A wage earner with a monthly salary of 5,000 yuan, whether spending 1,500 or 2,000 on rent, couldn’t be said to be “unable to afford it,” but they would make comparisons.

Currently, the direct competitor of Sloth Apartments was the “Peace of Mind Apartments” business newly launched by Homely Group.

Homely Group was an influential real estate agency nationwide. Many people would mindlessly choose houses under Homely when renting, because compared to those scammy small agencies and sublessors, Homely Group was a large corporation, and the possibility of them scamming people would be smaller.

In the past two years, Homely Group had also seen the increasing demand of young people for living environments, so they launched the “Peace of Mind Apartments” business, which involved signing contracts with landlords to rent poorly decorated old houses, renovating them themselves, and then renting them to tenants at a higher rent.

These were also well-decorated houses with complete furniture and appliances, with overall good appearances. Although they were more expensive than other houses, being well-decorated meant they were comfortable to live in, so this business had developed quite well.

Compared to Sloth Apartments, although Homely Group’s Peace of Mind Apartments were overall more than a level below in terms of decoration and furniture, they didn’t have so many rules, and the price was considerably cheaper. In the eyes of the working class, with generally low incomes, they were more suited to the needs of the general public.

Increasing the monthly rent from 1,500 to 2,000 would mean spending an extra 6,000 yuan on rent annually, enough to buy a new mobile phone. This price difference was still very noticeable for most people.

Moreover, Pei Qian detected a hint of the water army in these comments.

Homely Group also had many branches in Jingzhou, with many agency employees in each branch.

Tenda’s Sloth Apartments was also a rental business, in direct competition with their “Peace of Mind Apartments” business. Homely Group couldn’t possibly watch Sloth Apartments build its reputation without doing anything.

They didn’t even need to hire specialized water armies. They just needed to force all employees of all branches in Jingzhou to search for similar posts and comment below, pretending to be ordinary people.

Although these people didn’t understand much, with their 24-hour high-intensity posting, they could create a large voice online, muddy the waters, and create an illusion that “most people are dissatisfied with Sloth Apartments.”

In short, from the perspective of online public opinion, most of the customers attracted by the Sloth Apartments promotional video had been discouraged.

However, even so, there were still people who overcame all difficulties and signed rental contracts to move into Sloth Apartments.

The top-floor apartment in Building 8 of Binhu Community, which was the one used for filming Chen Lei’s MV, was immediately rented by one of his fanatical female fans.

Because the view from this apartment was the same as in the MV, it was very suitable for taking photos to post on social media.

This customer’s main purpose in renting this top-floor apartment wasn’t to live in it, but to chase her idol.

Sitting on the sofa that Chen Lei had sat on was worth it!

When Pei Qian learned about this from the manager of this building, he didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

It could only be said that rich people’s star-chasing was just so plain and simple, and boring.

“Ah, after all, Chen Lei has many fans; this kind of thing seems unavoidable.”

“However, if it’s just a few apartments, the impact on Sloth Apartments’ money-losing model won’t be very significant.”

Although Chen Lei’s influence might indeed attract some people to chase their idol, the problem wasn’t big.

The key was that this was renting, not buying.

If this apartment were for sale, many people might buy it to chase their idol. After all, once you buy a house, you can resell it, it can hold value, you can rent it out if you don’t live in it yourself, all of which make economic sense.

But this apartment was for rent only, not for sale, and subletting was strictly prohibited. If someone like this young lady was chasing her idol and not living there herself, it would mean throwing away the monthly rent for nothing, and the apartment still wouldn’t belong to her.

So, Pei Qian felt that even if people chased their idol because of this MV, it shouldn’t affect the big picture.

Moreover, the commercial-residential building in Shundong Garden, and the large single-floor apartment in Urban Dawn where he lived, still didn’t have a single tenant.

Pei Qian took a round of inspection and concluded: Although Sloth Apartments’ attention was currently skyrocketing, it was still safe for the time being, and could be observed further.

So, he took a ride home and went to take a nap with peace of mind.

…

In the afternoon, at Thrilling Lodge.

Li Shi and other investors gathered together for a meeting.

Since Thrilling Lodge opened, the situation had been quite good.

The early publicity work had been very thorough, attracting a large number of young people from Jingzhou and even Handong Province. The various interesting projects in Thrilling Lodge had also continued to maintain an excellent reputation.

But the problem was, it didn’t seem to be that wildly popular.

For investors like Li Shi, Thrilling Lodge could currently only be considered in a normal profit state. The income from related supporting industries plus the profit from products sold in the Golden Maze could cover the daily expenses of Thrilling Lodge with some leftover.

But recovering the invested costs still seemed far away.

This level of popularity, at most, was just drinking soup.

Although everyone had gotten used to drinking soup following Mr. Pei, the problem was, this time, Mr. Pei didn’t seem to be making a killing either.

To be precise, the current situation was that Mr. Pei was drinking soup, and others were just smelling the aroma.

To this day, the Thrilling Lodge project hasn’t met everyone’s expectations.

So, the investors spontaneously gathered together, also calling over Mr. Li, to discuss countermeasures.

“Mr. Li, at the current income rate, it’ll be ages before we recover the entire project’s investment. We can’t wait that long!”

“Yes, Mr. Li, can you think of something quick? Why not urge Mr. Pei again? Mr. Pei must still have tricks up his sleeve!”

“Or should we think of something ourselves?”

“What can we think of? No way! I’ve been observing the situation of Thrilling Lodge lately and found it not optimistic. Although this project can be experienced multiple times, people will get bored eventually. Currently, there aren’t enough tourists nationwide, and most people aren’t willing to travel to Jingzhou just for a haunted house. So in the short term, there’s no possibility of making big money!”

“Could it be that Mr. Pei miscalculated? Failed?”

“Mr. Pei previously warned us that this project might not make money. Was he serious?”

The investors chattered, all a bit panicked.

Because the investment in Thrilling Lodge was too large, the current profit could only be said to offset the operating costs. Only after recovering all the initial investments could it be called truly profitable!

If the initial investments couldn’t be recovered, it wouldn’t be called profit, but a severe loss.

Li Shi listened to the discussions of the other investors, remaining silent.

The current situation of the Thrilling Lodge project indeed didn’t satisfy him.

Everyone could feel that from “decent” to “wildly popular,” it seemed to be just that little bit of distance away.

But it was precisely this little bit of distance that they couldn’t reach.

Was there a problem with the project itself?

No problem at all, Desperate Escape, Haunted Nightmare, Ultimate Terror, Golden Maze, Healing Fountain, Maid Café… these were all great, and the feedback from tourists was also good.

Now with the Tenda Life APP, the queuing problem has also been solved. Everyone could queue using the APP while eating, strolling around, and shopping in the Golden Maze. The tourist experience had greatly improved.

Was it a publicity problem?

Publicity also seemed to be in place. Whether in Jingzhou or nationwide, many people already knew about Thrilling Lodge. The publicity arranged by Mr. Pei, including the shared phone booths and Qiao Laoshi’s videos, had already taken effect.

Thinking left and right, it was really hard to figure out what exactly was missing, preventing Thrilling Lodge from going from “decent” to “wildly popular.”

Or, as some investors said, was Mr. Pei not omnipotent, and he hadn’t successfully calculated all situations?

Li Shi clearly wouldn’t agree with this view.

After all the investors had vented their frustrations, Li Shi gently tapped the table: “Alright, quiet down.”

“You think Mr. Pei miscalculated on the Thrilling Lodge project?”

“Then you’re too impatient.”

“How long has Thrilling Lodge been open? Less than two months! You only see that many of Mr. Pei’s projects become popular as soon as they’re launched, and mistakenly think Thrilling Lodge would be the same.”

“Haven’t you noticed? Many of Mr. Pei’s projects only became popular after persisting for a long enough time!”

“Just like Slackin’ Takeout, it lost money for more than a year. Mr. Pei not only didn’t cut this project, but continued to invest money into it, and finally, with the Jingzhou garbage classification, it began to soar!”

“Now, the prospects of Slackin’ Takeout are immeasurable!”

“If Mr. Pei were as impatient as you, giving up after losing money for two months, how would there be today’s success? Moreover, Thrilling Lodge isn’t losing money now, it’s just earning relatively slowly.”

“Do you know where your gap with Mr. Pei lies?”

“You’re all in investment, you can’t possibly not understand this basic principle?”

The investors were all silenced by Mr. Li’s lecture.

Indeed, anyone who understands a bit about investment knows that looking at short-term results is meaningless; it’s all about the long term.

It’s just that Mr. Pei’s investment miracles were too many, so these investors’ psychological expectations had been continuously raised. When Thrilling Lodge wasn’t as popular, they lost patience.

Now with Mr. Li’s lecture, everyone calmed down.

An investor cleared his throat: “Mr. Li, yes, what you said makes a lot of sense, we are indeed a bit anxious. But we’re also thinking for everyone’s benefit, who doesn’t hope that Thrilling Lodge can be more popular and make more money?”

“Mr. Li, you’re telling us to be patient and keep waiting. Indeed, we should trust Mr. Pei, but isn’t just waiting like this a bit too passive?”

Other investors also nodded: “Yes, Mr. Li, this is too passive. Why don’t we think of something, do some publicity, even if it means spending a bit more money?”

Li Shi was silent for a moment, looking around at everyone: “Spend a bit more money? You’re willing?”

The investors continued to nod: “Willing!”

They paused, then added: “Of course… how to spend it specifically, we still need to discuss further.”

Li Shi nodded slightly, quite satisfied with these investors’ attitudes.

In any case, everyone’s interests had already been deeply tied to the Thrilling Lodge project. No one wanted to be a deserter, and they were even willing to spend more money on publicity.

This was a good thing.

Only by firmly believing in Mr. Pei and always following him would one have the qualification to drink soup.