembly services—orders are extremely popular. Fortunately, all our warehouses are well-stocked, so there haven’t been any stockouts…”
Xiao Peng spoke eloquently, obviously very proud of these achievements.
Finally, seemingly afraid that Mr. Pei might think he was taking credit, Xiao Peng added: “Of course, this is all because of the solid foundation you laid in Jingzhou! These businesses taking off in Lin City were simply a natural and logical progression!”
A question mark slowly floated above Pei Qian’s head.
?
Before he could speak, the elevator went “ding” and arrived.
They saw that all the seats in the Slackin’ Internet Café were occupied, with waitstaff constantly weaving between them, delivering various drinks. It looked very lively.
There were no grand opening discount signs, nor any promotions!
Even so, the entire internet café was packed, and there were even many people waiting for seats in the rest area!
Pei Qian felt dizzy.
In his worst-case scenario, the occupancy rate would be around 70%, making a profit right from opening.
He never imagined that the actual situation would be even worse than his worst prediction—the Slackin’ Internet Café in Lin City seemed even more popular than the one in Jingzhou!
And according to Xiao Peng, it wasn’t just this one Slackin’ Internet Café that was popular; almost all the businesses in the Slackin’ Integrated Complex were booming!
This caught Pei Qian completely off guard.
Seeing that Mr. Pei was silent, Xiao Peng felt the atmosphere cooling and quickly continued: “Mr. Pei, I must say, your decision to expand into Lin City was a correct one!”
“The economic development level in Lin City is relatively low, so there are fewer well-known dining and entertainment brands here.”
“Slackin’ Takeout isn’t particularly outstanding in Jingzhou, but once it came to Lin City, it immediately became a high-end takeout brand. With its exquisite packaging and food safety, it looks impressive when brought out in an office, so it’s highly favored by office workers!”
“And Slackin’ Internet Café fills the void of high-end internet cafés in Lin City. Being located in the core business district, surrounded by Lin City’s highest-spending consumers, it’s highly acclaimed!”
“I can only say, Mr. Pei, your move to expand into lower-tier markets is truly brilliant, and the effect is unexpectedly good!”
Pei Qian: “…”
He was speechless.
Listening to Xiao Peng’s explanation, Pei Qian found that it indeed seemed to be the case.
No matter how economically underdeveloped a place might be, there would always be relatively wealthy people.
And such places often severely lacked high-end dining and entertainment brands.
It was like many years ago, when foreign fast food brands that everyone abroad could afford entered the domestic market and, for a short time, became high-end dining brands in the eyes of Chinese people, who flocked to them.
Only many years later, as the domestic economic development level rose higher and higher, did these brands gradually return to their original form in people’s minds, becoming unremarkable “fast food.”
Now, the situation encountered by the Slackin’ Integrated Complex in Lin City was similar. The prices of Slackin’ Internet Café, Slackin’ Takeout, and other brands were just within the upper spending limit of Lin City’s wealthy population. At the same time, they offered good value for money and had brand value higher than other similar brands, so they were enthusiastically embraced by the people of Lin City!
Pei Qian stood at the entrance of the Slackin’ Internet Café, silent for two minutes.
Then he turned and left.
Xiao Peng was stunned: “Huh? Mr. Pei, you’re leaving already? Don’t you want to see the situation at the other internet cafés?”
Pei Qian said with a dark face: “No need to look!”
Xiao Peng couldn’t help but marvel silently: “Mr. Pei is truly an efficient person. Just one glance and he knows victory is assured; he doesn’t need a second look.”
“Everyone says Mr. Pei has the demeanor of a great general. Meeting him today, he indeed lives up to his reputation.”
Seeing that Mr. Pei had already entered the elevator, Xiao Peng hurriedly followed and escorted him to the underground parking garage.
“Mr. Pei, welcome to come to Lin City anytime to guide our work!”
Pei Qian forced a smile and silently got into the car and left.
Coming to Lin City, he thought that even if there was bad news, it shouldn’t be too bad.
He never imagined that when choosing the city for the Slackin’ Integrated Complex, failure was already predetermined!
So frustrating!!!