Chapter 43: Not Enough Silver
Shui Qing gave the money and saw that Fan Jin was still and had no intention of going out. He asked, "Is there anything else?"
Fan Jin murmured for a long time, his fair cheeks turned red and he said, "We don't have enough money."
He knew that his family didn't have much money.
The first time I sold Polygonum multiflorum and bought a lot of things, and I had three taels of silver left. The second time I sold it for six taels and bought some fabrics as gifts for my father-in-law's family, and I still had four and a half taels left.
Shuiqing gave him half a tael of silver.
Shui Qing was extremely surprised. The purchasing power of money these days is quite powerful. How much can five brushes cost?
Half a tael of silver is equivalent to 500 Wen. Isn’t it enough to buy five writing brushes?
Fan Jin said embarrassedly: "It's really not enough. The smallest and most inferior writing brush costs 120 Wen. I'm not lying to you.
If five children only use one brush to practice calligraphy, it will waste too much time. "
Shuiqing quickly explained: "I don't believe you, I just didn't expect the brush to be so expensive!"
"It's not expensive. If you don't understand the craftsmanship of the brush, once you understand it, you will know that a brush is worth more than 100 yuan." Fan Jin defended his favorite thing.
Shui Qing became interested and asked curiously: "Do you understand?"
"I heard Master mentioned that wool, weasel tail hair, stone badger hair, and civet hair are mostly used for finer wool materials, while pig hair, horse tail, ox tail, and rat whiskers are mostly used for cheap ones.
What I use is pig hair, but it is the cheapest pig hair. As long as it is not defective, it costs 150 yuan a piece.
Because the wool needs to be deodorized and impurities removed with lime water first, if this step is not done well, the wool will be completely destroyed and cannot be used at all;
After cleaning and drying, you need to comb, trim, press, and mix the wool...then arrange the wool on the flat board in order, and cut the wool to the required length according to the length. Do you think this requires a lot of patience and patience? careful?
After finishing it, it is time to tie the thread. This is the initial completion of the pen tip. Later, you need to select the pen holder and install the pen holder and pen tip. Some of them also need to be decorated with engraving, but this is expensive. "Fan Jin's dark eyes glowed brightly when he mentioned his favorite things.
Shuiqing listened and thought, ah, it is purely handmade, the process is complex and difficult, no wonder it sells for such a price.
Then she realized that Fan Jin could remember it so clearly, so he must be very fond of it. She asked, "Do you want to buy an expensive pen?"
Fan Jin shook his head.
"Really don't want to?" Shui Qing didn't believe it.
Otherwise, even if the Master had said it, it would be impossible to remember it so clearly.
Fan Jin continued to shake his head and said helplessly: "Shui Qing, I know the amount of money our family has. Now we have a total of seven and a half taels of silver. We need at least a hundred taels of silver to build a courtyard. We may not be able to get enough when the Polygonum multiflorum is over."
Besides, our family also needs some money for emergencies. Even if we have enough money, we can’t use it all. We can just use the brushes, no matter how good or bad they are. "
He had little ability to earn money. He copied books for fifty-three cents a day, and it took three days' wages to buy the worst writing brush.
All readers like a good pen, but sometimes you can’t just look at whether the pen is good or not, but you also have to look at how poor you are.
Shui Qing listened, and somehow felt a sad taste from it.
Hey, when children from poor families study, they have to be very careful even to pay for a pen.
By the way, "Wait a minute, let me see if it's available in the mall?"
Fan Jin raised his head in surprise and asked blankly: "Will writing brushes still be sold in the mall?"
Shui Qing said proudly: "As long as you can't think of it, there is nothing it won't sell! It has everything in the sky, on the ground, in the water, it just depends on whether you have money."
The corners of Fan Jin's lips rose. He had never thought of buying it in the mall. He was a little curious about how much a brush in the mall cost.
However, writing brushes are rare and extremely difficult to make, so they must not be too cheap in the mall...
Shui Qing opened the shopping mall and searched under the stationery category.
She took a look at the price of activating this category. Since it is a small category and it is an item that can be used frequently, the price of activating it is not expensive, only one thousand yuan.
She quickly found the brush and was shocked when she saw the price.
Fan Jin couldn't see the prices in the mall, but he could see Shui Qing's face and asked worriedly: "What's wrong?
It doesn’t matter if it’s too expensive, no.”
Shui Qing recovered from the shock and asked in surprise: "Guess, the price is something you would never expect!"
Fan Jin is in trouble, does this mean expensive or cheap?
Shui Qing didn't really expect Fan Jin to guess correctly, so he directly announced the answer: "Ten small ones cost 8 yuan, medium ones cost 9 yuan, and large ones cost 10 yuan." (price listed on a certain website)
Fan Jin has a general understanding of the price system in the mall. He knows the prices of bamboo mushrooms and skirt mushrooms, the prices of chicken head rice, polygonum multiflorum, rice white noodles, etc.
But he had no idea that the brush, his most cherished brush, would be so cheap!
He calculated: "The price of one pound of rice can buy two large brushes?"
"Hmm, how about I buy ten of them and you can check the quality? If it's not easy to use, I can use them as practice pens for a few children at home. I don't feel bad." Shui Qing suggested.
This afternoon, except for those few families in the village, every family was eager to go out with their whole family. They were particularly diligent and harvested 110 kilograms of chicken head rice in one afternoon.
The deposit directly increased by more than 10,000!
For the activation fee of one thousand, Shui Qing didn't even blink an eye.
The only thing she worries about now is: how to turn the money in the mall into silver.
Fan Jin nodded blankly.
After checking the water, it was opened. With a wave of his hand, ten large, medium and small trumpets came out!
Total cost: 27 yuan!
Fan Jin looked at the thirty extra brushes in front of him.
The tip of the brush is sharp and delicate, the hair is flat and even, without uneven hair, the whole brush is round and full, and the hardness of the hair is both hard and soft.
The four virtues of a brush are "sharp, even, round, and strong", and the brush in front of him meets all the requirements!
It is even much better than the one he bought for 150 Wen!
Shui Qing didn't know much about brushes. Seeing that Fan Jin was slow to speak, she asked: "How is it? Is it not good? Can I give it to a few children to practice writing?"
After all, it is mass-produced by machines. Maybe it only has form but no connotation?
Although she didn't understand what the connotation of a brush is.
Fan Jin finally moved his eyes away from the brush and looked at Shui Qing's delighted praise: "Shui Qing, it's great!
This brush is good in every way! How can your mall be so powerful? The things you make are cheap and regular."
Shui Qing: ...Because there is something called a machine.
It's strange that places with large-scale machine production advocate pure handmade and natural things;
while places with pure manpower, the price of large-scale machine-produced things is the biggest advantage.
Price?
Shui Qing suddenly had an idea in her mind.
She thought of how to get the money from the mall out in a clear way!
Maybe, we don't have to wait until next year, we can build the courtyard before the Chinese New Year this year...