Chapter 145: President Pei’s Weekend
Chapter 145: President Pei’s Weekend
This weekend, Pei Qian had a surprisingly busy schedule.
He had originally planned to sleep in all day at his rental apartment, but no matter how much he tossed and turned, he couldn’t fall asleep. Every time he closed his eyes, all he could see were images of the internet café inexplicably going viral and raking in money—leaving him restless and anxious.
In the end, he had no choice but to call Assistant Xin to drive over and pick him up. He had to see it with his own eyes to feel at ease.
Naturally, he gave Assistant Xin some overtime pay for her troubles.
First stop was a visit to the flagship branch of Moyu Internet Café. He had a cup of coffee, sat for a bit, and confirmed that—for now and the foreseeable future—there was no sign of the place turning a profit.
Next, he checked in on two newly opened locations of Moyu Internet Café to inspect the renovation progress.
Both new stores were in locations even worse than the flagship. The only redeeming quality was that they were spacious. The renovations couldn’t exactly replicate the flagship store, but they were doing their best to match Pei Qian’s preferred style.
Overall, the design leaned toward minimalism—not too flashy or extravagant—but the tables, bar counters, bookshelves, and other furniture still gave off a subtle “tryhard” vibe.
It wasn’t that Pei Qian liked this kind of pretentious aesthetic—it’s just that this kind of furniture tended to be expensive.
The two store managers seemed quite dedicated. They were both on-site, overseeing the work personally. Pei Qian gave them some warm encouragement. He managed to persuade one of them to go home and rest, but the other was too stubborn. In the end, Pei Qian had no choice but to pay him for the overtime.
After checking in on the renovations, Pei Qian still felt uneasy, so he took a short walk around the surrounding area. His conclusion: this location was even colder than the flagship one. There really shouldn’t be many people coming here.
Feeling more reassured, Pei Qian decided on a whim to swing by the office—only to catch Lu Mingliang and several members of the design team working overtime red-handed.
President Pei was not happy.
Previously, he had turned a blind eye to Huang Sibo and Bao Xu working late because he assumed they were just staying after hours to play games.
But it turned out they weren’t playing at all—they were actually working!
So now Pei Qian decided: moving forward, he was going to apply a strict, across-the-board ban. Absolutely no one was allowed in the office outside of work hours.
This time, even Bao Xu got kicked out. The official reason? “Go home and rest. Take care of your hairline.”
Considering his recent health checkup results, Bao Xu had no rebuttal. He quietly packed up and left.
Lately, Bao Xu had been doing well financially. He’d long since stopped living in the internet café. He’d rented a studio apartment and bought a new PC, so playing games at home wasn’t a problem.
Seeing even Bao Xu getting shooed out, the others didn’t dare stay. One by one, they packed their things and left.
The atmosphere was rather tragic—heads down, shoulders slumped—like a bunch of people who had just been fired.
Once everyone was gone, Pei Qian slumped into a chair, feeling mentally exhausted.
‘These people… they really never let me relax!’
“I’m wondering,” Pei Qian muttered, “if we should change the office lock. Maybe upgrade to a higher-end electronic lock? One that only authorized personnel can access during official holidays.”
He looked at Assistant Xin.
Xin Hailu hesitated for a moment. “Wouldn’t that hurt morale?”
Hurt morale?
That’s the whole point!
The more damage, the better. Ideally, I want their motivation completely shattered.
“Then it’s settled. Contact the administrative department and see if they can procure something like that.”
“Only people with authorization should be able to open the door during legal holidays. For now, just authorize… you, me, and those girls from the administrative department.”
The administrative department had the lightest workload in the company. They were the classic nine-to-fivers—might show up a minute late, but you could be sure they’d never stay a minute longer.
And on holidays? Forget it. You’d never spot them anywhere near the office.
Pei Qian felt fully at ease entrusting them with access.
Assistant Xin jotted it down in her little notebook.
Just as he finished speaking, another troubling thought struck Pei Qian.
How would they calculate overtime pay now?
If they simply locked the office, sure, nobody would be able to stay and work late anymore. But that also meant there would be no more overtime payments.
It wasn’t a huge amount of money at the moment, but it was still part of his “Power in Numbers” plan—an important pillar of his “expand spending” strategy.
One person’s overtime pay didn’t amount to much, but once the company grew and the employee count increased, it would add up to a hefty sum.
After some thought, Pei Qian said, “Alright then, from now on, let’s have everyone report their own overtime. Working from home also counts for overtime pay.”
Assistant Xin blinked in surprise. “But how would we verify that?”
Verify? What’s there to verify! Even if people fake their reports, that’s perfectly fine!
—Of course, Pei Qian couldn’t say that out loud.
After a moment of consideration, he replied, “Let’s trust everyone’s sense of responsibility. But if someone’s caught faking it, they’ll lose all their overtime pay for the month.”
He needed to establish a clear penalty to shut the system up.
Of course, Pei Qian had zero intention of actually checking whether anyone was faking their reports.
Looking around at the now-empty office, Pei Qian finally felt at ease. He stood up, ready to head home for a good, long nap.
Right then, his phone rang. It was a call from Huang Sibo.
Pei Qian immediately straightened up.
The last time they finished filming President Pei’s Daily Life, Huang Sibo and Bao Xu had planned to take a two-week break.
Doing the math, their rest period should be over. That meant they were probably getting ready to launch a new project.
Pei Qian had previously given an impassioned speech to Huang Sibo, successfully inspiring him to let go of the wildly successful President Pei’s Daily Life IP and move on to something else.
But what Huang Sibo and Zhu Xiaoce planned to shoot next? Pei Qian had no clue.
This phone call—was either to ask for his input, or to report their plan.
Pei Qian sincerely hoped it was the former.
He answered.
“President Pei, sorry to bother you at this hour.”
“I just wanted to give you an update on Feihuang Studio’s upcoming plans.”
“Your words the other day were a real wake-up call. At first, Director Zhu and I had planned to continue developing short-form video content, maybe spin off a new mini-series from President Pei’s Daily Life. We wanted to really lean into the contrast and surprise elements, combine them with current social trends, and spotlight some down-to-earth, relatable characters from the grassroots—”
As Pei Qian listened, his heart nearly stopped.
This sounded like Wanwan Meixiangdao or Baozou Big News!
Either way, it was extremely bad news…
Huang Sibo continued, “But thanks to your enlightening words, President Pei, we had a breakthrough. We realized we needed to step out of our comfort zone and keep pursuing our true dreams!”
“Short videos are a great way to monetize and bring joy to people, but we’ve always felt like something was missing.”
“Director Zhu feels the same way. So after some discussion, we’ve decided—we want to shoot a documentary. A kind of documentary that’s never been done before.”
“Of course, we’re still limited by budget, so large-scale documentaries are out of the question. We’ll be very cautious when picking a topic. We just want to use our cameras to capture something meaningful—”
Pei Qian let out a small sigh of relief—but immediately became alert again.
He was relieved because they had actually given up on short videos—a massive victory.
If they had gone ahead with their original plan, it would almost certainly have become another viral hit. If it reached the level of something like Unexpectedness or Yes Boss!, then he’d be in real trouble.
Now that Huang Sibo and Zhu Xiaoce had switched to documentaries, the likelihood of making money had plummeted again. That was a very good sign.
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Note:
Unexpectedness: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16297140/
Yes Boss!:
https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E6%8A%A5%E5%91%8A%E8%80%81%E6%9D%BF%EF%BC%81/16201025
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