Chapter 90: My Husband Makes the Best Wooden Hairpins

Chapter 90: Chapter 90: My Husband Makes the Best Wooden Hairpins

Carpenter Zhao’s wife declared loudly, "Goddess, my husband makes the best wooden hairpins! Every year, he carves one just for me. Whenever I go into the county town, everyone asks which jewelry shop I bought it from. If wooden hairpins actually brought in a decent profit, I would have told him to switch trades and make them full-time long ago!"

Being praised so highly by his wife left Carpenter Zhao a little embarrassed. Still, he firmly believed that no one in the village was better at crafting hairpins than him.

He volunteered, "Goddess, let me handle the wooden hairpins. I dare not boast about much else, but carving a hairpin is just as natural to me as building a bed or a cabinet!"

Hunters Wang spoke up next. "Then I’ll take care of the little trinkets. But Goddess, you mentioned earlier that these trinkets can’t be sold on their own, and that they need something attached to the back to be popular in the Immortal Realm. Where are we supposed to find this thing?"

The village chief scratched his head. "We have to turn these trinkets into ice-something-iron?"

Yun Zhen corrected him with a smile, "Fridge magnets!"

She retrieved the blueprints for the small wooden ornaments, along with magnet stones and magnet sheets, from her mind space. "Uncle Zhao, you will be in charge of the wooden hairpins, and Uncle Wang, you will handle the small ornaments. These are the woodworking blueprints I bought in the Immortal Realm. There are over eighty pages containing more than eight hundred designs. I’ve looked through them; they have detailed, step-by-step instructions for making both the hairpins and the ornaments. See if you can replicate them."

She then introduced the magnets. "This paper-like material is a magnet sheet. If the finished ornament is relatively light, you can cut a small piece of this and stick it to the back. If the ornament is on the heavier side, use these magnet stones that look like silver beans. Just adjust it according to the ornament’s weight."

Hunters Wang breathed a sigh of relief. "So the Goddess had everything prepared all along. All I need to do is carve the small wooden ornaments and stick the iron sheets or silver beans onto the back."

"What ingenious blueprints! I never imagined wooden hairpins could have so many variations. These designs could even be sold to the silver buildings; the hairpins in the county town certainly don’t have this many styles." Carpenter Zhao studied the blueprints. The more he looked, the more amazed he became, and his confidence swelled.

On the paper, the hairpin designs were exquisitely diverse—cloud motifs, carved floral patterns, birds, and beasts. The steps were perfectly clear.

After all, he had been doing woodwork for over a decade. He already knew how to make hairpins, and with these blueprints in hand, he could undoubtedly carve even more beautiful ones.

Hunters Wang also took out the blueprints for the ornaments, his eyes full of awe. "Rats, oxen, tigers, rabbits, dragons, snakes, horses, goats, monkeys, roosters, dogs, and pigs—solid wood carvings of every beast! There are also hollow-carved houses, little boats, and so many different figures! Goodness, I was just worrying that the trinkets I made would be too plain to sell, but with these blueprints, I can make a different ornament every single day!"

"Carpenter Zhao, look at this! You know how to build all sorts of cabinets. Take a look at this jewelry box and see if you can make it." He eagerly pulled Carpenter Zhao over to examine the box on the blueprint.

The exterior was shaped like a ruyi lock. It had three tiers, containing over a dozen small compartments inside, all topped with elegant carvings. It looked charmingly antique and delicate.

"I can!" Carpenter Zhao exclaimed, thrilled to discover something perfectly matched to his skills.

"And these too," Hunters Wang said, showing him more boxes.

There were jewelry boxes shaped like butterflies, food baskets, fragrant sachets, and lotus flowers. Every single one was stunningly intricate.

Carpenter Zhao inspected them carefully. "No problem. While I mostly build large cabinets, I have made jewelry boxes before. They weren’t as delicate as the ones in these drawings, but I have the craftsmanship. With a couple of days to study them, making these jewelry boxes shouldn’t be too difficult for me."

Yun Zhen naturally overheard this.

She said in pleasant surprise, "Uncle Zhao, I’ve only ever seen you build beds, cabinets, tables, and chairs. I didn’t expect you to have experience making jewelry boxes too! Do you know how expensive these pure solid wood jewelry boxes are in the Immortal Realm? A single one goes for several hundred copper coins, sometimes even over a thousand!"

"Really?!" Carpenter Zhao’s eyes widened in sheer delight.

"Zhen Niang, your Uncle Zhao’s craftsmanship is highly sought after even in the county town. Making jewelry boxes shouldn’t stump him," Yun Xiu said, fully validating the carpenter’s skills. "In the past, people from neighboring villages used to seek him out specifically to make their dowry boxes. However, dowry boxes require meticulous work and don’t pay as well as beds or tables, so he hasn’t taken on many of those orders lately."

Yun Zhen spoke earnestly, "Uncle Zhao, you will have to work a little harder. Try to carve a few hairpins and make one jewelry box from the blueprints every day. Do whatever is most efficient. When the time comes, I will take them to sell in the Immortal Realm. If we can really earn a few hundred coins a day from selling these jewelry boxes, you will be our village’s greatest hero!"

Though bursting with joy inside, Carpenter Zhao feigned composure on the surface. "Rest assured, Goddess. I will certainly do my absolute best!"

Everyone was thrilled.

But the happiest of all was Carpenter Zhao’s wife. She laughed heartily and said, "To think my husband is so highly regarded by the Goddess and might even earn big money for the village! Just imagining his handiwork being popular in the Immortal Realm makes my heart sing!"

Glad to have settled another pressing matter, Yun Zhen concluded, "Uncle Zhao, Uncle Wang, the two of you will be entirely in charge of this woodworking business. Let’s start tomorrow. We’ll leave the work of building the high wall to the others."

"Exactly! Tomorrow, the two of you can focus solely on your woodwork inside the tent. I will reassign your previous duties to someone else," the village chief agreed, full of hope for their new trade. This would be another major source of livelihood for the village.

Carpenter Zhao and Hunters Wang readily accepted the heavy responsibility. "Understood, Goddess, Chief!"

Tomorrow, they would head up the mountain to chop wood, carefully selecting the most suitable timber for the hairpins, ornaments, and jewelry boxes.

Yun Zhen smiled. "That’s all I wanted to say. Everyone can go back and rest now."

The crowd was buzzing with excitement. They stared at Carpenter Zhao and Hunters Wang as if looking at two gleaming lumps of gold, making the two men feel quite bashful.

"Alright, everyone, back to sleep. Tomorrow, aside from Carpenter Zhao and Hunters Wang who will be doing woodwork, the rest of you will continue transporting rocks to build the high wall," the village chief directed. "Fortunately, the Goddess bought two more wheelbarrows, so we won’t have to strain our backs carrying rocks. We can just use the wheelbarrows to transport them!"

"Let’s go, let’s go. Time for bed."

The villagers departed in groups, family by family.

On their way back, Yun Xiu asked, "Zhen Niang, among the fragrant noodles you bought, I saw twenty shiny silver bottles, ten large bowls, and a pitch-black pot. Did you buy those specifically?"

Yun Zhen explained, "Father, the store owner gave those to me as a gift when I bought the fragrant noodles. The ten large bowls are specifically for steeping the noodles. That pitch-black pot is called a clay pot; it should be similar to our regular pots and can be heated over a fire. As for those twenty silver bottles, they’re a type of water cup. The owner called them thermos cups.

"He said that a thermos cup can keep things warm for an entire night. If you brew a cup of tea in it at night and seal the lid tightly, it will still be hot the next day. It was precisely because of this miraculous feature that I ended up buying forty boxes of fragrant noodles! Oh, right, the two large boxes of meat sausages were also a gift from the owner."

Yun Xiu couldn’t help but marvel, "The store owners in the Immortal Realm are truly generous!"

Then, he voiced his astonishment. "A teacup that can retain heat overnight? Is it really that incredible?

"No, I have to test this out."

He hurried to the kitchen, gathered the twenty thermos cups, and carried them back to their own tent. Originally, he had tossed them into the kitchen thinking they were just ordinary bottles. Only after his daughter revealed they could keep water hot all night did he realize they were treasures.

How could he leave such precious treasures in the kitchen where they might get crushed?

He opened one of the boxes, took out a gleaming silver cup, poured in some hot water, and twisted the lid shut tight.

"If it can truly stay hot all night, how is it any different from a divine artifact?" he murmured.

Yun Xiu eagerly anticipated the results for the next day.

Yun Zhen was also curious to see if it actually worked.