Wednesday.
Pei Qian woke up feeling hungry.
He opened his phone and ordered delivery from Slackin’ Delivery.
Although Mr. Pei’s grand plan to lose money had consistently encountered setbacks, to be fair, through his unremitting efforts, both his and the people of Jingzhou’s living standards had indeed improved considerably.
When buying something online, Headwind Logistics would deliver it to your door.
When craving takeout food, Slackin’ Delivery offered healthy and nutritious dishes.
Not to mention Slackin’ Internet Café’s outstanding contributions to improving the internet environment.
Slackin’ Delivery had been operating stably for more than four months now and was still consistently operating at a loss.
Pei Qian was particularly satisfied with this point.
Unfortunately, Slackin’ Delivery’s operation wasn’t large enough. Although it continued to generate stable losses, it wasn’t losing enough money.
After waiting for over twenty minutes, the food arrived.
Slackin’ Internet Café’s Handong University branch was quite close to where Pei Qian lived, so the delivery was relatively quick.
While eating, Pei Qian pondered what to do next.
Now it seemed the pressure to spend money was quite high. Besides regular expenses, Pei Qian needed to find other ways to continue spending money.
Looking at the exquisite tableware and familiar home-style dishes before him, Pei Qian suddenly wondered if delivery could take on more of the money-spending burden.
After all, Slackin’ Delivery had already won Mr. Pei’s trust with its consistent losses.
“If all else fails, I could temporarily resort to a desperate measure?”
Pei Qian reasoned that the next cycle’s matters could be handled in the next cycle.
First, he needed to ensure that he would be in a loss state by the end of this month, as this wasn’t just a matter of money but also related to the special rewards given by the system.
As for how to recoup everything plus interest in the next cycle…
He would just have to develop more quick money-burning industries in the next cycle.
In short, focus on the present!
With this in mind, Pei Qian took out his phone and checked the calendar.
Today was October 13th. He could continue investing in Slackin’ Internet Café and Headwind Logistics until October 24th, but not after that.
To spend money in the final week, he would have to target his employees.
Now Tenda Group had grown considerably large. The gaming business plus Endpoint Chinese Website and TPDb website had over a hundred employees, Shangyang Games had more than forty employees, Slackin’ Internet Café had over a hundred employees, and Headwind Logistics couriers plus Slackin’ Delivery delivery staff totaled about six to seven hundred people.
Of course, different industries would need to be treated differently. It wouldn’t be possible to give the same benefits to employees of core departments like Tenda Games and delivery couriers.
If he gave a bit more to each person, Mr. Pei’s pressure would decrease a little.
But these benefits also had limitations. What if he still couldn’t spend it all?
Pei Qian thought for a moment—then he would have to resort to a desperate measure and launch a customer appreciation event!
He couldn’t use this method during the last settlement, mainly because at that time, Mr. Pei’s only physical business was Slackin’ Internet Café, and it had unexpectedly boomed just before settlement, catching him off guard with no way to resist.
But this time, the money had come earlier, giving Pei Qian ample reaction time.
Pei Qian looked at the date, his gaze fixed on October 24th.
October 24th (10/24) was Programmers’ Day, although this concept wasn’t widely recognized yet.
Just like November 11th, which people generally still viewed as “Singles’ Day” rather than “Shopping Spree Day.”
Double Eleven would be in the next cycle, so Pei Qian couldn’t catch it, but he could still make it for 10/24.
Taking advantage of this day to run a week-long discount promotion would allow certain industries to work harder at generating more losses, greatly relieving Mr. Pei’s pressure, wouldn’t it?
With this thought, Pei Qian felt his future brighten a bit more, and he quickly considered the industries at his disposal.
He needed to carefully think about which specific industries to choose.
Games couldn’t be discounted because games had no cost—lowering prices would only increase profits, equivalent to suicide.
The ultimate goal wasn’t promotion or generating buzz, but a rapid spending of money.
So after some thought, Pei Qian decided that Slackin’ Internet Café and Headwind Logistics were most suitable for this.
Especially Headwind Logistics, which was already continuously losing money due to labor costs. If each Headwind station delivered more packages during this period, paying couriers more performance-based wages, wouldn’t all these small amounts add up to a large sum of money spent?
Moreover, even if there were losses, as long as they were controlled within certain limits and genuinely improved reputation, the system would tolerate such behavior.
After some simple probing of the system, Pei Qian quickly determined a subsidy plan for the 10/24 Programmers’ Day.
First, subsidies for Slackin’ Delivery—all dishes would receive certain discounts, and delivery fees would be waived.
Second, subsidies for Headwind Logistics.
Currently, Pei Qian has opened nearly 200 Headwind stations and expects to add forty to fifty more before the 24th, covering most areas of Jingzhou city.
At that time, using these Headwind stations to send packages would result in reduced shipping fees, which would all be subsidized out of Pei Qian’s pocket.
At the same time, all home deliveries originally incurred a commission fee. During the promotion period, this commission would be eliminated, attracting more couriers to give their packages to Headwind for delivery.