The words 777 came true.
Calendering and waxing are the basic skills of paper processing, but few people combine these two together. Why?
Because it takes a lot of effort.
Forty thousand sheets of paper, each one had to be polished and waxed, which was very labor-intensive. Xiaocao Village could not stop its daily output, which meant that all the pressure was put on the Jixi workshop. The new employees of the Jixi workshop and the ten men transferred from Hengji immediately felt the workload from the big factory.
"...Who on earth came up with this evil idea!?"
Steam was rising from the Jixi workshop. Four rows of muscular men were uniformly dressed in dark brown cotton work clothes. Their sleeves were half rolled up. They held a rubbing stone in their right hand and pressed the rice paper with their left hand, rubbing it until it was about to catch fire.
In the smoke, the muscular man in the third row, second from the left, threw the round grinding stone to the ground and gnashed his teeth, "This idea is too evil! This thing can be hand-ground for 40,000 sheets?! Who on earth came up with this idea!?"
"I--"
Qiqiqi worked mechanically with his hands unconsciously while he raised his head with lifeless eyes and voluntarily carried the pot on his back.
The muscular man on the second left felt a lump in his throat, lowered his head to pick up the stone, and stopped talking—they already had two bars, and everyone was doing it, so he didn’t seem to have anything to say...
After a while, the muscular man on the right in the second row threw the stone again with a "bang", "Damn it! Then we are the donkeys?! Why doesn't Boss He do it himself!"
After a moment, a confused head rose up in the last row.
"What? Who called me?"
The first four rows all turned their heads.
The "Boss He" mentioned in the preface had unfocused eyes and his arms were swinging so fast that he was about to drill fire out of the drill stone.
The third muscular man from the right: Can you still happily curse your boss behind his back?
This boss makes it very difficult for him to be a man! She is really good at being a donkey!
The third muscular man on the right silently picked up the grinding stone and worked so hard that his arms almost took off.
After putting all their efforts into it for nearly ten days, each person could produce about fifty finished products every day after becoming proficient. This is based on the fact that the pure skin rice paper is the finished product. The output volume is indeed not high. Nowadays, although the labor cost cannot be clearly discounted and the ratio cannot be calculated, anyone with eyes can see that this business requires huge labor investment.
Amid the smoke, Chen Fu hurriedly clutched two pieces of paper and pushed open the door curtain of the dormitory.
The first thing that caught my eye was more than twenty cockroaches, all with their heads lowered, busily rubbing their feet in the steaming mist, oh no, doing work.
Chen Fu was so shocked that he forgot about his business.
Eyes! His eyes!
When did the work uniforms change to this damn dark brown color!!!
Chen Fu's eyes were blind, and he squeezed out a few words happily from between his teeth, "Jin Jie'er... come out for a moment..."
He didn't want to search all over the mountains for an ancestor cockroach among a pile of cockroaches.
A cockroach stood up happily, responded with a crisp "Ah!", and then jumped and followed Chen Fu to the outside of the corridor.
Chen Fu restrained his question of "Why do you have such a strong desire to possess the color of dung beetles?" and hurried to talk about business. He put the paper in his hand into Xianjin's hand, "...The paper is produced by a small workshop on the street, under the name of 'Chengheng', and sold to scholars."
Xianjin knew at a glance that the superimposed technique of "polishing + waxing" had been leaked, and the Xuancheng workshop began to follow suit again.
Xianjin wiped his hands with a dry rag and nodded, "Everyone knows these two techniques, so it's not surprising to imitate them."
Chen Fu lowered his voice and asked, "Do you need your father to help you write an article criticizing 'plagiarism'?"
Yo.
My father has grown up in my family!
Unexpectedly, one day, He Xianjin would also have her own “Big V”!
Xianjin was flattered. He handed the rag back to Suoer, smiled nonchalantly, and asked, "How much did they sell it for?"
Chen Fu kept his voice down, "Four cents a piece!"
Apart from giving two sheets of paper to each scholar from Yingtian Prefecture who was taking part in the autumn examination this year, Chen's "Chengheng" paper was sold at five cents a sheet, and a whole sheet of paper was sold for four hundred and eighty cents. After taking into account the labor costs, it just broke even. But if one counts the dozen or so shop assistants who are fully devoted to making high-profit paper products, such as jade plates, engraved silk, etc., her losses would be huge.
Xianjin smiled and nodded indifferently, "Okay, let them sell it."
Chen Fu was puzzled, "We won't suppress it this time?"
Xianjin shook his head and said, "No more suppression. This is a good thing. Besides, I don't plan to sell Chengheng paper for a long time."
...
"What?! You're not selling 'Cheng Heng' anymore!?"
At dusk, a brilliant curtain of stars fell from the sky, and the moonlight climbed up to the top of the sky above Chen's house.
The Bi Ma Hall was brightly lit. The oil-paper lanterns hanging in the corridors burned brightly, illuminating the entire plain and elegant room clearly - the room was lit with stacks of paper and simple rattan cabinets were placed in a staggered manner. Apart from the necessary furniture, there were no other ornaments.
Madam Qu was so shocked that her back straightened. She grasped the armrests of the armchair with both hands and looked at Xianjin who was sitting on the left in disbelief. "'Chengheng' should have been Chen Ji's most profitable business - there are so many scholars in Yingtian Prefecture! As long as you put up a sign saying 'Imperial Examination Paper', you won't have to worry about no one buying it! You can sell it for five cents a piece! After all, you promised Wang Xuezheng of Yingtian Prefecture, but...but you don't want to sell it anymore!"
Madam Qu slapped the armrest of the armchair in grief and said, "You are giving the business to others!"
Xianjin calmly picked up the teacup: Although it is not advisable to consume tea at night, in her current situation, it would be difficult for her to have a calm conversation with Madam Qu without some caffeine.
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