April 15th, Friday…
In the office’s guest room… Liang Qingfan handed his tablet computer over to Pei Qian. “Boss Pei, I’ve done a few renovation plans. Please see which one you like the best.” Once Boss Pei took the tablet computer, Liang Qingfan sipped his tea and licked his lips. He savored the sweet aftertaste of the tea, looking quite proud of himself.
He was happy with most of the plans he had handed in.
For some reason, he had had a lot of inspiration after looking at the apartments. After returning to the hotel, he started work at once and had not rested much. In fact, he had worked all the way until now. After rushing a few renderings out, he had let his colleagues at his workspace vet them and then rushed over to hand them to Boss Pei.
Liang Qingfan had put in a lot of effort into the designing work this time. On one hand, it was because Boss Pei was paying him a high designer fee. On the other hand, it was because Liang Qingfan was a young designer who had had few opportunities to work on such projects alone. Thus, he wanted to make full use of this opportunity. Every piece of work that he handed in would become name cards that he handed out to the world.
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Liang Qingfan was confident. He knew that every customer would be bought over by his designs in the end!
Pei Qian looked through the renderings on the tablet computer. As he studied them, Liang Qingfan briefly introduced the different aspects of each rendering. Every design was very minimalistic. It was not magnificent in a way that it would appeal to ballers, and it did not look like a fancy ‘garden villa’ either. On that point, Liang Qingfan had taken Pei Qian’s instructions very seriously. However, each rendering was very different even though they were all minimalistic.
The first rendering used white and brown as the theme colors, thus creating a warm feeling. The furniture was minimalistic, and Pei Qian could tell that the brown of the television wall hid a lot of storage space. However, the storage space was very well-hidden and not easily noticeable.
At first glance, the place looked neat and tidy and gave off a certain yuppie vibe.
Liang Qingfan explained, “This style hangs on to the concept of minimalism while satisfying tenants’ daily needs.
“The apartment has four bedrooms and would be rented instead of sold. More tenants means more storage space would be required. Yet, the idea of storage space normally conflicts with the concept of minimalism. Thus, I designed the apartment to hide the storage spaces. “Tenants who stay here can experience high-end, minimalistic, and modern living. Yet, they can continue to enjoy convenience. One can say that this design kills two birds with one stone. Young people would like it for
sure.”
Pei Qian remained silent for a moment and then said, “Pass.”
The design would be too appealing to the tenants. Pei Qian could almost see the yuppies eagerly holding out their money and fighting to stay in Sloth Apartments. Of course, he had to reject this design.
It was the most acceptable minimalistic design he had ever seen, and it included so much storage space as well. If Pei Qian chose this design, the consequences would be dire.
Liang Qingfan, “…”
His first design has been rejected so quickly. Liang Qingfan could not help but feel discouraged. Still, he quickly regained his composure.
“Alright. The storage spaces are well hidden, but it still conflicts with the concept of minimalism to a certain extent. It could make the apartment feel cheap. Boss Pei, it’s understandable that you don’t like this design.
“Please look at the others, then.”
Pei Qian swiped to the next rendering.
This one still looked minimalistic, but the theme colors were bolder-gray and green. Although it was simple, it looked luxurious and high-quality. The chosen furniture and decorations were more muted, calmer, and bigger; making it similar to suites in many high-end hotels.
Liang Qingfan explained, “This design, the Ultimate Extravagant Gray, exudes a subtle extravagance. This renovation style no longer targets younger yuppies, but an older groupmiddle-aged, successful businessmen.” Pei Qian, “Pass.”
With a single look, Pei Qian could tell that middle-aged businessmen would fancy the apartments. He could easily get into trouble.
Liang Qingfan, “…”
Another one of his designs got rejected, and Liang Qingfan was slightly more hurt now. To him, Sloth Apartments was meant to be exquisitely designed. There were only two types of target customers: white-collared workers who wanted to enjoy high standards of living and businessmen who were visiting Jingzhou for business purposes.
Yet, Boss Pei had rejected both of Liang Qingfan’s designs for those groups.
What kind of style did Boss Pei like, then?
Liang Qingfan was confused, but he did not ask any questions. That was because he had other plans as well. Boss Pei would probably find one that he fancied.
Pei Qian swiped to the next rendering.
This one used black and white as the theme colors and looked comparatively fresh. Pei Qian could feel the intense artistic vibes through the image, and it almost felt as if high-end designers would fancy the style.
While it was minimalistic, it also looked Zen and optimal for triggering one’s creative juices.
Pei Qian thought that Ruan Guangjian would fancy an apartment like that.
Liang Qingfan had not even begun introducing the design when Pei Qian swiped to the next image.
“Pass.”
This style looked less practical than the first one but more attractive to white-collared workers and yuppies. It could be seen as the better version of the first design.
Still no!
Liang Qingfan opened his mouth as if to say something but quickly swallowed his words again. He personally liked that design the most because it looked the classiest. Yet, Boss Pei had rejected it without a single word. This time, Liang Qingfan was even more hurt.
At the same time, he became very confused and puzzled.
Exactly what style did Boss Pei like?
All of those were pretty good minimalistic designs. Even if Boss Pei wasn’t satisfied, he could have picked a few details for Liang Qingfan to improve on. Why was he passing on all of them immediately?
Liang Qingfan could not find it in him to introduce any more designs. Most designs he had submitted had already been rejected by Boss Pei. Thus, he decided to wait until all of them were rejected before he asked Boss Pei more about his expectations.
However, after swiping the images once more, Pei Qian paused at the last rendering.
In the extremely wide and empty space, only one huge television hung on the wall. There was also a television cabinet that stood about as tall as one layer of drawers and a long, dark-colored sofa.
On top of that, there were two pure black chairs and one small, pure black table by the full-length windows. The entire place looked like an open exhibition hall. Apart from the two small cabinets in the corner, there was no more storage space.
After some consideration, Pei Qian pointed at the cabinet, the small table, and the pure black chairs. “This is not bad, but all of these have to
go.”
The television cabinet was going to store the game machine and game discs while the sofa was going to be used for gaming. Of course, they had to stay. The other storage spaces and chairs were not needed!
To most people, the more storage spaces, the better. That was because most people could not curb their desires nor stop themselves from buying, buying, and buying.
As they bought more and more items, their houses would become increasingly cluttered.
Once they collected too much rubbish, no matter where they stored it, the apartment would look messy. Thus, they needed storage spaces to accommodate all of their things and make the house look neat and tidy. However, what Pei Qian wanted to do was dissuade the white-collared workers and yuppies from buying the apartments. He wanted to tell them to stay away!
Of course, that alone wasn’t enough. Pei Qian knew that he had to add an additional term in the contract for Sloth Apartments: tenants would be prohibited from purchasing their own furniture.
That way, the apartments would not be practical at all. Even if they looked nice, their high price and lack of practicality would be sufficient to dissuade most tenants from renting the place!
At that moment, Liang Qingfan was at a loss for words. This had been his first design for the apartment, but Liang Qingfan himself had quickly rejected it.
That was because he had thought that minimalism did not necessarily mean leaving the four walls bare.
At first, when he had tried to conceptualize minimalism, he had approached the apartment from a purely artistic point of view. This rendering’s theme colors and furnishing had been direct results of that approach.
Yet, the design’s biggest problem was the lack of practicality. Although Liang Qingfan had added small cabinets, a small table, and some chairs; the apartment would still be impractical and difficult to live in.
However, Boss Pei thought well of the design. In fact, he wanted Liang Qingfan to get rid of the cabinets, the table, and the chairs altogether!
That way, there would not be any storage space in the apartment, except for the wardrobe in the bedrooms and the kitchen cabinets. The four walls would really be bare.
Liang Qingfan looked uncertainly at Boss Pei. Boss Pei looked back at him with extreme confidence.
“Work according to this design. The budget remains the same. You can exceed it, but you cannot spend less.”
Pei Qian handed the tablet computer back to Liang Qingfan.
Seeing Liang Qingfan’s confused expression, Pei Qian felt all the more sure that he had decided correctly!
Pei Qian had no need for storage space at all. He only had a couple of clothes, which he could put in his wardrobe. As for his other random belongings, he could throw away as much as possible. There was no need to move them to his new apartment at all.
Although the apartment would look very bare and empty, all Pei Qian needed was to game. He would be satisfied.
In fact, it would be best if everyone else found the apartment impractical!
As Liang Qingfan looked at the last rendering, the cogs in his mind turned quickly to guess the reasons behind Boss Pei’s decision.
Does Boss Pei just want the apartment to look beautiful? Is that why he wants it to look this minimalistic? Yes, from an artistic point of view, the space would look uniquely beautiful without all the cabinets and additional furniture.
Ah, it was the design that I did when I was feeling the most inspired after all. Of course it’s the most beautiful.
If Boss Pei’s own home was designed in this manner, I would not find it strange at all. Instead, I would admire Boss Pei’s taste.
However, these apartments are meant to be rented out…
Would anyone want to rent the apartments if they only look artistic and beautiful but are not practical at all?
What’s more, I can only exceed the budget, but not spend less. If the apartment is going to look this minimalistic, I won’t have to buy much furniture. It’ll be difficult to spend all the money… I guess I have to look at the big international brands.
Many thoughts filled Liang Qingfan’s mind in a short while. However, after looking at Boss Pei’s determined expression, he decided to bury all of his questions at the bottom of his heart.
“Alright, Boss Pei. I’ll renovate the apartments based on this design!”
