To make Jinyan Group realize the irreplaceable value of hand embroidery, this embroidery workshop must be properly managed.
In the workshop, Shan Cui and the other apprentices sat at their workstations, quietly engrossed in embroidery, while two master craftsmen walked back and forth, occasionally pointing out their needlework techniques.
Langshan's topography is similar to that of Sichuan. The local embroidery is actually somewhat similar to Sichuan embroidery in terms of color and stitching. However, Sichuan culture has formed a system, so Sichuan embroidery has also developed a unique and distinctive style.
In contrast, Langshan embroidery is more like a wildly developed version of Shu embroidery, and its patterns and designs have a more distinctive totemistic cultural flavor unique to the ancient mountain people, giving it a mysterious and unpredictable feel.
Today is the first assessment for the embroidery workshop. The master craftsman will determine their salary for the coming year based on their current embroidery skills.
Everyone was tense, but Shan Cui calmly and slowly picked up the embroidery needle. As the silk thread flew, a lifelike kingfisher gradually appeared on the white satin.
"Huh? This girl's got some skills!"
"It's a shame she's an apprentice. Why didn't we recruit her earlier?"
The two master chefs were whispering to each other, which attracted Jiang Xiaoman's attention. She took out her phone and pointed it at a kingfisher that was already taking shape under Shan Cui's hands.
Jiang Xiaoman and Shan Yan were already quite familiar with each other, and Jiang knew that the kingfisher was also a totem of one branch of their Shan family. It was said that after the kingfisher laid its eggs, both the male and female would take turns incubating them, but after hatching, the female usually raised the offspring… No wonder the Shan family used the kingfisher as a totem; it seems that kingfishers, like people, prefer to “leave the offspring and discard the father” ╮(╯▽╰)╭
"Look everyone, the master craftsman just said that this kingfisher embroidery is exceptionally well done, and the embroiderer is worthy of the salary and benefits of a first-class embroiderer. Let's ask the master craftsman to explain why this embroidery deserves a first-class rating." Jiang Xiaoman herself is a novice, so she can only ask the master craftsman for feedback on the technical aspects.
Netizens couldn't understand the intricacies of the needlework or the stunning color scheme; all they knew was that the kingfisher embroidery was absolutely gorgeous!
Moreover, the embroiderers are very beautiful.
Shan Cui is actually 23 years old this year. In Langshan, a woman who is still unmarried at this age is considered an old maid. Mountain people don't care about the legal marriage age. Many people get married at the age of seventeen or eighteen when they meet the right person.
Shan Cui, however, felt that men were hindering her earning speed and had no intention of getting married; all she wanted to do was make money.
Jiang Xiaoman didn't know this at first, but unexpectedly, Jiang Yu came to find him after the live broadcast ended.
Well, at least she had a conscience; she actually brought him a big bowl of pig's feet noodles.
The pig's feet weren't fresh; they were cured pig's feet made last year. After being cut into sections, they were braised with dried bamboo shoots for most of the day until the meat and bones were tender. The noodles were cooked in plain water, and then two spoonfuls of the braising broth were scooped out, topped with a thick layer of pig's feet and dried bamboo shoots, and a spoonful of chili oil was added on top. It was exactly Jiang Xiaoman's favorite combination!
The food smelled delicious, but Jiang Xiaoman didn't dare to eat it casually.
"Speak! What do you want from me?"
"Can't I bring you food if there's nothing wrong?"
"Get lost! You're bringing me food? What if Yan gets jealous and beats me up again? Do you think that's appropriate?"
"Hehe~ You can see through everything. Okay, it's because our Brother Yan was too embarrassed to come over himself, so he asked me to talk to you and see if we can keep Cui Cui working at the embroidery workshop?"
"Cui Cui? Which Cui Cui?"
"Hey, why are you pretending to be confused? You've been taking pictures of that person's face for so long today!"
"You mean Shan Cui, the one who embroidered a kingfisher? With that kind of skill, would she need to pull strings?"
"Shan Cui's skills certainly don't require connections. What I mean is, didn't you say before that you wanted to recruit a group of unmarried embroiderers to create a video account to promote Langshan embroidery culture? What do you think of our Shan Cui?"
"Your family's Shancui?" Jiang Xiaoman raised an eyebrow.
"Shan Cui is also Yan Ge's cousin!"
Jiang Xiaoman was completely speechless. He really wanted to ask Shan Yan how many cousins he had.
However, Shan Cui did indeed meet his requirements for hiring a professional embroiderer; she was skilled and good-looking.
I just don't know if she has a good personality or not...
"This..." Jiang Yu's eyes showed a hint of guilt.
"I advise you to tell the truth. Brother Xiaoyu, you know that I plan to run this studio for the long term. If the employee I hire is a troublemaker and makes it impossible for the whole studio to operate normally, I won't be polite to her. I'll fire her if necessary, and don't blame me for being ruthless." Jiang Xiaoman gave him a heads-up in advance.
The closer the brothers are, the more important it is to clarify business dealings beforehand. Otherwise, ambiguity will lead to mutual suspicion and ultimately erode the brotherhood.
“Hey! I’ll be frank then. Cui Cui isn’t exactly hard to get along with. On the contrary, I think she’s a really nice person. It’s just that she’s so old and still hasn’t found a boyfriend. She’s not willing to go on dates with people who introduce her to potential partners. As a result, people in the village say that she has a rather strange personality.”
"That's it?" Jiang Xiaoman imagined a whole bunch of eccentric personalities, but she never expected that the villagers would think she had a strange personality just because she was older and unmarried.
Pshaw! What do you mean by "older"?
She's only 23! A few years younger than me.
Girls this age would still be babies at home in the city.
Besides, marriage is a matter of personal freedom. Is it wrong for someone not to want to get married too early and to focus on their career and earn more money first?
"You and Shanyan don't think the same way, do you?" Jiang Xiaoman stared at Jiang Xiaoyu dangerously.
"How could that be?! Cui Cui is our Shan Yan's cousin!" Jiang Yu cried out in protest, then couldn't help but explain, "I was just afraid of causing you trouble."
"What trouble? If Shan Cui can make me a lot of money, she'll be my own sister!" Boss Jiang declared that in his territory, age doesn't matter, only skill matters. Whoever has the best skills is his family!
Jiang Xiaoyu was dumbfounded.
In the evening, the results of the first batch of trainees' assessments came out. Shan Cui and two other women were selected as first-level embroidery workers. According to their salary assessment standards, after a one-month internship, Shan Cui will be able to officially sign a contract with "Langshan Tu Embroidery Creative Workshop" and become a first-level embroiderer in the workshop. In addition to the five social insurances and one housing fund and a basic salary of 2,800 yuan per month, she will also receive an additional performance bonus.
This was also agreed upon by Jiang Xiaoman and the Jin family. Because Langshan intangible cultural heritage is a nationally certified intangible cultural heritage, it is not appropriate for private enterprises to use it directly for commercial purposes. In the end, the two parties negotiated that Jiang Xiaoman would act as a third party to establish an intangible cultural heritage dissemination company, under which the "Langshan Tuxiu Creative Workshop" would be set up.
In this way, Langshan embroidery can cooperate with Jinyan Group in the form of cultural and creative industries. It sounds a bit complicated, but if intangible cultural heritage wants to develop in the long term, it really can't do without its place of origin.
Just like the rice noodles that Jiang Xiaoman promoted before, people from other places can't tell the difference. However, locals from Langshan who work outside the area all say that it always feels like something is missing after eating it. Jiang Xiaoman herself has also tried it and it is indeed not as good as the freshly made ones from the stalls in town.
It can only be said that industrialization has allowed more people to eat things they couldn't eat at home before, but it has also caused many delicacies to lose their original flavor.
Jiang Xiaoman understood the town's idea. They directly authorized the Langshan embroidery to the Jinyan Group, and the town could receive a fee every year, which was indeed very convenient. But what benefits would this bring to Langshan?
Even if Jin Yan obtains the authorization, she won't create many jobs for Lang Shan. No matter how many clothes are sold, Lang Shan won't get a single penny.
Even more frightening is that if Jin Yan introduces Langshan embroidery into the production line and uses machines to create patterns for mass production, the brightly colored and vividly depicted Langshan embroidery will turn from dazzling pearls into dead fish eyes.
They ruined a perfectly good intangible cultural heritage brand, and the reputation of Langshan embroidery was also destroyed... No leader in the town dares to bear such eternal infamy!
Jiang Xiaoman's appearance is simply the most perfect third party.
Compared to Jinyan Group, the leaders of Langshan Town were naturally more willing to trust Jiang Xiaoman, one of their own.
As for Jin Yan, because of the mother-son relationship between Jiang Xiaoman and Yan Susu, both President Jin himself and the shareholders felt that it was more appropriate for him to act as the middleman.
Jiang Xiaoman never intended to acknowledge her birth mother, but there was nothing she could do. That's how Chinese tradition works; everyone believes that mothers and children are connected at heart. The fact that she's not acknowledging her now is probably because Xiaoman still harbors some resentment towards her birth mother. Mothers and children don't hold grudges overnight; they'll reconcile sooner or later!
Jiang Xiaoman could only remain speechless in the face of this.
He couldn't very well publish a notice in the newspaper announcing that he was severing his mother-son relationship with Yan Susu, could he?
His dad would definitely beat him with a big broom.
Disowning one's own mother is a crime punishable by divine retribution!
Jiang Youliang didn't feel sorry for Yan Susu; he felt sorry for Xiaoman, fearing his son would be struck by lightning.
...
The base salary for a first-level embroidery worker is 2,800 yuan, for a second-level worker it is 2,200 yuan, and a third-level worker is considered an apprentice. They do not have social insurance and housing fund, nor do they sign a formal contract. They only receive a living allowance of 1,500 yuan per month.
However, even so, this job is not something anyone can do. These young girls who made it to the final assessment all have basic skills. At least they have learned embroidery from their families since they were young. The difference is that some can learn it very quickly, while others can't learn it at all.
Similar to Zhang Jiahui's "custom-made" clothing, Jin Yan's business is also about high-end clothing, but instead of custom-made, it's limited-edition co-branded pieces.
They found two spokespeople: one was actress Su Yuan, and the other was Jiang Cancan, who came from Langshan!
"Hehe, didn't expect that, did you? My mom said she had a surprise for you." Jin Chengjie nudged Jiang Xiaoman with his elbow with a grin.
This guy is quite carefree. He never thought that Jiang Xiaoman, his own brother, would compete with him for affection. After getting to know him, he even tried to get Jiang Xiaoman to accept Yan Susu, his biological mother.
The marketing department originally only planned to invite actress Su Yuan as a spokesperson, but Yan Susu mentioned it to President Jin, saying that everyone is willing to spend money on their children, especially since many of the totems in Langshan embroidery have the meaning of blessing and good wishes for children. They suggested that they could invite a child star to partner with the actress in matching mother-daughter outfits.
There are indeed many child stars in the entertainment industry, but only Jiang Cancan came from Langshan.
Upon receiving the invitation, Jiang Cancan accepted it without hesitation.
She misses home so much!
However, being able to study in the capital was a dream come true for Langshan's friends. Moreover, she knew that the TV station leaders and her agent had pulled countless strings and pulled many strings to get her into school.
Jiang Cancan isn't the kind of ungrateful person. Others went to great lengths to help her go to school, and her manager even got drunk several times. She was very hardworking when she was in school, and she rarely took leave unless there was an event that required her to.
She's been away for so long, but she's only been home to visit her family twice. She's so young, how could she not miss home?
Now that's great! According to her agent, the location for this commercial shoot is in Langshan, and it will last for a week. She'll be staying in the village every night... Doesn't that mean she can go home and live with her grandma?
Jiang Cancan practically counted down the days until the day she could go back to Langshan to shoot the advertisement.
Hearing that Jiang Cancan was coming back to shoot an advertisement, Jiang Xiaoman left her younger brother and ran to her grandmother's house.
"Great-Grandma, Can Can is coming back!" Jiang Xiaoman shouted, and half the village came running to see what was going on.
Who doesn't know that Grandma Jiang's granddaughter, Jiang Cancan, is now a big star? I heard the company values her highly and even transferred her to a school in Beijing. Everyone in the village says Grandma Jiang's hard times are finally over. When they heard Jiang Cancan was coming back to film an advertisement, the villagers immediately started making suggestions—
"Auntie, has Cancan's room been cleaned? If not, please let us know, and a few of us will come over tonight to help you make your bed."
"Grandma, how many days is Cancan coming back to stay? Oh dear, she must really miss the food from her hometown. I happen to have some freshly pickled salted eggs from this year, I'll bring some over for you to try."
Everyone in Langshan Town knows Jiang Cancan. She was the first real star in their town. Such a big event, and that little girl won the championship!
Most importantly, because Jiang Cancan won the competition, many wealthy people donated money to their town. Not only did they help rebuild Langshan Primary School, but they also received several donations to the town's primary and secondary schools, which were used to build new computer labs and libraries.
People in the countryside may not care about other things, but whoever can help their children get a good education is their dearest person!
When the villagers heard that their great benefactor Jiang Cancan was coming back, they were even happier than Grandma Jiang herself!
Because Grandma Jiang's eyesight wasn't very good, the next day, several aunties and sisters-in-law from the village carried buckets of water, rags, and brooms to Jiang Cancan's house and started a thorough cleaning.
Jiang Xiaoman wanted to help, but she couldn't squeeze in!
When his sisters-in-law saw that he was also coming to help clean the room, their eyebrows practically stood on end, and their chubby faces were full of disapproval.
"Xiaoman, you are the god of wealth of Langshan, how could you do such a thing?"
"That's right! Go back and get back to your work, we'll take care of things here."
A group of aunts and sisters-in-law collectively pushed Jiang Xiaoman out.
"What did I tell you? Can Can is back, and the village officials are so eager to rebuild all the roads in the village, why would you need to clean up? Come on! Let's go have some wine to help with the pregnancy!"
What the heck?!
Chapter 243
There's a custom in Langshan: when a woman in the family becomes pregnant and has safely passed the first three months, they invite some locally recognized blessed people to help the pregnant woman with her pregnancy.