Chapter 126 Monday, December 26th

Monday, December 26th.

In the morning, Pei Qian woke up naturally, reluctantly crawling out of bed to brush his teeth and wash his face.

"Maybe I shouldn't go to the office today..."

"Damn it, I must start studying properly from today!"

Pei Qian grumbled as he brushed his teeth, secretly making up his mind.

The previous two days were the weekend, and Pei Qian couldn't even remember what he had done. He seemed to have just slept in, played some games, browsed the internet, and then the two days were over.

Pei Qian had originally planned to find a quiet place to study properly.

After all, the exam week was fast approaching, and in order to surpass Old Ma's goal, he had to take some time to study hard.

But the problem was, everyone knew that time was like water in a sponge, you could always squeeze some out, but sometimes you just didn't have the strength to squeeze.

Pei Qian felt that his time was more like water in the desert, always disappearing at the speed of light when he wasn't paying attention.

And there was also a huge problem, which was his mindset.

From Monday to Friday, the company was open as usual, and Pei Qian often had to keep an eye on things and deal with some work matters, such as making decisions, which took up some energy, leaving him with no time to study.

On Saturdays and Sundays, the company was indeed closed, so Pei Qian should have had time to study, but he was too lazy to move at home.

He was so busy at work from Monday to Friday, didn't he need to rest and relax on the weekends?

As a result, all his time disappeared inexplicably.

Pei Qian didn't remember how many times he had resolved to start studying properly from today, but his study progress was still extremely worrying, and he hadn't even finished reading a few pages of the notes he had copied long ago.

It was too difficult.

After washing up, Pei Qian wiped his face hard and sat on the sofa to start reviewing his notes.

Five minutes later, he picked up his phone and habitually browsed through it.

"Huh? President Li and Xue Zhebiao invested in Cold Noodles Girl??"

Seeing this message from He Desheng, Pei Qian instantly became vigilant, his brow furrowing.

A bright red word seemed to appear on his head: Danger!

Pei Qian immediately stood up and walked around the living room twice.

President Li regarded Pei Qian as a weather vane for investment, and Pei Qian also regarded President Li as a red line for investment.

Pei Qian had already carefully recalled his painful experiences of making money from investments, and found that President Li had played a crucial role in most of his profits.

Many projects that had been losing money just fine suddenly took a turn for the worse and started making money as soon as President Li and other investors entered the scene!

And now that President Li had invested in Cold Noodles Girl, it was a clear signal.

Something was going to happen!

Pei Qian's original plan was to invest 2 million, 2 million in Meng Chang, symbolically buying a little bit of shares, mainly for the purpose of silently burning money and making a quiet loss.

But now that President Li had followed up with an investment, it was a very dangerous signal, indicating that the Cold Noodles Girl project was likely to make a lot of money!

Thinking of this, Pei Qian felt like he was sitting on pins and needles, feeling that his previous plan to lose money was likely to be completely overturned.

If he continued to give 2 million, 2 million according to the original plan, what if the valuation of Cold Noodles Girl skyrocketed again, wouldn't he make another fortune?

Absolutely not!

Pei Qian was now a bit scared of President Li when it came to investments, and almost had President Li PTSD. He immediately decided to overturn all his previous plans to lose money and run away!

After a moment of consideration, Pei Qian immediately called He Desheng.

"Sell all the shares you bought for 2 million before, immediately! Sell them to anyone, it doesn't matter if the price is high or low, just sell them!"

The person on the other end of the phone was obviously stunned.

He was a little puzzled, what was President Pei up to now?

2 million was such a small amount of money, it didn't buy many shares, was there a need to sell them so urgently? There was no hope of making money from this short-term back-and-forth, it would be good enough if you didn't lose money.

This operation was really incomprehensible, very magical.

But hearing President Pei's tone so firm, He Desheng suddenly felt that President Pei must have some higher-level insights.

He Desheng didn't dare to ask any more questions and agreed immediately.

After hanging up the phone, He Desheng began to carefully analyze President Pei's intention.

"I just sent President Pei the news that President Li invested in Cold Noodles Girl not long ago, and President Pei asked me to sell the shares again, even if it was at a low price, as long as it was fast."

"Could it be that... this was agreed upon by President Pei and President Li? Or is it a kind of tacit understanding between top investors? Could it be that the 2 million small money that President Pei spent before, buying that tiny bit of shares, has some special meaning?"

The more He Desheng thought about it, the more he felt that this matter seemed not simple.

President Li and President Pei seemed to be cooperating, just like they had discussed it in advance.

But He Desheng only vaguely felt that there might be a scheme in this, but he couldn't say what the scheme was.

After considering it again and again without success, He Desheng still followed President Pei's instructions honestly and dialed Meng Chang's number.

...

"Sell again?"

"No, you want to sell such a small amount of shares?"

On the other end of the phone, Meng Chang, who received the call, was also completely dumbfounded.

Like He Desheng, he was shocked and completely unable to understand what President Pei was doing.

It was already outrageous that President Pei only invested 2 million, after all, President Pei would directly spend millions to send the FV club abroad to throw money away. Compared to that, the 2 million that President Pei gave to Cold Noodles Girl was no different from scattering rice to feed pigeons.

Affection and value were clear at a glance.

As a result, President Pei still wanted to sell such a small amount of shares?

President Pei was just making trouble for nothing, he wasn't making any money!

Wasn't this messing with people's minds?

If this matter could be done secretly, then it would be fine. President Pei had already sold all his previous shares, and this time he was only selling the small amount of shares bought with 2 million, and anyone could be easily fooled into taking it.

But the key was that it couldn't be done secretly.

As long as it involved the transfer of company shares, other shareholders had to be notified in accordance with the company's articles of association, and changes had to be registered.

President Li had now invested in Cold Noodles Girl and was also a shareholder of Cold Noodles Girl.

If President Pei sold, President Li would definitely know, and all the other company shareholders would also know, and then all the investors who were watching would also get the news.

Wouldn't that be terrible?

It hadn't even been two days since President Li invested in Cold Noodles Girl, and Meng Chang hadn't even had time to warm up the money he received when this sudden move came, who could stand it!

After receiving this money, Meng Chang had originally planned to roll up his sleeves and go all out.

As long as the investors regained confidence in Cold Noodles Girl and the game of pushing up the valuation could continue, then the entire script could continue to develop in the direction Meng Chang had envisioned.

Although there would be some minor twists and turns, the impact would not be great.

But President Pei's sudden operation was like pouring a bucket of cold water on Meng Chang, directly extinguishing the small flame that had just been ignited in his heart!

The shares weren't many, but it didn't sound good!

President Pei had sold all of his shares in Cold Noodles Girl twice in less than half a month...

If this got out, what would others think of Cold Noodles Girl as a company?

Meng Chang had exhausted all his efforts to suppress the matter of President Pei selling all of his shares before, but if he did it again, then even the gods wouldn't be able to save it!

Meng Chang quickly realized the seriousness of the matter and hurriedly said, "President He, why bother?"

"Tengda isn't short of this little bit of money, right?"

"Why don't you talk to President Pei and see if he can be lenient and give me another month, no, half a month, even a week, would it be okay to sell it after a week?"

Meng Chang was thinking of concealing this matter first, delaying it for a while, and then using this time to quickly find someone to take over, trying to cook the rice and make it ripe so that the negative impact of President Pei selling his shares for the second time could be minimized.

He Desheng on the other end of the phone sighed, "I'm sorry, you know President Pei's personality, there's no room for negotiation."

Meng Chang's hand holding the phone trembled slightly.

The future of Cold Noodles Girl was bright and promising ten minutes ago, but now it suddenly became dim...

...

...

December 28th, Wednesday.

10 PM local time in Los Angeles.

On the second floor of the internet cafe, Min Jingchao organized and saved the data tables, copied them all to his laptop, and then shredded the source files on the internet cafe's computer.

Although this seemed a bit like overkill, it was better to be careful in everything. The content of the team's training must never be leaked, it was equivalent to military secrets during wartime.

After completing everything, Min Jingchao stretched. His work could be considered a phased completion.

"Brother Bao, thank you for your hard work these past two days." Min Jingchao said to Bao Xu, who was sitting next to him.

Bao Xu shook his head, "No, no, not at all. If every trip in the future is like this one, I think I can accept it..."

Originally, when Bao Xu heard that he was going to Los Angeles, he felt like it was another bolt from the blue, but after arriving, he found that it was much more comfortable than the previous trips abroad!

Every day, he still went from point A to point B, staying in a five-star hotel at night, and going to a nearby internet cafe during the day. Besides doing data analysis and studying tactics, he could also play games.

Although it was abroad, he didn't need to check in at various scenic spots, which was very comfortable!

If every trip abroad could be like this, going to a new city and just staying in a hotel and hanging out in an internet cafe, then it wasn't unacceptable.

So this time, Bao Xu also put in a lot of effort in the data analysis process and helped Min Jingchao a lot.

The team members were still playing practice matches, continuing to improve their tactical routines.

Tomorrow is Thursday, which is also the official start date of the IOI World Championship group stage. The schedule for this IOI World Championship is different from the GOG Global Invitational Tournament.

In order to ensure that teams from weaker regions can also enter the top eight, Krettian decided to adopt the "top seed guaranteed" rule.

There are a total of 16 teams this time, of which 4 top seeds are directly seeded into the top eight, and the other 12 teams are divided into four groups. The 3 teams in each group play a double round-robin Bo1, and only the top team in each group can advance.

The top eight will then be redrawn, and there is no same-region avoidance mechanism. Whoever they draw, they play against.

The FV club is the top seed in China and will start playing from the top eight. The group stage has nothing to do with them, and the opponents in the top eight have not yet been determined.

But this doesn't mean that they can be careless.

The team members still have to maintain high-intensity training to ensure their condition, and the data analysis team must seize all the time to study the tactics of each team in the group stage to ensure that their understanding of the version is correct.

If they can't make sufficient preparations in the group stage, then when the top eight starts, they are likely to be eliminated in the first round.

In short, the real hard battle is about to begin.

...

At the same time, on the first floor of the internet cafe.

The other two clubs had also finished their training for the day, packed up their belongings, and were walking back.

These days, the training schedules of these two clubs were the same. They basically trained until about 12 o'clock in the evening every day before leaving.

The daily training arrangements mainly consisted of playing practice matches, reviewing practice matches, holding meetings to discuss tactics, playing high-end rank games to maintain their feel, and so on.

Because the group stage was about to officially begin tomorrow, they had to go back a little earlier today to get as much rest as possible.

At the entrance of the internet cafe, everyone saw the FV club's minibus as usual, and they all pretended not to see it very tacitly.

In the beginning, the leaders of the two clubs also specially studied the FV club's training time and deliberately staggered it to avoid those relatively awkward scenes.

But later they found that there was no need to deliberately avoid it, the FV club's training time was almost always longer than theirs every day!

These two clubs usually woke up around 10 o'clock in the morning, had lunch at the hotel, and then came to the internet cafe to train, but every time they came, they could see the minibus already parked at the entrance of the internet cafe.

And these two clubs basically left around 12 o'clock in the evening, and the minibus was still there when they left.

As a result, the leaders and members of the two clubs were very confused.

What exactly was the FV club training for, going out early and returning late every day?

The reason why these two clubs woke up late was not because they were lazy, but because they were arranged according to the training schedule in China. There were no high-score players to queue up in the morning, and there were no practice matches to play, so there was no point in getting up early.

Moreover, people's energy is limited, and excessive training may affect their condition, and the efficiency of training may not necessarily be high.

On the other hand, the FV club trained from morning to dawn, which was in stark contrast to them.

The two leaders had a strong curiosity, and several times they pretended to pass by unintentionally, wanting to sneak a peek at the second floor to see the FV club's training situation, but they were undoubtedly watched by four responsible bodyguards, and they did not hear any useful information.

This made the two clubs even more curious.

One team member said very confusedly, "The FV club probably only sleeps six or seven hours a day, and it seems that all the other time is spent training. What exactly are they training for? Can their bodies handle it?"

The other team members obviously had the same doubts.

The FV club was too diligent, making them seem very lazy.

The leader hurriedly said, "Don't worry about it, the key to training is efficiency, not time. There's a saying that many people are using tactical diligence to cover up strategic laziness."

"Don't worry, after inquiring from many sources, I've basically confirmed that the FV club hasn't played practice matches with Fry or any foreign clubs, and it's even questionable whether they've played high-end rank games."

"They don't have super accounts on hand, but it's not ruled out that they bought accounts."

"These people, at most, are playing practice matches with SUG and their own second team. No matter how much they play, it's just two bad chess players playing chess, the more they play, the worse they get. There won't be much improvement."

"Okay, everyone, stop staring at the FV club, the group stage is about to officially start tomorrow, everyone keep in good condition and play out the results of our practice matches."

"Although we still can't beat strong teams like Fry, we've made some progress compared to the beginning. Our group is okay this time, everyone play steadily according to the rhythm and routines of the practice matches, and strive to advance to the top eight in the group."

On the way back to the hotel, the leader cheered and encouraged everyone, for fear that the team members' mentality would be affected.

Since coming to Los Angeles, the people from the FV club seemed to be intentionally or unintentionally messing with the mentality of the team members of these two clubs.

Taking business class, staying in luxury five-star hotels, booking the second floor of the internet cafe, hiring cars and bodyguards to pick them up and drop them off, and what was even more excessive was that the three photographers were working hard, taking pictures and editing videos every day. The FV club's official Weibo never stopped, posting at least three or four times a day.

Although many people were spraying them, the official Weibo was completely unmoved, updating as it should be updated, at most blacklisting those with particularly nasty mouths.

Later, the trolls were too tired to spray, and they were all gathering strength, waiting for the FV club to lose before firing on all cylinders.

After training these days, watching the FV club's team members eating and drinking well, the other two clubs felt a little sour.

Today was the same. It was already early in the morning, and the small wind on the street was a bit cool. Everyone unconsciously quickened their pace.

One team member suddenly thought of something and said, "Hey, will the FV club also have to move to our hotel to stay today?"

The official competition starts tomorrow, and Finger Company will provide food and accommodation for all participating clubs.

The previous food and accommodation expenses for these two clubs were covered by Longyu Group. They had to change to the rooms provided by Finger Company in the future, so everyone changed rooms at noon today.

Moreover, the other clubs had also arrived one after another in the past two days and checked into the Courtyard Hotel.

In theory, the FV club's team members should have moved over too, right?

Finger Company was providing food and accommodation, if they didn't stay, wouldn't all the money be wasted?

The other team members obviously hadn't thought about this issue much before. They looked at each other, with a hint of expectation in their eyes.

Yes, there was no reason not to come!

Before, Finger Company didn't provide food and accommodation, so it was okay to pay for a luxury hotel out of their own pockets; now that Finger Company was providing food and accommodation, were they still going to continue paying out of their own pockets?

Wouldn't that be too extravagant?

If everyone stayed at the Courtyard Hotel together, then everyone's food and accommodation conditions would be the same. Although the FV club still had a chartered car and bodyguards, at least the impact on the mentality of the other two clubs would be slightly reduced.

However, before everyone could finish their sweet dreams, they saw the black minibus drive by and still stop steadily at the entrance of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel across the street.

The FV club's team members got out of the car one after another and entered the hotel lobby, not even looking at the Courtyard Hotel.

Obviously, the FV club would also be staying here during the competition and would not be moving to the Courtyard Hotel.

Expectations were dashed.

The team members of the two clubs silently entered the lobby of the Courtyard Hotel, and the mentality that had finally stabilized fluctuated again...

...

...

December 29th, Thursday, 9 AM.

11 AM local time in Los Angeles, which is 3 AM in China, the IOI Global Finals are about to officially begin.

In the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, the FV club's team members were doing basic fitness training in the hotel's gym.

After arriving in Los Angeles, the team members still maintained good fitness habits, and it was precisely because of their regular schedules and good physical condition that they were able to maintain a better state and focus, and the daily training time was longer and more efficient.

The accompanying team doctor was carefully monitoring the team members' condition, preventing them from overtraining.

After all, the purpose of fitness now was not to train to exhaustion and increase muscle mass, but merely to keep the body in good condition, improve concentration during the game, and exercise the muscles and bones. If they were too tired, it would affect the training effect.

The team doctor had to ensure that the team members' physical condition was maintained at its best.

In the hotel's rest area, the coach and data analysis team were studying the matches that were about to begin today.

The schedule for this competition was relatively strange because the top seeds from each region had to be guaranteed to enter the top eight.

The group stage had a total of 12 teams and four groups, playing a double round-robin Bo1, and the first place in each group would advance.

It would last for a total of four days, from Thursday to Sunday. Six matches would be played each day, and the group stage would be completed on Sunday, and the draw for the top eight would be held.

As for why the first match was played at 11 AM, everyone couldn't figure it out.

According to GPL's habits, it was usually played during prime time in the afternoon and evening, but Finger Company probably took into account that there were too many spectators on site, and they were afraid that the match would be paused due to bugs or delayed for other reasons, making it inconvenient for the spectators to leave, so the time was moved up a bit.

The venue for this competition was a famous local large stadium that could accommodate nearly 20,000 people and was very famous worldwide.

This time, Finger Company was obviously determined to use this Global Finals to get back at Tengda, so they were sparing no expense.

The prize pool for this IOI Global Finals was 3 million dollars. At the same time, Finger Company also released a special skin, and 25% of the skin sales revenue would also be included in the total prize pool.

In terms of prize pool distribution, the champion gets 50% exclusively, the runner-up 15%, the third and fourth place 7.5% each, the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth place 2.5% each, and the remaining eight teams that did not advance from the group stage share the remaining 10% equally.

In other words, the prize pool was slightly higher than the GOG Global Invitational Tournament, and the venue completely surpassed it.

After all, Finger Company had been constantly messed with by Tengda, and they had wanted to hold the Global Finals for a long time, but they had been repeatedly interrupted by Tengda and had not been able to do so.

This time, they had finally gathered their strength to hold the World Finals, and they had to surpass GOG in terms of scale, even if they had to sell everything, because it was a matter of face.

Wu Yue looked at the time and saw that it was almost time, so he asked Manager Lu to call the team members back to their rooms to wash up, then come down to have breakfast and prepare to leave for the venue to participate in the opening ceremony.

The FV club's match wouldn't be until next week, but the team members would selectively go to the venue to watch a few key battles this week to see the playing styles and levels of other teams and prepare in advance.