Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

At Fish-Catching Internet Cafe's branch at Ming Yun Villas…

On the way there, Pei Qian paid special attention to the shops that he noticed were renovating previously. Those included internet cafes, coffee shops, bars, and board game cafes.

The location of those shops had been carefully decided. For example, there was an internet cafe right outside the entrance of Handong Jiaotong University's East Campus.

As compared to the Fish-Catching Internet Cafe which was a twenty-minute walk away, the new internet cafe located right at the school's entrance was much nearer. Naturally, that internet cafe was more popular among students.

Moreover, Pei Qian looked at the interior design and layout of the new internet cafe and saw that it was deliberately copying the style of the Fish-Catching Internet Cafes.

The furnishing and equipment within the internet cafe appeared brand new, including computers, keyboards, mouses, and tables, and chairs. There was also a bar counter in the internet cafe that sold coffee and all types of drinks.

However, the layout there was not as lavish as the Fish-Catching Internet Cafe and appeared a little cramped. There were many computers available, but their configurations most probably could not reach the standard of those at the Fish-Catching Internet Cafes.

All the computers at the Fish-Catching Internet Cafes were all assembled by Zhang Yuan. They could run almost all the huge Triple-A games in the market with full special effects. They had an incredibly high configuration.

However, strictly speaking, such configurations were a little wasteful.

Comparatively, the computers at this new internet cafe were a little smarter. They used configurations that could run mainstream games smoothly, and yet their prices should be almost half the computers at the Fish-Catching Internet Cafes. The computers had similar peripherals and appeared similarly glamorous, and yet the difference in their prices was huge.

However, as compared to other ordinary internet cafes, their configurations and environment were considered pretty good.

A few people were giving out flyers at the crossings near the internet cafe. They appeared to be students.

With this internet cafe around to steal customers, it was highly possible that it could make some people, who originally wanted to go to the Fish-Catching Internet Cafe, change their minds.

After all, many people did not have such high expectations for the computers and the environment. They would not choose to travel such a long distance for that.

The situation at the board game cafe, bars, and coffee shops was similar.

Although the customer volume was not high, their locations were all much better than the Fish-Catching Internet Cafe and could successfully steal many customers from the Fish-Catching Internet Cafe.

Pei Qian was delighted.

That's great! Although Pei Qian did not know who helped him, he remembered that person's kind deed and would definitely seek a chance to thank him or her in person!

Looking at the current situation—because of the low human traffic in the vicinity, those shops might not be able to profit regardless. However, the only difference was that so many would suffer a greater loss than the others.

The internet cafes should have the best revenues, and the board games cafe should not be far off. As for the bar and coffee shop… Pei Qian was afraid that their situation might not be very optimistic.

That person who opened these shops to help Boss Pei lose money must be a huge philanthropist!

Speaking of that, Pei Qian recalled Boss Li who had done him a great favor at the flagship store of the Fish-Catching Internet Cafe.

Could it be him? After the huge misunderstanding previously, how could Boss Li not lay a grudge on me? How could he stick by my side instead?

Pei Qian's heart was warmed. Look at that! I do not only have enemies!

People like Teacher Qiao and Ruan Guangjian were Boss Pei's enemies. However, Boss Li was different. He was definitely Boss Pei's true love!

Pei Qian thought about investigating that. He wanted to see if Boss Li was really the one who did the kind deed without asking for acknowledgment. If he was truly the person behind it, Pei Qian had to find a way to thank him properly!

After circling the area, Pei Qian, Zhang Yuan, Assistant Xin, and Lin Canrong headed to the Ming Yun Villas to check on the situation there.

Lin Canrong was previously a chef cum branch manager. He had been in charge of the Fish-Catching Take-Out recently and had not been able to achieve any results. He had been losing money steadily.

Pei Qian saw that strength of his, thus making him the branch manager of the new restaurant.

Before this trip, Lin Canrong had already completed some early-stages preparation based on Boss Pei's instructions.

The original chairs, tables, and other furniture in the villa had been moved away by the estate management. The entire villa looked extremely empty.

The previous time he was here, Pei Qian had already walked through the place and knew what to expect.

He only needed to propose vague advice or opinion. He would definitely leave it to the professionals to plan the relevant details such as the actual decor and the type of tables and cutlery.

The living room was about 7 meters tall. It occupied two storys and was extremely spacious. That made it appear extremely elegant.

Pei Qian led Ma Yang and Zhang Yuan into the living room and started talking about it.

"Build a special wine cabinet here and prepare all sorts of expensive wine. Make sure that the tables and chairs in the hall are of top quality. The tables must be spaced far apart from one another. There should be about seven or eight tables here and at most four chairs for each table. You must not exceed that number.

"You can purchase some tables, chairs, and parasols for the garden outside. Diners could dine outside when the weather is suitable and enjoy the scenery.

"As for the interior design style, prepare five types—minimalistic, Chinese, Japanese, European, and natural. They must each have their individual decor, table cloths, lighting, and cutlery.

"We will decorate the restaurant according to the cuisines that the customers ordered. This applies especially to this private room as it has the best scenery. We must build a ceiling window and prepare furniture and decoration pieces of all styles so we can design the room elaborately.

"Other than having to match the cuisines, the lighting and decorations must be as comfortable as possible. This restaurant mainly caters to our employees so we do not have to be so formal.

"Most cuisines here needed to be reserved. For example, if the customer ordered western cuisine, we must change the design and layout of the room beforehand so that it fits the European style interior design. If the customer ordered Japanese cuisine, we would then change it to Japanese style.

"There will be two categories of dishes here. One will be made using normal ingredients that will be available at all times. The employees will be eating that. The other will be made using high-end ingredients such as the fugu shirako, Tahiti vanilla, Bluefin tuna, and Parma ham. Make sure that you contact the suppliers beforehand. After reservation, the customers have to pay a deposit before they can come over and taste the food."

Pei Qian showed Lin Canrong around the place and spoke about wherever they went.

He had two goals ultimately.

First, the main purpose of the restaurant was to cater to the needs of his employees. The main goal was to make the place as comfortable and high-end as possible. Pei Qian did not plan on hosting many people at the villa. His ideal maximum number of customers was around seventy to eighty people.

The hall could seat about twenty people, and each private room could seat about six to seven people. If the weather was nice, they could also have a few tables in the balcony and garden.

Pei Qian did not plan to bring all his employees there at the same time. There were more than two hundred of them, and the villa could not accommodate so many of them. They could only come and have gatherings there in batches.

He could bring the seventy or eighty core employees here to have a meal together. The persons in charge of each department could then bring their respective employees over and have a meal together.

Anyways, the main purpose of the meals was to spend money. There was not much difference if they ate together or not.

Second, he wanted to spend as much money as he could.

Preparing furniture, cutlery, lighting, and decoration pieces of various styles could burn a lot of money. It could raise the cost of human labor by a huge margin. However, he had a valid reason for doing so, and the system could not pick on him because of that.

After all, all his efforts were to offer customers a better dining experience although the cost of such improvements was huge and it was not a cost-effective decision.

Furthermore, Pei Qian did not care about the opinions of the other customers. This restaurant was originally built to host employee and company gatherings. It was built to burn money for Boss Pei. Therefore, it was better if the restaurant maintained a low profile.

The best result was that no one else knew about this place. In that case, the restaurant could keep on losing money steadily. That was what Boss Pei wanted.

After giving his instructions for all the areas of the restaurant, Pei Qian looked at Lin Canrong and said, "That's the rough arrangements. Do you have any questions?"

Lin Canrong appeared a little hesitant. "Boss Pei, I'm okay with everything else. However, is there really a need to prepare so many interior design styles?"