Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

“Come, have a seat.”

Pei Qian was very polite. He invited Zhang Yuan to have a seat on the sofa beside him. Assistant Xin left the guest room after serving tea. Ma Yang left the guest room too, leaving Pei Qian alone to chat with Zhang Yuan.

Zhang Yuan scanned his surroundings with the corner of his eyes.

Everything in the room screamed luxurious! Looking at the boss’s outfit and the interior design of the company, Zhang Yuan realized that he was unable to put a price tag on almost every item he saw! He just had the feeling that everything seemed expensive!

Pei Qian smiled amiably and said, “Don’t feel restricted. Make yourself at home. Please don’t be too formal. Here. Have some tea.”

Zhang Yuan tried his best to appear nonchalant. However, his slightly uncomfortable seating posture betrayed him. Pei Qian contemplated how to start the conversation.

He heard from Ma Yang that the square-faced and energetic guy who spoke with a north-eastern Chinese dialect and sat opposite him was well-versed in all kinds of digital products and computer hardware.

Other than that, he knew nothing about the guy.

Pei Qian had to understand if the guy had any other talents other than his knowledge in building computers. For example, if he was a genius in marketing and knew how to do business, there was no way Pei Qian was going to accept him.

Maybe he should start with assembling computers.

Pei Qian thought for a while before asking, “For a computer to run large scale games that are currently in the market smoothly, what are your ideal configurations? What do you think is a suitable price?”

Pei Qian thought for a while and added, “The main objective is to run the games smoothly. You can include some exterior design effects, but they shouldn’t be overly fancy.”

It was normal for DIY system units to cost sixty or seventy thousand yuan. However, considering the complexities of the system, these types of computers that exceeded the requirements of normal gaming computers might brush the law if they were used in internet cafes.

The workspace Pei Qian now assigned his employees included a high-end desk, a high-end gaming chair, a high-end computer system unit, two gaming monitors with high refresh rates, and mechanical keyboards. This entire set summed up to about twenty thousand yuan.

The system wouldn’t allow any amount that was more than that and exceed what was required.

Actually, Pei Qian could also use the standard of computers in the office in the internet cafe.

However, the office computers that Assistant Xin bought were high-end business models that were designed to be used in the office. Their exterior was relatively plain and unsuitable to be used in internet cafes. Furthermore, they did not cater to the preference of the consumers.

Therefore, Pei Qian wanted to inquire about Zhang Yuan’s opinions.

…

Zhang Yuan understood then that he wanted him to assemble a computer! It seemed like the title of the forum manager of the GPU Forum indeed had some benefits attached. Zhang Yuan contemplated for a while. He knew from a glance that the Boss Pei in front of him was not short of money.

The laptop placed on the work desk seemed to be a high-end gaming computer from Alienware. Its market price should be above ten thousand yuan.

That meant that…

A gaming computer was not enough to satisfy this boss’s needs. He planned to DIY an expensive computer with high-end configurations!

However, he doesn’t know a lot about building computers and was afraid of being scammed by those people in the electronics mall.

Therefore, he found me in the GPU Forum and gave me a 3000 yuan remuneration to build the computer!

Yes. That should be it.

His first priority was to satisfy his gaming needs. He doesn’t want to value its fanciness over its functionality.

Zhang Yuan processed that information quickly.

A dream configuration list. That wasn’t hard for him. He could list it out immediately and knew the exact prices for the components. However, Zhang Yuan had some other considerations.

He was unsure if he needed to please the big boss in front of him. Zhang Yuan had never considered deceiving others. Once he had prepared the configuration list, this big boss might find someone to check it first. It wouldn’t be in his favor if he deceived the big boss.

Therefore, he needed to assemble a computer with stunning configurations and ensure that the price was reasonable at the same time. He needed to make the big boss feel that he did not waste that 3000 yuan!

Zhang Yuan felt a little guilty if he took the 3000 yuan remuneration from the big boss for merely assembling a computer.

As the saying went… the more friends one had, the more options one had in life.

After some careful deliberation, Zhang Yuan felt that he could take out 1000 yuan from the 3000 yuan remuneration he would receive and spend it on the components of the machine. In that case, he could make friends with the big boss and have 2000 yuan for himself so as to compensate for the effort that he put in.

It was a double-win. How great was that!

After spending some time thinking about it, Zhang Yuan started sharing his views. He talked about the CPU, the graphics card, all kinds of hardware, the chassis, and even the accessories on the chassis.

For example, adding an eye could tremendously increase the attractiveness of the computer while installing some RGB lighting could increase its efficiency tremendously. The graphics card, keyboards, gaming earphones, and other components were all a piece of cake to him!

Finally, Zhang Yuan said a price.

“This whole set could probably be purchased at around fifteen thousand yuan.”

Although the price he listed was fifteen thousand yuan, the actual cost of the set of components was sixteen thousand yuan. If they were to find someone at the electronics mall to assemble the computer, it was normal for the price to be at twenty thousand yuan.

Zhang Yuan thought about it and decided to use one thousand yuan from the remuneration that Boss Pei gave to purchase the components. He wanted to make friends with Boss Pei, thus he finally decided to list the price at fifteen thousand yuan.

Pei Qian’s brows furrowed slightly.

He was unsatisfied with the price.

How could a DIY computer be cheaper than the office computer that he had?

Zhang Yuan’s heart dropped to the floor when he saw Boss Pei’s expression. His expression seemed to say ‘Are you looking down on me?’!

Boss Pei opened his mouth as he expected. “I am asking you for the dream configuration. The set of things you produce—how do I put it—could be more ideal and befit the word ‘dream’ more. Do you understand what I mean?”

Zhang Yuan hesitated for a while and said, “But, Boss Pei, you said that the top priority was to satisfy gaming needs. This configuration can definitely run the most demanding games on the market now…”

Pei Qian was momentarily speechless.

That seemed… to be correct.

If one were to improve on this configuration, it would really not be cost-effective. This configuration was already much better than what current mainstream games required. Zhang Yuan had proposed a high-quality configuration that could run all mainstream games smoothly and lived to his conscience.

However, he must still increase the amount spent.

Pei Qian coughed twice and said, “You are right about this. This is enough to run most games in the market. But if you think about it, what if there are new games in the future that demand better configurations? You have to look far into the future. You have to look at what happens next. Do you understand?

“How about this? You will add ten more thousand to your current budget. Are you okay with this?”

“…” Zhang Yuan nodded his head and replied, “Umm… okay.”

It was your money anyways. I’m not the one forking out the money. Why wouldn’t I be okay with that?

As long as you wanted it, I could even propose a system unit that costs 9.8 billion!

Zhang Yuan thought quickly and brought the configurations of the computer to another level.

This time, he planned to build a DIY computer that costs around 25,000 yuan!

In Zhang Yuan’s opinion, some functions of the computer were completely unnecessary. The current computer could run all games in the market smoothly even if the graphics were adjusted to the highest quality. Moreover, this configuration would not be outdated for the next couple of years! Furthermore, its exterior design was of top quality. It would definitely improve the gaming experience by multiple folds!

Of course, although Zhang Yuan told Pei Qian that the cost of the set up was 25,000 yuan, its actual cost was around 26000 yuan. Zhang Yuan wanted to befriend Boss Pei and thus decided to fork out the one thousand yuan from the 3000 yuan remuneration that he received.

Pei Qian nodded his head after hearing that.

That was about it!

Given the requirements of the internet cafe, that would spend the most money without receiving warnings from the system.

“Nice configuration.” Pei Qian nodded his head.

Zhang Yuan was extremely happy. “As long as Boss Pei likes it,” he responded.

He spent a thousand yuan to befriend Boss Pei. That was a bargain for him!

“Let’s get fifty of that first then.” Pei Qian sipped his tea and said nonchalantly.