I Really Didn't Mean to Make Money

After reviewing all the settlement rewards,

Chen Mo leaned back in his chair, feeling relaxed. Although there weren’t any tangible rewards this time, the newly unlocked permissions were incredibly practical.

Whether it was the ability to use songs or the appearance of the Executive Car, both were highly beneficial to him.

Tomorrow was Children’s Day. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ𝑤𝑒𝑏𝑛𝘰𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝒸𝑜𝘮

With the start of a new month, Extreme Survival and Tianlong were bound to bring in another wave of substantial revenue.

After all, the recent offline tournament for Extreme Survival had firmly planted the game in the public eye. All four of the top live streaming platforms were promoting it with full force.

Not long ago, Chen Mo had checked each of those top platforms. On every homepage, the featured recommendation section included a dedicated live streaming panel for Extreme Survival.

Its explosive popularity was no longer just a possibility—it was inevitable.

The game’s download numbers were climbing by the day.

And as Extreme Survival surged in popularity, it also gave a boost to Tianlong. Previously, growth in new users had slowed to a crawl, but ever since the offline tournament ended, new users for Tianlong had been increasing rapidly.

Thinking about these two games gave Chen Mo a headache.

He hadn’t even done a detailed calculation yet, but just the Monthly Card revenue from both games at the beginning of the month had already hit tens of millions. Total revenue for the month had reached around 150 million.

The Clothing Factory city development project could still absorb a few tens of millions in funding.

After all, demolishing and rebuilding the entire industrial park was a massive undertaking, one that would require several hundred million in total investment.

But he couldn’t pay that kind of money all at once. Instead, he had signed a contract with the construction team to pay a set amount each month.

This arrangement helped ease the pressure of draining his funds too quickly.

Aside from the Clothing Factory, the only other regular expenses were Nanhe Coffee’s five new store openings each month, employee salaries, taxes, and other day-to-day operational costs.

But with the current income from the two games, these expenditures weren’t nearly enough to burn through the System Funds.

Thinking about it,

Chen Mo rubbed his temples in frustration. Spend money—he still had to find ways to spend money.

Yet after all this time, the Investment Company still hadn’t found a single promising industry to invest in.

So for now, he could only look for other ways to spend.

Chen Mo stroked his chin, thinking to himself: since the company had Executive Cars, there should be manager cars too.

As a company manager, how could he not have his own assigned vehicle?

With two managers per company, that meant two cars per company, right?

With that thought, Chen Mo pulled out his notebook and began jotting down the number of managers in each of his companies.

Nanhe Coffee, Boring Short Video, Cangxue Games…

Looking at the list of company names, Chen Mo nodded in satisfaction. One company meant two managers, which meant two cars he could spend money on!

After a quick count, the total number of managers across his companies came to exactly fourteen.

However, Luo Xiao and Wang Bin from Blue Film Studio were still out filming, so their cars would have to wait until they returned. That meant he could currently purchase twelve vehicles.

Including his own Executive Car, that made a total of thirteen cars he could buy.

Looking at the final count, he took a sip from the cup on his desk and began testing the system to find out the maximum allowable spending limit.

After a while,

Chen Mo smiled slightly. Through his probing, he had finally figured out the spending caps for manager vehicles and Executive Cars.

The maximum allowed for a manager’s car was 800,000 yuan—200,000 more than the standard company car. Not bad.

As for the Executive Car, the cap was a generous 1.5 million.

Looking at that 1.5 million figure,

Chen Mo couldn’t help but sigh. The system was actually being generous for once.

After a quick calculation, if he bought all the cars at the maximum price, he could burn through 11.1 million in System Funds.

While that wasn’t much compared to the over 100 million he currently had, it was still something.

And since the system also allowed him to use System Funds to purchase suits, watches, and other personal items, that could help chip away at the total as well.

With everything clear in his mind, he immediately called for Shen Rou.

“Notify all company managers to gather at Mingri Group the day after tomorrow. Oh, and no need to inform Blue Film Studio—they’re still filming. Also, unless there’s an emergency, attendance is mandatory for this meeting.”

“Understood, President Chen.”

Shen Rou nodded and quickly returned to her office to relay the message to all the company managers.

…

Two days later,

At Mingri Group,

Managers from various companies, along with several Deputy Managers, had all gathered in the conference room.

Assistant Shen had just informed them that President Chen would be arriving in ten minutes.

“Um, Manager Wei, do you know why President Chen called all of us here? Is there something he wants to arrange?”

Pang Tao leaned toward Wei Yan and asked in a low voice.

This was his first time attending a meeting in the group’s main conference room. Although he had attended a few meetings before, their Pet Park project was still under construction, so President Chen hadn’t required their presence at the time.

But this time felt different. Assistant Shen had specifically said that unless there was an emergency, attendance was mandatory.

That left him surprised and curious. What major announcement could President Chen possibly be planning?

“No idea,” Wei Yan replied with a slight shake of his head. He was just as puzzled by President Chen’s sudden decision to summon all the managers. He couldn’t guess what it was about either.

Still, the fact that every manager from across the various companies had been called in suggested that something big was about to be announced.

“Even you don’t know, Manager Wei?”

Song Xia looked surprised. Wei Yan was widely regarded as the person who understood President Chen best in the entire company. It was unexpected that even he was in the dark this time.

“Must be something important,” Fang Chang said quietly.

The others exchanged glances and nodded in agreement. They all had the same feeling.

Yao Beiguo and Tao Ze sat quietly at the edge of the conference room, watching the familiar managers discuss among themselves.

They had only recently joined the group and had been busy setting up the gaming club, so they hadn’t had much interaction with the other managers. In fact, there were some faces in the room they hadn’t even seen before today.

“Manager Yao, I heard the Gaming Club is still in the planning stages. If you run into any issues, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. If there’s anything we can help with, we’ll do our best.”

“We’re all working under President Chen. We need to support each other and grow Mingri Group together.”

Wei Yan had noticed that Yao Beiguo and Tao Ze had remained silent, so he smiled and spoke up.

“Exactly. If there’s a problem, just say the word. We’ll help however we can,” Li Shen added.

Several other managers chimed in as well.

Seeing this, Yao Beiguo felt a wave of gratitude. He could tell that everyone was making an effort to ease the awkwardness of being new and unfamiliar with the group.

“Thank you,” he said sincerely.

Not long after,

The conference room door opened, and President Chen walked in from outside.