Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

When he returned to his apartment, Pei Qian sent a message to Assistant Xin, telling her to make some time on Monday to check out the old industrial zones around Jingzhou City. He also instructed her to find out the price of the bigger factories there and estimate how much creating a haunted house there would cost.

After that, Pei Qian read the message from Tang Yishu.

It was Saturday. Many people went to work overtime.

On the surface, Tang Yishu looked like she went back to clear Glabella's poop. However, she had actually gone to supervise those working overtime on Pei Qian's behalf, to ensure that they did not cross the line.

Pei Qian read the message and compared the name list to the one Li Yada had handed to him.

"A girl with huge-frame spectacles… that should be Li Yada.

"A man with a mole on his face… that should be Little Li.

"A tall man with a crew cut… huh?"

Pei Qian checked Tang Yishu's message against Li Yada's name list and realized that there was a problem.

There had been one more person in the office compared to what the name list reflected!

Only five people had requested permission to work overtime. However, according to Tang Yishu's records, six members of the design team had gone back to the office!

This tall man with a crew cut was probably Chen Kangtuo from the design team. He was not among the people who requested permission to return to the office over the weekend.

Pei Qian laughed mirthlessly. Hmph, I knew it!

Indeed, a few people in the design team were still trying to work overtime.

He had caught those dogs.

Pei Qian thought about how he should deal with the stubborn people who refused to change their ways and insisted on sneakily working overtime.

Should he give them a joyful send-off, present them with a larger stage on which to display their talents, and thereby make them into an example for others?

That wouldn't be right.

Doing that would treat the symptoms but not the cause. Pei Qian would be temporarily gratified, but there would still be disastrous consequences.

It was for the same reason that Pei Qian neither insisted that Tang Yishu should tell him who worked overtime during the weekend nor set up surveillance cameras around the office.

If Pei Qian transferred Chen Kangtuo to another department through the first-place-elimination system, he would undoubtedly signpost to the other employees that the same would happen to them if they worked overtime.

Those who wanted to get promoted would purposely start working overtime while those who genuinely wanted to do work would intensify their efforts. The mess would be unsalvageable.

Then, Pei Qian would have no way to differentiate the slackers from the genuine hard workers.

Pei Qian could also warn Chen Kangtuo against working overtime and strictly prohibit such behavior. Yet, although people who genuinely wanted to work overtime would appear to stop after that, they would definitely continue to secretly work from home.

If everyone started working from home, Boss Pei still would have no way to differentiate the slackers from the genuine hard workers.

Thus, he could not do that either!

As the saying went, water that was too clear had few fish, and one who was too critical had few friends.

There was not much of a difference whether he strictly supervised people's working hours or installed surveillance cameras in the office. His employees would still take their work more seriously and slack less, and Pei Qian would still not be able to differentiate the slackers from the hard workers.

Pei Qian's ultimate goal was to create a safe environment for all of his employees to slack. At the same time, they needed to think that Boss Pei would not bother even if they sneakily worked overtime.

That way, the slackers would slack without worrying and the hard workers would naturally continue working overtime in secret. The difference would be clear for Pei Qian to see.

After that, Pei Qian could come up with a list of hard workers and then arrange for them to be transferred away without anyone noticing.

He would not alert the perpetrators beforehand.

Thus, Pei Qian could not be rash. He noted down Chen Kangtuo's name without saying a word, plotting his sweet revenge and preparing to strike out of nowhere.

At the same time, he would wait for more fish to take the bait.

…

December 6th, Monday…

Pei Qian arrived at the office at 10 AM as usual. He noticed that there were fewer people in the office. He was confused for a while before he recalled that it was the day of Tengda's recruitment examinations.

Many employees from the HR department and the administrative department had gone out to ensure the entire process ran smoothly.

Although many postgraduate students from Handong University had come to help out as well, they could only do what they were told to by Hao Yun and the others.

Pei Qian planned to sit around in his office for a while before visiting the examination hall.

After all, recruitment was a big thing. Whether he could hire more slackers would directly impact the company's future development or not. Pei Qian could not afford to be careless about the process.

After sitting down for a short while, Assistant Xin came to report updates on her task.

"Boss Pei, I've already asked around about the factories.

"The abandoned factory buildings in the old industrial zone are meant to be developed into cultural industrial parks; that's why they're not for sale. However, the good news is that rent is cheap because nobody's interested in them.

"The monthly rent for these factory buildings is about eight to nine yuan per square meter. This sum of money would be considered negligible to our company.

"If you want to turn these factory buildings into a haunted house, you have to think about how big you want the haunted house to be and how many factory buildings you would need. That would make it easier to calculate the initial investment."

Pei Qian nodded. It was much cheaper than he had imagined.

At a monthly rate of eight to nine yuan per square meter, Pei Qian would only need to pay about a million yuan for several huge factory buildings, with a total of ten thousand square meters. That sum would be incomparable to the rental Pei Qian was paying for office buildings.

Of course, whether rent was expensive or not depended on location.

These factories were located in a deserted place. If one rented these factories but did not generate any revenue, they would practically be throwing one million yuan into the trash every month. That was why most people were not willing to take them up.

Assistant Xin continued speaking. "There's another thing. Boss Pei, are we going to have an annual meeting this year? If you want to do that, we should start preparing soon."

Pei Qian paused, and then immediately said, "Yes, of course!"

He had almost forgotten about that altogether!

Holding annual meetings was a great way to spend money. How could Pei Qian miss the opportunity?

He did not hold an annual meeting last year because Tengda had still been too small. That was why he had not seen a point.

However, Tengda had many more employees this year. It was logical to organize an annual meeting!

He could hold a lucky draw during the annual meeting and give an additional prize to every attendee. Wouldn't that allow him to spend a huge sum of money?

He had to thank Assistant Xin for reminding him!

Assistant Xin nodded. "Alright, Boss Pei. I'll inform the rest to start preparing. If you have any requirements, feel free to let me know."

Pei Qian said, "I don't have any requirements, except one. Everything has to be done according to Tengda's spirit, understand?"

Assistant Xin answered, "I understand. We'll distribute high-quality prizes."

Pei Qian nodded in satisfaction.

After Assistant Xin left, Pei Qian started to watch some shows. He would go down to the examination hall after lunch.

However, the moment he accessed Aili Island, he received another message on his cell phone.

It was from Lin Wan.

"Boss Pei, the first demo for Be Quiet has been created. We're also more or less done with the first version of the cell phone's system.

"Do you want to take a look at them if you have time to spare over the next few days?"

Pei Qian pondered for a moment and then typed his reply. "Alright, I'll go down to Shang Yang Games tomorrow and to Otto Technologies the day after…"

Just as he was typing, Pei Qian realized that something was amiss. He deleted everything he wrote.

He should not be going down on his own. Instead, he should ask them to come down.

It was now time for him to inspect the results of research and development. That meant it was time to put Tang Yishu, his nuclear weapon, to good use.

However, it would be strange if Pei Qian brought Tang Yishu along with him to Shang Yang Games and Otto Technologies to inspect the results.

After all, Tang Yishu was merely the encourager's keeper. Pei Qian had no reason to bring her around with him. Others might even get suspicious.

Thus, it would be best to ask everyone to come to Tengda Games instead. Then, Tang Yishu's halo effect could influence them without them realizing it.

At that thought, Pei Qian re-typed his reply. "You can come to Tengda to give me a demo tomorrow and the day after."

Soon after, Lin Wan replied, "Alright, Boss Pei."

…

In the afternoon…

At Tengda's recruitment examination hall…

Wu Bin had just finished eating the set meal from Fish-Catching Take-Out. He continuously praised the food in his heart.

This was the HR employee who had tried to headhunt Hao Qiong on behalf of Hengtu Games earlier and who ended up being shamed. He had been keeping a close eye on Tengda Games' recruitment for activity since then.

Tengda was finally holding recruitment examinations; naturally, he could not miss the opportunity.

He had already taken a paper in the morning. They were now having a lunch break. Wu Bin had many mixed feelings about the recruitment examinations.

The first of which was: weird!

The timing was weird, the process was weird, and the examination questions were weird.

In terms of timing… Tengda was holding the examinations on a Monday. That was ridiculous to Wu Bin.

This was because many companies had meetings on Mondays, and so it was extremely difficult for employees to take leave. Yet, Tengda was purposely holding the recruitment examinations on a Monday. It was almost as if they were afraid that those who were already working would take leave to come and take the examinations.

In terms of the process… there were many stages that Wu Bin felt were strange and unnecessary. Wu Bin himself worked in HR. He was very familiar with such processes.

To him, Tengda was considered a big company. However, organizing such a long recruitment process like this was as useless as tits on a bull. It was unnecessary and a waste of money and energy. Wu Bin thought that the regular recruitment process would be much better.

The most confusing thing was that there was a Tengda Spirit compatibility test at the end of the process. Those who failed that test would not be hired. That was really ridiculous.

Furthermore, the questions were very difficult!

Wu Bin had taken part in similar written examinations to be recruited as a government official. Thus, he had prepared for such questions before. He had thought that as a private enterprise, Tengda's written examinations would be much simpler.

However, he was completely wrong.

The questions were more difficult than he had imagined!

Wu Bin had nearly broken down after the morning's paper. He had thought he was well-prepared, but the difficult questions had proven to him how wrong he had been.

Still, he had no other choice.

Tengda treated its employees extremely well! It was obvious from their lunch. There were at least hundreds of applicants in the hotel's examination hall. Yet, Tengda provided meals for everyone. This alone probably cost them tens of thousands of yuan.

What's more, this was not the only examination hall.

In addition, they hired postgraduate students to invigilate and mark the papers. That was another huge cost.

Ai, how good it was to be rich!

Wu Bin ate the set meal from Fish-Catching Take-Out and fantasized about how good it would be if he could work in Tengda one day.

After lunch, Wu Bin saw many people walk out of the examination hall.

Tengda had provided accommodation for applicants who had come from other cities. At that moment, those applicants were returning to their rooms for some rest before returning for the afternoon paper.

Since Wu Bin lived in Jingzhou, he did not enjoy such treatment.

He could return home to get some rest, but it would be troublesome to travel there and back. Thus, he decided not to go to all the trouble.

Since he had nothing else to do, Wu Bin looked around the hall and observed the other applicants—his competitors.

Most of them were young people. Furthermore, the majority among them were Jingzhou's own university graduates.

That was to be expected. After all, students in their final year of university would be scrambling to find full-time employment. Naturally, they would not give up the opportunity to take recruitment examinations like that.

Most people in Wu Bin's age, who were already employed, either found it hard to sacrifice their year-end bonus or found it difficult to take leave on a Monday. Thus, they were among the minority in the examination hall.

"It feels like Tengda favors younger employees. I wonder if old slackers like me would be able to get in."

Wu Bin felt slightly sorrowful.