August 13th, Saturday.
Pei Qian crawled out of bed and yawned.
Today was the day for the Loss-Making Management Trainee meeting.
The exam period had passed. Pei Qian had been caught up in trivial matters for nearly a month, and although he had done some symbolic revision, overall he was in a state of abandoned treatment.
He wasn’t worried about failing his courses; he was just a bit concerned about his professors, who probably spent considerable brainpower trying to help him pass.
As for the Loss-Making Trainees, Pei Qian wasn’t worried about their exam results at all.
They were already top students to begin with, and they had been given plenty of time for revision before the exams, so their results would certainly be good.
Without the Loss-Making Trainees, Pei Qian felt like he could hardly move a step. After missing just one Loss-Making Trainee meeting, departments like the DGE Club and Study Master APP had shown an “I’m going to crush you” attitude. Add to that ioi and Slackin’ Delivery, which both exploded due to some uncontrollable factors, leaving Pei Qian overwhelmed.
And this was just what had already blown up. Who knew how many more land mines were buried underneath, waiting to be discovered?
So, the Loss-Making Trainee meetings had to resume immediately!
After finishing his morning routine, Pei Qian checked the time. It was still early.
So he took out his phone, wanting to search online for people’s opinions about the Tenda Life APP and Slackin’ Delivery.
After last night’s evening news broadcast and overnight fermentation, there were some new comments online.
Some said their parents watched the news and told them they could only order from Slackin’ Delivery from now on.
Some said their companies decided to order “Food·Harmony” uniformly for business meetings;
Many others said they had already bought the food containers, and the most outrageous post was from someone who had bought a complete set of food containers in all colors, not for any other reason than because they looked good and for collection purposes!
Pei Qian felt exhausted.
The earlier people were somewhat understandable. In the era of garbage classification, he could tolerate them ordering Slackin’ Delivery for convenience.
But what was with the person buying food containers in various colors as collectibles?
Who in their right mind would collect these?
All he could say was that the world was vast and full of wonders. Pei Qian just couldn’t understand why some seemingly unreliable things always had people treating them as treasures…
Suddenly, Pei Qian noticed a highly popular microblog post!
“I’m dying of laughter! Remember that customer being interviewed at Slackin’ Delivery on yesterday’s news? Looking all serious as if it was pre-arranged, but guess what, here’s the complete version!”
Below was a video.
A reporter came to Slackin’ Delivery and randomly interviewed a customer. However, this person was looking down at his phone and answering carelessly, completely unaware that he was being interviewed by a reporter.
“What do I think? I’m too lazy for garbage classification…”
“Are you recording? An interview? For the news?”
“Um, garbage classification is great! Protecting the environment, conserving resources is everyone’s responsibility! I think Slackin’ Delivery is doing exceptionally well in this regard…”
“Please edit out the earlier part. Thanks.”
The reporter, suppressing a smile: “Of course, don’t worry.”
This video was being frantically shared, with comments increasing rapidly!
“Hahahaha, I’m dying of laughter, one second a normal Jingzhou citizen, the next second an outstanding Jingzhou youth!”
“So authentic! I thought it was a prepared interview script, but it turned out to be a surprise interview. This brother didn’t even notice the camera beforehand and spoke the truth!”
“This is what a lovable Jingzhou citizen is like. Though complaining about the inconvenience garbage classification brings to life, he still supports it through his actions, changing his habits rather than secretly dumping garbage improperly. Must give him a thumbs up!”
“‘Please edit out the earlier part’ hahahaha! The kind-hearted brother was played by the reporter!”
“No trickery here. The reporter did edit it out and didn’t broadcast it on the news, but the reporter never said they wouldn’t upload it to Weibo, lol 23333”
“Wait, I noticed an issue. Did anyone notice that when the video first panned across several customers, there was a back view that seemed very familiar? I’m using it as my phone wallpaper!”
Pei Qian: “?”
Back view?
Can you even recognize a back view?
As for whose back view it was referring to, that went without saying.
Pei Qian quickly followed the trail and found the microblog of the netizen who posted this comment. His latest post was equally viral, already having been shared thousands of times!
“Shocking discovery! When the reporter interviewed Slackin’ Delivery, Mr. Pei was there! Look at the comparison of these two back views—99% similarity, similar suit, same physique, even the back of the head is identical!”
Below were two comparison images.
The first was a photo of Pei Qian walking against the crowd out of Slackin’ Internet Café 3.0 E-sports Living Hall, taken by that reporter.
The second was a screenshot from the video when the reporter interviewed Slackin’ Delivery.
Indeed, the similarity was off the charts!
Previously, some people had used that photo from Slackin’ Internet Café as their phone wallpaper, so it was no wonder that seeing this back view would trigger such associations.
Initially, not many people noticed, but after someone made the comparison image, everyone instantly recognized him!
Pei Qian felt very annoyed. He should have changed his suit!
But as a straight-forward man, who changes into various fancy clothes every day?
He had just a few comfortable suits that he wore in rotation, which was perfectly normal.
But unexpectedly, the recognition rate of this back view was too high, and it was discovered by enthusiastic netizens!
Netizens quickly began interpreting Mr. Pei’s behavior.
“World-famous paintings: ‘Mr. Pei at Slackin’ Internet Café, ‘Mr. Pei at Slackin’ Delivery.”
“So Mr. Pei was on-site supervising? No wonder the manager spoke so well. If he had said something wrong, he might have disappeared the next day!”
“Mr. Pei was on-site but didn’t personally accept the interview?”
“Isn’t this normal? Mr. Pei is a low-key person who never actively pursues vanity. Wasn’t it the same when he was at Slackin’ Internet Café? If that reporter hadn’t captured Mr. Pei’s back view, who would have known that Mr. Pei also attended the opening ceremony of the Slackin’ Internet Café E-sports Living Hall?”
“I don’t know why, but I seem to read a kind of faint loneliness from this back view? Is this the epitome of ‘mission accomplished, leaving quietly, concealing both merit and fame’?”
“Yes, it feels like Mr. Pei has a sense of detachment like ‘you do your interview, it has nothing to do with me.'”
“Doesn’t this mean that Mr. Pei eats Slackin’ Delivery, and even eats it often?”
“Yes, I heard from insiders that Mr. Pei indeed eats Slackin’ Delivery for basically all three meals, only occasionally going to Nameless Restaurant.”
“Shocked! Mr. Pei is so frugal, so restrained? If I go eat at Slackin’ Delivery now, can I have the same meal set as Mr. Pei?”
“That makes sense! I’ll go find out what meal set Mr. Pei was eating then, and order one too!”
“Mr. Pei’s meal set +1”
Pei Qian was dumbfounded.
“World-famous paintings”?
Netizens were too good at trolling!
I was just passing by. Couldn’t you just treat me as an innocent bystander?
Please stop trying to search for traces of me, thank you!
I just want to live an ordinary life, as an invisible person!
And what’s with the “Mr. Pei’s meal set”? Did I inadvertently end up promoting Slackin’ Delivery???
Pei Qian casually scrolled through and found that similar comments were not few!
Many people originally had no particular feelings about Slackin’ Delivery. Even with the garbage classification policy, they would rather cook for themselves or bring their food.
But after discovering this, many people suddenly changed their minds.
Mr. Pei personally ate there every day!
This proved that Slackin’ Delivery was indeed as healthy as advertised!
Many celebrities endorse products they don’t use themselves, which is not convincing at all.
And when a big boss with Mr. Pei’s net worth eats Slackin’ Delivery every day, it’s enough to show that, whether in terms of health, nutrition, or taste, it can’t be bad!
Being able to eat the same food as Mr. Pei for just twenty or thirty yuan, where else could you find such a good deal?
This was the perfect advertisement, instantly igniting people’s enthusiasm to order from Slackin’ Delivery!
Pei Qian heaved a long sigh and silently shook his head.
Then, he quietly pocketed his phone, no longer following the related content.
It’s over, take it away, next one.
The series of misfortunes that befell Slackin’ Delivery had killed it completely. It would probably enter the Slackin’ Internet Café mode now.
Open more stores, expand more.
Handong Province was out of the question. As long as garbage classification didn’t end, Slackin’ Delivery stores would probably profit one after another.
Although takeout profits weren’t fast and the initial store investment took a long time to recover, in the long run, they would make more and more money.
The only option was to continue opening branches in other cities without garbage classification. With the enormous initial investment in Slackin’ Delivery, as long as they opened stores fast enough, profits wouldn’t be able to catch up with me…
Pei Qian silently sighed and set off for the company to attend the Loss-Making Trainee meeting.
…
In the meeting room, all the Loss-Making Trainees had arrived.
Having just ended the exam period not long ago, they all looked energetic, seemingly eager to dive into work.
Pei Qian, on the other hand, had a dejected expression.
Do you know what your senior experienced during the time you were gone?
It was truly heart-wrenching, tear-jerking, and not to be told to outsiders.
“Everyone, let’s start the reports.” Tang Yishu took out her notebook, ready to record.
The management trainees began reporting the situation in their respective departments one by one.
Since they had been busy with exams, the information they collected was mainly from the middle of last month until today. Much of this information Pei Qian already knew, and he had even received some devastating news.
For instance, the matter of the Study Master APP being revamped into the Tenda Life APP.
Pei Qian found it very ironic that Yu Ping’an had coincidentally managed to escape the trainees’ notice and completed the APP’s revamp just two days before the Loss-Making Trainee meeting, as if the timing had been calculated.
Pei Qian didn’t believe that Yu Ping’an was aware of the trainees’ existence and deliberately avoided them. This could only be explained by “luck.”
It was truly maddening.
Soon, some dangerous information that Pei Qian wasn’t previously aware of surfaced!