April 13th, Wednesday.
Liang Qianfan, setting foot in Jingzhou for the first time, curiously gazed through the car window at the street scenes outside.
The Tenda driver who came to pick him up had good driving skills, maintaining a very smooth ride. He should be meeting with Tenda’s Mr. Pei very soon.
Thinking about this, Liang Qianfan couldn’t help feeling a sense of anticipation.
Liang Qianfan currently works at Gaoling Architectural Engineering Design Co., Ltd.
Gaoling Architectural Engineering Design was a top-tier design company in China, primarily responsible for spatial treatment, style mastery, and technical application design. Their business content included land planning, product positioning, architectural design, landscape design, interior design, soft decoration design, and more.
The company’s specific design projects included model rooms, sales offices, clubhouses, shopping malls, hotels, and various leisure and entertainment venues. They had designed thousands of properties for China’s first-tier real estate companies and enjoyed a prestigious reputation in the industry.
The company’s founder, Zhou Nanling, had won various domestic and international architectural awards and had also appeared on several variety shows, earning the nickname “The Magician.”
On one variety show, Zhou Nanling had transformed an ultra-small unit of only 12 square meters, with a maximum height of 5.1 meters and a minimum height of 3.1 meters, into a two-bedroom apartment with one living room and one bathroom, utilizing every inch of space to the fullest to meet the living needs of a family of four.
Although he designed renovations for ordinary families on the show, in reality, a designer of his caliber was impossible for average families to afford.
Zhou Nanling and Gaoling Design Co., Ltd. generally only accepted commercial orders worth over one million yuan, such as planning for high-end hotels and shopping malls, or designing model rooms for major real estate developers.
Yesterday afternoon, the company received a call from Tenda Group, a famous local enterprise in Jingzhou, saying they wanted to create a brand called “Sloth Apartments” and hoped for long-term cooperation. They requested an architect to come to Jingzhou.
Zhou Nanling had originally planned to send one of his senior architects for the trip, but the client specified that they needed an architect under 30 years old, reasoning that such a person would better understand the needs of young people.
This requirement was quite outrageous.
Because the architectural profession requires extensive accumulation of experience, older architects are more valued. Architects under forty could still be called young architects, and those under 30 who gained recognition were exceedingly rare.
Although this reasoning seemed somewhat absurd, the client’s requirements had to be unconditionally met.
So Liang Qianfan, who was 27 this year, got this valuable opportunity to visit Jingzhou and independently take charge of such an important project.
Liang Qianfan had long heard of Tenda as a company because he had played the game “Sea Fortress.”
Recently, because of the film “Beautiful Tomorrow” and OTTO mobile phones, he learned that Tenda seemed to do more than just games and had many other industries as well.
But after searching Baidu and browsing the TPDb website, he discovered that Tenda had so many industries!
Especially after seeing businesses like Slackin’ Internet Café and Mingyun Private Kitchen, Liang Qianfan became even more excited.
He couldn’t help but imagine that if this cooperation went smoothly, there might be hope to take on the design work for all these industries and establish a deep partnership!
If it reached that point, perhaps he could even establish his own design company in Jingzhou…
Liang Qianfan couldn’t help but be filled with aspirations for the future.
“Driver, are we going to meet with Mr. Pei now?” Liang Qianfan asked.
Xiao Sun shook his head: “No, Mr. Pei has arranged for you to go to the hotel first to settle in and rest well. You’ll meet with Mr. Pei tomorrow to discuss work matters.”
Liang Qianfan quickly said, “That’s not necessary. It’s not even noon yet, it’s still early, and I didn’t bring much luggage, just a small suitcase.”
“If Mr. Pei is available, I’d like to meet him directly to discuss the project first. That would give me some peace of mind.”
Xiao Sun thought for a moment: “Alright, please wait a moment while I give Mr. Pei a call.”
Xiao Sun temporarily stopped the car by the roadside and dialed Pei Qian’s number, briefly explaining the situation.
“Mr. Pei has agreed, so I’ll take you directly to City Dawn residential complex.”
Half an hour later, Xiao Sun drove Liang Qianfan to the City Dawn complex.
Pei Qian was already waiting at the entrance of the uniquely shaped building that would become Sloth Apartments.
Liang Qianfan hurriedly got out of the car and went to greet him.
“Mr. Pei!”
“Mr. Liang!”
The two hit it off immediately, shaking hands warmly.
Pei Qian looked Liang Qianfan up and down, very satisfied with his age.
Pei Qian had gone to great lengths to find a designer who met his requirements.
Although hiring a famous designer would cost more money, it would also bring publicity. Zhou Nanling was a renowned designer in China, and hiring him would indeed cost more, but it would also be like attaching a gold-plated sign to Sloth Apartments.
What if many people heard Zhou Nanling’s name and desperately wanted to come and live there? What then?
So, he couldn’t hire someone too famous.
But he also couldn’t hire someone too incompetent.
Mainly because Pei Qian himself planned to live there!
If he hired a terrible designer who created a chaotic mess inside the rooms, Pei Qian himself would be unhappy living there. Wouldn’t that be paying money to suffer?
So, after much consideration, Pei Qian made one requirement to Gaoling Design Company: find a designer under 30 years old.
Such a designer would certainly have much less experience, wouldn’t create particularly outstanding designs, and wouldn’t have much fame, avoiding “attracting bees and butterflies.”
At the same time, a designer recommended by Zhou Nanling should not be too bad, and wouldn’t make the apartments a complete mess, causing Pei Qian to live in discomfort.
All things considered, Liang Qianfan perfectly met Pei Qian’s requirements!
While Liang Qianfan was surprised by how young Mr. Pei was, he also saw genuine welcome and appreciation in his eyes, with absolutely no hint of contempt or dissatisfaction.
This greatly increased Liang Qianfan’s favorable impression of Mr. Pei!
As a very young designer, Liang Qianfan often saw emotions like “Is someone so young capable?” in his clients’ eyes. Although they wouldn’t say it, he still felt uneasy.
But Mr. Pei’s attitude was like a breath of fresh spring air.
After exchanging a few pleasantries, Pei Qian led Liang Qianfan into the elevator and brought him to the model apartment in the building.
As soon as they entered, they saw the large living room that occupied a quarter of the floor plan, presenting a right-angled fan-shaped structure with a sofa, coffee table, television, round dining table, piano, and two sets of seating areas by the window for tea drinking.
Overall, it was rather conventional.
Clearly, the developer hadn’t hired a top-tier designer for this model apartment, but judging from the current situation, the designer they did hire wasn’t bad, and they had certainly tried their best.
Liang Qianfan looked around and then asked: “Mr. Pei, are all units in this building fully decorated?”
Pei Qian nodded: “Yes.”
Liang Qianfan felt a bit dejected. Full decoration meant there was no way to make drastic changes. They couldn’t possibly scrape off perfectly good floors and walls, or tear down all the unnecessary non-load-bearing walls, and redo everything, could they?
The full decoration here was well done; there was no need to strip it all away, and doing so would significantly extend the construction period.
Liang Qianfan looked at the various furniture in the model apartment: “So, Mr. Pei, this furniture…”
Pei Qian waved his hand decisively: “Replace it all!”
“The reason I invited you here is to have all the soft furnishings redesigned.”
“Each floor should be designed with a soft furnishing standard of over 500,000 yuan.”
“We will pay you a 30% premium on the design fee.”
“Regarding the specific style, it’s best to have a minimalist style suitable for young people, not those flashy, nouveau riche decorations.”
“Install all compatible smart home systems, the sofa must be comfortable, include dedicated gaming equipment, large TVs and laser projectors, game consoles, game discs, soundbars, high-end massage chairs, and so on.”
“In short, the project is called ‘Sloth Apartments,’ meaning that once young people move in, they’ll be like sloths and never want to move again!”
Pei Qian outlined his requirements in one go, explaining his needs.
In short, his primary goal was to satisfy his own needs.
As for other tenants…
It would be better if they weren’t interested!
Liang Qianfan listened somewhat dejectedly.
The requirements were quite clear, but from what he heard, the Sloth Apartments seemed a bit unrealistic!
Gaoling Design Company had designed some soft furnishing cases before, but those were all for model rooms of large real estate enterprises, and the overall style was more luxurious and high-end.
Commonly known as the “garden villa style.”
Those who could afford such large units were generally wealthy people who particularly liked this “garden villa style.”
The minimalist style that Mr. Pei required was vastly different from Gaoling Design’s model room “garden villa style,” and was relatively more suitable for small units and young people.
But young people generally couldn’t afford this type of large unit.
And Mr. Pei’s requirements were even more extreme, not only wanting a minimalist style that emphasized quality but also forcibly demanding a soft furnishing standard of over 500,000 yuan, and even wanting to fill the rooms with all kinds of entertainment equipment.
The target users for this apartment seemed too few!
But then Liang Qianfan reconsidered, realizing that Sloth Apartments was for rent, not for sale.
If the rent were appropriate, there might be some young people who would come to share the rent.
Currently in Jingzhou, a 60-square-meter two-bedroom apartment in a slightly better location would rent for about 2,300 yuan per month.
By this standard, this apartment could accommodate at least three to five young people sharing the rent. If the monthly rent was set at around 6,000 yuan, split among them, there should be quite a few people willing to live there.
So Liang Qianfan didn’t say much, just silently noted Mr. Pei’s requirements and began to seriously consider how to design the soft furnishings to meet Mr. Pei’s demands.
Meanwhile, Pei Qian was considering how, within the System’s rules, he could raise the monthly rent of this apartment above 8,000 yuan and discourage potential tenants as much as possible.