Chapter 172: Yesterday You Ignored Me, But Tomorrow…
Evening.
At the Swan Lake Restaurant, a team-building dinner was underway.
For Pei Qian, this had already become a routine method of emergency spending. And for all the employees, celebrating with a group dinner after completing a game project had become a tradition.
Now, Pei Qian's direct employees numbered nearly 200, so he simply booked out the entire Swan Lake Restaurant.
This also included new employees from several Moyu Internet Cafés, as well as members of the Feihuang Studio who had just returned from Shanghai.
The employees from Shangyang Games, however, were not invited this time.
Pei Qian planned to gradually incorporate Shangyang Games starting from the next settlement cycle, so they weren't included in this dinner.
Still, a lot of money was spent.
Pei Qian had asked Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin to organize their own group dinners, which would be reimbursed by the company. These dinners were also held at the same restaurant but scheduled at different times.
He even felt that the most expensive buffet restaurant in Jingzhou was no longer enough to meet his needs.
If he could fly to the capital for something fancier, Pei Qian wouldn't hesitate—but unfortunately, the system wouldn't allow it.
'At this rate of expansion, Swan Lake Restaurant won't be able to fit everyone for the next group dinner.'
'I need to think of a solution.'
'... I really live a life of constant worrying.'
While everyone else was feasting, Pei Qian sat quietly, thinking about the logistics of future dinners.
Swan Lake Restaurant didn't actually have that much seating capacity. After all, it was a high-end venue catering to the upper-class crowd in Jingzhou—spacious and elegant, but not built for large groups.
Now that Tengda's direct employees were already enough to fill the entire place, the next time staff numbers grow, there definitely won't be enough seats.
'Got it. Next time, we'll just split the dinner into multiple events.'
'I'll take all the core staff from each department out for one dinner, then let the departments each have their own separate gatherings.'
'That way, I can spend even more money. Perfect!'
'It's just a pity that there's no more upscale restaurant in Jingzhou.'
'Wait, why don't I just open a restaurant even fancier than Swan Lake?'
Pei Qian came up with a brilliant idea as naturally as breathing.
He had already dipped his toes into the food and beverage industry with Moyu Internet Café and Moyu Delivery—these had served as test runs, and so far, the results had been very much in line with Pei Qian's expectations.
On one hand, they provided employees with excellent meals. On the other hand, they continued to bleed money and contributed greatly to his noble mission of losing funds!
This was a textbook success!
The only issue was that Moyu Delivery wasn't high-end enough.
Its goal was to provide healthy, home-style meals for employees. While the food was relatively expensive compared to regular eateries, it still didn't reach the kind of extravagant level Pei Qian needed for burning cash.
After all, they used ordinary ingredients. The system had restrictions on how high a dish's price could go—you couldn't just raise prices indefinitely.
No matter how delicious tomatoes and scrambled eggs are, they're never going to sell for a sky-high price—unless the chef has some chef system.
Pei Qian didn't have that kind of chef right now.
Opening a high-end restaurant would be a perfect way to solve this problem.
Find some remote location, set up a small upscale establishment, load it up with the most luxurious ingredients, and price everything as high as possible.
Even if his employees dined there at a discount, it would be fine—as long as the ingredients were expensive, it would still cost a fortune.
He could go there for a meal before each settlement period, and during the rest of the time just let it run on its own and lose money.
Perfect.
With that, Pei Qian had a solid plan.
Several games would still be earning money in the next cycle, so he didn't have to worry about finding ways to spend it. Throwing a pile of money into a luxury restaurant might even cost more than all three Moyu Internet Cafés combined.
Of course, some rich folks would probably like a place like that. It couldn't be completely empty.
But considering that Jingzhou was only a second-tier city without that many wealthy people, it should still lose money. The chances of making a profit were slim.
As Pei Qian was thinking this through, his eyes casually drifted two tables over—toward Lin Wan.
Lin Wan believed that Pei Qian hadn't yet discovered her true identity. But in reality, Pei Qian was already well aware, and had even quietly made arrangements for her.
Of course, he wasn't going to startle her just yet. He was waiting until the next settlement period to transfer Lin Wan over to Shangyang Games. Once she helped screw up a few game projects, the mission would be accomplished.
At that moment, Lin Wan was tapping away on her phone, replying to a message.
On her screen was a message from Chen Sha: "Big beauty Lin, please, I'm begging you! Help me get the new Barrett from Ocean Fortress from the inside! You're in charge of this stuff, right? There must be some internal allocations!"
Lin Wan quickly replied: "Sorry, no can do. If you're desperate, you'll have to pay a reseller."
"Even Bao Xu—the most trusted employee under President Pei in our team—had to buy his Barrett from a scalper."
Chen Sha: "..."
Ever since Lin Wan had lured Chen Sha into playing Ocean Fortress, he had become a hardcore player of the game.
At first, he still played Counter-Terrorism Plan a lot—after all, it was more competitive and had been his go-to FPS for a long time. Compared to that, Ocean Fortress—which was more casual and newbie-friendly—lagged behind in many ways.
But over time, Chen Sha switched sides.
Ocean Fortress kept getting more popular, more people started playing, and eventually, Chen Sha got hooked as well.
He never expected that the game he once trashed so hard would actually replace Counter-Terrorism Plan in his heart.
And now that the "Barrett · Destruction" was out, just like everyone else, he was desperate to get his hands on one. After all, who doesn't love sniping in an FPS game?
However, with only 500 units available, the new Barrett was impossible to get.
Scalpers? They were charging two to three thousand yuan per account—and even then, there was no guarantee you could buy one.
It wasn't entirely about the money. The real issue for Chen Sha was that his current account had the Fire Qilin, plus a whole arsenal of hard-earned weapons. There was no way he'd abandon all that just for the Barrett · Destruction.
Chen Sha, still unwilling to give up, said: "But I've contributed to Tengda! Back when Ocean Fortress became a huge success, wasn't part of that thanks to me helping promote it?"
"I mean, I'm at least a small-time influencer, a hardcore FPS veteran. In other Chinese FPS games, I was practically a legend. Why is it so hard just to get a single gun over here…"
Lin Wan replied: "Emmmm, I seem to recall that last time we asked you to promote the game, we gave you a Fire Qilin for free. Back then you were super dismissive, saying, 'It's just data in a game—what kind of idiot would spend 888 yuan on this?'"
"What's that saying again? 'Yesterday you ignored me, but tomorrow…'"
Chen Sha: "Ahem! I'm the idiot! The idiot who is desperately wants a Barrett · Destruction! Please have mercy!"
"Fufufu~" Lin Wan chuckled. Seeing Chen Sha so pitiful made her feel a little bad.
"Alright, alright. Since you're being so sincere, I'll ask President Pei about it. No guarantees though."
Chen Sha: "Thank you, thank you!!"
Lin Wan glanced at Pei Qian, who was sitting not far away, deep in thought. A trace of unease crept into her heart. She wondered whether he had already discovered her true identity.
To be honest, this latest round of rent reductions had been a little too generous.
Cutting the rent from 4 yuan all the way down to 1.5 yuan… it was hard to imagine President Pei wouldn't find that suspicious.
If she had lowered it just a little, she might've been able to fly under the radar. But to Lin Wan, that would've felt pointless—unworthy of the care President Pei showed his employees. It would've felt stingy.
And Lin Wan didn't consider herself a stingy person.
Still, she wasn't sure whether President Pei had already begun to suspect her.
By logic, if he had suspected her, shouldn't he have questioned her directly?
But President Pei acted like nothing had happened—he didn't give her any extra attention.
'Maybe President Pei's just too busy? Maybe he hasn't had time to look into something as trivial as rent?'
'Yeah, that's probably it.'
'Then I'll pretend nothing happened for now, too.'
Lin Wan had no intention of bringing it up to President Pei. Her philosophy was to do good deeds without expecting recognition. She preferred to live as a normal person among her colleagues.
Having made up her mind, Lin Wan walked over to President Pei.
Both of them wore polite smiles—each hiding their own schemes, each pretending the other didn't already know what they knew.
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