Afternoon, Nameless Restaurant.

Lu Zhiyao, Zhang Zuting, Lin Ruyi, Zhu Xiaocai, Huang Sibo, along with the writing team, post-production team, and other key personnel from Fei Huang Studio gathered together, enjoying the delicious food and chatting freely over drinks.

“So I still think that Mr. Pei’s initial decision to use all-English voice acting was visionary! Otherwise, how could we have achieved box office success both domestically and overseas? Look at recent blockbusters—how many have achieved overseas box office returns of over ten million dollars!”

“Yes, Mr. Pei gave this film its soul!”

“Of all the praise this film has received from critics, at least half the credit belongs to Mr. Pei.”

“Only half?”

“Sorry, my mistake. I said too little. I’ll punish myself with a drink.”

“Director Zhu, did you bring the award?”

“Yes, yes, here it is. Everyone, please pass it around carefully. If it gets damaged, getting the next one will have to wait until next year.”

“Director Zhu, that’s not right. Are you so confident about next year? What if you win the Palme d’Or next year?”

“Exactly! This might be the last Jury Prize we’ll ever win at Cannes. From now on, we’ll only win Palmes d’Or. This makes it even more valuable as a memento. We must handle it with care!”

“In any case, we must thank Mr. Pei! It’s a pity he’s too busy with work to join us.”

“Let’s all raise a toast to Mr. Pei!”

“Yes, a toast to Mr. Pei!”

Everyone raised their glasses, their faces slightly flushed, clearly in high spirits from the celebration.

Somehow, though, the scene resembled a village feast.

Lu Zhiyao, who rarely drank, had two glasses and asked Zhu Xiaocai: “Director Zhu, are you already preparing for a new film?”

Zhu Xiaocai waved his hand: “Don’t mention it. We’ve all been ‘shocked’ by Mr. Pei—the entire department is on paid vacation! But we’re taking this opportunity to accumulate inspiration and strengthen our foundation.”

“Honestly, I think if our skills had been more solid, ‘Beautiful Tomorrow’ might have been even better. I feel our capabilities held back Mr. Pei’s ideas, which is a bit regrettable. We need to continue working hard to ensure we don’t drag Mr. Pei down with the next film!”

Lu Zhiyao nodded: “In that case, I think some aspects of my acting weren’t refined enough. I need to continue improving. Indeed, working with Mr. Pei makes you constantly think about how to improve.”

Zhang Zuting, eating grilled meat, asked Huang Sibo: “What work is keeping Mr. Pei so busy that he doesn’t even have time for a meal?”

Huang Sibo smiled: “Uncle Zhang, you still don’t understand Mr. Pei?”

“He never enjoys celebrations.”

“Mr. Pei has always been like this, even when making games before. When a game became popular and profitable, everyone would happily celebrate, but Mr. Pei would immediately start thinking about the next project. He never indulges in self-satisfaction.”

“That’s something I can’t learn to do.”

“Of course, besides that, Mr. Pei is genuinely busy. Look at all the projects he’s managing now: internet cafés, takeout, apartments, gyms, two games…”

Huang Sibo tried to count them all but, probably due to the alcohol, his mind wasn’t clear, and he couldn’t list them all.

“Anyway, he’s definitely very busy. I think if it were anyone else, they would be dizzy trying to manage so many projects simultaneously. The connections between departments would be completely chaotic.”

“It would be impossible to manage it all.”

“But Mr. Pei is different. He can still effectively organize the relationships between various departments and get them to collaborate according to his own plans. That’s not something an ordinary person could achieve.”

Zhang Zuting nodded: “Indeed.”

“But… even if Mr. Pei doesn’t have time for a meal, surely he has time to meet and say hello?”

“I haven’t seen Mr. Pei for quite some time.”

“Why don’t we go visit Mr. Pei, just say hello and leave without taking up too much of his time? How does that sound?”

Lu Zhiyao nodded: “That works! But I think we shouldn’t go in a large group to avoid disrupting his work.”

Zhu Xiaocai said: “The key is… do you know where Mr. Pei is? Calling to ask seems a bit inappropriate, doesn’t it?”

Huang Sibo thought for a moment: “Calling is indeed inappropriate. If Mr. Pei answers, he’ll definitely take it seriously and might specifically make time to see us, which would disrupt his original work plan. Let’s try our luck at a few places Mr. Pei frequently visits. If we meet him, we’ll just say hello; if not, we’ll leave it at that.”

“Good!” Lu Zhiyao and the others happily agreed.

…

Around four in the afternoon, at Tenda Games.

Huang Sibo was a bit discouraged: “If Mr. Pei isn’t here either, then we’re truly out of options.”

After the meal, they had already searched for him at Slackin’ Internet Café’s Hangdong University branch, Tuoguan Fitness, and Mr. Pei’s office on the 16th floor of Shenhua Luxury Building, but Mr. Pei wasn’t at any of those places.

Finally, they could only try their luck at Tenda Games. If they still couldn’t find Mr. Pei, they would have to give up.

After all, Tenda had so many departments; it wasn’t practical to search them one by one.

The group walked into Tenda Games’ office area, hoping to see Mr. Pei’s familiar figure.

At that moment, Hu Xianbin was at his workstation, anxiously scratching his head.

Suddenly, from the corner of his eye, he noticed several people entering through the door.

Looking up, he was instantly shocked!

Zhang Zuting? Lu Zhiyao? Huang Sibo? Zhu Xiaocai?

Weren’t these the two main actors and the director of “Beautiful Tomorrow”?

Hu Xianbin was overjoyed and rushed over to grab Huang Sibo’s hand.

“Brother Huang! Do you have telepathy? How did you know I was just about to contact you?”

Huang Sibo was stunned: “Contact me? What for?”

Hu Xianbin said: “I wanted you to find Director Zhu to help the actors with their acting!”

All four newcomers were confused: “Acting? What acting? Is Tenda filming another movie?”

Hu Xianbin quickly explained: “The acting for motion capture actors! Mr. Pei’s new game, ‘Struggle’!”

As he explained, he pulled out the script for “Struggle” from nearby and handed it to Zhang Zuting and Lu Zhiyao.

Zhang Zuting took the script, and his expression became increasingly dramatic as he read.

After roughly reading through the first two pages of the story outline, Zhang Zuting slapped his thigh: “Why isn’t Mr. Pei turning such a good script into a film? With such a profound theme, the box office might be unpredictable, but it would definitely win awards!”

Huang Sibo had a different opinion: “Uncle Zhang, this game is divided into two versions, a poor person’s version and a rich person’s version. There must be some special meaning behind this that would be difficult to handle as a film.”

“What’s difficult about that? Just find a way to integrate them together! A theme that exposes the wealth gap—if done well, it has very high potential!” Zhang Zuting still thought making it into a film would be better.

Zhu Xiaocai mediated: “It’s alright, Uncle Zhang. If the game becomes popular, we can still consider adapting it into a film. I believe Mr. Pei definitely has a plan.”

He turned to Hu Xianbin: “So, you mentioned wanting guidance with acting? What’s that about?”

Hu Xianbin said: “I’ve been struggling with this issue.”

“For this game, all scenes use real motion capture to reproduce every detailed expression of the actors.”

“Plus, according to Mr. Pei’s requirements, our game’s artistic style is quite exaggerated, maximizing the stereotypical features of these characters.”

“But this raises the requirements for the actors’ expressiveness because stereotypical characters need more exaggerated acting. These motion capture actors are basically bit players with no experience in this area…”

Zhang Zuting immediately understood: “That’s easy to solve. I can go over and provide some guidance! I’ve played many poor people and many rich people, and I know exaggerated acting techniques. Leave this to me!”

Hu Xianbin was delighted: “Really? Thank you so much! But… won’t this affect your original schedule…”

Zhang Zuting waved his hand: “It’s no problem. Mr. Pei has helped me so much; I’ll return the favor. Providing some acting guidance is just a small favor.”

Hu Xianbin was overjoyed: “Then thank you very much, Mr. Zhang!”

Zhang Zuting couldn’t help but smile.

Although they hadn’t seen Mr. Pei, they had coincidentally been able to help out, which wasn’t bad at all!

…

…

June 22, Wednesday.

Jingzhou Old Industrial Zone.

Pei Qian looked at the rapidly-constructing Thriller Lodge and surrounding facilities, feeling an inexplicably melancholic mood.

The construction progress was too fast!

Pei Qian would have preferred it to be built more slowly, but no one could hear his inner thoughts.

Over the past two days, Pei Qian had visited twice, mainly to understand Thriller Lodge’s current situation to avoid being caught off guard later.

However, after looking, he found the situation was indeed not optimistic!

Originally, Thriller Lodge was just a lonely haunted house in the old industrial zone, with virtually no other supporting facilities around it, very inconspicuous.

But now, Mr. Li and other investors were building restaurants and hotels here, and even renovated the plaza’s ground outside. With the central fountain added, it all looked too legitimate!

Although they were all converted from the original factory buildings in the old industrial zone, after everyone had cleaned up their surrounding environment, the piled-up construction waste and overgrown weeds were gone, instantly making the place look proper.

Although the Golden Maze was still undergoing intense renovation, it changed daily. Seeing all the intricate structures already taking shape, Pei Qian became more anxious.

Fortunately, there were still a few unresolved problems, such as how to promote this place to make tourists across the country aware of it, and how to arrange transportation from the city center to the old industrial zone, among others.

Pei Qian wandered around Thriller Lodge for two more rounds, planning to slip away.

However, just as he was about to leave, he heard a delighted voice.

“Mr. Pei? I knew that while you say this place will lose money, you care about it very much. You even find time to visit despite your busy schedule!”

Pei Qian’s mouth twitched slightly. Without turning around, he knew it was Mr. Li.

He had been coming secretly for the past two days, like a thief, precisely to avoid encountering Mr. Li and triggering unnecessary drama.

But as the saying goes, what you fear most comes to pass—he still ran into him!

Pei Qian silently sighed, turned around with a smile, and said: “Mr. Li, good afternoon.”

Mr. Li’s face was full of smiles: “Did Mr. Pei come specifically because you knew I was planning to call the investors today to discuss Thriller Lodge’s promotion? Mr. Pei must have insights on promotion!”

Pei Qian: “?”

No such thing; you’ve completely misunderstood!

Mr. Li and the investors also knew that Thriller Lodge’s current state made it impossible to be profitable—forget about recovering costs; even maintaining daily expenses would be difficult.

Because the foot traffic wasn’t enough.

Such a large amusement park couldn’t rely solely on Jingzhou locals; it needed tourists from across the country and even worldwide.

But how to promote Thriller Lodge—that was the question.

The “Beautiful Jingzhou” feature that the Universal Review website had previously done would certainly have some effect, but it was not enough.

Pei Qian chuckled: “Sorry, Mr. Li, I have to go now. You all can continue your discussion.”

With that, Pei Qian got in his car and left at high speed.

Li Shi stood puzzled on the spot, unable to make sense of Mr. Pei’s mysterious comings and goings.

But there was nothing he could do. He could only sigh helplessly and silently return to discuss promotion matters with the investors.