Homo Sapiens

”Building 204, Apartment 605...”

”We’re here!”

Stepping out of the elevator, Liu Meizhu noticed the apartment building was quite distinctive. She asked curiously, ”Jingcai, are all the buildings here like this?”

”They are. All the newly constructed buildings have this design,” Zhao Jingcai nodded.

Liu Meizhu was so surprised because the housing here was truly unique, a world away from what she was used to on Taiwan Island.

In other words, the design philosophy behind the Homo Sapiens Company’s residential buildings was vastly different from that of conventional commercial housing.

Chen Yanxiu’s family noticed this difference as soon as they exited the elevator.

The first thing that caught their eye was that the apartments didn’t resemble typical high-rise units. Instead, they felt more like detached houses, as no unit on the floor shared any walls—front, back, left, or right—with another.

They walked down a four-meter-wide corridor to the front door of Apartment 605.

The apartment was separated from its neighbors on the left and right by a one-meter-wide alleyway. Instead of going inside, Liu Meizhu followed the alleyway on her left.

After passing through the alley, the view suddenly opened up.

Before her was the rear half of the building, which housed the outward-facing balcony area. As it happened, her neighbors were having a barbecue on their balcony.

The woman of the neighboring household saw her and greeted her with a smile in Thai, ”Sawasdee ka...”

”Ah... Sawasdee ka.” That was the only Thai phrase Liu Meizhu knew.

The neighbor seemed to realize Liu Meizhu didn’t understand Thai. She pointed to her own balcony’s back door, made a few gestures, and spoke a few words in halting Chinese:

”Hello... Are you new?... The back door is over here... Come visit when you have time...”

But it was her husband who laughed and said in fluent Mandarin, ”Hello, you must be the new residents of 605. Your back door is on the other side. You can get to it by going around this way.”

”Thank you! Are you Chinese?” Liu Meizhu felt a wave of relief upon hearing the familiar language.

But the man shook his head. ”I’m from Chiang Mai.”

”Your Mandarin is excellent, I can’t even detect an accent. Thanks for the tip. I won’t disturb you any longer.”

”No problem.”

After bidding her neighbors farewell, Liu Meizhu carried her young daughter around to the back. She found another corridor behind the balconies, this one about 1.5 meters wide.

On one side was the low wall of the balcony; on the other was a huge window. Below the window was a one-meter-high section of openwork stainless steel mesh covered with a screen. The section above was also made of stainless steel mesh and a screen, and in the middle was a two-meter-high single pane of glass. The three parts together were four meters high.

Liu Meizhu realized the ceilings in these buildings were very high.

Standing on the rear corridor for a moment, she could see a small, lush green park in the distance.

She walked down the alleyway on the other side and found her own apartment’s side-rear door, which she could open with a simple turn of the handle.

’The door isn’t locked?’

Inside was a large balcony. The wall facing the neighbors she had just met was two meters high, clearly designed for privacy.

The other two sides had one-meter-high low walls, but they were also equipped with one-meter-high foldable bamboo fences. The fences were covered with cloth gauze, which could also be used to block the view.

As a family of four, they were allocated 120 square meters of living space, calculated according to the internal housing standard of 30 square meters per person.

However, the 100-square-meter balcony behind the apartment was not counted as part of the residential area. Neither were the front and rear corridors, the side alleys, the elevator shaft, the stairwell, the kitchen ventilation shaft, the garbage chute, or the utility conduits.

In other words, the 30 square meters per person stipulated by the Homo Sapiens Company was a solid 30 square meters of actual indoor space.

The balcony area was currently empty, just a vacant space enclosed by walls.

Through the huge floor-to-ceiling windows, she could see the living room and open-plan kitchen inside, where her husband, Chen Yanxiu, was unpacking.

Opening the back door next to the windows, she stepped into the living room.

Liu Meizhu placed her young daughter on the sofa. ”This place is huge! But it must have been just renovated, right? Will there be formaldehyde and things like that?”

”You don’t have to worry about that. The walls are coated with eco-friendly and safe coral diatomaceous earth. The furniture is made from iron-bamboo materials, stainless steel, and aluminum alloy. No chemical adhesives were used. It met move-in standards the moment the renovation was complete,” Zhao Jingcai said, patting the sofa.

Liu Meizhu took a tour of the apartment.

The 120-square-meter apartment was laid out with four bedrooms, two living areas, two bathrooms, a kitchen, and a storage room.

The master bedroom was 16 square meters, the three secondary bedrooms totaled 36 square meters, the entryway foyer was 8 square meters, the rear great room was 20 square meters, the open-plan kitchen was 16 square meters, the two bathrooms were 16 square meters combined, the storage room was 4 square meters, and the central hallway was 4 square meters.

Plus the 100-square-meter balcony at the back.

Because there were no visual obstructions between the open-plan kitchen, the rear great room, and the balcony, this 136-square-meter area looked incredibly spacious.

”Honey, the ceilings feel so high in here. You could probably build a small loft.”

Chen Yanxiu looked up at the living room ceiling. It was indeed very high.

But Zhao Jingcai advised, ”The ceiling height is four meters, which is indeed higher than in typical commercial housing, but I wouldn’t recommend adding a loft. If your family grows, you can apply to move to a larger apartment. There’s no need to add an internal mezzanine.”

”Besides, the housing management company wouldn’t approve it. And you must never alter the layout of the internal walls. These walls are specifically designed for earthquake resistance. Randomly changing the structure would compromise the seismic integrity of the entire building. If the housing management company finds out, you’ll face a heavy fine.”