It didn’t take long for her to see the prices of the lobster dishes at this hotel.
One Australian lobster cost a staggering 1,888 yuan.
And there were four tables, each with two lobsters. That made eight lobsters in total.
Which meant just the lobsters alone cost nearly 8,000 yuan—and that wasn’t even counting the other dishes.
“What do you think?”
Su Tang noticed Jiang Xue staring wide-eyed in silence and asked curiously.
Jiang Xue snapped out of her daze at the sound of her voice and handed her phone to Su Tang.
“See for yourself.”
Su Tang took the phone and glanced at it with curiosity. In the next moment, she too fell silent, just like Jiang Xue.
A thought suddenly crossed her mind.
Is this even food anymore? It’s basically eating money!
Of course, once the dishes started arriving, Su Tang and Jiang Xue weren’t the only ones shocked.
The others at the table also wore varying degrees of disbelief on their faces.
Chen Mo, however, paid no attention to their reactions. To make this team-building dinner as extravagant as possible, he had essentially ordered every top-tier dish the hotel offered.
For items like Australian lobster, he had even ordered two servings each.
And Beijing’s prices didn’t disappoint him. The same dishes here cost about fifty percent more than they did in Jiangcheng.
Before long, all the dishes had been served. Chen Mo noticed that many people were sitting stiffly, too reserved to eat freely, and frowned slightly.
That wouldn’t do.
He was hoping they’d finish everything on the table so he could order even more.
After all, he’d chosen a lot of seafood, and as long as people were willing to eat, there was no reason it couldn’t all be finished.
With that in mind, he got up and started walking from table to table.
Luo Xiao quickly followed behind him.
“Don’t hold back, eat as much as you want. If we run out, we’ll order more. No need to be shy.”
“What’s going on at this table? Two lobsters and neither has been touched. You—yeah, you—this lobster is yours. And you, take the other one.”
Chen Mo handed the two lobsters to two crew members at the table, then turned to Luo Xiao beside him.
“This table’s lobsters are gone. Go tell the hotel to bring two more.”
“Got it, President Chen.”
Luo Xiao nodded quickly and called over a server waiting at the door of the private room to order two more lobsters.
“What’s the matter? Not enough rice? Want another bowl?”
“Forget the rice. We’ve got caviar, haven’t we? Mix half caviar, half rice—yeah, just like that.”
“Not enough caviar? Should we get more?”
Chen Mo chuckled, then turned to Luo Xiao.
“Bring six more servings of caviar to each table. Otherwise, it won’t be enough to mix with the rice.”
Luo Xiao froze for a moment at Chen Mo’s words.
He knew exactly how much this hotel’s dishes cost—after all, he’d helped with the reservation.
Back then, he’d already been amazed at how generous President Chen was.
But now, he realized he had still underestimated him.
One serving of caviar cost 1,666 yuan.
Six servings per table, four tables total—that was 24 servings. That alone added up to tens of thousands of yuan!
And the ultimate purpose? To mix it with rice.
Now that was true extravagance.
After making a round of all four tables, Chen Mo returned to his seat, satisfied.
Thanks to his little encouragement tour, he’d just spent another 100,000-plus in System Funds.
“President Chen, some of the crew members are asking if they can have a drink. Maybe just a little? After all, it’s a celebration today.”
Luo Xiao walked over from the crew’s side.
Before dinner started, he had made it clear that no alcohol was allowed during the team-building event.
After all, if anyone drank too much, it could delay tomorrow’s shoot.
But just now, the staff had all promised they’d only drink a little and that it wouldn’t affect the filming.
After thinking it over, Luo Xiao figured it wasn’t a big deal. But since President Chen was here, he still had to check with him first.
Drinking, huh?
Chen Mo murmured softly to himself. How could he have forgotten about that?
Alcohol was always a major expense at team dinners.
“Well, since it’s a day to celebrate, how can just a little be enough? We should drink to our hearts’ content.”
“Go ask the server to bring the wine list. I want to take a look.”
“President Chen, no need to look at the wine list. Just regular beer will do.”
Luo Xiao quickly chimed in.
“No, beer won’t cut it. We need red wine.”
“Huh?”
“Don’t just stand there. Go get the server.”
“Right!”
Luo Xiao instinctively nodded and turned to head for the private room door.
Before long, the server returned with the wine list in hand.
Chen Mo took it, gave it a quick glance, then pointed to a bottle of red wine.
“This one. Bring 100 bottles to start. Adjust the number later if needed.”
The server followed the direction of Chen Mo’s finger, and when she saw the wine he had chosen, she froze.
That bottle was the most expensive among the hotel’s mass-market red wines—1,999 yuan each.
Of course, what shocked her wasn’t the wine itself, but the quantity.
One hundred bottles.
If it were beer, that might be understandable. But this was red wine!
She glanced around the private room. There were only four tables, maybe forty people in total.
Forty people, drinking one hundred bottles of red wine… were they planning to drink it like beer?
Luo Xiao noticed the change in the server’s expression and curiously looked at the wine list himself, wondering what kind of red wine President Chen had picked.
When he saw the price, he too was stunned.
But he quickly recovered and looked toward President Chen.
“President Chen, this is red wine. Ordering so much, we probably won’t be able to finish it. Maybe we should switch to beer instead?”
“No beer,” Chen Mo replied flatly. “Our team-building culture is all about red wine. You can ask Wei Yan and the others when you get back. Every time, it’s red wine. And each person can easily drink two or three bottles. If you can’t handle it, that just means your tolerance is too low. You need more training.”
Chen Mo rejected Luo Xiao’s suggestion without hesitation.
The waiter left, and not long after, 100 bottles of red wine were delivered to the room.
The employees who had been excited about drinking suddenly fell silent at the sight of the wine.
Drinking red wine like it was beer—this was a first for all of them.
After several rounds of drinks and dishes, the night wore on.
They didn’t finish all 100 bottles. In the end, they managed to drink 63.
At the front desk, Chen Mo glanced at the bill for the evening and nodded in satisfaction.
This team-building event, with just 40 people, had racked up over 600,000 yuan in expenses.
As expected, the cost of living in Beijing was far higher than in Jiangcheng.
Watching the production crew staff stumbling out of the hotel, supporting each other as they walked, Chen Mo couldn’t help but sigh. In this condition, there was clearly no way they could do anything else tonight.
“Luo Xiao, go find some cars and get everyone back safely.”
“President Chen, I’m already on it.”
Luo Xiao looked at the drunken state of the crew and couldn’t help but feel a bit worried.
Would they even be able to shoot properly tomorrow?
After watching Luo Xiao and the others leave, Chen Mo got into his black G-Wagen. Without needing instructions, Yang Dahai had already started driving toward the reserved hotel.
This trip wasn’t just about spending money on team-building. Chen Mo had also taken the chance to get a closer look at the crew, to see if Luo Xiao had made any changes behind his back while he was away.
From what he’d observed during the event, Luo Xiao was still obedient.
All the actors were the same ones from before the shoot began. No replacements had been made.
That meant everything was still under control.
A group of drama school students who hadn’t even graduated yet, along with a few extras, thrown together to form a film crew—what kind of good movie could they possibly make?
It was bound to be a flop. No acting skills, no compelling story—just another forgettable mess.
