The System Wanted Me to Be a Landlady (GL) - Chapter 50: Palpitation

Chapter 50: Palpitation

Song Yuyan was afraid of bugs, and as long as that problem was not overcome in a single day, the progress of building the wax garden would have to slow down a lot. Tang Zhi said to Song Yuyan, “You teach me how to tell which bug types can be kept, and I will help you a bit.”

Song Yuyan naturally agreed. “I do not want you to work for me for nothing. I will give you wages.”

Tang Zhi stretched out her hand. “Hand it over.”

Song Yuyan: “…”

She felt around on her body and even took out the last copper coin. She said with a thick face, “This is all I have on me. Can I give the rest next time?”

Tang Zhi had not really planned to have her take out the money so quickly anyway, and besides, from the start, she had not thought about having Song Yuyan give her wages.

Thinking of this, Tang Zhi secretly cursed herself in her mind. “Why did I rush over to work for people for free? This is just belittling myself!”

But when she thought of Song Yuyan standing beside her, carefully teaching her how to identify bug types, her heart became乱 again. Her own behavior had no logic, and she could not figure it out no matter how she thought. She simply let this unclear mood pass in a muddled way.

Song Yuyan braced herself and taught Tang Zhi how to select bug types. After that, Tang Zhi figured it out on her own for a while. Once she got the hang of it, she then taught the workers that the Lou family had picked to tend the wax garden.

Seeing Tang Zhi working so hard, Song Yuyan did not idle either. She ran to Lou Gao and said, “Look, does not Miss Tang have a lot of talent? Someone with such educational talent should be trained by us to become a ‘bug type selection trainer.’ This trainer position is quite particular… In the future, for every batch of employees that comes into the wax garden, the trainer can give them professional training, which makes it easy for the employees to get up to speed quickly and improves our efficiency.”

Lou Gao listened for a long time and finally understood the relationship between “trainer” and “employee.” He thought the occupation of “trainer” was still quite novel.

One had to know that from ancient times to the present, a craft was always controlled in the hands of artisans, and they were not willing to pass it on to outsiders. So if one wanted to learn a craft, one first had to apprentice, or become an apprentice, and then endure several years or even more than ten years of hardship under the master’s hand before one could go out on one’s own.

Because in an era without patents and copyrights, artisans were very focused on protecting their own crafts, secret formulas, and such, so once an artisan who held a craft or secret formula in hand died, that craft was considered lost.

If there was the existence of a trainer, then one could change from a “one-to-one” teaching mode to a “one-to-many” teaching mode, which saved time while also improving efficiency. The downside was probably that this craft would easily spread out and no longer have exclusivity.

Thinking of this, Lou Gao said, “But I think ordinary craftsmen would not be happy to pass their unique secret skills to outsiders.”

Song Yuyan said, “Young Master Lou the Second has not yet figured out the difference between a trainer and a craftsman. A trainer does not have to be someone who masters a unique secret skill. He only needs to know one simple thing that ordinary people do not understand.”

“It is just like selecting bug types. This is not some unique secret skill, but everyone does not know how to select bug types. Is it hard because to prevent this craft from spreading outside, the wax garden’s workers must first apprentice? That is not practical.”

“If there is a trainer, the trainer can carry out different teaching based on the different divisions of labor for each worker. For example, teach one batch of workers how to select bug types, teach another batch how to tend seedlings, then teach another batch how to hang bugs and raise bugs, and finally even teach the remaining workers how to harvest wax and collect seeds.”

“There is also another benefit to doing it this way. The knowledge that the workers in the garden learn is all the same, which means there is no difference in status between them. Everyone’s position is equal, so when they do the work, they will not be bullied.”

The traditional mode was basically “master leading apprentice,” and often the apprentice had to watch the master’s mood to act. The master would scold the apprentice at every turn—how could the apprentice not be bullied? If the wax garden’s workers were all equal, then once a reward and punishment system was adopted, there would be much less room for manipulation in it. Working hard and letting those in charge see their efforts would be the only path to promotion.

After Lou Gao heard this, he finally agreed. “This idea is good. One person replaces several masters, and wages are only given once when training is needed. It saves so much money.”

So not long after, Tang Zhi was hired as the wax garden’s trainer, specially training the new workers in the wax garden on how to raise white wax bugs.

Tang Zhi originally wanted to refuse, because the breeding knowledge she knew was all from listening to Song Yuyan’s nagging. If it came to rich experience, she was not as good as Song Yuyan. However, Lou Gao offered a high reward of “one hundred wen for half a day of training,” and looking at that generous reward, she agreed without any backbone.

Song Yuyan said, “Originally, the training fee for a full-time trainer could be higher, but considering that the Tang family still has a vegetable garden to manage, you can only spare half a day, so this fee is halved.”

Tang Zhi reacted. “You would not be unwilling to give me wages, so you came up with this ‘trainer’ thing, and then let Young Master Lou the Second pay me wages, right?”

Song Yuyan felt a bit guilty, but could she admit it? Of course not! So she said righteously, “This is for the wax garden. The accounts naturally come from the public funds.”

Tang Zhi increasingly felt that Song Yuyan was getting something for nothing, but thinking about it, she understood this principle—how could Lou Gao not understand? But Lou Gao still accepted Song Yuyan’s suggestion, which showed that what was placed in front of him was a greater benefit, great enough to let him overlook this small expense.

_____

This garden named “San Guo Shan Wax Garden” slowly got through the initial difficulties under the careful management of Song Yuyan and Bai Can, and the raising of white wax bugs gradually got on the right track.

In the coming year, Song Yuyan was destined to be busier than usual. Besides managing the wax garden, she did not fall behind on the bamboo weaving work either, after all, before the wax garden turned a profit, she had no income.

Lin Yongming said hatefully that steel was not made into steel, “Why are you still weaving bamboo? If you just take out one bamboo carving, it would top your earnings from half a month before.”

As a middleman, no matter if Song Yuyan chose grass weaving, bamboo weaving, or bamboo carving, it was actually all profit and no loss for him. So seeing that Song Yuyan’s bamboo carvings were quite popular, he naturally advised her to put her mind on bamboo carving.

Song Yuyan said, “Uncle Lin, it is not that I do not agree with you, but this bamboo weaving—I can weave six in one day, which is at least a small income. But bamboo carving? Even if I do nothing else all day and only carve the hollowing out, it still takes several days to carve. If I make a mistake in one place, it counts as a failure, and I have to start over. Wanting to profit from this is not realistic!”

Lin Yongming wanted to persuade her not to be so perfectionist, but he knew her character too well. To make her pass off inferior goods as superior, she absolutely would not do such a thing.

But thinking carefully, it was precisely because Song Yuyan only spent one or two hours a day on bamboo carving that the works she put out were few, so everyone was curious about what kind of bamboo carving was worth people scrambling to buy. One passed to ten, ten to a hundred, and slowly, Song Yuyan’s fame would grow bigger and bigger.

If Song Yuyan’s works were spread all over the streets, they would become less and less valuable.

After Lin Yongming figured it out, he did not waste words, but he thought of another method that could both make money and make Song Yuyan’s handmade goods more famous. “I can make your bamboo weaving sell at high prices too. If you trust Uncle Lin, just hand this matter over to me without worry.”

His plan was to have Song Yuyan carve some bamboo carvings and give them to him, then he would sell them. As long as one bought enough money’s worth of bamboo weaving, one could spend a bit more to buy a bamboo carving.

Song Yuyan thought this was just the common bundling consumption of later generations! Although it could make money, it was not very friendly to her reputation. Everyone would definitely think she was unscrupulous for money.

Lin Yongming understood her concern, so he said, “I will handle this matter on the surface. It will not touch you at all.”

Everyone would only think that Lin Yongming this middleman was taking the chance to profit, and would not think that Song Yuyan was marketing. Lin Yongming had “sacrificed” to this extent—how could Song Yuyan have any reason to disagree.

Compared to gaining a good reputation, making the Song family well-off was her primary task.

Seeing Song Yuyan agree, Lin Yongming first stockpiled her bamboo weaving. Once she carved a few arm rests, he then had people create buzz, saying that he had collected quite a few hollowed bamboo engravings from Lu Fang in his hands—this was “the prefect’s own style, the literati’s standard equipment.” If one went to an elegant gathering without a presentable hollowed bamboo engraving in hand, the one losing face would be oneself.

The rich second generations who originally wanted to buy bamboo carvings from Song Yuyan’s hand but failed naturally turned their eyes to Lin Yongming. Hearing Lin Yongming’s rules, they did curse Lin Yongming once. “Shrewd merchant!”

However, their family’s wealth accumulation also started from doing business. To curse it out in public would not be equal to cursing their own family in too! So they could only curse in their hearts.

But the bundling consumption mode of “buy three hundred wen worth of bamboo weaving from the same hand as Lu Fang, and then spend two hundred wen more to get a hollowed bamboo engraving” really did not stump these rich second generations. In their eyes, it was just equivalent to spending five hundred wen to buy a hollowed bamboo engraving from Lu Fang. Five hundred wen—not expensive at all!

As for those bamboo weavings that were several times higher than ordinary prices, the exquisite and small ones they kept for themselves to use, and things like bamboo baskets they could take back to give to the tenant farmers in their families, which counted as killing three birds with one stone.

As soon as Lin Yongming’s news came out, Zhao Ze who ran to find Lin Yongming was the first to get an arm rest. Although he did not have much appreciation level, just as Lin Yongming said, this was “the prefect’s own style, the literati’s standard equipment.” He took it back to the county school and could definitely show off a bit.

However, before he could be proud for too long, he suddenly discovered that this arm rest of his, looked at alone, was one painting, but if placed together with other arm rests to look at, it was another even more complete painting. In other words, these several arm rests were a set.

Although the arm rest in his hand was already an independent work, he had a sense of unease that he had not fully owned this painting yet. Seeing that there were still people wanting to buy arm rests, he worried that he could not gather the whole set of arm rests, so he gritted his teeth and spent quite a bit more money, finally gathering the four-piece set of arm rests.

He carefully put the four arm rests together and saw the complete picture on this hollowed engraving. His mood was unprecedentedly comfortable, as if the obsessive-compulsive disorder that had troubled him for so long was finally cured at the root.

For this, he even specially held an elegant gathering and called that group of classmates to appreciate it together.

Actually, the reason he spent a lot of money to buy this set of arm rests was not entirely for showing off, because the artistic creation of Lu Fang’s hollowed bamboo engraving was enough to arouse the interest of commentary and discussion in literati with appreciation ability.

The purpose of an elegant gathering was originally for mutual exchange of scholarship, so even for one arm rest, someone could make an article around the arm rest and hollowed bamboo engraving.

_____

Lin Yongming did not care what Zhao Ze did with the bamboo carving after buying it. He only knew he had made a full pot full, and of course, along with it, Song Yuyan also earned a sum. Because of Lin Yongming’s that wave of operation, the price of Song Yuyan’s bamboo weaving was also raised. Even selling bamboo weaving alone made a small profit.

Although there were still people urging Lin Yongming to collect more hollowed bamboo engravings from Lu Fang, Lin Yongming deliberately strung them along and said, “How could this be easy to collect? I put in a lot of effort to collect these!”

What he regretted more was that Song Yuyan said things like pen holders took more time. Based on the time she could spend on this each day now, the simplest composition would take at least half a month to produce one piece.

Song Yuyan had already picked up the carving knife again for a year and a half, and she had also gotten used to the carving tools under the current production level. But carving, for her, could only be treated as a hobby, and not as a tool for making a living.

Not mentioning the issue of efficiency, just saying that to prevent the carving knives from getting dull, she needed to sharpen them often, so her fingers often got blisters. If she turned it into work, her fingers would probably suffer even more wear.

Song Yuyan was not unable to endure hardship, but she understood that everything had to have a limit. If she pushed herself too hard in one thing, eventually one day she would produce emotions of boredom. So when she taught Tang Ye bamboo carving, she also did not suggest that she treat bamboo carving as everything.

Tang Ye’s current learning progress had already gone from drawing to the part of starting to sharpen knives. This was not to say that her drawing level had reached Song Yuyan’s requirements, but that her schoolwork had become heavier. Not only did she have to learn drawing, but she also had to practice sharpening knives.

For this, she had no complaints. Instead, she went back and mentioned to her own sister the matter of Song Yuyan’s fingers getting blisters.

“Song Dalang’s that set of carving knives is still from more than a year ago. After using them for so long, once they get dull or rusty, they are reforged, and they are all shorter by a section than at the beginning.”

The image of Song Yuyan’s fingers growing blisters and bleeding appeared in Tang Zhi’s mind, and she felt a bit heartbroken for the other.

She asked her sister, “Why does she not buy new carving knives? She does not lack this bit of money now, right?”

Tang Ye sighed helplessly and said, “How would she have this awareness.”

Tang Zhi choked, not expecting that one day she could hear her sister complain about Song Yuyan from her sister’s mouth. However, her sister had gotten along with Song Yuyan for a long time, and not to mention understanding that person’s character, her temperament would also be influenced a bit.

Thinking that besides herself, there was someone else who understood Song Yuyan this much, her heart felt a bit uncomfortable. However, this person was her sister, and her sister was learning bamboo carving by Song Yuyan’s side, so it was impossible not to have long-term contact with Song Yuyan. For her to be jealous of her own sister over this would be somewhat inexplicable.

To not let herself think randomly, she learned from her sister about the bamboo carving knowledge that Song Yuyan taught, figured out the knives that Song Yuyan usually used the most, and when she had time, she went to wander around the blacksmith shop, planning to get some new knives to bring back to Song Yuyan.

But she discovered that knives were easy to get, but they did not seem much different from the ones Song Yuyan used before. Song Yuyan might still get water blisters when using them.

She pondered for some days and suddenly thought that the handle of the hoe she used every day was made of wood, and many sharp tools also used bamboo or wood for handles. So why could not carving knives have handles added? Song Yuyan’s set of knives wrapped the part held in hand with cloth, and the role of cloth definitely was not better than bamboo or wood.

So she went to find the blacksmith, hoping the blacksmith could forge the kind of carving knife she described.

The blacksmith said, “This is too troublesome. The price will have to be higher.”

Tang Zhi hesitated a bit but finally gritted her teeth and agreed.

However, the blacksmith ended up not taking extra money from Tang Zhi, because just then Aunt Fierce passed by and saw her looking very familiar. She said, “Hey, are you not… Yam’s neighbor, the girl from the Tang family?”

Tang Zhi had seen Aunt Fierce several times, but she was not at all intimidated by Aunt Fierce, so she politely greeted her.

When Aunt Fierce asked what she was doing here, the blacksmith just happened to take out that set of made carving knives for her. Aunt Fierce had given a set to Song Yuyan before, so she recognized at a glance that this was for carving things. But she seemed not to remember that the girl from the Tang family also carved these.

Tang Zhi covered up and said, “My little sister is currently learning bamboo carving from Song Dalang, so I bought it back for her to use.”

Although according to Song Yuyan’s saying, Tang Ye still needed a year to hold a knife, but it did not stop her from using her sister as a shield.

Aunt Fierce “oh”-ed and said, “Then you are quite thoughtful, knowing to have Blacksmith Wang wrap the knife handle with wood.”

The named Blacksmith Wang: “…”

He had a kind of ominous premonition.

Soon, his premonition came true, because as soon as Aunt Fierce appeared, he knew that he was going to be haggled down to nothing on the road of bargaining by Aunt Fierce again.

Tang Zhi got this set of knives at a discounted price and sincerely thanked Aunt Fierce before leaving happily.

Aunt Fierce went back to the shop and told Song Bing about this. Song Bing was a bit puzzled. “Her sister learning bamboo carving from Yam is also worth talking about?”

Aunt Fierce glared at him fiercely. “Are you missing a brain? Am I talking about the little radish head from the Tang family learning bamboo carving from Yam? I am talking about the girl from the Tang family and Yam!”

Song Bing was shocked. “What? Yam and the girl from the Tang family?!”

Aunt Fierce hummed proudly. “Although that girl said it was knives picked for her sister, but I saw through her lying at a glance! And I have heard that Yam that child gets along very closely with the Tang family. These two often drive the ox cart out together and come back together.”

Song Bing could not care about being shocked anymore and hurriedly flattered his wife. “Madam has sharp eyes that see through everything.”

Aunt Fierce muttered again, “That girl from the Tang family is not bad. She has a kind heart and can hold down Yam. It is just a pity that Yam this child is too careless.”

Song Bing nodded. “Exactly! Last time Shisan told me that he originally planned to arrange a marriage for this child, but she actually took Shisan for that kind of lowly scoundrel who covets a young lady’s beauty. It made Shisan so angry. Later he gave Shisan a bamboo carving, and only then did Shisan calm down.”

Aunt Fierce said, “He deserved it! He is a person of so many years, and he does not act properly. Asking about a young lady’s age for no reason at all—how could anyone not think more? Not to mention that Yam cares about the girl from the Tang family, so naturally she has to think more.”

Song Bing did not dare to mention Song Zhu anymore, or he would definitely be scolded by Aunt Fierce. Although he also had thoughts of worrying about Song Yuyan’s lifelong大事, Aunt Fierce was right. This kind of matter still had to be handled properly—asking about family background, age, and such either had to be done by women or by a matchmaker to count as proper.

____

No matter how Song Bing and Aunt Fierce worried behind their backs about the lifelong大事 of Song Yuyan and Tang Zhi, these two both lived their days step by step as usual.

Tang Zhi had kept that set of carving knives for quite some days before finally finding a good excuse to send it to Song Yuyan.

The Song family’s door was open, and she saw from outside the door that Song Yuyan was focused on sharpening the carving knife under the blazing sun. Sweat flowed down along her forehead. Although the Song family’s days were much better than more than a year ago, her face still did not have much flesh on it.

Tang Zhi’s heart fluttered for a moment, and her chest tightened involuntarily, so she could not help but shift her gaze away.

But when her gaze fell on the knife tool in Song Yuyan’s hand, it paused for an instant.

“Miss?” Song Yuyan discovered her presence and called out.

Tang Zhi asked, “This set of carving knives of yours looks very new. Did you just get it?”

Song Yuyan smiled. “Young Master Lou the Second gave it. He said my old knives were too dull and affected my performance, so he gave me a new set, and there are several more kinds of carving knives…”

After she introduced this new set of carving knives, she suddenly thought of something and asked, “Miss came over today—is there something?”

The cloth bag wrapping the carving knives was hidden behind Tang Zhi by her, and she smiled slightly. “Nothing much.”