484 A Constructor that Fits the Bill
April 13th, Wednesday…
Liang Qingfan was stepping onto Jingzhou soil for the first time. He curiously looked out of the window to appreciate the scenery.
The chauffeur—who Tengda had sent to pick him up—drove very well, and he was very stable. Liang Qingfan figured that he would meet Boss Pei of Tengda very soon.
At that thought, Liang Qingfan could not help but feel excited.
At the moment, he was working at Gaoling Construction and Design Co., Ltd.
Gaoling Construction and Design Co., Ltd was a first-tier construction and design company in the country. It mainly did design work like space planning, styling, applying techniques, and the like. It could also do floor plans, product placement, architecture, landscape design, indoor design, and soft renovation design.
The company's actual design portfolio included various spaces for rest and entertainment like showrooms, sales buildings, clubhouses, shopping malls, and hotels. It had also produced over a thousand building designs for first-tier real estate companies in the country and was very reputable in the industry.
The company's founder, Zhou Nanling, had received various local and foreign building and construction awards. He had also starred on a reality show before and was referred to as 'a magician'.
Zhou Nanling had also turned an extremely small apartment—measuring 12 square meters big, 5.1 meters tall at the highest point, and 3.1 meters tall at the lowest point—into a house with two rooms, one living room, and one bathroom. Every inch of the space was utilized, and it was good enough to fit four people.
Although he had done the renovation for an ordinary family on the reality show, ordinary families would not be able to afford a designer of his caliber in real life.
Zhou Nanling and Gaoling Construction and Design Co., Ltd. ordinarily only accepted assignments worth more than a million yuan. For instance, they would renovate high-end hotels, design shopping malls, or design showrooms for huge real estate companies.
Yesterday afternoon, the company received a phone call from Tengda Corporation, one of the most famous companies in Jingzhou. Tengda Corporation wanted to create a brand named 'Sloth Apartments'. They wanted to enter a long-term business partnership, and so they invited one of the architects to Jingzhou.
Zhou Nanling had intended to ask one of his subordinates, an experienced architect, to make the trip. However, Tengda Corporation had requested for an architect under thirty years old, who would understand what young people wanted.
The request was quite ridiculous.
In the industry, architects were required to have a lot of experience. The older they were, the better. Architects under forty years old could be considered relatively young, and it was extremely rare for architects under thirty years old to become famous.
Although Tengda Corporation's request was strange, Gaoling had to do whatever it could to fulfill its customers' requests.
Thus, the 27-year-old Liang Qingfan was given the precious opportunity to make a trip to Jingzhou and work on such an important project on his own.
Liang Qingfan had already heard about Tengda Games because he had played Ocean Stronghold before. Thanks to Tomorrow is Beautiful and the Otto cell phone, he recently discovered that Tengda Corporation did not only work on games but also had other businesses.
After conducting a search on Qiandu and looking through TPDb, Liang Qingfan discovered that Tengda Corporation had many different businesses!
Liang Qingfan became even more emotional after he read about Fish-Catching Internet Cafe and Ming Yun Private Kitchen.
He could not help but fantasize about what would happen if everything went well this time. Perhaps he would be given more designing work from all the businesses and thus develop a deep working relationship with Tengda Corporation!
If that really happened, perhaps he would be able to make a name for himself in Jingzhou and set up his own building and design company there.
Liang Qingfan was filled with hope for the future.
"Mister Driver, are we going to meet Boss Pei now?" Liang Qingfan asked.
Little Sun shook his head. "No, Boss Pei has already arranged for you to settle down in the hotel and get some rest first. You will meet Boss Pei tomorrow to talk about work."
Liang Qingfan quickly said, "There's no need. It's still noon, and it's still early. What's more, I didn't bring much luggage with me. I only have one suitcase.
"If it's convenient for Boss Pei, I would like to meet him immediately to discuss the project. Only then would I be able to relax."
Little Sun pondered for a moment and then said, "Alright, then. Please wait while I call Boss Pei."
Little Sun parked the car by the side of the road, dialed Boss Pei's number, and spoke a couple of sentences.
"Boss Pei has agreed. I'll send you directly to Jingzhou Dawn of Prosperous City, then."
Half an hour later, Little Sun drove Liang Qingfan into the Dawn of Prosperous City. Pei Qian was already waiting at the entrance of Sloth Apartments' unique-looking building.
Liang Qingfan quickly alighted from the car and walked up to Boss Pei. "Boss Pei!"
"Mr. Liang!"
Both of them greeted each other warmly as if they had been friends for a long time.
Pei Qian sized Liang Qingfan up and was extremely satisfied with his age. Pei Qian had expended a lot of effort in finding a designer who fit his requirements.
Although he could spend a lot of money by hiring a famous designer, he would also attract a lot of unnecessary attention. Zhou Nanling was a renowned designer. If Pei Qian hired him, he would be able to get rid of a huge sum. However, he would also be creating a golden signboard for Sloth Apartments.
What if people fought to purchase an apartment in the condominium once they heard that Zhou Nanling had designed it?
Of course, Pei Qian could not afford to hire such a famous designer. Yet, he could not pick a random designer either.
That was mainly because Pei Qian himself was intending to live there!
If they engaged a rubbish designer who made a mess of the apartments, Pei Qian would eventually become frustrated and be forced to spend more money fixing the problems.
Thus, after much consideration, Pei Qian made a special request to Gaoling Construction and Design: he wanted a designer under thirty years old.
Designers like that would have far less experience, and their designs would be far less expensive and noteworthy. Pei Qian could be assured that he would not attract unnecessary attention.
At the same time, a designer who was recommended by Zhou Nanling could not be that bad. He would probably not make a mess of the apartments, and so Pei Qian would not have to worry.
On the whole, Liang Qingfan fit the bill!
At the same time, Liang Qingfan was shocked at Boss Pei's age. He could tell that Boss Pei was genuinely welcoming and appreciating him from the look in his eyes. There was no contempt or dissatisfaction.
That made Liang Qingfan like Boss Pei even more!
As an extremely young designer, Liang Qingfan often felt like his clients doubted his capabilities because of his age. Although none of his clients had vocalized those worries, Liang Qingfan was still well aware of them.
Yet, Boss Pei's attitude was refreshing.
They exchanged a couple of pleasantries before Pei Qian led Liang Qingfan to the elevator. They arrived at the showroom of the building.
The moment they entered, Liang Qingfan saw that one-fourth of the unit was taken up by the living room, which was shaped like a quadrant. There was a sofa, a coffee table, a television, a round dining table, a piano, and two seats meant for sipping tea by the window.
On the whole, the place conformed to societal norms.
Obviously, the developer had not hired an elite designer to design the showroom. However, from the looks of the room in front of him, Liang Qingfan guessed that the designer had not been that bad. He had clearly done his best.
Liang Qingfan scanned the entire room and then asked, "Boss Pei, have all of the apartments in this building been exquisitely renovated?"
Pei Qian nodded. "That's right."
Liang Qingfan looked sorrowful. Since they had all been individually designed, he could not make broad changes across the board. He could not possibly ask to change all of the floors and walls, knock down the useless walls, and then redo everything from scratch, right?
The renovations were very nicely done. There was no need to undo everything—that would only delay the completion date.
Liang Qingfan studied the furniture in the showroom once again. "Boss Pei, the furniture…"
Pei Qian waved his hand. "Change them all!
"I invited you here this time because I wanted you to redo all the soft renovations. I've allocated at least five hundred thousand yuan for the soft renovations on each level.
"We'll pay you a designer fee of thirty percent.
"As for the style… it'll be good if you could make it minimalistic to suit the young people's taste. Don't do fancy renovations suited for ballers.
"Install as much smart furniture as you can. The sofa has to be comfortable, and there must be custom gaming facilities. The television has to be huge, and there should be a projector, a game machine, game discs, a soundbar, a high-end massage chair, and the like.
"All in all, the apartment should live up to the name 'Sloth Apartments'. It means that, once young people move in, they would become like sloths and not want to move again!"
Pei Qian listed all of his requirements at one go. At the end of the day, satisfying himself was his number one goal.
As for the other tenants…
It would be best if they didn't fancy the apartments!
Liang Qingfan could not help but feel emotional upon hearing Boss Pei's requests. Boss Pei was clear about what he wanted, but Sloth Apartments did not sound very desirable!
Gaoling Construction and Design had conducted a couple of soft renovations before, but they were all showrooms for huge real estate companies. The overall style had always been luxurious and high-end.
One could also refer to those houses as 'garden villas'. Only whales and rich people would have been able to purchase huge apartments like that. Most rich people did not fancy minimalistic and European styles.
Minimalism was meant for small apartments and young people. However, young people ordinarily would not be able to afford huge apartments.
In addition, Boss Pei's requests went a little further. Not only did he want the apartment to be minimalistic and look outstanding, but he also wanted the renovations to cost more than five hundred thousand yuan per floor and for there to be all kinds of entertainment facilities inside.
The apartments would be targeting an extremely small group, wouldn't they?
Still, on further thought, Liang Qingfan realized that Sloth Apartments were meant to be rented and not sold.
If the rent was reasonable, young people would likely try to rent an apartment for themselves.
At the moment, renting a slightly better apartment with two rooms and a living room in Jingzhou would cost about 2,300 yuan.
An apartment in Sloth Apartments would probably be able to accommodate three to five young people. Based on the above standard—as long as Boss Pei charged about six thousand yuan for each apartment and the groups of young people split it among themselves, there would still be significant demand.
Thus, Liang Qingfan held back his comments and silently wrote down Boss Pei's requests. Then, he began to think about how to conduct the soft renovations to fulfill Boss Pei's requests.
At the same time, Pei Qian thought about how to turn as many tenants away as possible by raising the rent of this place above eight thousand yuan and yet not be stopped by the System.
