663 A Thank You Letter

Pei Qian's hand trembled as he picked up his glass of red wine and took a sip. Finally, he calmed himself down.

Yes, why did it feel like he had been expecting this…?

He had been a victim of sudden attacks like that at the dinner table more than once now. It was almost as if he had built immunity against it.

Still, a veteran like Boss Pei would not give up fighting just like that.

It was no big deal to Boss Pei. There was still time to turn things around!

Pei Qian put his glass of red wine back down on the table. "Are you sure you're going to work together with those furniture shops and property developers?

"Aren't you going to consider it further?

"I don't think that plan sounds complete."

As for what exactly they should consider, Pei Qian was not sure either. Regardless, his primary concern was how to earn less money or how to avoid earning any money at all. He just could not find a suitable excuse.

When Boss Pei was at a loss as to what to do, he would make use of his employees' knack for letting their imaginations run wild.

Song Kai remained silent for a moment and then nodded. "That's right, Boss Pei. Why not?

"Property developers are well-known for being rich!

"As for furniture businesses… there are different companies with varying levels of popularity, but they have huge profit margins. There's a lot of room for them to reduce their prices. If I can get our customers discounts and also get the company a share of the profits, why wouldn't I?"

Pei Qian's expression darkened.

Do you think I don't know that property developers are well-known for being rich?

Do you think I don't know that furniture shops have high-profit margins?

If you continue to emphasize these points, I would forbid your plan all the more!

Song Kai's expression filled with confusion as Liang Qingfan fell into deep thought as well.

Now, the atmosphere was awkward.

Pei Qian could not allow the silence to continue, and so he thought about inviting everyone to leave this problem aside, continue eating, and consider it slowly.

After all, the longer they took to consider the problem, the later the company would earn additional income.

However, at that moment, Lu Mingliang—who had been quietly listening to the conversation by the side—spoke up.

"You're both new to Tengda Corporation, and so the way that you do things doesn't necessarily conform to the Tengda Spirit. It's no wonder that you can't understand what the intentions behind Boss Pei's instructions are."

Song Kai and Liang Qingfan stared at him and then leaned in humbly to be taught. "Boss Lu, can you please give us a few tips?"

Pei Qian turned to Lu Mingliang as well, his mind filling with question marks.

?

I invited you for a meal here to make sure that I had enough numbers. Don't try to blindly interpret my words!

Oh, it's Lu Mingliang speaking. That's alright, then.

If it had been Lin Wan, Huang Sibo, Bao Xu, or someone similar; Pei Qian would have thought about interrupting them or changing the topic.

That was because those people's interpretations often led to trouble!

On the other hand, Boss Pei trusted Lu Mingliang significantly. Thus, he allowed the latter to say one or two sentences.

Lu Mingliang organized his thoughts and said, "When I heard about that profit-making model, I felt shocked as well. It was completely beyond my expectations.

"However, after some consideration, I noticed one problem. The profit-making model that you have thought of only forms a small part of the one that Boss Pei is thinking of.

Pei Qian: "…"

With newfound respect, Liang Qingfan and Song Kai immediately sat up straight and listened intently.

Lu Mingliang continued speaking. "Congratulations to the two of you for entering Boss Pei's sphere of thinking. You now possess the second most valuable thing in Tengda Corporation at the moment.

"Tengda has always prided itself in running its businesses honestly and without making anything up. That's how it built such a good reputation in the eyes of the customers. Thus, even when we enter new industries, customers would tend to trust us easily.

"Tengda's goods and services might be more expensive, and our quality-price ratio might be slightly poorer, but we would never take advantage of our customers. That's why our customers trust us so much, and that's the second most valuable resource that our company owns."

Song Kai slowly and cautiously raised his hand. "I'm sorry to interrupt you. What's our most valuable resource, then…?"

Lu Mingliang looked incredulous. Inside, he wondered why he had to explain this.

However, after realizing that Song Kai was not figuring it out, he helplessly answered, "Boss Pei's brain, of course."

A realization dawned on Song Kai, and he nodded profusely.

That's right. How come I couldn't answer such a simple question?!

Pei Qian: "…"

At that moment, he was at a loss for words.

Lu Mingliang continued speaking. "It's precisely because customers trust Tengda so much that Tengda has been able to achieve a measure of success in every industry. Thus, that trust is very valuable. Partnering Sloth Apartments with furniture brands and property developers would be akin to using the trust that our customers have in us to back other businesses.

"Ideally, this would be a win-win situation. As the middlemen, we would be the bridge between our customers and the manufacturers. The manufacturers would earn less, the profits would be shared, and consumers would enjoy discounted prices. We would also stand to benefit from this arrangement.

"However, the question is how you can ensure that your arrangement with those other businesses would remain under the ideal scenario. The manufacturers may start off well with you, but they might become greedy later given how easy it would be for them to earn more money. They might start compromising on the quality of their products to earn bigger profit margins, and customers are bound to discover this.

"How can we ensure that the businesses we partner with don't compromise on quality, then?

"Once something like that blows up, Tengda's resources would be contaminated, and the foundation on which the group of companies was built would become shaky as well. We would suffer unimaginable loss.

"Don't believe that those other businesses have as good a conscience as Tengda does. We just learned a lesson from Home Corporation's Safe Houses two days ago, didn't we?"

Liang Qingfan and Song Kai suddenly understood something.

That was indeed a huge hidden danger!

Actually, both of them had thought about this issue before, but they dismissed it for two reasons. First, they were still at the nascent stage of negotiating with other businesses and were far away from entering agreements. Second, they had not placed much weight on it because they thought too well of other businesses.

Now, hearing Lu Mingliang's words, both men felt adequately warned.

So that was what Boss Pei was worried about!

They could not help but turn to Boss Pei, only to find him sipping his wine and in deep thought. It was almost as if he was devising a plan that was way better than theirs.

At once, they sat up even straighter.

Yet, Pei Qian was busy thinking about something else.

When he had heard that the foundation on which the group of companies had been built could be shaken, he became slightly excited.

It sounded like such an easy way to incur losses!

Restricted by the System's regulations, Pei Qian could not resort to lying and cheating to take advantage of his own customers. However, if Tengda's partner companies did those things behind Pei Qian's back, the System would probably not be able to do anything.

In other words, there was a loophole…

Still, that thought only flashed past Pei Qian's mind before he quashed it completely.

I am only interested in incurring losses and not going against my own conscience.

How can I allow shoddy companies that produce rubbish to lie to and cheat others using my name? Of course not!

Get them as far away from me as possible!

Still after hearing Lu Mingliang's words, Pei Qian thought of a new idea.

Since Liang Qingfan and Song Kai wanted to increase the scope of the Sloth Apartments's business, Pei Qian had to get back at them!

It was just like what had happened with ROF back then. Zhang Yuan had intended to make use of the Fish-Catching Internet Cafe's brand name back then to profit from assembling computers. However, Pei Qian made use of the business to establish 1024 Digital Day and spend as much money as possible.

Of course, what happened next went without saying.

At least, the strategy had worked back then!

Pei Qian could apply his creativity to the problem that Lu Mingliang had just raised.

According to the System's regulations, once a certain business arm had established a good reputation, the System would greatly expand its profit-generating requirements. That was what happened with Upwind Logistics.

At that thought, Pei Qian said, "We can consider partnering Sloth Apartments with other furniture brands or property developers, but there must be very strict regulations.

"Hire someone to conduct frequent inspections. Before working together, send someone to conduct deep research into the current state of those other companies. Get a good understanding of their financial positions and management situation.

"The inspecting teams should be put in charge of a different region at regular intervals to prevent corruption and cheating.

"We will cover all expenses incurred by inspecting teams when they conduct inspections, including clothes, food, lodging, and travel. On top of that, we must not reveal our identities.

"Even after the partnerships are established, the inspecting teams should conduct spot checks at regular intervals. Customer reports and feedback should also be encouraged. Once we find that the other companies are falling short, we should immediately terminate the contract and compensate our customers for all losses suffered.

"All of these conditions must be clearly and neatly written in our partnership contracts with the other companies. Companies that refuse to accept these conditions would not be allowed to work with Tengda.

"If any problems arise in the course of these partnerships, I will hold both of you responsible."

Liang Qingfan and Song Kai immediately looked somber. "Yes, Boss Pei!"

Obviously, with these conditions in place, few furniture brands and property developers would be willing to work with Tengda Corporation. In fact, less than ten percent of companies would likely be willing to.

Who would sign a contract with that many terms and conditions?

Those furniture brands and property developers were loaded to begin with. Of course, it would benefit them to have Sloth Apartments's brand on their side. However, they would not collapse without it either.

Now, Sloth Apartments was demanding regular inspections and compensation if any problems were detected, in exchange for allowing the companies to use its brand name. How could they?

Still, Liang Qingfan and Song Kai found Boss Pei's requests reasonable. If the other companies were not made to sign a contract with all terms and conditions clearly stipulated, how could Tengda guarantee that those companies would keep their words?

Companies like Tengda, which could ignore short-term gain for the sake of long-term profit, were few and far between in this world.

At the same time, it was what people found most respectable about the group of companies.

Lu Mingliang could not help but nod subtly. It was good. Those two people-in-charge were beginning to understand the true meaning of the Tengda Spirit!

Pei Qian sipped his wine to calm himself down. Never would he have expected that Sloth Apartments would get itself into so many problems.

He had thought that the project would be a failure for sure, but it now looked like he was lacking in imagination.

Or… the world's imagination far surpassed his own.

Therein lay the problem. Given how Sloth Apartments was doing, should Pei Qian open more of them?

From the looks of the current situation, Sloth Apartments could aid in burning money because each building cost a great deal. At least in the short-term, Pei Qian could forget about recovering all of it.

Yet, at the same time, Sloth Apartments's business model was risky. Take today for example. A certain business arm could expand abruptly, and a huge market that had been undiscovered before could appear and cause Boss Pei to rake in a ton of profits.

Pei Qian could not help but feel conflicted.

"Oh, that's right, Boss Pei. I have something to give to you." Song Kai suddenly recalled something. He retrieved a letter from inside his pocket and handed it to Pei Qian.

Pei Qian started and then took hold of it.

There were no stamps or signatures. It was a simple envelope with a thank you letter inside.

"Hello…

"I am a victim of the formaldehyde scandal. Long before Sloth Apartments appeared, I started battling with formaldehyde. I poured a huge amount of time and energy into it, but to no avail.

"I couldn't do anything about it because the voice of the ordinary man is too small.

"I am very thankful to all the kind people online who have spoken up about this. At the same time, I am grateful to Sloth Apartments for providing me with a simple solution that saves me unnecessary trouble and helps me to relax. I no longer have to wrangle and fight with Home Corporation. I just have to give up on them and choose Sloth Apartments instead.

"From the bottom of my heart, I hope that Sloth Apartments would expand out of Jingzhou one day and allow everyone around the country to rent an apartment with peace of mind!"

Since there was no signature, Pei Qian had no idea who wrote this.

After a moment of silence, he folded the letter and placed it back into its envelope. Finally, he handed it back to Song Kai.

"Keep this letter well, and do not lose it.

"Sloth Apartments has to work hard to allow every tenant to rent an apartment with peace of mind!"