Chapter 1 The Ming Mansion Family Banquet

That evening, in a private room at the Ming Mansion.

"Brother Ai! Come, please, have a seat." Pei Qian warmly welcomed Eric to sit down.

Returning to Jingzhou once more, Eric felt quite a few emotions.

He had been to Jingzhou several times already, and it seemed that each time he came, he could sense some changes happening in the city, changes that were clearly inseparable from the existence of Tengda.

Moreover, it seemed that each time, President Pei's attitude towards him became more enthusiastic.

From not seeing him at all at the beginning, to later chance encounters, and now President Pei was taking the initiative to invite him to dinner.

Eric wondered if this meant that President Pei recognized his abilities? Did he consider him a respectable opponent?

Although thinking this way seemed a bit presumptuous, he had to admit that this change in President Pei's attitude was clearly present.

Pei Qian said with some regret, "It's a pity that you came a bit suddenly and didn't make it for the weekend."

"If it were the weekend, I would have reserved a spot at the nameless restaurant. Or, if you had booked your trip two or three days in advance, I could have told the person in charge there in advance and exchanged times with a customer."

"The timing wasn't right, so we can only make do with this place."

"When you come back from Europe, tell me in advance, and I'll definitely arrange for you to have a good meal at the nameless restaurant!"

The nameless restaurant still required waiting in line. Pei Qian only reserved five days for himself each month, with the 20th being a private booking and the largest private room being reserved every weekend.

If he really needed it on a weekday, he could also communicate with the customer who had booked that day, move them to the weekend, and compensate them with some dishes. Basically, the customers would happily agree.

But today was Thursday, and Eric had come rather hastily, so there was no time to arrange it, and they could only eat here at President Li's place.

Although the money spent wasn't small, the taste was ultimately a bit lacking.

Eric's emotions were complex.

He didn't know why, but he always felt that President Pei seemed particularly enthusiastic towards him, and this enthusiasm was from the heart, not at all feigned.

This made him feel quite strange.

Logically speaking, shouldn't they be competitors?

Was President Pei's heart too broad, or was President Pei overly confident?

Even if he regarded himself as a respectable opponent, this attitude was a bit too enthusiastic.

Soon, dishes were brought up one after another, and Pei Qian didn't stand on ceremony. He ate while chatting with Eric.

"Brother Ai, to be honest, this event was an accident."

"I didn't expect it to involve you."

Pei Qian spoke sincerely, because this event truly was an accident.

Perhaps if Eric hadn't reminded him to take a closer look at the event details, he wouldn't have suggested changing "new accounts" to "all accounts," and then this event might not have caused so much harm.

He had originally sincerely wanted to give IOI a transfusion, but it had all gone wrong.

Of course, if Pei Qian hadn't brought it up, this event would probably have caused some new problems for IOI anyway, but at most the event would have been ineffective. It shouldn't have turned into the situation it was now.

So, although Pei Qian didn't think this was his fault, he still sympathized with Eric and felt that he shouldn't have been implicated.

The main thing was, if IOI's national server really declined after Eric left, what would he do? Pei Qian would be very lonely.

Eric nodded. "I understand what you mean."

"Maybe you weren't targeting me, but the company's higher-ups, the actual controllers of IOI. But there's nothing to be done about it. In this kind of struggle, pawns are likely to be sacrificed."

"President Pei, as a chess player, of course you wouldn't particularly care about these things."

Pei Qian: "..."

Well, there was no way to communicate. Eric clearly misunderstood the meaning of "collateral damage."

Pei Qian thought for a moment and felt that it wasn't good to continue explaining, so he changed the subject: "Then, after you go back this time, how long will it be before you can come back?"

After a moment of silence, Eric said, "I probably won't be coming back."

"My punishment could be light or heavy, but I will definitely not be in charge of the IOI game again, and I probably won't be involved in any business with Finger Corporation. The most likely possibility is a demotion, returning to the media department."

Pei Qian said with great indignation, "That's too much!"

"How can Dayak Group treat a veteran and meritorious official like this? The leader's incompetence requires subordinates to take the blame. They call themselves a multinational corporation, but they have no vision at all!"

In fact, Pei Qian's true thoughts were that Eric's abilities weren't that great either.

Although he barely posed a bit of a threat to Tengda, this threat was, in Pei Qian's view, utterly insignificant.

But then again, he felt that these higher-ups at Dayak Group were even more useless than Eric.

Among the higher-ups at Dayak Group, the higher-ups at Finger Corporation, the higher-ups at Long Yu Corporation, Eric, and Zhao Xuming, everyone else was utterly useless. Only Eric was still somewhat useful.

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. This made Eric seem a bit outstanding.

And such a person was actually being forced to take the blame. This was truly outrageous.

What was even more infuriating was that with Eric gone, who else would continue to burn money with him?

The attitude of the Dayak Group's higher-ups was very clear: you guys at GOG can do whatever you want, but we're going to use IOI to make money.

With a group of people like this, if they assigned a new person in charge, they would probably be the type who couldn't squeeze out a fart with eight poles. Wanting to burn money together was a pipe dream.

On the one hand, Pei Qian was speaking out against the injustice for Eric, and on the other hand, he was feeling sorry for himself.

A living God of Wealth was leaving!

Eric silently took a sip of tea, a little puzzled as to why President Pei would appear so indignant.

If he didn't know better, he would have thought that President Pei himself had suffered some unfair treatment.

"After all, there are still differences between companies."

Eric didn't want to be too explicit. He still had professional ethics. Even if he was dissatisfied with his own company, he certainly couldn't complain about it in front of a competitor.

He could only use this ambiguous way to express his envy for the employees of Tengda.

The two of them ate their dishes in silence, both a little speechless for a time.

When Eric was first fired, he didn't forget to probe for information when he met President Pei, preparing for his future comeback and resurgence.

But now, he had no such thoughts at all, because he knew that it was completely impossible for him to make a comeback.

After considering it, Pei Qian said, "Brother Ai, why don't you come to work at Tengda?"

"How much money do you get at Dayak Group? I'll offer you 30% more!"

"To be honest, I've long wanted to replace the person in charge of GOG's operations department!"

Pei Qian was speaking from the bottom of his heart. He had indeed long wanted to replace Min Jingchao.

Min Jingchao was originally in charge of the GOG project. At the beginning, he did the numbers, was responsible for game balance, and designed heroes. Later, he also cooperated with Zhang Yuan's e-sports division to arrange some competitions or operational activities.

Logically speaking, GOG was originally just a game that was decided to be made to offset the risks with IOI and lose some money casually. In the end, it actually became such a large scale and made so much money. Min Jingchao was definitely to blame.

But the problem was, there was always someone more dazzling than him.

Tengda's game department had been developing new games, and every game was a hit. Even when it came to the selection of outstanding employees, all the firepower was absorbed by Hu Xianbin and Bao Xu.

Min Jingchao had been in charge of GOG for so long, and he was still safe and sound. This was very outrageous!

The next selection of outstanding employees was still early, and it was not certain which outstanding employee would be eliminated.

Therefore, Pei Qian couldn't wait any longer. He had to arrange for both Hu Xianbin and Min Jingchao to leave, so that he could feel at ease!

As long as these two were there, Tengda's game department would be as solid as a rock, and President Pei would lose his appetite.

Therefore, Min Jingchao had to go.

After he left, a newcomer would be promoted from the game department to be responsible for GOG's daily updates and balance, and then the research and development and operations would be separated as a matter of course.

Previously, Min Jingchao was in charge of both research and development and operations, so he could arrange version updates according to the content of the operational activities, and many operational activities were met with strong reactions and were very popular.

After the separation, this situation should be greatly improved.

Moreover, Pei Qian felt that although Eric's abilities were considered passable in the Dayak Group, his harmfulness was not comparable to that of Tengda's old employees.

With Eric's dismal record in charge of the IOI national server, he might be able to work wonders if he switched to GOG and let himself earn less money.

If he could preserve the last spark of IOI, that would be even better.

Moreover, Eric was also a high-level executive in the Dayak Group, and his salary was definitely not low. It was reasonable to give people some compensation for mental damage for working in a foreign country for many years, and the system would not object to spending a little more money to poach people.

So, after thinking about it, Pei Qian felt that poaching people seemed feasible!