Zhang Yuan continued to bootlick Pei Qian without resting. However, Pei Qian sipped his coffee, not listening to a single word.

  He could not understand where he had gone

  wrong.

  He had brought Tang Yishu to the warehouse, and he had seen instant effects. The computers had started to malfunction, and the assembly process had been hindered.

  Yet… how did the RAM factory catch fire? The halo effect could not have spread overseas, right?

  No matter how hard Pei Qian thought, he could not figure it out.

  Strictly speaking, none of this mattered that much. However, they were very troublesome for Boss Pei. It looked like Boss Pei had to be careful about using his killing machine.

  He could slip up and end up hurting himself!

  In any case, what had been done had been done. More importantly, he had to think about how to spend the money from now on.

  Should they continue to hoard stocks? That seemed impracticable.

  ROF was already very well-known at the moment. After promising that prices wouldn’t rise during the New Year’s Day, it would likely become even more reputable and popular.

  Experience had already shown that many customers were willing to pay a certain brand premium for ROF’s system units.

  In other words-even if prices of their system units remained stagnant, ROF’s sales volume would not decrease. Furthermore, since they could maintain their original profit margins, the company was bound to generate profits.

  If ROF hoarded even more stocks now and other parts became more expensive later on, wouldn’t Boss Pei be shooting himself in the foot?

  It did not seem smart to hoard stocks now!

  Boss Pei had learned an expensive lesson. What if he invested this sum of money in other businesses?

  However, on second thought, Pei Qian rejected this idea.

  Pei Qian preferred to stick to one general principle: whoever caused the problem should solve it; whoever earned money should spend it.

  After some self-reflection, he realized that he had to keep fighting fires helplessly in the past because he had not stuck to this principle.

  Many projects were not inherently problematic. Many of them had been incurring losses until they started collaborating with other projects. Then, problems started arising.

  Thus, Pei Qian decided that Zhang Yuan should remain in charge of the revenue that ROF generated. He had to take charge of finding ways to spend the money.

  Pei Qian considered this for a moment and said, “Don’t submit the profits generated by ROF to Tengda. You should think of ways to spend the money.”


  Zhang Yuan was stunned. “Huh? Boss Pei, we’ve generated a lot of profit, but I shouldn’t submit any of it? Would that be appropriate?”


  Pei Qian sniggered. “Of course! This is your hard-earned money. You should get to spend

  it.”


  Zhang Yuan quickly waved his hands. “No, no, no. Boss Pei, we earned this money thanks to your wise guidance.”


  Pei Qian remained silent.

  Look at him! Stop speaking if you don’t have anything good to say! Pei Qian was a magnanimous man who had no intention to go back and forth on this issue. “Tell me—where do you intend to spend this money?”


  Zhang Yuan fell into deep thought.

  He was now in charge of the Fish-Catching Internet Cafes and ROF. Of course, since Fish-Catching Take-Out had been derived from Fish-Catching Internet Cafe, Zhang Yuan was also considered in charge of that.

  At the same time, all of those businesses were closely related to Upwind Logistics.

  Lu Mingliang was in charge of Upwind Logistics. He was greatly favored by Pei Qian. In fact, until now, Upwind Logistics had been incurring losses. It could only continue operating because of Tengda Corporation’s financial support. This proved that Boss Pei had been right to trust Lu Mingliang all this time.

  Of course, to Pei Qian, he was not offering financial support. Instead, he was detoxifying himself.

  If not for Upwind Logistics, Boss Pei might have been poisoned to death by now.

  After some thought, Zhang Yuan said, “Boss Pei, I think that ROF has obtained a stable foothold in Jingzhou. Our online store has also achieved some level of fame.

  “At the moment, the Fish-Catching Internet Cafes are quite popular as well. In fact, it’s now the most popular high-end internet cafe brand in Jingzhou.

  “I think we can continue to expand and bring Fish-Catching Internet Cafe to other cities!”


  Pei Qian sighed inwardly. Indeed, this problem was not going to resolve itself.

  Boss Li had asked the same question before. He had asked Pei Qian why the latter had not considered opening branches in other cities to generate more profit.

  The reason for this was simple. Boss Pei did not want to generate more profit by opening branches in other cities!

  However, he had to seriously consider it now. That was because he could not delay it any longer.

  Fish-Catching Internet Cafe and ROF were now generating profits, and the sum was not small. How could Pei Qian avoid expanding?

  It would not make sense.

  Thus, he had to open more branches sooner or later. The questions were where and how.

  Pei Qian pondered for a while and asked, “Where do you think we should open more Fish-Catching Internet Cafe branches?”


  Zhang Yuan responded instantly. “I think we should open branches in the bigger, first-tier cities like Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangzhou!

  “There are many young people in those cities, and the population is much denser. What’s more, people there earn higher incomes. High-end internet cafes would probably appeal to them more.

  “It would be easier for us to fight for market share in those cities. We could even open related businesses, like Fish-Catching Take-Out, there at the same time.”


  Pei Qian was silent.

  You’re making sense, and so I definitely cannot do that…


  Pei Qian considered the problem for a moment. Then, he said, “I’m thinking the exact opposite. Lincheng is my next target.”


  Zhang Yuan was stunned. “Lincheng?”


  Lincheng City was the poorest city in Handong Province. The famous impoverished county, Daokou County, was located in Lincheng City.

  How could they open Fish-Catching Internet Cafes in such a poor place? How many customers could they have?

  Pei Qian continued speaking “What’s more, we won’t just open more Fish-Catching Internet Cafe branches.

  “All businesses that are related to Fish-Catching Internet Cafe will move there, too!”


  Pei Qian could not help but smile as he looked at Zhang Yuan’s confused expression.

  Pei Qian was not eager to expand Fish-Catching Internet Cafe. Instead, he wanted to open more Upwind Courier stations.

  However, Upwind Courier stations were littered around Jingzhou. If one opened a map, they would see a dense network of those stations. There was practically no area in the city that was not covered by an Upwind Courier station.

  Pei Qian had to consider other cities if he wanted to open more such stations.

  However, setting up Upwind Courier stations without opening Fish-Catching Internet Cafes would be too strange. Others would become suspicious.

  If he wanted to expand to other cities, the businesses had to move together. Then, people would not grow suspicious.

  What’s more, there was one huge benefit to opening Fish-Catching Internet Cafes compared to Upwind Courier stations: more initial costs were involved in the former. A lot of money would be needed to pay rent, conduct renovations, purchase computers, and the like.

  Even if the internet cafe began generating profits later, it would take a longer time to recover the huge initial investment.

  At the very least, the initial investment would not be recovered before the next settlement.

  What if Pei Qian put more thought in selecting a suitable location and avoided repeating the mistakes committed in Jingzhou City, so that the internet cafe continued to incur losses?

  That would be best!

  Thus, after much consideration, Pei Qian decided to expand into the poorest city in Handong Province-Lincheng City.

  It was poor, which meant that its residents could not afford to spend too much money. Naturally, they would not be able to afford to visit more expensive internet cafes like Fish-Catching Internet Cafe.

  Unnecessarily luxurious take-out services offered by Fish-Catching Take-Out would all-the-more be out of the picture. At the same time, Upwind Logistics—which had been steadily incurring losses so far—would continue to lose money. All in all, it was best to choose a poorer city to expand into.

  As for why… Pei Qian did not plan to explain this to Zhang Yuan. In any case, they could conjure up reasons on their own. Pei Qian continued speaking. “My plan is to move all of our physical businesses and their accompanying businesses there.

  “We’ll set up one Fish-Catching Internet Cafe 2.0 branch in a core commercial district, three Fish-Catching Internet Cafe 1.0 branches in lower-tier commercial districts, a Fish-Catching Take-Out branch, twenty Upwind Courier stations, and a huge warehouse for ROF Computer-Installation, with four distribution points around the Fish-Catching Internet Cafe branches.

  “We will prepare for all of these things at once and then open for business at the same time!”


  Zhang Yuan looked shocked. “Boss Pei, that won’t be a small investment.

  “Lincheng’s rent would be lower than Jingzhou’s, but we would need about ten million yuan to open all of these branches at once…”


  Pei Qian sighed inwardly.

  I didn’t want to do this either.

  You were the one who generated so much revenue for ROF! I have to spend all of that money now so that I won’t become overwhelmed with problems when settlement draws near, right?

  Pei Qian said solemnly, “That’s a puny sum. If you don’t have enough money, ask me for more.

  “What’s more, we’re only setting up twenty courier stations for now, but we’ll set up more in the future. We want to cover Lincheng City with Upwind Courier stations as soon as possible, just like we did for Jingzhou!

  “You need to be clear of one goal. You have to think of ways to spend any money that you earn. If you end up incurring losses, report to me at once; and I will provide you with more funding.”


  At first, Zhang Yuan thought that Boss Pei was just saying nice-sounding words. However, after scrutinizing him, Zhang Yuan realized that Boss Pei’s gaze was extremely sincere.

  “Boss Pei, I… I really am… very moved!”


  At that moment, Zhang Yuan was having difficulty expressing his gratitude in words.

  Pei Qian quickly raised his hand to stop him.

  “Alright, you don’t have to say more. I have work to do. I’ll make a move first.”


  Pei Qian glanced at the long line at the entrance and felt even more pissed off. Zhang Yuan quickly said, “Alright, Boss Pei! Take care, and I wish you a happy new year!” Pei Qian remained silent.

  Sorry, the new year is not happy for me at all!

  January 4th, Tuesday, 11 AM…


  Pei Qian walked nonchalantly into the office, just as he always did. Everyone else had already started working a long time ago.

  Everyone looked especially busy, but this was probably because it was their first day back at work after a long holiday.

  Li Yada and the rest were already back from their holiday.

  Pei Qian studied Li Yada and Bao Xu closely. For some reason, they did not look joyful or reminiscent after returning from their holiday. Instead, they looked… like they had just suffered a horrible ordeal.

  Pei Qian could not help but feel confused. Was the United States that boring?

  However, he did not ask any questions. That was because Pei Qian was more of a homebody, who did not like going on adventures. He did not really care about whether the United States was boring or not because he had no plans to travel there.

  Once he reached his office, Pei Qian checked his unread notifications.

  There was a message from Zhang Yuan, saying that he and Lu Mingliang were going to set off for Lincheng today to check the place out, shortlist possible locations, oversee renovations, and recruit employees. They would probably only be back in the middle of February.

  The timeline was not bad for Pei Qian. It would be even better if the process was slightly delayed.

  This was the best-case scenario: the internet cafes, the courier stations, and the like opening for business a week or so before settlement. Then, not only could Pei Qian spend a huge sum of money, but he could also avoid generating more revenue during this cycle.

  As for the next cycle…


  He could think about it when the time came. If all else failed, he could look for another poor city to expand into. The cycle would be endless.