March 25th, Friday… Boss Pei had been very busy during the past two days. Pei Qian would always enter into a state of the rush to spend money on the last week of every settlement. There were still some unfinished tasks Boss Pei had to deal with even though most of the burden for this cycle was taken away by GOG’S season bonus and celebration party for the people working on the Thriller Hostel.

  Pei Qian had been busy working on these.

  First was the most basic employee base salary, benefits, and other expenses. They were increased as much as possible according to the word-of-mouth status of each project on the TPDb website.

  Of course, only the statistical work had been completed so far. Salaries and bonuses had to go through the process and would only be issued at the end of the month.

  Then, many projects started relentless promotional activities.

  Fish-Catching Internet Cafe, ROF Computer-Installation, ‘Top Student, Come Quick’, Upwind Logistics, Zhongdian Chinese Network, etc. burnt money appropriately within the scope of the system. It seemed to be burning money to boost its popularity on the surface, but it was in fact purely to burn money.

  Pei Qian only discovered the benefits of having many projects now.

  For example, the Fish-Catching Internet Cafe went on the high-end route previously, trying to dissuade as many customers as possible to guarantee a loss. However, after a few magical maneuvers, even the Fish-Catching Internet Cafe in Lincheng City became full.

  The policy of dissuading customers was self-defeating. However, Pei Qian found out that sales promotion could be done at this time!

  The internet cafe was packed to the brim when the usual price was maintained. That meant that there was no room for an increase in traffic in the internet cafe even if he were to run promotions now!

  Therefore, burning money now was purely burning money! Moreover, the system’s restrictions on ‘incurring losses for promotion’ seemed to have relaxed quite a bit after the projects became profitable. It even encouraged ‘drinking poison to quench thirst’ to a certain extent.

  Obviously, such behavior would have negative effects like increasing the popularity of the project.

  However, that was a big deal to Boss Pei who had tasted some sweetness from this poison.

  Boss Pei used it during the last settlement cycle as well. At that time, he was worried that the current cycle would be particularly difficult. It turned out that while it was indeed a little difficult, he still got here through his own ingenuity. He seemed to be able to cross it safely this month!

  Uh, that was not right. It seemed too early to come to such a conclusion. He should not set a

  flag.

  In short, he had settled the spending. The current funding status was good. He would receive a sum of money next week which would be spent directly in the form of a GOG season bonus. He would then wait for the settlement with a peace of mind.

  Pei Qian glanced at his watch. It was now 2.50 PM.

  It was about time.

  Quite a number of people had gathered outside of Boss Pei’s office on the 16th floor of Shenhua View. They were the department heads in Tengda.

  They received a notice to come for a meeting at 3PM in the afternoon. However, no one seemed to have an idea of the agenda of the meeting.

  Other than the person-in-charge for the preparation of this process…


  However, their lips were sealed.

  Everyone in Tengda, be it the top or bottom tiers, had formed a tacit understanding of the Tengda spirit. That was to unconditionally fulfill Boss Pei’s requirements and without asking anything. Everyone would do their best to fulfill all his requirements including confidentiality.

  No one really knew Boss Pei’s profound meaning after all. They feared losing Boss Pei’s trust so the safest way was to be honest and obedient and do exactly as Boss Pei said.

  Of course, there was no telling what these people would read into it. They would listen to everything Boss Pei said except to not read too much into it.

  It was nearly 3PM. Boss Pei walked out of his office.

  Everyone was already seated in the conference room, waiting for the meeting to start.

  Pei Qian sat down at the head of the conference table, looking around, and said straightforwardly, “Today, I’m going to present a new reward to an outstanding department in Tengda.

  “This reward will be given out from time to time in the future. I will decide when it should be given. I call for a meeting immediately to present the reward when I find something I should reward.”


  Surprise appeared on the faces of the heads.

  Another reward? Wasn’t there already a lot of rewards now?

  They had so many benefits that the other companies were jealous. Members of all departments could obtain extra bonuses based on the TPDb website scoring every month. There were frequent salary increments. There were also two important prizes every year in addition to the outstanding employee rewards. They were the selection of outstanding employees.

  They had no-overtime competitions every month, which would reward the winning department.

  Now, there were new rewards for outstanding departments?

  How… exciting!

  The heads of several departments felt hopeful. They sat upright and waited. That included Huang Sibo, Lin Wan, Chang You, Hu Xianbin, He Desheng, etc.

  Pei Qian saw it and felt very angry.

  All of you should indeed win prizes from the perspective of making profits and stabbing me in the back.

  What a pity, there was none for you! Pei Qian took the trophy from Assistant Xin. The blinding golden rays immediately blinded everyone’s eyes. The entire trophy was shining gold! There was no need to doubt. It was made of pure gold!

  The trophy was shaped like a mountain. However, it had undergone some artistic treatment and was more abstract.

  There was a small line of words: “Tengda Cornerstone Award’.

  There were two lines of words written vertically in traditional Chinese. It seemed to be the handwriting of a certain calligrapher.

  A chip off a mountain of gold does not affect its height; an immeasurable sea remains deep despite a blight[1].

  These two lines were written by a local calligrapher in Jingzhou specially chosen by Pei Qian after serious contemplation. He scanned the characters and had them engraved on the gold mountain trophy. Why make it so complicated? He was mainly afraid that the trophy might cause a counter-effect after it was awarded!

  Pei Qian had thought of it. This trophy would be awarded directly to the department with the most losses.

  However, it was easy to produce a counterproductive effect if it was not handled properly. They might think that Boss Pei was spurring them on to turn things profitable.

  Wouldn’t that be self-defeating?

  Therefore, he must not cause a misunderstanding! This award was not to spur them but a complete and unreserved compliment! It was to reward them for making losses!

  Of course, he could not say it so straightforwardly. Pei Qian, therefore, carved these words onto the gold mountain, hinting that the only criterion for this award was to lose more money. ‘Gold mountain’ and ‘sea of money’ symbolized wealth. Together, both sentences meant that they could not earn all the money in the world. There was no end to it; when would they be done? There would be no effect on Tengda Corporation even if you were to make losses. There would even be benefits, so please increase your efforts in making losses!

  Pei Qian felt that these sentences were obvious enough. The educated should understand.

  The heads looked at the ‘golden mountain’ with a surprised expression. It seemed like this award was even better than the best employee award? A custom-made trophy with engravings. Moreover, it was presented by Boss Pei himself. It must be of great importance! Pei Qian cleared his throat and spoke, “I’m going to present the Tengda Cornerstone Award today!

  “Everyone knows that Tengda has many highly profitable departments, but there were also many loss-making departments. I feel that the loss-making departments should also be rewarded!

  “The Tengda Cornerstone Award will be awarded to the departments with continuous losses because only such departments can be worthy of the title ‘Tengda Cornerstone’!

  “I announce that the winning department of the Tengda Cornerstone Award is—Upwind Logistics!”


  Pei Qian stood up and smiled at Lu Mingliang, motioning for him to come and accept the award.

  Lu Mingliang was momentarily stunned as though he never thought that the award would be given to him.

  The other heads froze for a short while but reacted quickly. A warm round of applause resounded around the conference room. They might be confused, but it was still necessary to applaud when Boss Pei presented the reward to Lu Mingliang. Lu Mingliang stood up, bowed slightly, and took the heavy trophy from Boss Pei. He was about to say something along the lines of ‘I’m not worthy of this’ when he was interrupted by Boss Pei’s smile.

  “There is no need to say anything. All Tengda employees acknowledge your contributions.” Lu Mingliang returned to his seat with the trophy in a daze.

  Pei Qian did not let him speak because he did not want him to say that he was not worthy and that he would continue working hard to turn losses into profits or other similar discouraging words, which would destroy the atmosphere he had worked so hard to create.

  Pei Qian smiled and continued to increase his effects seeing how the other heads were rather envious. “There are other rewards in addition to this trophy.

  “All staff of Upwind Logistics will each receive a cornerstone bonus of 2,000 yuan and a Koi Medal! In addition, Upwind Logistics will also receive 30 Otto E1 mobile phones to reward those who have made outstanding contributions in the department!”


  The other heads were green with envy now. The benefits were too good! Forget about the 2,000 yuan bonus. They could obtain the ‘Koi medal’ and 30 Otto E1 cell phones?

  The attractiveness of cash rewards to Tengda employees was limited. However, such honor -especially rewards personally given by Boss Pei-were extremely attractive to them!

  Pei Qian’s gaze swept over all of them, and a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

  They were obviously anxious now. They felt that they had made great contributions to Tengda in terms of profitability. However, Boss Pei pointed out the requirement of the cornerstone award which was to award the department with more losses.How could they swallow it?

  That’s right, don’t swallow it!

  Ain’t you envy? Jealous? Don’t you feel unbalanced? Then make your own losses! Why do I need to work so hard if all the departments consciously lose money?

  Come, everyone, work hard and start competing!

  The corners of Pei Qian’s mouth rose slightly as he thought happily. However, he glanced around the audience, only to find that everyone was staring back at him as if expecting a reasonable explanation from him.

  Oh? Looking forward to a plot twist? Sorry, there would be none!

  Pei Qian stood up directly. “Alright, that’s all for today’s short meeting. Dismissed.” He turned to leave the conference room immediately, leaving the heads to look at one another with different expressions.

  [1] The ‘sea’ here refers to the endless sea of money generated by the world.