263 Step Five: Preparation Part 2

November 25-29, 20XX (Monday- Friday)

Various Places

"So the first floor would be the showroom and first consultations, the second floor would become the office. I know that fourth and the fifth floor would be the room for the paintings and the future auctions for selling the paintings, but what are we going to do for the third floor?" Trisha asked as she started sketching the interior design she had envisioned into a rough draft.

"Let's just leave it alone for a while. We will come back to it later when we have something... Do we have workers to hire? We need engineers, plumbers, other interior designers, movers, and so much more." Mei Lin bit her lower lips. Pressured at the thoughts of starting everything, Mei Lin was full of nerves.

Trisha patted her back and told, "We have people in stand by now. One call and they are ready to work. Don't stress about it too much. I have renovated a whole house for one week and three days, this building in two weeks might be hard to do, but it is not impossible. We won't be starting from scratch anyway, and it was already made with the best modern setting, so the only things we needed to do is put partition walls and decorate."

Mei Lin looked around the clean building. It was indeed like working at a clean canvass that was already primed and ready to paint. As Trisha began to describe all the things that she would do, Mei Lin's imagination ran rampant. Her nerves slowly turned into excitement fast.

Elias had run to the upper floors to make his own designs for the paintings that needed to be transferred into another location again. He was excited when Mei Lin had told him that she would invite local artists to display their art pieces on the third floor so all of Miss M's paintings will be displayed on the fourth floor. In fact, Mei Lin had already contacted most of her art friends in college, and they have jumped into her proposal fast, in an effort to make more cash.

Dan was taking care of the paperwork for the start of their building project. He had promised that they will be ready soon because of the Zhao family's and Xue family's support. Mother Zhao had specially put a good word to the local Municipal Housing and Development Commission so Mei Lin and her staff could process papers quick and easy. Again, Mei Lin and Trisha were left speechless at the power of money.

When Tuesday came, Mei Lin was driven with Yue to her new building. The two Zhao family members had their jaws dropped as they saw the building buzzing with people. Men were painting on walls, some putting pieces of furniture together, and some building walls and mounting screens. Mei Lin knew that Trisha would start bright and early, but she never expected that they would already do so much after only being at work for four hours. Trisha and the people that she had handpicked to hire as her team had started to work at six am in the morning. Coming at ten am, Mei Lin, and Yue already saw a ton of progress.

"You got fast employees," Yue commented with awe.

"I got capable employees," Mei Lin corrected while dragging Yue to met Trisha officially.

When Wednesday came, Mei Lin was astonished to see the third floor painted white and the fourth floor painted pure black from the ceilings to the walls and even the floors. The artist in her was wide-eyed as she saw nothing but darkness.

Mei Lin looked at Elias and asked, "What have you done?"

Elias rolled his eyes and explained, "Your art pieces will be displayed with a white frame background... imagine your painting hanging on a white frame, against this black paint, it would pop."

Trisha was in Elias' side nodding along in agreement. Mei Lin sighed and shrugged. They knew best, but she could also see the point that they were making.

"What are we naming this company by the way?" Dan interrupted them with many folders on his hands.

"M Company!" Elias suggested.

"M Interior Design!" Trisha shorted as a joke.

Mei Lin rolled her eyes, "Why not name it M & Friends so it could be cheesier."

Dan blinked, "I don't know about you, but I think M&Friends is a great name."

Just like that, their company name was made. Mei Lin returned to Zhao Manor that day with a wide smile as their renovation was going exactly to plan.

Friday came fast for them. Trisha was stressing as problems, and unexpected things began to pop up. The most hateful thing that showed up was someone spreading rumors that their business would be something that is illegal and would cater to rich men. Fuming, Trisha used her social media to settle everything. She showed her plans and had even used Miss M's social media accounts using Elias as the representative. Elias was used to dealing with the public and had announced that Miss M was working with this new company.

Making a five minutes video, Trisha and Elias had cited that Miss M and Mrs. Zhao aims to invite local artists' to show their talents. With this move, Elias and Trisha had not only secured their place, but they have also excited the netizens.

Talks about an internationally recognized interior designer teaming up with an internationally known artist guarantees and international standard being met. What made them more excited was the emphasis on using local products made by local artists. Patriotism oozed in the new company as Trisha and Elias talked, and Chinese netizens were ashamed while some suspicious; two foreigners were thinking more about their country that they were.

The icing on the cake was when Ru Shi reshared the video with a caption saying, 「Support my friend's new company. Mrs. Zhao, make your new employees renovate my closet, please? I would like a free Miss M painting. #ShamelessRequest」

As thanks for her support, Mei Lin used her company's new social media to reply, 「Of course! Anything for Li Ru Shi, just make sure my husband and Alexandre would not kill us with spending more time with each other than they can.」

Yue saw the chaos Ru Shi and Mei Lin was making online, so she joined in and posted, 「You two need to make my nieces and nephews first!」

This series of posts brought buzz and excited netizens in their accounts. News about the rich and the wealthy was prime material for a viral post. People were intrigued by the relationship with a famous actress, a model/CEO, and to the orphaned new wife of the youngest billionaire in the country.

On the I.A.I. Interior design building, Ye Lan was mad. Her face was red because of her anger and papers were scattered on the floor as she threw all of the things on her desk in a tantrum. Her plan to talk trash about Mei Lin and damage her reputation failed once again.