106: Chapter 106 LOGO

Her hand traced an arc in the air, as if outlining some invisible path.

"But a trajectory cannot just have function; it must have texture. You and your team will be staying here for a long time. If the space can't keep people, even the most precise information won't yield results."

Jiang Chen leaned against the floor-to-ceiling glass, not responding, just quietly waiting for her to fully articulate her thoughts.

"The front desk doesn't need to be large. The background wall will be a full-surface, slightly curved LED screen. The curvature should be controlled between three to five degrees, just enough to give a slight sense of envelopment."

Shen Xi turned toward the entrance and gestured, "The screen will scroll global indices, exchange rates, commodities, and industry dynamics in real-time. It's not for aesthetics; it's so that every person who steps through the door enters a decision-making state in the first second."

Her fingertips traced a sharp line in the air: "The frame will be brushed black steel, no wider than three millimeters. When off, it's a minimalist black steel art installation; when on, it's a window looking out onto the global market."

Walking a few steps further in, she continued, "The workspace will be fully open with no partitions. Information must flow here like air; it cannot be blocked by walls."

"The executive offices will be on the east side. Partitions will use ultra-white glass with electric atomization—one click to atomize for focus, and restore to transparency when openness is needed."

She emphasized her tone: "The frame must be five-millimeter ultra-narrow brushed black steel. You absolutely cannot use two-centimeter wide commercial-grade profiles. That's a cage, not an office. What I want is something so thin that people feel the glass itself is the structure."

Turning around, she tilted her chin toward Jiang Chen: "This entire row by the window will not have desks."

"Then what will be there?"

"Eames black leather lounge chairs with ottomans, a few low tables with built-in wireless charging, and an independent coffee bar. A La Marzocco dual-head espresso machine—not a capsule machine—with a small fridge next to it stocked year-round with fresh milk and San Pellegrino."

Shen Xi's gaze swept across the row of floor-to-ceiling windows. "This is the thinking area. Thinking while facing the Yangtze River is ten times more efficient than facing a wall. But if the chairs are uncomfortable or the coffee is bad, people won't stay. Every item here must be top-tier."

The corners of Jiang Chen's mouth curled slightly. "And the meeting rooms?"

"Two."

Shen Xi held up two fingers. "The large meeting room will have a dual-screen projection and video conferencing system. The conference table will be a solid piece of black walnut with a slender metal cable tray embedded in the center."

"Hide all the interfaces and power supplies inside so not a single wire is visible on the tabletop. Use Danish upholstered chairs; you won't feel tired even after sitting for eight hours."

Lowering one finger, she added, "The small meeting room will have no projector and no TV. Just a round table, a few chairs, and a whiteboard."

"The lighting will be designed separately, using adjustable spotlights focused on the tabletop while the rest of the area remains dark. Thinking quality is highest when there's no interference from electronic devices and the light is focused."

Jiang Chen straightened up from the window and walked over to her. Stopping three paces away, his gaze fell on her face. "And the LOGO?"

Shen Xi lowered her head in silence for a few seconds, then crouched down, took a pen and a folded piece of A4 paper from her bag, and spread it out on the carpet.

The pen tip descended. It wasn't a conventional five-pointed star, but three diamonds overlapping and intersecting around a central origin, every edge as sharp as a blade.

The overall silhouette was an irregular hexagram, yet it was more compact and aggressive than a standard hexagram, like a burst of starlight piercing through from the depths of the universe.

"Star."

Her pen tip pointed to the center. "Not a star shining in the night sky, but a star burning as a meteorite falls into the atmosphere—high speed, high temperature, high energy, unstoppable."

Immediately after, she drew a smooth silver arc around the periphery of the starlight, cutting from the bottom left to the top right, like a planetary orbit or a precise ballistic trajectory.

"Trajectory. The essence of Chenxing is locking onto the right direction at the right point in time. The star is the goal, and the trajectory is the path. Together..."

The pen tip pressed heavily at the intersection of the star and the arc: "It means 'hitting the target with precision and unstoppable force at the right time.'"

Jiang Chen crouched down, took the pen, and wrote the words 'Chenxing' next to the design.

The characters were tall and upright, with sharp beveled edges at the ends of the horizontal and vertical strokes. There was no redundant decoration, only a natural sense of restrained sharpness.

A hint of surprise flashed in Shen Xi's eyes. "You've studied typeface design?"

"No."

Jiang Chen handed the pen back to her. "But I know what kind of things people remember at a glance."

Shen Xi's gaze fell on the paper. The starlight was on top, 'Chenxing' was below, and the silver arc pierced through from left to right. It was concise, sharp, and without a trace of redundancy.

She looked up, her fingertip tapping the design. "The colors are set.

The primary color will be Ink Black.

Not pure black, but 90% black plus 10% deep blue. It's deeper than pure black, like the edge of the atmosphere.

The secondary color will be Meteorite Silver—a metallic silver mixed with a bit of grayish-blue, with a brushed texture to replicate the texture of a meteorite scorched by the atmosphere."

Pausing, she added, "The accent color will be Ember Orange. Not the red of a flame, but the dark red of the second before a fire goes out—low-key and restrained, yet carrying an extremely high temperature."

"It will only be used for the most critical details: the star's core in the LOGO, the core indicators on the data screens, and the spotlight halo on the small meeting room table."

Jiang Chen looked at the design on the paper, then looked up at her. After two seconds of silence, he suddenly smiled. "It's settled."

He pulled out his phone and took a photo of the A4 paper on the carpet. In the lens, the starlight and the silver arc shone brilliantly on the paper, like a shooting star about to streak across the sky.

"I know a team for the VI design." Shen Xi stood up and brushed off non-existent dust from her knees.

"They've done brand visuals for three unicorns. They understand business and aren't just 'embroidery pillows' who only know how to draw. I'll have them produce 3D modeling proposals tomorrow based on this star-and-trajectory structure, bringing out the layers of Ink Black, Meteorite Silver, and Ember Orange."

"Good."

Shen Xi turned around and looked out again at this five-hundred-square-meter empty space.

The setting sun had completely sunk below the river's surface. The Yangtze River outside the floor-to-ceiling windows had turned into a deep indigo, and the city lights were flickering on one by one, spreading out along the riverbank.

"President Jiang."

"Hmm?"

"You said Chenxing Capital's current office area is temporary."

"Correct."

"Then what about the future?"

Jiang Chen walked to her side. The two of them stood side-by-side in front of the thirty-seventh-floor window. Before them was the Yangtze River that had flowed for millennia; behind them was the future about to be lit up.

He was silent for two seconds, then raised his hand and tapped the glass lightly with his index finger. "The future isn't one floor; it's an entire building."

Shen Xi tilted her head and looked at his profile.

The final glow of the sunset fell on his face. The curve of his brow, the line of his nose, the angles of his jaw—every part radiated a steadiness that didn't match his age.

She withdrew her gaze and looked out the window again.

The last glimmer of twilight on the river was completely extinguished. Lights spread across both banks like countless stars rising from the ground.

"Then this LOGO will have to be designed large enough," she said with a faint, almost imperceptible smile in her voice.

Jiang Chen turned his head. "What do you mean?"

Shen Xi raised her hand and traced a massive outline in the air on the window.

It was the shape of the star on the paper, cutting from the top left of the glass all the way to the bottom right, with the silver arc surrounding it and the star's core being sharp.

"On the roof of an entire building, we place only one star. We'll follow this 3D model: an Ink Black star body, a Meteorite Silver trajectory, and an Ember Orange light for the star's core. Let the whole city see it just by looking up."

Jiang Chen looked at the invisible but incredibly clear trajectory she had drawn on the glass. He was silent for a second, then suddenly laughed.

"Good," he said.

Outside, the night had completely taken over the city.

In front of the thirty-seventh-floor window, two figures stood side-by-side.

Before them was the ceaselessly flowing river; behind them was the five-hundred-square-meter empty space.

And that A4 paper on the carpet—with its burning star, surrounding arc, and those two sharp words—would eventually transform from a sketch into a 3D metallic LOGO, standing tall at the peak of the city.