NOVEL NEXT Chapter 3 Game PLAY
"Hey Captain Yan," Yan Yu typed, asking, "I have a question for you."
Zhou Hongyu did not reply, but Yan Yu did not wait foolishly for her response and quickly typed out the question.
[Win Over with Virtue]: As a team leader, how do you treat all members equally?
After a while, a question mark came from the other side.
[Zao La]: ?
[Win Over with Virtue]: Let me give you an example. It's January now, and soon it'll be the Chinese New Year. If Qin Meng and Tang Xiaolian both invite you to their homes for the New Year's Eve dinner at the same time, what would you do?
[Zao La]: Get lost.
[Win Over with Virtue]: That direct and harsh? What if you upset them so much they can't eat or sleep, and it affects their daily training too? That would be problematic, wouldn't it?
[Zao La]: I'm telling you to get lost.
[Win Over with Virtue]: Although you replaced one word with five, the meaning hasn't changed, has it?
The other side stopped replying. After a while, Zhang Huaide suddenly sent a message.
[Chu Kou Cheng Zhang]: Does Captain Yan have a personal issue? Captain Zhou is busy. If Captain Yan wouldn't mind, you can discuss it with me.
[Win Over with Virtue]: Did Captain Zhou send you? Oh, it's like this. I'm thinking about how, as a team leader, to treat everyone equally.
[Chu Kou Cheng Zhang]: Captain Yan, with all due respect, that's impossible.
[Chu Kou Cheng Zhang]: Everyone's values are different. Even if the treatment is identical, some team members might feel grateful, while others might feel shortchanged. If the goal is to satisfy everyone, the right strategy definitely isn't to treat everyone equally.
[Win Over with Virtue]: Tell me more in detail, Zhang.
[Chu Kou Cheng Zhang]: The truly effective strategy is to give each person the treatment they desire, not the same treatment.
[Chu Kou Cheng Zhang]: From a management perspective, managers need to effectively manage 'subordinates' expectations,' then judge how to meet them more economically. Some demands can be met directly, others might look for a cheaper "alternative," and some requests need to be rejected outright. Of course, specific issues require specific analysis. I can only offer a general idea.
Yan Yu pondered thoughtfully.
So, I need to manage their expectations, right?
What does Yun Jin desire? Probably a sense of security, considering she's the only child, perennially single, and a romantic at heart with wild but impractical fantasies. Occasionally giving her sweet nothings to fool her into feeling an increasing closeness should do the trick.
As for Ningning, who never says what she feels and vehemently denies everything, she probably needs a sort of push-pull relationship. You can't get too close and trigger her tsundere nature, but you also can't stay too far or she'll secretly shed tears. Just keeping a steady back-and-forth distance should be fine.
Got it! Got it, got it, got it—this isn't so hard, haha!
[Win Over with Virtue]: Thanks, Zhang. Although this approach might feel a bit unethical, there's no better option. I've decided to adopt your approach!
[Chu Kou Cheng Zhang]: ...Having reviewed our chat, I am certain I did not provide any 'unethical strategies.'
[Win Over with Virtue]: Don't sweat the details—I've got to go, you stay busy.
Yan Yu put away his phone, looked up, and saw the girls looking at each other in silent communication, probably telepathically chatting about something again.
"Don't just sit there," he said, picking up his chopsticks. "Let's eat, let's eat."
The restaurant was chosen by Chen Lingyun due to the commotion at the school last time. It was clear they couldn't dine in the school cafeteria anymore without being watched by all the students, hence the selection of this VIP room in a restaurant rumored to be very discreet, spacious enough not only for eating, drinking, gaming, partying, but also equipped with beds for sleeping.
Strange, why would they put a big bed in the VIP room? Do customers have that kind of need?
After dinner, Yan Yu took out a toothpick to clean his teeth when he saw Xie Ruoxi running to the TV, grabbing the game controller, and starting to play Goose Duck Kill.
Probably because they were full and a bit bored, and didn't want to go home right away, the girls gathered around to watch.
"This is just like Werewolf Kill," Lin Ning commented with a frown. "It relies on lying and deceiving to win—what's the point of a game like that? The better someone is at this game online, the more I'd want to stay away from them offline."
Xie Ruoxi chuckled nervously; she had already won five rounds in a row, managing to win every time.
"Let me have a go," Zhao Yuanzhen said, quite interested. Although the Demonic Sect Enchantress of this timeline hadn't yet committed any heinous acts, she still had a natural, intense interest in wrongdoing.
"Hold on, let me finish this level," Xie Ruoxi quickly said, "It's about to start the statement phase."
In this level, her role was the goose, a so-called "good faction" member. She needed to persuade her teammates to trust her and identify the "liars" from other factions. After watching for a while, Yan Yu roughly understood how the game worked.
He also understood why Xie Ruoxi had been able to win five rounds in a row. In the virtual online environment, she was very talkative, skillful at hinting and pretending to be naive. Completely different from her socially anxious offline persona, male players were often deceived by her, and female players also had a fifty percent chance of being tricked.
The participants took turns analyzing the situation at length, and finally, it was Xie Ruoxi's turn.
She was weighing her words when she suddenly heard Su Yunjin say,
"The first person who spoke is lying."
"Ah, why?" Xie Ruoxi asked curiously.
"I'm quite sensitive to people's vocal tones," Su Yunjin said. "His voice trembled a bit, probably because he was holding back a laugh."
"Sister, that's not fair!" the man who spoke first shouted desperately, "You can't bring in outsiders to cheat!"
"Ah, Ruoxi, is your mic on?" Su Yunjin quickly covered her mouth, "Sorry, I was just reminding you, not talking to them."
"It's fine, what Yun Jin said is exactly what I was going to say," Xie Ruoxi shamelessly yelled out, "Let's vote him off!"
So, the first round of voting ended smoothly, and the player who Su Yunjin pointed out as "holding back a laugh" was indeed voted out.
The game continued for a few more minutes, and soon it was time for the second round of voting, when suddenly someone said,
"That... Magic Girl Ruoxi, right? I heard you calling someone Yun Jin earlier, and she called you Ruoxi. Are you two from the Zhenghai Team, Xie Ruoxi and Su Yunjin?"
The girls looked at each other.
The next second, Xie Ruoxi, quick as a flash, exited the game!
"Hahaha, we were almost recognized," she said sheepishly as she stood up. "We shouldn't have used our real names."
"I haven't played yet," Zhao Yuanzhen lamented, on the brink of tears, "We agreed I'd take the next game..."
"No worries, I'll set up an account for you," Xie Ruoxi consoled her, when suddenly she heard Chen Lingyun laugh and say,
"What's the fun in playing with strangers online? We have six people here; we can just play a game, right?"
"What do you want to play, Lingyun?" Su Yunjin asked curiously.
"Werewolf Killer, UNO cards, King's Game, or Truth or Dare," Chen Lingyun said with a smile, "I'm good with any of those."
Yan Yu, who had been silent up to that point, suddenly shivered. The painful memory of playing games with his girlfriend in his previous life flashed through his mind.
"No Truth or Dare!" he exclaimed sharply.