Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Pei Qian was pretty busy this weekend.

He had originally planned to enjoy his sleep in his rented apartment, but he found it hard to fall asleep. The moment he closed his eyes, scenes of the internet cafe becoming popular and earning huge bucks flashed before his eyes. That made him restless.

He had no choice but to get Assistant Xin to drive over to fetch him. He had to check it out to assure himself.

Of course, that gave him an excuse to give Assistant Xin overtime pay.

Firstly, they went to the flagship store of the Fish-Catching Internet Cafe. After having a cup of coffee and spending some time in the store, Pei Qian confirmed that there would not be any possibility of turning the loss into profit in the short term here.

Afterward, he went to the two new stores of the Fish-Catching Internet Cafe to look at the renovations.

The locations of these two stores were worse than the flagship store. Their only advantage was their spaciousness. The interior designs of these two stores could not be exactly identical to the flagship store and could only lean towards Pei Qian’s preferred style.

They had an overall minimalist style and did not have a lot of extravagant details. However, the tables and chairs, bar counter, bookshelves, and other furniture all seemed very classy.

It was not that Pei Qian liked this kind of classy style. The main reason why he chose that was the price of the furniture of that style.

The two new branch managers appeared very hardworking. They were staring at the workers as they renovated the place. Pei Qian approached them and conveyed his greetings warmly. He persuaded one of the branch managers to head home. However, the other was adamant against going home. Pei Qian could only give him overtime wages.

After looking at the renovations of the internet cafes, Pei Qian was still not assured. He spent some time walking around the surroundings of the stores. Finally, he concluded that this location was even more deserted than the flagship store. There should not be a lot of customers who would come to the store.

On the way back, Pei Qian suddenly had the notion of going to the company. He found Lu Mingliang and some other members of the design team working overtime.

Boss Pei was extremely angry.

He had originally allowed Huang Sibo and the others to work overtime because he thought that Huang Sibo and Bao Xu were using the time to play games. However, he so discovered that they were not playing games while working overtime. They were obviously hard at work!

Therefore, Pei Qian felt that he should be stringent about this and prohibit anyone from appearing at the office after office hours.

This time, Pei Qian sent everyone—including Bao Xu-outside. His reason was for them to rest well back at home and care about their hairline.

After thinking about the results from the previous physical examination, Bao Xu had no other excuse and could only pack his stuff and head home.

During this time, Bao Xu had much more money in his hands. He was no longer living in an internet cafe. He rented a studio apartment and bought a new computer. He could now play computer games at home.

When the others saw that Bao Xu had been successfully persuaded by Boss Pei, they could only pack up their things quietly and leave as well. The scenario seemed extremely devastating. The team headed outside with extremely low spirits. Those who did not know the situation might even think that they had all been fired.

After chasing everyone away, Pei Qian randomly found a chair nearby and sat down. He felt extremely tired psychologically.

These guys! They are giving me such a headache!

“I am thinking… is it time to change the lock to the office? Maybe we should purchase a higher-quality digital lock? The kind that limited access to certain personnel during public holidays…”

Pei Qian looked at Assistant Xin. Xin Hailu hesitated before saying, “Would this reduce everyone’s motivation to work?”

Reduce everyone’s motivation?

That would be great. It would be best if it not only simply reduced their motivation. It would be better if it could destroy it completely.

“That’s settled then. Remember to head over to the administrative department to check if they have such locks. If not, you can just purchase one instead.

“The door can only be opened by authorized personnel during public holidays. These would temporarily include… you, me, and the few girls in the administrative department.”

The job of the administrative department was the simplest. They would usually start work at nine and leave at five. They might be late for a minute, but they would never leave work a minute early.

They would definitely not be around during public holidays.

Pei Qian felt very assured when he gave them the authority to the door. Assistant Xin noted that down in her notebook. After finishing his words, Pei Qian thought of a new problem.

How could he give them overtime wages?

By locking the door, everyone would not come to the office to work overtime. However, that meant that he would not be able to give out overtime wages either.

Although this did not sum up too much, it was still a part of the ‘strength in numbers’ plan. It was an important way to spend his money. The overtime wages of each person did not amount to much, but when the number of employees increased, this would become a huge budget.

Pei Qian thought for a while. “How about this? In the future, everyone could declare their overtime hours. The overtime wages would also include time spent working from home.”

Xin Hailu was stunned. “How do we check if they were truly working?”

Check? Check for what? I wouldn’t care even if everyone falsely declared their overtime hours.

Of course, Pei Qian could not say that.

He thought for a while and said, “I believe in everyone’s discipline. However, if anyone was to be found guilty of falsely declaring overtime hours, his entire overtime wages for the month will be deducted.”

He had to set a punishment to gag the system.

Anyways, Pei Qian would not check if anyone had falsely declared their overtime hours. Pei Qian’s mood changed for the better seeing the empty office. He stood up from the chair and was prepared to have a nice nap back at home.

At that moment, his phone rang. Huang Sibo called.

Pei Qian immediately stood on his guard.

After completing the shoot for Boss Pei’s Daily Life, Huang Sibo and Bao Xu were prepared to rest for half a month. Calculating the time, their break should be over soon. They should be thinking about a new project and shooting a new video.

With his persuasive words, Pei Qian had ignited the fighting spirit in Huang Sibo and successfully convinced him to stop working on Boss Pei’s Daily Life and give up on this successful IP. However, Pei Qian was unsure and unsettled about what exactly Huang Sibo and Zhu Xiaoce planned to shoot.

The purpose of this call was either to have a discussion with Pei Qian or to report the progress to him.

Pei Qian hoped it was the former.

He picked up the call.

“Boss Pei, I’m so sorry for disturbing you at this time. We would like to report about the work plans for Fei Huang Workspace.

“Previously, Boss Pei’s words had enlightened me. Originally, Director Zhu Xiaoce and I planned to continue working on short videos and shoot a new video series that was inspired by Boss Pei’s Daily Life. We wanted to showcase a similar plot twist and contrast. We planned on investigating some popular current affairs and discover a series of celebrity characters from our everyday lives.”

The more Pei Qian listened, the more nervous he became.

Was that f*cking ‘Surprise'[1]’ or ‘Baozou Big News Events[2]’?

Whichever it was, they all sound pretty pessimistic.

Huang Sibo continued speaking, “However, Boss Pei’s words the other day enlightened me. I think we should go out of our comfort zone and continue pursuing our dreams! Although short videos are a good way to earn quick money and could bring smiles to people, we feel that it is still not enough.

“Director Zhu Xiaoce shares my opinion. Therefore, after discussing with him, we decided to film a documentary. We want to film a documentary that no one had ever shot before.

“Of course, given our limited capital currently, there is no way we can shoot a huge one. We will carefully consider our topic. The only thing we hope to achieve is to use our cameras to record something meaningful…”

Pei Qian heaved a sigh of relief. However, he was quickly on his guard again.

The reason he heaved in relief was that Huang Sibo and Zhu Xiaoce and really decided to give up on making short videos. This was great news for him.

If they followed their original plans, it was very likely that they would produce another popular short video series. If they really made it to the heights of Surprise and Reporting, Boss![3], something terrible would happen.

Now that Huang Sibo and Zhu Xiaoce wanted to film a documentary, the topic itself meant that there was a very low possibility of them profiting. This was good news.

[1] This is a Chinese mini comedy series that told the story of the protagonist in an exaggerated and humorous way

(2] This is a Chinese internet talk-variety show reporting about ridiculous news events

(3] This is a TV comedy series about a four-man movie company