Chapter 199 Monday, March 19th

Bao Xu and Liang Qingfan, weary from their travels, once again set foot on the soil of Jingzhou.

Liang Qingfan appeared somewhat fatigued, but still radiated energy.

"Ah, finally back!"

"Even though a paid vacation is great, such a long time away can be a bit tiring."

"But Brother Bao, you seem full of pep! As expected of a travel master! Thanks so much for looking after me on this trip to Egypt!"

Bao Xu, standing to the side, silently rolled his eyes.

*So* full of pep!

It's only now that I'm finally back in Jingzhou that I've managed to recover some energy, okay?

If he had to stay in Egypt for another week, Bao Xu feared he would turn into a mummy and dry out in the desert.

In any case, this trip was finally over!

Bao Xu wished he could just go back to sleep and play games, not wanting to waste a single second.

But even so, the two still had to share a taxi back together.

In the taxi, Bao Xu had no desire to chat with Liang Qingfan, and instead continued to ponder the one thing he had been racking his brains over during this month-long trip.

How can I avoid going on trips in the future?

Being "kidnapped" to go on trips twice in a row had already made Bao Xu wary.

Bao Xu had originally thought that as long as he kept a low profile, hibernated in the games department, and didn't take on any work, he wouldn't be targeted in the Best Employee selection.

But he had been wrong three times.

The first time was when Li Yada did an outstanding job in the Tenda Games Department and won second place for Best Employee, so Bao Xu was arranged to accompany her on the trip.

The second time was when Huang Sibo won second place for Best Employee, and Bao Xu was once again arranged to accompany him.

The third time, it was Liang Qingfan...

The first two times were one thing, but what made Bao Xu speechless was that he wasn't even that familiar with Liang Qingfan!

This just shows that within Tenda Group, "winning second place for Best Employee and having Bao Xu accompany them on a trip" had become an unspoken rule, a tacit agreement.

So, if anyone wins second place for Best Employee in the future, they'll definitely ask Bao Xu to come along!

Moreover, Bao Xu's previous policy of concealing his abilities had not only failed to achieve its goal of hiding himself, but had actually backfired: everyone felt that since Brother Bao didn't have any particularly important work to do anyway, it was perfect to have him accompany them on the trip, without delaying anything.

Therefore, Bao Xu felt that he couldn't go on like this any longer and had to make some changes!

But what specific changes should he make?

Bao Xu was still in the Tenda Games Department. If he were to take the initiative to take on some work, he would definitely have something to do. But the problem was that he was a senior employee, and everyone in the department was watching him. If he made any achievements, he might be voted up.

Wouldn't that be very awkward?

So, Bao Xu felt that it would be best to just find something to do in other departments.

That way, the next time someone asked him to accompany them on a trip, he could righteously refuse: I'm sorry, I have work to do. Please find someone else!

But which department should he go to and find some work to do?

Bao Xu didn't really want to transfer to another department. He still wanted to stay in the Tenda Games Department, so it would be best to just help out temporarily.

But his main work ability was game design, and it was hard to say whether other departments needed his help.

Therefore, Bao Xu was deep in thought, racking his brains to escape the fate of accompanying people on trips.

...

At the same time, at Tenda Group headquarters.

Pei Qian was in his office, flipping through work reports from various departments, while pondering how to arrange and adjust the work plan for the next stage.

Pei Qian had already learned about the situation at Rabbit Tail Live, but was powerless to do anything about it.

For non-official freelance commentators to be more popular than official commentators was just outrageous!

He could only say that the Dragon Yu Group was really too useless. How could they not even arrange something as simple as commentary for matches? They were creating a lot of difficulties for Pei Qian at work for no reason.

However, it was said that Dragon Yu Group was also making urgent adjustments, looking for professional players from other clubs to guest-star as live analysts, so the level of official commentary should soon improve.

Pei Qian didn't care too much, as long as the iCL league became more and more popular and the heat continued to rise.

Just as he was flipping through the work records of various departments, there was a knock on the office door.

Pei Qian looked up and saw an unfamiliar face.

Zhang Yahui nervously introduced himself: "President Pei, I'm Zhang Yahui from Lengmian Girl. You called me before and told me to come see you on Monday to talk about the snack market..."

Pei Qian instantly remembered: "Ah, right, please sit down."

Although Pei Qian's original intention in creating this snack market was to poach people from Lengmian Girl and restrict Lengmian Girl's development, he still had to go through the motions.

If the conditions at the snack market were not good, how would the stall owners from Lengmian Girl come?

Pei Qian poured a cup of tea for Zhang Yahui and then said, "Actually, this snack market is just a rather vague concept at the moment. You have to carefully consider how to operate it specifically."

"Don't worry about funding. I'll give you ten million yuan to spend slowly. If it's not enough, you can apply for more. The key is to have enough attraction for the stall owners!"

"As for other requirements..."

"The snack market must be in Jingzhou, and the stall owners who join the market must accept unified supervision to ensure food hygiene and safety. The ingredients must be purchased uniformly, and the snack market must have dedicated staff for unified management..."

Pei Qian simply stated his ideas.

Zhang Yahui's face showed a surprised expression: "Just these requirements?"

As far as he was concerned, President Pei's conditions were simply too good to be true!

The funding was very abundant, there were no performance requirements, and the location only had to be in Jingzhou. There were no restrictions on where to open it specifically. As for unified supervision, food hygiene and safety, etc., these were all the most basic things. Even if President Pei didn't say it, Zhang Yahui would pay attention to them.

Then there were no other requirements?

This was too much freedom!

Pei Qian thought for a moment and asked, "What other requirements do you want?"

Zhang Yahui said, "For example... should the snack market be located in a bustling area or a slightly remote area? Should it be next to other Tenda properties? What style should be used for decoration? How should the stall owners' business hours be arranged? Am I the one to determine these as well?"

Pei Qian considered it.

He originally wanted to tell Zhang Yahui to decide for himself, since he didn't have too many requirements for the snack market anyway. Making money or losing money was up to fate. He just wanted to poach people from Lengmian Girl in a justified manner.

Pei Qian didn't think it was necessary to spend so much brainpower to determine these details.

But on second thought, he felt that he should still talk to Zhang Yahui about it.

After all, as the ancient saying goes, diligence leads to success, while idleness leads to ruin; learning is achieved through thinking and destroyed by complacency. Many problems in the past were caused by his being too laissez-faire, so adding a few more layers of insurance was always a good idea.

Pei Qian briefly considered the questions raised by Zhang Yahui.

The location of the snack market definitely couldn't be in a bustling area, because the stall owners all had good skills, and with so much money invested, the dining environment would definitely be good. If it opened in a bustling area, the customers would all be people with strong spending power, and it would definitely make a lot of money.

But a slightly remote area also seemed inappropriate, because land prices were cheap in remote areas. If the snack market became popular, it might cause the surrounding land prices to rise, and all the surrounding industries would benefit, with too much room for development.

This place also definitely couldn't be next to other Tenda properties. If it was right near Nameless Restaurant, it would definitely become a food street, and foodies from all over the country would come running. Or if it was near Sloth Apartments or TouchFish Cafés, a group of young people would come over for a snack after playing games...

That wouldn't be good either.

As for the decoration style, it should be as incompatible as possible with the theme of street stalls; the business hours should be as random as possible.

Pei Qian said, "In terms of location, don't be in a bustling area, but don't be too remote either."

"There shouldn't be any Tenda properties nearby."

"The decoration style must be high-end, trendy, and cool, making a clear distinction from the concept of 'street stalls.'"

"The business hours should adopt a flexible working system, without too many restrictions on business hours, giving stall owners plenty of freedom."

"That's all the requirements. There are no others."

Zhang Yahui showed a blank expression.

What kind of requirements were those?

But he had long heard of President Pei's style of doing things, so he wasn't too surprised and could only silently write down all the requirements.

"Then... President Pei, I'll go prepare now?" Zhang Yahui said.

Pei Qian nodded: "Yes, go!"

...

Coming out of the Shenhua Haoyue Building, Zhang Yahui still felt a little confused.

Before the Spring Festival, he was just an ordinary stall owner, making cold noodles early and late every day to earn some hard-earned money. As a result, after participating in a street food competition, he was first noticed by President Qi of Lengmian Girl and put in charge of the food lab and promotional videos, and then he was noticed by President Pei and put directly in charge of the snack market project.

It could only be said that the ups and downs of life were too exciting!

Now, he had a huge amount of money provided by President Pei, but he felt very confused and didn't know what the snack market should look like in order to meet President Pei's requirements.

He was still just a figurehead and could only plan for the long term.

However, just as he was about to leave, he saw a taxi stop at the entrance of the Shenhua Haoyue Building, and Liang Qingfan and Bao Xu were in the car.

Zhang Yahui's eyes lit up: "Aren't you Designer Liang? I saw you in the promotional video for Sloth Apartments before!"

Liang Qingfan nodded: "You are..."

Zhang Yahui said, "My name is Zhang Yahui, and I'm now in charge of President Pei's newly opened 'Snack Market' project..."

Zhang Yahui was very happy and quickly introduced himself and the ins and outs of his coming here.

Liang Qingfan's eyes showed a surprised expression: "Snack market? Sounds interesting!"

"I'm sorry, I've been abroad leading a new tour for the past month, so I'm not too clear about these things."

"But... Sloth Apartments, which I'm in charge of, doesn't have much work to do recently. Does your snack market need some design work? I can help."