In fact, President Pei was very concerned, extremely concerned!

Can you all stop running over and interfering?

I just want to find a place where no one is around, to secretly lose a little money!

Just this insignificant wish!

Do you have to follow me around like a bunch of tagalongs?

I've already been forced to open a haunted house by you guys, what more do you want from me!

Do I have to build a rocket before you'll stop following me?

Pei Qian was speechless. If he could use the system funds to send CEO Li and the others away, he definitely wouldn't hesitate to just give them the money!

However, President Pei was now a man of refinement. Even if the other party said such outrageous things, he still had to remain calm.

Pei Qian sighed softly, "CEO Li, actually, I've always wanted to say that there's a very serious misunderstanding between us. I've been trying to explain it, but you don't believe me."

"I told you a long time ago, I'm just doing Dream Chasing Ventures for fun, to fulfill a few unfulfilled dreams, and I never thought about making money at all."

"This situation now is completely due to a series of coincidences, do you understand?"

CEO Li smiled and nodded, "I completely understand!"

Pei Qian: "?"

What do you understand!

CEO Li also ordered a cup of coffee and sipped it leisurely. "The act of investing is inherently full of randomness. Even the most skilled investors can't compete with luck, which is why man's plans are inferior to heaven's."

"So, for a skilled investor like President Pei to still have such reverence for the element of luck itself, despite possessing such brilliant investment methods, is a quality that all of us investors should learn from."

Pei Qian: "..."

Although what you're saying sounds reasonable, are you sure the luck you're talking about is the same thing as the luck I'm talking about?

Pei Qian was silent for a moment. "In fact, I really don't have any brilliant investment methods."

Li Shi smiled slightly, "That's right, every successful investor is as humble as you."

Pei Qian: "..."

Seeing President Pei remain silent, Li Shi continued, "President Pei, if you don't have any brilliant investment methods, then how do you explain your operation on the 'Xueba Kuai Lai' (Study God is Coming) project?"

"You were the one who decided to do this project, you were the one who named the project, you were the one who burned money to hype it up, you were the one who decided to sell at a high point, and you were the one who found a sucker to take over and kicked everyone out of the game before buying it back at a low price."

"President Pei, please tell me, it's luck to get one step right, but what is it to get every step above that right?"

Pei Qian sighed silently, "It's incredibly bad luck."

Li Shi couldn't help but laugh, "President Pei, you're still so humorous."

"I know that you've always been wary of other investors. Using some very clever methods to kick us out of the 'Xueba Kuai Lai' project proves this point. But we don't mind at all, it's a natural operation. If you didn't do this, we would think you weren't a qualified investor, because that would mean you weren't ruthless enough."

"In short, you letting us drink the soup is already a very generous act."

"So, even if you always speak half-truths, it doesn't matter. I'm already used to this kind of communication."

Pei Qian: "..."

Are you sick, are you!

CEO Li, you're the CEO of an investment company, why did you suddenly become a masochist!

Every word I said to you was true, the key is that you don't believe me!

Can a chain of suspicion really arise between two creatures of the same realm, class, order, family, genus, and species, speaking the same language?

This was completely unexpected.

Seeing President Pei's silence, the corners of Li Shi's mouth rose slightly.

It seemed President Pei was still pretending to be ignorant.

In that case, he would have to reveal all of President Pei's methods to leave him speechless!

Li Shi calmly took a sip of coffee, "Okay, if it's just this operation on the 'Xueba Kuai Lai' project, I can still think of it as luck."

"But President Pei, how do you explain the shared phone booth project?"

Pei Qian: "That was all Zhang Wang's doing, I didn't know anything about it from beginning to end."

"Yes, okay." Li Shi still maintained his faint smile, "Then the popularity of 'Glory of Gods' obviously has nothing to do with you either, it was developed independently by your designers, right?"

Pei Qian nodded, "Yes!"

Li Shi's smile was even brighter, "Okay, you want to attribute all the credit for these projects to your subordinates, that's fine. But who is behind the linking of 'Glory of Gods', shared phone booths, and the 'Xueba Kuai Lai' project?"

Pei Qian was stunned.

He looked at Li Shi, his eyes widening, his face full of astonishment.

GOG, shared phone booths, and the "Xueba Kuai Lai" project linked together?

How are they linked?

Why don't I know about it?

Seeing President Pei's astonished expression, Li Shi couldn't help but feel smug.

President Pei, you thought this move was seamless, that no one could see it?

Unexpectedly, I saw through it!

Li Shi proudly took out an Ottoe1 phone from his pocket and, as Pei Qian's expression changed from astonishment to speechlessness, flipped to a photo.

The place in the picture was very familiar to Pei Qian. It was the top floor of Global Heaven Street, where Modest's phone booth was located.

In the picture, a long queue had formed in front of the phone booth again.

Pei Qian was dizzy.

Because according to the information in the photo, it was taken yesterday!

What's going on? Hasn't the traffic to the phone booth stabilized? Don't you need to wait in long lines anymore?

Then what is this all about?

Li Shi smiled slightly, "Similar scenes are playing out in more than twenty other phone booths. These GOG players seem to like taking photos with these heroes and then getting a hero's signature inside."

"So President Pei, decorating these phone booths according to the GOG hero themes and putting all the heroes' signatures inside is definitely not your idea either, right?"

Pei Qian: "..."

Li Shi continued, "Moreover, President Pei, if my information is correct, shared phone booths have already spread throughout the major shopping malls in Jingzhou, while in other cities, shared phone booths operate on a franchise model."

"Major shopping malls directly order the goods and are responsible for their own operation and maintenance. They can recoup their costs in a few months, and the shared phone booth business has already shifted to selling phone booths and earning commissions, right?"

"So, the GOG-themed phone booths are so popular that some cities are ordering a complete set of GOG heroes as soon as they order phone booths. Originally, they were buying only two or three, but now they're buying more than twenty at once..."

"This matter also has nothing to do with you, President Pei, right?"

Pei Qian opened his mouth, but stopped.

Ten thousand grass mud horses galloped through his heart.

He did think that the GOG hero-themed phone booths would become a popular tourist attraction after the game was launched, but he didn't take it to heart at all.

He thought that people would at most just go to the phone booths to take photos and check in, and it wouldn't have any impact on revenue.

He never expected that this would in turn boost phone booth sales!

Other cities are now more inclined to buy a complete set of GOG hero-themed phone booths for a dozen shopping malls to facilitate GOG players in their cities to check in. As a result, phone booth sales have suddenly increased!

Pei Qian was already in a state of confusion and didn't know what to say for a while.

Seeing President Pei's expression, Li Shi was even more certain that he had guessed correctly.

He smiled and continued, "Then, what about the link between the 'Xueba Kuai Lai' project and the phone booths?"

Li Shi opened the "Xueba Kuai Lai" app on his phone.

"The advertising for Xu De Education was completely cleared, quickly restoring its reputation. The old user return campaign not only brought back users who were lost during Xu De Education's management period, but also brought back students and their parents who were forcibly registered by Xu De Education. The number of active users of the app showed a miraculous rapid recovery in the short term after Dream Chasing Ventures took over."

"Not only that, but the app's offline teaching section will automatically search for nearby Lazy Frog Internet Cafes and shared phone booths as meeting places and offer significant discounts on consumption."

"As for adding a lifestyle section to the 'Xueba Kuai Lai' app and promoting Lazy Frog Takeout, Qidian Chinese Website, and some of its own light games under the banner of 'a combination of work and rest', it shouldn't have anything to do with President Pei either, right?"

Pei Qian was completely speechless.

To be honest, these things really had nothing to do with him!

He didn't even know about these later things until CEO Li said them...

But looking at CEO Li's expression, Pei Qian completely understood his current situation.

Whether he admitted it or not, CEO Li already had an answer in his heart!

Even if Pei Qian denied it outright, CEO Li would only wear a meaningful smile on his face and treat everything he said as a form of humor between friends.

Or even more seriously, he would treat it as a rather special... bragging?

Pei Qian felt tired, and he didn't even have the mood to settle accounts with Yu Pingan, the current person in charge of the "Xueba Kuai Lai" project, after the autumn harvest.

And Li Shi struck a victorious pose, his face full of pride.

Look, President Pei's ingenious layout was seen through by me, and then I made him speechless!

Earning money from investment wasn't this happy!

Pei Qian took another sip of coffee to calm himself down.

Then he said very helplessly, "So, how do you plan to invest?"

Li Shi smiled, "President Pei, don't worry, we won't compete with you. We just want to drink some soup."

"We will definitely not interfere in the 'GHASTLY MANOR' project itself."

"The old industrial area is such a large place. We'll just pick a spot and open a small store, do some catering, entertainment, and sell some merchandise."

"We definitely won't cause you any trouble."

Pei Qian was even more speechless.

You guys opening stores here is already causing me trouble!

But what could he say? The old industrial area was such a large piece of land that Pei Qian couldn't swallow it all even if he wanted to.

CEO Li and the others were willing to invest in the old industrial area, and Pei Qian had no reason to stop them at all.

Even if Pei Qian didn't agree, CEO Li and the others would still go there to invest...

Pei Qian said helplessly, "Alright, then do as you please. Don't say I didn't warn you beforehand if you lose money."

Li Shi laughed, "Of course, President Pei, we've been in the investment circle for so long, we certainly have a clear understanding of the risks of investment."

"Besides, President Pei has already led us to make so much money, so even if we lose it, we'll just treat it as a return to President Pei. What's there to regret?"

Pei Qian: "..."

What you said makes so much sense that I'm speechless.