Losing Money to Be a Tycoon - Chapter 382
Chapter 382: You Call This a Phone Booth?
After more than an hour, Ye Zhizhou looked at the little notebook which he wrote several pages of opinion in and the different artworks that Ruan Guangjian sent. He became speechless.
Ye Zhizhou looked at Ruan Guangjian who was in full spirits. “Big Boss, are you sure you are afraid of horror themes?”
Ruan Guangjian nodded. “Yes, I’m very afraid.”
Ye Zhizhou was speechless. “Then, why did you collect these horror-related artworks?”
Ruan Guangjian, “It’s needed in work.”
“Why do you know so much about the details of scaring people and grasp horror psychology so well?” Ye Zhizhou asked again.
Ruan Guangjian, “You’ll remember them, too, if you watch a lot of horror movies and get scared often.”
Ye Zhizhou was even more confused now. “No, isn’t it contradictory if you’re timid, and yet you watched so many horror movies?”
Ruan Guangjian shook his head. “Not at all. I’m really timid, but it doesn’t prevent me from watching horror movies. It would be just like a person with no sense of humor watching comedy often. Is that contradictory?”
Ye Zhizhou was speechless.
There was no problem; it was reasonable!
Ye Zhizhou sighed inwardly. It seemed like every true big boss had some unknown strange quirks…
Ye Zhizhou did not bother too much about this. It was a good thing if Big Boss Ruan claimed to be very timid but was actually very keen on horror themes!
There was no point dwelling over it.
The urgent task was to quickly summarize these opinions put forward by Ruan Guangjian, form a document, and then add it to the next version of the development plan.
Ye Zhizhou turned on his computer and hurriedly put together a document of amendments proposed by Ruan Guangjian, to be added to the development plan of the upcoming version.
There were only two months left until the game’s scheduled release date. There were also seven days of Chinese New Year holiday in between. The development timeline was rather tight.
Boss Pei ordered that they should not be working overtime. It was an extravagant wish to even work one hour of overtime during Chinese New Year. They could only quickly work on them now.
Ruan Guangjian, on the other hand, found the art resource of Be Quiet and was proposing amendments according to his own ideas.
The biggest advantage of his proposed amendment was this:
Ruan Guangjian could draw out his proposed amendment if the other party could not accurately understand his proposal. Ruan Guangjian would really do it himself if the other party found it too difficult and expressed the attitude of ‘you do it if you’re so good’.
Ye Zhizhou could not help but look at Ruan Guangjian who was working hard.
Big Boss was Big Boss.
A few simple comments brought the quality of the game to a higher level. Such a method—turning stone into gold—had only been seen in Boss Pei!
Of course, Boss Pei was on a higher level.
That was because Ruan Guangjian still needed to make changes to achieve the results. Boss Pei only needed one sentence or even a simple word.
“Big Boss Ruan and Boss Pei are the best partners. Leaders are often kindred souls.”
Ye Zhizhou was sincerely convinced as he began to organize the document of the new version to be developed.
…
…
Afternoon, Dream Realization Ventures…
He Desheng looked at the rendering in his hand and then at Zhang Wang who was sitting opposite him.
“You… call this a phone booth?”
Zhang Wang smiled with embarrassment. “The budget given by Boss Pei was too high. I revised it until I realized that it was a little off subject.
“However, not to worry. Boss Pei did not specify how the shared phone booth should look like. It’s just a little bigger and with a little more stuff. The nature of the shared phone booth remained the same.”
He Desheng looked carefully at the disassembly diagram at the back. “The entire phone booth was designed by you? Your efficiency is a bit too high…”
“I used the stuff I didn’t use before to change it. It did not take too much effort,” Zhang Wang said humbly.
“I have a workshop in my hometown in the nearby county. This is just a rudimentary form that was done in a few hours.”
He Desheng remained silent for quite some time before he managed to squeeze out a word. “Impressive.”
He held the real photo and the disassembly diagram of the ‘shared phone booth’ in his hand.
It was not the same as what was mentioned before. Boss Pei increased the budget after all. The design of the phone booth should be adjusted accordingly.
It would stand at 2.2 meters high and cover an area of about two square meters. It was significantly larger than the phone booths he had in mind and was spacious enough to sit two.
This shared phone booth seemed indeed easy to install and disassemble, judging from the disassembly diagram. The frames were not welded. Just remove a few pieces of tempered glass, and one could tow the frames away easily.
The key parts of the assembly and disassembly could be locked.
Of course, that was just a sample that Zhang Wang made in his ‘workshop’. They would need to consider all aspects of the material, strength, cost, and other detail if they were to start manufacturing it.
At least there were samples; they were just not shipped here.
There were some other aspects in the physical photo of the phone booth with some detailed explanations.
For example, there was a counter with a small coffee machine, jukebox, three-port charger, Wi-Fi, bookshelf, capsule machine, and two folding seats next to it.
There was a small screen in the phone booth of which the contents could be clearly seen by the people outside through the glass.
Of course, a phone should not be missing from a shared phone booth.
There was a beautiful retro phone with a dial in gold and black at the upper right side of the phone booth. It looked very smart. Obviously, the emotional significance of this phone was greater than its practical use.
What was more outrageous was that there was something under the table.
He Desheng was confused. “AED? What is that?”
“Automatic External Defibrillator, a medical device,” Zhang Wang replied.
He Desheng was a little puzzled. “That should be rather expensive, right? Isn’t it a little awkward to put it in the phone booth?”
Zhang Wang smiled. “It’s alright. It cost less than 20,000 yuan. It’s not awkward because there are other medical devices as well like a weight scale that can measure body fats and a blood pressure monitor.”
He Desheng “…is there enough money?”
Zhang Wang nodded. “Of course!
“I was planning to build a traditional phone booth originally which cost about 5,000 yuan but it had to be upgraded since the price gave me a new budget!
“The current size and material cost almost 10,000 yuan per unit. After adding other equipment and installation costs, it cost about 18,000 yuan without the AED.
“The monthly rental for the venue is about 500 to 1,000 yuan. The initial investment amount is about 40,000 yuan after calculation. It’s enough!
“Boss Pei gave 500,000 yuan. I did some calculations. We’ll invest in 10 shared phone booths. The remaining 100,000 yuan and income would be used for follow-up maintenance costs.”
He Desheng was suddenly aware of a problem. “Wait, the monthly rental is 500 to 1,000 yuan? So expensive?”
Zhang Wang nodded. “Of course. I asked several big shopping malls in Jingzhou. They have similar reserved spaces. The cheaper ones are 500 yuan. Those like Huanyu Tianjie are more expensive but can be rented for about 1,000 yuan. It will only occupy about two square meters anyway.”
He Desheng blinked, obviously a little lost. “Aren’t we setting them up by the side of the road?”
Zhang Wang laughed. “On the side of the road? There are so many cars on the road; who would use them?”
“There will only be a total of 10 to 20 sets. We have to put them in shopping malls with large traffic.”
He Desheng was speechless. Why did he feel as though he was being looked down upon? This did not sound right at all!
He Desheng flipped through it again. “Why is the ‘cultural connotation’ left blank?”
Zhang Wang said. “I didn’t think too much about that mainly because I have no more budget.”
“My original plan was to leave a separate screen by this phone booth, find an artist to paint a futurist painting, and decorate it a little. Each phone booth would have a unique theme everyone was allowed to photograph.
“Then, we’ll design a different stamp for each phone booth. Those who visit it can stamp it as a memento.”
“However, I accidentally went out of budget and have no money left to pay for an artist…”
He Desheng gave it some thought. “Won’t you have 200,000 yuan if you remove those AEDs from 10 booths?”
Zhang Wang shook his head violently. “That won’t do! The AED has to be there. They are the heart and soul of the shared phone booth!”
He Desheng could not find an answer to that.
He did not quite understand Zhang Wang’s thinking, but this was Zhang Wang’s project so it had to be executed based on Zhang Wang’s thinking.
After careful consideration, he suddenly felt that this project was not that ridiculous after all.
At the very beginning, He Desheng thought that it would be placed on the side of the road since it was a phone booth. He Desheng had no doubts that Zhang Wang would do that given his intellect.
It turned out that Zhang Wang had no intention of putting it at the side of the road!
Thinking back, the phone booths of the old were placed by the road because everyone had such a need. It was more convenient to call on the roadside. However, everyone had cell phones now. Such a need had long since disappeared.
Now that this shared phone booth was going to be a cultural symbol with some other functions, it must be placed in a place with high human traffic.
Strange, it suddenly looks like a normal project. He Desheng could not help but wonder.
He is obviously someone with brains. Why did he write that kind of proposal…?
Could Boss Pei decide to invest because he saw the potential for this project to succeed? En… that’s very likely!
He Desheng nodded. “Okay, I’ll arrange for someone to contact the manufacturer to produce it as soon as they can. Let me know if you need any help.”
Zhang Wang might be the initiator of this project, but he was just one man. He was not familiar with such matters.
It was a project that Dream Realization Ventures was investing in. He Desheng and the team did not have other projects on hand anyway so it was only natural to lend a hand.
