Chapter 746: Sloth Apartments’ New Building
Director Zhu Xiaoce’s latest script had ended there. Lu Zhiyao was not sure how far into the movie was the script, but based on the estimated time taken to film, they had probably not even covered half of the movie.
The current plot was not enough to infer the entire story even if there were many big scenes with special effects in the later stages.
However, this was exactly the effect that Director Zhu Xiaoce wanted.
Obviously, many stages in the movie had been twisted in the plot. The protagonist Qin Yi’s mentality was also changing subtly or drastically.
If Lu Zhiyao knew the final ending from the beginning, he would definitely be affected when he acted in the previous plot.
Thus, the scripts were given one after another. The main purpose was to allow Lu Zhiyao to completely immerse himself in the role and escape the influence of the spoiler.
However, there was still a problem with ‘subst.i.tution’.
Lu Zhiyao had taken quite a number of scenes up until now. Some of the shots were satisfactory, while others were not.
However, he still felt a little lost whether he was satisfied or not.
He did not have a very clear direction for the performance and did not know the entire story’s plot. He did not know if he had an accurate grasp of Qin Yi’s character, so Lu Zhiyao would feel confused and not confident enough.
Now, looking at the scripts, Qin Yi’s emotions had actually undergone changes several times.
At the beginning, Qin Yi felt lucky to be alive and angry that he had been deceived.
After witnessing the defeat of the Zergs and learning that the previous commander sacrificed himself, Qin Yi had mixed feelings. While he understood in his heart that there was no other choice, he did not completely let it go;
In the subsequent commanding process, with the addition of the ‘realistic elements’, Qin Yi’s thinking and mentality constantly changed to the former commander. When he was personally commanding the review of the battle, Qin Yi had already completely understood the former commander’s mentality after sending the ‘reinforcements are on their way’ command to the AS-371-45 team.
When he unexpectedly discovered that part of the battle he was commanding was a real battle, Qin Yi’s mentality fluctuated again.
To Lu Zhiyao, it was very difficult to show these emotional changes.
That was because Qin Yi’s character design was that he was a very rational and calm soldier. A soldier’s duty was to obey orders. He knew very well in his heart that the little grievance he had suffered, and even his own life, was insignificant compared to humanity’s victory in the war against the Zergs and the survival of the race.
Therefore, on the one hand, Qin Yi kept suppressing his emotions as a human, making himself colder and more rational. He tried his best to win every battle and minimize casualties. On the other hand, he had doubts about the future of himself and mankind.
These intricate and complicated feelings would have subtle differences in every stage of the plot. For Lu Zhiyao, the most difficult part was how to act out these differences while ensuring that the character of Qin Yi would not collapse.
Lu Zhiyao stood up and took a small mirror from the side. Then, he made various expressions in front of the mirror.
Suddenly, he thought of something and got up to find Zhu Xiaoce.
“Director Zhu, from now on, apart from filming, I have been staying in the hotel room and not gone anywhere. Let me use the laptop that contained Starcraft the last time. I want to use it to continue figuring out my character.”
“Also, please give me a set of DV. I want to record my expressions when I play games and watch it afterwards.”
“Also, can you help me find a similar smart speaker for AEEIS? It would be best if you could input all of AEEIS’ lines into it so that it can act for me. I suddenly realized that Qin Yi’s act is not a one-man show but acting against AEEIS. I have always been taking it as a one-man show so I feel that there is something lacking.”
“It might be more effective if I could have a system voice chat with me.”
Zhu Xiaoce was slightly surprised, but he quickly nodded happily. “Sure, no problem.”
“I’ll send the DV and computer to you tonight. As for AEEIS… I heard that the sample from Otto Technologies is about to be released. I will get you an OTTO cell phone to make do with it. There’s an AEEIS intelligent voice on it. Once the sample of AEEIS’ sound system is out, I’ll get one to send to your hotel room immediately.”
…
…
November 17th, Thursday…
Jingzhou City’s Guangming District’s Golden Residence, Huating District.
This was a brand new building. Liang Qingfan had selected one of the buildings to make Sloth Apartments 2.0.
Since Pei Qian had nothing else to do so he decided to come over and see how things were going.
Liang Qingfan was already waiting downstairs. After receiving Boss Pei, the two of them went to the model room on the third floor.
“Boss Pei, this building has two floors with three units with an area of 120 square meters, 130 square meters, and 150 square meters. It has a large area of south-facing windows and balconies. The apartment layout is not bad. Considering the location of the building, it can basically satisfy most people’s mainstream needs.”
“However, because the house itself is exquisitely renovated, the developer priced it at a higher price, which is two to three thousand yuan higher than the surrounding buildings. Thus, it is not selling very well for now.”
“I thought about it. In a few months, we might be able to sell it at a lower price. However, if that happens, it would be more troublesome for us to buy an entire building. Thus, we decided to buy it at the current price.”
Liang Qingfan explained the basic situation of the building to Pei Qian.
Pei Qian nodded in satisfaction. “Yes, you did the right thing!”
Pei Qian had said before that he would give Liang Qingfan fifty million yuan to buy a place with little potential for appreciation.
This was mainly because Pei Qian had been cheated by the Sloth Apartments’ version 1.0 model. He had deliberately chosen a remote location that no one wanted to buy. In the end, the price he had bought was too low. After the renovation, the property prices had skyrocketed.
If not for the special mission, he would have failed the previous settlement cycle.
However, this place did not seem to have much potential for appreciation in the short term.
The location of the Golden Residence’s Huating District was not bad. The developer of this house, the style of the house, and so on were all quite satisfactory. However, it was precisely because there was nothing to nitpick on in all aspects that the developer grew complacent. He set a price that was two to three thousand yuan higher than the surrounding houses because of the high-end location, high-end renovation.
A house that was about 150 square meters was immediately more expensive by three to four hundred thousand yuan. It was a painful price to pay in this day and age.
Obviously, the developer’s pricing strategy had its own tricks. The prices of houses could only be higher, not lower.
If the price was high enough, it could highlight the ‘n.o.ble attribute’ of their own building. First, they would cheat a group of rich people. When they could not sell it, they would secretly reduce the price. For example, they would give customers a discount so that they customers would feel like they were taking advantage of the situation and use the method of discrimination to the extreme.
However, if they set the price low and raised the price in the future, they would be scolded to death.
Thus, the developer’s price was a little too high. Buyers felt that this house was ridiculously expensive and many people were watching. Liang Qingfan took the opportunity to buy the entire building.
If the price was lowered in the future, even 200 yuan per square meter difference would cost Tengda a loss of 600,000 to 700,000 yuan. The more they reduced, the more losses they would incur.
However, that was exactly what Pei Qian wanted. It was a good thing that he could spend more money. He had to praise him!
Liang Qingfan brought Pei Qian to look at the apartments on the third and fourth floors.
“Boss Pei, these three apartments on the third floor were originally the developer’s model rooms. Since they were all set up, it would be a pity to tear them down and redo them. That’s why we kept them. That way, we can also show customers the difference in taste between our Sloth Apartments and the developer’s renovations.”
“The three apartments on the fourth floor are the model rooms of Sloth Apartments 2.0. They are completely renovated according to our usual minimalistic style.”
“As for the other floors, the renovations are still ongoing. Considering the entrance of furniture, appliances, and other supporting facilities, it might only be completed by the end of December. However, they would be ready for people to move in by the beginning of January, which is consistent with our previous estimates.”
Pei Qian first went to the third floor to look at the developer’s demo room, and then went to the fourth floor to look at Sloth Apartments 2.0’s demo room.
The difference was obvious.
The developer’s demo room could not be said to be ugly. Wallpapers, carpet, huge murals on the television walls, dark mahogany furniture, and so on were basically the current mainstream style.
It was still the same problem that he had mentioned before. At the moment, the main group of buyers were still middle-aged people. The model rooms were mainly meant to satisfy their needs. Sometimes, even the designers’ aesthetic standards had to compromise for their customers’ needs.
However, the entire s.p.a.ce of the Sloth Apartments 2.0 model room on the fourth floor felt different!
The Sloth Apartments 2.0 model was the same as 1.0. The only difference was that there was more storage s.p.a.ce in the room, which made it more practical.
Pei Qian observed for a while and realized that Liang Qingfan was still very restrained despite the restrictions of the storage s.p.a.ce being released in Version 2.0. The cabinets were not filled up everywhere, especially in the living room area. This maximized the empty style.
However, the study, the bedroom, next to the door, and the living room near the balcony were still filled with cabinets that matched the renovation style so that they would not stand out.
Compared to the developer’s demo room, the Sloth Apartments’ style was obviously more suited to the taste of young people. Whether it was the utilization of s.p.a.ce, practicality, lifestyle habits, cultural atmosphere, and so on, there were obvious improvements.
Liang Qingfan asked, “Boss Pei, how do you feel?”
Pei Qian nodded. “Hm, not bad.”
Such Sloth Apartments 2.0 units should be s.n.a.t.c.hed up immediately after its launch?
In fact, Pei Qian had decided to make Sloth Apartments 2.0 in order to help those young people who were troubled by renting apartments. At first, the only flaw of Sloth Apartments was that there was too little storage s.p.a.ce. Now, this flaw had been made up for. It had become a rental s.p.a.ce that completely suited the needs of young people.
That way, it would be difficult to rent Sloth Apartments 1.0 out if he were to make more of them.
However, Pei Qian did not care about that. In any case, he would open as many as he could. He would lose money no matter which one he opened.
Pei Qian walked around the room and felt that the furniture, including the sofa, coffee table, television cabinet, and the like were slightly different from before.
Pei Qian did not notice it when he first entered because the apartment was different.
“These furniture look different from before?” Pei Qian asked.
Liang Qingfan nodded. “That’s right. At the moment, most of the furniture in the room has been changed. The reason why it looks not much different from before is because a large part of it was specially custom-made by the furniture factory that we worked with.”