April 15th, Friday.

In the company reception room.

Liang Qingfan handed a tablet to Pei Qian: “Mr. Pei, these are a few simple decoration schemes I’ve prepared. Please take a look and see which one you like best.”

After Mr. Pei took the tablet, Liang Qingfan picked up his teacup and took a small sip, savoring the lingering sweetness of the fine tea, with a somewhat proud expression on his face.

He was very satisfied with most of the options he had provided.

For some reason, after seeing the apartment layout, inspiration had suddenly gushed forth. After returning to his hotel, he immediately started working without much rest, working until now to produce several renderings. After briefly consulting with his studio colleagues, he brought them directly to Mr. Pei.

Liang Qingfan had put a lot of heart into this design work. On one hand, because Mr. Pei had offered a high design fee, and on the other hand, because as a young designer, Liang Qingfan didn’t have many opportunities to independently handle such projects, he had to grasp it firmly.

Each piece of work would become his business card to introduce himself to the outside world.

Liang Qingfan was very confident that every client would ultimately be captivated by his designs!

Pei Qian took the tablet, which displayed several interior decoration renderings.

As he looked through them, Liang Qingfan provided explanations.

All these designs featured a minimalist style, without the gaudy luxury style or the flashy “garden villa” style. From this perspective, Liang Qingfan had indeed taken Pei Qian’s requirements seriously.

But even within the minimalist style, these renderings still showed huge differences.

The first image had an overall white and brown color scheme, creating a rather warm feeling. The furniture was all minimalist in style. The brown cabinet on the TV wall could be seen to contain plenty of storage space, although this storage space was well-hidden and not easily noticeable.

At a glance, the entire space looked clean and tidy, with a distinctly petite bourgeoisie style.

Liang Qingfan explained: “This style, while adhering to minimalism, fully considers the daily needs of tenants.”

“Considering that our apartment has four bedrooms and is intended for rental purposes, multiple occupants will inevitably need a lot of storage space.”

“But storage space and minimalism are inherently contradictory. So through my design, I’ve hidden all the storage space very well.”

“When tenants live here, they can not only experience a high-end, minimalist, modern lifestyle, but their living convenience won’t be affected. It’s the best of both worlds and will certainly be very popular among young people.”

Pei Qian remained silent for a moment: “Pass.”

This design was too considerate of the tenants. Pei Qian could almost see the scene of petite bourgeoisie tenants willing to pay extra and scrambling to move in, so of course, he had to reject it.

This was the type of minimalist style most acceptable to ordinary people, and with so much storage space, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Liang Qingfan: “…”

Having a proposal rejected right off the bat made Liang Qingfan feel a bit deflated.

However, he quickly adjusted his attitude.

“Well, although all that storage space is well-hidden, it does indeed conflict somewhat with the concept of minimalism and might create a sense of cheapness.”

“Understandably, you don’t approve, Mr. Pei.”

“Please continue looking at the next one.”

Pei Qian flipped to the next image.

This was still a minimalist style, but the color scheme was a bit bolder, with an overall gray and green color palette. Though simple, it conveyed a sense of luxury and quality.

In the choice of furniture and decorations, it leaned more toward understated, steady, and substantial, sharing similarities with some high-end hotel suite styles.

Liang Qingfan explained: “This one features an extremely high-end gray scheme, highlighting a light luxury, high-class style. This style isn’t aimed at ordinary petite bourgeoisie groups, but rather at somewhat older, middle-aged, successful business professionals.”

Pei Qian: “Pass.”

This style would appeal to middle-aged business professionals, making it even more likely to cause problems.

Liang Qingfan: “…”

Having another proposal rejected, Liang Qingfan felt a bit discouraged.

In his view, Sloth Apartments was certainly aiming to create boutique apartments, targeting mainly two groups: white-collar workers pursuing quality living, and business professionals with a need to travel to Jingzhou.

But both proposals had been rejected by Mr. Pei.

So what style did Mr. Pei prefer?

Liang Qingfan was a bit confused, but he didn’t ask further.

Because he had prepared other styles as well, surely one of them would match Mr. Pei’s preference.

Pei Qian flipped to the next image.

This time it was a style with black and white as the main colors, creating a very stark contrast. Even through the screen, one could feel a strong artistic quality, seemingly a style that high-end designers would appreciate.

While being minimalist, it also conveyed a sense of Zen, very conducive to inspiring creativity.

Pei Qian thought that Ruan Guangjian would probably like this set very much.

Before Liang Qingfan could explain, Pei Qian had already swiped past it.

“Pass.”

This style was less practical than the first set, but its appeal to white-collar workers and the petite bourgeoisie was even stronger. It could be seen as an enhanced version of the first style.

Still not acceptable!

Liang Qingfan opened his mouth, but swallowed the words that had reached the tip of his tongue.

He liked this set the most and thought it had the most sense of quality, yet Mr. Pei had swiped past it without even asking a question, which was quite discouraging.

At the same time, he also felt deeply puzzled and confused.

What kind of style did Mr. Pei actually like?

These were all nice, minimalist styles. Even if Mr. Pei wasn’t satisfied, he could point out some details for me to modify, right? What did he mean by simply passing them by?

Liang Qingfan felt helpless in explaining. Most of these proposals would probably be rejected by Mr. Pei. After all were rejected, he would need to inquire more deeply about Mr. Pei’s requirements.

However, after swiping through more images, Pei Qian stopped at the last style.

In an extremely spacious, open area, there was only a super-large TV hanging on the wall, a low TV cabinet with just one drawer level, and a dark, long sofa.

Besides these, there was a small pure black table and two pure black chairs on the floor-to-ceiling windows. The whole place looked like an empty exhibition hall.

Except for two small cabinets in the corner, there was almost no storage space at all.

Pei Qian considered for a moment, then pointed to the cabinets, small table, and pure black chairs: “This set is good. However, all these should be removed as well.”

The TV cabinet was meant to hold game consoles and game discs, and the long sofa was for playing games, so these would naturally be kept.

As for other storage spaces and small chairs, none were needed!

For the vast majority of people, more storage space is always better, because most people find it hard to control their shopping impulses and can’t help wanting to buy more and more.

As they keep buying, their homes eventually run out of space.

Once there are too many miscellaneous items, they look cluttered no matter where they’re placed, so using storage space to organize everything is the only way to keep the home looking neat.

But Pei Qian wanted to discourage these white-collar workers and petite bourgeoisie, telling them, “Don’t come live here!”

Of course, this alone wasn’t enough. Pei Qian realized he needed to add a clause to the Sloth Apartments contract: No self-purchased furniture allowed.

This way, the practicality of this apartment would be reduced to zero. Even if it looked nice, the high price and extremely poor practicality would be enough to discourage most tenants!

For a moment, Liang Qingfan didn’t know what to say.

This image was his initial design, but he had quickly rejected it himself.

Because he believed that so-called minimalism wasn’t supposed to mean four bare walls.

When he first conceptualized the minimalist style, he had approached it with a pure artistic mindset, and the color scheme and arrangement in this image were based on that consideration.

But the problem this created was that it was too impractical. Even though Liang Qingfan had added some simple, small cabinets, tables, and chairs to this style, he still felt it was impractical and difficult to live in.

Yet Mr. Pei went even further, directly removing those small cabinets, tables, and chairs!

As a result, there was almost no storage space in the entire design, leaving only the wardrobes in the bedrooms and the cabinets in the kitchen—literally “four bare walls.”

Liang Qingfan looked at Mr. Pei somewhat uncertainly.

Mr. Pei returned a very certain look.

“Let’s decorate according to this style. The budget remains the same as before—it can only be more, not less.”

Pei Qian handed the tablet back to Liang Qingfan.

Seeing Liang Qingfan’s confused expression, Pei Qian became even more certain that he had made the right choice!

For Pei Qian, he didn’t need storage space at all. His few sets of clothes could be placed in the wardrobe, and other miscellaneous items could be thrown away if possible. There was no need to bring them to the new house.

Although this approach turned the apartment into a “four bare walls” style, as long as Pei Qian’s own gaming needs were met, that was enough.

It was even better if others found it impractical!

Liang Qingfan looked at the last rendering, quickly thinking about the reasons in his mind.

“Could it be that Mr. Pei wants to decorate in this ultimate minimalist style purely for aesthetic reasons? Well, from an artistic perspective, without those storage cabinets and extra items, the entire space does have a unique beauty.”

“Ah, after all, it was designed when my inspiration was at its peak, so of course it has aesthetic appeal.”

“If Mr. Pei were decorating his own house this way, I wouldn’t be surprised at all. I’d think Mr. Pei has great taste.”

“But this house is meant for rental…”

“Completely disregarding practicality and only pursuing aesthetic perfection, will anyone rent it?”

“Moreover, the budget can only be more, not less. With such extreme minimalism, there are barely any pieces of furniture in total. It would be difficult to spend money… I can only look at those international luxury brands.”

Many thoughts flashed through Liang Qingfan’s mind in a very short time, but seeing Mr. Pei’s determined gaze, he buried all these thoughts deep in his heart.

“Alright, Mr. Pei, we’ll proceed with this style!”