Transmigrated as A Farm Girl Making Her Family Rich-Chapter 144 - 143: Recruiting Apprentices

Chapter 144 -143: Recruiting Apprentices

On Tang Shunyan’s birthday, he played with toys and showed them off to his friends. His eyes sparkled with such delight and warmth that he felt incredibly proud.

These kids were from wealthy or influential families, and they always wanted what others had.

They had never seen or owned the toys at Tang Shunyan’s place. After they returned home from the birthday party, they all wanted their families to buy them wooden toys.

From that day on, a craze for wooden toys began in the new county. Those who bought toys boasted to their peers, and those who hadn’t yet or who had fewer unique toys than their peers urged their parents to make purchases.

The Tang Family learned about the craze and first had Hongji stop working on the large wooden figures of immortals, understanding that the rarer the wood, the higher the price it could fetch in the market.

Hongji’s carvings of valuable wood figures, of which there were over twenty, were already displayed in the county’s gold and silver jewelry store, to be sold at exorbitant prices.

When enthusiasts for religious figures in wealthy families learned that the Tang Family shop was selling them, they rushed to buy a wooden immortal figure, no matter the cost, sparking yet another wave of craze for wooden immortal figures among prestigious households.

Since Hongji’s capacity to carve alone was limited, the Tang Family had him carve small toys from the leftover wood used for other figures, which were far more precious than those he carved from ordinary wood.

Every night, Ye Shiqi tirelessly worked on designs for toys that were all unique, ensuring their inimitability, and all the merchandise they sold was exclusive.

When Hongji carved small toys, some were such that he had never seen before and had no idea what they were, so he carved them exactly as his daughter had drawn.

Now Ye Shiqi kept drawing all sorts of strange things, like airplanes, arrows, trains, cars, and the twelve zodiac animals. Besides the zodiac animals, she included every imaginable and unimaginable creature, even birds in flight or flying insects, phoenixes, butterflies, and the like.

For the oddities that Ye Shiqi could not explain to her father, he might understand the twelve zodiac animals. It was not easy to collect all twelve zodiac toy animals.

Since they were carved from fine wood, even if it was leftover good wood, it had value.

The factory wasn’t yet finished, but the roof was being tiled. The amount of work at Hongji’s place was increasing by the day, and soon it would be his younger sister’s wedding.

With no other choice, they had to speak to the groom’s family, delaying the wedding banquet until February or March of the following year.

Zhong Xianggui initially disagreed, but seeing the rolling wealth of his future father-in-law, he thought that if the Tang Family became even richer by next year, would that mean a larger dowry for his daughter?

He then had to pick another auspicious day.

Ye Shuzhi, hearing that her wedding had been delayed, was delighted to stay at her parents’ home for a few more months. The delay was good news for her.

She no longer wished to marry that man, but she dared not refuse outright. She resolved to take it one step at a time, one day at a time, and savor the days before her marriage.

Hongji felt overwhelmingly busy. He and his father couldn’t handle some jobs, and they would need to take on apprentices after the factory opened anyway.

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So he started recruiting a few male apprentices in the village to help out with the work.

When word spread that Hongji was taking on apprentices, parents throughout the village became active, sending their adolescent and adult sons to the Ye family.

The Ye family’s courtyard was teeming with people – not just those boys, but their parents as well.

Today alone, over a hundred boys signed up to be apprentices.

There were also those who signed up for menial jobs, adding them up, there were over 200 people.

Aside from the young ones, there were middle-aged people who also wanted to do menial jobs. The Ye family’s courtyard couldn’t accommodate everyone, so the line extended out to the door, forming a very long queue.

Hongji originally wanted to quickly finish his own work and recruit a few apprentices, but he hadn’t expected that the news would attract so many people.

They were all folks from the neighborhood, which made it difficult for him.

There were also those who had sold their land at the entrance of the village, insistently reminding him of the favorable conditions the village chief had promised them before, that when it came to taking in apprentices, their children must be given priority.

Looking at the noisy courtyard, Hongji realized that selecting apprentices was so difficult, this didn’t speed things up, and it might actually delay his work.

Having no choice, he could only push the village chief forward.

The village chief also wanted to select his own son for the first batch, as everyone knew that masters would always have a senior apprentice, the first ones taken on were important members.

The village chief didn’t dare to make it too obvious, but he had to honor the promises he made, only saying that those who were already working on the construction site should continue working there.

First, the factory buildings on the construction site had to be completely finished; the flooring needed to be done, and the decorations too, everyone’s work couldn’t stop.

Moreover, only a few people were being recruited here, the Ye family’s courtyard couldn’t fit so many people at once; the factory had to be built first, and then there would be a large-scale recruitment.

He went on to say that being an apprentice now doesn’t pay much, and those waiting to earn money should first finish the work on the construction site, it wouldn’t be too late to enter the factory and become apprentices or do menial work afterward.

Among those participating in this apprentice selection, as well as those who wanted to do menial work, many had already gone to the factory side to work as laborers, and the daily wages weren’t bad at all. With the New Year approaching, everyone was working hard to earn money, hoping to save a substantial amount for a bountiful celebration.

As a result, some people withdrew from the selection process, but it was still said that when the factory was built and recruitment began, they must be given priority because they were among the first builders.

The village chief, following Housekeeper Tang’s suggestions, told them that diligent workers would certainly get a bonus, and if anyone was lazy, they would lose even the chance to enter the factory.

After hearing the village chief’s words, parents agreed and guaranteed that their children would definitely be diligent. The adults working on the farm also guaranteed their own diligence, hoping to earn a bonus.

With the village chief’s help, several more noticeable young people were selected, including his own son.

The village chief was reluctant to let his son go work in the factory because it was too tiring; after all, the family’s cow still needed care, and he had been waiting for Hongji to recruit apprentices.

Today was certainly the best opportunity, and the village chief seized it, getting his son into the apprenticeship program.

At the family’s home, during this cold and frosty season, the cow couldn’t be taken outside to graze anyway; they would just cut some grass or lay out some hay for the cow to eat.

Hongji, seeing the son of that uncle who had given gifts among those building the factory, breathed a sigh of relief. That uncle’s son was only a few years younger than him; a big strong lad who hadn’t married yet, the difficulty lay in the fact that they had no mother at home.

The family was quite poor, but fortunately, the father and son were diligent. Although the young man was a bit dull, as long as he worked hard, he could always count on having two decent meals a day.

After the village chief helped select a few apprentices, they immediately started working. Their tasks included mundane chores and work taught by the master, such as polishing. They were not yet capable of doing the painting work, which was the final touch on the products. That task could only be done by Hongji’s father.

The old man worked every day painting; this task was not very pleasant, the smell was too strong and bad for one’s health, occasionally causing him to cough a few times.