The Sloth project itself, from site selection to design to renovation, followed an unconventional style, full of willful expressions of Mr. Pei’s philosophy.
But the promotional work, in contrast, was rather conventional…
It wasn’t wrong, but it indeed might not meet Mr. Pei’s expectations.
Liang Qianfan nodded slightly: “Then, what’s Director Zhu’s brilliant idea?”
Zhu Xiaocai thought for a moment: “Since the concept of Sloth Apartment itself is minimalism, let’s make the style of our video minimalist as well!”
“Rather than a lengthy documentary, I’m more inclined to make it into a short video.”
“Don’t include narration, interviews, or too much setup. Instead, use the approach of an art film to quickly, concisely, and expressively show the transformation process of a room.”
“The core element is speed!”
“Stretching out the video would build up audience expectations, but it might seem too drawn out.”
“Let’s compress the video, making it like a fast-forward. Before viewers can process it, while the impression of the originally dilapidated house is still in their minds, we’ll hit them with the renovated scene, creating a double impact!”
“Our video theme will be called ‘Rebirth.'”
“Its surface meaning is the rebirth of an old house, while the deeper meaning is that every person who moves in can start a brand new life!”
“This visual contrast created in a short time should be very impactful and topical, stimulating discussion and exploration.”
“If the video is too detailed, people might not delve deeper, but if it’s very concise, many interested people will search for more information online.”
“As long as they’re willing to search, we can deliver the relevant information about Sloth Apartment right to them!”
“So, I think this video must be compressed. In my view… let’s compress it to five minutes.”
“There’s a trend in internet video content production: polarization.”
“Either make it long with lots of substance, or make it short, highly condensed, and eye-catching.”
“The former easily accumulates fans, especially die-hard fans, while the latter has a terrifying spreading effect. Once it catches fire, it spreads across the entire internet!”
“We should choose the latter.”
After listening, Liang Qianfan was somewhat conflicted.
What Director Zhu said made sense, and this minimalist concept was indeed consistent with Mr. Pei’s original intention for designing Sloth Apartment.
But… would five minutes be too short?
Liang Qianfan said, “I agree with this point, but wouldn’t it waste these materials?”
The cameramen had recorded the entire transformation process, even using drones for aerial shots. All the video materials combined were probably two to three hours long.
Cutting two to three hours of video down to five minutes? It seemed a bit wasteful.
Zhu Xiaocai shook his head: “Not wasteful. The condensed version is the essence. Like many high-end dishes at Nameless Restaurant, where only a tiny portion of extremely expensive ingredients is used. That’s not waste—it’s pursuit of excellence.”
“We’re pursuing the final effect. This five-minute short video will be much more effective than a forty-minute documentary!”
Liang Qianfan was convinced by Zhu Xiaocai and nodded: “Alright, let’s do as Director Zhu says! If you need any assistance, feel free to contact me anytime.”
Zhu Xiaocai shook hands with Liang Qianfan: “Rest assured, Mr. Liang. Mr. Pei’s projects all have an ethereal quality. We’ll help you perfectly capture this ethereal quality in the video!”
…
In the afternoon, Pei Qian arrived by car at the Binhu Residential Complex.
Liang Qianfan was already waiting downstairs.
“Mr. Pei, please!”
Liang Qianfan proudly guided Pei Qian to the newly renovated Sloth Apartment building, which was complete.
These past few days, Pei Qian had been very upset about the 500 million yuan from the Dyarco Group. He had even disregarded his exam week to immediately arrange for Shangyang Games to prepare GOG’s world server, giving the Dyarco Group a taste of their own medicine.
However, the reason for arranging the Shangyang Games to do this differed from Ye Zhizhou and others’ assumptions.
It was simply because Shangyang Games had plenty of available staff with nothing to do.
Tenda Games was still responsible for developing “Struggle” and maintaining GOG updates, leaving them no capacity to handle the world server.
The world server wasn’t just about creating a multilingual version. It required understanding local market demands, conducting operational activities, and analyzing markets—there was a considerable amount of work.
The only team with both the capability and energy to handle this work was Shangyang Games.
In reality, Pei Qian didn’t have such high expectations for the Shangyang Games team. His basic requirements were just two points:
First, they needed to spend money quickly enough, making sure to use up all 500 million yuan before settlement. Second, it would be best if they could harm others without benefiting themselves.
Pei Qian had calculated clearly: if he just accepted the 500 million yuan now, he would earn 500,000 yuan during the cycle settlement.
But if he spent this money on the world server and tried to create a loss, as long as he lost 5 million yuan, he would still earn 500,000 yuan at settlement.
So strictly speaking, Pei Qian wasn’t giving up 500,000 yuan for revenge. For him, the money earned would be the same or even more, while simultaneously achieving revenge against the Dyarco Group. Wasn’t that killing two birds with one stone?
As long as the money was spent quickly enough and the loss at settlement exceeded 5 million yuan, it would be absolutely worthwhile for Mr. Pei.
As for why it was important to harm others without benefiting himself…
The reason was simple: harming others was for revenge, and not benefiting himself was because Pei Qian didn’t want to plant time bombs for future accounting cycles.
For Pei Qian, the best result would be: I don’t make money, you don’t make money, nobody makes money—then I’m comfortable.
So although the Shangyang Games team was touched, feeling that Mr. Pei especially trusted them, in reality, Mr. Pei didn’t have high expectations. He didn’t want them to immediately kill IOI.
Ideally, they would drag things out, irritating the Dyarco Group while burning money, a slow death by a thousand cuts. He could happily lose money—that would be perfect.
However, whether this could be achieved would depend on how the situation developed, since the Dyarco Group was, after all, a multinational corporation and would certainly fight back.
While Shangyang Games was working hard to spend the 500 million yuan, Mr. Pei hadn’t relaxed his supervision of other projects.
Because losses were still possible in this accounting cycle, provided no more projects exploded unexpectedly.
The Sloth Apartment project, from the current perspective, was a high-quality project that could continuously generate large losses over the long term, worthy of more attention.
“Mr. Pei, please come in.”
Liang Qianfan proudly guided Mr. Pei to the top-floor apartment.
Liang Qianfan was very proud of the renovation results here.
Not only had he successfully transformed the house, but he had also strictly adhered to Mr. Pei’s minimalist style. Achieving this in a small apartment was much more difficult than in City Dawn’s large flats.
Pei Qian walked around the room briefly, then fell silent.
Is this really that broken-down building I chose before?
This is a completely different apartment!
Pei Qian’s impression was still from when he first viewed the property. After all, he was very busy and had no interest in constantly checking on the renovation.
In his memory, this apartment had narrow corridors filled with mold stains, and extremely cramped kitchen and bathroom areas—it seemed uninhabitable.
But now, all these flaws were gone!
The corridor had been magically widened, the kitchen and bathroom layouts appeared to have been redesigned. The kitchen merged with the living room and offered lake views, while the bathroom area had expanded, even fitting a small bathtub.
Pei Qian could tell that Liang Qianfan must have made major structural changes to the apartment, but widening the corridor was completely unexpected.
Pei Qian had assumed the walls on both sides of the corridor were load-bearing, but now it seemed luck wasn’t on his side.
What a bizarre structure!
Pei Qian was initially annoyed, but then he realized that the apartment’s structure was bizarre to begin with, and he had chosen it precisely because of its bizarre structure.
So being tripped up now because of the house’s bizarre structure, well, he couldn’t complain.
Never mind then.
Anyway, the renovation was complete, and the first impression was eye-catching—it looked very inviting.
Especially the 180-degree floor-to-ceiling, arc-shaped living room. Originally, this space was irregular and difficult to utilize effectively, but Liang Qianfan coordinated with the kitchen and used sofas, bookshelves, and other furniture to zone the living room. This maximized the use of space while preserving the perfect view.
Fortunately, the “bare necessities” concept remained unchanged.
There was almost no storage space. Even the bookshelf in the living room was decorative, only suitable for displaying attractive artifacts.
Storage? Sorry, not possible.
Moreover, the furniture and layout in the room couldn’t be changed—this was a mandatory rule. Very impractical, but that made it effectively off-putting.
In short, if not for the price and these impractical rules, Pei Qian would have thought these apartments would be rented out instantly.
Now, though, it should be fine.
Pei Qian walked around once more, finding no flaws: “Good, I’m very satisfied.”
Liang Qianfan was delighted: “Then, would Mr. Pei like to see the commercial-residential building at Shundong Garden?”
Pei Qian shook his head: “No need.”
The renovation difficulty there was much lower than here. If this place could be transformed like this, there would be no need to check the commercial-residential building—it would certainly look good.
Now Pei Qian could only count on the impractical rules and non-functional decoration style to save him.
Liang Qianfan asked expectantly: “So, Mr. Pei, can we start the promotion? Once we post the photos on real estate websites, they’ll be fought over within minutes, right?”
Pei Qian hastily said: “Absolutely not!”
Liang Qianfan: “Huh?”