Chapter 20 Chapter 20 Chen Xuan originally just let Lin...
Chen Xuan originally just asked Lin Ye to help him think about it, but he didn't expect that the other party's ideas were so good!
Looking back at the words Lin Ye wrote on the paper, he found that the other person's handwriting was vigorous and powerful, and had its own style, which was much better than his own.
"Lin Ye, your handwriting is really good." Shen Xuan couldn't help but admire: "Originally I was going to write the sign myself, but now that I see your handwriting, I feel ashamed. I would like you to write this sign for me."
He didn't know that Xue Fenglin's calligraphy was also famous in the capital, and even Emperor Wu of Jin had praised it.
At that time, there were wealthy businessmen who were willing to pay hundreds of taels of gold to ask Xue Fenglin to put up plaques for their shops in order to curry favor with the Marquis's Mansion, but he refused.
Xue Fenglin looked at Shen Xuan, then looked at the canvas on the table, and nodded.
At that time, he disliked the money-grubbing of businessmen and looked down on them from the bottom of his heart, and was unwilling to write plaques for them. But today, Shen Xuan asked him to write a sign for free, and he was quite happy about it.
Xue Fenglin thought again, if he encountered the same thing again after returning, would he still refuse?
If he were not the prince, who would be willing to spend so much money to ask him to write a plaque?
It is said that a poor person living in a busy city has no one to care about him, but a rich person living in a remote mountain area has distant relatives. People need gold to make friends, and without enough gold, the friendship will not be deep. If you have money and power, you can know each other; if you have neither money nor power, you are just strangers. A dragon in shallow water is bullied by shrimps, and a tiger in plain water is bullied by dogs.
When Xue Fenglin first fell into trouble and arrived at Yunshui Village, without the halo of his status as a prince, no one, not even the ordinary villagers, was willing to rescue him. Only the fool Shen Xuan took the risk of being stripped of his pants and beaten with a stick to take him back.
If in the future there was a wealthy businessman willing to spend a hundred taels of gold to ask him to hang a plaque, he wouldn't have to be so noble and would just look at the character of the businessman. As long as you have good character, you can take the money and write the signature.
No matter who this person is, as long as he can be of use, you can make friends with him.
This time he was in trouble in Yunshui Village. During the days he spent with Shen Xuan, he witnessed the life of the people at the bottom of society. What exactly has changed?
Seeing that Xue Fenglin agreed, Shen Xuan was quite excited and immediately began to design the style of the sign.
Bamboo poles can be inserted on both sides of his stall cart, and a canopy can be pulled up on the top. He planned to place the signboard on the bamboo pole on the right and hang it vertically.
The words "Honey Custard Tea" must be written vertically, but with only a few big characters, the sign can only be seen by literate students, and is not very friendly to other illiterate customers.
So Shen Xuan decided to design the sign by combining calligraphy and painting.
He first asked Xue Fenglin to write the words "Honey Custard Tea" on a piece of paper. Then he mixed the paint and drew a cartoon-like image of a little bee and a jar of honey near the word "honey". He also drew a peeled orange next to the word "custard" and a large teacup filled with tea in the blank space under the word "tea".
It was the first time that Xue Fenglin saw someone write a sign in this way, and he couldn't help but be a little surprised.
Although Shen Xuan's paintings are not very delicate, they are very vivid and easy to understand at a glance. No one knows where these wonderful ideas come from in his mind, but they are always endless and novel.
The more Xue Fenglin got to know Shen Xuan, the more he felt that he was like a treasure chest, and there were always some valuable and surprising things about him.
If his initial feelings towards Shen Xuan were just gratitude and pity, later on he was also filled with some inexplicable desires. Now he had a little more respect and admiration for Shen Xuan.
This kind of respect and appreciation had appeared in Xue Fenglin's life when he was facing his mentor or close friend. He never thought that one day he would have such feelings towards a brother.
It was an admiration for Shen Xuan's true qualities that transcended gender. This is different from the previous feeling that I thought he was pitiful and cute, so I wanted to take care of him for the rest of his life.
On the appointed day, Shen Xuan went to Carpenter Liu's shop and took the finished stall cart away.
After all, Carpenter Liu was an experienced carpenter with decades of experience, and the stall cart he made was exactly the same as the one in Shen Xuan's drawing. Even some details that Shen Xuan had not expected were actively perfected by him.
Chen Xuan raised the tripod under the stall cart and set up a stall steadily. The table top was made of bamboo, which was light and easy to clean, and it was quite large when unfolded. There is also a lot of space below, which is convenient for storing some items.
He put away the tripod, hitched the cart to the blue and white mule and drove around. The whole stall cart is not heavy and is very convenient to be pulled by a mule.
Shen Xuan was particularly satisfied with the stall cart, so he took out another two taels of silver as agreed and prepared to pay the balance.
Unexpectedly, Carpenter Liu shook his hand and said, "Don't rush to give me the money. I have something to ask of you."
"The design of this stall cart is very good. Can you sell it to me? I will give you twenty taels of silver for the blueprint according to the market price. If you agree, the three taels of silver for the production can be waived."
In fact, there was no such thing as copyright protection in the Jin Dynasty. Shen Xuan had this car made for Carpenter Liu, and he had already memorized the style, so it was normal for him to secretly make it and sell it to others later.
Carpenter Liu offered twenty taels of silver to buy the design of Shen Xuan's stall cart, firstly because he was a decent person, and secondly because he had a good impression of Shen Xuan.
Shen Xuan was delighted when he heard this, and of course nodded in agreement. After all, once this car is made, people will see it. Even if Carpenter Liu doesn't make it, there will be others who will learn from him.
Besides, there is no secret recipe involved in setting up street stalls. It is just a tool that is convenient for everyone. It would be good if it could be popularized.
After receiving twenty-one taels of silver from Carpenter Liu, Shen Xuan prepared to drive away.
Just as he got on the mule's back, Brother Liu came out from behind, holding a bamboo stool in his hand.
"Wait a minute, Brother Chen. This stool is for you." Brother Liu said as he put the bamboo stool under the stall cart.
"What is this?" Shen Xuan was not familiar with Brother Liu, and he didn't know why he suddenly gave him a stool, so he was a little confused.
Then Brother Liu smiled at him and said, "I made this myself. This is my thank you gift to you."
"Thanks to your last conversation with my father, he has resolved his worries. He is no longer busy looking for someone to marry into his family these days, and he has also started to let me learn the carpentry craft from him."
I see! Shen Xuan was delighted and felt happy for Brother Liu.
I didn't expect that my casual remarks would actually help the guy in front of me.
"Brother Chen, where do you usually set up your stall? If I have time, I would like to come and support you." Brother Liu asked.
"It's on Jinli Street near Caohua Lane." Shen Xuan said, "But I'm only going to set up my stall tomorrow, so I won't go if the weather is bad. Next time you go, I'll treat you to tea, and I won't charge you any money."
"That's not good. Let's deal with it one thing at a time." Brother Liu said quickly. After exchanging a few more pleasantries with Shen Xuan, he watched him drive away.
Chen Xuan drove the stall cart to Widow Ge's house to discuss tomorrow's water usage with her.
After paying the deposit, he went to buy the bamboo cups he would use tomorrow and moved them all to Widow Ge's yard in advance.
After everything was arranged, Shen Xuan drove away, and an hour later, he returned to the entrance of Yunshui Village.
"Huh? Isn't that Shen Xuan? His mule seems to be pulling a cart?"
"This is the first time I've seen a car like this. It looks like a stall. Is this the stall car he mentioned?"
"He actually managed to make it? Carpenter Yang is so embarrassed now."
"Yeah, I heard Carpenter Yang say that he couldn't make a stall cart at all, and I thought it was true. It turns out that his skills are not good enough, otherwise how could Shen Xuan find a carpenter in the city to make it?"
…
When the villagers saw Shen Xuan made a stall cart, they talked about it for a while.
Some came forward to watch out of curiosity, and others asked who had done it.
Because the friction between Shen Xuan and Carpenter Yang was known to everyone, many villagers came to the conclusion this time that Carpenter Yang's skills were not good enough.
Several villagers who had originally planned to ask him to make engagement furniture also backed out and decided to turn to the carpenter in the neighboring village.
Carpenter Yang knew he was in the wrong and felt upset but there was nothing he could do. He could only say that even if he turned it into a street stall, Chen Xuan, a boy, would not be able to continue the business and would have to close the stall in disgrace in a few days.
In addition to Carpenter Yang, the Wang family members were also quite dissatisfied.
Especially Wang Xiaolian, whenever she heard someone talking about Shen Xuan's stall outside, she would say sourly: "It will close sooner or later anyway. If you spend money on making so many things and don't make any money, won't you lose more? I'm afraid that the little wealth in Shen Xuan's husband's hands will be tossed away by him!"
Shen Xuan packed all the things needed for the stall into the stall cart one day in advance.
The next morning, he got up at dawn, had breakfast, and drove to Koi Street.
All the way to the door of Widow Ge's house, Shen Xuan found a place to pull over and set up the stall cart. Then he led the mule to the backyard of Widow Ge's house.
It was almost noon now, and Widow Ge had already boiled the water he needed.
There were two large vats in the yard covered with a layer of gauze, and inside were boiled water that had cooled down. When Shen Xuan saw it, he scooped up the boiled water and took a sip. After confirming that there was no problem, he took a large bucket and filled it with cold boiled water and brought it to the stall cart for use.
After the cold boiled water was ready, Shen Xuan went to the well to clean all the bamboo cups that had been placed in the yard yesterday, and also washed all the reserved sweet tangerines.
If you run a catering business, your food must be clean. What if people get sick from eating? How can you continue your business?
Shen Xuan cleaned all the bamboo cups before taking them out and arranging them in batches.
After making sure that all the tea ingredients were ready, he propped up the bamboo poles on both sides of the stall cart, opened the roof, and hung up the sign that had been painted in advance.
It was the first day of setting up the stall, and he hadn't yet decided on the price of the tea.
I just roughly estimated the price to be ten cents based on the cost and the price of tea in the surrounding area.
The prices on Koi Street are expensive. A meat bun costs ten cents, and the sour plum soup next to it costs five cents.
The ingredients used in his tea are genuine and much better than sour plum soup. Add to that the cost of giving away a bamboo cup, and the price will naturally be higher. Ten cents a cup, shouldn't be too expensive.
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