Chapter 103: Deserted!
Chapter 103: Deserted!
After waiting over an hour, it was finally around noon.
A young man appeared outside the door, peeking in hesitantly for a long while before he finally mustered the courage to push the door open and step inside.
A server, who had been waiting for this moment all morning, immediately rushed over to greet him.
“Welcome! Would you like to use a computer, or have a coffee?”
It sounded kind of dumb, but Moyu Internet Café really was a hybrid of an internet café and a restaurant. What else could he say?
The young man had clearly spotted the flashy gaming setups through the glass and guessed it was a cybercafé—that’s why he walked in.
“How much is it per hour here?” he asked.
The server answered honestly, “Ten yuan.”
The young man was stunned, as if he misheard. “Huh? I meant the regular area, not a private room.”
“That’s right, sir. The regular area is ten yuan per hour. We don’t have private rooms.”
The young man was clearly speechless. “Is there any discount for a membership card?”
“There is. With a card, drinks are 10% off,” the server replied cheerfully, handing him the menu.
The young man took one look and visibly swayed.
What the hell?!
The front page had all kinds of drinks and cocktails—all uniformly priced at 40–50 yuan per glass.
The back had regular home-style Chinese dishes like tomato and egg stir-fry, yu xiang pork, etc. — and they weren’t cheap either!
Even with a 10% discount, he couldn’t afford it!
And more importantly, the membership card didn’t give a discount on internet usage—only on drinks?!
What kind of backwards pricing scheme was this?!
The young man cleared his throat awkwardly. “Sorry, I come from a humble background. I’ll take my leave.”
And out he went.
The servers looked at each other, speechless.
They really wanted to stop him.
But President Pei had made it very clear—the service should be like a spring breeze, natural and unobtrusive!
Like a gentle breeze brushing against your face—customers should feel your presence, but not be overwhelmed by it.
So, they could only let him go.
Soon, more foot traffic came in as the lunch hour approached.
Several people stopped by to ask about pricing.
But just like the first guy, once they heard the rates, they bailed.
Some even muttered under their breath, “Might as well just rob me…”
Zhang Yuan had been standing at the bar this whole time, eager to show off his bartending flair.
But forget about anyone ordering drinks—no one even stayed to use a computer!
“Brother Qian, this won’t do!” Ma Yang was getting anxious just watching.
Opening day was already off to such a rocky start. How were they supposed to recover from this?
Wouldn’t it spiral into a vicious cycle of fewer and fewer customers?
Even Pei Qian nodded with a serious expression.
“Yeah… this really won’t do.”
“Someone, make a sign and post the price list right outside!”
“If they’re just going to come in, ask the price, and walk out—what nonsense!”
“Let them see the prices right at the door. That way, if they think it’s too expensive, they won’t bother coming in and wasting everyone’s time and emotions.”
“If they can’t afford it, better they don’t come in at all. Saves everyone the trouble. Isn’t that great?”
Ma Yang was dumbfounded.
“So that’s what you meant by ‘this won’t do’?”
If you didn’t put up a price sign, people might at least walk in and ask. Under the gaze of the service staff, they might feel too embarrassed to walk out immediately — that way, you might retain a few of the more thin-skinned customers.
But putting up a price board? Now people will just glance at it from outside and walk away. They won’t even come in!
Isn’t that just driving away all the potential customers who might’ve stayed out of social awkwardness?!
Ma Yang was clearly feeling conflicted.
Pei Qian noticed his hesitation and urged him, “Hurry up. This is a win-win for everyone — what’s there to hesitate about?”
Ma Yang reluctantly stood up and arranged for someone to get the price board made.
Pei Qian, meanwhile, continued sipping his coffee.
Even ordinary coffee seemed to taste sweeter today!
. . . . . . . .
That afternoon, there were finally some customers.
Two young men — likely rich second-generation types — came to game together. They paused at the entrance when they saw the price list, clearly hesitating, but after a moment of inner struggle, they still came inside and sat down in the gaming area.
A few office-worker types also came in and ordered coffee in the café section.
This was all within Pei Qian’s expectations.
Although the location wasn’t in a prime business district, it was near the fringe of one. Just a street away from a shopping mall.
With all the foot traffic, it was inevitable that some people would stop by for coffee or curiosity.
No matter how overpriced this cybercafé was, it wouldn’t be completely devoid of customers — that kind of perfect scenario was just too unrealistic.
Having a few customers was fine.
As long as the number was low enough that the revenue couldn’t even cover the costs, it was still a win!
Pei Qian stuck around until evening.
A few people came in for drinks, and Zhang Yuan even went up to sing two songs. The vibe was decent.
It wasn’t as dead as the daytime, but very few people came to actually use the computers.
Pei Qian roughly calculated the income and felt it wouldn’t even fill the gap between his teeth — absolutely negligible.
Excellent!
Everything was going according to plan.
Pei Qian got up, ready to head home.
Ma Yang, on the other hand, was clearly hit hard and looked dispirited.
Such high-end computers, such a great environment… yet their grand opening day turned out so cold and empty?
He just couldn’t wrap his head around it.
Pei Qian tried to restrain his uncontrollable smirk and patted Ma Yang on the shoulder in comfort. “Don’t worry, it’s just the first day. Old Ma, you need to remember — this is part of Tenda Group’s long-term strategic plan!”
“Not just one day — even if we lose money for the first three months or half a year, it’s totally fine! Things will gradually pick up, understand?”
Ma Yang nodded, but it was obvious he didn’t really take it to heart.
Pei Qian didn’t press the point. He just gave Ma Yang’s shoulder a pat and left, feeling thoroughly satisfied.
. . . . . . . .
March 14th, Sunday night.
On the second floor by the window, Zhang Yuan and Ma Yang sat together at a table, both with serious expressions.
Zhang Yuan had a notepad and was calculating something as he jotted things down.
“Rent… 315,000 per month…”
“We’re on commercial water and electricity rates. Just utilities, procurement of various materials, and losses — that alone will cost over ten thousand a month.”
“Salaries add up to more than sixty thousand a month too.”
“So that means, even if our internet café does absolutely nothing, the fixed monthly expenses are already pushing four hundred thousand yuan!”
“On top of that, the upfront investment in computers, equipment, renovation and so on — all that was around two million.”
“Judging by our revenue from the past three days… we’re not even making as much as a small, ten-square-meter coffee shop. At this rate…”
“Forget breaking even — we’re looking at a monthly net loss of around 300,000…”
As Zhang Yuan laid out the numbers, Ma Yang’s long face grew a little pale.
This was… beyond ridiculous.
But thinking back on the business over the past few days, it actually made sense.
There were simply too few customers!
The internet café side had dozens of machines, but forget filling them — whole rows would sit empty with only one person playing!
And they didn’t stay long either.
The café side was only slightly better — a few more people.
But many just ordered one coffee and stayed the whole day. Not exactly profitable.
What’s worse, even like this, less than half the café seating was filled — that showed just how bleak business really was.
At night, barely anyone came to drink. Even when Zhang Yuan went on stage to sing, barely anyone clapped or cheered.
It was nothing short of cringe-worthy.
So over the last two days, Zhang Yuan and Ma Yang were deeply worried.
A monthly loss of 300,000 yuan at Moyu Internet Café meant 10,000 yuan just vanished every single day, whether they did anything or not.
It was a bottomless pit!
Who could keep burning money like this?
Zhang Yuan said, “Brother Ma, you’re close to President Pei. Shouldn’t you say something? We can’t keep this up — we need a plan!”
Ma Yang pulled a bitter face. “Brother Qian said we have to stay calm and see how things go after a week, no matter what.”
“After a week…”
Zhang Yuan looked at the calendar — next Sunday was the 21st.
It felt like a lifetime away.
“Sigh… alright. Since President Pei said so, we’ll wait.”
“The key issue is… he won’t let us hand out flyers or lower the prices. I just don’t get it,” Zhang Yuan said, clearly baffled.
There’s clearly plenty of profit margin to work with!
Lower the internet rates a bit, offer cheaper drinks, run a promotion to recharge membership cards…
There are solutions to this!
But no one knew what President Pei was thinking, and he insisted none of that could be done.
So Zhang Yuan had no options.
If the pricing itself is off, it didn’t matter what else they tried — it wouldn’t help!
“We’ll just stick with what Brother Qian said and check back in a week.”
Ma Yang didn’t overthink it. He was committed to one thing: if Pei Qian gave specific instructions, he would follow them to the letter. No taking initiative on his own.
“Well, that’s all we can do.”
Zhang Yuan sighed gloomily. He was starting to worry how many more months he could keep drawing his 10,000+ salary…
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