After shaking hands, Meng Chang prepared to take his leave.

For him, although his original goal was to get 5 million yuan and now he only had 2 million, the purpose of “borrowing Mr. Pei’s halo” had already been achieved. Moreover, Mr. Pei would continue to make follow-up investments in the future, so there was no need to dwell on the amount now.

Furthermore, Meng Chang hadn’t even met Mr. Pei yet.

Meng Chang felt that Mr. Pei was busy with work, and since he wasn’t famous yet, it was understandable that he couldn’t meet Mr. Pei.

Once the “Cold Noodle Girl” brand was established and he had various data and reports to bring over, it would be more convincing, and Mr. Pei would make time to meet him.

As long as they met face to face, Meng Chang believed that with his silver tongue, he could convince Mr. Pei to invest more money.

So, today his goal had been achieved, and he could go back to prepare.

However, just as he was about to leave, He Desheng said: “Wait a moment, there’s one small thing I forgot to mention.”

Meng Chang stopped: “Oh, go ahead, Mr. He.”

He Desheng said, “According to Mr. Pei’s requirements, companies we invest in must accept some of our conditions.”

“First, they must operate legally and honestly.”

“Second, the money we invest must all be used for company operations and normal business, not for paying the boss’s salary, and not for transferring from left hand to right hand or for personal consumption. Of course, we have no control over money from other investors.”

“Given these two points, we will assign a financial officer to serve as your company’s financial director. This must be made clear in advance.”

He Desheng wore a smile, and his tone was kind.

These regulations were established by Mr. Pei when he previously defined the “rich fools” investment model. He Desheng was just following procedure and carrying out official business.

This was a very common phenomenon in the investment industry. After all, investors weren’t fools either. They couldn’t accept investing their own money only for the founder to spend it on wining and dining.

For Mr. Pei, it was the same.

These founders could burn money, but they must do something worthwhile.

Otherwise, if these founders were living it up while Mr. Pei was eating chaff and swallowing dregs, his mental state would collapse.

Therefore, Dream Realization Investment’s requirements were quite strict when it came to finances.

Arranging someone of their own to be the financial director meant that all money flows in this company couldn’t escape Tenda’s eyes. Once any anomalies appeared, He Desheng could immediately report to Mr. Pei.

For the vast majority of law-abiding entrepreneurs, this didn’t count as a restriction and even provided a free financial director.

But for those entrepreneurs with ulterior motives, it was an entirely different matter.

Meng Chang hesitated for a moment.

He knew that different investors had different management methods after investing. Some would assign a financial director to join the company’s core team, some would require monthly board meetings, some would require the investee company to establish various supervision and reporting systems, and some would just throw money and not care, holding a board meeting only once or twice a year, or finding an investment assistant to hold a nominal position…

There were all kinds of approaches, and the key was to see the rules of the investment company.

Meng Chang had originally thought that Mr. Pei’s investment company would be more relaxed, but now it seemed that they were the strictest when it came to finances.

This slightly disturbed his plan.

After all, taking the money and running was originally one of his backup options.

Taking the money and running wasn’t something you could just do on a whim. It required a series of complex operations. If the financial officer were his person, it would be a bit easier to manage. If the financial officer was from Tenda, then as soon as there was the slightest movement on his side, he might immediately be taken to a small dark room for questioning.

But after weighing things, he felt that he should still accept the investment.

First, Dream Realization Investment’s requirement wasn’t excessive; many investors would have similar requirements. Moreover, Dream Realization Investment was only strict on finances but didn’t interfere at all with the company’s specific business strategies. All things considered, this was actually a very relaxed and generous investment condition.

If Meng Chang refused, he might be suspected of having something to hide. And once this got out, it would probably be even harder for him to get money from other investors.

Second, even if he completely gave up the option of taking the money and running, Meng Chang had other ways to benefit himself.

For example, after growing the company, he could find a big company to take over, which would allow him to make money completely within reasonable and legal rules, and also shift the blame to the big company.

Although taking the money and running was also a way to make money, it would mean never being able to return to the country in this lifetime and leaving behind a pile of bad reputation. It wasn’t the best choice to begin with, and unless absolutely necessary, Meng Chang didn’t want to go down that road.

Of course, how the founder could exit after a big company took over was a big problem.

Because many big companies, after taking over, valued the founder’s entrepreneurial ability and would forcibly require all of the founder’s shares to be locked and not allowed to be sold, making the founder continue to manage the company and work for them.

But nothing in the world is absolute. Some big companies preferred to appoint their own people to parachute in and take over completely, because they trusted the management ability of their own people more.

As long as Meng Chang could find such a company, he could still exit safely.

So, after rapid consideration in a short period of time, Meng Chang felt that he should still accept the investment.

Although the risk was high, the return was also high.

Most importantly, Meng Chang had prepared for so long, waiting for this opportunity, and he would be very reluctant to give up now.

A large part of the reason why people like Meng Chang could win the favor of investors was actually due to their gambler characteristics.

If they won the gamble, they would easily be worth over 100 million; if they lost, they would easily be in debt for over 100 million.

So, with such a high-stakes gamble in front of him, Meng Chang found it hard to give up.

Meng Chang hesitated for a moment but still squeezed out a smile: “Of course, that’s how it should be.”

He Desheng nodded with satisfaction: “Good, I hope we can have a pleasant cooperation!”

…

Meanwhile, Pei Qian was drinking coffee and yawning at Slackin’ Internet Café.

He was still thinking about how to spend the money from selling the GPL slots.

Just then, his phone rang.

It was Zhang Yuan calling.

“Mr. Pei, the bosses of those three clubs have come in person and hope to meet you.”

Pei Qian was stunned: “You mean, the bosses of those three clubs that sold their GOG divisions?”

Zhang Yuan: “Yes. They’re now at the DGE club. Do you have time to meet them?”

Pei Qian fell into brief silence.

Time, he had, and plenty of it.

The key was what these three bosses’ purpose was in coming here.

Pei Qian thought for a moment and asked: “Do they want to breach the contract?”

Zhang Yuan: “They wouldn’t dare breach the contract. This time, they should be coming to admit defeat and surrender.”

Theoretically, these three clubs could indeed pay a 3 million yuan breach of contract penalty and then decide not to sell their GOG divisions.

But the problem was, not selling didn’t mean they would have GPL slots!

From beginning to end, Pei Qian had never given them GPL slots in black and white, but had only verbally promised that these clubs “would have” GPL slots, and the premise was that they had to accept various terms from Tenda’s e-sports division, including the standard contract.

The reason he allowed them to transfer GPL slots was merely because they had cooperated before, giving these clubs some face.

If these clubs broke ties, then Pei Qian could naturally ignore them and directly give these three GPL slots to others.

Of course, this would be in the worst-case scenario.

If he did this, these three clubs wouldn’t get any benefits, and Pei Qian’s credibility would also be slightly damaged.

So, the bosses of these three clubs came to see him, on one hand to admit fault and apologize, and on the other hand to hope to discuss a suitable solution.

Pei Qian thought for a moment, and this matter indeed needed to be resolved.

In any case, let’s meet the bosses of these three clubs first.

“Okay, I’ll come over now. Ask them to wait a bit.”

…

Half an hour later, at the DGE club.

The boss of the SUG club and the bosses of the other two clubs were sitting in the conference room, drinking tea, but unable to calm their anxious emotions.

During the time waiting for Mr. Pei to arrive, every second was quite torturous.

Finally, there was a faint sound of footsteps outside, and Mr. Pei pushed the door open.

The three club bosses hurriedly stood up from their seats.

“Mr. Pei!”

Pei Qian nodded slightly, and as he shook hands with each of them, Zhang Yuan made introductions beside him.

The boss of SUG club was called Ding Gan, also a very wealthy second-generation rich, slightly less so than Xue Zhebin, but not much different from Jin Ding Group’s Yao Bo.

Pei Qian had heard of this person earlier.

Because SUG, this e-sports club, already had a certain reputation in the country. Although not as established as the H4 club, it was the most financially powerful among the earliest batch of e-sports clubs.

Previously, in order to buy players from the DGE club, SUG club prepared a full 25 million yuan. Although not much was spent, it was enough to prove their financial strength.

As one of the second-generation rich who entered the e-sports industry early, Ding Gan brought capital, attention, and traffic to the domestic e-sports industry, but also brought bad practices in club management and operation.

Everyone took their seats.

Ding Gan coughed lightly and said: “Mr. Pei, the three of us have come from afar today, mainly to apologize to you and clear up misunderstandings.”

“Manager Li deceived his superiors and subordinates, not only causing losses to Tenda but also causing great losses to our clubs. From this point of view, we are all victims.”

“After going back, I will punish him severely and give you, Mr. Pei, an explanation!”

“I hope Mr. Pei is magnanimous and won’t let this small misunderstanding affect the cooperative relationship we’ve established with difficulty. After all, when preparing for the global finals, we clubs may not have had great merit, but we did put in effort!”

The bosses of the other two clubs also chimed in, with quite sincere attitudes.

Pei Qian nodded, not commenting.

Although the three men’s posture was quite humble and their attitude was very sincere, Pei Qian would be too foolish if he believed it all.

Selling the GOG division was such a big deal; how could a club manager decide on it? It must have been repeatedly reported to these three bosses.

And the fact that these three bosses didn’t stop it meant that they actually supported Manager Li doing this.

The higher the level of a person, the less likely they are to get involved in dirty and tiring work, instead throwing it all to their subordinates. This way, if there’s no problem, everything is fine; if there is a problem, they can immediately distance themselves.

So, these three club bosses must have been against the standard contract in their hearts from the beginning, not wanting to accept Tenda’s management and constraints.

They even believed that as long as several clubs united, they could control the GPL league in reverse, forcing Tenda to back down.

It was only because the situation had developed to this stage that they had to give in.

If this auction of GPL slots had been met with indifference and not sold for much money, these club bosses would not have had this attitude.

So, Pei Qian couldn’t say he was angry, nor could he say he understood.

“So, do the three of you intend to honor the contract?”

Pei Qian couldn’t be bothered with the three men’s attempts to get close, and instead went straight to the point.