In Pei Qian’s office.

“How’s it going, Old Ma? Any leads on a location?” Pei Qian asked while sipping his tea.

“No!” Ma Yang replied confidently.

“Pffft!”

Pei Qian almost spat out his tea.

But he wasn’t angry at all; rather, he was somewhat pleased.

See, Old Ma is still the one who gives me peace of mind!

If everyone were like Old Ma, I would have already converted all the system’s money into my own pocket!

“My main task now is to find a suitable assistant,” Ma Yang also taking a sip of tea, looking like he had everything under control.

Pei Qian suddenly felt a bit nervous.

He trusted Ma Yang.

But he didn’t trust the assistant Ma Yang might recruit!

Because Ma Yang was the type who could easily be fooled. What if he inadvertently found an expert, and this expert happened to be particularly skilled in internet cafe operations, and then Ma Yang followed everything this expert said…

The consequences would be severe!

So, Pei Qian had to be cautious.

“What kind of assistant are you looking for?” Pei Qian asked.

“I found a talented person on the forum, and I’m trying to recruit him with a generous offer!” Ma Yang said.

Oh, a forum expert!

Good, good.

Pei Qian felt much more at ease.

The forum was indeed a place where hidden talents dwelt.

Especially nowadays, during the forum’s heyday, it was a mixed environment with many truly talented people.

But many posers pretended to be something they weren’t.

Statistically speaking, the probability of Ma Yang finding the latter should be much higher…

“Tell me more?” Pei Qian calmly took another sip of tea.

Seeing Pei Qian’s interest in his work progress, Ma Yang became energetic and reported seriously.

“The person I found is a sub-moderator in the Graphics Card forum, a real expert with quite a reputation there!”

“I figured, for an internet cafe, the most crucial thing is the computers, right? These days, buying brand-name computers won’t work. To have something distinctive, we need to DIY and build our computers!”

“But I don’t understand that stuff, so recruiting an expert to help specifically with this makes sense. He knows about building computers and understands computer hardware much better than I do. Is this decision okay?”

Pei Qian nodded vigorously: “No problem! Very good!”

He was initially a bit worried, but upon hearing it was a Graphics Card forum expert, Pei Qian felt much more relieved.

As the saying goes:

“With a three-thousand-dollar budget in the Graphics Card forum, you’ll bring home four Titan GPUs.

With a three-thousand-dollar budget in the Hardware forum, you’ll open an internet cafe across from the school.”

The Graphics Card forum and Hardware forum were two communities where computer building enthusiasts gathered, but their styles were completely different.

The Graphics Card forum always liked to encourage people to spend more for better configurations, while the Hardware forum always tried to provide cheaper, stable configurations to reduce budgets.

If Ma Yang had found an expert from the Hardware forum, Pei Qian would genuinely be concerned.

Why?

Because Hardware forum experts were all too good at saving money!

If they really built computers with a very low budget and then implemented a low-profit, high-turnover policy, this internet cafe might become successful!

After all, it was 2010, and budget-friendly internet cafes were still very popular. Many poor students didn’t have much money, and most of the games they played didn’t have high computer requirements.

With such budget internet cafes, probably the entire place would be filled with people like Bao Xu, who would practically live there if they could.

But if it were a Graphics Card forum expert, that would be different!

When all the computers in the internet cafe were built around a price of twenty to thirty thousand yuan each, tsk tsk tsk…

The picture was too awful to look at!

It would inevitably lead to losses!

So, Pei Qian was very happy; indeed, Ma Yang hadn’t disappointed his expectations!

“Good, you must recruit this expert!”

“Remember to treat him well, offer him a high salary. To invite such a hidden talent to join us, shouldn’t you offer at least eight thousand yuan a month?”

Pei Qian started to fan the flames.

Ma Yang said somewhat awkwardly: “Brother Qian, to be honest… I’m only making five thousand yuan a month now…”

Pei Qian calculated Ma Yang’s salary based on the highest intern wage of 4,000 yuan per month, which, after the across-the-board 30% increase, was just over five thousand.

Pei Qian chuckled: “Don’t worry, how could I mistreat you? Once this task is successfully completed, I’ll give you a raise! And dividends too!”

Ma Yang was overjoyed: “Great! Rest assured, I’ll work my heart out to make this internet cafe flourish!”

“How many times have I said, it’s not an internet cafe, it’s a large entertainment center that combines internet cafe, game experience, hardware retail, movie watching, and many other experiences!” Pei Qian corrected.

“Okay, I got it, a large entertainment internet cafe!” Ma Yang finished his tea. “I’ll get back to work!”

Hmm, progress was good.

Pei Qian was very satisfied.

Now, the gaming side should be stable.

With Ma Yang’s side being carried by the Graphics Card forum expert, that should be stable too.

Only Huang Sibo’s side remained.

Not quite reassuring!

Pei Qian decided to send a message to ask, after all, Huang Sibo hadn’t come to work recently, and it wasn’t clear what he was busy with.

It was better to understand his progress a bit.

“How are things going with the Dream Fund? Have you decided which field to invest in?”

Before long, Huang Sibo replied.

“I’ve decided on the general direction, Mr. Pei! I’ve decided to go into film and television! This has been my dream all along, but it was too difficult to enter the industry, so I chose the gaming industry instead. Now that I have the opportunity to realize it, I choose to chase my dream!”

Pei Qian happily slapped his thigh.

Film and television industry?

Great!

The film and television industry loses money even faster!

But… with just one million, entering the film and television industry, was that a bit hasty? Could it even make a splash?

Pei Qian was quite doubtful.

“Is your funding enough? I can add some more investment, no problem.”

Pei Qian found a potentially money-losing industry and suddenly had a strong desire to increase the investment.

Pei Qian himself had been considering entering the film and television industry to lose money, but hadn’t gotten around to it yet.

Now it was good, with Huang Sibo paving the way, Pei Qian himself could rest easy.

Huang Sibo quickly replied: “No need, no need! Mr. Pei, you’ve already given me a one million yuan Dream Fund, how could I let you invest more?”

“Don’t worry, I’m not filming one of those big-budget productions this time, just some short videos, which have low requirements for equipment and post-production. It won’t cost much, one million is enough!”

Short videos?

Pei Qian suddenly became nervous: “The short videos you’re going to shoot, they wouldn’t happen to be called ‘Unexpectedly,’ would they?”

Huang Sibo was completely puzzled on the other end: “‘Unexpectedly’? What’s that?”

Pei Qian breathed a sigh of relief.

As long as it wasn’t “Unexpectedly,” that was good!

“Do you have a script yet? A director?” Pei Qian asked again.

Huang Sibo: “Not yet! But don’t worry, Mr. Pei, I’m looking. Once I have a script, I’ll show it to you first thing.”

“Good.”

Pei Qian felt much more at ease.

Making short videos, as long as it wasn’t “Unexpectedly,” everything was fine.

Making short videos nowadays, firstly, it was difficult to gain popularity, and secondly, even if they became popular, it was hard to monetize them. Most likely, it would result in a complete loss.

It seemed that everything was OK with Huang Sibo, too!