Chapter 1 The Sloth Project

The Sloth Apartments project, from site selection and design to decoration, was all done in an unconventional style, full of President Pei's personal and capricious ideas.

But the promotional work was unexpectedly conventional...

Not that it was wrong, but it didn't seem to meet President Pei's expectations.

Liang Qingfan nodded slightly, "Then, Director Zhu, what are your insights?"

Zhu Xiaoce thought for a moment, "Since the concept of Sloth Apartments is minimalism, then we should make this video minimalist as well!"

"Compared to a lengthy documentary, I prefer to make it a short video."

"No narration, interviews, or too much buildup. Instead, we'll use the expressive techniques of an art film to quickly, concisely, and impressionistically show the transformation of a room."

"The core element is speed!"

"Lengthening the video can certainly raise the audience's expectations, but it will seem too dragging."

"Our goal should be to compress the video, as if it's in fast forward, so that before the audience can react, before the dilapidated image of the original house in their minds has disappeared, we directly superimpose the renovated scene on them, creating a double impact!"

"Our video theme will be called 'Rebirth'."

"Its surface meaning is the rebirth of an old house, while its deeper meaning is that everyone who moves in can start a new life!"

"This visual contrast created in a short period of time should be very impactful and generate a lot of buzz, while also stimulating everyone's desire to discuss and explore."

"If the video is too detailed, people may not bother to learn more, but if the video is very concise, many interested people should search for information online."

"As long as they're willing to search, we can put the relevant information about Sloth Apartments right in front of them!"

"So, I think this video must be compressed. In my opinion... let's just compress it to five minutes."

"There's a trend in internet video content production right now: polarization."

"Either make it long with a lot of content, or make it short, highly condensed, and eye-catching."

"The former makes it easier to accumulate fans, especially die-hard fans, while the latter has a terrifyingly powerful dissemination effect. Once it goes viral, it goes viral across the entire internet!"

"We obviously want to choose the latter."

Liang Qingfan listened, feeling a little conflicted.

Director Zhu Xiaoce's words made a lot of sense, and this minimalist concept was indeed in line with President Pei's original intention in designing Sloth Apartments.

But... would five minutes be too short?

Liang Qingfan said, "I agree with that point, but won't some of this footage be wasted?"

The cameraman had recorded the entire renovation process, and even used a drone for aerial shots. All the video footage added up to an estimated two or three hours.

Cutting two or three hours of video into five minutes? It seemed a bit wasteful.

Zhu Xiaoce shook his head, "Not wasted. What's condensed is the essence. Like many of the high-end dishes at Wuming Restaurant, only a tiny bit of very expensive ingredients is used. That's not waste, that's striving for perfection."

"We're pursuing the final effect, and this five-minute short video will definitely be much more effective than a forty-minute documentary!"

Liang Qingfan was persuaded by Zhu Xiaoce and nodded, "Okay, then let's do as Director Zhu says! If you two need any assistance, feel free to contact me at any time."

Zhu Xiaoce shook hands with Liang Qingfan, "Mr. Liang, rest assured, President Pei's projects all have an immortal aura about them. We will definitely help you perfectly express this immortal aura in the video!"

...

In the afternoon, Pei Qian arrived at Binhu Community by car.

Liang Qingfan was already waiting downstairs.

"President Pei, this way please!"

Liang Qingfan proudly led Pei Qian to the new Sloth Apartments building, which was now mostly renovated.

These past two days, Pei Qian had been very annoyed by the five hundred million from the Dayak Corporation. He didn't even care that it was still exam week; he immediately had to free up time to arrange for Shang Yang Games to prepare the world server for *GOG*, to give the Dayak Corporation a taste of their own medicine.

However, the reason for arranging Shang Yang Games to do this differed from the assumptions of Ye Zhizhou and the others.

In reality, it was simply because Shang Yang Games had plenty of manpower and nothing to do.

Tengda Games still had to be responsible for the development of *Struggle* and the updates and maintenance of *GOG*, and simply didn't have the spare capacity to handle the world server.

The world server wasn't as simple as just creating a multilingual version; it required understanding local market demands, conducting marketing activities, and doing market analysis. There was quite a bit of work involved.

The only ones with the ability and energy to take on this task were the people at Shang Yang Games.

Actually, Pei Qian didn't have such high expectations for the people at Shang Yang Games. He had two basic requirements:

First, they had to spend the money quickly enough. They had to spend all five hundred million before the settlement. Second, it was best if they could achieve a result that harmed others without benefiting themselves.

Pei Qian had calculated it very clearly. If he did nothing and took the five hundred million, he would earn five hundred thousand during the cycle settlement.

But if he spent that money on the world server, striving to create losses, then as long as he lost five million, he could still earn five hundred thousand during settlement.

So, strictly speaking, Pei Qian wasn't giving up five hundred thousand for the sake of revenge. To him, the money he earned would still be the same, or even more. At the same time, he would have taken revenge on the Dayak Corporation. Wouldn't that be killing two birds with one stone?

Anyway, as long as they spent the money quickly enough and the losses at settlement exceeded five million, it would be absolutely worthwhile for President Pei.

As for why they had to achieve a result that harmed others without benefiting themselves...

The reason was simple: harming others was for revenge, while not benefiting themselves was because Pei Qian didn't want to plant a time bomb for future cycles.

The best outcome for Pei Qian was: I don't make money, and you don't make money either. Everyone doesn't make money together, then I'll be comfortable.

So, although the people at Shang Yang Games were very touched, feeling that President Pei had special trust in them, President Pei didn't have high expectations and didn't really hope that they would directly kill *IOI*.

It was best to drag it out longer, disgusting the Dayak Corporation while also burning money, slowly and painfully, so that he could happily incur losses. That would be the most perfect outcome.

However, whether or not they could achieve that depended on how the situation developed afterward. After all, the Dayak Corporation was a multinational corporation, and they would definitely resist.

While Shang Yang Games was working hard to throw away five hundred million, President Pei didn't relax his supervision of other projects.

Because it was still possible to incur losses in this settlement cycle, provided that no more projects exploded.

The Sloth Apartments project, from the current perspective, was a high-quality project capable of sustaining large losses over the long term, and was worthy of more attention.

"President Pei, please come in."

Liang Qingfan proudly led President Pei to the room on the top floor.

Liang Qingfan was very proud of the renovation results here.

Not only had they successfully renovated the house, but they had also strictly implemented President Pei's minimalist style. Achieving this in a small apartment was much more difficult than in the large apartments at City of Dawn.

Pei Qian took a quick tour of the room and fell silent.

Is this really the broken building I picked before?

This is clearly another house!

Pei Qian's impression of this place was still based on when he looked at the house before. After all, he was usually very busy and didn't have the time to come over and check on the renovations every day.

In his memory, the hallway of this house was narrow, full of mildew, and the kitchen and bathroom were very cramped. It didn't look like a place anyone could live.

But now, all of those shortcomings were gone!

The hallway had been magically widened, and the layout of the kitchen and bathroom seemed to have been redesigned. The kitchen was connected to the living room and even had a view of the lake, while the bathroom area had been expanded and even had a small bathtub.

Pei Qian could tell that Liang Qingfan had definitely made major changes to the building's structure, but he never expected that even the hallway could be widened.

Pei Qian had originally thought that the walls on both sides of the hallway were definitely load-bearing walls, but now it seemed that luck was not on his side.

What a bizarre structure!

Pei Qian was initially angry, but then he thought about it. The structure of this house was bizarre to begin with, and he had chosen this house precisely because of its bizarre structure.

So now that he was being screwed over because of the bizarre structure of the house, it seemed like he couldn't really say anything.

Never mind then.

In any case, the house had been renovated, and the first impression was eye-catching. It looked like a place anyone would want to live.

Especially the 180-degree floor-to-ceiling curved living room. Originally, it was difficult to make full use of this space because it was irregularly shaped, but Liang Qingfan had worked with the kitchen to divide the living room with a sofa and bookshelves, etc. In the process retaining the perfect view, maximizing the use of space.

Fortunately, the concept of bare walls had not changed.

There was almost no storage space. Even the bookshelves in the living room were decorative, only for displaying some beautiful crafts.

If you wanted to store things, sorry, you couldn't.

Moreover, the furniture and layout in the room couldn't be moved. This was a rigid rule, very inhumane, but that was the only way to effectively deter people.

In short, if it weren't for the price and these inhumane rules, Pei Qian would have almost thought that this house would be snatched up.

As things stood, it should be fine.

Pei Qian took a tour and couldn't find any problems, "Well, very good, I'm very satisfied."

Liang Qingfan was very happy, "Then, President Pei, would you like to go and see the commercial and residential building in Shundong Garden as well?"

Pei Qian shook his head, "No need."

The renovation of the commercial and residential building was much less difficult than this place. If this place could be renovated into its current state, there was no need to look at the commercial and residential building. It definitely wouldn't look bad.

Now Pei Qian could only hope that the inhumane rules and impractical renovation style would save him.

Liang Qingfan said expectantly, "Then, President Pei, can we start promoting it? As long as we put the photos on the real estate websites, they'll definitely be snapped up in minutes, right?"

Pei Qian quickly said, "Absolutely not!"

Liang Qingfan: "Huh?"