Free Web NovelChapter 444: Chapter 233: A Favor (2)
As he spoke, he and the driver unloaded various items from the cart: a square wooden bucket, a wooden housing with a baffle, a roller with inverted U-shaped teeth for threshing... Soon, a jumble of parts lay piled on the ground.
Juhua, worried about the vegetable rice cooking in the pot, only gave the parts a quick glance. They were clearly components for a rice thresher, but she couldn’t immediately see how they were any better than the one her cousin Laifu had made. "Cousin, you’re staying for dinner, right? I’ll go get the meal started," she said to Laifu before hurrying into the kitchen.
When Qingmu saw the pile of parts, he was happy but also worried. "Is this alright?" he asked. "Manager Song already paid us, so why is he sending a machine too?"
Laifu took out his tools and began expertly assembling the rice thresher. He glanced over his shoulder at the driver, who was turning the cart around and leading the horse to the river for a drink. "It’s fine," he whispered to Qingmu. "The workshop has made a ton of these. A while back, they shipped a bunch to Qinghui and Linhuzhou. I heard they’re selling for over ten taels of silver a piece."
Qingmu was stunned. "That expensive? Who would be willing to buy one?" His cousin had helped him build one, and the materials had only cost about three or four taels of silver.
Laifu shook his head at him. "What do you know? Think about those wealthy households. They all own hundreds, even thousands of acres of land. Some of the richest families probably have several thousand! This machine saves a ton of labor, and they’re not short on cash. Who wouldn’t want to buy one? Besides, the workshop even promises to fix it if it breaks!"
Qingmu was confused again. "That sounds like a lot of trouble. Didn’t you say the axle on this thing wears down easily? If they promise to fix it every time it breaks, how can they possibly keep up?"
Laifu pursed his lips. "That’s why the manager set some rules. Anyone who buys five or more machines gets free on-site repairs if one breaks. Even if they don’t break, they’ll still do a free inspection once a year, right after the autumn harvest. I mean, who’s going to break it on purpose? It’s just one house call a year, which isn’t a big deal. For anyone who buys fewer than five, they just have to bring a broken machine to the workshop for free repairs. That’s even easier. And let me tell you, our boss is rich. He’s hired real master craftsmen. These machines are built way better than ours—they don’t break easily."
Qingmu still didn’t get it. If Juhua had been there, she would have been floored by the Fang family’s marketing tactics. Their whole after-sales service program was on par with the major corporations from her past life.
"That still won’t work," Qingmu insisted, still unable to wrap his head around it. "Things wear out over time. Even a bull gets old and can’t work. If your boss keeps fixing them for people, he’ll definitely go under."
Laifu slapped his forehead. "Ha, look at me! I forgot the most important part," he said with a laugh. "The manager also said that the free on-site repairs are only covered for two years. Starting from the third year, they’ll still fix it if it breaks, but they’ll start charging for it."
Qingmu finally let out a breath of relief. "Now that makes sense! If they fixed them for free forever, they’d have to be fools!"
Laifu said, "They’re no fools, they’re incredibly sharp. So don’t you feel bad about this. The amount of money they’re making off these machines is more than we can even imagine. Giving you one is nothing to them." He thought for a moment, then added sheepishly, "Of course, you should still be grateful. If they hadn’t given it to you, it’s not like we could have complained."
Qingmu suppressed a smile. "That’s exactly it. They paid for the blueprints. Giving us a machine on top of that is a kindness. Please thank Manager Song for me."
Though he said that, he felt his unease begin to fade. ’The Fang family must be making nearly ten taels of silver on each machine, right? It couldn’t be much less. So how many will they sell in a year? And I hear they’ve opened more than just one workshop.’
He waited for Laifu to finish assembling the machine so he could help carry it to the field, making small talk with him in the meantime.
Laifu mentioned that sales of the rice threshers from the workshop here in Xiatang Market weren’t actually that high. He’d heard business was booming over in Donglin State to the east. One time, a single household bought thirty machines.
"It was someone from Donglin State. I happened to overhear it when Manager Song was seeing him out," Laifu said.
’Thirty machines?’ Qingmu thought. ’Just how much land does that family own? They must have over a thousand acres, at least. There really are a lot of rich people out there!’
Laifu continued, "The Xiatang Market workshop has sold quite a few to Linhuzhou. Even though they built a workshop over there too, the materials and labor are more expensive, which drives up the cost. So, they’ve been shipping a lot of machines from here. It’s cheap to send them down the Qinghui River."
Qingmu asked, "Is it easy for your workshop to buy lumber?"
Laifu laughed. "It is. Oh, right, the manager even praised your village. He said you all are farsighted for refusing to sell off your timber. He’s also spoken with people from the other villages, telling them not to cut down trees recklessly, and to be sure to plant saplings to replace any they take. He said the workshop isn’t just a one-year operation. If everyone cuts down all the trees at once, he won’t be able to buy any lumber in the future. He wants to make sure everyone has trees to sell year after year."
Qingmu nodded. ’That makes sense,’ he thought. ’If Manager Song didn’t urge them to plant more trees, the workshop would eventually have to ship in lumber from farther away. Wouldn’t that just be losing money?’
By the time they finished talking, the rice thresher was fully assembled. Qingmu and Laifu hoisted it up and carried it to the field. Yang Family and Zheng Changhe were overjoyed to see it, and when they heard it was even better than the one they were currently using, they were grinning from ear to ear.
Laifu said he still had work to do at the workshop and couldn’t stay any longer. He bid a hasty farewell and left without staying for lunch at his aunt’s house.
After he left, Qingmu and his parents gave the machine a try. They found it was indeed more agile and lighter than the one they had been using, and it was easier to get a good rhythm going with the pedals.
He marveled to himself. ’There are so many little tricks to a craft like this. Everyone can make the same thing, but the quality can be worlds apart. No wonder that Boss Fang is so loaded. He didn’t bat an eye at spending two thousand taels of silver on the blueprints, because he has the ability to make the machines so well that no one else can compete.’
The three of them put in a good deal of effort, threshing another two baskets of rice before finally heading home for lunch.
