Seeing that all three people were stunned, Pei Qian emphasized once more: “Add it immediately!”

He De Sheng was the first to react, nodding: “Yes, Mr. Pei.”

Adding a line of text to the promotional page was simple. It was merely a matter of finding a space on the original image and photoshopping a sentence onto it.

He De Sheng had no doubts about Mr. Pei’s behavior, but Zhang Wang and Ma Yang were both heartbroken, as if their souls had been instantly snatched away.

But Pei Qian didn’t bother arguing with them further and turned to leave.

There was no help for it. This was just how Mr. Pei repaid grievances with virtue.

Although these customers had all lost their minds, renting Sloth Apartments and buying Automatic Contrarian Machines, frantically stabbing Mr. Pei in the back with their money, Mr. Pei still couldn’t abandon them.

By putting these words up there, he could save as many as possible!

…

Meanwhile, at Building 9 of Lakeside Residential Complex, Sloth Apartments.

Qiao Liang had already signed the contract and moved into the top floor of this building.

Actually, he would have preferred the top floor of Building 8, but that seemed to have been rented early on by one of Chen Lei’s fervent fans.

So, he had to settle for second best and rent the top floor of Building 9.

It must be said that being able to rent the top floor of Building 9 was also a stroke of luck. If he’d been a few minutes later, the floor level would have likely dropped dramatically.

Because the lobby downstairs was already crowded with people coming to rent apartments, and there simply weren’t enough units available in this area to meet the demand.

Looking at the vast lake view outside the window, Qiao Liang felt a surge of contentment.

He hung all the clothes from his suitcase in the master bedroom’s closet, then put the suitcase itself in the cabinet in the second bedroom.

Although the entire apartment had only this little bit of storage space, it was still enough for Qiao Liang.

With this apartment layout, the spacious living room only had some shelves displaying art pieces, which couldn’t be used as storage space, but this allowed Qiao Liang to fully focus on enjoying the 180-degree lake view.

Nestled on the sofa with his laptop out to edit a video, Qiao Liang felt it was worth it!

For some reason, his thoughts suddenly became calm, and he really wanted to think about some issues, then make a video about them!

Was this the magical effect of Sloth Apartments?

Here, it truly seemed conducive to thinking…

Wait, something wasn’t right.

Something seemed to be missing.

Qiao Liang suddenly realized that the Sloth Apartment he had rented seemed to lack a soul: there was no Automatic Contrarian Machine!

Yes, he absolutely needed one!

Qiao Liang had wanted to buy one last night, but considering that he would have to bring it along when moving, he thought it better to buy it directly at Sloth Apartments.

Although in principle Sloth Apartments didn’t allow tenants to add their own furniture or change the layout, the housekeeper would tacitly approve of something like the Automatic Contrarian Machine.

Qiao Liang immediately searched for the Automatic Contrarian Machine online and successfully found the purchase page.

However, after clicking into it, Qiao Liang was stunned.

Because he saw a prominent line of text on the purchase page.

“It’s expensive, boring, and won’t enhance your thinking ability. Perhaps you could spend your money on something more meaningful.”

Qiao Liang was bewildered.

What did this mean?

It won’t enhance thinking ability?

The official statement denied the deeper meaning of the Automatic Contrarian Machine.

Qiao Liang clearly remembered that when he looked at this page last night, this sentence didn’t seem to be there.

Why specifically add this sentence?

Qiao Liang hurriedly checked online to see netizens’ comments and discovered that not only had the Automatic Contrarian Machine page gained this line of text, but the Sloth Apartments page also had a prominent new line: Living here won’t enhance your thinking ability.

The tone seemed very flat, as if emphasizing an objective fact.

Qiao Liang was even more confused.

What did this mean? I just moved in, and Mr. Pei pulls this on me?

What was the intention behind emphasizing this? To contradict himself?

But this place did help with thinking!

Qiao Liang could feel that this environment was very minimalist yet highly artistic, indeed conducive to calming one’s mind and sparking inspiration.

So why would the official statement emphasize that this place wouldn’t enhance thinking ability?

Qiao Liang thought for less than two minutes before suddenly understanding.

“So that’s it!”

“I get it!”

“Just… I wonder if the netizens can figure it out?”

After confirming the answer in his mind, Qiao Liang scrolled through the netizens’ comments, and a satisfied smile soon appeared on his face.

“What’s the meaning of the explanatory text newly added to Sloth Apartments and the Automatic Contrarian Machine? Could it be that what Mr. Li said before was all false?”

“Yes, it’s all false. Everyone, definitely don’t rent or buy! Leave it all for me!”

“I’ve already moved in, and this environment does help with thinking. And this Automatic Contrarian Machine truly does make one fall into deep contemplation.”

“Then why add these two explanatory notes? Doesn’t this have the opposite effect?”

“These two sentences embody a dialectical way of thinking. What is the essence of Sloth Apartments and the Automatic Contrarian Machine? It’s to let you think independently, not to believe whatever others say, not to follow the crowd. So, if you haven’t thought independently and blindly move into Sloth Apartments and purchase an Automatic Contrarian Machine, isn’t that contradicting the essence of independent thinking?”

“I understand! So these two sentences are a hint: if you don’t use your brain to think, and just believe whatever others say, then even with Sloth Apartments and the Automatic Contrarian Machine, it’s useless. They can’t change a person’s way of thinking. In other words, don’t exaggerate and deify the significance of these two things.”

“At the same time, it’s implying that what needs to change is our way of thinking about problems, rather than completely relying on external objects.”

“Yes, that makes sense! If you only know how to blindly follow trends, living in Sloth Apartments won’t help.”

“But that said, Sloth Apartments creates an environment, and the Automatic Contrarian Machine provides a vehicle, which is indeed helpful for our thinking, that’s undeniable. It only acts as a ‘catalyst,’ not a miracle cure for all ailments.”

“As expected of Mr. Pei, even casually adding two explanatory notes contains such profound philosophy!”

“I want to buy one even more now!”

After reading these comments, Qiao Liang nodded slightly.

Yes, the netizens had indeed become increasingly accustomed to Mr. Pei’s way of thinking and no longer needed him to step forward with interpretations.

Perhaps shortly, whenever one of Mr. Pei’s puzzles appeared, the netizens would spontaneously interpret and uncover the deeper meaning behind it. That would mean his mission was complete!

Mr. Pei’s puzzle this time was really simple; everyone solved it in a second.

Qiao Liang very happily placed an order for an Automatic Contrarian Machine, patiently waiting for it to be delivered.

Taking out his laptop, nestled on the sofa while looking at the lake view, he read Master He An’s long Weibo post several more times.

Indeed, each reading brought some completely new insights.

To this day, Qiao Liang still hasn’t given up, because Mr. Pei had once told him that as long as he abandoned using “Masterpiece” to interpret “Struggle,” he would get the true answer for the Thrilling Lodge video.

So, Qiao Liang had been continuously using Master He An’s long Weibo post as a key, reading it repeatedly.

Qiao Liang felt that Master He An’s ten-thousand-word-long Weibo post’s interpretation of the game “Struggle” itself should already be perfect. No matter how much more he studied it, he probably couldn’t extract any new content.

What about beyond the game “Struggle” itself?

After the recent Sloth Apartments and Automatic Contrarian Machine events, Qiao Liang vaguely sensed something, but found it difficult to grasp.

He could feel that now he was missing a clue, one that could connect everything.

And once he found this clue, all confusion would be resolved!

Qiao Liang was diligently thinking about all the content from this period, including Thrilling Lodge, Slackin’ Takeout, “Struggle,” Sloth Apartments, Automatic Contrarian Machine, Tuoguan Fitness, Tenda Life APP, and so on, while searching for information online using various keywords.

Suddenly, Qiao Liang’s eyes lit up.

On Handong University’s internal forum, he found a post titled: Full Text Share of Mr. Pei’s Speech on Wealth Perspective at the Science Hall.

This was a popular post on Handong University’s internal forum with many replies, but it didn’t seem to have been widely reposted to external websites.

Qiao Liang wasn’t a student at Handong University, so he couldn’t reply to this post, but he could view the full text.

“Mr. Pei’s speech?”

“It seems genuine.”

“It hasn’t been widely circulated?”

Qiao Liang initially had some doubts about the authenticity of this script. Logically, when a celebrity like Mr. Pei gives a speech at a university, wouldn’t it become widely known? How could it be so low-key that even the script hadn’t spread?

But after carefully reading the students’ replies below, Qiao Liang realized that Mr. Pei hadn’t personally attended, but had commissioned someone else to read the script.

“So that’s why. No wonder the attention is so low. However, the content of this speech seems to have deeply moved the students.”

“Well… since it’s a script written by Mr. Pei himself, it’s worth studying.”

Qiao Liang began reading the full text.

This speech was directed at all scholarship students sponsored by Tenda, and the theme explored “perspectives on wealth.” The entire speech actually only discussed one thing: what Mr. Pei believed a proper perspective on wealth should be.

This speech was hoping that the scholarship students would correctly utilize the money Tenda had donated to them.

But what surprised Qiao Liang was that in the speech, Mr. Pei didn’t emphasize telling these scholarship students to “spend sparingly” or “be frugal,” but rather explained the concept from another angle.

Many scholarship students had fallen into a misconception about wealth, equating “wealth” with the “money” at their disposal, mistakenly thinking that the correct wealth perspective was to find every possible way to spend less and consume less.

But in his speech, Mr. Pei introduced a new concept: for young people like them, the most valuable wealth was not the money they possessed, but their attention.

Therefore, don’t save all your money unwilling to spend it, don’t buy meaningless things just to satisfy your vanity, and don’t spend it on distracting, addictive entertainment activities.

Where should money be spent?

It should be spent on things that allow one to focus attention and think, using money to leverage one’s attention – that’s the way to maximize the wealth one possesses.

After reading this speech, Qiao Liang suddenly felt enlightened.

He seemed to have grasped what he had been searching for all along!