Introduction
In No Pain No Gain: The Company’s Success and the CEO’s Scheme (Part 1), we saw the long list of Tengda’s accomplishments in expanding their core business from Tengda Games to Tengda Group. There are still more business ventures to come! But most importantly, we’re still waiting for whether, or when, and how Pei Qian would come clean to his employees with his get-rich-by-losing schemes.
The Company’s Success and the CEO’s Scheme
Sloth Gym (Episode 10 & 11)
Used to be called Xingniao (Starbird) Gym, which was closed down due to tight competition and price wars. Pei Qian hired Tian Mo, who used to be a car salesperson, and sold him his Mercedes sedan. The personal trainer at the gym was Li Yaling.
This gym operated without traditional memberships; customers would pay per visit. The philosophy was to encourage an enjoyable life without competition. Gym visitors could relax at the gym, and they were free to eat and drink whatever they desired, without any dietary restrictions.
Because of the cross-promotion, the gym also became incredibly popular. Zhang Wang, Ma Yang, and Ruan Guangjian distributed flyers outside the phone booth for stressed-out workers. After a full day of work, most people lacked the energy for strenuous exercise. The gym’s approach, which didn’t demand intense workouts and instead allowed patrons to relax, perfectly met their needs—fulfilling a desire for fitness while providing a comfortable space to unwind.
Relaxing environment in Sloth Gym where you can do anything to unwind.
Pei Qian’s scheme
Pei Qian employed Tian Mo because she sucked in sales. When working in auto sales, she only sold one car in a year, which was the one sold to Pei Qian. After being fired, she worked in sales for the gym. When he saw her timidly passing out flyers, he knew she wouldn’t make it in the gym industry either.
Li Shi Capital (Episode 11 to 13)
Remember Li Shi from Li Shi Capital, who wanted to forcefully buy the struggling M&Y Cafe, right?
After monitoring Tengda’s movement, Li Shi was astonished by Pei Qian’s bizarre but brilliant business movements; whatever he did turned into profit. Not only that, Pei Qian had a big heart and didn’t hold a grudge after the M&Y Cafe incident. When Li Shi asked him about the private restaurant, Pei Qian generously advised Li Shi that he could copy his restauran. Li Shi opened a restaurant with Pei Qian’s concept. Not only that, Pei Qian bought the struggling Xingniao Gym owned by Li Shi. Li Shi decided to make Pei Qian his muse and also helped him with investment.
So, Li Shi also invested in the phone booth with a franchise system. Now, they have more phone booths in the city, thanks to Li Shi’s funding.
Li Shi practically worshipped Pei Qian with his favorite drink, Yakult.
Li Shi also invested ¥ 20 M into the Sloth Gym, so it could also open franchises.
Moreover, when Four Wall Apartments were open, he rented one unit with 10-year lease right away, and even encouraged his friends to rent units in the building.
He also invested in the area of Mingyun Villa for a cultural travel project, thus drawing people to eat at the private restaurant.
Pei Qian’s scheme
The reason Pei Qian let Li Shi copy his private restaurant was so that there wouldn’t be people coming to the private restaurant. Li Shi opened The Ming House Banquet, which was not in a remote area but right in the city of Jinchuan. As for the Xiangniao Gym, Pei Qian didn’t know it was owned by Li Shi. As usual, to make a loss, he bought the gym at a high price, which saved Li Shi from financial trouble.
Four Wall Apartments (Ep 13)
Li Shi gave Pei Qian an idea to venture into the real estate business by purchasing an empty building in a desolate area, which was originally intended for green apartments, but lacked any surrounding facilities. With the raw, unfinished state of the interior.
Pei Qian commissioned Liang Qingfan, the architect he used for his own apartment renovation plan, to tackle the design. The apartments featured 100-inch 4K TVs, professional audio systems, projectors, gaming consoles, smart home appliances, and an AI human body sensing system. In contrast with such extravagant amenities, the apartments had to keep the raw and unpolished concrete walls and floors, and strictly prohibited tenants from making their own renovations. Eco-friendly materials were used, and the apartments had undergone multiple professional formaldehyde removal treatments. The apartments were for rent only, requiring a 10-year lease paid upfront, with no subletting or short-term rentals. For service, the apartments promised 24-hour housekeeping and butler services, including regular appliance updates. Real estate agent Cui, who had found some sites for Tengda in the past, was assigned to manage the apartments.
The apartments were first and foremost for Tengda employees. They were deeply touched by Pei Qian’s generosity, wondering where else they could find such a thoughtful boss.
Hu Yue, from Zhongdian Web Fiction, made a video evaluating long-term rental apartments that went viral. The eco-friendly apartments were praised by the media for their minimalist, pure-cement design, which resulted in excellent environmental test results and zero formaldehyde. The exposure also emphasized the unique offering of ten-year long-term leases, providing stability for tenants. This exposure had drawn a large crowd of people eager to rent units.
Tengda employees and Li Shi during the apartment-warming party at Pei Qian’s Four Wall Apartments.
Pei Qian’s scheme
Pei Qian asked Li Shi about his knowledge of any bad investment projects in Jinchuan, which Pei Qian believed it guaranteed to fail. The raw and unpolished concrete walls and floors, and other strict requirements were meant so nobody would want to lease the apartments. The apartments for Tengda employees was to further drain the company’s overall loss.
Well, having the whole company live around you might not necessarily mean privacy…
Wei Dongli joined Tengda (Ep 15)
Pei Qian disappeared from Tengda worried his employees, although Xin Hailu told them that he was taking a vacation. However, Lin Wan accidentally met Pei Qian as a coffee runner, working for Sky Fire. Tengda employees wondered the reason their boss worked at Sky Fire. Someone suggested he might be a corporate mole, but Lin Wan stated there was nothing worth stealing from Sky Fire, because the company only stole game ideas from other companies, including Tengda. They concluded that Pei Qian just wanted to experience the harsh reality of society by working at Sky Fire.
During his brief employment in Sky Fire, Pei Qian worked with Wei Dongli, a senior programmer in the Planning Department, whom he met during Tengda’s study tour to Sky Fire. Pei Qian witnessed the inhumane treatment of employees at Sky Fire. Wei Dongli, who was dedicated to Sky Fire, was eventually fired, while another employee passed out from overworking.
Wei Dongli unwound in the phone booth after letting off steam over his boss
Since Pei Qian had studied the Labor Contract Law after his own past experiences with unfair dismissal, he helped Wei Dongli to get termination compensation. He also recorded his conversation with Sky Fire boss Zhou Mu Yan, who later reluctantly agreed to pay Wei Dongli what the company owed.
Since he was also fired from his probation, Pei Qian returned to Tengda and brought Wei Dongli along with him. He was applauded as a hero, and even Ma Yang and others decorated his outdated office. Ma Yang gifted Pei Qian the figurine of Zhang Chu Lan. Peng Yu Chang is Zhang Chu Lan in I Am Nobody.
Behind the scenes
Pei Qian didn’t work at Sky Fire for stealing corporate secrets or anything like that. He quit Tengda and needed a job. The headhunters only had Sky Fire opening, and Pei Qian applied for the planning department. Although suspicious, Sky Fire hired him, but strongly prohibited their employees from talking to Pei Qian. He became their coffee runner instead. After witnessing the inhumane treatment of Wei Dongli and other employees, besides being fired, Pei Qian returned to work at Tengda.
Feihuang Pictures (Ep 15)
Feihuang Pictures was established based on Huang Sibo’s idea to adapt the trending romance novel title “The CEO Has an Exclusive Crush on You.” When this romantic novel became super popular, Sibo suggested to Pei Qian to open their movie and television subsidiary, to adapt their own IP novels. Pei Qian agreed, and even gave Sibo the freedom to name the subsidiary, which he called Feihuang Pictures, which came from his and his girlfriend’s names: (Hu) Fei and Huang (Sibo). However, Feihuang had two opposite meanings: either “sudden success” (positive) or “destruction” (negative).
Divine Mountains and Seas (Ep 12, 16, 19 & 20)
Lin Wan had a new idea to create a new MMORPG, which she called Divine Mountains and Seas. Despite Pei Qian’s discouraging words, Lin Wan’s team, including Bao Xu and Lv Mingliang, encouraged her, expressing their interest in the game. She kept working diligently and consistently with them despite Pei Qian’s absence from his job at Sky Fire and others.
Eventually, Lin Wan started creating their characters, based on her colleagues and Pei Qian:
Wayfarer, Literati of the Wind, Guardian of Justice
Wayfairer was a character from the Orient based on Bao Xu. Wayfairer was a powerful mage. He had a passive skill called “The Unwilling Wayfarer,”; whose health and mana generated rapidly when he was not moving. When he moved, he lost health, but his rage increased. When his rage meter was full, he went into a berserk mode to defeat the monsters.
Literati of the Wind was a character based on the concept artist Ruan Guangjian. He was a painter, a calligrapher, and a romantic swordsman. He poured his life into art and lived reclusively. But when he was attacked, he used a giant calligraphy brush to write a poem, which caused fierce winds.
The strongest character was Guardian of Justice. Although Lin Wan didn’t mention the model, everyone knew he was based on Pei Qian. This character was a tank who shielded his teammate and took on everything on himself. His passive skills gained defense when he was attacked. His active skills were scattering gold coins, which damaged his enemies. His ultimate attack was called Self Motivation.
The complete game characters were modeled from Pei Qian, Lin Wan, Lv Mingliang, Bao Xu, Ma Yang, Huang Sibo, and Ruan Guangjian.
When the game was finally launched, it was at the same time as Infinite Imagination, the first game by Fingle Group. Pei Qian’s old enemy, Zhou Muyan, who came from Sky Fire, was employed here, and he launched a targeted smear campaign to attack Tengda. Netizens started to gossip about Tengda, from the CEO, Pei Qian, to Lin Wan, Wei Dongli, etc. Pei Qian finally asked Xin Hailu for a no upper limit budget to go all out with the promo.
Zhou Muyan used dirty tactics such as initiating a digital blockade, and Tengda didn’t have any choice but use their physical storefronts. He also coordinated with the search engine to redirect searches for Divine Mountains and Seas to his own game, Infinite Imagination. The online traffic was also being limited across all social and short-video platforms.
Instead of focusing on defeating Zhou Muyan with his blockade, etc, Pei Qian urged his employees to optimize their game itself. He reminded them of their original mission: creating a utopia where players could find happiness. Tengda then listened to players’ requests, such as simplifying the tedious newbie tasks and introducing dimension-breaking features, such as allowing players to order real food takeout or read web novels directly within the game. They linked an in-game wishing pool connecting to Ma Yang’s “Immediately Fulfill Dreams” social media account to grant player requests. Lu Zhiyao and Shi Huo, actors connected to Tengda through Fenghua Pictures, provided autographs as rewards, further boosting the game’s popularity.
The government investigated Fingle for malicious marketing, spreading falsehoods, and inciting online abuse, which led Zhou Muyan to take responsibility for the misconduct and resign from Fingle.
Tengda family
AI CEO: With You to the End of the Universe (Ep 16)
After getting okay by Pei Qian (because of his designated driver side job, he replied “Sure, okay, no problem” to every employee’s suggestion), Huang Sibo made an appointment with Chit & Chat, the author of the sweet romance “The CEO Has an Exclusive Crush on You.” It turned out that the author(s) were his colleague, the twins Wu Sheng and Wu Xi! Their young romantic hearts perceived a secret office romance between their boss Pei Qian and Lin Wan, with a couple name “Qianyan Wanyu,” (千言万语) meaning “So much to say.”
They refused Sibo’s plea to be the screenwriters and granted their permission for him to write the script instead. Next, he made an appointment with Pei Qian and Director Zhuang Dace. The director refused the original work, which was a simple office romance. He opted for a sci-fi approach, and even already had a name for it: “AI CEO: With You to the End of the Universe.” Moreover, Director Zhuang demanded an S+ production tier with three seasons shot back-to-back. The leading actor, Lu Zhiyao, eventually backed off. While Sibo was having a headache with the movie project, Ma Yang recommended Shi Huo, the bit actor who made his performance at DreamForge Capital. Shi Huo went to the audition, and Director Zhuang liked him and casted him right away. Ma Yang became Shi Huo’s agent.
The filming process turned out to be difficult, since Lu Zhiyao returned after having a scandal of treating his assistant poorly. Although the Male Lead had been cast as the wizard, the villain role as the Demon King was still available, but the actor insisted on their changing the casting to double Male Lead roles and having a love triangle with the Female Lead.
CEO Pei “Experiencing Life” (Ep 16 to 18)
Pei Qian worked nights at CC Designated Driving, spending his nights after working at Tengda waiting for customers outside bars. His employees couldn’t understand the reason why their CEO was working as a designated driver. They thought it was be another brilliant business strategy of their boss.
Lin Wan eventually met her boss as her designated driver after she placed an order through the CC Designated Driver platform. He simply stated that he was “experiencing life” and declined Lin Wan’s thought that he might need money. Lin Wan then booked Pei Qian’s services for the entire month, so his employees could consult with their boss when they needed him after hours. However, Pei Qian requested her to cancel the month-long hiring arrangement. He said that he needed to take his “experience of life” seriously by working more orders and earning money the hard way.
One night, Pei Qian’s “experiencing life” mission ended when Li Shi and Zhou Muyan, Pei Qian’s former boss at Sky Fire, became his clients. Zhou kept insulting the Tengda’s boss, which almost caused Pei Qian to crash the car. When Li Shi and Zhou Muyan found out that Pei Qian was their designated driver, Zhou took him to the police station with an accusation that Pei Qian wanted to kill him and Li Shi. Xin Hailu had to dig him out of the police station, with a warning that he should stop working as a dedicated driver. Zhou remained resentful, while Li Shi admired Pei Qian’s dedication to experience “life”. Meanwhile, Tengda’s employees believed that Pei Qian worked as a dedicated driver for intel work, waited for Zhou Muyan to come to Jinchuan for a business trip to Fuhui.
Behind the scenes
Poor Pei Qian really needed money to buy his parents an apartment!
CEO Pei Second “Experiencing “Life” (Ep 18)
Tengda staff were again baffled by their eccentric CEO, when one morning they found their office desks were very clean and organized, complete with thoughtful gifts. Then they heard from Xin Hailu that their boss was their janitor. Shocked by his new “experiencing life” mission and touched by his little gifts, the employees decided they should thoroughly clean and organize their desks from now on.
Tengda Acquired Sky Fire (Ep 18 & 19)
Sky Fire launched its highly anticipated game, Eternal Reincarnation, but it was immediately met with a wave of plagiarism accusations on social media. Players and reviewers noticed its striking resemblance with Tengda’s Returning to Shore. Sky Fire’s boss, Zhou Muyan, forced his employees to work like crazy, to the point that an older employee collapsed at work and had to be taken to the hospital. Zhou still forced his employees to keep working and scolded them. Someone finally videotaped his action and circulated it online. Sky Fire’s owner, the Fuhui Group, didn’t want to have anything to do with Sky Fire anymore, since Fuhui’s stock price plummeted. Fuhui’s stock price plummeted, forcing Chairman Li to issued a public apology on behalf of Sky Fire. Li Shi, his son, then intervened and asked Pei Qian to buy Sky Fire. Li Shi and Pei Qian met with Zhou Muyan to negotiate an acquisition.
Tengda took over Sky Fire and rebranded it with a new name, “Late Departure”, signaling a shift toward a slower, healthier work pace. Everyone from Sky Fire was kept to work, either remotely or moved to Jinchuan. However, the former Sky Fire employee still maintained the old working atmosphere, finding it uncomfortable to leave work on time. When Lin Wan reported this to Pei Qian with a video of the former Sky Fire employees worrying about overtime, Pei Qian reassured them that Tengda would never tolerate the toxic work environment as they experienced in Sky Fire.
Zhou Muyan and his lackey, Zhao Xuming, eventually quit “Late Departure”, after their former subordinates defended Pei Qian when the two accused him of infiltrating Sky Fire to steal the company secrets. Zhou Muyan and Zhao Xuming were recruited by Fingle.
Tengda Second Anniversary Celebration (Ep 21)
Two years had passed. Tengda celebrated its second anniversary. Massive success in every subsidiary, in profit or expansion, even overseas. There were even subsidiaries that were not covered in the drama. Almost everyone got rewards, even Bao Xu! He won the Grand Prize, a 10-day worldwide trip for two for the THIRD time! He gifted his reward to Tang Yishu, who was known as unlucky since childhood. Pei Qian gave a golf club membership to everyone.
Behind the scenes
The sad thing was, Pei Qian didn’t even get any reward, not even the sweepstakes. When he went to the restroom, he was contemplating his thoughts. He was still wearing the same suit he wore on the company’s inauguration day, and still working as a designated driver.
I was teary-eyed during this restroom scene. He was, too. I really felt bad for Pei Qian. That was why I screenshot it.
Alien Invasion (Ep 21 to 23)
I wouldn’t cover in detail about these aliens because I disliked the Sima brothers. They even wanted to eliminate Yintang, Tengda black cat mascot!
Alright, the above title was not a subsidiary, novel, film, or any business name under Tengda. And for everyone in Tengda, including Pei Qian, was like an alien invasion. One of Sima’s sons, Sima Fu, or who wanted to be called Lawrence or Law instead, arrived in Jinghuan to ‘take over’ Tengda.
This guy was really cocky and acted like a boss. He said his dad sent him to Tengda to polish the company. He wanted to develop new lines and online marketing, stating that their current projects are meaningless. He believed that without his dad’s support, Peiqian wouldn’t have achieved his current success. He took over Pei Qian’s office. Since he was a US graduate, he was not used to calling people by their Chinese names and asked them to pick an English name. Pei Qian went with “Ross”, which was close to “Loss”, lol.
Everyone was confused about Law and gossiped about him. However, even Pei Qian didn’t know anything about him. He couldn’t explain to anyone about Mr. Sima. He didn’t even know where Mr. Sima was. Xin Hailu only said that Mr. Sima was overseas. She also didn’t know how to contact Mr. Sima, since he used to disappear and appear.
Ma Yang was forced to do a new livestream show called Ponytail Live
Law drove everyone crazy, and everyone started making excuses to him during work, not to do what they were asked to do. When Law finally left, two other Mr. Sima’s sons, Sima Tu and Sima Sui, came to Tengda. Because there were two of them, they drove everyone crazier. Pei Qian could only tell everyone that these two people were also shareholders of the company and hoped everyone could bear with them. While he went all over the world looking for Mr. Sima.
Everyone bonded together to fight the aliens, and even Li Shi helped them during their forced military training. Pei Qian sent a message to everyone, saying that he would find a way to resolve the issue as soon as possible and hoped everyone could be patient for now. If anyone was unwilling to wait, they could leave and would receive full compensation. Once the matter was resolved, they would be welcome to return. This message confused everyone, because was it Pei Qian who found Tengda? While everyone was guessing, Ma Yang, who assumed from the beginning that Pei Qian was a rich second-generation guy playing poor, thought that Pei Qian or the Sima brothers were siblings, but was not sure which one was illegitimate.
Everyone was tired from overtime and unhappy during the alien invasion
Every subsidiary generated losses, thanks to the cross-transfer ordered by the brothers within the company to the subsidiary; the transferees were not skilled. Although some blessings in disguise, like Chef Lin, created new recipes while cross-training in Tengda Games. When Pei Qian came back from looking for Mr. Sima, Xin Hailu reported all loss. He used this excuse to confront the Simas. When the brothers ran away, Pei Qian chased them by bike, and he got into an accident and was hospitalized. Just at the same time, Mr. Sima was wheeled in on a gurney for a major surgery. Pei Qian and Xin Hailu were shocked to see Mr. Sima in a coma.
After the Sima brothers were gone, things went back to normal. Everyone returned to their previous positions, full of energy and confidence that the business would recover. Even Ponytail Live generated profit.
Pei Qian asked Xin Hailu, what if Mr. Sima never woke up?
Xin Hailu said that would be considered an act of God, and their agreement would be void, along with everything they had promised him before. Pei Qian pleaded to the doctors to treat Mr. Sima so he would wake up.
Pei Qian Closed Tengda and Came Clean (Ep 24)
Bruh, this Mr. Sima had four sons, and everyone sucked! So there was one more son named Sima Wan, who proposed to work together with Pei Qian, with the same agreement given by his father. Since they were both Mr. Sima’s guinea pigs, they must work together.
One month later, after recuperating, Pei Qian returned to the company. Everyone was very happy to see him. But he was not happy, having felt that he had become a pawn in Mr. Sima’s plan. Pei Qian called everyone over and said he had decided to close all of Tengda’s businesses and would compensate everyone appropriately. Everyone was shocked!
When his core employees chased him and asked if he was facing any difficulties, Pei Qian finally came clean. He confessed that he didn’t actually hope any project would succeed. He didn’t even want the game to go live before, and he assigned everyone to positions they weren’t suited for, just hoping Tengda would not succeed. Everyone was very shocked! When the outside world heard the news that Tengda closed down, everyone was in shock, too!
Pei Qian came clean
Tengda Reborn (Ep 25)
After Tengda closed down, everyone went back to their life before. Some of them who never worked before Tengda were taken in by Ma Yang, who now had a grocery store business. Huang Sibo went back to work 9-9-6 job. Bao Xu was back to his hermit life at the internet cafe. Another hermit, Lv Ming Liang, lived off-grid in a tent. Lin Wan locked herself in her room every day.
What about Pei Qian?
Sometime later, Pei Qian wandered to the Tengda office, which was empty, but everything was still there. He logged into Divine Mountains and Seas and entered a dungeon. He saw a video clip secretly recorded by the employees when they were tortured by the Simas. Everyone expressed their determination to protect the company well, knowing that Pei Qian must have some difficulties. They also comforted him.
Pei Qian then received a role, newly created by Lin Wan and her team. The role was called the Guardian of Light. It could heal companions and bring hope to the characters in the team. He exited the game, unable to hold back tears. He decided to restart Tengda. Not with Mr. Sima’s money but with his loyal employees.
Pei Qian started to ask his former employees to return, one by one. Some were happy to join him right away, and some needed Pei Qian’s apology and their forgiveness. He also sold his brand-new apartment. Li Shi decided to buy it at a high price and told him that once Pei Qian got money, he could buy the house back, awww! Pei Qian pleaded with Ruan Guangjian to draw characters for Tengda again.
Pei Qian reunited with Ma Yang, his bestie
Lin Wan was the last one Pei Qian needed to apologize personally. Her parents told her the good news that Divine Mountains and Seas had been updated. She didn’t care. Pei Qian texted and called her, but Lin Wan blocked his number. He finally sneaked into her yard and tried to attract her attention. When Lin Wan went jogging, Pei Qian chased her with his electric bike, but his battery died, so he chased her on foot.
Tengda Became an Independent Entity (Ep 26)
Everyone returned to the company for a meeting. They even sat next to each other like the first time they met. Li Shi was there, too. Pei Qian came over, apologized to everyone, and expressed the desire to revive the previous Tengda. Everyone is willing to continue working with Pei Qian.
I like how they all wore white/creme colored clothes!
Once the employees were ready to work again, all businesses were open again. Even the independent people who worked with Tengda were also back. Chen Lei came back to sing at M&Y Internet Cafe. The Four Walls Apartment tenants were back, too! They were even given compensation, one year of free rent! After the mess created by the Simas, the movie crew finally wrapped up filming AI CEO: With You to the End of the Universe. Would they keep this super-long title? The actors, Lu Zhiyao and Shi Huo, who were once enemies, are now friends.
Mr. Sima’s surprise visit to Tengda
Mr. Sima recuperated, too, and he visited Tengda. Nobody knew him, and Xin Hailu assured the employee that he was Pei Qian’s friend. Mr. Sima said that Jinghong’s business had been declining recently; only Tengda succeed. Pei Qian has passed the test. In the future, when Tengda earns money, Pei Qian will receive it and no longer need to worry about losing it. He sent his sons abroad. Pei Qian said that his sons were right. To Mr. Sima, they were all pawns.
Pei Qian’s parents now knew that their son was the CEO of Tengda. The new apartment was not bought back, but they didn’t want a new house. The old one was nice. As long as they could be together as a family, everything was good.
Before Tengda went independent
Pei Qian visited Mr. Sima at his home for the last time and negotiated for Tengda to go solo. Pei Qian thanked Mr. Sima but affirmed that Tengda’s greatest wealth was not his investment but the people. So Tengda must operate independently. Although sad, Mr. Sima agreed. Before he left, he turned off the sprinkler at Mr. Sima’s house, showing his care for people who got rained on down below. Pei Qian then asked Xin Hailu to tell the others that he would go on a long vacation.
Later, Mr. Sima stepped down as the chairman of Jinghong Group, replaced by the aliens… eh, his four sons. Tengda was also reported to operate independently. Pei Qian owned 51% share, the employees 49%.
During his vacation, Pei Qian did not need to worry. Even without his meddling, Tengda kept getting better and better. All departments have developed. More games were made, more movies were filmed, and more branches opened. When Pei Qian stopped by, Ma Yang and the others were very happy to have him back. He had been traveling for so long, and it seemed that he liked traveling very much.
Pei Qian saw his empty office and decided to keep it like before and let Agent Cui handle the paperwork. Before he left the office, he put up the photos of Tengda’s first opening ceremony. He went to Cosmos Cafe, the place where Xin Hailu found him for the first time, and started writing a novel about his own experience. Perhaps with the scene we saw in the opening of the drama?
Conclusion
No Pain No Gain (年少有为) is not just a hilarious comedy parodying real work life, but sends meaningful messages as well. For me, having core attentiveness and benevolence. Pei Qian might seem attentive and generous to his employees for a selfish motivation: getting money by losing the money he didn’t own. We might seem attentive and generous to people we love and care. However, in the beginning, while Pei Qian was still poor and worked at Fuhui, he made the employee grievance manual against the bad job conditions, at the cost of his own job! And when he left, his former colleagues didn’t even know him or care about him. Also, in the end, Pei Qian turned off the sprinklers at Mr. Sima’s house to care about the strangers below who got rained on and wet. They don’t even know him, and nobody knows this gesture but him, Mr. Sima, and us, the viewers.
