The visitor was surprised, then delighted, praising him repeatedly, "Half price? People say that Mr. Tai from Taijia Village is a righteous man, and I'm lucky enough to meet him today. The Tai family's ice lantern business is sure to be booming! No matter how many Qu families there are, they won't be able to snatch it away!"
Manager Min knew that this person was also a manager. If he came to inquire about the price and then went back to report to his master, he would definitely leave a good impression of being capable.
So, he quickly returned the gift and said with a smile, "Thank you for your kind words, brother! However, Mr. Tai has no intention of stealing our business. After all, the ice lanterns are made and decorated in our Tai'an County. If you think someone else's craftsmanship is better, just switch to another one."
"No, no!" The visitor quickly waved his hand and replied, "Reputation is the most important thing in business. Last year, all the ice sculptures in our county were made by the Tai family. Moreover, the craftsmen went in and out of the backyards of the various families without causing any trouble or rumors. They are truly reliable. As long as the price is not too different, everyone would prefer to hire the Tai family to do the work."
Manager Min said a few more polite words and registered the visitor, placing him third in the list.
Of course, the first family is the Wu family, and the second family is their Min family. You must know that Mr. Min and Mrs. Min had given instructions long ago, especially when the Qu family jumped out to grab the business.
Now it seems that Mr. Min and Mrs. Min's worries were in vain. The Tai family's reputation is indeed reliable, and everyone knows it. It is not something that can be replaced just by saying so.
Although Tai'an County is poor and there are no wealthy families, there are still many well-off families, and there are intricate ties between them, such as friends, in-laws, and neighbors.
If one family makes a move, big or small, the rest of the families will soon know about it.
Just now, a family registered with Manager Min and ordered the Tai family to make ice lanterns. Soon, a second and third family followed...
In just three days, Manager Min had filled half a booklet. He was a meticulous person and recorded everything clearly, including the name of the person who made the reservation, whether the house needed to be decorated with a garden, a path, or the front and back of the house, how many days the construction period was expected to be, etc.
When Mr. Tai got the booklet, the Wu family's garden had already been decorated, and Mr. Wu had sent out dozens of invitations.
Grandpa Tai took his precious granddaughter back to the village by car and called his old brothers to discuss adding more manpower.
It was originally thought that the Qu family had taken over most of the business, and the remaining work was enough for the Tai family and other villagers to handle.
But now it seems that the Qu family’s fighting power is not good enough, and the Tai family is too busy to handle it, so they need to borrow some “soldiers”!
As the villagers came and went, Uncle Tai San couldn't help but hear a few words. He thought that all his business had been taken away, but he didn't dare tell the villagers for fear that everyone, young and old, would be worried. So he could only walk around in circles in the yard day and night.
At this moment, he suddenly heard his old brother say that business was booming and there was no loss at all. He jumped three feet high with joy and bit the blister on his lip directly, which made him gasp in pain!
"Borrow people, we must!" Master Tai San pointed to the villages in front and behind and shouted, "There are so many people in Zhangjia Village and Liujia Village. If we just shout, hundreds of them will definitely come running out. I'm afraid it's too late! If you stay in the city these days, Village Chief Zhang and Village Chief Liu will trample my doorstep to pieces!"
Old Master Tai laughed heartily, then borrowed two dim sums from his granddaughter as errand fees, and sent the two naughty boys to Liujia Village and Zhangjia Village respectively to ask for help.
Soon, Village Chief Zhang and Village Chief Liu arrived in a hurry.
Even if the naughty boys didn't say it, they knew it in their hearts. Whenever good things happened in Taijia Village, they always got to share in the spoils. Taijia Village ate meat, and they drank soup. It was simply the best.
As expected, when Mr. Tai Sanye started recruiting, the two village chiefs immediately started vying for more spots. After all, it was a bitterly cold winter, and there wasn't much work to do, so they just wanted to earn some extra money to supplement their family income.
The Tai family acts righteously and has ready-made jobs at hand. As long as they work diligently and don't cause trouble, they will never be treated unfairly!
Finally, it was Master Tai San who listened to the compliments of the two and slowly assigned them some tasks.
Zhangjia Village contributed forty people, and Liujia Village contributed thirty, totaling seventy.
In this way, together with more than 30 men from Taijia Village, there were more than 100 people gathered together, who were able to support the three families in making ice lanterns at the same time.
The next morning, Grandpa Tai led a large group of people from the two villages to the county town. Brothers Tai Jizu and Tai Jizong divided themselves into two groups: one to harvest and transport the ice, and the other to carve ice lanterns at customers' homes.
Harvesting ice is hard work, and if you accidentally fall into the river, you can easily get sick. But the advantage is that it saves you the trouble!
Carving ice lanterns is an easier job, but it requires good skills. In order to avoid suspicion, you cannot walk around freely in the guest's home, and you even have to keep your head down when entering and leaving. You must not look around and disturb the female relatives.
In short, each has its pros and cons, but everyone cherishes this opportunity to make money and also cherishes the trust of others.
Of course, everyone will feel more at ease when seeing these!
The Tai family's reputation took another small boost after the Wu family held a lantern viewing banquet. The Wu family's garden was simply too beautiful to be decorated with ice lanterns!
After a year of research, Tai Jizong and his fellow apprentices and friends came up with more ice lantern styles.
In addition to last year's outstanding rabbit and lotus lanterns, this year we've added a doll holding a carp, an immortal offering longevity peaches, and Chang'e flying to the moon...
In short, whatever people can think of, there will be ice sculptures.
Mr. Wu was a juren (a successful candidate in a different imperial examination) and he invited nearly all the scholars in the county to come. Facing the brilliant lights of the garden, some wrote poems, others composed essays, and the atmosphere was bustling with activity.
Less than a year later, ice sculptures and ice lanterns became popular again.
The managers of each family wanted to go to the Min family pastry shop every day to make friends with them, just to get their own ice sculptures started earlier!
Manager Min had been traveling around for so many years that he naturally learned to be versatile and handled things with ease. However, when he saw the Tai family members privately, they were also desperately trying to speed up the work, wishing to carve all the ice lanterns in one night!
The idle people in the teahouses and restaurants also talked about it a lot.
Occasionally, merchants would come to buy furs and medicinal herbs. After hearing and seeing so much, they would start thinking about this business when they returned to the southern provincial capital.
Unfortunately, while the ice lanterns may seem unassuming, they come with numerous limitations. The first and foremost being… it’s not cold enough anywhere else!
Even in Kyoto, thousands of miles away, nobles still wore mink fur coats when going out in winter, but in fact, they could not stand the ice and snow for long.
So, the self-proclaimed smart merchants quickly gave up this idea.
But Kyoto is a prosperous city, and people with money and free time can always come up with many fun things to do during their days, and ice lanterns are no exception.
Take the past few days for example. There is a new courtesan in a brothel. She is called Miss Yue Xin and is proficient in music, chess, calligraphy and painting. She has a great voice and the songs she sings are said to linger in the ears for more than three days.
Countless princes, nobles and playboys lingered in brothels just to see a beautiful woman.
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