Chapter 137 February 13th, Monday

Jingzhou Railway Station.

Stepping onto the soil of Jingzhou once more, Bao Xu almost burst into tears of emotion.

I, Bao Xu, have finally returned!

The long, paid vacation has finally come to an end!

Seeing the familiar city scenery outside, Bao Xu felt as if he had been transported to another world.

The group from FV Club flew directly from the US to Shanghai. The FV Club members stayed in Shanghai, while Ye Zhizhou, Min Jingchao, Bao Xu, and Coach Zhou took the high-speed train back to Jingzhou.

Because they were still in business class on the plane, they rested well. After getting off the plane and resting for a while, taking the high-speed train back to Jingzhou didn't feel tiring.

Ye Zhizhou and Min Jingchao were both eager to get started, ready to make a big splash.

While they were in the US, they had been following the latest developments of Finger Company and knew that IOI's national server was about to start a price war with GOG.

Their work was related to GOG, and after this period of vacation, they had adjusted to their best condition. They were just waiting for President Pei's order to throw themselves into their work with 120% enthusiasm.

Bao Xu had only one thought in his mind, which was to immediately return to his workstation, grab a cup of coffee, play games to his heart's content, and never go out again!

For a homebody, even the best scenery can't compare to the comfort of being at home. Bao Xu hadn't experienced this comfort in a long time.

The seven-seater business car responsible for picking them up stopped in the underground garage of Shenhua Haojing. Bao Xu followed Ye Zhizhou, Min Jingchao, and others into the elevator, and suddenly realized that something seemed wrong.

Why did Ye Zhizhou come along?

Ye Zhizhou works for Shang Yang Games and doesn't work here in Shenhua Haojing?

Bao Xu asked Ye Zhizhou with some confusion, "Are you here to… report on work?"

Ye Zhizhou shook his head, "No."

Bao Xu was bewildered. If you're not here to report on work, what are you doing here?

Just visiting?

That doesn't make sense.

Ye Zhizhou smiled. "Brother Bao, today is the Excellent Employee selection. I'm the department head, of course I have to come!"

A bolt of lightning flashed, and Bao Xu froze, his expression turning blank.

Excellent Employee selection!

That's right, it's already February!

Tengda's Excellent Employee selection is held twice a year, in February and August respectively. The specific dates are not fixed, depending on President Pei's work arrangements, but it will definitely be completed within the month.

It's February now, so it's indeed time for the Excellent Employee selection!

Bao Xu had been traveling since before the Spring Festival, and he was almost dizzy from traveling. He had long forgotten about the Excellent Employee selection.

Moreover, the Excellent Employee selection only requires the heads of each department to be present, so only leaders like Ye Zhizhou and Min Jingchao were notified.

Although Bao Xu was senior, he was just an ordinary employee, so he didn't receive any notification at all.

His face instantly turned pale, his vision went dark, and he grabbed the handrail in the elevator with both hands.

An ominous premonition surged in his heart. This is bad!

Judging by his work performance in the past six months, Bao Xu had no reason to be associated with the Best Employee selection.

"Mission and Choice" was still under development, and the competition between GOG and IOI had come to an end. The game department didn't have any particularly outstanding performance, and Bao Xu tried to reduce his presence, becoming almost transparent in the game department. The possibility of him being on the list was infinitely close to zero.

But Bao Xu was self-aware and had already made the worst preparations.

He thought the same way during the last Best Employee selection, but he never expected Huang Sibo to get second place for Best Employee and specifically ask him to accompany him!

Bao Xu reluctantly took Huang Sibo on a trip to Africa, including the East African Rift Valley and the Sahara Desert, just to have a deterrent effect, so that people who win second place for Excellent Employee in the future would retreat in the face of difficulties and not bring him along again.

But Bao Xu had no idea whether his method would work.

After all, multiple travel experiences told Bao Xu that it was useless to not believe in fate. As long as there is a travel project, it will definitely have inextricable connections with him.

Therefore, Bao Xu, who had gradually accepted his fate and accepted reality, felt genuinely collapsed at this time.

…

At the same time, the preliminary work for the Best Employee selection had also been prepared.

The heads of each department gathered together, and the employees of the departments were also ready to vote on the TPDB App.

Seeing Min Jingchao, Ye Zhizhou, Bao Xu and others arrive, everyone welcomed them.

"You're back from vacation? You've worked hard!"

"It feels like you've gotten a little darker and thinner. Was the week's itinerary pretty tight?"

"Come, sit down and rest, voting will start soon."

Bao Xu silently found a corner to hide in, sighed softly, and then opened his suitcase and started to organize.

—After returning from the US, he went back to the company before he had time to go home, so he was still carrying his suitcase.

In the past, Bao Xu felt that there was no reason for him to be selected, so he was caught off guard when the results came out.

This time, he thought about it. If he thought in reverse, would he be spared if he took the initiative to organize his luggage and pretend to be doing something?

Seeing that all the heads of the departments had arrived, the voting officially began!

A bar graph appeared on the big screen, and everyone took out their phones, opened the TPDB section of the Tengda Life App, found the Best Employee selection channel through the employee entrance, and cast their precious votes.

This time Bao Xu didn't even look. He prepared to be an ostrich and bury his head in the sand, fiddling with his luggage to find some psychological comfort for himself.

In the end, the bar graph jumped almost imperceptibly a few times, a few numbers changed slightly, and finally settled down.

Best Employee: Chang You.

Second Place for Best Employee: Liang Qingfan.

Third Place for Best Employee: Zhang Yuan.

Seeing this list, everyone started applauding enthusiastically!

Compared with the previous Best Employee selections, this time the lineup seemed to be a bit weaker.

The achievements made by these people were not as outstanding as those of the previous Best Employees.

The main problem was the timing. The big project "Mission and Choice" had not been completed yet. The game hadn't been released, and the movie hadn't been released, so there wasn't a super popular project. The votes of many departments were relatively close.

The e-sports division that Zhang Yuan was in charge of was actually very eye-catching in the previous six months. The GPL League was very successful, a large amount of capital entered to form clubs, and it also successfully attracted a large amount of investment and sponsorship.

Moreover, FV Club won the championship in the IOI Global Finals, which also gave the Tengda Group a very high profile. The coaching team played a very important role, which was also related to the e-sports division.

But the problem is that, in the opinion of others, most of the credit here should be attributed to President Pei, not Zhang Yuan.

Major capitals formed clubs and sponsored competitions mainly because of President Pei's personal charm, and FV Club's championship was also due to President Pei's comprehensive layout and foresight.

Zhang Yuan's contribution only accounted for a small part, so he only got third place in the end.

Liang Qingfan's Sloth Apartment did a good job, established the "Tengda Standard" in terms of furniture, accumulated a good reputation, and also had certain profits in custom furniture, selling design plans, and cooperating with real estate developers to make model rooms.

But after all, Sloth Apartment still doesn't make enough money, so he can only get second place.

In contrast, although Otto Technologies did not release a new mobile phone in the past six months, the new operating system was very successful and received good reviews. The artificial intelligence AEEIS and the fully automatic smart heckling machine were also well received. Overall, the results were the most outstanding.

Of course, the votes of these three people were actually not very different. It can be said that they were on par with each other.

In fact, there were some other departments that achieved results, but they were not within the scope of this selection for some special reasons. For example, the independent game incubation base in charge of Qiu Hong is currently in a confidential state; and some department heads have already won the Best Employee award, so they can no longer win it and can only take second place.

The expressions on the faces of the three people who appeared on the big screen were different.

Zhang Yuan was stunned for a moment, then patted his chest, feeling very fortunate.

What a close call, I almost had to go traveling!

Zhang Yuan wasn't very interested in traveling. His personality was actually relatively reclusive, although he was far from Bao Xu's level, but Tengda had so many vacations and he wasn't short of money. If he wanted to travel, he could do it at any time, so he naturally wasn't very enthusiastic.

Liang Qingfan, on the other hand, showed a more expectant expression.

He had been with Tengda for less than a year, and he hadn't had a similar "company-paid travel" opportunity before, so he had some expectations.

Chang You had a dazed expression, just like Zhang Yuan when he won the Best Employee award.

He didn't want to change departments at all!

Winning the Best Employee award meant that he would receive a dream fund, but it also meant that he had to leave his original department, start a new department, and start all over again.

Zhang Yuan was originally the head of Moyu Internet Cafe, and he also managed ROF assembly. He was doing very well and was very satisfied with his current state. As a result, because he won the Best Employee award, President Pei forcibly kicked him out of Moyu Internet Cafe and forced him to run the DGE e-sports club.

Chang You was in a similar situation. His hobby was making mobile phones. The design plan for the new model had already been released, and all the employees of Otto Technologies were preparing seriously. As a result, Chang You, as the person in charge, was going to leave at this critical moment?

This was terrible!

Chang You was a million times unwilling. He just wanted to stay in Otto Technologies.

Pei Qian came to Chang You with the trophy, "Congratulations, President Chang! You don't need to make a speech. Let's think about how to use this dream fund!"

Chang You took the trophy from President Pei with a bitter face, his face full of "happiness."

A speech? A speech my ass!