Chapter 1 The Last Day Before the Holiday

January 20th, Friday.

Today was Tenda's annual meeting, and also the last day of work before the New Year.

At 10:00 AM, Pei Qian got out of bed with a yawn, still a little groggy.

Yesterday, Old Ma's livestream was a minor blow to him. The fully automatic smart heckling machines had sold off another batch of the previously stockpiled inventory, which made Pei Qian toss and turn all night, unable to sleep.

That's why he woke up late today.

But after a night's sleep, Pei Qian finally accepted reality. Since the smart heckling machine was already selling like crazy, it was probably impossible to dissuade the enthusiastic consumers. He should turn his attention to other things.

Fortunately, he had already made a plan to spend money in a hurry, so this little accident was still within an acceptable range.

"I wonder how today's annual meeting will be specifically organized. Oh well, I'll find out when I get there."

Yesterday, Pei Qian had once again completely forgotten the annual meeting plan that Assistant Xin had given him. He had been thinking about Old Ma's livestream the whole time, and as a result, he had left the plan in the office and hadn't had time to look at the specific arrangements for the annual meeting.

But it shouldn't be a big problem.

Because last year's annual meeting was quite successful. Before this year's annual meeting, Pei Qian had already said that he wanted to continue to implement the consistent purpose of last year's annual meeting, boldly try new forms of holding it on the premise that the core remains unchanged, and the most important thing was that the budget should be raised again.

Last year, the annual meeting alone had a budget of more than 4 million for prizes, not counting the venue fees, the cost of the dolls caught in the games, and so on.

Of course, this year's annual meeting budget had to be even higher, because as Tenda's scale continued to expand, the number of employees was also increasing rapidly. Last year, less than a thousand employees participated in the annual meeting, but this year it had reached about 1700 or 1800.

Of course, the composition of these employees was very complex, such as the delivery guys from Upwind Logistics, the fitness coaches from the托管 (tuoguan) gyms, the delivery guys and chefs from Moyu Takeaway, and the internet cafe attendants from Moyu Internet Cafe.

In addition to these people, the employees of the truly core departments, such as the R&D personnel of Tenda Games, Shang Yang Games, Feihuang Studio, Otto Technologies, and other departments, only accounted for a small portion.

Pei Qian had always treated his own employees equally, whether they were engaged in mental or physical labor, they would all participate in the annual meeting and enjoy the exact same benefits.

Of course, some employees who were not in Jingzhou were unable to participate.

For example, the incubation base, Cold Noodles Girl, and the Moyu Internet Cafe and Moyu Takeaway stores in other cities. These were given a budget so that the person in charge could arrange it themselves, whether it was eating or directly distributing annual meeting prizes, as long as all the money was spent on the employees.

Pei Qian really didn't know where he could hold the annual meeting for this huge team of nearly 1800 people.

Last year's annual meeting had booked out an entire hotel, a full 100 tables, and it was difficult to fit so many people in.

But this year, the number of people had almost doubled, and even the largest hotels would probably not be able to accommodate so many people.

But if these people were scattered into several halls, or scattered into private rooms, it would be a little strange. The annual meeting was supposed to have a lottery, so could they have a separate lottery in several halls? Something didn't feel right.

Therefore, Pei Qian didn't know exactly how Assistant Xin had arranged it, but the plan that Assistant Xin had given him had been forgotten in the office, so he could only wait until he arrived at the annual meeting site to see it.

...

Before 11:00 AM, Xiao Sun arrived downstairs on time and picked up Pei Qian to go straight to the annual meeting site.

Pei Qian sat in the car and played with his phone for a while. When he looked up again, he suddenly felt that this route was so familiar.

Pei Qian didn't drive himself, so he naturally didn't remember the route. Although he had lived in Jingzhou for more than two years, he was still not very familiar with the city.

But today's route was very familiar, because he seemed to have traveled it many times.

Looking closely, wasn't this Yuanda Paradise in front of him?

Yuanda Paradise was the second largest shopping mall in Jingzhou, and also the venue for the GOG World Invitational Tournament and the GPL Spring Split.

Pei Qian was just about to ask if they had gone the wrong way, but then he thought that couldn't be right. Xiao Sun had always been reliable in his work, and it was impossible for him to make such a low-level mistake.

In other words, was this year's annual meeting held at Yuanda Paradise?

"That's really possible. The GPL Spring Split has already been suspended and won't be played until after the Spring Festival, so the GPL venue is empty, and there are plenty of seats. It's quite suitable for holding an annual meeting lottery."

"But... how will they handle the meal?"

Pei Qian was a little puzzled, but he couldn't ask too much. After all, as a boss, it seemed a little unreasonable that he didn't know the specific arrangements for the annual meeting on the day the annual meeting started.

He had to pretend that everything was under control.

Xiao Sun parked the car in the underground parking lot, and the two of them took the elevator directly to the 8th floor of the mall.

Another floor up was the GPL competition venue on the top floor. Pei Qian guessed that there should be a unified reception area on the 8th floor.

The mall was still open as usual today, but since it was Friday morning, there weren't many people, and the flow of people in the entire mall was maintained in a state that was neither deserted nor crowded.

Soon, they arrived at the 8th floor.

Pei Qian and Xiao Sun walked out of the elevator and were immediately warmly welcomed.

There were employees from the administrative department and the human resources department in charge of reception at the elevator and escalator entrances on the 8th floor of the mall, and there were people in charge of distributing tokens, just like at last year's annual meeting.

The tokens were game coins. At last year's annual meeting, each employee was given a small bag with fifty or sixty tokens in it. A single token could be used to experience a gashapon machine that cost 10 yuan once, and they could play as much as they wanted.

And this year, not only was a small bag of tokens distributed, but also a stack of coupons. These coupons were printed with the words and logos of Tenda and Yuanda Paradise Mall, a lunch coupon, a dinner coupon, and five 200-yuan shopping coupons.

There was also a participation award, which was still a thick red envelope. Last year it was 1,000 yuan per person, but this year it definitely couldn't be less than last year, so it was directly increased to 1,888.

In addition to that, there was also a small leaflet with detailed information about the venue and process of this year's annual meeting, serving as a guide.

Seeing this small card, Pei Qian breathed a sigh of relief. Okay, this arrangement was very thoughtful, and he could finally know the whole arrangement for the annual meeting.

Pei Qian dismissed Xiao Sun and told him to go and have fun with the others, and then he strolled around while reading the entire annual meeting schedule.

...

This year, the number of people attending the annual meeting had almost doubled compared to last year, so ordinary hotels definitely couldn't fit all these people in one hall.

After consulting everyone's opinions, Assistant Xin found that most people didn't really care about the dining part, so this time he directly arranged the annual meeting at the Yuanda Paradise shopping mall.

The GPL Spring Split venue on the top floor had been booked by Tenda, so of course they could use it as they pleased. In addition, they also spent money to book the entire 8th floor for special internal activities for employees, such as claw machines and ring toss games, just like at the previous annual meetings.

The whole annual meeting process was roughly like this:

First, go to the 8th floor to collect the tokens, coupons, and the participation award red envelope, then the three hours from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM were free time.

All employees could feel free to wander around the mall, either with colleagues from their own department or with other friends.

With the lunch and dinner coupons, they could eat at any restaurant in the mall, ordering in a buffet style. All expenses were reimbursed by the company, provided that no food was wasted.

And the 1,000 yuan of shopping coupons could be used freely in the mall. The only restriction was that they couldn't be directly exchanged for cash, and they had to be spent entirely in the mall.

After 2:00 PM, everyone could return to the 8th floor to continue playing games.

The 8th floor of the mall had been redecorated and was filled with various small games, including claw machines and ring toss games, which could be played at will with tokens.

It was similar to the game sessions at last year's annual meeting, only on a larger scale.

In addition, after 12:00 PM, the GPL venue would be officially open, and internal employees who had formed teams in advance could go on stage to play friendly matches and experience the thrill of professional players playing in a competition.

Until 4:00 PM, after they had played enough with the claw machines and all the friendly matches were over, all the employees would gather in the competition venue on the top floor and sit down according to their department areas for the final lottery session.

This year's annual meeting prizes were even richer than last year's, with all kinds of digital products such as headphones, keyboards, game consoles, cameras, mobile phones, and computers, as well as cash red envelopes and other more practical items such as vacuum cleaners and robot vacuum cleaners.

The lottery time was one hour, ending at 5:00 PM.

After that, everyone would disperse and go to the mall for a free dinner. After dinner, they would all go home, officially starting the holiday.

...

After reading the entire annual meeting schedule, Pei Qian couldn't help but feel gratified.

Assistant Xin had indeed arranged the entire annual meeting process perfectly, which was very satisfying.

Who said that annual meetings had to be about eating together?

In fact, the annual meeting meal might not suit everyone's tastes. After all, there were so many people on site, some liked traditional Chinese food, some liked Western food, some liked Japanese food... It was impossible to satisfy all these tastes, so they could only choose a menu that most people would find relatively easy to accept.

Moreover, even though the annual meeting was said to be about eating together, in reality, people could only communicate with those at the same table. Cross-table conversations between different departments were not very common, and in Tenda's atmosphere, it was even less necessary.

In that case, why bother squeezing into the same hall to eat?

Everyone could go and eat what they liked. There were all kinds of restaurants in such a big shopping mall, and they could eat as much as they wanted with the company's reimbursement. How comfortable was that?

When it came to the lottery session, everyone could return to the GPL competition venue together, watch the e-sports competition-level big screen, and draw the lottery for a full hour. How wonderful was that?

In short, this year's annual meeting continued last year's style, without any formalism, without any pep talks, and without letting anyone go on stage to act foolishly. Everyone came to eat, drink, and have fun.

Eat happily and have a good time!