The lucky girl in the village has a good way of making money.

Chapter 515: Workshop Problems

In the kitchen at the east end, two women were busy working. The fragrance of food wafted out of the doors and windows. One could tell that it was almost time for dinner.

The two rooms next to the kitchen are used to make puppet faces. There are about twenty people in each room. There are four long tables, with six or seven people at each table. They are concentrating on needlework. The hands holding the embroidery needles are moving the threads in a swish manner, which is clean and neat, and very pleasing to the eye.

The needleworker would look up from time to time at the front. There were wooden sticks standing at both ends of the long table, and a taut linen rope was stretched across the middle of the table. It was glued with paste, and pictures were pasted on the line one by one to make it easier for the woman to see.

It was the same in both rooms, except, of course, that the pictures on each table were different.

"Pomegranate, this is a good idea. It saves us from scratching it here and there like in the picture, and we're afraid that it might get broken."

Mrs. Fan said, "When we first started making these, we had to follow the pattern. For example, a simple puppet, a few skilled hands and feet made one, and now we can make one without looking at the pattern!"

Mrs. Lu also said, "Every morning when you come to work, if the pattern you were working on yesterday is finished before you leave work, you can change to another pattern today. In short, you can sit at the table where you want to make a puppet and choose it yourself. It is convenient because you don't have to pass the pattern around.

After work every day, I would check the room carefully and lock it up carefully. At night, I would ask Sister Zhu to sleep on the floor in the main room and keep watch."

After leaving the east wing, Shi Liu said, "It's my fault for not thinking it through. How can I let Madam Zhu guard the gate during the day and keep watch at night? I will send a maid tomorrow."

As he spoke he went to the room opposite where the cotton was being filled.

Compared to the room opposite, this cotton-filling room was much more lively, with forty people crammed inside. There were also four long tables, with ten people at each table. In front of each person was a round winnowing basket filled with the cotton they had received from the warehouse. The amount they received each day was known in detail.

The women were deftly using wooden tongs to stuff cotton into the puppets.

After stuffing a rag doll in, the woman used needle and thread to close the opening. When there was only a small gap left, she would put a piece of white cloth in it to close the opening together.

The white cloth was also the label, with small words embroidered on it: Li’s Doll from the First Village of the Emperor.

These labels were made by the three people of the Fan and Lu families in their spare time. All three of them are good at embroidery. It is only a small strip of cloth, which is very easy to embroider. A lot can be done in a day's free time.

Shi Liu also asked the jade beads and silver locks at home to make these labels in their spare time. They have accumulated quite a few and are enough for use.

Once the puppet has been sealed, it is completely finished. The woman will put it in a clean basket beside her, waiting to be registered and checked at the end of the work before sending it to the warehouse for storage.

Next door is the warehouse, where all the purchased fabrics, cotton, etc. are neatly classified and stacked on the shelf on the left, while the finished dolls are placed in large wooden boxes on the right.

It's only the third day since the workshop started working, and there are not many finished puppets, most of which are simple rabbits, tigers and the like.

Shi Pomegranate took a rough look and found that they were all made very delicately and well, without any problems, and there was not even a single extra thread.

Before it could be placed here, the Lu family and others had also checked it thoroughly.

I also looked at the account books kept by Huang Chunni, and the detailed records by Lu of how much cloth and cotton each person took every day. They were really detailed and showed great care.

At this time, the workshop also opened for lunch. Everyone took out the bowls and chopsticks they brought from home and lined up in the kitchen to get food. When it was ready, they went back to their rooms to eat. There was brazier roasting, meat and rice to eat. It was really a good day. After the workers finished eating, the two women who cooked also brought the remaining food to the main room.

Fan and Lu asked Shi Liu to stay for dinner, but Shi Liu refused. When she left, she looked at Huang Chunni and said, "Second sister-in-law, come home early after work. Second brother is back."

When Huang Chunni heard that her husband had returned, she immediately became happy. Then, seeing that several people were looking at her with smiles, she blushed and lowered her head, feeling very embarrassed.

They were all experienced people and understood everything. Fan joked, "Chunni, you should leave early in the afternoon. We are here for you."

—

Shi Liu returned home, and everyone at home was waiting for her to come back for dinner.

After washing my hands, I sat down and the food was served one after another.

Li Rongyu was eating while talking to Shi Liu, "I went around the woodworking workshop and Qinghe workshop and found a problem."

"What's the problem?" Pomegranate asked.

"I looked at the Qinghe workshops. Apart from a few rooms with heated kangs in the dried meat workshop, the rest, including the less-populated Songhuadan and salted duck egg workshops, had at least two braziers, and some had four or five. How much charcoal would they use in a day?

In the woodworking workshop, my uncle and his friends can sit by the brazier while carving, but for other woodworkers, it is not convenient to warm themselves with the brazier beside them, and they cannot warm themselves, which is a waste. And those who are afraid of the cold almost do not hold the brazier to warm themselves, but just squat by the brazier without moving. I see that they cannot finish painting a box for a long time, and they just warm their hands. If everyone follows suit, then no one will work in the winter and they will just warm themselves by the fire."

He emphasized the last sentence and looked at Old Man Li again.

Shi Liu knew who he was talking about at a glance. The only person in the workshop who dared and could do this was Fourth Uncle.

As the weather gets colder, Fourth Uncle becomes lazy again.

"It's so cold, it's OK for those who work by the fire, but how can you work with your hands and feet frozen? It's just a waste of charcoal. People say that my Li family is kind, so we don't mind this.

Besides, the managers in each workshop and the eldest sister-in-law all know the number. Although there are many braziers, the amount of charcoal burned in a day is fixed and will not be wasted.

You said that in the woodworking workshop, it is not convenient for the woodworkers to place the brazier close to the woodworkers, but they can burn it there and take a break to drink some water. It is also good to warm the body. You can't just stop using it because they can't keep burning it all the time, right?
As for the one who held the brazier and refused to move…"

Shi Liu glanced at Li Jihe and said with a smile, "Dad, isn't Fourth Uncle tired of painting things every day? Hasn't he been nagging about doing this shopping job? Let him go shopping with Second Cousin from tomorrow. Oh, remember to let him drive a cart by himself, otherwise, he will definitely hide in the cart shed."

Li Rongyu laughed out loud, "Fourth Uncle must be unhappy now! He must be wondering why you didn't change it earlier. It's freezing cold out there, and going out means you'll be exposed to the wind and cold, it's really painful!"

Before Shi Liu could say anything, Old Man Li snorted, "It's time for him to suffer."

As his youngest son is so lazy that he becomes even more reluctant to move in winter, he wants to teach him a lesson.

If he wants to feel comfortable, he should go out and get some fresh air.