Chapter 261 Lin City's Enthusiasm

February 18th, Friday.

School hadn't started yet, but Pei Qian was already swamped.

Next Tuesday, "A Beautiful Tomorrow" was set to premiere, yet Pei Qian still hadn't found the time to swing by Fei Huang Studio to see how the final cut turned out.

Pei Qian's schedule was packed. He figured, if he really couldn't make it, he'd just have to leave it to fate.

There was no point in watching the completed film of "A Beautiful Tomorrow" now anyway. Even if he found problems, there was no way to fix them.

Right now, Pei Qian was in a car heading to Lin City.

The "Touching Fish Integrated Complex" in Lin City was basically complete: a Touching Fish Internet Cafe 2.0 located in the core business district + three Touching Fish Internet Cafes 1.0 in second-tier business districts + Touching Fish Takeout + 20 Nifeng Logistics Stations + a large warehouse for ROF’s PC assembly needs + four distribution points around the Touching Fish Internet Cafes.

This whole setup had taken nearly two months and was finally finished.

Today was the grand opening, and Pei Qian planned to see how well Lin City accepted Touching Fish Internet Cafe.

Hopefully, not very well?

Touching Fish Internet Cafe, Touching Fish Takeout, and ROF PC assembly were all relatively expensive services. Lin City's overall consumption level was low, so they probably wouldn't be too popular.

As for Nifeng Logistics, everyone would definitely like it, but that thing didn't make money.

Of course, there were other possibilities, some less desirable possibilities.

If that happened, Pei Qian would have to prepare in advance and think carefully about where to spend the money he earned.

In the car, Pei Qian sneezed.

Then, he suddenly thought of something and took out his phone to call He Desheng.

"Why is the 'Xueba Kuai Lai' project... seemingly more popular?"

On the other end of the phone, He Desheng was also confused. "President Pei, I don't know either..."

Previously, Pei Qian had asked He Desheng how to make people lose confidence in the project, and He Desheng's answer was "sell shares." Pei Qian strongly agreed.

On Tuesday morning, Pei Qian had also explicitly told Li Shi to start selling shares as well, hoping to undermine the confidence of other investors.

But strangely, the shares that Pei Qian asked He Desheng to sell were mostly snapped up by other investors in small amounts. It didn't seem to cause any panic among the investors.

President Li hadn't sold any shares, and Pei Qian didn't know what he was thinking.

Could it be that President Li didn't believe him?

...Very likely. After all, this wasn't the first time.

What worried Pei Qian was that the "Xueba Kuai Lai" App was still burning money, the data was getting better and better, and the popularity was increasing!

Every day that passed made Pei Qian uneasy.

After hesitating for a long time, Pei Qian reluctantly said, "Continue selling..."

There was no other way. Pei Qian had a bad feeling that dragging it out would lead to big problems.

He had to hurry up and dump more shares to continue undermining the confidence of other investors and make them dump all their shares during this period!

Even if selling shares now would make money, there was nothing he could do. He had to cut his losses in time.

"Okay, President Pei," He Desheng said. "Sell them all? Or stop after selling a certain amount?"

Pei Qian thought for a moment. He definitely couldn't sell them all, no matter what.

Selling them all would be pure profit, wouldn't it?

Pei Qian thought, "Then... sell down to at least 20%, absolutely no lower! And sell at most 5% each time, definitely no more."

Previously, Pei Qian's shareholding had been diluted to around 60%, and after selling several times, it was now less than 50%, but he was still the largest shareholder and the actual controller.

However, after selling a few more times, it would eventually reach 20%.

Pei Qian thought that losing control didn't matter. Anyway, once everyone sold off and the project flopped, Pei Qian would find a chance to buy back the shares and regain control to continue losing money.

After this project crashed, no one should compete with him to buy these unwanted shares back and help those successors out of trouble. They should be very happy.

Keeping around 20% of the shares was to earn a little less on the one hand, and to maintain his shareholder status on the other, so that he could have priority in buying shares in the future.

He Desheng didn't quite understand what President Pei's operation meant, but he was used to it and didn't ask.

"Okay, President Pei, don't worry, I'll definitely handle it."

After hanging up, Pei Qian thought about the other troublesome projects.

Like the shared phone booths.

Pei Qian had already given up struggling with this project, but recently, some good news had come.

Zhang Wang had reinvested all the money earned from the current shared phone booths into production and planned to install them in large quantities in Jingzhou's shopping malls, setting up more shared phone booths.

However, the new phone booths were not as successful as the initial batch!

The reason was simple: Jingzhou only had so many shopping malls with high traffic. If they continued to force more shared phone booths into them, not as many people would use them!

This was the only good news Pei Qian had heard recently.

On the other hand, the situation at Zhongdian Chinese Network seemed to be improving. At least the authors in the study classes were updating less and less.

As for the two game departments, phones, etc...

He didn't have time to deal with them for the time being.

...

"President Pei, hello, I'm Xiao Peng, the person in charge of Touching Fish Internet Cafe in Lin City."

A spirited young man with a crew cut opened the car door for Pei Qian and introduced himself very respectfully.

Pei Qian shook hands with Xiao Peng, and they left the mall's underground parking garage together to take the elevator.

This was Lin City's largest shopping mall, the core of the Touching Fish Integrated Complex. Touching Fish Internet Cafe 2.0 was on the fifth floor of this mall.

"So, how's the situation?" Pei Qian asked casually.

Xiao Peng smiled slightly and said proudly, "President Pei, the situation is excellent!"

Pei Qian was stunned. "Huh?"

Xiao Peng didn't realize the surprise on President Pei's face and continued proudly, "The four Touching Fish Internet Cafes, Touching Fish Takeout, Nifeng Logistics, etc., all officially opened today. We strictly followed your instructions and didn't do any promotions."

"But obviously, the brand image of Touching Fish Internet Cafe is deeply rooted in people's hearts. People were already lining up at the door before the opening, and now all the internet cafes are completely full!"

"The response to Touching Fish Takeout has also been unexpectedly enthusiastic, especially many office workers choosing Touching Fish Takeout for their work meals. The acceptance is even higher than in Jingzhou!"

"Not to mention Nifeng Logistics and ROF PC assembly, the orders are very popular. Fortunately, our warehouses are well-stocked and there have been no stockouts..."

Xiao Peng spoke eloquently, obviously very proud of this achievement.

Finally, as if afraid that President Pei would misunderstand him as bragging, Xiao Peng didn't forget to add, "Of course, this is all because President Pei, you laid a good foundation in Jingzhou! These businesses becoming popular in Lin City is simply a natural and logical thing!"

A question mark slowly floated above Pei Qian's head.

?

Before he could speak, the elevator "dinged" and arrived.

The seats in the Touching Fish Internet Cafe were completely full, and the waiters were constantly moving around, handing out various drinks. It looked very lively.

There were no signs of grand opening promotions, nor were there any discounts!

But even so, the entire internet cafe was packed, and there were even many people waiting in the waiting area!

Pei Qian was dizzy.

The worst situation he had imagined was that the occupancy rate would reach about 70%, and they would make a profit right after opening.

He never expected that the real situation would be even worse than his worst-case scenario. The Touching Fish Internet Cafe in Lin City seemed to be even more popular than in Jingzhou!

And according to Xiao Peng, it wasn't just this one Touching Fish Internet Cafe that was popular, almost all the industries in the Touching Fish Integrated Complex were popular!

This caught Pei Qian off guard.

Seeing that President Pei didn't say a word, Xiao Peng felt a little awkward and quickly continued, "President Pei, I have to say, your decision to enter Lin City is an incredibly correct decision!"

"The economic development level in Lin City is relatively low, so there are fewer well-known catering and entertainment brands in Lin City."

"Touching Fish Takeout is not outstanding in Jingzhou, but when it comes to Lin City, it immediately becomes a high-end takeout brand. The packaging is exquisite, the food is safe, and taking it out in the office has a lot of prestige, so it is deeply loved by some office workers!"

"And Touching Fish Internet Cafe completely fills the gap in Lin City where there are no high-end internet cafes. It is located in the core business district, and the surrounding people are the people with the highest consumption power in Lin City, so it is highly sought after!"

"It can only be said that President Pei, your move to enter the lower-tier market is really brilliant, and the effect is surprisingly good!"

Pei Qian: "..."

Speechless.

Listening to Xiao Peng's explanation, Pei Qian realized that it seemed to be the case.

No matter how low the economic development level of a place is, there will definitely be a relatively wealthy population.

And such places often lack high-end catering and entertainment brands.

Just like many years ago, foreign fast-food brands that everyone could afford entered the domestic market and, in a short period, became high-end catering brands in the minds of Chinese people, and everyone flocked to them.

It wasn't until many years later, as China's economic development level became higher and higher, that these brands were gradually "restored to their original form" in the minds of Chinese people, becoming unremarkable "fast food".

Now, the situation that the Touching Fish Integrated Complex encountered in Lin City was similar. The prices of Touching Fish Internet Cafe, Touching Fish Takeout, and other brands were exactly within the upper limit of the consumption capacity of Lin City's wealthy population. At the same time, they were of good quality and low price, and their brand value was significantly higher than other brands of the same type, so they were enthusiastically sought after by the people of Lin City!

Pei Qian stood at the entrance of the Touching Fish Internet Cafe and was silent for two minutes.

Then he turned around and left.

Xiao Peng was stunned. "Ah? President Pei, are you leaving already? Aren't you going to look at the other internet cafes?"

Pei Qian said with a dark face, "No need to look!"

Xiao Peng couldn't help but sigh silently, "President Pei is really a decisive person. Just by looking at one, he knows that the victory is certain and doesn't need to look at the second one."

"Everyone says that President Pei has the demeanor of a great general. After seeing him today, it really lives up to the reputation."

Seeing that President Pei had already entered the elevator, Xiao Peng quickly followed him and sent President Pei to the underground parking garage.

"President Pei, welcome to Lin City to guide our work at any time!"

Pei Qian forced a smile and silently got into the car and left.

He had come all the way to Lin City, originally thinking that even if there was bad news, it wouldn't be too bad.

He never expected that when choosing the city for the Touching Fish Integrated Complex, it was already destined to fail!

How frustrating!!!