Chapter 827: Gourmet Adviser

January 17th, Tuesday.

Pei Qian woke up as usual and went to Fish-Catching Internet Cafe for breakfast.

Today was another day where he was racking his brains to spend money.

There was still half a month to settlement. Pei Qian was under immense pressure to spend money.

Sloth Apartments had made a profit from working with Fanglan Residence’s furniture. The Fully-Automated Intelligent Bickering Machine had been sold for a sum of money. He had repeatedly bought and sold the shares of Cold-Faced Lady which ended up in profit. The downloadable content of a few old games had been sold quite well. There was also the ten million US dollars that IOI’s sponsor had withdrawn from the breach of contract…

Pei Qian would have fainted on the spot had he not thought of a plan beforehand.

Apart from the normal expenses for the various departments, Pei Qian chose to spend the bulk of his money on the ‘Mission and Choice’ project.

To Pei Qian, the smartest part of this project was to let Tengda Corporation’s two most important departments, Tengda Games and Fei Huang Workspace, be in charge at the same time.

One was making games and the other was making movies. In reality, they were two projects. However, they were viewed as one project by the system and successfully exploited the loopholes in the system.

The system stipulated that only one project could be postponed to the next cycle. Pei Qian used the combination of games and movies to double the amount of funds that the project could absorb.

Since the project would be postponed until the next cycle, Pei Qian could spend more money in this cycle. As long as the amount was not so huge that the project could not be completed in the next cycle, everything would be fine.

Thus, Pei Qian called Hu Xianbin and Huang Sibo respectively and casually said that he had tens of millions of yuan to give to them. He wanted them to think about what else they could spend on this project and make full use of it.

Huang Sibo was stunned as well. The movie had been going so well, and now he had a windfall?

However, Boss Pei’s task had to be completed. He had to make the best use of his time to figure out how to increase the budget and make good use of the money.

He Desheng called again not long after Pei Qian hung up.

“What’s wrong? Is there a problem with the Cold-Faced Lady?” Pei Qian was very cautious and asked subconsciously.

He Desheng: “Boss Pei, don’t worry. Everything is going smoothly with the Cold-Faced Lady. Everything is going according to your wishes. There are no big problems.”

“I mainly want to report about Meng Chang this time. Didn’t you specifically tell me to keep an eye on him?”

Pei Qian relaxed slightly. “Oh, Meng Chang. Go ahead.”

After the Cold-Faced Lady closed down, Meng Chang sold all his shares to Tengda cheaply and even paid up a small portion of his debt.

However, even so, Meng Chang was still carrying a debt of several million yuan. He was still the judgment debtor.

Pei Qian took the initiative to pay up the debt to the suppliers and transferred Meng Chang’s debt to Tengda.

In other words, Tengda was now Meng Chang’s creditor.

He Desheng investigated Meng Chang’s situation when Pei Qian asked about it some time ago. Meng Chang obviously had not given up and went to look for many investors to make a comeback. However, he was rejected from all of the important positions that he had applied for.

Logically speaking, victory and defeat were common in war. Meng Chang had failed in his entrepreneurship but his personal ability was still there. Why did no one want him?

That was because Meng Chang did not have a solid foundation before he established the Cold-Faced Lady brand. His resume was nothing more than graduation from a famous school, work experience in the marketing department of a large company, and so on.

If he had not gotten a sum of money from Dream Realization Ventures, he might not have been able to create such a huge business.

In other words, Meng Chang had seriously overdrawn his future while managing the Cold-Faced Lady.

Now that the Cold-Faced Lady had completely failed. The investors who believed in Meng Chang had suffered a terrible loss. Meng Chang, the founder, had overdrawn his entrepreneurial potential. Naturally, he could not obtain any more opportunities.

He Desheng said, “Boss Pei, Meng Chang should understand that he’s at his wit’s end. He’s been running around the capital for the past week. He should be clear-headed now that he’s hit the brick walls.”

“It would be his best opportunity if you are willing to lend him a helping hand.”

“That’s why he said that he was willing to work in Tengda. I’m just not sure what kind of job he would be in charge of and how much salary he would get. Boss Pei, what do you think…”

It looked like Meng Chang had no other way out.

Pei Qian knew very well that Meng Chang must have some hatred towards him. If not for Dream Realization Ventures’ repeated buying and selling of his shares, his script might not have become like this.

As long as Meng Chang had other methods, he would definitely not come to Tengda to work for him.

However, he would have to take things as they come. Pei Qian also liked Meng Chang’s spending ability.

In terms of spending power, Meng Chang was the most satisfying person Pei Qian had ever seen.

The only problem was Meng Chang was good at spending money but he could also cause a huge commotion. Pei Qian’s situation would only worsen if he was in charge of marketing.

At that moment, he needed to think in the opposite direction.

Meng Chang knew marketing very well and knew how to spend the most money to achieve the best marketing effect. On the other hand, he should also know how to spend the most money to achieve the worst marketing effect, right?

It was just like how a top student could easily score 100 marks. Naturally, he could score 0 marks as well. It was not easy for a flunky to score 0 marks because he could not avoid it if he did not know the correct answer. What if he guessed correctly?

Pei Qian pondered for a moment and said, “Tell him to start working next month. I want to set up an advertising company specially for him. This advertising company can only take on work within Tengda Corporation. It’s mainly in charge of advertising planning, brand publicity, and so on.”

“As for his salary, you can tell him that it will definitely not be low. However, we still have to talk about how to distribute his salary in person. I plan to provide him with two different pay models for him to choose from: One will be a high base salary without commission, and the other will be a low base salary with high commission. Let him decide for himself.”

“As for the actual work contents… I’ll personally teach him when the time comes.”

He Desheng quickly said, “Alright, Boss Pei. I’ll tell him now.”

…

At the same time, in Beijing…

Qi Yan invited the winners of the Gourmet Competition yesterday to the store of the Cold-Faced Lady and entertained them.

As Qi Yan had expected, many vendors declined Cold-Faced Lady’s invitation to join them.

That was because these vendors were relatively famous in their areas. There would usually be a long queue when they set up their stalls. Their business was extremely good. What’s more, most of them were locals. They could not bear to leave their hometown and was not in need of money. Naturally, they did not want to drag their families in relocating.

However, there were still a few younger vendors who were willing to talk to Qi Yan in detail. They would consider it after understanding the situation.

They were vendors too but their situation was different.

These stall owners were generally younger. They still had some hopes and expectations for the future. Their career aspirations had not been completely destroyed by life.

They had decided to listen to Qi Yan’s proposition. If the conditions were tempting enough, they could consider working away from home for a few years to try it out.

It would be good if they were to succeed. They might even be able to earn the money that they could earn only after setting up their stalls for a few years. It did not matter if they failed either since they would just return to set up their stalls.

Among these people, the stall owner that Qi Yan admired the most was Zhang Yahui. He was very young, only twenty-six years old. He dropped out of high school to set up a stall with his parents because of his poor family background. He was more flexible and liked to study on his own. The roasted cold noodles that he made were very famous in the area. Anyone who had eaten it would praise it.

During the street food contest, the cold noodles he made received unanimous praise from the judges.

Qi Yan explained her intentions to everyone: She hoped to hire them as Cold-Faced Lady’s Gourmet Advisors. Their job would be to study the cooking methods and flavors of various food stalls and try their best to mass-produce the snacks that they were good at in a more streamlined manner.

This job had its pros and cons to the vendors.

The drawback was that the salary of this job was slightly lower than the income they earned from setting up their own stalls. What’s more, they had to come to Beijing to eat, live, and other daily expenses.

The advantage was that this job was much easier than setting up their own stalls. What’s more, this was a very good opportunity, they might have a better future.

They might earn a lot by setting up their own stall, but it was also very tiring. They would usually work from dawn until late at night with almost no rest. What’s more, they might encounter all sorts of unexpected situations, making their income very unstable.

On the other hand, working as a ‘Gourmet Adviser’ here as a nine to five job would be much easier. What’s more, they might have a better future. If they could really make a name for themselves, their future income might be much higher than if they were to set up a stall.

The stall owners weighed the pros and cons and were very hesitant. It was difficult for them to make a decision in a hurry.

Zhang Yahui was obviously inclined to accept this job.

His idea was that he was still very young. He could not possibly limit his future and set up a stall in a small city forever, right?

There was nothing wrong with setting up a stall since he was making quite a lot of money as well. However, Zhang Yahui was more inclined to working a decent job in a big city.

Zhang Yahui knew very well that it was very easy to return from a big city to a small city. However, it was very difficult to gain a foothold by climbing up from a small city to a big city.

The Cold-Faced Lady’s invitation was undoubtedly an opportunity to gain a foothold in the big city. If he missed it, he probably would not get it again in the future.

Zhang Yahui considered for a moment and said, “I’m quite satisfied with your conditions. However… I’m a little worried about whether I can take on this position.”

“Can I find out more about the job of a ‘Gourmet Adviser’ first? It’s not a small matter to relocate. Both of us would be quite awkward if there’s a deviation in expectations.”

The other stall owners nodded in agreement.

Many vendors were actually tempted, but they did not dare to agree immediately because they were not confident in themselves.

They felt that they were just a food vendor. How could they be “Gourmet Advisors”? That did not sound reliable. What if the Cold-Faced Lady changed her mind after two months and fired them?

Qi Yan thought for a while. “That’s easy. Take a look at the cold noodles cooked by Cold-Faced Lady first, analyze the problem, and give some pointers. As long as you can improve the taste of the cold noodles, it means that you can do this job. We can hire you without worry, and you can work without worry. How about that?”

Zhang Yahui nodded. “Alright.”

This was equivalent to a simple interview. Improving the taste of cold noodles was the content of the interview. After the interview, both parties would have more confidence.