Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

November 6th, Saturday…

Pei Qian lay back in his office chair, listlessly scanning the resumes sent by applicants to the office's email inbox.

At the moment, the HR department was still anxiously preparing the entrance examinations and related materials. Since that was a relatively complicated task involving many stages, Pei Qian guessed that they would not make headway anytime soon.

Having free time on his hands, Pei Qian accessed the recruitment email inbox and tried to find gold. He wanted to see if he could pick a suitable right-hand man from among the applicants, whom he would be able to make use of.

However, after spending a long time searching, Pei Qian found no one satisfactory.

The resumes were all too well done!

He did not know if these people wrote their own resumes or paid someone online to write them on their behalf.

It seemed that everyone badly wanted a job at Tengda. However, this was making it harder for Boss Pei to shortlist suitable applicants.

Would Boss Pei dare to accept applicants with beautiful resumes?

"Forget it. It's ridiculous trying to recruit someone on my own. I'd better wait for the 'slacker selection process' to be ready."

Pei Qian really needed to hire help. He had not even managed to find anyone to act as Vice President for the cell phone business.

Although Lin Wan was in charge of the cell phone business as well, she was only supposed to be an overseer. At most, she could only be put in charge of a portion of the work. Someone had to share the load with her.

Of course, to put it bluntly, that person had to check Lin Wan's power and slow her down.

Pei Qian was afraid that Lin Wan would turn out extremely capable. If both the next game and the cell phone business succeeded, Pei Qian would be in deep trouble.

Yet, he could not find anyone suitable to act as Lin Wan's Vice President.

Pei Qian had wanted to look for someone among the applicants, but on further thought, he realized that Tengda did not have a cell phone business yet. Naturally, very few talents from that industry sent in their resumes.

If Pei Qian hired a layman, his intentions would be too obvious. Lin Wan might get suspicious, and Pei Qian would have a much harder time persuading her to go home and take over her family business.

Thus, he had to find someone with a satisfactory resume.

Pei Qian pondered for a moment and thought about searching on Qiandu. He typed in the keywords 'cell phone' and 'bankrupt'.

As he scanned the results, a particular news article caught his attention.

'Hongcheng Technologies goes insolvent: In less than one month, it accumulated debts of about 130 million yuan.'

"According to the latest news, Hongcheng Technologies' operating entity, Hongcheng Technologies Co. Ltd. has been named a judgment debtor for a debt of about…

"According to reports, Hongcheng Technologies' total liabilities added up to more than eight billion yuan. How did a company that had made 174 million yuan just a year ago suddenly collapse? In an interview, its founder revealed that the direct cause was a rupture in the capital chain. The root problem was that the company had been incurring losses for a long time.

"However, the former Vice President of Hongcheng Technologies, Chang You, seemed to express a different opinion about this online. He thought that Hongcheng Technologies had failed because the company had been too short-sighted. This later led to Chang You being heavily criticized online. Many netizens thought that Chang You had been the one who made wrong decisions, bit off more than he could chew, and caused the collapse of Hongcheng Technologies.

"It is worth noting that from August 13th to this day, Hongcheng Technologies has defaulted four times and has accumulated debts of about 130 million yuan…"

Pei Qian could not help but feel envious.

They owed at least a hundred million yuan!

If I lost that much…

In any case, there must have been a hidden talent in Hongcheng Technologies! It was either the founder or the Vice President. After all, both of them tried to shift the blame to the other. Obviously, one of them was very problematic.

Pei Qian researched more about Hongcheng Technologies and discovered that the company was quite a reputable cell phone manufacturer in the country. Of course, they also ventured into industries other than the cell phone one. At the start of the year before, the company announced that it had made over a hundred million yuan.

Another year passed, and they collapsed just like that.

Pei Qian looked for more information on Hongcheng Technologies' Vice President, Chang You. At once, his eyes lit up.

Chang You became Vice President of Hongcheng Technologies a year ago and took charge of the cell phone business. A year later, the perfectly good company collapsed!

The more Pei Qian read, the more this high-profile individual was his dream employee! Chang You looked short and thin, but Pei Qian could almost feel the unlimited energy hidden inside his body!

Pei Qian made up his mind immediately. It was him!

Pei Qian would put him in charge of the new cell phone business. This was the talent he had tried so hard to find.

He quickly called Assistant Xin into his office. Assistant Xin entered and immediately updated Pei Qian on what he had asked her to do earlier.

"Boss Pei, you told me to look for an investment assistant earlier. I've already found one. If you have the time, you can meet him and see if you're satisfied."

Pei Qian pondered for a moment and said, "How about this? Tell him to go to Fish-Catching Internet Cafe's Handong University branch in two hours. I'll meet him there."

"Also, help me to look for a way to contact Hongcheng Technologies' former Vice President, Chang You. I want to meet him, too."

Assistant Xin nodded. "Alright, I'll do that."

Assistant Xin was just about to turn around and leave when Pei Qian recalled a very important thing. He said, "Wait a minute. What's the name of the investment consultant you found?"

Pei Qian was going to interview the man; it did not seem right that he still did not know his name.

Assistant Xin said, "His name is He Desheng. I've already sent his resume and other relevant information to your email address."

Pei Qian was speechless. "…"

"Is there a problem?" Assistant Xin noticed Pei Qian looking dumbfounded and became puzzled.

Pei Qian waved his hand. "No, go back to work."

Assistant Xin left the office.

The moment Pei Qian heard the man's name, he felt the urge to turn him down.

He <anno data-annotation-id="51070c6c-374c-467f-8be1-769ed21c2f48">Desheng</anno>?

This name was intolerable.

However, on further thought, Pei Qian realized that he was a young man who had been deeply influenced by materialism. There was no need for him to be so superstitious.

There was a man named 'Hao Qiong' in Shang Yang Games as well, but he was becoming rich after receiving such high salaries from the company, wasn't he? His life no longer matched his name!

Of course, at the end of the day, Pei Qian could not turn this applicant down for no good reason. They had not even met. He would seem too weird if he said he wanted to find someone else.

Pei Qian pondered for a moment. Since the man was already here, Pei Qian had might as well bring Ma Yang to meet him as well.

If he really did not make the cut, Pei Qian would find a reason to turn him down.

…

Two hours later, at Fish-Catching Internet Cafe's Handong University branch…

Pei Qian and Ma Yang were already prepared.

Boss Pei's first impression of He Desheng was only so-so. Thus, he did not harbor high hopes.

On the other hand, Ma Yang could barely sit still. He looked so nervous that one would have thought he was going on a blind date. From time to time, he looked outside the shop.

Pei Qian gently reminded him, "Old Ma, he's a man, and he's not that good-looking. You don't have to be so nervous."

Ma Yang immediately looked defensive. "Brother Qian, what are you talking about?! I'm just excited to meet a man of worth and ability! In high school, I made a resolution to learn finance. It was only because I did horribly in my sciences that I was forced to study humanities.

"That's why I'm looking forward to meeting someone well-versed in finance! I'm filled with respect for him!"

Pei Qian faintly noticed something wrong. He quickly said, "Old Ma, you may respect him, but remember that you're the angel investor making the decisions. You must have your own opinions!"

Ma Yang patted his chest confidently. "Don't worry, Brother Qian. I'm so opinionated; what are you worried about?

Pei Qian was speechless. "…"

Old Ma knows nothing about himself. Is that good or bad?

Pei Qian was not sure.

As both of them chatted, He Desheng finally arrived.

Pei Qian had seen his picture and read his resume before this. He Desheng was a 27-year-old male who looked very ordinary, like any other employee in the company. Finding anything special about his appearance was a difficult task.

Generally, he lacked a strong presence.

Pei Qian was quite happy with this. If he lacked a strong presence, he probably lacked influence as well. That meant Ma Yang would be allowed to display his talents.

He Desheng did not look nervous. Perhaps it was because Fish-Catching Internet Cafe's atmosphere was too relaxing, and it did not feel as imposing or pressurizing as most company interviews did.

He Desheng explained his achievements, but since Pei Qian knew nothing about investments, he could not tell when He Desheng was bootlicking and when he was stating a legitimate achievement.

However, since Assistant Xin had recommended He Desheng, Pei Qian trusted that he was relatively good at what he did.

The only thing worth noting was that He Desheng was currently working as an investment assistant at Fu Hui Investments. What's more, he said that he was about to be promoted to investment manager.

When he heard the words 'Fu Hui Investments', Pei Qian could not help but drift off and think about Boss Li. Pei Qian wondered how Boss Li had been and when he would be able to help Pei Qian out once again.

While Pei Qian daydreamed, He Desheng finished his self-introduction.

As he introduced himself, He Desheng had kept eyeing Pei Qian. It was almost as if he was interested in the latter.

Since Pei Qian had not thought about what to ask, the atmosphere quickly became awkward.

He looked at Old Ma, who yawned and nodded apologetically. "Well said!"

Pei Qian was speechless. "…"

I knew he would daydream as well. He wasn't even listening!

Pei Qian was just about to start another conversation topic when He Desheng spoke.

"Boss Pei, I'm your fan!"

<annotations style="display: none;"><ol class="tinymce-annotation-container"><li data-annotation-id="51070c6c-374c-467f-8be1-769ed21c2f48">In Mandarin, 'He' means congratulations, and 'Desheng' means to triumph.</li></ol></annotations>",