Chapter 141: Investigating Shangyang Games
Chapter 141: Investigating Shangyang Games
Zhang Yuan’s top picks were the first three commercial spaces he introduced—those were the ones he felt most confident about making money.
After that, from the fourth to the sixth locations, they were more average, likely to lose money, but not too badly.
But the last four locations? The locations were terrible—even worse than the current flagship branch of Moyu Internet Café. He had only included them to make up the numbers.
After all, President Pei had clearly instructed them to find ten candidate locations.
Zhang Yuan hesitated and said, “President Pei, these last four spots… well, they’re not impossible, but just… maybe not as suitable as the first three…”
He couldn’t just say outright that those four were bad.
After all, he and Ma Yang had been the ones who picked them. If he admitted they were no good, wouldn’t he just be slapping himself in the face?
What if President Pei asked, “If they’re no good, why did you include them?”
How would he answer that?
So Zhang Yuan could only subtly hint that the first three locations were better.
Pei Qian stood up and walked over to the projection screen with great interest, carefully studying the locations of the last few commercial spaces.
“I actually think these four spots are quite nice.”
“I believe Moyu Internet Café should give people that ‘hidden in the depths of the mountains, shrouded in clouds’ kind of feeling—a joyful surprise discovered after long searching!”
“Opening in a bustling downtown area?”
“No no no, that’s way too noisy—it doesn’t match our internet café’s brand at all.”
“Our tone is peaceful and laid-back. That was the tone we set from the very beginning.”
“Only 50 computers, non-smoking, lots of books. Even the evening live singers mostly perform folk music, not rock— All of that reinforces our café’s tone!”
“Setting up in a crowded place like those chaotic net cafés—noisy, packed, like a wet market? That just won’t do. It’s completely unrefined and severely damages Tengda’s corporate image.”
Zhang Yuan was a bit dumbfounded.
Tengda’s corporate image?
President Pei, that’s a heavy accusation—I really can’t bear that one!
Pei Qian pointed to the last four locations:
“These are great—quiet, relaxed, perfect for letting customers empty their minds and reflect on life.”
Zhang Yuan was even more confused.
Reflect on life?
Shouldn’t we be getting them to think about how to spend more money?
Pei Qian continued, “And most importantly, these four locations all have very spacious interiors. More space means a better experience for customers—this matters.”
Zhang Yuan was speechless.
Spacious? Well, obviously.
These places aren’t in central business districts—land is cheap, so of course they’re more spacious…
Zhang Yuan wanted to argue a little more, but Pei Qian had already returned to his seat.
“You both did a great job. We’ll go with these four.”
The words Zhang Yuan had been about to say were swallowed right back down.
“Let those new store managers pick which one they want. Whoever likes which place, they can take it.”
“Start the paperwork on the locations that need major renovations. For the ones that don’t need big changes, we can delay those. If you need funding, go to Assistant Xin.”
These four stores were even more remote than the first flagship store, so rent would be cheaper.
But Pei Qian didn’t have much capital on hand right now—at most, he could open two stores immediately. The other two would have to wait until revenue from a few upcoming game projects came in.
Still, there was no rush. He had two months to go—as long as they opened by a week before settlement, that was good enough.
Zhang Yuan glanced at Ma Yang and gave him a look, as if to say, “Aren’t you going to try and talk President Pei out of this?”
Ma Yang nodded, looking like he understood perfectly. He stepped up to Pei Qian and said cheerfully, “Got it, Brother Qian! We’ll get right on it. No problem!”
Zhang Yuan: “…”
That’s not what I meant with that look!
But Ma Yang had already said it, so Zhang Yuan had no choice but to follow him out of the office, sulking.
Clutching his laptop, Zhang Yuan felt a wave of sadness wash over him.
He had taken the plan extremely seriously—conducting on-site inspections, running comprehensive analyses.
It was no exaggeration to say that the first three locations had been repeatedly scrutinized and were guaranteed to be profitable!
As for the last four, those were purely added to meet the quota—he hadn't spent much effort on them at all.
And yet, President Pei didn’t even look at the first three and directly picked the last four locations.
This was… truly hair-pulling.
If it were any other boss pulling this kind of stunt, Zhang Yuan might’ve cursed them out already for being such an unreliable disaster.
But since it was President Pei, Zhang Yuan didn’t complain at all. He could only admit to himself that his own comprehension wasn't high enough—he simply couldn't grasp President Pei’s deeper wisdom.
Site selection is such a basic task—how could President Pei not understand it?
Of course he understood it. If he still didn’t go with the obvious choices, then it had to be because he had deeper plans.
Zhang Yuan sulked for a moment, but soon adjusted his mindset and went off with Ma Yang to negotiate rental contracts and start preparations for the new branches.
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Pei Qian, on the other hand, was very satisfied with the location choices.
He estimated that with these, they might even lose more money than the flagship store did.
Which made perfect sense. The flagship store ought to be the most successful one—otherwise, why call it the flagship?
He sipped his tea leisurely when Assistant Xin knocked and entered.
“President Pei, I’ve gathered some preliminary information on Shangyang Games. Would you like to take a look?”
Pei Qian immediately perked up. “Absolutely!”
This was the thing he was most excited about lately.
If he could just buy out Shangyang Games, it would become his second guaranteed money-losing pit after Moyu Internet Café. A beautiful, permanent sinkhole!
Assistant Xin handed over a thick stack of documents.
As Pei Qian flipped through it, she explained:
“Shangyang Games is a private company with 52 employees.”
“Right now, their main products are two games: the first one is called Flirtatious Taoist, a simulation-management game; the second one is Blood War Anthem, a nation-war-style web game.”
The moment Pei Qian heard the game titles, he couldn’t help but sigh.
Yep, some people are born to make flop games.
Just listen to that title: Flirtatious Taoist!
It already oozed low-effort clickbait from the get-go. If a game with a name like that somehow made it to the bestseller list, that would be the biggest joke in history.
Then again… he knew it was clickbait, and yet… somehow, he kinda wanted to try it. Why?
“Flirtatious Taoist is on the verge of shutting down. Its revenue has been under 50,000 for quite some time. Blood War Anthem used to be the company’s main breadwinner, but a recent incident in operations caused revenues to plummet.”
Pei Qian already knew about that, since Ma Yiqun had mentioned it to him.
Blood War Anthem was that game where Old Liu priced a single sword at 888 yuan, which got them roasted online by angry players.
‘Excellent.’
This was exactly the kind of hot potato he wanted to buy up.
Assistant Xin continued:
“A rough estimate shows Shangyang Games pays around 150,000 yuan per month in rent, and about 200,000 in staff salaries. They’re finding it difficult to keep going—rumor has it, they can’t even afford to pay this month’s wages.”
They had more employees than Tengda, but their workspaces were crowded and the average salary was low, so their rent and payroll expenses were actually much lower than Tengda’s.
Pei Qian didn’t mind at all.
They could always ‘improve’ conditions slowly later.
As long as there was zero risk of profitability, that was what mattered most!
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