He had actually had his eye on a set of markers for a while, but these trendy gadgets cost ten yuan a set, which was too expensive.
He didn't have enough pocket money and was too embarrassed to ask his mom for more. Now Yang Yajing was asking him for a whopping 12 yuan to do his labor, how could he refuse?
After Zhou Pengfei finished eating, he went to paint. Only then did Yang Yajing tell Zhang Aijia what favor she had asked her friend to do.
It turns out she wanted to introduce a small business that could be completed in a day to Sylvia Chang's friend.
"Will this work?" Sylvia Chang asked noncommittally. "I don't know anything about her field. Let me ask her."
As she spoke, she went to a public phone booth.
When she returned, she couldn't help but admire her daughter: "Where did you learn all this? Was it taught at school?"
"What? Is it going to work?" Yang Yajing asked.
"She said we could get the fabric ourselves, and the cost of materials, pattern making, and half a day's labor would be about forty or fifty yuan." Zhang Aijia nodded.
Yang Yajing knew that forty or fifty yuan was their profit for three days! Back in 1991, the average monthly salary in Jincheng was only two or three hundred yuan. By running a shop, they were actually considered quite wealthy.
If it weren't for the changes in my previous life, my life would actually be pretty good.
Without hesitation, Yang Yajing took out her abacus and started tapping away.
Thirty-six meters of fabric, approximately 25 yuan; printing and handcrafting, approximately 50 yuan; a box of 12 mung bean paste, approximately 120 yuan; 60 sheets of gold cardstock, approximately 48 yuan. Give Zhou Pengfei 12 yuan…
The total cost was 315 yuan. At 8 yuan per box, that's a net profit of 645 yuan. That's two or three months' salary for an average person! Yang Yajing calculated, secretly delighted.
"Mom! Can I have half of the profits?" Yang Yajing grinned mischievously at Zhang Aijia.
"You're really obsessed with money?" Sylvia Chang teased her with a smile.
After Yang Yajing finished her calculations, she went to check on Zhou Pengfei's painting progress.
Zhou Pengfei did draw a couple of drafts of the patterns, but he wasn't very satisfied: "I always feel like something's missing? It's a bit... how should I put it... very rural."
"Let me see?" Yang Yajing looked at Zhou Pengfei's patterns. They were indeed very festive, but lacked a sense of fashion.
After thinking for a moment, Yang Yajing asked Zhou Pengfei, "Can you draw paisley patterns?"
"Paisley pattern?" Zhou Pengfei had never heard of this term before.
“Hmm! It’s a type of Western pattern I saw in the library.” As she said this, Yang Yajing picked up a pen and sketched a set of shapes that looked a bit like phoenix tail feathers on a piece of paper. “Something like this.”
The term "paisley" might be difficult for a ten-year-old to understand verbally, but once drawn, Zhou Pengfei immediately grasped the general idea: "So this is what paisley is called!"
"Hmm!" Yang Yajing nodded. "It's said that paisley is a symbol of Western celebration and wealth. Would you like to try a Chinese-style paisley pattern?"
"Okay! I'll try again?" With a clue, Zhou Pengfei quickly drew a very stylish cloth pattern. "Do you think this will work?"
"Should I take it to my mother to see?" Yang Yajing felt that since it was designed for women, Zhang Aijia had more authority to speak on it.
Sylvia Chang looked at the pattern on the handkerchief and exclaimed, "So stylish! It will look great on you! This kid is really talented!"
Yang Yajing told Zhou Pengfei that the pattern needed to be made in two colors, and asked him to copy the black and white single-line diagram for each color.
This was Zhou Pengfei's first time making a screen printing base plate, and his curiosity was understandable.
Because the business was closed for New Year's Day, Zhang Aijia and Yang Guohua rode their tricycle to the fabric wholesale market at Nanmatou the next day to buy fabric.
Sylvia Chang is a skilled seamstress; she makes all the clothes for her family herself from scraps of fabric she buys. She was already a regular customer there, so she quickly secured the batch of red cloth.
Yang Ya-ching said she needed 36 meters, but Zhang Ai-jia, who had some experience, knew that if there was a trial print or if there were defective products that needed to be reprinted, she would need some surplus, so she bought 40 meters.
On this day, Sylvia Chang was busy cutting fabric and sewing edges, but she was happy to be able to use her skills.
Yang Yajing and Zhou Pengfei, however, took a bus to the art supply market on Fuzhou Road—they needed art cardstock.
Sixty sheets of A1 cardstock are heavy; even an adult would find them difficult to lift, let alone two children.
Realizing they had miscalculated, they had no choice but to call Yang Guohua and ask him to make another trip on his tricycle.
Fortunately, Yang Guohua is used to hauling goods over long distances, otherwise his legs would be sore from pedaling the tricycle for more than 30 kilometers round trip.
In the 1990s, electric cutting was an expensive technology only packaging factories had. 120 gold boxes still had to be handmade one by one with a utility knife.
Three-dimensional models require geometric fundamentals, which Zhou Pengfei, being a math idiot, probably couldn't handle. So he could only rely on his physical labor, having Yang Yajing draw templates with a ruler.
After a busy day, we finally finished making 120 gift boxes.
Seeing that they were tired after a long day, Yang Guohua served them a pot of fragrant braised pork trotters in the evening.
Pig's feet noodles are a popular dish at the restaurant because pig's feet are cheap and taste good, so meat lovers can enjoy them without spending a lot of money.
"Dad, you donated the pig's feet, what are we going to sell tomorrow?" Yang Yajing asked while taking big bites of the pig's feet.
"Eat up! How much can you eat? There's plenty left in the pot!" Yang Guohua smiled and put a large piece of stewed pig's trotter on Zhou Pengfei's plate. "Don't be shy, kid. Eat more. Uncle Yang's stewed pig's trotters are delicious!"
This chapter is not finished, please click the next page to continue reading!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
