Noon, Mingyun Private Kitchen.

Pei Qian and Guo Licheng, along with other Tuoguan Fitness coaches, arrived one after another.

The DGE Club members arrived slightly later because they were close by and could arrive just in time.

Seeing that Guo Licheng’s build had grown slightly larger again, Pei Qian expressed satisfaction and publicly praised him.

“Very good, Coach Guo is an example for everyone. You should all learn from Coach Guo. Next time we gather, if I see anyone whose physique hasn’t changed significantly, whose muscle mass hasn’t grown noticeably, that store manager is incompetent, and I’ll consider replacing them. Understand?”

The store managers nodded in unison: “Understood!”

Pei Qian was very satisfied with this.

Just from Guo Licheng’s physique, it was clear that all his time must have been spent training, with no time left to manage the gym’s daily operations.

Excellent, this was exactly what Mr. Pei wanted!

Guo Licheng felt a bit embarrassed at the praise.

As the project leader, he still hadn’t managed to turn the Tuoguan Fitness from a loss to a profit. Not to mention the entire project, even the flagship store that had started earliest, was still quite far from breaking even.

Since the launch of the Tuoguan Fitness APP previously, the problem of crowding during peak hours had indeed been resolved. Everyone would make appointments before coming to work out, effectively dispersing the flow of customers.

But this hadn’t helped the gym’s popularity; rather, it had somewhat suppressed it.

As for the other functions of the Tuoguan Fitness APP, they were fine, but the key issue was that there were only so many users. No matter how good the other functions were, people needed to use them for them to matter, right?

So, Guo Licheng had always felt somewhat apologetic toward the app’s developers. With such good app functions, there weren’t enough users to take advantage of them.

Fortunately, Yu Ping’an from the Smart Student Quick Come project had approached him recently, hoping to integrate with Tuoguan Fitness, which nicely solved the user volume problem, and Guo Licheng had naturally agreed.

It seemed that this must have all been arranged by Mr. Pei, so Guo Licheng didn’t ask too much. Everything was understood without words.

As for today’s gathering, Guo Licheng wasn’t entirely sure.

A celebration?

That was impossible, right? Tuoguan Fitness was still losing money; what was there to celebrate?

Boosting morale, encouraging the gym managers to keep up the good work?

Hmm, that was possible.

But since Mr. Pei didn’t say, no one dared to ask more. After all, as a department that had been losing money for years, they didn’t feel comfortable speaking much in this setting.

Pei Qian looked at the time; the DGE Esports Club members should be arriving soon.

He felt it necessary to give the gym managers present a few reminders.

“There’s a small matter everyone should pay attention to.”

“Today we’re dining with the DGE Esports Club people, partly to welcome them back, but also to comfort them.”

“As a newly established esports club, the DGE Club members have gone around the country challenging those established clubs, and they’ve probably lost badly, with the team members being severely discouraged.”

“Now they need understanding and comfort. When they arrive, don’t bring up any topics related to performance. Eat more, toast more, and talk more about fitness, understand?”

The gym managers all nodded: “Understood!”

However, everyone was puzzled—what was this about talking more about fitness?

Only a very few people (such as Guo Licheng, who was quite familiar with Coach Yaling) knew about the “scientific training method” adopted by the DGE Esports Club.

Pei Qian was quite satisfied with these gym managers who didn’t ask questions and just shouted, “Understood!”

These people were all cut from the same cloth as Guo Licheng: they loved fitness, had relatively simple minds, and wouldn’t come up with various new tricks to backstab Mr. Pei.

They were also easy to supervise. Just by checking their muscle mass changes each time they met, he could determine whether they had been training seriously.

As long as they trained seriously, they shouldn’t have much opportunity to cause trouble.

Just as he finished giving instructions, the DGE Club members arrived.

“Brother Qian!”

Ma Yang led the way.

Pei Qian went over and gave him a warm hug, then looked at the team members following behind.

Their expressions… were all quite flat.

They couldn’t be described as dejected, but they weren’t happy either.

Hmm, clearly the sense of defeat from being crushed had diminished somewhat after returning home, but they were still in low spirits.

This was when good food was needed for healing!

“Come, everyone, take your seats and get ready to eat!”

Pei Qian never bothered with formalities. Gatherings were about people coming together and eating as much as possible.

Ma Yang was excited: “Brother Qian, I want to sit next to you! Let me tell you, on this trip for training matches, I was the team’s tactical guide and played an important role! Don’t believe me? Just ask anyone—which club out there doesn’t know DGE Club’s Coach Ma?”

Huang Wang was shocked and instinctively looked at Zhang Yuan.

The implication was, what happened to the agreement about not boasting? What was Coach Ma doing?

Zhang Yuan shook his head helplessly. There was no way around it; Ma didn’t have to follow these unwritten rules.

Don’t ask, just know he’d blocked an atomic bomb.

Of course, others absolutely shouldn’t try to imitate him.

After hearing Old Ma’s speech, Pei Qian was filled with respect.

The reason for DGE’s crushing defeat had been found!

No wonder the team members were all so withdrawn. With you as the tactical guide, how could they not be depressed?

They might not have been able to win in the first place, and with your command, wouldn’t the team be steamrolled within fifteen minutes every game?

You played an important role, no doubt about it—a negative one!

It wasn’t surprising that his name had spread far and wide. These outside clubs had probably never encountered such a terrible tactical guide. After this campaign, Coach Ma would become synonymous with “misguided commanding,” spreading across the four seas…

Pei Qian became even more convinced that the DGE Club members must have been crushed terribly.

Only Old Ma could still laugh about it.

Pei Qian patted Ma Yang’s shoulder: “Say no more, Old Ma, I understand everything!”

“Alright, that matter is now in the past. Let’s not bring it up again. Quick, your favorite king lobster is served, help yourself!”

Ma Yang was still excited and wanted to tell Pei Qian about his brilliant performance as the core commander in the training matches, but when he turned his head and saw that the king lobster had been served, he was immediately distracted.

What’s boasting compared to eating!

Ma Yang immediately tossed this matter to the back of his mind and started devouring the king lobster.

Pei Qian couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief. Thankfully, he had reacted quickly!

Otherwise, if Old Ma had revealed the DGE Club’s training match defeats and how they were crushed, how embarrassing would that have been!

In front of so many people, how could Zhang Yuan and the team members save face? The meal would have been ruined!

Fortunately, Old Ma had now shut up, and hopefully no one else would be foolish enough to bring up this topic, so everyone could eat in peace.

Zhang Yuan looked at Huang Wang and the others with an “I told you so” expression.

The team members all understood tacitly.

Mr. Pei indeed disliked people boasting!

Look at Mr. Ma, who had blocked an atomic bomb for Mr. Pei—as soon as he showed the slightest hint of boasting, he was immediately cut off by Mr. Pei.

So, no more nonsense, just eat up!

One dish after another was served, and everyone began to feast heartily, rarely tasting such delicacies.

At this moment, someone asked about Coach Yaling’s recent movements, and they learned that she had actually become a coach for the club, training esports players through fitness methods, which left them amazed.

No wonder Mr. Pei had said earlier that they could exchange fitness experiences with these esports players!

And these esports players, looking at the row of fitness coaches opposite them, also showed envious gazes.

Look at their builds, those muscles!

Mr. Pei had us eat with fitness coaches was clearly to remind us not to get complacent, to continue working hard, and to strive to develop such physiques soon!

We’re still far from that level!

It must be said that fitness is addictive.

It’s hard to persist with fitness at the beginning because results come slowly, but after a period, the body’s muscles enter a phase of rapid growth, and physical changes become noticeable.

This is similar to the principle of saving money. The less people earn, the less they care about their savings and surplus—anyway, they spend all their monthly income and are casual with spending. Once savings increase, they become more conscious of their expenditures because they enjoy seeing their savings grow.

Now the DGE Club members were at this stage, very concerned about their muscle growth, with fitness having become a habit.

I must say, these two groups eating together created quite a harmonious atmosphere.

After all, they had the common topic of fitness to discuss.

Guo Licheng and Coach Yaling ate while catching up, and casually asked, “So do you plan to go out for more training matches in the future?”

Coach Yaling shook her head: “No, there’s no point.”

Guo Licheng nodded in understanding.

Indeed, being frequently crushed is very defeating, and developing a short-term avoidance mentality is quite normal.

Hearing this, Pei Qian was even happier.

Losing training matches had greatly impacted the team members’ confidence. They were disheartened and decided to adopt an ostrich strategy, beginning to avoid the situation!

This was also good news. Although the DGE Esports Club couldn’t participate in official competitions, if they continued to be active, they might create some influence elsewhere, disrupting Mr. Pei’s overall plan.

Once they became disheartened and secluded themselves, with the two teams playing training matches against each other and entertaining themselves, their skill level would only decline.

If the script continued to develop like this, this club would lose money like crazy!

Pei Qian became increasingly happy the more he thought about it.

…

Meanwhile, at the H4 Esports Club.

Team Leader Su looked at his phone, his face showing an expression of disbelief.

“What does Huang Wang mean by this latest Moments post?”

“‘Back at the base, Mr. Pei held a celebration banquet personally hosting us… booking the entire Nameless Restaurant?!'”

“Showing off, blatant showing off!”

“This is adding insult to injury!”

Team Leader Su was furious.