Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

At Shang Yang Games…

Ever since the mobile version of Bloody Battle Song became famous, Shang Yang Games had become completely different.

The biggest change was in the working environment.

Before, Shang Yang Games was just like most other game start-ups. People were less particular about the working environment, and the staff was squashed together inside the office. Chairs and tables were cheap, and office hygiene was taken care of by the employees themselves. No cleaning aunties were hired.

Yet, now, everything was different!

Shang Yang Games rented out their previous office space and collectively moved to a nearby high-end office building.

The desks, chairs, and computers were all purchased together, with their holding company—Tengda—as the benchmark.

Each desk was much more spacious, and the computers were top-tier. There was also a pantry, a snack area, fitness equipment, a game room, and the like.

Lin Wan was very proud of this.

Shang Yang Games had spent their own hard-earned money on this!

The mobile version of Bloody Battle Song had been released on September 20th. About a month had passed since then. Shang Yang Games had already earned five or six million yuan from that game.

Although there were very few purchase options in the game, there were many players. What's more, players could keep purchasing items repeatedly.

On top of this, Shenhua's games platform had been treating Shang Yang Games particularly well. The latter got ninety percent of all the income.

Thus, even after deducting taxes, daily operating expenses, salaries, rental for the cloud server, and other expenses; Shang Yang Games was still earning about one or two million yuan per week.

At first, Lin Wan wanted to hand this sum of money back to Tengda Games, so that the staff of Shang Yang Games could hold their heads high in front of other employees of Tengda Corporation. However, Boss Pei turned her down immediately.

"Shang Yang Games needs this sum of money now. Why don't any of you have long-term goals?

"Is the office perfect?

"Are the employees getting as much benefit as Tengda's employees?

"Everyone has been working so hard for so long. Shouldn't you distribute a bonus to reward them for their hard work?

"Spend all the money that you need on Shang Yang Games before you think about transferring the profits!"

These were Boss Pei's original words.

Lin Wan had no other choice. During that one month, she kept thinking about how to improve the office.

At first, Pei Qian was worried that Lin Wan would hold back. However, after secretly asking around for some time, he realized that he had been overthinking.

It was one thing to be worried that others would hold back, but worrying that Lin Wan would do the same? He was really worrying for nothing! Lin Wan really took Tengda as the benchmark and went all out!

Pei Qian was very pleased.

Indeed, rich second-generation heirs were different!

Pei Qian knew full well that Lin Wan was still feeling extremely proud of herself now. She had just released a game that was earning the company about five million yuan each month. One could say that she had created a money-making tree for Tengda.

Others might be thrifty and attempt to save up all of these profits.

However, Lin Wan was obviously not like that. She happily spent the money and maximized the various benefits that Shang Yang Games gave its employees.

They would be able to earn all the money back anyway!

That was what Lin Wan thought.

Thus, the welfare benefits for employees of Shang Yang Games were benchmarked against that of Tengda Games.

Shang Yang Games' employees were finally being treated like biological sons and daughters, just like their Tengda counterparts.

At that moment, Hao Qiong was leaning back on his ergonomic chair, surfing the net without any aim.

There was nothing to do!

Shang Yang Games had just released a game not long ago. One could say that Hao Qiong had done everything right as an employee of this company. Once he started work, he jumped into researching and developing the mobile version of Bloody Battle Song. After that, the game did extremely well, Boss Pei treated them to a meal, and they moved to a new office.

Just a few months ago, Hao Qiong had been hard-pressed for a job. Yet, now, he was surfing the net, looking for ways to maintain his good health.

He felt like he was sinning every single day.

He often thought about the sight of Boss Pei in the nameless restaurant. At the time, he had just eaten a bowl of weird-tasting black rice and crab roe. It was only after that that he discovered the black rice was called 'caviar'.

As the saying went, the mouth that ate the food of others was softened.

Each time he slacked, Hao Qiong felt like he was letting Boss Pei down. However, whenever he set his mind on doing serious work… he found that there was absolutely nothing to do.

It was disastrous.

According to Director Lin, Shang Yang Games had to wait for Boss Pei's instructions before embarking on another project. At best, they would get a concrete plan by the middle of November.

Just the thought of having to slack for nearly half a month made Hao Qiong feel terrible.

He accessed TPDb to study Bloody Battle Song's ratings.

In the beginning, the game's overall rating was 7.2. Later, it rose to 8.4. Now, it was 8.9. The game's ratings were increasing steadily. If this situation continued, the game's rating would have no problem surpassing 9.0 next month.

The higher the ratings, the higher their bonus. Just the thought of getting a higher bonus next month made Hao Qiong feel even guiltier.

He hadn't done any work, and yet he just kept receiving money.

Although it sounded good… Hao Qiong could not help but fear being rendered useless. Thus, he could not wait to get back to work in order to prove himself.

He casually accessed the internal forum.

"I'll read two posts before I get back to work." Hao Qiong had made up his mind.

"Hmm? What's this sticky post? An open letter from Boss Pei to his employees?"

Hao Qiong's heart thudded as guilt threatened to overwhelm him.

One could easily imagine what the open letter would say! An open letter posted in a company's intranet could only have one purpose: to put everyone on the same page and encourage everyone to work hard.

Simply put, these letters were usually a form of encouragement from a company's leader to all of his employees.

If this were another company, most employees would probably not even bother reading the letter. It would be meaningless.

They were probably already exhausted; why would they make themselves feel worse by reading a letter that pushed them to work harder?

However, Hao Qiong could not help but click this letter from Boss Pei.

This was because Hao Qiong felt like he could use the motivation. He could not sit back and do nothing day in and day out; that would be too evil!

Hao Qiong could even imagine Boss Pei criticizing employees who had been enjoying company benefits but slacking their days away. His open letter would probably remind employees, who were indulging in pleasure, again and again to harbor a fighting spirit and embrace 'wolf culture'.

Hao Qiong felt like he could use this wake-up call.

With these expectations, he clicked the sticky post and read it closely.

When he was done, Hao Qiong frowned. He was deeply confused. Why was the open letter so different from what he imagined?

It was… the complete opposite.

Hao Qiong read the open letter from beginning to end once again, just to 'revise' the 'golden words' within.

Whenever his alarm clock rang, he would continue sleeping. No matter how much work there was to do, he always made sure that he slept his fill first?

There was a weak correlation between one's hard work and the company's development?

More people were working hard, but fewer people knew how to rest?

Working overtime was not trusting colleagues' capabilities and going against Tengda's spirit?

Reject working overtime from now on?!

Hao Qiong read the open letter very closely yet again, from beginning to end. He saw these words between the lines: 'It's wrong to work overtime, but it's reasonable to slack'!

The dark humor was so potent that Hao Qiong thought he was stuck in a dream.

Before this, he still felt guilty. However, all of that had been replaced with pure confusion.

The boss wants me to slack more. Well…

Hao Qiong was at a loss. He looked at the date. Was it April Fool's Day?

Still feeling confused, Hao Qiong refreshed the page. Immediately, seven or eight replies appeared.

There were probably many other employees like Hao Qiong, who had nothing to do. Everyone must have been browsing the internal forum. That was probably why they managed to comment on the sticky post the moment it was posted. Perhaps they had even been fighting to be the first replies.

"Comment on the first page to catch Boss Pei!"

"Boss Pei is so formidable!"

"What's up with this open letter? Are they testing out the posting function or trying to be funny?"

It was clear that most people felt as confused as Hao Qiong.

Why would a boss ask his own employees to slack off? Was this reverse psychology?

In this confusion, more and more replies began to appear underneath the post.

"Understood, Boss Pei! We will rest well and take care of our bodies!"

"This is so heart-warming. Although it was expressed humorously, I can still feel Boss Pei's care and concern between the lines!"

"This sticky post made me think hard. Other companies push for 'wolf culture' and 'fighting spirit' and think about various ways and means to get the most out of their employees. Yet, Boss Pei is completely different. This is him cruelly exposing and satirizing those companies!"

"I feel quite touched. This is the Tengda spirit that we're all so proud of!"

"Boss Pei's warning is true indeed. Every single word spoke straight to my heart! Too many bosses only think about the company and their self-interest. All they can think is 'if my employees work harder, I can get a new car by the end of the year'. They push their employees to work harder on the pretext of it being for their own good, when they're actually doing so for selfish reasons!

"Yet, Boss Pei is completely different. He is thinking for his employees: their health, their families, and their future. With a leader like him, what more can we ask for?"

"Rest assured, Boss Pei. Even if we don't work overtime and overwork our bodies, we will make sure to finish our jobs so that the company can rise to greater heights!"

"That's right! Boss Pei has provided us with such a good working environment while he bears the weight of the company's development on his own shoulders. We cannot let Boss Pei down! We have to take care of our bodies and health, so that we can work better for the company. Only then can we achieve good results and repay Boss Pei!"

…

People kept liking various comments, quickly pushing them right to the top.

While Hao Qiong had been confused at first, he finally understood what was happening.

The internal letter was not meant to motivate them. It was meant to be the ultimate form of one's concern for humanity. The main point of this letter was not to tell the employees whether they should work overtime or not.

On the surface, Boss Pei was asking everyone not to work hard. However, this was obviously an exaggeration.

Any employee with the slightest ambition would know that he had to work hard for his own future.

What Boss Pei really meant to do was remind his employees to take care of their own bodies, health, families, and interests while working hard. Only then could they complete their work well and make greater contributions to Tengda's development!

From this, one could tell that Boss Pei had a very different strategy from bosses who coveted even the smallest of profits, sought to save every penny, and docked their employees' pay whenever they could!

At that thought, Hao Qiong became filled with determination.

He wrote his reply to the post. "Please rest assured, Boss Pei. We will work hard and take care of our bodies while we're at it. May we mature and advance together with Tengda!"