After lunch, Yang Chuxia went to Land Officer Yang’s house first. Today, Land Officer Yang was not at home but had gone to the county. After all, such a big incident had happened in the village; he had to go to the county to take care of things and sign some documents for Ye Ziping and his family.
Since the main victim was Yang Da’an’s family, Yang Da’an also went with him, along with the other two village elders and their sons. Seeing there were so many people going, Land Officer Yang asked Yang Dayong to get off the ox-cart.
So, when Yang Chuxia arrived, Yang Dayong was doing carpentry work at home.
"Uncle Dayong, have you had lunch?"
"I just finished and had a little rest. This morning, I didn’t get to finish making the legs for this cabinet, so now I’m going to work on them." Yang Dayong said while working on it.
"Uncle Dayong, did you finish making the wheelchair I asked you to make last time?"
"Yes, I did. Wait for me to get it for you!" As he spoke, Yang Dayong went into the house and brought out the completed wheelchair. "Look, it took me much less time to make it the second time than the first time."
"Uncle Dayong, how long does it take you to make one wheelchair ?" Yang Chuxia looked at the new chair, and it seemed that the craftsmanship was even more delicate than the last one.
"It took me almost ten days to make the first one, but this time it was faster, only taking eight days."
Yang Chuxia calculated the time. Eight days to make one wheelchair means she could make three wheelchairs a month, and still have some time left to make something else to sell with them.
If one wheelchair could be sold for fifty to one hundred taels, even if they only sold one a month, it would take less than six months to recover the cost of setting up the shop.
"Uncle Dayong, I’m planning to open the shop before the New Year. However, it won’t be enough to sell only wheelchairs; I want to ask you to help make some other things too, and we can sell them together in the shop." Yang Chuxia said while examining the wheelchair.
"Are you really going to open a shop?"
Yang Dayong asked her again to be sure.
"Of course I’m serious! I’ve already bought the shop; it would be a waste not to open it." Yang Chuxia thought for a moment and then said, "Uncle Dayong, I was serious when I said last time that we could start a shop together. I have ideas, and you have skills, so together we can make a lot of money."
Hearing this, Yang Dayong laughed and said, "Alright, I don’t expect to become rich, but whatever you say, I’ll do it. After all, I don’t have any other skills, except for this craftsmanship. So, it’s up to you how we’ll do it."
"Hehe, I was waiting for you to say that." Yang Chuxia continued, "Uncle, I’ll go to town tomorrow to tidy up the shop. Meanwhile, you can make some more wheelchairs while we’re not open yet. I’ll draw some new designs for you tonight, and then we’ll make them together. If you need more hands, you can take on an apprentice, but they’ll have to sign a contract, otherwise it wouldn’t be good if they ran off with our skills."
"Alright, I understand." Yang Dayong nodded in agreement.
Yang Chuxia looked at the wheelchair and suddenly asked, "Will my granduncle return home tonight? Will they stay overnight in the county?"
"They probably won’t stay overnight since there are quite a few people, it would be a waste of money."
"Alright, I’ll come over again tonight."
However, Yang Dayong warned her, "No, please don’t come over. If there’s something urgent, we’ll come to your house tonight. If not, let’s talk tomorrow. You’re a young woman, you shouldn’t be running around at night." Yang Dayong thought it would be better not to have any more incidents like the recent one, where someone went missing during the ceremony.
"That works too. It’s not particularly urgent anyway, we’ll talk about it tomorrow. I’ll go back for now and draw some designs for the things you need to make."