The next day, the school's summer arts and sports classes started. Early in the morning, many students couldn't wait to come to class with their little backpacks. Those who lived nearby arrived early and had already started whispering and exchanging information in the classroom: "I heard that Brother Xiaoman has also come down the mountain and is staying at the school. We're sure to be able to eat Brother Xiaoman's cooking today!"
"Great! Brother Xiaoman's cooking is the best! I wonder if he'll make stir-fried dishes with pork cracklings today..." The little ones rubbed their hands excitedly, looking forward to lunch.
However, they were destined to continue eating the principal's signature boiled dishes today. Their little brother, Xiaoman, had been squatting at the intersection since early morning, following Zhang Jiahui and the others in their car all the way to Jiangwan Village.
Zhang Jiahui and her group arrived in two cars. The first car was her own minivan, carrying Zhang Jiahui, her assistant, two designers, the driver, and Jiang Xiaoman. The second car was an empty pickup truck.
“A few days ago, your sister Lan sent me a basket of red potatoes. I heard it’s a local specialty. Everyone in our company who tried them said they were delicious. Since I’m here today, I’ll call a car to buy a lot to take back with me,” Zhang Jiahui explained with a smile.
"Really? That's great! Jiangwan Village, which we visited today, has many kinds of potatoes. After we're done, I'll ask Aunt Chen to find you some good stuff. I guarantee they're all this year's new potatoes!" Jiang Xiaoman was also quite happy and quickly patted her chest to assure her.
He had heard from Aunt Chen when he came to pick up potatoes last time that many families in the village had not yet sold their newly harvested potatoes. He wished they could have a few more large customers like Zhang Jiahui.
Most importantly, large-scale enterprises like Zhang Jiahui's usually have company canteens. If they can secure the canteen's procurement, they won't have to worry about selling their potatoes anymore.
However, he wasn't familiar with Zhang Jiahui yet. These kinds of purchases were usually meant to give the person in charge of the cafeteria a little extra money. If he spoke up rashly, he might offend someone. Jiang Xiaoman had worked in a university cafeteria before and knew the tricks involved. Therefore, even though he wanted to ask, he held back and didn't speak.
Unexpectedly, Zhang Jiahui took the initiative to speak—
"Xiaoman, is your potato production high? If you can't sell them all, I can help you ask around in the entrepreneurs' association group to see if any canteens are interested in purchasing them. We can supply them at the purchase price, you know what I mean?"
“I understand! I understand! I even worked part-time in the cafeteria when I was in college.” Jiang Xiaoman was overjoyed.
By charging the "purchase price" instead of the "retail price," the canteen manager can make a profit, which is not a loss for the company.
For example, when the canteen reports expenses to the company, it usually reports the local listed price of the vegetable market. If the listed retail price of potatoes is 80 cents a pound and the purchase price is 50 cents, the canteen can make a profit of 30 cents per pound of potatoes. Since the canteen uses a lot of potatoes, it adds up to a considerable amount of profit over a month.
In this way, the canteen staff won't be dissatisfied with the purchase of their potatoes, and their red-fleshed potatoes are of good quality and taste good, so the employees will be happy eating them, right?
“You rascal…” Zhang Jiahui smiled and pointed at him, “You’re the nephew of the old village chief Shanrong, so we’re practically acquaintances. From now on, don’t call me President Zhang, just call me Sister.”
Jiang Xiaoman paused for a moment, then flashed a silly smile: "Hey! Sister Hui!"
In Jiangwan Village, Sister Chen, with a rosy complexion, excitedly directed her sisters-in-law to make tea and brew new tea. She even specially bought a bunch of bananas and a plate of bright red apples from a small shop. These were the only two kinds of fruit they could buy here, and bananas were a matter of luck, not always available. Today, they were lucky to have both, which was enough to make the meal look presentable for their guests.
It's no wonder she went to such lengths, even preparing several kinds of tea and fruit. The person who came today is crucial to whether their embroidery business can grow bigger and stronger in the future. Xiaoman said that this Boss Zhang owns two large companies in Shuangwan Town. The clothing company alone has annual sales exceeding 100 million yuan.
Good heavens! They can sell a hundred million a year! She never dared to dream of seeing so much money in her life; this is how much they make in a year!
Just like Xiaoman said, as long as Boss Zhang nods, he can easily loosen his fingers and the money that comes out will be enough for their whole village to eat and drink without worry for a whole year.
What they need to do is to use all their skills and let people see their special talents, so that people will be willing to take their things.
Even so, Aunt Chen was still a little uneasy. She laid out the standards they used to treat their future in-laws. If Jiang Xiaoman hadn't said that President Zhang didn't smoke, she would have gone to buy the most expensive cigarettes in the village.
Zhang Jiahui brought the designer to see the samples on purpose. After all, you can only look at the video and not touch it. Some customers pay attention to the feel and details of the embroidery. So, whether Langshan Tu embroidery can be promoted to customers, how to promote it, and at what price can be determined after seeing it in person.
Upon receiving the call, Aunt Chen busied herself throughout the village, gathering all the most skilled housewives. Each woman brought out her most prized possessions. Aunt Chen, with a selfish motive, saw this as a good opportunity and also called back her two married sisters.
The Chen sisters were taught embroidery by their grandmother. It is said that their grandmother worked as a maid in a wealthy family in her early years and learned the skill of drawing patterns and embroidery from her master. In the past, the girls in their family were required to embroider their own wedding clothes and quilts. The three sisters learned some skills from their grandmother. Unexpectedly, by their generation, machine-made sheets and quilts became fashionable again. Hand embroidery was time-consuming and considered old-fashioned, so gradually no one wanted it anymore.
Unexpectedly, after so many years, the skills passed down from their grandmother could still attract a big boss from outside the mountains! This made the three sisters overjoyed, and they secretly vowed to do their best today.
"Xiaoman, why don't you wait outside for a bit... Um, it's not appropriate for boys to come in and see this today." Aunt Chen looked at Jiang Xiaoman, who was following behind, and awkwardly blocked her at the door.
"Why can't I watch?" Jiang Xiaoman was completely confused. The business hadn't even been settled yet, and they were already starting to discard them after they had served their purpose?
"Cough~ These are all things for girls. What are you, a young man who isn't even married yet, looking at? Go, go, go! Go wait outside!" Aunt Chen closed the door, her face flushed.
Jiang Xiaoman was stunned for a moment, then blushed bright red.
He... he seems to understand something.
In the old days, traditional Chinese women loved beauty but were reserved. Besides the bed sheets and quilt covers that could be shown to others, they also had some private items in their rooms, such as exquisitely embroidered bellybands and undergarments, which could only be seen by their closest bedmates. These items were not only exquisitely embroidered, but also extremely colorful and bold in their patterns and colors, reflecting the boundless tenderness and fantasies of women in the old days about love.
However, these are things that Jiang Xiaoman cannot access right now. It's not that boys can't sell these things, it's just that the real sellers are too shy to show them to Jiang Xiaoman.
This actually benefited Zhang Jiahui and her design team, as they were all women and had no barriers to communication behind closed doors. Most importantly, the "samples" presented by the women of Jiangwan Village suddenly gave Zhang Jiahui and the designers new breakthroughs and inspiration!
For the past few years, Zhang Jiahui has focused on fast-fashion business attire and youthful formal wear, achieving good sales and a large, loyal customer base. However, consistently producing the same type of clothing led to burnout for the entire team. Zhang Jiahui had been searching for a breakthrough, and today, she suddenly had a fresh and bold idea…
This trip was absolutely worth it!
However, after a brief period of excitement, Zhang Jiahui calmed down and found Jiang Xiaoman.
She plans to proceed in two steps.
The first step must be to fully support and incubate the traditional craft of Langshan embroidery, and strive to package it and apply for intangible cultural heritage status.
The second step is to leverage the social influence of this project to develop a light luxury lingerie brand with "Langshan embroidery" as its core technology.
This time, Zhang Jiahui doesn't plan to make fashion clothes. She wants to step out of her comfort zone and go directly to make traditional lingerie in the ancient style circle!
The Hanfu market has been expanding steadily over the past decade or so, with even many trendy fashion designers drawing inspiration from Hanfu elements. This demonstrates that the industry's golden age is far from over. Alternatively, it could be said that as long as you accurately target your customers, there's no such thing as a "golden age gone" in any industry.
Most importantly, if this path is opened up, it can also drive traffic to the light luxury fashion professional wear that Zhang Jiahui and her team are currently developing. After all, girls who can afford Hanfu are generally well-off. Apart from a very few rich women who are "from wealthy families", most of them are professional women who earn their own money. Since they can afford Hanfu, they must also have a demand for professional wear.
This is a virtuous cycle of lead generation and reverse lead generation, if it works well.
Of course, the premise is that they need to find a "traditional craftsmanship spokesperson" to bring this craft to the people of China, rather than starting with a mercenary commercial value, which would cause Langshan embroidery to lose its original cultural heritage and value.
"Me? That's not appropriate! I can't even hold a needle!" Jiang Xiaoman waved her hands repeatedly.
He'd be fine shooting a video or running errands, but what kind of spokesperson? He'd never even heard of it!
"I'm not asking you to pose and shoot a promotional video like those celebrities!" Zhang Jiahui tried to persuade her for a long time, but finally lost her patience. She had reserved all her patience for her best friend, Tang Xinlan. As for the others? Ms. Zhang chose to suppress them with violence.
She reached out and grabbed Jiang Xiaoman's soft cheek, coldly snorting, "Since you started this, you have no choice. I'll have Lanlan send someone to teach you step-by-step how to explore the historical heritage of Langshan embroidery, how to shoot videos for promotion, how to package the project for intangible cultural heritage application... In short, you don't need to worry about any of that; there will be specialists to guide you. All you need to do is lend yourself and your account to act as a first-person discoverer of intangible cultural heritage, understand?"
Silly boy! She'd never seen anyone refuse to eat something that was practically handed to them when it fell from the sky.
"So this is how endorsements work! You scared me to death!" Jiang Xiaoman struggled to break free from Ms. Zhang's clutches, instinctively cupping her face in her hands. "Sister Hui, you should have said so earlier! Isn't it about being in charge? You have to be in the public eye, right?"
Zhang Jiahui gave her a satisfied look that said, "You're smart."
"Alright! I'll take care of this. I was planning to do this business anyway, and I'll have to show my face sooner or later. As long as I'm not embarrassed, the girls will be the ones who are, hehe~"
Who would have thought? A man selling traditional Chinese embroidery would actually be a boy?
"Don't worry! Nobody's embarrassed! Everyone'll just be yelling 'husband' at you online." Zhang Jiahui chuckled.
Jiang Xiaoman underestimated the girls' wild energy online. After all, real life is already stifling enough. Can't they at least show themselves by putting on an alias?
Chapter 46
After reviewing the samples and setting a rough price, Zhang Jiahui suggested that the two designers stay in Jiangwan Village for a few days to communicate more thoroughly with the women in the village who knew how to embroider. Once the design samples were finalized and sent back to the company, she could place an order directly and have the women start embroidering. This would be the most efficient way.
Most importantly, if she can make it in time, she plans to launch her company's light luxury handmade embroidered antique-style loungewear and lingerie special at the autumn new product show three months later... The change of seasons is when women can swipe their cards the most, after all, every time the seasons change, the fairies feel that their closets are empty and they can't find any clothes to wear!
After discussing the embroidery, Jiang Xiaoman took the opportunity to privately tell Aunt Chen about Zhang Jiahui bringing a car to buy potatoes.
"Well... how about those two families who carried our loads last time? Each of them can sell a thousand or so catties, and with the money they get, they can buy some meat to eat. I passed by their house yesterday on my way to the market, and I saw they only bought two pieces of tofu, mixed them with chili sauce, and said they bought a few sausages to save for tomorrow," Aunt Chen said with a sigh.
Her family wasn't well-off either, but they could still afford to buy a piece of pork every now and then for a treat. The truly poor people in the village couldn't even afford to buy lard to eat.
"Sister-in-law, don't be sad. Our lives will definitely get better in the future." Jiang Xiaoman didn't dare to make any promises, but he knew that if he could really make Langshan embroidery famous, more and more big bosses like Zhang Jiahui would see their place. Then their potatoes and local honey would be able to sell, and the people would have a better life.
"Yes! It's all thanks to you, Xiaoman. I'll go tell both families to hurry up and pack the potatoes." Aunt Chen wiped her slightly reddened eyes and hurriedly ran out to ask her two daughters to go and deliver the message.
When Jiang Xiaoman got home that evening, he told his father about it, but to his surprise, Jiang Youliang was even more open-minded than him.
"What's there to be ashamed of? In our area, decades ago, nine out of ten people who went out of the mountains to do business were men! Back then, there were even peddlers who sold rouge and hairpins."
“That’s true.” Jiang Xiaoman hadn’t thought there was anything wrong with men selling women’s clothing in the first place. Li Jiaqi even sells lipsticks and sanitary napkins. Now that her father didn’t seem to mind, she brought up another matter—
"Dad, I heard from Uncle Baichuan that someone planted honeysuckle here a few years ago? Why didn't we plant it?"
"Ugh! Those people just wanted to get a subsidy; they never intended to cultivate it properly!" Jiang Youliang was furious when he mentioned it. "Back then, the poverty alleviation cadres from the township came to the village to encourage us to plant honeysuckle, saying that the flower buds could be picked, dried, and sold for money, and that we could use the flowers to raise bees and harvest honey. It's just that he came at the wrong time; the corn in our field was already half a person tall. He said he could compensate us for the seedlings and let us cut down the corn to plant honeysuckle, but I refused! Wasting food is a crime punishable by heaven!"
"And then what happened?"
"Later, many families in our area cut down their corn and planted honeysuckle. There was compensation for the seedlings, plus some kind of subsidy for planting honeysuckle. Anyway, I heard that it was more profitable than planting corn. However, the subsidy was only given once. The following year, when the subsidy was gone, everyone stopped caring about the flowers and pulled up the seedlings to plant corn again."
"No, Dad, didn't the poverty alleviation cadre tell you that dried honeysuckle is very expensive? It sells for over eighty yuan a pound in the pharmacy~" Jiang Xiaoman was heartbroken. He didn't know about this. If he had known, he definitely would have... Never mind, he can make decisions about anything in his family, but cutting down the cornfields to plant flowers is absolutely unacceptable!
If he dares to waste food like that, his father will immediately sever their father-son relationship!
“Why didn’t they say so? The cadres in the village said that as long as we dried the honeysuckle, they would arrange for someone to come and collect it. Who knew that later… Sigh! You know about this. After that poverty alleviation cadre sacrificed his life, no one in the village cared about this anymore. At first, some people picked honeysuckle, dried it, and sold it. Later, because there were few places to collect it, the price couldn’t be sold, and the village didn’t care. When the people saw that there were no subsidies, they stopped planting it.”
At this point, Jiang Youliang gave his son a warning glare: "Let me tell you! I can't stop you from messing around with those short and long videos on your phone. But if you dare to ruin our land or learn to grow flowers like those people, we'd better separate!"
Here it comes! Ever since he grew up, his father's old saying, "If you dare not study hard, you'll be sent down the mountain to beg for food," no longer works. However, the old man quickly changed his words to, "If you dare to do this or that, we'll split up the family!"
God knows, there are only two people in his family, what's there to divide? Are they going to eat from two separate pots?
However, when it comes to food, Jiang Xiaoman would never dare to argue with his father.
So what if they can't ruin their own land? It's not like they're the only ones with land in Langshan! Uncle Jin's big tract of land next door was just bought by Sister Lan, wasn't it?
Jiang Xiaoman figured that since the expert was so confident in saying that their area was suitable for growing honeysuckle, there must be some scientific basis for it. He decided to go back to town to see if he could find the expert's original survey data. If it was suitable, he could completely revive this business. He could just plant a small amount first and gradually expand his network once he saw profits.
Moreover, honeysuckle buds aren't the only thing that can be sold after drying; the flowers won't go to waste either. He can place a few beehives in the flower field, and the money from selling honey alone can cover the costs within a year.
Having figured out a way to control her father, Jiang Xiaoman happily took a shower. When she returned, she lay down in her makeshift shack, swatting mosquitoes while habitually checking her phone to see how the school's video account was doing that day.
"Holy crap!" As soon as she opened the video, seeing the dazzling 509,000 likes and the astonishing 306,000 comments, Jiang Xiaoman rubbed her eyes hard, wondering if she had just been looking for mosquitoes and made her eyes blurry.
He closed his eyes briefly, then opened them again for a closer look—perfect! He wasn't seeing things; this video, which was just updated today, had really gone viral…
What exactly did they film? How did it suddenly become so popular?
Filled with questions, Jiang Xiaoman opened the video and watched it carefully.
Today is the first day of the summer arts and sports tutoring program at Langshan Primary School. Unlike regular classes, the summer tutoring program only has three classes: music and physical education in the morning, lunch at school, and art class in the afternoon before students can go home. The program is very relaxed, and the children are having a blast.
The two intern teachers were novices at feeding pigs and raising chickens, but their strength lay in using their professional skills to guide the children in play.
The morning started with Fang Xingchen's PE class. Fang Xingchen had been a key player on the school's soccer team since elementary school, and he got into university through the sports specialty exams. If his family hadn't been so adamant about not letting him join the provincial team, he might be representing the country in the Olympics now. Anyway, Mr. Fang's professional skills are absolutely reliable. Where have the kids in the mountains ever seen such a professional teacher? Before, PE classes were just running laps around the track, jumping rope, and playing shuttlecock. The school didn't have a soccer ball, and the only two basketballs they had were tattered and had to be saved for class.
But Fang Xingchen's class was different. He "borrowed" a lot of balls from the school, which basically ensured that each group had one ball, so everyone could play along. Soon, the playground became a sea of joy.
Among them, a small figure quickly caught the attention of Teacher Fang and Teacher Chu, who was helping to film the video.
Jiang Shuai, a third-grader, is not tall, dark-skinned and thin. He usually doesn't talk much and has almost no presence in the class. But as soon as he touches the ball, his aura instantly turns on! It's as if there's a super-powerful generator hidden in his small body, and he runs extremely fast.
Most importantly, his dark eyes seemed to hold some incredibly precise positioning system. The school didn't have money to buy a goal, so they simply built a makeshift goal using two tattered fishing nets and a few bamboo poles. Yet, every time Jiang Shuai got the ball, no matter where he was on the field, he could almost always kick it accurately into the goal...
"This talent! It's such a waste that he's not on the national team!" Looking at Jiang Shuai's small figure, Fang Xingchen felt his blood boiling.
Even more excited than him were the netizens who saw the scene through the video.
"Holy crap! Holy crap! Holy crap! What kind of insane angle is that? How did they even manage to kick it in?"
"Is this kid a genius? Which school does he go to? Tag the provincial football team right now! Come and snag this bargain!"