Something this interesting had to be recorded. While Bald Qiang and Gao Lujie were busy building their villa, Shen Yibin wasn’t just standing around. He took out his phone and filmed their entire construction process, from the initial framework to the later detail work, not missing a thing. Of course, after he was done filming, he didn’t forget to post it to his Weibo account.
Shen Yibin was a major influencer now. But because he wasn’t interested in posting political tirades or commenting on celebrity gossip, he was considered one of the few wholesome figures among the top Weibo influencers. Every post he made would attract a flood of shares and comments from netizens, and these few pictures were no exception.
"Huh? Is that a beaver? Where did Bin get it? Those two big buck teeth look so familiar. Raise your hand if you also use Colgate toothpaste." As expected, the beaver’s most striking feature was its pair of front teeth.
"What are they doing now? Building their own house? Haha, they seem a lot more hardworking than Hah’Er!" ’Hey, weren’t you the one jumping up and down when Hah’Er was moving bricks last time? Why the change of heart now?’
"This construction site is hiring carpenters and cement workers. I think these two are a good fit. Have them report to me for work tomorrow! Six hundred a day. Work one day, and you can take off for three. Hurry up and come on over." ’Six hundred a day and you only take three days off? Your spending habits are a little extravagant.’
"Six hundred a day? Such good pay? Boss, what about me? Hire me to move bricks for you!" This job ad instantly dazzled many people. A lot of white-collar workers probably didn’t even make that much. As usual, the comments section started to go off the rails, with the focus of the discussion shifting to moving bricks.
But Wen Yuan was not the least bit distracted. He paid no attention to the messy comments, his eyes glued to the photos of the gradually materializing beaver villa. ’This design is quite interesting,’ he thought. ’It completely integrates the architecture with the natural environment. It’s so natural and harmonious, not the least bit out of place. This is so much better than the gardens I design.’
Wen Yuan was a moderately famous landscape designer, particularly skilled at creating waterscapes. Thanks to the rapid development of China’s real estate market in recent years, his career had been very successful. Many well-known major developers would invite him to participate in the design of high-end villa projects, cultural tourism projects, and leisure commercial projects—anything involving water. Wen Yuan had made a lot of money over the years.
But at his core, Wen Yuan still saw himself as a pure designer. He disliked repetitive, uncreative work and was constantly honing his design skills. He had just gotten some free time today and went online, hoping to see what new works his peers had produced and draw some inspiration. He never expected that the moment he opened the page, he would see these few photos, which left him utterly stunned.
Drawing inspiration from animal nests in their natural environments was nothing new in the world of architectural design. The famous Bird’s Nest Stadium, for instance, came from such a concept. Wen Yuan, therefore, paid close attention to the nests of various animals. As the renowned master architects of the animal kingdom, beavers and their nests were something Wen Yuan had, of course, studied. But due to the extreme rarity of beavers, he had only ever been able to find photos of completed beaver lodges to study, leaving him completely ignorant of the details of the construction process. To finally see such rare material today sent a massive shock through him.
’The placement of these main support beams is simply exquisite. One more or one less would absolutely not achieve the current effect. And these smaller branches... if I hadn’t seen the photo, I really couldn’t have imagined how they were assembled!’ Seeing these pictures, inspiration surged through Wen Yuan’s mind like a spring. Countless designs he had never conceived of before quickly surfaced in his thoughts. He felt that the creative bottleneck that had plagued him for so long was showing signs of breaking. As long as he could get these ideas down on paper and then watch them be built, his design skills would surely rise to a new level, stepping into the realm of a master.
Today was truly his lucky day. If he hadn’t skipped his social engagement to stay home and browse the internet, how would he have found such precious images? Wen Yuan slowly went through the pictures one by one. Every detail of the lodge jointly built by Bald Qiang and Gao Lujie brought him endless inspiration. Countless plans he had never dared to imagine before were validated in these photos. Like Dugu Qiubai stumbling upon a peerless sword manual, Wen Yuan stared at the images without blinking, only clicking the mouse to move to the next one after a long pause. Time trickled by. With the occasional click of the mouse, Wen Yuan became completely engrossed in his study of the pictures.
CLICK! The mouse clicked again, but this time, it didn’t switch to a new image as before. That was all the pictures Shen Yibin had uploaded to Weibo. Wen Yuan had just seen the last one!
"How can there be nothing after this?!" Wen Yuan stared blankly at the screen, unable to recover for a long time. It was like a guy getting to the best part of a video only for it to end. The frustration was unbearable!
’How could you do this! I just got to the part where the main support beams were finished! I haven’t seen so many of the details yet! This is killing me!’ It felt to Wen Yuan like a hundred claws were scratching at his heart, tormenting him with an unbearable itch. For a creative professional like him, having his source of inspiration suddenly cut off was almost more painful than a drug addict being cut off from his supply.
"Mr. Bin, are there any more photos? Could I trouble you to upload a few more? I can pay a high price for them! My number is 138-3838-...." Calming down slightly, Wen Yuan immediately sent a series of private messages to Shen Yibin.
Unfortunately, Shen Yibin was a major influencer, after all. He received far too many private messages daily from people wanting business collaborations or propositioning him. Shen Yibin couldn’t even be bothered to look at them, so naturally, he didn’t see the messages Wen Yuan had sent. And even if he had, Shen Yibin probably would have ignored them anyway, right? ’You didn’t even say what you want the photos for. I don’t need the money, and what if something goes wrong after I send them to you?’
Wen Yuan kept clicking his mouse, refreshing the page. But he nearly broke the mouse and still got no response from Shen Yibin. This situation was sheer torture for him.
’Maybe he’ll post new ones tomorrow?’ Staring at the photos had already drained too much of Wen Yuan’s energy, and he was getting sleepy. He could only pin his hopes on Shen Yibin uploading new pictures tomorrow, or replying to his private message.
Wen Yuan reluctantly went to bed. The next morning, he woke up and rushed to his computer without even washing up. He refreshed Weibo, but there was still absolutely nothing!
’Now what am I supposed to do?’ Wen Yuan’s head began to ache.