Chapter 1670: The Throne Is Empty

In the large conference room on the top floor of Tengda Corporation’s headquarters, the heads of the various departments gathered and were briefly reporting the work situation of the various departments.

Xin Hailu was hosting the meeting.

According to the structure of the original person-in-charge meeting, some decisions should have been made by Boss Pei. However, after Boss Pei was gone, the position of President had been empty. Some decisions were made by the five higher-ups.

They were Xin Hailu, Ma Yang, Huang Sibo, Lu Mingliang, and Meng Chang.

All five of them were now senior Vice-Presidents of the corporation. However, Xin Hailu’s status was higher while the other four represented different industries.

Huang Sibo was mainly representing the company’s cultural and creative industries, including the games and film departments.

Ma Yang represented the physical industries of the company, such as Fish-Catching Internet Cafe, Fish-Catching Take-Out, Deposit Fitness, and so on.

Lu Mingliang was in charge of the company’s accompanying service industries, such as Upwind Logistics, Sloth Apartments, and so on. The difference with Ma Yang was that his main consideration was how these industries could generate greater social value. It did not matter if they lost money.

Meng Chang’s situation was the most special. After paying all his debts, he won the general recognition of the people in charge with his series of contributions. Meng Chang had obtained Boss Pei’s true teachings after all. What’s more, he personally had real talent.

Meng Chang was mainly in charge of the company’s marketing.

However, Meng Chang’s work function was not just to do a few publicity plans. Due to the special nature of Tengda Corporation, the publicity plan of a certain industry was closely related to the plan layout of the entire industry and the product ecology.

Therefore, Meng Chang could have a certain impact on most departments and had considerable power.

The positions of the other department heads might not be as good as these five people on the surface, but their words also had weight. If a certain resolution was strongly protested by some veteran person-in-charge, everyone would discuss it fully with the Tengda spirit and reach a consensus.

During this process, he could not guarantee that every decision he made was absolutely right. After all, the truth was in the hands of a small number of people.

However, overall, as long as everyone took their positions in Boss Pei and imagined how Boss Pei would make a decision if he was still sitting in the position of the President, the final decision would usually not be bad.

This was the first meeting of the person-in-charge for the new year. It also meant that an entire year had passed since Boss Pei left Tengda Corporation.

During this year, Tengda Corporation did not have any problems. Not only did it develop rapidly, but it also developed faster and better than before!

Of course, no one would think that Boss Pei was dragging Tengda Corporation down. They would only think that Boss Pei had laid a good foundation for Tengda Corporation. Therefore, even if Boss Pei was not around, Tengda Corporation would continue to develop in the established direction!

The heads of the various departments began to report the development results of the various departments in the past year.

After Boss Pei went against everyone’s wishes and officially bought over Finger Games and merged IOI and GOG, after a year of deep integration, these two games became indistinguishable. They became the game with the most players in the world and had become a cultural phenomenon.

After Finger Games was merged, the workspace that was left behind was specialized in the development of overseas heroes. Coupled with the two games combined, GOG had a large number of heroes that were loved by foreign players. That quickly seized the global market.

The global finals that were held in the second half of last year was unprecedented. The number of people watching the competition online at the same time had broken the previous record. This dominance in the future would continue and finally become a special cultural symbol.

Tengda Corporation’s layout in the games industry had also played an important role. The incubation base, Dawn Games platform, and Dawn Games game editor had greatly improved the entire domestic game environment. Another batch of outstanding independent game designers and outstanding game works had appeared in the country.

Fei Huang Workspace continued filming movies. Sometimes, they worked with Zhongdian Chinese Network’s outstanding works, and sometimes they worked with the games department.

In terms of food and beverage, nameless restaurant, Fish-Catching Take-Out, snack market, and Cold-Faced Lady brands were developing rapidly, becoming a local chain. To a certain extent, they caused a sniper effect on foreign fast food brands and changed the eating habits of the Chinese.

Food delivery was no longer synonymous with unhealthy food. Instead, it had become a new way of life.

Fish-Catching Internet Cafe, Deposit Fitness, Star Bird Virtual Sports Experience Store, and other physical shops had been opened all over the country, enriching people’s daily lives.

When Upwind Logistics and Fish-Catching Take-Out allowed many people to enjoy high-quality food and shopping experiences without leaving their houses, these physical shops encouraged people to leave their houses. To a certain extent, they improved the current state of the physical shops’ dispiritedness and stimulated the development of the physical economy.

The follow-up amusement park project of Thriller Hostel and the Cold and Warm Zoo was also being developed. According to Tengda Corporation’s plan, this place would become a Tengda theme park in the future. It would strive to recreate all of Tengda’s classic games and movie IPs in the theme park.

In the future, Tengda Corporation would also plan to build Tengda’s theme park in Beijing, Shanghai, and other first-tier cities on the same scale. They could even open the theme park overseas and create different cultural landmarks for each city!

Apart from that, Sloth Apartments, Extremist New Energetic Cars, Tengda experience shop, luxury clothing brands, Bunny Tail Live-Stream, TPDb website, Suffering Travels, Otto Technologies, Zhongdian Chinese Network, and other industries were also upgrading, providing better service to users.

Tengda Corporation had truly penetrated into the various fields of users’ food, clothing, food, and lodging. However, this depth was not infiltration or control, but comprehensive support and improvement.

Under the pressure of Tengda Corporation, the other internet companies had no choice but to make changes. In order to deal with Tengda Corporation’s pressure, they had no choice but to provide more conscientious services to users to reduce the collection of user information.

That was because they knew very well that once they went overboard and aroused public resentment, Tengda Corporation would immediately make a move and make them disappear completely.

If he wanted to survive, he had to provide relatively good services like Tengda Corporation to protect his image and reputation in the hearts of the people.

In the second half of last year, there was a trend saying that the Internet’s winter was coming.

That was normal. In the Internet age, the favor of capital caused these high-tech giants to start expanding disorderly. Behind this disorderly expansion was a money-burning war. It was a false high valuation that was to earn the last copper coin from users.

When the entire internet economy changed from an incremental era to a stock era, the Internet’s winter would definitely come. The entire industry would have to tighten their belt and live. They could not be as extravagant as before.

However, it did not affect Tengda Corporation much.

That was because even though Tengda Corporation had some internet industries, these industries had solid physical industries as support and were deeply supported by ordinary people.

It was precisely because of the generous accumulation and perfect organization structure that Tengda Corporation was not affected by this Internet winter. Instead, it was praised many times and accepted other internet companies as an outstanding department!

The people in charge spoke their minds and resolutions were pushed forward quickly. The entire Tengda Corporation continued to advance according to the original track.

…

At that moment…

A young man in a baseball cap alighted from the car in Tengda Corporation’s underground carpark.

“Wait for me here. I’ll be back in a while. Don’t inform anyone about my arrival.”

Little Sun nodded immediately. “Alright, Boss Pei.”

Pei Qian walked out of the car.

He felt a little emotional when he returned to Tengda Corporation’s headquarters.

Before he left last year, the headquarters had not been completed. Tengda Corporation’s various departments were still scattered in different offices in Jingzhou City.

He returned a year later. He had matured a lot during the past year of traveling. However, it seemed like Tengda Corporation had changed more.

A huge headquarters building like that showed the outside world how rich Tengda Corporation was. It finally looked like a giant company.

Pei Qian walked towards the elevator, preparing to walk around the new headquarters building.

Half an hour later, he finally arrived at the first floor.

“Who is so wicked? They made a maze in the parking lot, but they could not find the way after walking for more than half an hour.”

“If someone who knew the way had not led me here, I would have been trapped inside!”

“That’s not right. This seemed to be my idea back then. That’s alright.”

Pei Qian walked around the maze of the underground carpark for more than half an hour. If he had not consciously trained his body in the past year, it would probably be impossible for him to visit the headquarters today with his weak body.

Fortunately, there was a balance car to ride after reaching the first floor.

Pei Qian rode the balanced car around the building and played some games in the entertainment area.

There were some places that required one to swipe their card to enter during this period. However, Pei Qian was already prepared. He had already obtained the highest-level access card. Naturally, these places were unimpeded.

Employees who walked past the company’s headquarters occasionally did not recognize Pei Qian.

After all, the old acquaintances that Boss Pei knew were the oldest batch of employees in the company. At that moment, they were either the person-in-charge of the department or the Vice-President of the company. They were all busy working in the office.

Pei Qian felt that this was quite good. He had not intended to tell others that he was back. He had only wanted to come and take a look at the new headquarters.

After walking around briefly, Pei Qian took the elevator to the President’s office on the top floor of the headquarters building.

After swiping his card and entering, Pei Qian was speechless.

The President’s office was very spacious. There were huge full-length windows that allowed one to see everything outside. The scenery was excellent. What’s more, this President’s office was obviously cleaned frequently. It was spotless, as if it was waiting for Boss Pei to come back and use it at any time.

Yet…

The chair and desk in this empty President’s office were exactly the same as the one in the game ‘The Future You Choose’.

Pei Qian exclaimed. Life was filled with surprises. Tengda Corporation was worthy of being an entertainment company. It was filled with entertainment spirit everywhere.

Pei Qian stood up and left after sitting in the huge seat for a while.

This office was very spacious and imposing, but he was not used to it. Relatively speaking, he preferred the working environment at Shenhua View where he could get along with his employees.

He left the president’s office and slipped to other places on the same floor to take a look. He found that there were no one in the Vice Presidents’ offices.

“Why isn’t anyone here? Oh, they might be in a meeting.”

Pei Qian looked at the time and realized that it might be the time of the person-in-charge’s regular meeting. Thus, there was no one in the Vice-President’s office.

He looked at the brands on these offices. Xin Hailu, Ma Yang, Huang Sibo, Lu Mingliang’s office, and Meng Chang’s office were among them.

“I didn’t expect Meng Chang to really become the Vice-President of the company. It looks like smart people are smart. They might have taken the wrong path previously but as long as they correct it and recognize their mistakes, they can quickly walk the right path.”

Pei Qian had not specially instructed Meng Chang to use it. However, the current Vice-President position of Tengda Corporation was occupied by the virtuous. As long as he had real talent and was recognized by the people in charge, he could take this position!

Meng Chang was originally rejected by the people in charge. Now that he could become Vice-President, it meant that he had contributed a lot to Tengda Corporation this year.

He had to admit that even though smart people like Meng Chang were very dangerous when he did bad things, he could indeed make outstanding contributions after turning over a new leaf.

Pei Qian swiped his card at the door of Meng Chang’s office and the door opened automatically.

Pei Qian’s card had the highest authority and could open any door. Of course, Meng Chang’s Vice-President’s office was nothing.

In fact, Pei Qian had not intended to do anything at first. He had only come to take a look out of curiosity. If he turned around and left, Meng Chang would not realize that he had been here.

In the end, he realized that there was a video editing project on the huge computer screen that was not related.

Obviously, Meng Chang was doing this video editing project before the meeting and did not have the time to save and close it.

Pei Qian was a little curious. Logically speaking, as the person-in-charge of the publicity department and the Vice-President of the company, Meng Chang should not need him to personally do things like editing videos, right?

Out of curiosity, Pei Qian leaned over and took a closer look at the title of the video and the synopsis in the document beside it.

“Young Master Tian?”

Pei Qian was shocked to find that this was Young Master Tian’s latest video.

He clicked on the folder where the video was in disbelief and realized that there were several more videos of Young Master Tian in front.

The video project that was being edited revealed a naked reality. Young Master Tian’s series of videos was made by Meng Chang!

Pei Qian cursed in his heart.

“That’s not right. Wasn’t Young Master Tian’s video made by Tian Mo? It was confirmed at that time. Even the person who edited his video had been found.”

“The two of them are sent on Suffering Travels. This matter is over.”

“What’s more, I asked Meng Chang before. I asked him to guess who Young Master Tian was. He pointed out Tian Mo on the spot.”

“What’s going on? Could Meng Chang be Young Master Tian?”

“But why did Meng Chang come up with such a name?”

Pei Qian thought hard, fully utilizing his imagination. Suddenly, his eyes lit up.

“Young Master Tian? Meng Tengjun?”

“F*ck! Meng Chang, you scammer!”

Pei Qian wanted to cuss now that he knew the truth.

If he had not discovered the truth by chance, Tian Heiquan’s wrongs would probably never have been revealed.

Now that he thought about it, Tian Mo was really wronged. An honest person would take the blame for Meng Chang.

What’s more, the most infuriating thing was that not only did Meng Chang perfectly throw the blame away, but he was also not discovered and successfully escaped Boss Pei’s punishment.

Pei Qian was furious. The consequences were dire.

He had to severely punish such evil behavior!

At that thought, Pei Qian took a pen and paper from the side and wrote a few words.

“You have take responsibility by going for three months of Suffering Travels and Thriller Hostel.”

Then, he signed his name.

Pei Qian’s words were not very pretty but the style was relatively obvious. These people in charge should be able to recognize him, let alone Meng Chang.

Suffering Travels and Thriller Hostel would take three months each. In less than half a year, it should be enough to achieve the punishment effect on Meng Chang.

At that thought, Pei Qian turned around and left Meng Chang’s office with guilt towards Tian Mo.

He closed Meng Chang’s office door but forgot to close the president’s office door as well.

…

The person-in-charge was done with his meeting after about half an hour. Meng Chang returned to his office.

The person-in-charge would make him a little tired. He did not return to his desk immediately. Instead, he sat down in the armchair used for meeting and rested.

Meng Chang’s thoughts gradually cleared up.

“Sigh, after entering Tengda Corporation, I deeply realized how ignorant I was previously.”

“At first, I thought that it would be enough as long as I could cheat some investors’ money. However, after seeing Boss Pei, I realized what a true hero is.”

“Creating a monster like Tengda Corporation is the hero’s job.”

“It’s just that these people in charge of Tengda Corporation seem a little pedantic without the super genius leader Boss Pei.”

“Boss Pei has been gone for an entire year without any news. If Boss Pei really doesn’t come back, can I sit as the President of Tengda Corporation one day?”

Meng Chang had always been an ambitious and capable person.

Previously, Boss Pei had been suppressing him in Tengda Corporation. He could only do things carefully and did not dare to have any wishful thinking.

However, Boss Pei was no longer around. Naturally, he had other thoughts.

In his opinion, the other people in charge of the company were very capable but they did not have much ambition. Many decisions that could make Tengda Corporation develop faster were rejected by these people in charge.

The reason for this rejection was that this did not meet Boss Pei’s expectations and the Tengda spirit.

Meng Chang agreed on the surface but he was more or less disapproving internally.

Of course, given Tengda Corporation’s current structure, no matter how much money Tengda Corporation earned, it would not be directly linked to the income of the person-in-charge. They could only use the company’s funds to make projects according to the company’s regulations.

However, Meng Chang was not asking for money because Fan Xiaodong and him could earn money through other methods.

Meng Chang wanted to become Boss Pei’s successor and the new leader of Tengda Corporation. Such a social status and admiration from everyone was what he wanted.

Therefore, Meng Chang was obviously the relatively radical among the many people in charge.

Of course, his thoughts would be boycotted by the other person-in-charge, so Meng Chang did not dare to make it too obvious. He could only consider slowly realizing his goal through subtle means.

At that thought, Meng Chang stood up and returned to his desk, intending to complete Young Master Tian’s new video.

However, at that moment, he saw the piece of white paper on the desk.

There was a line of words written on it.

“You have take responsibility by going for three months of Suffering Travels and Thriller Hostel.”

Meng Chang nearly jumped up in fright when he saw this line of words. He looked as if he had seen a ghost and his face turned pale.

He looked around in horror, and then at the note in his hand. He double-checked that it was indeed Boss Pei’s handwriting.

Meng Chang clearly remembered that there was no note on the table before he went to the person-in-charge meeting. In other words, Boss Pei had visited the company during this period and entered his office, leaving this note.

Meng Chang looked at his computer desktop very nervously and realized that Boss Pei might have seen something in his computer.

He could only say that this highlighted the importance of setting a computer screen lock password.

Meng Chang did not set up a lock screen password, mainly because the office door had to be swiped with his card to open. He was not worried that others would sneak into his office.

However, he did not expect Boss Pei, who had the highest authority, to return!

Meng Chang could not help but tremble with fear as he read the words.

It was obviously a very serious punishment to go to Suffering Travels and Thriller Hostel for three months each. Meng Chang could even vaguely feel that Boss Pei seemed to be suppressing his anger when he wrote this line.

Why was Boss Pei angry?

Meng Chang was flustered.

If ordinary people were to think that there was nothing else in the office but Young Master Tian’s video on the computer screen, they would naturally think that Boss Pei was angry because he saw Young Master Tian’s video.

However, the problem was that Meng Chang knew that Boss Pei knew that he was Young Master Tian. What’s more, he had tacitly allowed it.

That meant that Boss Pei had no reason to be angry about this.

“Could it be that Boss Pei saw some of my work content in my computer? He noticed signs of my thoughts moving?”

Meng Chang felt like he had fallen into an ice cave and was shocked.

His thoughts had been buried in the bottom of his heart and he had never spoken to anyone.

Of course, Meng Chang did not want to subvert Tengda Corporation. However, the perfect route in his mind was different from the route that Boss Pei had planned and the routes that the other people in charge wanted to take.

Meng Chang did not dare or could not really let Tengda walk the path of capital. However, some of his personal ideas and ambitions would drive him to make decisions that were relatively deviated from the Tengda spirit in certain fields.

He might not have spoken these thoughts very clearly but he would more or less show some clues in some work content.

Meng Chang was very sure that Boss Pei must have seen his work content and captured the signs of this thinking loosening from it. That was why he was very disappointed in Meng Chang and made such a punishment request!

The three months of punishment for Suffering Travels and Thriller Hostel did not look light, but this punishment also meant that Boss Pei had given Meng Chang a chance to turn over a new leaf. Otherwise, the note would have asked Meng Chang to resign.

Meng Chang slumped in his chair, feeling like he had just walked through the gate to hell.

That familiar feeling was back!

Every time he tried to act smart and do something, he would realize that nothing could escape Boss Pei’s eyes.

“Boss Pei is so scary.”

“He said that he would not pay attention to the company after leaving Tengda Corporation. However, in fact, the every move of the company and even the subtle changes in my heart did not escape Boss Pei’s eyes!”

“The good thing is that the crime this time is not big. Boss Pei saved me some face.”

Meng Chang felt a wave of fear. He immediately put away his dangerous thoughts and called Fan Xiaodong.

He decided to donate 70% of the income that he had invested in the outside world to the First Aid Plan!

He had no choice. Since Boss Pei had already caught him red-handed, he could only get rid of his money and express his loyalty to Boss Pei.

As the biggest charity event in Tengda, the First Aid Plan had been carried out in a low profile. Its coverage had expanded from Handong Province to most villages in the country.

Many children would have the opportunity to continue learning and study deeper because of this plan. Many children would also have the nutrition of meat eggs during the critical period of growth because of this plan.

In the future, the initial plan would continue to expand and help more people.

However, until now, the initial financial plan had not been exposed widely. Tengda Corporation had not done much publicity either.

Meng Chang felt that Boss Pei might have wanted to use the preliminary plan as a trump card against Tengda Alliance.

At the critical moment of the battle of public opinion, the exposure of this charity plan might turn the situation around.

However, the anti-Tengda Alliance was too lousy and useless.

Of course, this was only Meng Chang’s guess. Or perhaps Boss Pei only wanted to do charity without any intention of exposing it. He even deliberately avoided letting others know.

Given Tengda’s current situation, it was no longer lacking in good reputation.

Since that was the case, it was better to keep a low profile. What did it matter if others knew about it?

Meng Chang finally felt relieved after arranging all of this.

Boss Pei’s words and actions always put huge pressure on him, making him feel like his cleverness was seen through by Boss Pei.

At that moment, he heard discussions outside.

Meng Chang left his office and found Xin Hailu, Huang Sibo, Lu Mingliang, Ma Yang, and the others gathered at the door of the president’s office.

On the other hand, the door to the president’s office that would only open when someone was cleaning regularly every morning was open. There was no one inside.

The other Vice Presidents were shocked.

“Who opened this door?”

“Could Boss Pei have returned?”

“But why didn’t Boss Pei close the door when he left? Is he hinting something to us?”

Meng Chang came to everyone and said, “Yes, Boss Pei is back.”

“I think Boss Pei opened the door on purpose to send us a message.”

“He wants to tell us: I’m watching you.”

“Or perhaps hinting to always remember the last scene in ‘The Future You Choose’!”

Everyone nodded seriously.

Even lthough Boss Pei had not visited the office for an entire year, no one would suspect that he did not have absolute control over the office.

Tengda Corporation was Boss Pei’s hard work, and it was also Boss Pei’s dream laboratory. How could Boss Pei really not care?

It was just like some emperors in the ancient times. They did not go to the court for many years, but that did not mean that they knew nothing about what happened in the court. On the contrary, they would definitely use other methods to maintain the operation of the entire dynasty.

Of course, Boss Pei was definitely not an incapable ruler. He had a special purpose for leaving Tengda Corporation. He also had a special purpose for watching Tengda Corporation from another perspective.

No one spoke in that moment. Everyone had different thoughts.

This huge boss chair looked a little like a throne. Its backrest was very high, and its armrest was very large. Behind it was a huge full-length window. The entire Tengda Corporation’s scenery could be seen.

However, the huge throne was empty.

This scene seemed to be similar to the last scene in the movie, but everyone knew that Tengda Corporation would not go down this path in reality.

That was because Boss Pei would always be watching silently in an invisible corner.

End of Novel