In the office area of Sloth Apartments, Liang Qingfan, Zhang Yahui, and Bao Xu were drinking tea while discussing the details of the food market project.
“Regarding location, it can’t be in a busy commercial district, nor can it be too remote. There also can’t be any Tenda industries within a certain range of the area.”
“Then the decoration style should be trendy and cool, and the vendors will be under unified management with flexible working hours.”
“For other aspects… I think that’s all Mr. Pei required.”
Zhang Yahui first recited Mr. Pei’s requirements.
At this point, Zhang Yahui still didn’t have a very clear concept of this food market. Since he was just a food stall owner selling grilled cold noodles, although he understood stall location selection and setup processes, designing a large-scale food market was completely beyond his capability.
But Liang Qingfan, as a designer, would certainly have no problem with this aspect.
Zhang Yahui simply recited Mr. Pei’s requirements, letting Liang Qingfan handle the design, trying not to let his own ideas limit the professional’s thinking.
Liang Qingfan said, “These requirements are already very clear.”
Bao Xu also nodded: “Yes, quite clear. Perhaps because you’re a new manager, Mr. Pei was worried you might misinterpret his intentions, so he deliberately gave such specific limiting conditions.”
A string of question marks floated above Zhang Yahui’s head.
???
You call these “very clear requirements”?
How is this clear at all!
It’s just a very broad general range with practically no limitations!
Is this how communication and work are done within Tenda?
It’s so bizarre…
Zhang Yahui asked with confusion: “I don’t quite understand what’s so clear about this…”
Liang Qingfan opened a map of Jingzhou city on his laptop: “Mr. Pei already said it can’t be in a commercial district, can’t be too remote, and can’t be near any Tenda industries.”
“There aren’t many places like that. Just filter through them and we’ll find a suitable location, right?”
He searched for Tenda-related industries on the map one by one, including Slackin’ Internet Café, Slackin’ Delivery, Sloth Apartments, Tuoguan Fitness, Headwind Logistics, and so on, marking them on the map after each search.
Soon, the map was covered with dense markers.
These industries had already gone through many rounds of expansion, with previous expansion efforts focused on Jingzhou. In Jingzhou’s city center and busy commercial districts, these industries were virtually everywhere, leaving no space to fit in anything else.
Of course, “not adjacent” didn’t mean being separated by just a street or being neighbors, but rather having no Tenda industries within a certain range.
Mr. Pei had also said that places that were too prosperous or too remote wouldn’t work either.
After filtering with these criteria, only about a dozen potential locations for the food market remained on the map.
Although a dozen places seemed like quite a few, most of them were not suitable for a food market.
A food market needed a relatively large venue to accommodate many people and possibly dozens or even hundreds of vendors.
For such a place, they certainly couldn’t just use an empty lot and build from scratch, as that would take too long. And creating an open-air market or just setting up a few tents wouldn’t meet Mr. Pei’s requirements either.
Therefore, it would be best to have an existing building already in place.
With this consideration, the areas that met the criteria narrowed further, leaving only two or three most suitable locations.
The current status of these places could be easily found with an online search.
Liang Qingfan pointed to two locations on the map: “At this location, there’s a small shopping mall. However, business isn’t very good there, and many shops have already moved out. There are several residential areas nearby, but overall it’s relatively remote with little foot traffic.”
“At the other location, there’s a large indoor farmers’ market. It’s single-story but has high ceilings. However, it’s probably quite old, and the environment isn’t very good. It used to be bustling, but now the foot traffic has likely decreased significantly.”
“The other locations don’t seem very suitable.”
“What do you both think?”
“If you also think these two places are viable, we can go conduct on-site inspections and then make further plans.”
Bao Xu took a look and saw that the large farmers’ market was about one to two kilometers away from Jingzhou’s old industrial district, with the nearest Tenda property being the Thrilling Lodge.
However, it wasn’t very close to the Thrilling Lodge, so it should meet the requirements.
This place was certainly not in the city center, but it wasn’t particularly remote either. There were residential areas from the old industrial district nearby. Although they were all old buildings, the foot traffic was acceptable, not too sparse.
He nodded: “We still need to inspect the sites before making a decision. I think the second option is better. This type of large market probably better fits the characteristics of street stalls, and there would be more space for renovation. A shopping mall would give people a more confined feeling.”
Zhang Yahui hesitated: “I agree, but… Mr. Pei specifically emphasized that it should be trendy and cool, clearly distinguished from traditional street stalls. The second location doesn’t seem to meet Mr. Pei’s requirements, does it?”
Bao Xu smiled confidently: “You’re making a common mistake that many newcomers make, which is not accurately understanding Mr. Pei’s true intentions.”
“When Mr. Pei said to clearly distinguish it from traditional street stalls, he meant not to imitate their appearance, but he didn’t say anything about not capturing their essence!”
“There’s a very obvious difference between the two.”
Zhang Yahui blinked, somewhat understanding but not quite.
Bao Xu explained: “Look at the adjectives Mr. Pei used, ‘trendy’ and ‘cool’ – these describe the decorative style of the entire food market. So Mr. Pei means not to imitate the form, to abandon the casual, unhygienic, and crude image of traditional stalls.”
“But overall, street food definitely needs to be down-to-earth. If it’s served in enclosed private rooms with fancy, exquisite tableware, it would miss the point and wouldn’t match the essence of street food at all.”
“So what we should pursue is capturing the spirit, preserving the essence of street food while improving the packaging to better promote this culture.”
Zhang Yahui suddenly understood: “I see!”
“In that case, Mr. Pei’s conditions really are very clear. The problem was with my thinking; I didn’t understand correctly.”
Bao Xu and Liang Qingfan smiled: “Don’t worry, with more practice, you’ll also be able to accurately understand Mr. Pei’s thinking.”
“Alright, that’s it for today. Tomorrow we’ll go inspect the sites together and see how to specifically design this food market.”
…
…
March 20, Tuesday.
Pei Qian arrived at his office as usual to check on the current situation of various departments.
The esports division had submitted a report stating that the slots for GOG’s overseas leagues had been mostly finalized through auctions, and the promotion plans with local companies in various regions had also been determined. In a while, the money from selling these slots would be credited to their account.
Although the prices for overseas league slots varied greatly, with many regions fetching prices far lower than GPL league slots, the accumulated amount was absolutely considerable – about forty million… dollars.
In Europe, North America, and other popular regions, the slots sold for high prices.
Pei Qian had been confused about why they were so expensive, as the initial bidding price was set at one million dollars, wasn’t it?
But after carefully reading the submitted report, he found the reason: because ioi’s leagues in these regions started bidding at three million dollars, it gave other clubs the impression that “GOG league slots are a great bargain,” so these clubs began bidding frantically…
And that drove up the prices.
Pei Qian was speechless. Finger Games was really good at nothing except causing trouble!
He had wanted to sell these slots cheaply, but failed to do so, resulting in another windfall profit.
Pei Qian sighed and continued checking other departments.
The artificial intelligence laboratory at OTTO Technology had been established. They had directly acquired a domestic company researching artificial intelligence and also poached several technical experts from Xunke Technology and other companies.
These people had gradually all relocated to Jingzhou and would soon continue research along the previous direction.
In fact, this artificial intelligence research company had already achieved some results, though they lagged behind Xunke Technology. However, these achievements were not sufficient to bring about any significant breakthrough for the AEEIS artificial intelligence.
Pei Qian was quite satisfied with this news, hoping that this artificial intelligence laboratory would start spending money quickly, as he had been earning a bit too much lately and could hardly bear it.
Just then, there was a knock at the office door.
Pei Qian looked up and saw that it was Meng Chang.
“Hmm? Is something the matter?” Pei Qian asked.
Meng Chang hesitated: “Mr. Pei, this month I’ve already conducted a thorough review of my previous promotion plans, learning from past experiences and lessons…”
“Well, half of this month has already passed. Would it be possible to give me a new assignment?”
Pei Qian nodded: “That’s true.”
Those previous promotional campaigns had indeed been very unsuccessful. Last month, Meng Chang didn’t earn a single penny in commission, only receiving his base salary.
But Meng Chang obviously hadn’t given up, and instead had pulled himself together and was now actively asking for tasks.
The main issue was that half of the month had already passed, and if Meng Chang didn’t actively ask for work, there would be zero promotional campaigns this month, which meant no commission again.
So Meng Chang couldn’t wait any longer and came to actively seek assignments.
Pei Qian thought for a moment and agreed that he should indeed find something for Meng Chang to do.
“As it happens, I have a big project. If you’re interested, I can assign it to you.”
“‘Mission and Choice’ will begin promotional warm-up next month. You can handle this promotional campaign.”
Meng Chang was taken aback: “Ah? Mr. Pei, this…”
He hesitated because everyone knew that “Mission and Choice” was the project Mr. Pei had placed the highest hopes on in recent months. Over more than half a year, Tenda Games and Fei Huang Studio, two core departments, had invested massive amounts of funds.
Was Mr. Pei really willing to entrust such a project to him?
Previously, when he did promotion for Bunny Tail Livestream, even though it had no effect at all, it wasn’t a big deal. After all, given Bunny Tail Livestream’s current scale, it could only be considered a relatively marginal department among Tenda’s many industries. It hadn’t fully developed yet, so a failed promotion wouldn’t cause too much damage.
But if the promotion for “Mission and Choice” failed badly, Meng Chang himself would comfortably earn high commissions, but Mr. Pei would suffer huge losses!
In that moment, Meng Chang felt a twinge of compassion, considering that this involved over 100 million yuan and nine months of effort from two core departments…
Pei Qian looked at him: “What’s wrong, not confident? If you pass up this opportunity, there won’t be another one in the future.”
Meng Chang reconsidered. Was the success or failure of Mr. Pei’s project any of his concern?
If he didn’t take this assignment, he would have to go hungry again this month without earning a penny in commission.
So Meng Chang made up his mind and nodded: “Alright, Mr. Pei. You can entrust this campaign to me with confidence. I’ll go work on the promotional plan right away!”