I used rebirth to bury his captivating gaze.

Chapter 124 Jade Aesthetics Art Shop Opens (The Treasured Stone in the Senior Brother's Hand)

Wearing a thick cotton coat, Yu Mei walked along Shishi Street and saw a man engraving a seal next to the entrance of a grocery store.

The signboard of the "Ke Lai Duo" grocery store on the second floor reads "(Marriage Agency)" in large characters, and to the right of these characters are written "Art Decoration, Carving".

On the window of the second-floor shop, a red paper of A4 size was pasted with the words "Recruiting Trainees" written in black ink calligraphy.

She went up an iron staircase next to the grocery store and entered the second floor of the art club. The second floor consisted of just this one brick shop; there were no other buildings or other second floors used for business.

She entered through the wooden door and saw a man and a woman, both around fifty years old, sitting on long wooden benches inside three dark yellow wooden tables, with their faces facing outwards, doing nothing.

He sat on a wooden stool with his back to the outside and his face to the inside, busy carving words on each small red brick sheet by hand.

The middle-aged man stopped carving the seal and turned around abruptly to look at Yu Mei. His gaze froze for a moment, then quickly returned to normal. He asked, "What kind of work do you want to order?"

Yu Mei first greeted the people inside the room, then shook her head and said, "Are you the owner of this art studio? Are you hiring apprentices?"

The old lady inside the house greeted Yu Mei with a smile, "Hello, please have a seat. My son is hiring apprentices to carve seals and characters."

The middle-aged male art shop owner turned back to continue engraving the characters in his hands.

The old lady told her how much the tuition was, and Yu Mei handed over two blue bills of two hundred each.

Then Yu Mei stayed. Just as she sat down, a man in his thirties wearing a black cotton hat and a thick black cotton leather jacket walked in from outside. He walked into the house with a smile, greeted Yu Mei, and then nodded and smiled at the two elderly people, a man and a woman, inside the house as a greeting.

He sat for a moment, then took out several blank red plastic stamps without any engravings from a drawer in the wooden table and went out.

Yu Mei looked at the old lady curiously and asked in a low voice, "Who is this person?" The old lady smiled and replied, "He's also an apprentice here, named Xu Aqiang. He's been learning for a while now, and he carves seals for customers downstairs." Yu Mei nodded and understood. The person she saw carving seals in front of "Ke Lai Duo" every day while strolling around the street for her grocery store was actually the male apprentice of the owner of this art studio.

Yu Mei explained beforehand that she would not learn seal carving, but only art decoration, and the art master and the two old men did not say anything.

For the next few months, Yu Mei stayed at this art and decoration shop to learn how to write artistic lettering.

She noticed that although the boss didn't talk much, he was very meticulous in his teaching. And every time Ah Qiang came, he would bring something new to share with everyone.

One day, Xu Aqiang came in mysteriously, holding a special stone in his hand. "Master, do you think this stone is suitable for carving a seal? I got it by chance."

The master asked, "Where did the stone come from?"

"This morning a special customer brought me a seal to have engraved. Master, why don't you engrave it? I'm afraid I can't do it well."

The master craftsman took the seal and examined it carefully, his eyes lighting up. "This is a fine piece of material. If carved well, it will be worth a fortune. Young Xu, you can carve it yourself. I trust your skills. Good luck, and this customer will definitely give you a high reward for carving the seal." With that, the master craftsman handed it to her, patting her on the shoulder to show how much he valued his eldest apprentice.

Yu Mei also went over to take a look. A Qiang winked at her and said, "Junior Sister, I'll show you when it's finished." After saying that, he walked out, then turned back to Yu Mei and said with a smile, "Junior Sister, I think you're getting prettier and prettier."

The master's father, sitting inside, said in a serious tone, "Little Xu, don't let your wife hear you saying that."

"Uncle, I was just joking with my junior sister." He said, then quickly turned and ran out.

The master's mother said, "Little Xu loves to joke. Don't you know that?"

“I was just teasing him on purpose. I know he said he was just playing around.”

"Alright, that female customer just now wanted to find work and a partner, but after all that nonsense, she didn't pay a single penny. Business is really tough for marriage agencies and labor service companies." The old lady grumbled.

Yu Mei was only thinking about the stone in her senior brother's hand and didn't listen to what the old couple was saying. She felt a sense of anticipation for the special stone to be engraved with words in her senior brother's hands. She felt that her days here were becoming more and more interesting and full of unknown surprises. She became even more determined to learn the craft well.

What's infuriating is that the male boss is a bit petty. Every time he makes a plaque or lightbox for a customer, he uses an electric saw to cut the lengths of several pieces of wood or iron pipes that have been measured in advance. Then he welds the cut iron pipes or uses nails of various sizes to attach the lightbox cloth. He then uses a carving knife to cut out the plaque or lightbox cloth that has been wrapped. The boss does all of this by hand.

The male boss didn't want Yu Mei to do it, because he was afraid that Yu Mei's carving knife wouldn't be able to control the knife properly and would ruin the lightbox fabric.

Besides learning to write artistic characters and calligraphy, Yu Mei had to rely on her own observation and listening skills to learn everything else by secretly watching others.

Moreover, she secretly watched how the boss and customers negotiated the order prices. Once, the boss told Yu Mei a truth: he sent away a female customer who wanted her engraved.

He told Yu Mei the truth, “The price for engraving is like this: when a customer comes in, like the lady we just sent away, I take out two pieces of paper of the same quality, but the customer can’t tell if they are the same quality. So you tell her, which quality of paper do you want for engraving? One is cheaper, and the other is more expensive. Then let the customer choose.”

"Then if the customer chooses the more expensive one, wouldn't you earn more?"

Yu Mei asked, "Did the customer choose the cheaper one? Is it because the art studio owner isn't making as much money?"

"That's for sure, but I still make money whether she chooses the cheaper ones or the more expensive ones. It's just that she makes more money when she chooses the more expensive ones. It's because both are the same type of paper at the same price."

During her breaks, Yu Mei went alone to a nearby building materials store to inquire about the cost of raw materials for art and decoration shops. She was preparing for the end of her studies.

If she didn't know the price of the decorative materials used in the art and decoration shop, wouldn't she be unable to provide customers with a clear account when she opened her business? After asking, fearing she might forget, she wrote it down in a small notebook when she got home.

Just like when she was learning hairdressing, she would observe the hairstyles of men and women walking on the street while learning, and when she returned to hairdressing school, she could imitate other people's hairstyles and cut them out.

While she can't perfectly imitate every style of hairdressing and art, she can at least capture 80-90% of the look. As for the skills themselves, she only learned 30% from her teacher and 70% through self-study. The master leads you through the door, but the rest is up to you!

The money the master receives is real, regardless of how many portions you can make.

Then, as Yu Mei continued her studies until spring arrived, Liang Zi went to the art and decoration shop that had closed down after Yu Mei had studied there for a few days.

He was initially stunned to see Yu Mei there, but quickly recovered and pretended not to see anything. He greeted the parents of the craftsmen who were talking to customers about their work, muttered a few words to the craftsmen who were nailing wooden lightbox frames, and then left.

It turns out that Xiao Liangzi has opened a new art and decoration shop nearby, which will be open for business soon.

It was later learned that the two had been friends for a long time and had been exchanging goods and services with each other.

Yu Mei was a little worried, afraid that Xiao Liangzi's newly opened shop would steal a lot of business. But the master seemed not to care at all, still focused on his work.

Not long after, Xiao Liangzi's new shop opened, and he launched many promotional activities, attracting a lot of customers. Yu Mei's craftsman's shop saw a decline in business. However, strangely enough, those customers who had their renovations done by Xiao Liangzi soon encountered various problems and came to Xiao Liangzi to complain.

It turned out that Xiao Liangzi had used inferior materials to save costs. Although Master Yu Mei's prices were slightly higher, her workmanship was exquisite and her materials were of high quality. Gradually, old customers returned, and many new customers came specifically to try her services.

Ah Qiang joked, "Our master is still the most reliable." Yu Mei nodded in agreement.

As business improved, the master craftsman began to give Yu Mei more freedom, allowing her to make simpler signs and light boxes. Yu Mei worked carefully but also completed them admirably.

She learned real skills at this art and decoration shop and also felt the importance of honest business dealings. She believes that she will uphold this belief when she opens her own shop in the future.

Soon after, Yu Mei's new art and decoration shop opened. The name of her art shop, with its large "art" characters, was the same as the name of her hair salon: "Da Xiao Si Si Art and Decoration Shop".

The moment the plaque was hung up, the master's mother and Xiao Liangzi stood in a corner not far away and secretly watched it. After watching it, they whispered that this girl was really amazing. Her master hadn't taught her anything at all!

Xiao Xu, who makes seals in front of the "Kelaiduo" supermarket, told Yumi that Kelaiduo was preparing to change its signboard.

Upon hearing this, Yu Mei hurriedly ran into Kelai Supermarket to ask the owner about making a signboard. She wondered if he would agree to let her, a female art and decoration boss, make an old-fashioned large signboard!

Yang Yumei is waiting to see!