Chapter 17 Tuesday, January 17th

Pei Qian got up as usual and went to Lazy Bones Internet Cafe for breakfast.

Today was another day of racking his brains to spend money.

With only half a month left until settlement, Pei Qian felt unprecedented pressure to spend money.

Lazy Bones Apartments had made a fortune through its furniture cooperation with Fang Lan Ju, the fully automatic smart arguing machine had sold a lot, the repeated investment in Cold Noodles Girl had earned a fortune by selling shares, the DLCs for several old games had sold well, and then there was the ten million dollars recovered from the IOI team's sponsorship breach...

If Pei Qian hadn't already planned a foolproof solution in advance, this money could have made him faint on the spot.

In addition to the normal operating expenses of each department, Pei Qian chose to continue pouring the bulk of the money into the "Mission and Choice" project.

For Pei Qian, the smartest thing about this project was that it allowed the two most critical departments of Tenda Group, namely Tenda Games and Flying Huang Workshop, to work together.

One was making a game, and the other was making a movie. They were actually two projects, but the system regarded them as one, successfully exploiting a loophole.

The system stipulated that only one project could be delayed to the next cycle, and Pei Qian doubled the amount of funds that this project could absorb by combining the game and the movie.

Since it was postponed to the next cycle for settlement, he could invest more money in this cycle, as long as the amount was not so huge that the project could not be completed in the next cycle, it would be fine.

So, Pei Qian called Hu Xianbin and Huang Sibao respectively, casually mentioning that he had tens of millions more funds to give them, and asked them to think carefully about what else they could spend money on for this project, and be sure to make full use of this money.

Huang Sibao was also dumbfounded. The movie was being filmed well, and suddenly a windfall came from the sky?

But President Pei's task had to be completed, so he had to hurry up and study how to increase the budget and make good use of the money.

Not long after Pei Qian hung up the phone, He Desheng called again.

"What's wrong? Is there a problem with Cold Noodles Girl?" Pei Qian asked, very alert, subconsciously.

He Desheng: "President Pei, don't worry, everything is going smoothly with Cold Noodles Girl, and it's being done according to your instructions. There's no big problem."

"I mainly wanted to report on Meng Chang. You specifically told me to pay attention to him before."

Pei Qian was slightly relieved: "Oh, Meng Chang. Go ahead."

After Cold Noodles Girl went bankrupt, Meng Chang sold all the shares he had on hand to Tenda at a low price, paying off a small portion of his debts.

But even so, Meng Chang still had millions of debts and was still subject to enforcement.

Pei Qian took the initiative to pay the suppliers' payments, transferring Meng Chang's debt relationship to Tenda.

In other words, Tenda was now Meng Chang's creditor.

Some time ago, Pei Qian asked about Meng Chang's situation, and He Desheng also investigated. He said that Meng Chang was obviously unwilling to give up, and had gone to many investors to try to make a comeback, but had all been turned away. He had even failed to apply for important positions such as senior management in some companies.

Logically speaking, victory and defeat are common occurrences in military affairs. Although Meng Chang's entrepreneurship failed, his personal ability was still there, so why would no one want him?

Because Meng Chang's foundation was not solid before he founded the Cold Noodles Girl brand. His resume was nothing more than graduating from a prestigious school, working experience in the marketing department of a large company, and so on.

If he hadn't gotten a sum of money from Dream Chasing Venture Capital first, he wouldn't have been able to create such a big business.

In other words, Meng Chang had actually seriously overdrawn his future in the process of running Cold Noodles Girl.

Now that Cold Noodles Girl had completely failed, the investors who believed in Meng Chang had suffered heavy losses. Meng Chang, the founder, had overdrawn all his entrepreneurial potential, so naturally he could no longer get any opportunities.

He Desheng said: "President Pei, Meng Chang should also understand that he has reached the end of the road. He has been running around in the capital for more than a week, and he has hit every wall he should have hit. He should be sober now."

"Your willingness to lend a helping hand is already the best opportunity for him."

"So, he said he is willing to work at Tenda, but he is not sure what specific job he will be responsible for or how much salary he will get. President Pei, what do you think..."

It seemed that this Meng Chang was indeed at the end of his rope.

Pei Qian knew in his heart that Meng Chang definitely had some hatred towards him. If it weren't for the constant changes of Dream Chasing Venture Capital, investing and then selling, selling and then investing, perhaps the script would not have turned out this way.

If Meng Chang had any other way, he would definitely not have come to Tenda to work for him.

But now that he was here, Pei Qian also liked Meng Chang's ability to spend money.

In terms of the speed of spending money, Meng Chang was the most satisfying person Pei Qian had ever met, without exception.

The only problem was that Meng Chang spent money quickly and in large amounts, but he also made a lot of noise. If he was responsible for marketing work, it might make Pei Qian's situation even worse.

At this time, a little reverse thinking was needed.

Meng Chang understood marketing so well and knew how to spend the most money to achieve the best marketing effect, so conversely, he should also know best how to spend the most money to achieve the worst marketing effect, right?

Just like a top student can easily get 100 points, then naturally he can also easily get 0 points. It is not easy for a poor student to get 0 points, because he does not know the correct answer and cannot accurately avoid it. What if he guesses correctly?

Pei Qian thought for a while and said, "Tell him to join the company next month. I want to set up an advertising company specifically for him. This advertising company can only take on internal work from Tenda Group, mainly responsible for advertising planning, brand promotion, and so on."

"As for his salary, tell him that it will definitely not be low. However, how the salary is specifically paid still needs to be discussed in person. I plan to provide him with two different salary models for him to choose from: one is a high base salary with no commission, and the other is a low base salary with high commission. Let him decide for himself."

"As for how to carry out the specific work... I will personally teach him when the time comes."

He Desheng hurriedly said: "Okay, President Pei, I will tell him."

...

At the same time, in the capital.

Qi Yan invited several stall owners who won awards in yesterday's food competition to the Cold Noodles Girl store and entertained them well.

As Qi Yan expected, many stall owners declined Cold Noodles Girl's joining invitation.

Because these stall owners were all well-known in the local area, and there would be long queues when they set up their stalls, and business was very good. Moreover, most of them were locals, who were reluctant to leave their hometowns and did not lack money to spend, so naturally they did not want to move to another place with their families.

However, there were still a few younger stall owners who were willing to talk to Qi Yan in detail and consider it after understanding the situation.

Even among the stall owners, the situation was different.

These stall owners were generally younger and had some aspirations and expectations for the future. Their ambition had not been completely worn away by life.

They planned to listen to Qi Yan's explanation. If the conditions offered were tempting enough, they could consider leaving home to work hard for a few years.

Success was certainly good, maybe they could directly earn the money they could only earn by setting up a stall for a few years; failure didn't matter, they could go back and continue setting up a stall.

Among these people, the stall owner that Qi Yan admired the most was named Zhang Yahui, who was very young, only twenty-six years old. Because his family conditions were not good, he dropped out of high school and set up a stall with his parents. He was relatively flexible, liked to study on his own, and the roasted cold noodles he made were very famous in the local area. Everyone who had eaten them praised them.

In this street food competition, the roasted cold noodles he made received unanimous praise from the judges.

Qi Yan explained the purpose: she hoped to hire them as food consultants for Cold Noodles Girl. Their usual work would be to study the methods and flavors of various street foods, and to produce the snacks they were good at in a more streamlined manner.

For stall owners, this job had its advantages and disadvantages.

The disadvantage was that the salary for this job would be slightly lower than their income from setting up their own stalls, and it would be more expensive to come to the capital for food, accommodation, and other daily expenses.

The advantage was that this job was much easier than setting up their own stalls, and it was also a good opportunity, maybe there would be better development prospects in the future.

Although they could earn more by setting up their own stalls, it was also very tiring. They usually worked from early morning until late at night, with almost no time to rest. What's more, they might encounter various emergencies, and their income was very unstable.

And working here as a "food consultant" was much easier, working from nine to five, and maybe there would be better development prospects. If they could really make a name for themselves, their future income might be much higher than setting up a stall.

The stall owners weighed the pros and cons and were very hesitant, making it difficult to make a decision in a hurry.

Zhang Yahui was obviously inclined to accept this job.

His idea was that he was still very young, and he couldn't limit his future now and set up a stall in a small city for the rest of his life, right?

Although there was nothing wrong with setting up a stall and earning a lot of money, compared to a decent job in a big city, Zhang Yahui still preferred the latter.

Zhang Yahui knew very well that it was very easy to return from a big city to a small city, but it was very difficult to climb from a small city to a big city and gain a firm foothold.

And Cold Noodles Girl's invitation was undoubtedly an opportunity to gain a foothold in a big city. If he missed it, he probably wouldn't have another chance in the future.

Zhang Yahui thought for a moment and said, "I am quite satisfied with your conditions. But... I am a little worried about whether I can be competent for this position."

"Can I first understand the specific work of the 'food consultant'? Changing the city where I live is not a small matter. If there is a deviation, both of us will be quite embarrassed."

Other stall owners also nodded and expressed their agreement.

Many stall owners were actually tempted, but they didn't dare to agree immediately because they lacked confidence in themselves.

They felt that they were just setting up a stall to make snacks, how could they be a "food consultant"? It didn't sound reliable. What if Cold Noodles Girl went back on their word after only two months and fired them?

Qi Yan thought for a while: "This is easy to handle. You can first take a look at the roasted cold noodles in the Cold Noodles Girl's kitchen, analyze the problems, and then give some guidance. As long as you can improve the taste of the roasted cold noodles, it will prove that you can be competent for this job. We can hire you with confidence, and you can go to work with confidence, how about that?"

Zhang Yahui nodded: "Okay."

This was equivalent to a simple interview, and improving the taste of the roasted cold noodles was the content of the interview. If they passed the interview, both parties would be more confident.