Chapter 41 Annual Meeting

It was 4 PM at the Tenda annual meeting.

The employees, full and tired from wandering around, flocked to the GPL competition on the top floor, taking their seats according to their departments and seat numbers.

The eight teams spontaneously organized from various departments within the company had been playing for four hours, from 12 PM to now, with each match averaging 20 to 35 minutes, just enough to decide the champion.

This was partly because the game *GOG* had a faster pace, with the average game time shorter than games like *Shen Qi* and *IOI*. It was also because of the large disparity in strength between the teams from different departments, easily resulting in one-sided matches, with many games ending in less than 20 minutes.

Moreover, the live competition eliminated breaks between rounds and the need for tactical discussions, further saving time.

The Tenda Games Department team, which had been highly anticipated, was unexpectedly eliminated, failing even to reach the finals, much to everyone's surprise.

Clearly, the absence of star players Bao Xu and Min Jingchao, who were in Los Angeles, greatly reduced the strength of the Tenda Games Department team.

The two teams that made it to the finals were the teams representing Ni Feng Logistics, led by Lu Mingliang, and Yuanmeng Venture Capital, led by He Desheng.

On the Yuanmeng Venture Capital side, it had to be said that President Ma had left behind a good foundation. Most of the employees, including He Desheng, were high-scoring players from the *Shen Qi* era. They had also provided opinions on many of *GOG*'s design ideas and often played five-man squads with President Ma, resulting in excellent teamwork.

The main reason why Ni Feng Logistics was so strong was simply because they had a large number of employees.

With so many stores and delivery personnel, it was easy to find five people who were good at *GOG*.

However, in the end, the Ni Feng Logistics team lost to the Yuanmeng Venture Capital team due to slightly inferior teamwork and tactics.

The deliverymen expressed their regret, stating that they would practice hard and strive to win next year's annual meeting.

All participating teams received small gifts and participation awards, including various GPL League merchandise, autographed photos of team members, team uniforms, and more.

Of course, these small gifts would also be given to other employees who enjoyed watching the GPL.

The champion team received a custom-made internal competition trophy. Although it couldn't compare to the GPL League trophy, it was still quite valuable and would be a permanent symbol of honor in the Yuanmeng Venture Capital office.

Some people watched the internal competition live, some went shopping, and others played claw machines or ring toss games.

Now that everyone was tired, they bought milk tea or drinks and sat down in the venue to rest, waiting for the raffle.

Raffles at other companies' annual meetings had to be held while eating.

The reason was simple: few prizes, low odds of winning. Employees waited a long time without winning anything, so they had nothing to do but eat.

But Tenda's raffle was different, with many prizes and high odds of winning, almost everyone received something.

Moreover, the rules of the raffle were the same as last year's annual meeting: not completely random probability, but pseudo-probability. Each person could win up to two prizes, and the longer someone hadn't won, the higher their odds of winning.

With so many prizes being drawn in just one hour, it was exciting and full of anticipation, so no one felt bored.

Almost everyone had arrived, and without even a host going on stage to waste time, the program on the big screen started rolling, and the raffle began!

Before the raffle, a short promotional video would play to introduce the prize, and then names would be drawn from the employee list.

Because the number of participants this year had almost doubled compared to last year, the raffle program had been slightly modified: instead of drawing one person at a time and displaying their photo, it now drew five people at a time.

The photos of the five people would be displayed on the big screen for a moment, then shrink and fly to the upper left corner of the screen, and then continue to draw other people.

All the photos were stacked on the big screen, and the prizes were quickly drawn.

Everyone stared at the big screen, afraid of missing the winning information, but this worry was unnecessary. Not only would others in the same department remind them, but their phones would also automatically receive a notification of their winnings.

Because the moment the raffle was completed, the program would automatically generate an order to arrange for Ni Feng Logistics to deliver the prize to the employee's address and automatically send a notification message.

Cheers rose and fell in the huge venue that could accommodate nearly two thousand people.

As the raffle progressed, the value of the prizes increased. High-value laptops, mobile phones, digital cameras, televisions, and more were given away as if they were free, and the atmosphere became increasingly lively!

Finally, after the 18,888 RMB cash prize was drawn, the grand prize appeared on the screen.

A five-day trip for two to any city in the world, six winners!

This was a recurring event from last year's annual meeting. A five-day trip for two to any city, you could choose wherever you wanted to go, and the company would cover the cost of first-class tickets and five-star hotel accommodation, with an additional allowance for discretionary spending.

This prize was undoubtedly the biggest prize of the annual meeting.

Many people might feel that it wasn't as practical as those high-end televisions or high-end gaming laptops worth more than 10,000 RMB, because televisions and computers could be used for many years, while a trip only lasted five days.

But on the other hand, you could grit your teeth and save up to buy an expensive computer worth more than 10,000 RMB, but who would be willing to fly first class and stay in a five-star hotel when traveling on their own!

Moreover, the total cost of first-class tickets and five-star hotels already far exceeded the value of a high-end laptop worth more than 10,000 RMB.

Therefore, this was the prize that everyone was most interested in.

And because of the increase in the number of people, the grand prize, which only had three winners last year, had been increased to six winners this year, increasing the odds of winning.

Many people were looking at the big screen with excitement, hoping that they would be one of the six lucky winners.

Soon, the avatars on the big screen began to roll, and six avatars appeared.

The fourth avatar from the left was none other than Bao Xu!

The other five avatars were all unfamiliar faces, probably some grassroots employees.

After all, there were nearly two thousand people at the venue, and Pei Qian only knew a few dozen people at the manager level, so the probability of being drawn was very low.

But Bao Xu…

What was going on with Bao Xu?

Did he really have to win a trip every time?

Seeing Bao Xu's avatar on the big screen, the venue immediately burst into laughter.

"Hahaha, it's Brother Bao again!"

"Where's Brother Bao? I want to see his expression right now!"

"He's in Los Angeles. It should be the middle of the night there. Brother Bao will have to wait a few more hours to find out about this bad news."

"Perfect, perfect. Seeing Brother Bao win is even happier than winning myself!"

Pei Qian couldn't help but sigh silently. Fate, it was all fate.

Even in Los Angeles, he couldn't escape the fate of being drawn.

Moreover, Bao Xu was the fourth winner, which meant that if this year's grand prize had only three winners, he wouldn't have been on the list.

What a mess.

There were quite a few Tenda Group employees in the Los Angeles team, but since it was an annual meeting raffle, it would definitely be inappropriate to exclude them, so although these people were not present, they were still on the raffle list.

Bao Xu won anyway, he couldn't escape his destiny.

In another two or three days, after the IOI World Championship in Los Angeles was over, Bao Xu and the others should be back, just in time for the New Year.

But… after the New Year, Bao Xu would have to pack his bags immediately and consider his next destination.

Pei Qian couldn't help but mourn for Bao Xu in his heart.

…

Finally, the entire annual meeting process was over.

All the employees were returning with a great haul, having had a very enjoyable time.

Having given away so many gifts, Pei Qian also felt relaxed and relieved of a heavy burden.

Fortunately, this settlement cycle coincided with the New Year, allowing him to spend several million at once through the annual meeting, saving Pei Qian from having to think of several other ways to spend money, saving a lot of brain cells.

In short, it was time for vacation!

During the Spring Festival, pre-arranged advertisements would be splashed across Jingzhou, the Imperial Capital, and the Devil Capital. According to the current rate of spending, he should be able to lose a lot by the time work officially resumed after the Spring Festival.

A massive loss was certainly unlikely, but losing eight or nine million, converting into eight or nine hundred thousand, shouldn't be a problem, right?

Everyone left the venue, and Pei Qian wasn't in a hurry to leave either. He stayed in his seat and took out his phone to browse.

However, after seeing a message about the "Dead End Project," a "fuck" almost escaped his lips.

The promotional videos for *Ink Wash Painting* and the "Dead End Project" had inexplicably gone viral on Ellie Island!

Not only that, but *Ink Wash Painting* had updated a 10-minute trial demo on the official platform and started pre-sales. In just one afternoon, sales had reached 50,000 copies!

This was already an incredible achievement for an unknown indie game!

In the coming week or even month, as awareness increased and popularity spread, the game's pre-sale sales would obviously continue to rise.

Pei Qian's expression gradually froze.

"What's going on?"

"The game isn't even finished yet and they're already putting it up for pre-sale?"

"Is there no justice?"

"Is there no law?"

"Qiu Hong is just messing with me! Does he have any professional ethics at all!"

"Is there no one to manage this?!"