At the school gate, Shen Qingqing saw Chen Yurong and her mother.
The mother and daughter look exactly alike, the only difference being their temperament.
Chen Yurong's mother appears more gentle and elegant; even when riding a motorcycle, she exudes a grand presence.
Shen Qingqing rode her bicycle over, secretly wondering if Chen Yurong's mother was the daughter of a wealthy family.
"Hello Auntie, hello Sister Yurong!" Shen Qingqing greeted them with a smile. "I'm sorry to have kept you waiting."
"Hello, little friend." Chen Yurong's mother's voice was also gentle. She shook her head: "No, we just arrived too. Now that we've met, let's go!"
Without wasting any words, Shen Qingqing quickly turned the car around and led the way for them.
The door to the porcelain kiln was already open. As they approached, Shen Qingqing slowed down to ride alongside Chen Yurong and her daughter on their motorcycle: "Auntie, Sister Yurong, the door with the bicycle parked up ahead is our porcelain kiln!"
"Just park the car at the entrance later. If there's a lock, try to lock it. If not, it's fine. We can see you from inside even if the door is open."
Chen Yurong's mother responded with a "okay" and followed Shen Qingqing as they slowly stopped the car at the entrance of the porcelain kiln.
Upon entering, one could see Li Xunli arranging the porcelain pieces she had fired that week according to some of the simpler designs in the book.
When she received the book, she saw the pages with a folded corner. The Ruyi knot was a fairly standard design, but the difficulty lay in the design of the jade pendant. The pattern was indeed a bit complicated. If the size was larger, it would be easier, but if the required size was similar to that of the Ruyi knot, it might be a bit difficult to make.
Just as she finished arranging the porcelain, Li Xunli looked up and saw two figures, one tall and one short, following behind her daughter. She immediately realized that these were the senior student her daughter had mentioned and her mother.
"Hello, I am Qingqing's mother, Li Xunli." Li Xunli took the initiative to extend her hand to introduce herself.
"Hello, hello, Xunli, my name is Zhang Hengyun." Zhang Hengyun nodded slightly and extended her hand to shake hands with Li Xunli.
Upon hearing the name, Li Xunli felt it sounded familiar, as if she had heard it somewhere before.
But before she could think about it, Zhang Hengyun asked her, "Xunli, did you do all those things behind you?"
Li Xunli immediately stepped aside to let Zhang Hengyun see more clearly, and introduced, "These ruyi buckles and jade rings are patterns I made by following the designs in the book that my daughter borrowed from your daughter these past two days. The simpler patterns are easier to make."
"May I pick it up and take a look?" Zhang Hengyun asked Li Xunli after looking through each item.
Li Xunli smiled and nodded, "Of course!"
Zhang Hengyun picked up each one and rubbed it in her hands, as if she was pondering and feeling something. After a while, she asked another question: "I would like to ask if you can make porcelain with a jade-like texture? I don't need large pieces, just small accessories like these."
Li Xunli hesitated for a moment, "I'm sorry, I don't have the conditions to fire this kind of porcelain."
"What conditions do you need?" Zhang Hengyun asked again.
"May I ask if you need that kind of high-purity jade texture?" Li Xunli thought for a moment, "I mean, the kind that has a very realistic jade texture, and feels quite smooth to the touch."
"Or is it enough if it just looks like jade, with a jade-like texture and luster?"
Zhang Hengyun: "It doesn't need to be too pure, as long as it looks like jade, that's fine."
Li Xunli nodded to show that she understood, and then said, "If that's the case, the main problem is the lack of raw materials to be added to the clay, and a few glaze color formula materials."
"However, for this type, because the raw materials are relatively expensive, therefore..."
Zhang Hengyun smiled slightly, "As long as it can be made, price is not a problem, and I can pay for the raw materials."
"To be honest, I've been really annoyed by this lately. I have a theater troupe that's currently rehearsing a big production for the Spring Festival. It has a lot of characters and is a period drama, so the actresses need a lot of accessories. We can't buy all of them real jade, otherwise just buying a few hundred pieces of jade would cost tens of thousands of yuan. So I came up with a substitute."
"I also looked for those plastic products, but they all looked too cheap, and the weight was different too."
“It was just last week when my daughter came back from the competition and told me that she had found something that could replace it, so I rushed back from the next city.”
After Zhang Hengyun's explanation, Li Xunli finally understood where the sense of familiarity she felt when she first heard her name came from.
The name of the Qiuyun Opera Troupe's manager frequently appears on the cast and crew list after performances on the opera channel!
Li Xunli showed an expression of admiration, "Oh, it's you! If you're willing to pay for the raw materials, then I'll just charge you a labor fee, and the price will remain the same as before. Fifteen yuan for a simple style, and twenty-five yuan for a complex style."
Zhang Hengyun didn't hesitate and readily agreed, "Sure, but I need quite a lot. It's a performance for about a hundred people, and each person needs at least three sets, and some people need five or six sets. The variety of styles might also be more than what my daughter and your daughter originally discussed. How about this, to make it easier to calculate, I'll raise the price to thirty yuan per set. Is that acceptable?"
Li Xunli did a quick calculation and realized that the quantity was indeed quite large. She also had two medium-sized porcelain pieces from Yao Runyang's side, so time might be a bit tight...
Seeing Li Xunli's hesitation, Zhang Hengyun conceded and said, "How about this, you find some time to come with me to take a look at the raw materials and some patterns and designs I need. Let's finalize these two important things first, okay?"
She had tried many alternatives, but none of them worked on screen or on stage.
But after seeing this today, she was pretty sure that this play was very important to their troupe, so she had to get Li Xunli to agree.
Thinking this through, Zhang Hengyun decisively took out her wallet from her bag. "I'll give you a deposit of two thousand yuan first. Once it's done, you don't need to return any extra money; I'll make up the difference if it's less."
After saying that, he stuffed the money into Li Xunli's hand and held her hand tightly, not letting her let go.
Shen Qingqing, who stood next to her mother the whole time, was dumbfounded.
You can't judge a book by its cover; our ancestors were right.
This Aunt Zhang only appears gentle and elegant!
Look at this style! This forced payment tactic has completely baffled her mother!
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