March 25th, Friday.

These past two days, President Pei has been very busy.

Every time it gets to the last week before the settlement, Pei Qian has to enter a state of frantic spending.

Although the GOG season bonus, the investments in Thriller Hostel, and the employees' frequent celebratory banquets have already eliminated most of President Pei's burdens for this cycle, there are still some finishing touches to take care of.

Pei Qian has been busy with these things during this period.

First, there are the most basic employee salaries, benefits, and other expenses. Based on the reputation of each project on the TPDB website, bonuses are issued where they are due, base salaries are increased where they are due, and everything that can be increased is increased as much as possible.

Of course, only the statistics have been completed so far. The salaries and bonuses have to go through the process and will be issued at the end of the month.

After that, many projects carried out inhumanly cruel promotional activities.

For example, Lazy Workplace, ROF Assembly, Study Tyrant Come Quickly, Nifeng Logistics, Starting Point Chinese Website, etc., appropriately burned money within the limits allowed by the system.

On the surface, it looks like burning money to earn popularity, but in reality, it is purely for burning money.

At this time, Pei Qian realized the benefits of many projects becoming popular.

Take Lazy Workplace as an example. Before, he wanted to take a high-price route and try to dissuade customers as much as possible to ensure losses.

As a result, after several magical operations, even the Lazy Workplaces in Lin City were all packed…

The idea of discouraging customers to cause losses had already been defeated.

But Pei Qian found that he could do promotions at this time!

Usually, maintaining the original price meant the internet cafes were already full. That also meant that burning money for preferential promotions wouldn't increase the internet cafe's traffic!

So, burning money at this time was pure money burning!

Moreover, after the project became profitable, the system's restrictions on "losing money to gain popularity" would become much looser, and even to some extent, it would tolerate and encourage "drinking poison to quench thirst."

Obviously, this behavior would bring some negative effects, such as increasing the popularity of the project.

But for President Pei, who had already tasted some sweetness from "drinking poison to quench thirst," that was no big deal.

President Pei also took a big gulp during the last settlement. At that time, he was worried that this cycle would be particularly difficult. Facts proved that although it was indeed a little difficult, he still made it here through his own intelligence and was about to pass safely!

Uh, no, it seems a little too early to say that now. He shouldn't jinx it.

In short, the matter of spending money in a hurry had already been arranged. The current financial situation was good. A sum of money would arrive next week, and then it would be spent directly in the form of GOG season bonuses and employee benefits. After that, he could just wait for the settlement.

Pei Qian looked at his watch. It was 2:50 PM.

It was almost time.

At this time, outside President Pei's office, on the 16th floor of Shenhua Mansion, quite a few people had gathered.

They were all the heads of various departments of Tengda Group.

They had only received a notice saying that they had to come here at 3:00 PM this afternoon for a short meeting, but no one seemed to know the specific content of the meeting.

Except for a few heads who were directly related to the preparation stage.

But these heads were all tight-lipped about it and wouldn't reveal anything.

Now, all employees of Tengda, whether high-level or low-level, had formed a tacit understanding of the Tengda spirit, which was to unconditionally fulfill President Pei's requirements and not ask too many questions. As long as President Pei required confidentiality, everyone would do their best to fulfill the confidentiality requirements.

After all, no one knew what President Pei's deep meaning was. They were afraid that they would mess things up and lose President Pei's trust. The safest way was to honestly listen to him and do whatever President Pei said.

Of course, what these people would think in their minds and what they would imagine was hard to say.

They would listen to whatever President Pei said, except when President Pei told them not to think too much, which was absolutely impossible.

Almost at 3:00 PM, President Pei came out of his office.

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

Pei Qian also sat down at the conference table, looked around, and said straight to the point, "Today, I am going to present a new award to an outstanding department of Tengda Group."

"In the future, this award will be issued irregularly, and the timing of its issuance will depend on me."

"When I find that a department meets the conditions for this award, I will immediately convene a meeting to present it."

Hearing this, the heads showed surprised expressions on their faces.

Another commendation?

Aren't there already enough rewards?

Everyone felt that the internal welfare was already so much that it made other companies envious. All members of all departments could receive additional bonuses based on the TPDB website's rating every month, and salary increases were also frequent. In addition, in order to commend outstanding employees, there were two first prizes every year: Outstanding Employee Selection.

There was even a No Overtime Competition every month, and the winning departments would also be commended.

Now, they were going to issue a new award for outstanding departments?

This was too… exciting!

Several department heads who felt they had a chance all sat up straight and waited.

For example, Huang Sibo, Lin Wan, Chang You, Hu Xianbin, He Desheng, and others.

Pei Qian saw it in his eyes and felt angry in his heart.

From the perspective of making money and stabbing me in the back, each of you really deserves an award.

But unfortunately, it's not for you!

Pei Qian took the trophy for this award from Assistant Xin. The shining golden light immediately blinded everyone's krypton gold eyes.

The entire trophy was golden!

No doubt, it was pure gold.

The appearance of the trophy was in the shape of a mountain, but it was more abstract and had undergone some artistic processing.

There was a line of small characters on the base: Tengda Cornerstone Award.

And on the golden mountain, there were two vertical lines of traditional Chinese characters, in a flamboyant style, seemingly the handwriting of a calligrapher.

金山有缺，不损其高；
钱海无涯，蚀而逾深。

These two lines were what Pei Qian had pondered hard before specially asking a calligrapher in Jingzhou to write, and then he scanned the calligraphy down and engraved it on the golden mountain when customizing the trophy.

Why go to so much trouble?

Mainly because he was worried that the award would have the opposite effect after it was awarded!

Pei Qian had already figured it out. In the future, this trophy would be directly awarded to the department with the most losses.

But if it was not handled well, it could easily backfire, making the loss-making department think that President Pei was spurring them on, and thus they would work even harder to turn losses into profits.

Wouldn't that be counterproductive?

So, he absolutely couldn't let everyone misunderstand!

This award was not a roundabout way of spurring them on, but a thorough and unreserved compliment!

It was to encourage their losses!

Of course, he couldn't say it so bluntly, so Pei Qian engraved these sixteen characters on the golden mountain, implying that the only criterion for awarding this award was to see who lost the most money.

"Golden Mountain" and "Sea of Money" both symbolized wealth. The combined meaning of these two sentences was that money could never be earned enough, so where would it end? It wouldn't affect Tengda Group even if you lost more, and there might even be benefits, so please be sure to increase your efforts!

Pei Qian felt that the implication of these two sentences was already very obvious, and anyone with a little culture should be able to understand it.

At this time, when these department heads saw this "golden mountain," they all showed surprised expressions on their faces.

It seemed that this award had even more prestige than the Best Employee award?

Customizing a trophy, with words engraved on it, and personally awarded by President Pei himself, the significance was significant!

Pei Qian cleared his throat and solemnly said, "Today, I want to present the Tengda Cornerstone Award!"

"As we all know, Tengda has many highly profitable departments, but it also has many departments that have been losing money. I believe that the loss-making departments should also be rewarded!"

"The Tengda Cornerstone Award is to be awarded to those departments that continue to lose money because these departments are worthy of the title of 'Tengda Cornerstone'!"

"I announce that the winner of this Tengda Cornerstone Award is – Nifeng Logistics!"

Pei Qian stood up and looked at Lü Mingliang with a smile, signaling him to come forward to receive the award.

Lü Mingliang was stunned for a moment, seemingly not expecting that this award would be awarded to him.

Other department heads were also stunned for a moment, but they quickly reacted, and warm applause rang out in the conference room.

Although they were confused, they still had to support President Pei when he presented the award and Lü Mingliang when he received it.

Lü Mingliang stood up, bowed slightly, and took the heavy trophy from President Pei's hand. He was just about to say something like "I don't deserve it," but Pei Qian interrupted him with a smile.

"There's no need for a speech. All Tengda employees will silently remember your contribution."

Lü Mingliang returned to his seat with a blank expression, holding the trophy.

Pei Qian didn't let him give a speech, mainly because he didn't want him to say discouraging things like "I don't deserve it" or "I will continue to work hard to turn losses into profits," which would ruin the atmosphere he had worked so hard to create.

Seeing that the other heads were a little envious to the point of being distorted, Pei Qian smiled slightly and continued to increase his efforts: "In addition to this trophy, there are other rewards."

"All employees of Nifeng Logistics will receive a Cornerstone Bonus of 2,000 yuan per person and a Koi Badge! In addition, Nifeng Logistics will receive 30 Otto E1 phones to reward those employees who have made outstanding contributions to the department!"

As soon as he said this, the other department heads became even more envious to the point of being distorted.

The benefits were too good!

The 2,000 yuan bonus was nothing, but there was actually a "Koi Badge"? And 30 E1 phones?

For Tengda employees, cash rewards were not very attractive, but this kind of honor, especially the awards personally presented by President Pei, was extremely attractive to them!

Pei Qian's eyes swept over the department heads whose expressions were obviously sour, and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

Obviously, they were anxious.

Because these departments all felt that they had made great contributions to Tengda, mainly in terms of making money.

But President Pei pointed out the requirements for the Cornerstone Award, which was to award it to the department that lost the most money.

How could this be convincing!

"That's right, don't be convinced!"

"Be jealous, be envious, feel unbalanced, and work hard to create losses!"

"As long as all departments consciously lose money, why should I work so hard?"

"Quick, everyone, hurry up and seize the time and start competing!"

Pei Qian's mouth curled up slightly as he thought happily.

However, he glanced around and found that everyone was staring at him, seemingly expecting him to give a reasonable explanation.

Oh? Expecting a plot twist?

Sorry, that's not going to happen!

Pei Qian stood up directly and said, "Okay, that's all for today's short meeting. Everyone, go back."

After speaking, he turned and left the conference room.

Leaving only the heads looking at each other with different expressions.