Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

August 13th, Saturday…

Pei Qian crawled out of bed and yawned. There was a Management Trainee meeting today.

The examination period had passed, and Pei Qian had been plagued with too much work. Although he could symbolically study a little—on the whole, he had to give up getting better.

Yet, he did not feel worried. He only worried that his own teachers would kill a couple of brain cells, trying to think of ways to let him pass.

As for the Management Trainees' examinations, Pei Qian didn't feel worried. They were outstanding students to begin with, and Pei Qian had given them time to study before the examinations. Of course, they would do well.

The days without the Management Trainees were very difficult for Pei Qian. They had only done away with one meeting, but the DGE Club and 'Top Student Come Quick' had already dealt killer moves. In addition, IOI and Fish-Catching Take-Out had exploded due to uncontrollable reasons. Pei Qian was filled with worries.

He also had to think about how many hidden dangers there were in the projects that had just exploded and just how many aftershocks he would have to endure.

Thus, the Management Trainee meetings had to resume!

Once he finished washing up, Pei Qian glanced at his watch. It was still early. He picked up his cell phone, wanting to read what everyone else thought about the Tengda Life App and Fish-Catching Take-Out.

The news piece aired last night. After a night of fermenting, new opinions had appeared online.

Someone said that, after their parents watched the news, they told him to only buy Fish-Catching Take-Out in the future.

Someone else said that his company had decided to only order from 'Food Harmony' for business conventions from now on.

Many people also said that they had bought lunchboxes for themselves. The most ridiculous post was by someone who said that they had bought a set of lunchboxes in every color, for no other reason than that they wanted to collect the lunchboxes because of how nice they looked!

Pei Qian was exhausted.

He could let the people in front go. In the age of garbage sorting, he could tolerate people who ordered from Fish-Catching Take-Out just to save themselves the trouble.

However, how could he tolerate the one who said that he had bought a lunch box in every color just to collect them?

What person in the right mind would collect these things?

Pei Qian could only say that the world was huge, and there were all sorts of people. He just could not understand why people would treat such unstable things as treasures.

All of a sudden, Pei Qian noticed a post on Weibo that had garnered a lot of attention!

"I almost laughed to death. Do you all remember the customer that appeared in Fish-Catching Take-Out's news piece last night? He looked so serious that I thought they had hired him. I didn't expect to see this complete version of what happened!"

A video was attached below.

The journalist arrived at Fish-Catching Take-Out and randomly interviewed a customer, whose head was lowered as he used his cell phone, completely unaware that he was being interviewed.

"What do I think? I can't be bothered to sort my garbage…

"You're recording? Is this an interview? The news?

"Er… garbage sorting is good. It protects the environment and saves resources—all of us should do it! I think Fish-Catching Take-Out is doing an exceptionally good job.

"Please cut the first part. Thank you."

The journalist suppressed her grin and said, "Alright, don't worry."

The video was going viral, and more and more comments were appearing below!

"Hahaha, that's hilarious. He was an ordinary citizen of Jingzhou in one second, but an outstanding youth in the next!"

"That's so true. I thought the interview was scripted beforehand, but it turned out to be a spring interview. This brother blurted the truth without noticing the camera at first!"

"That's an adorable citizen of Jingzhou. He claims not to care about sorting garbage because of the inconvenience it brings to his life, but he still does all he can to support it by changing his habits. He deserves praise for not secretly dumping his rubbish carelessly!"

" 'Please cut the first part, thank you' hahaha! The kind man had been taken for a ride by the journalist!"

"He was not. The journalist did cut it away, and she didn't broadcast it in the news. However, she didn't say that she wouldn't upload it onto Weibo! Hahahaha."

"Eh, I noticed a problem. Did the rest of you notice the customers at the start of the video? One of the backs looked particularly familiar. It's the wallpaper on my cell phone!"

Pei Qian: "?"

Back? How could you recognize someone's back?

As for whose back he was referring to… wasn't it obvious?

Pei Qian quickly traced the clues and found the Weibo profile of the person who had posted that comment. His newest post had also become viral and gotten thousands of shares!

"An earth-shaking revelation! Boss Pei was there when the journalist interviewed Fish-Catching Take-Out's person-in-charge! Look at both of these backs; they're 99% similar. The suits are the same, their body types are the same, and even their head shapes are identical!"

There were two images placed side by side for comparison below.

The former was a photograph taken by the journalist when Pei Qian had walked in the opposite direction of the crowd back in Fish-Catching Internet Cafe 3.0's Live Esports Museum back then. The latter was a screenshot from the journalist video of Fish-Catching Take-Out.

Indeed, they were extremely similar!

Before this, a few people had already set the first photo as their wallpapers. It was no wonder that they made the connection once they saw the same back in the video.

Not many noticed it at first, but once the photos were compared, everyone immediately recognized him!

Pei Qian's head hurt. He knew he should have changed suits!

Yet, what straight man like him would have different fancy suits to change into every single day?

He only had so many comfortable suits, and it was only natural that he would re-wear them often.

Never would he have imagined that his back would be so recognizable that netizens would be able to spot him!

The netizens began to analyze Boss Pei's behavior.

"World headlines: 'Boss Pei was at Fish-Catching Internet Cafe' and 'Boss Pei was at Fish-Catching Take-Out'."

"So, Boss Pei was overseeing the battle at the scenes? It's no wonder that the person-in-charge spoke so well. If he hadn't, perhaps he would have been gone the next day!"

"Boss Pei was at the scene, but he wasn't interviewed?"

"Isn't that to be expected? Boss Pei is such a low-profile person. He wouldn't chase after superficial glory like that. Hadn't he behaved in the same way back at Fish-Catching Internet Cafe?

"If the journalist had not captured his back, who would have known that Boss Pei had attended the opening ceremony of Fish-Catching Internet Cafe's Live Esports Museum?"

"For some reason, I sense a bit of desolation from his back view. Is this what it means to hide his face and name after achieving what he had come to do?"

"That's right. Boss Pei looks so calm that he seems to be saying 'go ahead and interview whoever you need; it has nothing to do with me'."

"Doesn't this show that Boss Pei often eats Fish-Catching Take-Out as well?"

"That's right. I heard from insiders that Boss Pei has Fish-Catching Take-Out for all three meals every day. He only goes to the nameless restaurant under exceptional circumstances."

"That's surprising! Is Boss Pei that thrifty and restrained? If I eat Fish-Catching Take-Out right now, would I be having the same meal as Boss Pei, then?"

"That makes sense! I'll go and find out which set Boss Pei was eating at the time, and then I'll order one for myself!"

"Boss Pei's set meal +1."

Pei Qian was completely dazed.

"World headlines?"

Netizens could be so ruthless with their teasing!

I only happened to pass by. Just take me as an innocent passer-by, alright? Don't try so hard to gather clues about me. Thank you! I just want to lead a regular life and be a transparent person!

What's more, what the hell is a 'Boss Pei set meal'? How did I accidentally endorse Fish-Catching Take-Out?!

Pei Qian continued scrolling through the comments and discovered that many people were saying the same thing!

Many people had not thought much of Fish-Catching Take-Out at first. Even with the policy for garbage sorting, they had been willing to cook or take-away their own food. However, after discovering this post, they changed their minds.

Boss Pei was eating it, and every day at that!

That meant that Fish-Catching Take-Out had to be as healthy as they said!

Many celebrities endorsed products that they wouldn't use and were thus not convincing at all. However, a big boss like Boss Pei was having Fish-Catching Take-Out every single day. That meant that the food was not bad in terms of health, nutritional value, and flavor!

How else could they have the same meal as Boss Pei for just twenty or thirty yuan?

It was the perfect advertisement. At once, everyone hopped onto the Fish-Catching Take-Out bandwagon!

Pei Qian let out a long sigh and silently shook his head. After that, he kept his cell phone, adamant not to read any more posts.

It was getting cold, and he had to move on to the next place.

A series of unfortunate events had taken place for Fish-Catching Take-Out. It was surely dead by now. Perhaps it would even become like the Fish-Catching Internet Cafes.

It would only continue to expand by opening new branches.

Pei Qian could forget about Handong Province. For every day that it insisted on sorting garbage, Fish-Catching Take-Out would continue to generate profit.

Although it wouldn't generate a lot of profit, and it would take some time for Pei Qian to recover the initial investment that he had poured into the business, it would only earn more and more in the long term.

Pei Qian could only open more branches in places without garbage sorting policies. If he did that fast enough—with the huge initial investment that each branch required, Pei Qian could only hope that the profits would not catch up to him.

Once again, he sighed inwardly and took a ride to the office to attend the Management Trainee meeting.

…

The Management Trainees had all gathered in the conference room.

Now that their examinations had ended, they all looked renewed with energy. It was almost as if they couldn't wait to jump back into work.

Pei Qian looked melancholic.

Do you know what I, your senior, have been through in the days that you were not around?!

Those who heard about it would feel hurt, and those who witnessed it would shed tears. It was not worth telling outsiders.

"Everyone, start reporting." Tang Yishu readied her notebook and prepared to take notes.

One by one, the Management Trainees started reporting updates for their department.

Since they had been busy with examinations, they collected information about everything that happened from the start of last month onwards. Pei Qian already knew about a lot of the updates and had even received some bad news.

Take the 'Top Student, Come Quick' app being turned into the Tengda Life app, for example.

Pei Qian quickly realized that Yu Pingan had slyly done this outside of earshot of the Management Trainees, and the app had been updated two days before the Management Trainee meeting was scheduled to take place. The timing was perfect.

Pei Qian didn't think that Yu Pingan had avoided his Management Trainee because he understood what special role the latter had. He could only attribute this to pure luck.

It was so frustrating.

Soon, the dangerous news that Pei Qian had no idea of started to surface, one by one!