Chapter 1 This Manager Li Always Comes Up With New Tricks!

This Manager Li, every so often, he'll suddenly pull some new trick on me!

When he caused trouble for me before, at least he would proactively tell me.

Now he's directly working with the double agents under me to get things done?

Is there no justice?

Is there no law?

Is anyone in charge here?

Pei Qian was furious because he didn't want any of this income at all!

If the System didn't forbid it, he would have loved to set the price of every Thriller Paradise ticket to free. Now, inexplicably being gifted a mall and fifty percent of all the profits from it is no different from a bolt out of the blue!

Although selling merchandise can indeed make money, Pei Qian never planned to sell any!

Now, great, he's been forced into it.

Anyone can rent those spots in the old industrial district. Manager Li and the others could have opened their own stores in good locations. Even though they wouldn't be able to sell anything related to the Thriller Paradise copyright, they could still sell plenty of other products. As long as they had foot traffic, they could still make money.

But now, everyone's opening stores together and selling together. In Manager Li's view, even though the investors are taking a hit on the profit allocation ratio of the merchandise, as long as they can make the pie bigger, everyone wins in the end.

But Pei Qian doesn't think that way. Isn't this just being inexplicably stuffed with a huge chunk of profit?

Annoying.

Fortunately, Pei Qian was a veteran and quickly calmed down.

"Let's think about it from another angle. From the very beginning, Thriller Paradise was a project aimed at losing money. If Thriller Paradise doesn't make money, then the mall in the park naturally won't make money either, so there's nothing to worry about."

"Conversely, if the mall makes money, it means that Thriller Paradise itself is already popular and has already made more money from ticket sales..."

"This is just the difference between fifty steps and a hundred steps. There doesn't seem to be anything to be worried about."

Pei Qian tried to comfort himself, but after trying for a long time, it didn't have any effect.

The more he thought about it, the more he felt like he was losing out if he held back for a moment. The more he retreated, the angrier he got!

He couldn't let Manager Li get away with this backstabbing!

Pei Qian tried to remain calm and said to the loss-maker in charge of Thriller Paradise, "Tell me the details of the collaboration plan."

The loss-maker said, "Manager Li and the other investors have already rented an old factory building in a good location. The suggestion is that they pay the rent and renovation costs, and we come up with the renovation plan."

Hearing this, Pei Qian seemed to have found a breakthrough.

"Do you have the renderings of the renovation?"

The loss-maker took out his phone. "Yes, Manager Pei, please take a look."

Pei Qian reached out and took the phone to view the renderings.

The standard high-end mall decoration style, with soft lighting, a clean environment, shelves filled with a dazzling array of merchandise, tourists coming and going, choosing products, and enthusiastic sales ladies introducing products to the tourists...

That's right, the rendering even showed a large number of tourists, which gave Pei Qian a stinging feeling, as if he could already see the scene of the mall becoming a hit.

Absolutely not!

Think about it, tourists go to the haunted house and get scared out of their minds, which makes them mentally vulnerable. When they walk into this mall, it's like they've instantly entered paradise. All the previous fear is swept away. Enveloped in a huge sense of security, wouldn't they go on a crazy shopping spree?

Pei Qian thought for a moment and said, "This renovation plan is absolutely unacceptable. It needs to be completely changed! Has construction started yet?"

The loss-maker nodded. "Not yet, Manager Pei. This is just the first draft of the renovation plan. It should be revised a few more times afterward. Construction shouldn't officially start until the end of the month."

Pei Qian looked at the time. There was still a week left. As long as the designer put in a little effort, coming up with a new plan shouldn't be a problem.

"The current renovation plan is too shabby. Follow the decoration standards of foreign luxury goods malls, making it as opulent and magnificent as possible. The more expensive, the better!"

"Of course, in order to ensure the construction period, don't choose materials that are too troublesome. Just go for expensive. Customers will definitely be able to feel our sincerity."

"Also, this kind of mall style is too common. It doesn't have any novelty at all, and it's completely incompatible with the theme of Thriller Paradise."

"Turn the entire mall into a maze, hiding all the stores selling merchandise in the maze so that most customers accidentally come out from the exit without even finding the stores."

"Well, don't make a big announcement about it. I'll talk to Chen Kangtuo about it."

Pei Qian still emphasized that the loss-maker couldn't expose him.

As for why he chose this design scheme... the reason was simple: to make Manager Li and the others bleed as much money as possible while selling as little merchandise as possible!

Renovations already cost a lot of money, but now that it's turned into a maze, with the entire mall full of walls, the cost will definitely skyrocket.

Hmph, let's see you mess with me!

Since you're letting Tengda come up with the plan and you're paying for the renovations, don't blame me for being ruthless!

If I don't make you lose a lot, you'll never stop pestering me in the future, will you?

The main thing is that this group of investors always follows along. Whatever Manager Pei invests in, they follow. Many projects that weren't originally profitable have been made profitable by them. Where can you even go to complain about that?

This time, let Manager Li and the others bleed a lot, lose a big one, and Manager Pei's undefeated myth of investment will be shattered. This group of people will naturally disperse.

At that time, Manager Pei can relax and happily lose money in some deserted corner.

Soon, all the loss-makers finished their reports.

Summarizing the content of today's meeting, Pei Qian couldn't help but feel genuinely gratified.

Great, the loss-maker system is starting to show results!

Without these loss-makers, Pei Qian wouldn't have known the latest developments in Lazy Me takeaway fitness meals, nor would he have known the situation at Thriller Paradise.

With the loss-makers, Manager Pei's control over various projects has obviously increased. All those clues that might lead to profits can't escape Manager Pei's eyes!

Of course, some things that have already happened are difficult to change even if he knows about them.

But no matter what, there has been a lot of progress compared to before!

Pei Qian was very satisfied. "Everyone has done a great job. Please keep up the good work!"

...

...

May 22nd, Sunday night.

Yesterday afternoon, Pei Qian had already written emails to Chen Kangtuo, Guo Licheng, and Rui Yuchen, briefly expressing his opinions on fitness meals and the Thriller Paradise mall, and scheduled them to be sent on Monday morning.

That way, they can receive the new emails in a timely manner after they get to work, without delaying their work.

As for why he waited until Monday to send them...

Because Manager Pei never encourages overtime. What if everyone misunderstands when he sends emails to employees on Saturday?

At that time, everyone might think, wow, Manager Pei is still working on Saturday. How can we be so lazy? Quick, let's work hard!

That would be counterproductive.

Today is Sunday. Pei Qian enjoyed basking in the sun in the living room in the morning, and playing games on the big TV in the afternoon and evening. He felt like his life was perfect.

So far, Pei Qian is still the only real resident in the entire building.

He has already hired a butler and two cleaners, but the three of them are severely underworked.

But Pei Qian doesn't care about that. It's better if no one comes to live here.

Looking at the time, it was already past 10 PM. Pei Qian was thinking, should he adjust his biological clock and go to bed earlier?

Before, in order to change the schedules of the internet-addicted teenagers in the DGE club, Pei Qian researched a lot about the dangers of staying up late. The more he read, the guiltier he felt.

After all, he had to ensure his health in order to better lose money.

Otherwise, if his body collapsed and he was paralyzed in bed, the heads of the various departments would come to visit him in the hospital every day, bringing good news one after another. Today, a certain department made tens of millions in profits, tomorrow, a certain movie will win awards, and the day after tomorrow, a certain game will become popular all over the world...

Then wouldn't Manager Pei foam at the mouth right there in the hospital bed?

So Pei Qian thought about it. In order to better use his wits and courage to fight against these double-dealing subordinates, he must take good care of his body, go to bed early and get up early, and eat healthily.

"Alright, let's wash up and go to bed!"

Pei Qian took a nice bath in the bathtub, brushed his teeth, and went to bed with his phone.

He set his alarm for 8 AM tomorrow, put his phone on the bedside table, touched the control panel on the head of the bed to turn off the bedroom lights, and the glass turned opaque, blocking all the light from outside.

However, just as he was getting a little sleepy, his phone made a "ding" sound, which was a notification sound from the chat software.

Pei Qian: "..."

Who is it! Not sleeping so late at night!

Don't you understand going to bed early and getting up early to take care of your health?

Pei Qian was speechless. He wanted to ignore it, but he couldn't restrain his curiosity.

There was no way, he picked up his phone to check, thinking that if it wasn't anything important, he wouldn't reply.

Ruan Guangjian: "Manager Pei, you should be watching too, right?"

Pei Qian narrowed his eyes, feeling angry.

What do you mean by only saying half a sentence? What am I watching?

He was angry, but he still typed and replied, "Watching what?"

Ruan Guangjian also replied quickly: "The Cannes Film Festival live broadcast."

Pei Qian: ?

The Cannes Film Festival live broadcast? What does that have to do with me?

This late at night, why would I bother to watch those foreigners give awards to some art films that I would never watch in my life?

Pei Qian didn't plan to reply, wanting to just send an emoji to end the topic, and then go to sleep.

What emoji should he send?

"Smile" seemed a little too impolite, and "Grin" seemed a little too unserious...

Then he should reply with "Cool," the all-purpose reply emoji.

However, before Pei Qian sent this emoji, Ruan Guangjian's message came first.

Ruan Guangjian: "Tomorrow is Beautiful is participating in the Cannes Film Festival selection. Director Zhu Xiaoce and Lu Zhiyao have gone to the venue. Maybe they can win an award... Manager Pei, are you really not watching?"

Pei Qian: "[Cool]"

Ruan Guangjian: "[Laughing cry] [Laughing cry] [Laughing cry]"

Ruan Guangjian: "Manager Pei, you're pretending again. Are you such a prankster? You're obviously watching and you seem so confident, but you have to pretend that you don't care."

"Okay, then I won't bother you. Let's wait patiently for the awards ceremony together."

Pei Qian: "?"

It was a slip of the hand, a slip of the hand, understand?

That's not what I meant with this emoji. I just wanted to end the topic!

Wait.

Tomorrow is Beautiful is participating in the Cannes Film Festival???

Pei Qian instantly realized that things didn't seem as simple as he thought.

He quickly searched the Internet for the time and found that the final awards would not be announced until early morning.

Pei Qian: "..."

After a long silence, Pei Qian silently put his phone on the bedside table.

"Absolutely not watching!"

"Anyway, what will be, will be. Whether I watch it or not, the results of the awards won't change. So I might as well not watch it. Anyway, when I wake up tomorrow morning, no news is the best news!"

Pei Qian checked the alarm again, then threw his phone on the head of the bed and covered his head with the blanket.