Losing Money to Become a Tycoon: Starting with Games
Chapter 372: Don't Blame Me for Being Ruthless
Pei Qian couldn't accept this conclusion.
No, no, no—this made no sense at all!
Something had to change.
If Ma Yang kept playing like this, and He Desheng and the others kept throwing random suggestions at GOG, the situation might really spiral completely out of control.
He had to give Old Ma something to do.
After thinking for a moment, Pei Qian said earnestly, "Old Ma, don't play games for the time being."
Then he looked at He Desheng and the others. "You too. No more accompanying President Ma to play games."
He Desheng's face went pale.
What did this mean, had their flattery missed the mark and hit the horse's leg instead?
Were their suggestions bad and in conflict with President Pei's design philosophy?
Or did President Pei think they were slacking off and had grown dissatisfied with them?
The atmosphere in the office suddenly became tense.
Not being allowed to play games wasn't a big deal in itself.
But if they left a bad impression on President Pei, that would be very bad news!
Pei Qian continued, "Over the next while, I'll squeeze out another sum of money. You guys think it over and see what new investment projects you can come up with."
Instantly, everyone's expressions relaxed.
He Desheng felt ashamed of his earlier thoughts.
What was I even thinking? Is President Pei that petty?
Look, President Pei isn't angry at all; he even praised us!
The best outcome He Desheng had imagined was a pay raise.
But now President Pei was allocating another sum of money to Dream Fulfillment Ventures, this was even more exciting than a raise!
Pei Qian had no idea what He Desheng was thinking, but whatever it was, it was definitely very different from what President Pei had in mind…
After the last incident, Pei Qian had planned to "bench" Dream Fulfillment Ventures for a while.
But now he realized that when these people had nothing to do, they started overthinking GOG, and that was dangerous!
Better to let them get busy again.
Although Pei Qian didn't have much spare cash on hand, Tengda Group was now a big operation. If he squeezed a bit, scraping together three to four million shouldn't be a problem.
However, since the investment outcome of IOI hadn't been revealed yet, Pei Qian found it hard to fully trust Ma Yang again in the short term.
This time, Pei Qian decided to personally oversee the investments.
Ma Yang nodded furiously. "No problem, Brother Qian! I'll spend this money as fast as possible!"
Pei Qian's face darkened. "No, no, no—don't rush this time."
"Take your time to look around. Find a few dream-filled projects first. After a while, I'll come over and we'll discuss them together before making a decision."
Ma Yang was puzzled. "Brother Qian, didn't you teach me that when it comes to investing, you should strike when the iron is hot and never hesitate? Didn't you say to invest in whatever you like and trust your first instinct?"
Pei Qian coughed twice. "Ahem, I did say that before."
"But back then, you were a newcomer to investing, just getting into the field. I kept telling you not to hesitate mainly to cultivate a decisive investment mindset."
"But now, things are different."
"You've already had experience investing twenty million. It's time to level up."
Ma Yang suddenly understood. "Got it, Brother Qian! How do I level up? Tell me!"
Pei Qian thought for a moment. "It depends on the specific project, you can't just talk theory in the abstract, or you'll fall into dogmatism."
"Here's what you do: follow the criteria I'm about to give you and screen the proposals. Whenever you see ones that are absolutely bursting with 'dreams,' collect them all."
"After some time, I'll come by again and discuss which specific project to invest in together with you!"
Ma Yang nodded vigorously. "Got it, Brother Qian, no problem!"
Then he turned to the group behind him. "You hear that? Until the next project is invested in, I'll lead by example, nobody plays games!"
Everyone nodded in unison. "Yes, President Ma!"
A smile appeared on He Desheng's face.
Even though he really liked playing games, he never forgot that he was an investor.
He had come to Dream Fulfillment Ventures to learn the very top-tier art of investing from President Pei!
That last 20-million investment—President Ma had pulled the trigger way too fast. As an executor, He Desheng hadn't even had time to understand what was going on.
During this period, He Desheng had been eagerly waiting for a chance to see President Pei make a move.
Now, the opportunity has finally come!
Which project would President Pei, this investing master, put the money into?
He couldn't wait to find out!
...
...
Thursday, December 30.
New Year's Day was just around the corner, and exam week was approaching as well.
Pei Qian had stayed up late last night memorizing Ma Yang's notes, and when he got up in the morning, his head still felt a bit foggy.
Just after he ordered Moyu Delivery, Pei Qian felt his left eyelid twitch.
"Left eyelid twitch means money coming in; right eyelid twitch means disaster."
"No—something's off!"
Pei Qian instantly went on high alert.
He hurried over to his desk, took out his little notebook, and quickly reviewed all the businesses that might possibly run into trouble.
Although he knew this was pure superstition, as the saying goes, "A gentleman examines himself three times a day"—a bit of routine self-checking never hurt.
He went through the businesses one by one.
The heads of Tengda Group Games and Shangyang Games were still in the U.S. having fun, so it probably wasn't them.
The haunted house project hadn't even gotten off the ground yet—there wasn't even a concrete plan. Judging by how inefficient those two people were, it definitely wasn't coming from there.
Moyu Delivery and Against the Wind Logistics were traditional loss-making projects.
Feihuang Studio was still filming; it didn't seem likely that anything particularly dangerous would pop up there either…
After a quick pass, Pei Qian narrowed it down to ROF and Moyu Internet Café.
That ROF PC assembly business had stabbed him hard not long ago—it was a prime suspect!
Still, in the spirit of "don't wrong a good man," Pei Qian decided to give Zhang Yuan a call to feel things out.
"Hello? President Pei?" Zhang Yuan's voice on the other end sounded slightly weary.
Pei Qian immediately became alert. "You sound pretty exhausted."
Zhang Yuan replied, "Yeah, President Pei. I've been busy with procurement lately, bringing in such large batches of stock is no easy job. But don't worry, President Pei, it's almost wrapped up!"
Pei Qian asked again, "How have ROF console sales been recently?"
Zhang Yuan chuckled. "Oh, don't worry, President Pei, everything's fine!"
"I was worried that going back to the original price might cause orders to drop sharply, but that didn't happen."
"Sales volume did go down a bit, but since the price is higher, the profit per unit increased, so overall profits didn't drop much."
"It seems the ROF brand has built up quite a bit of influence, and word of mouth has spread. People are still buying them here and there."
"Looks like I worried for nothing, President Pei really is far-sighted!"
"I've followed your instructions, President Pei, and poured all the money we earned straight back into inventory. The dispatch points near several Moyu Internet Cafés are already packed, the warehouse itself is stacked pretty high, and there's another batch of goods on the way."
"Big thanks to the brothers at Against the Wind Logistics, they've really come through!"
"Now we're not worried about supply at all!"
"Even if there's a spike in orders during the New Year holiday, our inventory is more than enough to make sure every computer gets to customers as fast as possible!"
The corner of Pei Qian's mouth twitched slightly.
Yep, something was definitely wrong.
After restoring the consoles to their original price, people were still buying quite a lot?
Isn't that just… stabbing your dad in the back? Doesn't that mean I'm making even more money per machine now???
Pei Qian never expected that raising the price back to normal—by at least three or four hundred yuan—still wouldn't stop people from buying the computers!
On second thought, though, it did make a certain amount of sense.
Who exactly is ROF's main customer base?
Mostly people who want convenience and peace of mind.
If you know how to build a PC yourself, there's no way you'd buy ROF—unless the prebuilt was actually cheaper than buying all the parts separately, which only happened when President Pei was running loss-making promotions.
But the problem now was that after several rounds of promotions, ROF had already built up a certain level of name recognition online, especially in Jingzhou.
People who had bought ROF machines had already seen the brand's value:
All components are genuine, configurations are clearly listed with no corner-cutting, lightning-fast home delivery, and door-to-door warranty service if anything goes wrong.
In Jingzhou, it's even more hassle-free than many big-name branded PCs!
Naturally, these customers would recommend ROF to their friends.
So now ROF had made a name for itself.
For people who can't build PCs themselves and just want convenience, even if ROF computers cost three or four hundred yuan more, some of them would still buy anyway.
After all, no one knows when the next promotion will come around, and for something as important as a computer, paying a bit extra for peace of mind isn't unreasonable.
This was the downside of having a reputation—raise prices just a little, and customers don't even mind!
This brand had actually developed some brand premium. Seriously?!
Pei Qian started to feel uneasy.
If this trend continued, things were going to get ugly.
He had to think of a solution—fast!
After a moment of silence, Pei Qian asked, "Do you have time this afternoon? I want to go take a look at the warehouse situation."
Zhang Yuan replied immediately, "Of course! President Pei, about what time will you come over?"
Pei Qian glanced at the clock. "I'll get to the warehouse around 3 p.m."
Zhang Yuan: "Got it, President Pei! No problem, I'll be at the warehouse entrance to welcome you on time!"
After hanging up, Pei Qian let out a quiet sigh.
There's no choice, since the situation was starting to get out of hand, it was time to bring out the ultimate weapon.
Even though there were still three months until settlement, Zhang Yuan's ROF PC business was quietly raking in money, step by step, far too smoothly.
If he just let it run unchecked, who knows what kind of nonsense it might pull in three months' time!
He had to manufacture a bit of adversity for them.
Pei Qian muttered to himself, "Zhang Yuan, don't blame me for being ruthless. I'll give you a bigger bonus later as compensation…"
Then Pei Qian dialed Xiao Sun's number.
"Take me to the warehouse this afternoon. And swing by the company on the way, bring Tang Yishu along too."
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