Losing Money to Become a Tycoon: Starting with Games
Chapter 361: Tengda Group Really Treats Me Like One of Their Own
At noon, Tengda Group's employees put aside their work and prepared to head to the annual company gala.
The venue was a luxury hotel nearby, not very far away.
Employees from Shenhua Prestige were transported by two chartered buses, while others scattered around Jingzhou—such as Against the Wind Logistics couriers and Moyu Internet Café attendants—took taxis on their own, with all fares reimbursed by the company.
Wu Bin rode the bus to the gala venue, still feeling a bit dazed.
He hadn't yet shaken off the shadow of the morning's events and was still brooding over why he had failed the Tengda Spirit Compatibility Test.
"Why exactly did I fail…?"
"My answers should've been fine…"
Along the way, he kept searching on his phone for similar tests. But forget finding the answers, he couldn't even find similar questions.
Embarrassingly enough, as an HR professional, Wu Bin had been pushed to the point of consulting Qiandu over a test like this. It was practically a disgrace…
But he had no choice. For the sake of passing the test and successfully becoming a full employee, even humiliating himself by turning to Qiandu was acceptable! As long as he could find the answer, that was all that mattered.
Following the crowd into the banquet hall, Wu Bin—who had been lost in thought—finally looked up and suddenly realized that the venue setup was completely different from any company gala he'd seen before.
It was extremely minimalist.
The hotel ballroom was very spacious. Ten people per table, with nearly a hundred tables in total, clearly indicating close to a thousand attendees.
The table arrangement was just right: neither crowded nor sparse.
Unlike typical corporate galas, there were no flashy decorations here. No exhibition boards, no banners, no roll-up stands—nothing of the sort. There wasn't even a proper stage, because it had already been filled with capsule toy machines and claw machines.
And it wasn't just the stage.
A quick glance around revealed that the entire perimeter of the hall was lined with machines of all kinds.
Claw machines, gashapon machines, air rifles, ring toss games…
It felt like he'd accidentally wandered into an arcade.
There were projectors and large screens, but at the moment they were only displaying a simple, understated gala theme background—clean and elegant, without the slightest hint of gaudiness or forced hype.
Wu Bin wasn't particularly interested in things like capsule toys or claw machines.
He always felt that these arcade games were scams.
He had once watched a popular science video online explaining that these machines were rigged, otherwise arcades wouldn't be able to make money.
For example, claw machines can have their success rates programmed in advance.
Some unscrupulous operators directly set the success rate to one in a hundred. During the lift after grabbing the plush toy, the electrical current gradually weakens, reducing the claw's grip strength, causing the toy to fall—while giving players the illusion that they "just barely missed it."
Then, on the 100th attempt, the current doesn't weaken. As long as the claw is positioned correctly, the toy is guaranteed to be lifted out.
Of course, some more ethical operators might set the probability to one in twenty or one in ten.
But no matter what, the player never truly wins, and the business never truly loses. It's all a trick.
Many customers think they won because of luck or skill—but in reality, it was all decided by the machine from the start.
That's why Wu Bin had never been interested in arcades.
But this time, things were clearly different from what he'd imagined.
Arcades are a rip-off because you're spending your own money.
But what if someone else is paying and letting you play for free?
Suddenly… it became a whole lot more interesting.
Near the entrance of the hall, there was a table where staff from the administrative department were distributing tokens.
These were the same game tokens used in arcades. Each person received a full bag, containing at least fifty or sixty tokens.
Taking the capsule toy machines as an example, each play normally costs around 10 to 15 yuan. Here, however, one token was enough for a single play.
In other words, each token effectively represented about ten yuan.
The tokens Wu Bin received were worth at least five or six hundred yuan.
And all of these tokens were completely free. Everyone could play freely throughout the venue, without any of the usual arcade tricks or gimmicks.
Of course, the administrative staff also explained that the entertainment activities would take place after the meal. Everyone was asked to eat first, then play once they were full.
Wu Bin was already very happy to receive the tokens—but that wasn't all.
An administrative staff member then placed a thick red envelope into his hand.
"This is the Sunshine-for-All Award," the staff member said with a smile.
Wu Bin was a little surprised. "I just joined and haven't even passed probation yet. I get one too?"
The administrative staff member nodded with a smile. "Of course. Since it's called the Sunshine-for-All Award, everyone gets it."
Wu Bin felt a warmth spread through his chest.
That wording was just perfect.
Sunshine-for-All Award—of course it should be for everyone.
Back at Hengtui Games, not to mention interns—even full-time employees who had been hired for less than three months weren't allowed to participate in the annual gala lottery.
That was because an awkward incident had happened at another company before: an intern had just joined, immediately won the first prize—a laptop worth over ten thousand yuan—and then resigned the very next day…
As a result, many companies banned interns from participating in annual gala raffles altogether.
Wu Bin had originally assumed he probably wouldn't receive a Sunshine-for-All Award or be eligible for any of the gala prizes. Only now did he realize how wrong he'd been.
Tengda Group truly didn't treat him like an outsider, nor did it go out of its way to guard against him.
Thinking about this only made Wu Bin feel worse about failing the Tengda Spirit Compatibility Test that morning.
The company treats me this well, yet I'm still not qualified to be part of it.
It hurt—deeply.
I must quickly grasp the spirit of Tengda Group and contribute to the company as soon as possible!
Wu Bin followed the HR staff to his assigned seat and immediately pulled the cash out of the red envelope to count it.
Ten hundred-yuan bills.
For Wu Bin, this was already a lot. At Hengtui Games, the Sunshine-for-All Award at the annual gala was merely a shampoo gift set…
And it was the anti–hair loss kind.
Although it was admittedly useful for most employees, it really wasn't worth much.
By comparison, Tengda Group was this generous even with the Sunshine-for-All Award—so how extravagant must the later prizes be?
As Wu Bin toyed with the brand-new game tokens in his hand, he observed the venue.
On the stage stood a long table covered with a red cloth. Beneath it, something seemed to be piled up in large quantities—presumably the gala prizes.
The specific prizes were still unknown, but judging from the shape, there were quite a lot of them—almost like a small mountain.
Before long, the seats were nearly full.
At Tengda Group, it was unthinkable for anyone to skip the annual gala. President Pei had emphasized repeatedly that unless someone was so sick they couldn't get out of bed, attendance was mandatory.
Wu Bin had once heard of a company where an employee missed the annual gala grand prize because he was working overtime, and as a result, didn't receive the prize at all.
Such a thing could never happen at Tengda Group.
If it ever did…
The consequences would be unimaginable.
It likely wouldn't just be the overtime employee who'd be held responsible—his direct supervisor and even the department head would probably be implicated as well.
Wu Bin glanced at the time.
It was already 11:30 a.m.
Wu Bin was still wondering when the annual gala was supposed to officially begin, when he suddenly noticed that the servers had already started bringing out the dishes.
Wu Bin: "???"
Wait, did they mess up the order of events?
At a normal company gala, shouldn't it start with some kind of opening? Maybe an awkward dance, then leaders going on stage to give speeches—summarizing last year's achievements, talking about future plans—and only after several rounds of that would the food finally be served?
But here… the awkward dance was gone, sure, but even the leadership speeches were gone!
Wu Bin craned his neck toward the front tables and realized that President Pei really had no intention of going on stage. In fact, he seemed to be seriously considering which dish in front of him to eat first.
Wu Bin felt a little dizzy.
This gala was… way too straightforward.
Everyone arrived and immediately started eating. Not a single minute wasted.
At that moment, a lottery countdown appeared on the big screen.
"Holy crap, it's this direct?!"
Wu Bin was completely stunned.
No leadership speeches was one thing, but before starting the lottery, shouldn't there at least be a host to warm up the atmosphere?
Turns out, even that was skipped.
Instead, it was a fully automated lottery program, drawing prizes at fixed intervals.
Clearly, all employees' information and photos had already been entered into the system, and the program was randomly selecting winners from the entire database.
The first round of prizes appeared: 799-yuan Bluetooth headphones—three hundred of them!
At this price point, the sound quality was decent at best, but for Bluetooth headphones, the portability and overall user experience were already very good.
Most people couldn't really tell high-end audio quality anyway, and having a convenient pair of Bluetooth headphones was never a bad thing, especially for commuting.
So everyone's eyes were instantly glued to the big screen, faces filled with unmistakable desire.
A flashy animation played as photos rapidly cycled in the center of the screen, finally stopping on a colleague Wu Bin didn't recognize.
At the same time, a shout of surprise came from somewhere in the hall, followed by a round of applause—clearly the winner's coworkers cheering them on.
Then the photo quickly shrank and flew to the top-left corner of the screen. Another photo began spinning in the center, drawing the next winner.
Soon, photos began stacking layer upon layer across the screen, while all kinds of sounds erupted throughout the hall—cheers, sighs, and exclamations.
"I won!"
"No way—Bluetooth headphones! Nice!"
"Starting strong!"
"Not me… ah well, no problem—the prizes get better later!"
At first, applause broke out frequently, but the drawing was just too fast. With three hundred headphones being given out, people were getting tired of clapping.
Even so, while the applause faded, the atmosphere only grew more intense.
Before long, everyone was basically doing two things at once:
Eating, and staring at the big screen.
Despite there being no host and no performances, no one felt it was awkward—in fact, it felt great.
Who actually wanted to watch those programs anyway?
Everyone was here for the lottery.
Just the first prize category alone had already produced three hundred winners—one-third of the entire staff—sending waves of cheers through the hall.
Soon, more prizes began appearing on the big screen one after another.
899-yuan mechanical keyboards.
1299-yuan air purifiers.
2199-yuan robot vacuums and vacuum cleaners.
3599-yuan game consoles…
The further it went, the higher the prize value and the more electric the atmosphere became.
Wu Bin watched the nonstop stream of prizes being drawn on the screen, growing more and more shocked.
Just how many prizes did they prepare?!
At Hengtui Games' annual gala, there were usually only four or five prize categories: Sunshine-for-All Award, third prize, second prize, first prize, grand prize, and that was it.
And the number of prizes was always limited, having more than a dozen total was already considered generous.
But here at Tengda Group?
They were handing out prizes like money didn't matter at all!
The initial Bluetooth headphones and mechanical keyboards were three hundred each, and even the later, much higher-value prizes were still being given out in quantities of one or two hundred apiece!
An entire order of magnitude more prizes than most other companies—was that even reasonable?!
With a quick calculation, they'd only just reached the vacuum cleaners, and the number of prizes handed out had already exceeded one thousand…
Judging by sheer quantity, the vast majority of people present had probably already won something!
Wu Bin couldn't quite tell whether his luck was good or bad. He hadn't won anything earlier, but just a moment ago, he finally won a 2,199-yuan handheld vacuum cleaner.
He'd been keeping an eye on this vacuum for a long time, not because he wanted it, but because his wife really did.
It was a well-known international brand, famous for both its sleek design and excellent performance. Its only downside was the price.
Wu Bin had considered buying one several times, but each time he hesitated and backed off because it was just too expensive.
And now, he'd won it at the annual gala!
And this still wasn't the end.
Given how generous the prizes were so far, there were definitely even bigger prizes coming later!
Wu Bin immediately and excitedly shared the good news with his wife.
Looking at it this way, changing jobs has been completely worth it!
At this gala alone, he'd already received more than 500 yuan worth of game tokens, a 1,000-yuan red envelope, and a vacuum cleaner worth 2,199 yuan. That already crushed anything he might have gotten at Hengtui Games' annual gala!
A prize in the 2,000-yuan range was already equivalent to a second prize at many companies' galas, and given the number of prizes, Wu Bin didn't think he'd ever have a chance of winning something like that at Hengtui Games.
This was a massive win!
As he basked in his happiness, Wu Bin couldn't help thinking again about the Tengda Spirit Compatibility Test from that morning.
He felt an even stronger urge to pass that test and officially become a member of Tengda Group.
…
Pei Qian ate while observing everyone's reactions.
Mm, everyone looked happy!
Good, that was exactly what he wanted.
Everyone happily eating, happily drawing prizes, and he happily handing out money. Perfect.
Since everyone's goals were aligned anyway, there was no need to complicate the annual gala with pointless routines. Eat quickly, take the money, and go—no wasted time.
Pei Qian hadn't included himself in the lottery pool, because he felt it was unnecessary.
Most of the prizes could be reimbursed through the system one way or another, so he didn't care about them at all. He'd rather free up another slot for his employees.
He figured that by now, most people present had probably already won something.
After all, this lottery wasn't based on pure randomness, but on a pseudo-probability system, like gacha mechanics in games.
Each person could win at most twice, and the longer someone went without winning, the higher their chances became later on.
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Note:
Sunshine-for-All Award: The "Sunshine-for-All Award" refers to an award format that broadly covers all participants and follows the principle of "everyone gets a share." It is often used for employee benefits, year-end raffles, or marketing promotions. It is usually given as a consolation prize or a general award, and can take the form of physical gifts, high-value electronic products, or cash or financial assets.
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