Evening.
Swan Lake Restaurant, team-building dinner.
For Pei Qian, this had already become a routine method for forced spending, while for all employees, gathering for a celebratory dinner after completing game development had become a tradition.
Now, Mr. Pei’s direct employees had reached nearly two hundred people, so they simply booked the entire Swan Lake Restaurant.
This included new employees from several Slackin’ Internet Cafés, as well as members of Fei Huang Studio who had just returned from Magic City.
Shangyang Games employees were not included for now.
Pei Qian planned to gradually incorporate Shangyang Games starting from the next settlement cycle, so they didn’t join this dinner with the rest of the employees.
However, the necessary expenditures were not overlooked.
Pei Qian had Ye Zhizhou and Wang Xiaobin organize their dinner, paid for by the company, also at this restaurant, just at a different time.
He even felt that this most expensive buffet restaurant in Jingzhou City could no longer meet their needs.
If he could fly to the Imperial Capital to eat something better, Pei Qian certainly wouldn’t be stingy, but the system wouldn’t allow it.
“At this rate of expansion, soon Swan Lake Restaurant won’t be able to accommodate all employees dining together.”
“Need to find a solution.”
“…I do worry about everything.”
While others were eating ravenously, Pei Qian was quietly pondering future dinner arrangements.
Swan Lake Restaurant couldn’t accommodate many diners at once, as it was a high-end establishment catering to Jingzhou City’s elite. With spacious seating and beautiful surroundings, its capacity was limited.
Now Tenda’s direct employees were enough to book the entire place, so for the next dinner, with continued personnel growth, there definitely wouldn’t be enough seats.
“Got it, next time we’ll have separate dinners.”
“I’ll dine with all department heads first, then each department can have its dinner separately.”
“This way we can spend extra money, perfect!”
“It’s just a shame there aren’t any more upscale restaurants in Jingzhou.”
“Wait, why don’t I just open my restaurant that’s even more high-end than Swan Lake?”
Pei Qian naturally thought of a good idea.
Previously, with Slackin’ Internet Café and Slackin’ Takeout, he had already dipped into the food industry, as a sort of trial run, and so far it had been exactly what Pei Qian expected.
On one hand, it provided excellent work meals for employees; on the other hand, it continued to generate losses, making tremendous contributions to Pei Qian’s money-losing enterprise!
This was a great, successful experience!
However, the only problem was that Slackin’ Takeout wasn’t high-end enough.
Slackin’ Takeout’s starting point was to provide healthy home-style meals for employees. Although it was more expensive than ordinary restaurants, it was far from meeting Pei Qian’s specifications for forced spending.
After all, they used common ingredients, and the system limited food prices, preventing unlimited markup.
No matter how delicious a tomato and egg dish might be, it would be difficult to sell at an exorbitant price unless the chef had supernatural skills.
Pei Qian didn’t have such a chef at present.
Creating a high-end restaurant would solve this problem nicely.
He could open a small restaurant in an out-of-the-way location, stock it with all kinds of expensive ingredients, and set prices as high as possible.
Although employees would essentially be eating at a discount, as long as the ingredients were expensive, it wouldn’t be a problem.
They could eat there before each settlement, while maintaining it year-round to let it lose money freely. Quite nice.
Thinking about this, Pei Qian had it figured out.
In the next cycle, with several games still making money, Pei Qian wouldn’t need to worry about where to spend money. Investing in a high-end restaurant might cost more than three Slackin’ Internet Cafés combined.
Of course, such a high-end restaurant would certainly attract some wealthy customers, so it couldn’t be completely without patrons.
But considering that Jingzhou was only a second-tier city without too many wealthy people, it should still generate losses, with little chance of profitability.
As Pei Qian contemplated this, he glanced at Lin Wan, who was sitting two tables away.
Lin Wan thought Pei Qian hadn’t figured out her true identity, but in fact, Pei Qian was well aware and had already quietly made arrangements for her.
Of course, Pei Qian wouldn’t alarm her now. He was just waiting for the next settlement cycle to transfer Lin Wan to Shangyang Games, quickly ruin a few games, and consider it mission accomplished.
Meanwhile, Lin Wan was tapping on her phone, replying to messages.
On her screen was a message from Chen Sha.
“Great beauty, Lin, young miss, I’m begging you, please help me get a Barrett Destruction from the inside! Aren’t you in charge of this area? Surely there must be internal quotas?”
“Really can’t help with this, my hands are tied. Why not try paying extra to scalpers?” Lin Wan quickly replied. “Don’t just ask me, even our team’s most trusted and outstanding employee, Bao Xu, who has Pei’s full confidence, had to buy his Barrett Destruction from scalpers.”
Chen Sha: “…”
Since Chen Sha had been lured into Sea Fortress by Lin Wan, he had become a hardcore player of this game.
At first, Chen Sha still frequently played Anti-Terrorism Plan, as it had stronger competitive elements and longer gameplay history, while Sea Fortress, as an FPS game more oriented toward beginners, lagged behind Anti-Terrorism Plan in many aspects.
But gradually, Chen Sha defected.