Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

January 20th, Friday…

Today was Tengda's annual meeting and also the last day of work before the new year.

At 10 AM, Pei Qian got out of bed and yawned. He was still a little confused.

Old Ma's live-stream yesterday had been a moderate blow to him. He had sold yet another batch from the stockpile of the Fully-Automated Intelligent Bickering Machine. Pei Qian was so angry that was unable to sleep as he tossed and turned at night.

That was why he woke up late today.

However, after a nap, Pei Qian finally accepted reality. Since the Smart Bickering Machine was selling like crazy, it was probably impossible to dissuade passionate consumers. He had to look elsewhere.

Fortunately, he had already come up with a plan to spend as much money as he could in advance. This little accident was still bearable.

"I don't know what to do about today's annual meeting. Forget it, we'll know when we get there."

Indeed, Pei Qian had completely forgotten about the annual meeting plan that Assistant Xin had given him yesterday. He had been thinking about Old Ma's live-stream all along. In the end, he had left the plan in his office and had not had the time to see what the plan for the annual meeting was.

However, it shouldn't be a big problem.

That was because the annual meeting last year had been quite successful. Pei Qian had already said that he would continue to implement the usual aim of last year's annual meeting before the annual meeting was organized. He would boldly try to organize a new event without changing the core. The most important thing was to increase the budget again.

He had prepared more than four million yuan for the prizes at the annual meeting last year. That was not even including the venue fees, the fees for catching the dolls in the game, and so on.

Of course, the budget for this year's annual meeting had to be higher. That was because as Tengda's scale continued to expand, the number of employees also increased rapidly. Less than 1,000 employees attended the annual meeting last year. This year, they had already reached about 1,700 or 1,800.

Of course, the composition of the employees here was very complicated. For example, Upwind Logistics' express delivery guys, Deposit Fitness' fitness trainer, Fish-Catching Take-Out's delivery guys and chef, Fish-Catching Internet Cafe's manager, and so on.

Apart from these people, only a small portion of the core employees were present from Tengda Games, Shang Yang Games, Fei Huang Workspace, and Otto Technologies.

Pei Qian had always treated his own employees equally. Whether it was brain labor or physical labor, they had to attend the annual meeting together and enjoy the same benefits.

Of course, some employees who were not in Jingzhou could not participate.

For example, the incubation base, the Cold-Faced Lady, Fish-Catching Internet Cafe, and Fish-Catching Take-Out in other cities'. They had all been given budgets and got the person-in-charge to make his own arrangements. It did not matter if it was a meal or bonus for the annual meeting. All they had to do was spend all the money on the employees.

Pei Qian really did not know where he could hold the annual meeting with such a huge team of 1,800 people.

They had booked 100 tables from an entire hotel for last year's annual meeting. It had not been easy to fit so many people in.

However, the number of people this year had almost doubled. no hotel could probably accommodate so many people.

However, it would be strange if he were to separate these people into several halls or private rooms. The annual meeting had to be held for the lucky draw. He could not separate the few halls for the lucky draw, right? Something was amiss.

Thus, Pei Qian did not know how Assistant Xin had arranged it. He had also left Assistant Xin's proposal in the office previously. He could only wait until the annual meeting was held.

…

Little Sun arrived downstairs at 11 PM sharp. He picked Pei Qian up and headed straight to the annual meeting.

Pei Qian sat in the car and played with his cell phone for a while. When he looked up again, he suddenly felt that this route was very familiar.

Pei Qian naturally did not remember routes since he did not drive. He might have lived in Jingzhou for more than two years but he was still not familiar with the city.

However, the route today was very familiar because he seemed to have walked it many times.

On a closer look, wasn't that the Great World?

Great World was the second largest shopping mall in Jingzhou. At the same time, it was also the venue for the GOG World Invitational Tournament and the GPL Spring Competition.

Pei Qian was just about to ask if he had gone to the wrong place, but on second thought, he could not. Little Sun had always been reliable, and he would not make such a low-level mistake.

In other words, could the annual meeting be held in the Great World?

"It's really possible. The GPL's Spring Competition is on temporary pause. They will only start again after the Spring Festival. The GPL's venue will be empty, and there will be enough seats. It's quite suitable to use the place for lucky draws during the annual meeting."

"However… how are we to dine?"

Pei Qian was a little confused, but he could not ask too much. After all, as a boss, it did not seem right for him to not know the specific arrangements for the annual meeting until the day itself.

He could only pretend that everything was under control.

Little Sun parked the car in the underground parking lot. The two of them took the elevator directly to the eighth floor of the shopping mall.

The top floor would be the venue of the GPL competition on the top floor. Pei Qian guessed that there should be a unified reception area on the eighth floor.

The mall was still operating normally today. However, there were not many people because it was Friday morning. The entire mall's traffic was maintained in a lukewarm state, neither empty nor crowded.

They soon reached the eighth floor.

Pei Qian and Little Sun walked out of the elevator and were immediately welcomed warmly.

There were employees from the administrative department and HR department in charge of receiving the elevator and elevator on the eighth floor of the shopping mall. It was the same as the annual meeting last year. There were people in charge of distributing the tokens.

The tokens were game coins. At the annual meeting last year, every employee had been given a small bag. There were fifty to sixty of such tokens in them. They used the tokens to experience the game freely on a ten-yuan per try capsule machine.

This year, not only was there a small bag of tokens, but there was also a stack of consumer vouchers. These consumer vouchers were printed with the words Tengda and Great World Shopping Mall, a lunch voucher, a dinner voucher, and five 200 yuan shopping vouchers.

There was also the door gift. It was still a thick red packet. Last year, it was 1,000 yuan per person. It must not be less than last year and was increased to 1888 yuan.

Apart from that, there was a small foldable page that detailed the venue and procedures for the annual meeting. It served as a guide.

Pei Qian heaved a sigh of relief when he saw the small card. Alright, this arrangement was very considerate. He could finally understand the entire annual meeting.

Pei Qian sent Little Sun away and asked him to play with the others. Then, he strolled around and read the entire annual meeting's schedule.

…

The number of people participating in this year's annual meeting was almost double that of last year's. Therefore, ordinary hotels would definitely not be able to accommodate all of them in one hall.

After asking for everyone's opinions, Assistant Xin realized that most people did not really care about the food segment. Thus, she arranged for the annual meeting to be held in a shopping mall far away.

The GPL spring competition venue on the top floor had been booked by Tengda. Of course, they could use it as they pleased. Apart from that, they had also spent money to book the entire eighth floor for special activities with the employees. For example, they could use the claw machines and rings for entertainment activities like the previous annual meeting.

The process of the entire annual meeting would be something like this:

First, they would have to go to the eighth floor to collect the tokens, consumer vouchers, and the red packet door gift. After which, they would have three hours of free time from 11 PM to 2 PM.

All employees could walk around the shopping mall as they pleased. They could go with their colleagues in the department or with their friends.

They could dine at any restaurant in the shopping mall with the lunch and dinner food vouchers. They could order food in buffet style. All expenses would be reimbursed by the company as long as there was no wastage of food.

On the other hand, the 1,000 yuan consumer vouchers could be used for any purchase in the shopping mall. The only limitation was that they could not be exchanged for money directly. They had to spend everything in the shopping mall.

After 2 PM, everyone could return to level 8 to continue playing games.

All eight floors of the shopping mall had been redecorated. They were filled with claw machines, rings, and various other mini games that could be played at will.

It was similar to last year's annual meeting but on a much larger scale.

In addition, the GPL's venue would be officially opened after 12 noon. Internal staff who formed teams in advance could go on stage to play friendly competitions to satisfy the addiction of professional players.

At four o'clock, after everyone had their fun, all employees would gather at the competition venue on the top floor and sit down according to the department's area for the final lucky draw.

The prizes for this annual meeting were even richer than last year. There were earphones, keyboards, game consoles, cameras, cell phones, computers, and various other digital products. At the same time, there were cash red packets and other more practical products like vacuum cleaners and sweeping robots.

The lucky draw would last for an hour and end at 5PM.

After that, everyone would disperse and head into the shopping mall for a free meal. Everyone would be on official holiday after dinner.

…

Pei Qian could not help but feel gratified after reading the entire annual meeting's schedule.

Assistant Xin had indeed arranged the entire process of the annual meeting well. It was very satisfactory.

Who said that they had to eat together during the annual meeting?

In fact, the food at the annual meeting might not suit everyone's taste. After all, there were so many people present. Some loved traditional Chinese food, some loved Western food, and some loved Japanese food… It was impossible to satisfy all of these flavors. They could only choose a menu that most people found acceptable.

What's more, even though the annual meeting was cto have a meal together, only people at the same table could communicate with each other. It was rare for people from different departments to sit at the same table. It was even very unnecessary with Tengda's way of operations.

Since that was the case, why did they have to squeeze into the same hall for a meal?

Everyone could eat what they liked. There were all sorts of restaurants in such a huge shopping mall. They could even eat as much as they wanted. How comfortable was that?

After the lucky draw segment, everyone would return to the GPL competition venue and watch the big screen used for eSports competition. Wouldn't it be perfect if they could draw for an hour at a time?

All in all, this year's annual meeting was still in the same style as last year. There was no formality, no stimulants, and no one was allowed to act stupid on stage. Everyone was here to eat, drink, and play.

They were to eat to their fill and play to their hearts' content!