Note: I made some mistakes, the name of the building that Tengda on is called Shenhua Prestige, Shenhua Real Estate is the name of the company who owns the building, not the name of the building itself.
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Chapter 169: Good Deeds Are Rewarded!
Assistant Xin nodded and took notes. "Got it, President Pei. As for workstations, there's still a fair bit of space on this floor. We can squeeze things a bit and add a few more desks—"
"Squeeze in?"
"How could you even think that!"
"Providing employees with a comfortable and spacious work environment has always been our company's philosophy. This floor is already crowded to the brim—completely saturated."
"Go talk to the building manager and rent another floor. All the furnishings and layout should be exactly like this one!"
Renting office space counted as normal company expenses, and since it wasn't a commercial venue (like a retail store), it wouldn't cause delays in the system's settlement process.
Even though Tengda's current office space was inefficiently laid out and had plenty of potential for optimization, given how sparsely the desks were arranged, the floor was technically full.
So under these conditions, renting another floor wouldn't count as a violation.
"Oh, also," Pei Qian added, "last time we signed a one-year lease, right?"
Assistant Xin nodded. "Yes, that's right. Manager Zhang gave us a favorable deal. We signed with one month's deposit and one month's payment upfront to reduce initial financial pressure."
Pei Qian waved his hand. "This time, ask Manager Zhang if we can change the terms. Forget the monthly payments—we'll pay quarterly. Our cash flow is more than healthy now, and it's annoying to process rent every single month."
"And while you're at it, rent the additional floor under the same contract with him."
Assistant Xin asked, "President Pei, do you want to review the terms of the contract?"
Pei Qian thought for a moment. "No need."
Last time, he barely looked at the lease agreement anyway—there were too many clauses to read. He just noted the price and left the rest to Assistant Xin.
This time, the only change was switching from monthly to quarterly payments, and he was renting one more floor under the same terms—no need to get involved personally.
This way, the new floor would require a deposit and three months' rent upfront, totaling 1.8 million yuan.
Adding in expenses for desks, chairs, computers, and other equipment, with everything modeled after the current setup, would cost another 700,000–800,000 yuan.
In total, he would burn through 2.5–2.6 million yuan immediately.
Perfect!
Pei Qian had actually considered renting an additional floor earlier, but at the time, the existing space was still ample, and the system didn't approve the expansion.
However, after this period of organic growth—with bigger and better games, more updates, and an expanding staff—the current floor was now fully utilized. While every person still had a lot of room, the space was technically filled. Now he finally had the green light to expand.
"Oh, and don't forget about that matter with Qiao Liang," Pei Qian reminded.
Assistant Xin nodded. "It's already under investigation."
"Good. Now go talk to Manager Zhang right away and sign the lease and transfer the payment for the new floor as soon as possible."
Pei Qian wanted Assistant Xin to get that money spent immediately—before anything unexpected could happen.
"Come back once you've signed the lease—I need to talk to you about the new employee benefits."
"Understood, President Pei," Assistant Xin replied before turning to leave.
Pei Qian began doing a rough calculation of the current number of employees.
Tengda now had over 60 people, nearing 70.
The five Moyu Internet Cafés had service staff, chefs, bartenders, delivery workers, etc. Each café employed around 20 people, totaling nearly 100 across all locations.
Feihuang Studio had grown to a team of over a dozen by now.
All in all, Pei Qian's "favorite son" teams added up to just under 200 employees.
Then there was one exception: Shangyang Games.
To date, Shangyang Games was still in a state of reputation repair and expanding losses.
After acquiring the company, Pei Qian deliberately refrained from raising their salaries or granting them the generous benefits typical of Tengda staff.
Shangyang Games had 50 employees, with a monthly office rent of just 150,000 yuan and total salaries of only 200,000 yuan. Compared to Tengda, both their working environment and salary standards were far lower.
On May 10th, Pei Qian officially took over. To ensure Shangyang Games continued losing money, he had left things mostly untouched: no salary increases, no new benefits.
Now, nearly two months have passed. Even though the studio's reputation had turned around, the losses remained steady—which pleased Pei Qian very much.
So he figured it was about time the employees over there shared a little more responsibility.
Raising Shangyang's salaries and benefits directly to Tengda's standards might raise some eyebrows.
As the saying goes: rewards and punishments must be clearly distinguished.
Tengda's internal teams had delivered excellent results, so increasing their pay and benefits was both reasonable and justified.
But Shangyang Games was still the stepchild—a newly acquired company that was still hemorrhaging money. Giving them the same treatment as Tengda's core staff would feel unjustified.
So instead, Pei Qian decided to reward them modestly.
After all, they had followed his orders, cleaned up their games, and repaired the company's image. That deserved some recognition.
He planned to give the whole team a moderate raise and offer some new benefits—nothing too extravagant.
As for work environment upgrades—office space, desks, chairs, computers—those could all be upgraded to match Tengda's standard. That could be framed as an investment in productivity, and it would sound entirely reasonable.
With all of that, he estimated Shangyang could help him burn through another 1 million+ yuan.
Still… it wasn't quite enough.
Pei Qian thought some more—his beloved 200-person team still had room for a few more "enhancements."
Where could he spend next?
He had already improved clothing and food, so that left housing and transportation.
Transportation had always included a reimbursement policy for overtime taxis, but there were no subsidies for daily commuting.
Pei Qian decided: every employee gets a 500 yuan transportation allowance per month.
That would cost him another 100,000 yuan.
Housing was a big expense. After testing the waters with the system, Pei Qian decided to provide 1,000 yuan per month in housing allowance for each employee!
That was another 200,000 yuan spent.
It wasn't a huge amount, but the system wouldn't allow more.
Pei Qian had originally wanted to build staff dormitories out of his own pocket, but the system apparently considered such a move too extravagant for the current stage, and thus rejected it.
Left with no better option, he settled for giving each person 1,000 yuan per month for rent.
After this series of maneuvers, Pei Qian finally began to feel a little more at ease.
Thankfully, with some hard work before the settlement, he should be able to manufacture a loss of around 1 million yuan.
Although the official platform's sudden decision to shift their profit split to 70-30 in Tengda's favor had caught him completely off guard, his careful planning ensured that the blow wasn't fatal—at least not in the upcoming weekly settlement.
The biggest impact would come later, but he'd cross that bridge when he got there. In the next cycle, he could come up with other ways to burn money—open more Moyu Internet Cafés, acquire more money-losing companies... It's all manageable.
With his strategy roughly sorted out, Pei Qian leaned back in his chair, finally able to relax a little.
Knock knock knock
There was a knock on the door—Assistant Xin had returned.
"President Pei, we've already signed the lease for the entire floor above. The contract is complete, and the money has been transferred," Xin reported.
Pei Qian nodded. Assistant Xin always handled things swiftly and efficiently.
"Here's the new set of employee benefits I've come up with—housing subsidies—."
Pei Qian laid out his ideas.
Assistant Xin smiled and nodded. "You're incredibly generous, President Pei. As the saying goes, 'Good is rewarded with good.' This proves it."
Pei Qian blinked.
"Rewarded with good? What do you mean?"
Xin Hailu continued smiling:
"Speaking of housing, there's actually some good news."
"Manager Zhang said that ever since Tengda moved into the Shenhua Prestige, you've become a model and inspiration to all other companies. The past six months of working together have been smooth and enjoyable. As a result, he's decided to waive all deposits and property management fees, and has lowered the rent from 4 yuan per square meter to just 1.5 yuan."
"This means the rent for both floors will now save us at least 400,000 yuan per month!"
"President Pei, the heavens themselves are helping us! What a cause for celebration!"
Pei Qian: "?????"
I didn't study much, but don't try to fool me—does Manager Zhang even have that kind of authority?