Chapter 138: Selecting a New Store Manager
Chapter 138: Selecting a New Store Manager
Pei Qian called for Assistant Xin—he was planning to visit the Moyu Internet Café.
On the way there, Pei Qian briefly explained the situation with Shangyang Games.
“After the holiday, set aside some time to investigate Shangyang Games. Give me a detailed report. You can also quietly leak a bit of info to their boss—just say we’re considering a potential acquisition.”
Pei Qian was worried the company might fall apart during the investigation. If that happened, he'd have to go hunting down each individual employee again—that would be a hassle.
A broken mirror, even reassembled, still has cracks. If he was going to take over, it had to be a complete takeover!
So by giving Shangyang Games’ boss a little hope early on, Pei Qian could keep him from disbanding the company in a panic.
Assistant Xin nodded while driving. “Understood, President Pei. But as far as I know, this seems to be a company in pretty poor financial shape?”
She phrased it very diplomatically.
“I’m not looking at what it is now,” Pei Qian replied confidently. “I’m looking at its future potential.”
“Mm. I trust your vision, President Pei.” Assistant Xin then asked, “Approximately how long should the assessment take? The more time we spend understanding the situation, the stronger our position will be during negotiations.”
She paused, then added, “Also, since the other party is likely operating at a loss, we could deliberately drag things out a bit to drive the price down.”
Drive the price down?
Why would I want to do that? The more expensive, the better!
Pei Qian immediately shook his head. “No need to delay. The sooner, the better.”
“In the gaming industry, every second counts. Instead of wasting time haggling, it’s better to invest quickly and get operations underway. Don’t lose the big picture over small gains.”
“Understood.” Assistant Xin asked again, “So, for this acquisition—are we buying out the whole company, or just part of it…?”
There are many ways to acquire a company: some only want the shell and leave all the staff behind; some just want a specific IP; some restructure the organization by inserting new leadership or systems.
The specific approach depends on what exactly Pei Qian had his eye on, which would also help in negotiating the price.
But what Pei Qian wanted wasn’t the people, or any specific game—it was Shangyang Games’ enthusiasm for creative ways to lose money!
So Pei Qian had to buy the entire company as-is, preserving its authentic flavor.
He answered immediately, “Full acquisition. No changes to the original company structure.”
“Understood, President Pei.” With a clear sense of the leader’s intent, Assistant Xin didn’t probe further.
This… wasn’t exactly a rational acquisition.
Because there was nothing about Shangyang Games that seemed worth acquiring.
If it was about talent, why not just poach the person directly?
If it was about a specific game, buy the IP—their side would probably be thrilled to sell it off.
But taking over the whole company?
It just didn’t add up.
Still, Assistant Xin didn’t ask further. That was her professionalism—just carry out what the boss says, and don’t ask unnecessary questions.
Besides, if President Pei made this decision, he must have seen some unique value in Shangyang Games.
As the May Day holiday approached, Jingzhou’s traffic became a bit congested. It took slightly longer than usual to reach Moyu Internet Café.
Pei Qian got out of the car and walked in directly.
Hmm, still as deserted as ever. Excellent.
So far, Moyu Internet Café had developed a small group of repeat customers—mostly wealthy clients who didn’t care about price. They enjoyed surfing the web, sipping coffee, or even using the place to host meetings.
Occasionally, a group of friends would come in for a private gaming session.
After all, the environment here was top-notch: great ambiance, great service, and not crowded.
To these rich clients, paying more for a better experience was absolutely worth it.
But even so, Moyu Internet Café still wasn’t breaking even.
Because… there simply weren’t enough wealthy customers in the area!
There was only a rather remote shopping center nearby, separated by a street, with no major office buildings or upscale residential areas in sight.
The location and pricing of the internet café meant that only a handful of people in the area could actually afford it—far from enough to support normal operations.
So Pei Qian wasn’t worried at all.
Seeing that Pei Qian had arrived, Ma Yang and Zhang Yuan quickly came over to greet him.
“President Pei, what would you like to drink today?” Zhang Yuan asked.
Pei Qian glanced at the menu. “I’ll have a Margarita.”
He looked around—the internet area and café area were both completely empty. It seemed especially quiet today.
“No customers today?” Pei Qian asked casually.
Ma Yang rubbed his hands together awkwardly. “Yeah, Brother Qian, I’m not sure what’s going on. Maybe it’s because the holiday’s about to start…”
There had at least been a few customers holding down the fort before, but now, not a single one had shown up all afternoon. That was pretty absurd…
Pei Qian, however, didn’t mind at all. In fact, he was quite pleased.
“All right then, close up shop. We’re shutting down early today.”
“Zhang Yuan, go ahead and make a drink for everyone. Put it on the company tab.”
“No one needs to work this afternoon. Come sit over here, all of you.”
Pei Qian sat down in the café area and waved them over.
The staff sprang into action—some closed up the storefront, others rearranged tables and chairs, and Zhang Yuan went around mixing drinks for everyone.
Soon, all the service staff—along with the three chefs in the back (originally there was only one, but two more had been hired to handle Tengda’s company meals)—were seated in the café area, each with a cocktail in front of them.
Zhang Yuan and Ma Yang sat at the front, one on each side, waiting for Pei Qian to speak.
Pei Qian cleared his throat and took a moment to compose himself.
“Starting next month, Moyu Internet Café will be opening four more branches.”
“But the timeline will be staggered because the funding can’t be allocated all at once.”
“Anyone who wants to be a store manager for a new branch, raise your hand.”
The four service staff in front immediately raised their hands. One of the chefs in the back hesitated for a moment, then tentatively raised his hand as well.
Zhang Yuan also raised his hand.
Pei Qian gestured for him to lower it. “You’re being promoted to management—you’ll be overseeing the store managers. So don’t raise your hand.”
Zhang Yuan beamed and put his hand down.
Wait— what just happened? I got promoted??
Pei Qian glanced at the five people who had raised their hands. “Good. You five it is. Zhang Yuan, take note—they’re the new store managers.”
Ma Yang had been the store manager for this café, but with so many new branches opening, he and Zhang Yuan would both be moving up to management roles. That meant this café also needed a new manager.
So in total, five new people were being promoted to store manager positions.
Everyone was a bit stunned.
That’s it? Just like that?
Several service staff who hadn’t raised their hands were dumbfounded.
Crap. If I had known it was this easy, I would’ve raised my hand too!
They had hesitated, thinking they weren’t capable enough to handle a store manager position, and worried that failing a performance review would be embarrassing.
Turns out— there wasn’t even a review!
The most shocked of all was the chef who had raised his hand.
Logically speaking, this was an internet café—the store manager role shouldn’t have had anything to do with a chef. If anything, it should’ve gone to one of the service staff.
But he had raised his hand on instinct—and somehow, that counted?!
He was still struggling to mentally shift from wielding a wok to managing an entire store.
Ma Yang tugged gently at Pei Qian’s sleeve and whispered, “Brother Qian, are you sure about this? Maybe we should do a proper recruitment process?”
Pei Qian shook his head. “You’re the one who hired them. I don’t trust anyone else—only your judgment.”
Ma Yang scratched his head and laughed sheepishly. “Well… when you put it that way…”
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