Chapter 17 Inside Story
"Didn't Manager Zhou say that it's used to pick tea leaves in the tea garden, so how can it be called a big thing?"
Jiang Mixia explained, "The mouth is big enough, so it's easy to throw the tea leaves in. The neck is a little bit stuck, so if the basket falls over, it won't spill out easily. The belly is big enough to hold a lot of tea leaves, so it's more practical."
It seems to make some sense.
Jiang Youcheng nodded, but then scratched his head, "But I've never seen this style before, and it's not that easy to weave. I'm afraid that Manager Zhou won't recognize the product, and we won't make much money after all the effort."
"How about we make up both of them and show them to people to see which one they like. We'll make up the one they like."
Jiang Mixia said, "It doesn't matter if it's a big deal. We're raising the price. The tea plantation is not a small industry. As long as the product is easy to use, I'm willing to buy it."
"No matter how expensive it is, it's still a bamboo basket after all. It's a few cents more expensive anyway. Even if there are fifty of them added together, it's not much. I guess people won't even look at it."
"Well, let's just weave two." Jiang Youcheng felt that what Jiang Mixia said made sense, so he followed the pattern she drew on the ground and started to use bamboo strips to lay the foundation.
Jiang Mixia, Song Jingyun and Liu were helping with the bamboo strips.
The two bamboo baskets were completed by the time the sun set.
"Dad's craftsmanship is really amazing." Jiang Mixia looked at the two bamboo baskets and couldn't help but admire them.
The bamboo strips are thin enough, the bamboo basket is tied firmly and carefully woven, the edges are tight and smooth, it is light to carry, and looks very delicate.
Especially when compared with the large bamboo basket used in the house next door, it looks even more compact and beautiful.
Jiang Youcheng smiled innocently when he received the praise from his daughter.
For dinner, we had the braised pork soup with some potatoes and wild vegetables stewed in it as one dish. We also had some fried tofu and some sweet potato and cornmeal steamed bread on the side.
The whole family enjoyed the meal very much.
Song Jingyun was especially diligent when slicing bamboo strips after dinner.
Jiang Youcheng is also very skilled at weaving bamboo baskets and bamboo crates.
The tea garden business is still uncertain. If it doesn’t work out, I have to prepare the things I want to sell at the market so that I don’t miss out on making money.
The family worked until it was really late, then they went to rest.
The next day, after breakfast, Jiang Youcheng prepared to deliver bamboo baskets to the tea garden with Jiang Mixia.
Jiang Youcheng specifically sought out Jiang Chunshi to go with him.
Jiang Chunshi could read and write. Although he was not as good as a scholar and could not even be considered a real accountant, he could still recognize some documents. With him around, things became much more convenient.
Besides, Jiang Chunshi was feeling somewhat depressed because he had to quit his job as a carpenter apprentice, and Jiang Youcheng also wanted to take his eldest nephew out to relax and show his face to see if he could find a good job.
Jiang Mixia brought Song Jingyun with her.
The reason was very simple. As an old mother, she was not comfortable leaving her young son-in-law alone with other people.
The four of them went to find Jiang San and asked him to drive the ox cart to take them to the tea garden.
This time Jiang San asked for five cents for the fare, but said he would pay it back when he came back.
"It's not easy for this tea garden to have a new owner." Jiang San smacked his lips on the way.
"What do you mean?" Jiang Youcheng was surprised. "What else is going on here?"
"I also heard gossips from others before. They said that it was originally a proper tea garden. Most of the hillside was covered with tea trees. There must be more than 100 acres of them. The trees were all three or four years old, and the tea yield was not low."
Jiang San flicked the whip in his hand and said, "But later, the master's nephew was a bad guy. He wanted to take control of the tea garden because the master had no son. The old man was smart and saw that something was wrong, so he wanted to drive the nephew away."
"When the nephew saw that he had nothing to gain and his reputation was ruined, he became cruel and put drugs in the well, poisoning his uncle's family and the workers in the tea garden. He also set fire to the house in the tea garden."
"When they found out, half of the tea garden had been burned. Several farmers nearby helped put out the fire and reported it to the authorities. I guess the nephew knew he was going to die a horrible death, so he took poison. When the officials arrived, he was already dead."
"This tea garden lost its owner, so it was confiscated. The county government wanted to sell the garden and use the money to repair the river bank, but they thought it was unlucky because so many people died in the garden. In addition, so many tea trees were destroyed, so no one bought it."
"Some time ago, I heard that a merchant came from the capital. I guess he was young and didn't know much. He thought this tea garden was cheap, so he bought it without caring about whether it was auspicious or not."
"Since you said it was the tea garden's manager who came to buy the bamboo baskets, I guess it was the manager sent by the new owner. He even went to do such a small thing personally. If things go wrong, you might not even be able to recruit a single employee here."
That's true.
Jiang Mixia nodded thoughtfully.
At first she was wondering why the manager had to buy the bamboo baskets himself this week, and why a tea garden suddenly had to buy so many new items. It turned out there was this reason behind it.
The ox cart swayed and took two hours to reach the western hillside. After asking around, we finally found the tea garden.
As Jiang San said, the wall could be described as ruins, and even traces of burning could be seen. Even the houses were in a dark and collapsed state.
There were a few people working there, rolling up their sleeves and picking up and transporting away the wreckage of the houses.
The gate had already been cleaned up. A gate had been built with bamboo poles, and a plaque was hung on it with four eye-catching characters written in large letters - Shao Ji Tea Garden.
Not seeing Zhou Xing, Jiang Mixia went to ask the worker.
The guy had obviously received instructions, so he just asked Jiang Mixia and others to wait here for a while, and then went to look for someone.
After a moment, Zhou Xing walked over quickly and bowed, "I'm sorry to bother you all."
"No, you are too polite, Manager Zhou." Jiang Mixia took out the two bamboo baskets. "These are the two bamboo baskets I made at home. Manager Zhou, take a look. Which one is suitable?"
Zhou Xing looked at the two bamboo baskets, examined each carefully, and finally picked up the one with a big belly. "This one looks good. The tea leaves won't spill out easily, and the mouth is big enough for easy throwing."
As he spoke, he hung the basket on his body, made a few tea-leaf-picking movements, and nodded more affirmatively, "Yeah, not bad, it's better than that one. You two, father and daughter, are quite thoughtful. You even thought about what I was going to use it for when you were weaving the basket. It can be considered as adapting to local conditions."
“Excellent.”
Finally, Zhou Xing praised again.
"Manager Zhou, you are too kind. Do we need more than fifty of these?" Jiang Mixia asked.
"Yes, that's it." Zhou Xing nodded.
"This one is harder to make than that one, so the price is naturally more expensive."
Thanks to "Tiancan Chendong" for the 1500 coin reward, thanks to "Qiongru" for the 3000 coin reward, and thanks to all the cute little ones for their support~ (End of this chapter)
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