January 17th, Tuesday.
Pei Qian got up as usual and went to Slackin’ Internet Café for breakfast.
Today would be another day of racking his brains to spend money.
With still half a month until settlement, Pei Qian’s pressure to spend money was unprecedented.
Sloth Apartments had earned a profit from cooperating with Fanglan Residence on furniture, the automatic smart argument machine sold for a profit, the flip-flopping investment in Cold Noodle Girl where he bought and sold shares made another profit, several old games’ DLCs were selling well, plus the ten million dollars recovered from the ioi team sponsorship penalty money…
If Pei Qian hadn’t already thought of contingency plans, this money could have made him faint right there.
Apart from the regular operating expenses of various departments, Pei Qian chose to continue pouring the bulk of the money into the “Mission and Choice” project.
For Pei Qian, the most brilliant aspect of this project was having Tenda Group’s two most crucial departments—Tenda Games and Fei Huang Studio—both responsible for it simultaneously.
One making games, the other producing films, these were actually two projects, but the system treated them as one project, successfully exploiting a loophole in the system.
The system stipulated that only one project per cycle could be extended to the next cycle. By merging game and film into one, Pei Qian doubled the project’s funding capacity.
Since it would be delayed to the next cycle’s settlement, this cycle could absorb more money as long as the amount wasn’t so enormous that the project couldn’t be completed next cycle.
So Pei Qian called Hu Xianbin and Huang Sibo separately, casually mentioning he had another tens of millions in funding to give them, asking them to think carefully about where else in this project money could be spent, making sure to utilize all this money.
Huang Sibo was bewildered too—the movie was filming smoothly, then suddenly a windfall falls from the sky?
But Mr. Pei’s task must be completed, so he had to hurry up and figure out how to increase the budget and properly utilize this money.
Shortly after Pei Qian hung up, He Desheng called again.
“What’s wrong? Any problems with Cold Noodle Girl?” Pei Qian asked alertly.
He Desheng: “Mr. Pei, rest assured, everything at Cold Noodle Girl is going smoothly according to your intentions, no major issues.”
“I’m mainly calling to report about Meng Chang, since you specifically asked me to keep an eye on him.”
Pei Qian relaxed slightly: “Oh, Meng Chang. Go ahead.”
After Cold Noodle Girl closed, Meng Chang sold all his shares to Tenda at a loss, paying off a small portion of his debts.
But even so, Meng Chang still carried several million in debt and remained listed as an enforcement debtor.
Pei Qian had proactively paid the suppliers’ bills, transferring Meng Chang’s debts to Tenda.
In other words, Tenda was now Meng Chang’s creditor.
Earlier when Pei Qian asked about Meng Chang’s situation, He Desheng investigated and said Meng Chang clearly wasn’t giving up, approaching many investors wanting to make a comeback, but getting rejected every time. Even applying for executive positions at companies, he failed completely.
Logically, victories and defeats are normal in business. Though Meng Chang’s startup failed, he still had capabilities—why wouldn’t anyone want him?
Because before creating the Cold Noodle Girl brand, Meng Chang already had weak foundations. His résumé included graduating from a prestigious school and marketing department experience at large companies.
Without first securing funding from Yuanmeng Venture Capital, he might not have been able to build such a large operation.
In other words, while operating Cold Noodle Girl, Meng Chang had actually severely exhausted his future prospects.
Now that Cold Noodle Girl had completely failed, investors who believed in Meng Chang suffered heavy losses. As the founder, Meng Chang had depleted all his entrepreneurial potential and naturally couldn’t secure any new opportunities.
He Desheng said: “Mr. Pei, Meng Chang must realize he’s at a dead end now. This past week he’s been running around Beijing, hitting every possible wall. He should be sober now.”
“Your willingness to extend help is already the best opportunity for him.”
“So he’s willing to work at Tenda, just unclear about what specific work he’d handle and salary. Mr. Pei, what do you think…?”
It seemed this Meng Chang was truly at his wit’s end.
Pei Qian understood that Meng Chang probably harbored some resentment toward him. If not for Yuanmeng Venture Capital’s flip-flopping—investing then selling, selling then investing—the situation might not have turned out this way.
If Meng Chang had any other options, he would never come work for Pei Qian at Tenda.
But once here, Pei Qian quite appreciated Meng Chang’s money-spending ability.
In terms of spending speed alone, Meng Chang was the most satisfying person Pei Qian had ever encountered, bar none.
The only issue was that while Meng Chang spent money quickly and in large amounts, he also created big commotion. If responsible for marketing work, it might worsen Pei Qian’s situation.
This required some reverse thinking.
Since Meng Chang understood marketing so well, knowing how to spend the most money for the best marketing effect, then conversely, shouldn’t he also know how to spend the most money for the worst marketing effect?
Just as star students can easily score 100, they can also easily score 0. Poor students actually find it harder to score 0 because without knowing correct answers, they can’t precisely avoid them—what if they guess correctly?
Pei Qian thought and said: “Tell him to start next month. I’ll establish a special advertising company for him. This company can only take internal work from Tenda Group, mainly handling advertising planning, brand promotion, etc.”
“Regarding his salary, tell him it definitely won’t be too low. But the exact payment method needs discussing. I plan to offer him two different salary models to choose from: one with high base pay and no commission, another with low base pay but high commission—let him decide.”
“As for how to carry out the specific work… I’ll teach him personally.”
He Desheng quickly responded: “Yes, Mr. Pei, I’ll inform him right away.”
…
Meanwhile, in Beijing.
Qi Yan had invited yesterday’s food competition winners to the Cold Noodle Girl restaurant for proper hospitality.
As Qi Yan expected, quite a few vendors politely declined Cold Noodle Girl’s franchise invitation.
These vendors had good local reputations, with long queues whenever they set up shop—business was excellent. Most were locals who didn’t want to leave home or need money, naturally reluctant to relocate with their families.
However, several younger vendors were willing to discuss details with Qi Yan and consider after understanding the situation.
Despite all being vendors, circumstances varied.
These vendors were generally young, still harboring some hopes and aspirations for the future, their ambition not entirely worn down by life.
They wanted to hear Qi Yan out—if the conditions were attractive enough, they’d consider working away from home for a few years.
Success would be great, potentially earning what takes years of vendors; failure didn’t matter—they could always return to vending.
Among them, Qi Yan admired Zhang Yahui most—a young vendor at just 26. Due to poor family circumstances, he dropped out after high school to help his parents vend. Quick-witted and fond of experimenting, his grilled cold noodles were famous locally, drawing praise from all who tried them.
In this street food competition, his grilled cold noodles won unanimous praise from judges.
Qi Yan explained her intention: hoping to hire them as Cold Noodle Girl’s food consultants, whose work would involve researching various street food recipes and flavors, attempting to mass-produce their specialized dishes in standardized ways.
For the vendors, this position had pros and cons.
The downside: wages would be slightly lower than their vending income, and relocating to Beijing would bring higher living and daily expenses.
The advantage: much easier work compared to vending, plus good career prospects with potential for better development.
While vending earned more, it was extremely tiring. Working from dawn to midnight with barely any rest, facing various unexpected situations made income unstable.
But working as a “food consultant” meant 9-to-5 hours, much easier work, with potential for better development. If things worked out, future income might far exceed vending.
The vendors weighed pros and cons, hesitating to make hasty decisions.
Zhang Yahui clearly leaned toward accepting this position.
His thinking: he was still young, couldn’t limit his future by vending in a small city forever, right?
Though vending wasn’t bad with decent earnings, compared to a respectable job in a big city, Zhang Yahui preferred the latter.
Zhang Yahui understood clearly: going from big cities to small ones was easy, but climbing from small cities to establish oneself in big cities was extremely difficult.
Cold Noodle Girl’s offer was undoubtedly a chance to establish himself in a big city—miss it, and such opportunities probably wouldn’t come again.
After consideration, Zhang Yahui said: “I’m fairly satisfied with your conditions. However… I’m worried whether I can actually handle this position.”
“Could I first understand the specific work of a ‘food consultant’? Moving cities is no small matter—if there’s any mismatch, it would be awkward for both sides.”
Other vendors nodded in agreement.
Many vendors were actually tempted but hesitated to agree immediately due to lacking confidence.
They felt they were just street food vendors—could they be “food consultants”? Sounded unreliable. What if after a couple months, Cold Noodle Girl regretted hiring them?
Qi Yan thought: “That’s easy. First look at Cold Noodle Girl’s kitchen-made grilled cold noodles, analyze the problems, then provide guidance. If you can improve the taste, it proves you’re qualified for this position—we’ll hire you confidently, and you can work confidently. How about it?”
Zhang Yahui nodded: “Alright.”
This was essentially a simple interview—improving the grilled cold noodles’ flavor was the test. Passing would give both sides more confidence.