"The topic of this market research is: At 7 a.m., how much would you spend at minimum to buy 10 pounds of spinach from a prime spot in a rural market.

"Aunt Su, you must know the answer, right? How much do you think it should be?" Li Renshu asked.

Su Xiuqin was momentarily surprised, and said matter-of-factly: "Ten bucks! Or maybe even six or seven bucks."

Although Li Renshu had somewhat expected that the price might be lower than she had anticipated, hearing this number from Su Xiuqin still shocked her a bit.

She widened her eyes in surprise: "Aunt Su, are you sure? Spinach for less than a dollar a pound?

"Moreover, this is the prime time at 7 a.m. in a rural market, shouldn't the price reflect that?"

Su Xiuqin shook her head repeatedly: "Not at all!

"In fact, prices are cheaper early in the morning and late at night. The location doesn't really affect the price of the vegetables."

Li Renshu was even more puzzled: "I understand the prices being cheaper at night since vendors are closing up and the vegetables aren't fresh. But in the morning, the vegetables are freshly picked, so why is it even cheaper?"

Su Xiuqin explained: "Because in the morning markets, many farmers come to sell fruits and vegetables that they have grown themselves!

"Many households grow spinach. If there's too much for their own consumption, they sell the excess at the market. Many rural markets don't even have fixed stalls; whoever arrives early gets the spot.

"These vendors usually pack up by 8 a.m. because they have to return to their fields for farm work. Whatever they don't sell by then, they sell at a lower price.

"The location does not impact the price; the whole market offers similar prices.

"There are only so many people buying vegetables each day and about the same number of sellers, ultimately everyone sells out. Selling cheaply just means finishing earlier, it doesn't hinder others from making money, so it all ends up being the same price.

"I love buying vegetables in the morning. Many are grown by the farmers themselves, fresh and cheap, without pesticides."

Li Renshu felt a bit regretful: "Aunt Su, I wish you had been there at that time."

Su Xiuqin asked: "What, all the questions are like this? But I can't go out now. Otherwise, I could tell you the prices of all the vegetables right now, would you remember them?"

Li Renshu shook her head: "No need, Aunt Su.

"According to the game's rules, we take turns choosing topics, and the topics span four different fields: [Science], [Society], [Art], and [Livelihood].

"Next time it will be our turn to choose.

"We can choose Society or Art, which are fields we're more proficient in, as long as we avoid Livelihood, we won't have to answer these kinds of questions.

"Don't worry."

Su Xiuqin nodded: "Alright then, you all take care of it. If you encounter this kind of problem again, just ask me."

...

Leaving the president's office, Li Renshu returned to the work area.

"Fu Chen, Xu Tong.

"I just asked Aunt Su, and the correct answer was under 10 dollars."

Fu Chen and Xu Tong were both shocked: "What? That's for 10 pounds of spinach!"

Li Renshu sighed softly and found a random spot to sit down: "Yes, in a rural market, spinach grown by farmers themselves is indeed that cheap.

"It's a pity that if Aunt Su had been there, she definitely would have answered correctly."

Fu Chen also felt troubled: "This is a bit of a problem now.

"There are a total of four different fields of questions in the market research, most likely, all livelihood-related questions will be about the same.

"If Aunt Su were here, she would know all the answers, but the three of us can only handle questions from other fields.

"After thinking it over, I could probably handle questions in the [Art] field, like songs, movies, novels, that sort of content I'm more familiar with."

Li Renshu nodded: "Yes, I might be more adept at [Society]-related questions.

"What about you, Xu Tong?"

Xu Tong thought for a moment: "I'll also take the [Art] category, but I might be able to guess some basic questions in the Science category since I studied science in college."

Fu Chen was a little surprised: "Huh? Isn't Human Resource Management supposed to be a Liberal Arts major?"

Xu Tong shook her head: "Not really, it includes both Liberal Arts and Science. I studied Science."

Fu Chen felt a bit pleasantly surprised: "That's great. Next time we have market research you should go. No matter what, you're a science student, you're definitely more reliable answering [Science] questions than I, a Liberal Arts student."

Li Renshu thought for a moment: "There's no rush for the next market research, because next time it's our turn to choose.

"I think we can choose [Society] or [Art], which we are relatively more adept at.

"As for Xu Tong, maybe she can go the time after next. I think Tian Fan from the 8th Community might choose the [Science] field."

Xu Tong nodded: "I'm fine with anything, you all decide.

"By the way, during your market research time, I also researched the company's management system in the game.

"I have an idea, that is...

"Can we lay off those high-salaried employees?"

Fu Chen was momentarily speechless: "...Are you having a bout of occupational sickness or something, planning to lay off employees on the first day in the company?"

Xu Tong hurriedly explained: "No, no, no, it's not that I'm just thinking about layoffs. It's just that looking at the game's mechanism, isn't it practically encouraging us to lay off employees?

"Or rather, layoff seems to be a very important part of the game content, doesn't it?

"See, the victory goal of the game is to weather the economic winter and ensure that the company has a surplus at the final settlement.

"Surplus, surplus, is merely about expanding income and reducing expenditure, earning more and spending less.

"For earning money, we achieve that through market research questions, we don't need to say more on that.

"But when it comes to spending? In the game, there are no expenses like rent or utility bills, the only spending is on employee wages.

"Each activity in the game is measured in 'months,' meaning that every time we go for market research, it's equivalent to a month passing, and 80,000 minute visa time is automatically deducted as employee salaries.

"That's too much!

"If we were to cut down some of the high-salary, non-working employees, saving 10,000 minutes of visa time for each time, wouldn't we have 100,000 minutes of visa time saved up after ten activities?

"Then everyone would have an additional over 20,000 minutes.

"Moreover, according to the game rules, the farther we go, the less our company earns due to the impact of the economic winter, and we might even earn less than what's needed to cover salaries.

"At that time, to prevent the company from going bankrupt, we would still have to lay off employees.

"Since layoffs are inevitable sooner or later, shouldn't we prepare in advance?"

Li Renshu and Fu Chen looked at each other, falling into silence.

Li Renshu was pensive: "So, the game's name does indeed have a pun, doesn't it? Wealth Game, Layoff Game. It's suggesting that, during the course of the company's operations, we have to lay off those unnecessary people?"

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