Chapter 84: Hardworking, Eager to Learn, and Sincere

Chapter 84: Chapter 84: Hardworking, Eager to Learn, and Sincere

Su Yue left.

Yun Zhen repeatedly pondered the feasibility of making money through carpentry. She knew that if she wanted to make money from hairpins and those so-called fridge magnets, she first had to understand the preferences of the people in this world. Since Su Yue was busy, it wasn’t appropriate to keep bothering her with questions. She could only wait to ask Li Mei in the afternoon.

"Little sister, are all the crocheted dolls a hundred yuan?" someone asked, stopping at her stall.

Yun Zhen immediately nodded. "They are purely handmade. One hundred yuan each is a great deal."

People continuously came to her stall to ask for prices. Those who found them too expensive left after a few glances, while those who wanted them paid without hesitation. Although the crocheted dolls sold much slower than before, they were all sold out just before her afternoon shift.

She counted the cash in her hand. "One, two, three... thirty-six bills." Thirty-six crocheted dolls had sold for three thousand six hundred yuan! She thought, "Thank goodness they all sold out."

Pocketing the money, she arrived at Sister-in-law Liu’s vegetable stall just in time for work.

"Yun Zhen, you look good today. Seems like you didn’t stay up late last night," Li Mei said, studying her complexion.

Yun Zhen smiled shyly. "I slept pretty soundly last night." Without anything weighing on her mind, she naturally slept well.

Li Mei didn’t press further. "Remember not to stay up late in the future. It harms your body and makes you ugly."

Yun Zhen nodded earnestly before asking, "Meimei, do you know what a fridge magnet is?"

Li Mei turned to look at her. "A fridge magnet is a decoration you stick on a refrigerator. Some people think a plain, bare fridge is ugly, so they put colorful decorations on it. It’s just like hanging a painting or calligraphy on a wall—it’s purely for aesthetics." She then guessed, "Are you asking this because you’re stopping the crocheted dolls and want to switch to selling fridge magnets?"

Having her intentions seen through, Yun Zhen didn’t hide it. "My friend told me that in a few days, the students will go home for the holidays, and there won’t be anyone in the college town to buy my crocheted dolls. I learned some carpentry before, so my friend suggested I make money by crafting wooden hairpins, wooden fridge magnets, and jewelry boxes."

Li Mei was a little surprised; she hadn’t expected Yun Zhen to possess such skills. "Where did you learn carpentry?"

Yun Zhen made up a lie. "I learned it from a wandering old lady a while ago."

Li Mei felt a mix of pity and admiration. "You’re quite eager to learn.

"Your friend is right. Elegant and simple wooden hairpins are very popular right now. If you polish wooden sticks into solid wood hairpins and carve flowers or grass on them, many people will buy them. The expensive ones can sell for over a hundred yuan.

"Ordinary fridge magnets are also very popular. If you carve solid wood into small ornaments, attach a magnet, and make it a bit more delicate, it can definitely fetch a good price.

"Making jewelry boxes requires higher craftsmanship. Don’t touch them unless you’re absolutely confident. They consume a lot of time and energy, and if you don’t make them well, they won’t sell. Of course, if you make them well, you can easily fetch hundreds or even thousands of yuan.

"If you want to make these, you first need to buy some blueprints to study. The flea market has two-yuan and ten-yuan stores. You can go in and ask if they sell any. They shouldn’t be expensive. You don’t have a phone, but if you did, you could also watch video tutorials."

Li Mei took out her own phone. "How about this: every day when we come to work around this time, I’ll find a video tutorial for you. You can watch it twice on my phone. It’s best if you can memorize it, but if you can’t, just observe how others make wooden hairpins and fridge magnets."

"Meimei, thank you!" Yun Zhen was thrilled and overjoyed.

Li Mei smiled. "No need to thank me, we’re old friends."

She played several carpentry video tutorials. Yun Zhen’s hands never stopped working. She listened to the audio from the video and stole glances at the screen from time to time. By multitasking, she managed to balance both her work and her learning perfectly.

Sister-in-law Liu walked over after finishing her tasks. "I didn’t expect Yun Zhen to be so studious."

Li Mei was full of admiration. "She told me she learned carpentry from a wandering old lady. Now she wants to make money by crafting wooden hairpins and wooden fridge magnets!"

Sister-in-law Liu also admired Yun Zhen’s perseverance. She could endure hardship, loved to learn, and was sincere. If she had been born into a normal family, she definitely would have been a college student.

Yun Zhen tried hard to memorize every detail in the videos. Only by memorizing them could she instruct Carpenter Zhao and Hunters Wang to make the wooden hairpins and fridge magnets. Hearing someone describe it was a completely different experience from seeing it with her own eyes.

Making wooden hairpins was simple: use sandpaper to polish solid wood strips until smooth, then carve flowers, birds, or the character for "fortune" onto them, aiming for a simple, elegant, and refined look. Fridge magnets required a bit more skill. According to the tutorial’s methods, one first had to carve solid wood or other types of wood into small ornaments of animals and plants. These also needed to be polished smooth before attaching purchased magnetic strips or blocks.

Jewelry boxes were somewhat difficult. They required excellent materials, as well as painting with pigments. It wasn’t as simple as just building a box or a chest. For now, she wouldn’t consider making them.

Before she knew it, her shift was over. Yun Zhen had a good memory and remembered the general procedures. Of course, she didn’t know how to do carpentry herself. She would go back and explain these things to Carpenter Zhao and Hunters Wang to see if they could make them.

The hairpins shouldn’t be a problem. Her aunt often showed off in the village because Carpenter Zhao made her a peach wood hairpin every year, engraved with her name and her favorite peach blossoms. It made a group of unmarried girls and young wives green with envy. Fridge magnets were just carving some delicate little trinkets; Carpenter Zhao and Hunters Wang should both be able to make them. As for the jewelry boxes, Carpenter Zhao could most likely make them too, but painting? Her father knew a little, though not as detailed as the person in the video. Moreover, they had no pigments at home.

After work, she carried the vegetable leaves Sister-in-law Liu had given her back to the dorm. She put them away and headed out, planning to take a stroll around the flea market.

"Fresh pork fat at a rock-bottom price! Four point five yuan a catty!"

Yun Zhen realized it had been a long time since she bought pork fat. There wasn’t much lard left in the village. With so many people, they ate a lot, and there was only a little left because the village chief was very sparing with it.

She calculated today’s earnings: collecting scrap brought seventy yuan, working two jobs earned one hundred and ten yuan, and selling crocheted dolls made three thousand six hundred yuan. The total was three thousand seven hundred and eighty yuan.

Seeing a lot of pork fat displayed on a nearby stall, Yun Zhen stepped forward. "Sir, I want thirty catties of pork fat."

"You got it, miss. I’ll weigh it for you." The stall owner smiled and handed her a heavy bag. "Thirty catties, exactly."

Yun Zhen handed him one hundred and thirty-five yuan. She also bought a hundred catties of cotton at six yuan each to stuff into old clothes, spending six hundred yuan. Next, she went to the farmer’s market and bought two bags of flour and three hundred catties of rice. A hundred-catty bag of flour cost sixty yuan, so two bags came to one hundred and twenty yuan. Rice was eighty cents a catty, making three hundred catties cost two hundred and forty yuan. Buying the rice and flour cost her three hundred and sixty yuan in total.

Thinking about how everyone still had to transport Shitous to build stone walls to fend off wild beasts, she knew two iron handcarts definitely wouldn’t be enough. She bought two more handcarts. One handcart was three hundred and fifty yuan, bringing the cost of two to seven hundred yuan.

Next, she found a two-yuan store.

"Sir, do you have sample blueprints for handmade wooden hairpins? And blueprints for small wooden ornaments?" Yun Zhen asked, stating her needs to the owner. "If you have blueprints for wooden jewelry boxes and wooden chests, I’ll take a copy of those too."

The owner said, "The blueprints here are sold by the bag. One bag is thirty-five yuan and contains eighty blueprints. That’s a total of eight hundred sample patterns for handmade carpentry, covering wooden jewelry, wooden boxes, wooden chests, and wooden ornaments."

"Thirty-five?" Yun Zhen thought about the eight hundred patterns inside and found it quite a bargain. "I’ll take a bag."

She now had one thousand nine hundred and fifty yuan left on her.