Transmigrated Farmgirl's Scheme to Get Rich - Chapter 239
A Good Knife
Manager Zhou found a piece of raw pork skin and placed it on a cutting board, dragging Mo Yan’s cleaver across it. After that, he raised up the piece of pork skin on the cutting board. It had been cleanly sliced into two halves, without any connecting tissue.
After trying it out, Manager Zhou repeatedly praised it as a ‘good knife’. The people who came to take a look all came closer, “It’s really sharp, but such a cleaver will definitely be very expensive!”
“Good knives require a lot of materials, so will naturally be more expensive than ordinary knives, but let me run the numbers for you. Normal cleavers only have an edge made of steel. They cost five hundred dollars, but can only be used for ten years before the steel runs out and the knife can’t be sharpened anymore. The cleaver I have here will be sold for a thousand dollars, but can be used for at least twenty years. On top of that, it’s even sharper and safer than normal cleavers, making it hard to cut your hand. Everyone, come and try it out.”
It was easier to cut your hand with a blunt knife, and as long as you knew how to use it, a sharper blade made it easier to avoid that. This was something the townsfolk understood.
If you said it like that, this cleaver really wasn’t that expensive. Some people came over to try it out, and all repeatedly praised it.
In the crowd, a person said, “I’ll buy a cleaver. The one at home doesn’t have any steel anymore, and my mother cut her hand when chopping up potatoes.”
Mo Yan said, “I’m sorry, but this cleaver is just a sample. If you want to buy one, just go to my shop after a few days. However, if you pre-order it now, you can have it 20% off, and it’ll just cost eight hundred dollars.”
The crowd all asked how they could pre-order the cleavers, and Mo Yan borrowed a brush and paper from Manager Zhou, “If you want to pre-order a cleaver, just hand over a deposit, and come over to the shop to get your cleaver after three days. I’ll note down your names now.”
Five people handed over a deposit right then and there, probably because their households just so happened to need a new cleaver. Because it was 20% off, it was only three hundred dollars more than an ordinary cleaver, but it was much higher quality.
Manager Zhou found it interesting as he watched from the side, “Girl, this is the first time someone’s been so successful at selling cleavers. You’re really businessman material.”
“The main reason is because the cleavers truly are high-quality. Uncle Zhou, think about it. Household goods like these which every family needs to use on a daily basis can only make money via word-of-mouth and positive testimonies.”
“You’re right! Look at my braised meat shop, the only reason it’s been run for decades without being closed is because it’s the real deal, and you can be assured of the taste.”
Mo Yan returned to the shop with the pre-orders. Xiaowu couldn’t believe that she was able to sell cleavers just by walking out holding one of them.
Seeing him still frozen in shock, Mo Yan said, “What are you standing there for, go and start forging knives! I’ll design a few different types of knives later. You’ll have enough work to do just serving the nearby areas.”
Xiaowu went to the back to forge knives, but he was a bit overworked having to both forge the cleavers and tend to the forge.
After Mo Yan stood in the forge and watched for a while, she also noticed the problem, “Brother Xiaowu, you can hire an apprentice. If there’s anyone suitable, you can bring him here.”
When she returned to the front, Mo Yan thought, The same knife blade can have different handles. That way, the customers can choose according to their own preferences. In that case, there’d be over a hundred products on exhibit, and they’d need to make a few more racks just to display them all.
The news of the smithy being converted into a knife shop spread across town, and there was a continuous stream of people coming over to take a look. Although not everyone who came bought a cleaver, business was still booming.
For each knife he forged, Mo Yan increased Xiaowu’s salary by 2%. And just like that, Xiaowu’s monthly salary became higher than the entire smithy’s previous salary.
The next day, Xiaowu brought a thirteen to fourteen-year-old teenager over, saying that he was his nephew. His name was Shitou, and he was willing to learn Xiaowu’s trade. [1]
Mo Yan took a look at the boy. He seemed quite honest, so she was willing to let him stay here and give him a shot, but since he didn’t know anything yet, he’d be paid according to the rules of a standard apprentice.
He wouldn’t be paid for the first month, and they’d decide whether or not to let him continue working on the second month, depending on how much he’d learnt. If he was allowed to stay and continue learning, he’d be paid two hundred dollars a month until he’d become an apprentice for three years.
If an apprentice left their apprenticeship halfway through, they wouldn’t be able to work in that profession. Otherwise, their manager and master will have the right to sue them.
Most of the apprentices in the countryside were under the same stipulations. Some of the more miserly managers and masters wouldn’t even pay them for the first year, and only give them free meals.
Mo Yan wrote a contract, and the three signed their names on it. After holding a simple master-disciple ceremony, the two’s relationship as master and apprenticeship was confirmed.
At the start, Xiaowu forged the blades and Shitou tended to the forge. After a month, the sound of forging at the back became rhythmic, and the initially-monotonous sound became a ‘ding-dong’.
Mo Yan ran to the back to take a look. The master and disciple were in the midst of forging a piece of red-hot metal, both with hammers in their hands.
Allowing the disciple to forge alongside him meant that the master had acknowledged the disciple.
There were over twenty types of knives currently on the racks in the shop. There were also a few types of hilts prepared for the cleavers; aside from various types of woods, there were also ox-bone handles. The customer could choose whichever one they liked.
The small shop’s reputation quickly spread, and there were famous chefs from the nearby restaurants who came here to buy knives. Their business was unique in town, and no one had competed against them, making it very successful.
Today, the weather was good, so Mo Yan stood outside to bask in the sun. As she looked at the ‘Humanity’s Smoke and Fire’ plaque, she started thinking.
Humanity’s smoke and fire was intrinsically linked to food, leisure and necessities. There was clothing and jewellery in the storefronts, food and tea leaves in the commercial firm, and daily goods, so on and so forth. There were cleavers in the smithy, but they could also sell cookware such as woks and spatulas.
She suddenly thought of modern department stores. As long as you went there, you could buy everything you needed all in one place, without having to waste time going anywhere else. It’s just that it would require a large space, which they couldn’t get in the short term.
Mo Yan suddenly had a bold thought. What if I rented all of the storefronts on the main road, connected them together, and made a large scale department store?
For that long-term goal, Mo Yan decided to save up every dollar from then on, and to earn more money. In the department store, the tea leaves didn’t need to be the highest-quality, the clothes just needed to be wearable, and the jewellery was optional.
As she was staring into space by the road, a carriage drove in from the south. Wasn’t that Mo Ling’s carriage?
Mo Yan waved towards the carriage, which stopped in front of her. Mo Ling carried Zao’er off the carriage, and Mo Yan hurriedly picked him up, “Sis, where are you going?”
Mo Ling replied, “Where else would I go, I came to see you!”
The weather was warmer now anyways, and they didn’t have anywhere else to go, so they decided to play with Zao’er in front of the smithy, while Zhong Cheng went to Dengyun Tower to sell tofu.
Zao’er still wasn’t able to speak, but he could understand what the adults were saying. He had already started learning how to walk, and was walking very stably on flat land.
Mo Ling asked, “Yan’er, now that it’s warmed up and Zao’er is growing up, I’m thinking of opening a shop again. Is there anywhere suitable here?”
“Aren’t you selling tofu now?”
“We can make some money making tofu, but I think it’s not enough, and it’s not nearly as much as we’d make running a shop. It’d be better if we could buy a larger shop with space in the back, so we could also live there. It’d be easier than going back and forth with a kid, and we can still make tofu.”
“Then how about you make a tofu shop? Aside from tofu and tofu-related products, you can make a few side dishes, and you’ll probably have decent business. But all of the storefronts in the alleyway have already been rented out, and I can’t force anyone to leave!”
“You can just help me keep an eye out. We’re not in any rush, and won’t need it immediately.”
P.S. Productive business-running is probably the best part of this series. It’s what drew me in in the first place, and the other things really pale in comparison.
[1] His name is literally ‘Rock’.