When Song Wenyin saw it, she thought it looked especially like the lace sewn on clothes, hats, and bags. "This wool is too thick. Otherwise, we wouldn't have to buy the lace for sewing clothes from outside."
Huang Wanzhen stopped painting and looked up at her. "The lace on the clothes is also crocheted by people. Hongying from Shanghai Jixiangtang is a master of crocheting. The thread used is different from wool. It is a thinner cotton thread."
Song Wenyin looked at Huang Wanzhen in surprise, "Isn't this made by a machine?"
Huang Wanzhen shook her head. "Hongying said her grandmother's family is from Suzhou. People there not only do embroidery, but they also do lacemaking, and many of the orders are from abroad."
"Oh!" Song Wenyin slapped her thigh. "Why didn't you tell me earlier? You've always been smart, haven't you? Why don't you want to do this job? Because of the war this year, prices have gone up so much, especially food. Business at Jixiangtang has been much worse now, and the women we hired have earned much less than last year. Wouldn't it be great if we could add this lace work?"
Huang Wanzhen hesitated a bit and said, "It's just the beginning of winter, and Huamei Clothing needs a lot of new sweaters. The women workers have so much work to do. Where will they find time to crochet lace?"
Song Wenyin glared at Huang Wanzhen and said, "Knitting sweaters is only busy in autumn and winter. After the New Year, the female workers will be idle again. Fortunately, you stockpiled a lot of cloth this year. When it is used up next year, we will have to raise the price. Then the business will be even worse. If there is no work, the female workers will leave." You have to know that their female workers are paid by the piece, and no work means no income.
Huang Wanzhen sighed, "Oh, yes, life is hard for every family now. If the female workers lose this income, they don't know how the family will survive."
Song Wenyin nodded in agreement, "Yes, one more position is better than building a seven-story pagoda."
Huang Wanzhen glanced at her sideways. "What nonsense are you talking about? This matter needs to be considered in the long run. First, someone needs to know how to crochet lace to teach the women workers, right? After they learn the skills, they need the raw materials, right? These are all things. Now that Butford is selling sweaters again, the women workers have a lot of work to do. We can't let them stop and learn to crochet lace. I think we can't rush this matter and have to postpone it."
Song Wenyin pondered for a moment and said, "We can start this after the New Year, but we have to prepare in advance. First, find two people to go to Shanghai and learn lacemaking from Hongying. Next year, when the female workers have less work to do, they will have someone to teach them."
Huang Wanzhen asked seriously, "Two people? Who are you going to send? Everyone's busy right now, we can't just hire someone new, right? What if they learn the skills and don't want to work here anymore?"
Song Wenyin tapped her fingers on the table continuously. After thinking for a while, she made the final decision, "Let Xiuqing go." No one in the north knows how to lace. Once Xiuqing learns it, she will be the only one who can do it. When they build a factory, all the business in Beijing and Tianjin will be theirs.
Song Wenyin thought so and told Huang Wanzhen about her idea. Huang Wanzhen was not very optimistic. "When we really make a lot of money, we will definitely be envied. Others will pay a higher price than us to poach our female workers, and they will definitely come over."
Song Wenyin sneered, "Then we can go the route of a pharmacy. There are many ready-made medicines in a pharmacy, all with recipes. To prevent the apprentices from learning and starving the master to death, you have to be an apprentice for a few years and serve the master well before you can learn the medicine making technology. Moreover, the master will not give you everything. He only teaches the most precious ones to his family members, and teaches the others to several apprentices separately. Each apprentice can make a different one, and the master won't let them pass it on. Human nature is selfish, and everyone keeps it tightly to themselves."
"We don't need to make them apprentice for several years. We can only pay them the first few months' wages as tuition for learning the craft. We will only teach each of them one type of lace. After they have mastered it, we will give them a fixed amount of different patterns of lace each day and only accept that many pieces. We will also tell them that if someone else learns the pattern they are making and makes the same lace as her, we will stop accepting theirs and accept someone else's instead."
"It would be best to select a few managers from among them to keep a close eye on them. If they are found secretly swapping skills, they should be severely fined!"
Huang Wanzhen frowned slightly. "Wouldn't that be a bad idea?" Before Song Wenyin could reply, Huang Wanzhen changed her mind. "Well, when the time comes, sign an agreement with them in advance, write all this down, and read it to them. If they're willing, they can stay and work. If they're not, they can leave."
Song Wenyi clapped his hands. "Okay, let's ask Lawyer Cao to draft an agreement and write a higher penalty."
It’s not too late to prepare these after the New Year. What we need to do now is to select people to go to Shanghai to learn the lace-making technique.
"Xiuqing is really no match for this. She's the best at makeup and can even do hair braids and perms. What will happen to Linglong Pavilion if she leaves?" Song Wenyin's suggestion reminded Huang Wanzhen, "Xiaoyan and Xiaoqi have been here for quite some time. You should arrange for them to learn how to do hair braids and perms from Xiuqing. If they can't do it, just look at what the other two have done."
Song Wenyin waved her hands irritably, "How come we've recruited so many people, but it's still not enough?"
Huang Wanzhen sighed, "We're both too busy. We should arrange more staff training. I need to talk to Gao Zhixiang about this."
"If Xiuqing isn't suitable, then who's suitable for Shanghai?" Song Wenyin thought about it in her mind, her eyes lighting up. "What do you think of Li Chunhua? I think she has a strong personality. After coming here, she's made great progress. Not only has she learned to read, but she's also learned foreign languages."
Huang Wanzhen also felt that Li Chunhua was quite ambitious, especially compared to Huang Wanshu in the backyard. This made Huang Wanzhen inexplicably depressed. "If my unlucky elder sister was half as ambitious as Li Chunhua, not only would I be asked to pray to the Buddha on the first and fifteenth day of the lunar month, I would even be asked to eat vegetarian food every day."
Song Wenyin covered her mouth and laughed, "Your sister has a completely different personality from you. I really don't know how your aunt raised her."
Huang Wanzhen curled her lips. "Look at my mother now. When we lived in the Huang family compound, she was so feudal that it was terrifying. She said that my sister and I had our feet bound because of her, and she also wanted us to bind our chests. She also said that when my second aunt saw me without a bra when I was a child, she also said that I would be indecent when I grew up. Oh! Women still need to receive education and gain knowledge so that they can think independently."
Song Wenyin's eyes showed pity. "Then your sister is quite miserable. No wonder she has such a left-wing personality."
Huang Wanzhen raised her hand to stop her, "Hey! Don't sympathize with her. There's no way to control her. Don't show her kindness. She'll cheat anyone who treats her well, and she'll even cheat them to death without paying for it."
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