Chapter 8: Going broke
Translated by me, edited by Kai.
The pictures of the court girls on the bridge were simply flawless. From the flow of their moves to their gentle curves, they are all flawless. But these flawlessness opened a window of opportunity for Ye Qing.
The statues on Caiyi bridge originated from the drawings of a great artist during the Ming dynasty.
This person is called Qiu Ying, a complete art fanatic, whose expertise is in drawing all kinds of women.
The old style buildings underneath the bridge were the infamous red-light district from the olden days.
The red-light district naturally needed attractions, so Qiu Ying, being an expert in this ‘cough cough’ field, drew a piece that subconsciously drew in the higher ups of the district.
In 07, Caiyi bridge was classified as a provincial cultural heritage site. Hence, when Zhongyun invested large amounts into its restoration, someone anonymously contributed several Qiu Ying’s pieces into the restoration.
This matter caused quite a stir at the time. Under the ecstasy of Zhongyun’s officials, they picked out several clothed pictures and asked for replicas of them. Later, they were placed on the bridge for all to see.
Now the bridge has a total of 24 of these pictures. The city of Zhongyun only created 4 of them, while the rest were all part of the publicly available pictures by Qiu Ying.
Caiyi bridge is one of Zhongyun’s cultural jewels. It also has a high of reputation around the country. So of course the inspection team will need to make an inspection around here.
What if……
What if the whole road, the whole road’s curbs, were all replaced by carvings of beautiful court girls, or similar pictures?
This idea would get rejected by just about everyone.
These stone sculptures naturally need to come from sculpting machines. For complex work like the carvings of the court girls, they must require the use of small carving blades and it also needed at least an hour to finish.
Just carving words on a stone tablet would cost several hundred, but now you say you want a carving of a complex picture of court girls on a piece of marble, how much do you think it would cost?
30 minutes later, Ye Qing finally arrived in the industrial park.
The park is extremely large, one of China’s top 500 corporation sites. At the same time it is also home to Zhongyun’s leading manufacturing company [Huaxing Heavy Works].
Ye Qing clearly remembered that Huaxing heavy works is located at the third stage of the park. There are definitely piles of marble there.
The third stage construction of the park is already underway. As far as the eye can see, there are numerous heavy cranes around.
Ye Qing parked the van in front of a building that is currently under renovation. After finding who looked like the foreman of the site, he offered a cigarette and asked if there are any left over marbles lying around.
The foreman lit the cig, took a deep breath and straightforwardly pointed at a nearby pile of marble. Telling Ye Qing that he can take as much as he wanted.
Ye Qing picked out 7 scrap pieces that are roughly the same size as curb stones. Having returned to his factory, he closed the door and summoned out Hulk One, Hulk Two, and that rare rapid metal engraving machine.
There are a bunch of human picture CAD designs online, but it is rare to find one meeting Ye Qing’s requirements.
The curb stone will be rectangular after being installed horizontally into the ground, but all the pictures of the court ladies were vertical.
Due to wrong proportions of the character, the resulting carving will definitely be lacking in beauty.
Luckily our country is short on everything, but people and history. There are many classical scroll drawings that survived the testament of time. And many of them were drawn horizontally.
A horizontal drawing of a bewitching dancing court girl was found by Ye Qing through the magical use of the internet.
This CAD drawing possesses outstanding detail and large dimensions. Wanting to carve this one onto stone naturally required some minor adjustments, but this is just some trivial work for Ye Qing.
In under half an hour, a 25 kilo piece of marble was carried by Hulk One, like grabbing a chicken by the neck, onto the workbench of the metal engraver. Having secured the marble, the engraving blades started to carve out the drawing with unimaginable speeds.
After the chaotic debris calmed, there appeared a breathtaking ancient beauty.
Perfection!
Ye Qing excitedly slapped both of his cheeks. Total automation. This speed. These cuts. They are impossible for regular metal engravers.
While carving stone for long periods of time, there is the need for a water jet to cool down the working blades. Ye Qing connected a hose to the jet and pulled out his cell phone for the stopwatch app to check out the working speed of the machine.
Having ordered Hulk Two to process the rest of the marble, Ye Qing found that with Hulk One and Hulk Two’s abilities, it only took a little over 2 minutes to carve out a piece.
Ye Qing pulled out a calculator and did some simple math. If they work 24 hours non-stop then they can process more than 120,000 pieces of granite.
………………
The next day, Ye Qing brought some steamed buns and congee to the hospital.
Ye Jiangning is lying on bed with oxygen support. Whereas Xu Lan was sitting in nursing chair yawning non-stop.
Ye Qing placed the breakfast, and pulled out 12 already prepared stack of bills.
“The CNC mill sold at 180,000. I left 60,000 in factory as liquid assets.” Ye Qing opened the containers, and handed it over to his mom after cooling it off for a bit: “120,000 is probably enough for Lu Xiaozhen and Qian Dongdong’s medical fees. During this period I’ll try to find ways to get more orders.”
“Didn’t the rest of the workers resign?” Xu Lan asked with heavy eyes: “If it’s not possible go ahead and outsource the rest of the order. It’s not necessary to earn anything, it’s fine as long as we don’t lose too much.”
“The order has been cancelled. Jiangshan masonry’s boss after finding out about the worker accident and the others resigning, cancelled the whole order.”
“Then…… go ahead and sell the rest of the machines and materials.” Ye Jiangning replied lightly. Even though he tried not moving, but there is still major pain coming from his wounds. “Lu Xiaozhen and Qian Dongdong are both heavily injured. When they leave the hospital, under no circumstances, can we cut on their compensations.”
“We can do this slowly, the more anxious we are, the lower the price tag for everything. The park has many factories, I’ll try to find a job there for the time being.”
Having spent some time conversing with them. Ye Qing asked what they wanted for lunch.
“Go buy some ribs from the market. Don’t try getting take outs, it’s much healthier with home cooking.” Xu Lan stated.
Ye Qing nodded and replied he’ll try looking for some outsourcing jobs from nearby mechanical factories. If he actually finds one then he’ll work there for the time being.
Having left the hospital, Ye Qing went to the nearby fruit store, he bought 2 fruit baskets and had them sent to Lu Xiaozhen and Qian Dongdong’s rooms.
Lu Xiaozhen is staying in the regular ward and is already awake. Having met Ye Qing, he told him that he had no resentment. After all, the cause of the incident is somebody else. There is no need to push all the blame onto him.
Lu Xiaozhen’s wife gave Ye Qing the cold shoulder the whole time. Her husband had suffered injuries on the job, which was of course the boss’s fault.
“Take a good rest, although the factory has no money, it still has a pile of machinery. There is no need for you to save me money, use want’s got to be used, no questions asked.”
Lu Xiaozhen was about to reject the compensation offer, but took it due to his wife’s knife like stares.
Qian Dongdong is still in ICU, so Ye Qing couldn’t enter. Hence he just handed the fruits and money to his family members.
Now he only has 50,000 yuan left. This money can’t be used just yet, as Ye Qing still needed to sort out one other matter.
9 am. Ye Qing parked the van in front of Zhongyun’s city construction department.
Bringing Han Youpeng’s documents with him, Ye Qing entered this grand and spacious building. Having found someone who might be the receptionist inside, he asked where Han Youpeng works.
“Third floor, municipal engineering office.”
Having thanked them, Ye Qing quickly went up the stairs. The municipal engineering office had its doors wide-open. At the moment, an old looking middle aged man wearing glasses is letting out his frustrations at a young man in front of him, the young man is of course Han Youpeng.
His Dad’s friend also works here, and is a director, but Ye Qing isn’t here to see him.
“Xiao Han, I’m really considering your future here. If you can get the deal signed off, then the chief will naturally look after you.”
“Go and make another run to Jiangshan masonry, and give Sang Qing a heads up. Tell him that the city construction office hasn’t made its mind yet. It’s also currently discussing details of potentially of working with other masonries. Make him as nervous as possible.”
Han Youpeng, being more obedient than anyone else, nodded his way through the whole thing.
Ye Qing is barely managed to contain his laughter. This guy seriously put some effort into his acting skills. The attitude he had when he was complaining in the van is completely gone.
After waiting for about a cup of tea’s time, Han Youpeng came out complaining and cursing. Seeing the standing Ye Qing in the hall, he was stunned: “Damn ~ you aren’t here to deliver the documents rights?”
“There is some other stuff.” Ye Qing handed over his forgotten documents, then pulled out a couple of just printed colored pictures: “Take a look at this.”
Han Youpeng received the pictures with doubts, then let out a scream of shock.
5 pictures, 5 unique marble slabs.
These last few days he had searched for good deals from various masonaries. How can he not figure out the stone materials in these colourful pictures.
It’s just……
On these 5 differently shaped marble pieces, there were carvings of the same picture.
Han Youpeng widened his eyes, the beauty in the carvings were simply exceptional. A flowing dress, a dance that is unforgettable, a court lady who transcends time.
Yet this work of art gave Han Youpeng a feel that, the court lady is actually real and dancing right in front of him.
“Beautiful, simply beautiful.” Han Youpeng excitingly yelled: “This is simply a work around of art. I feel like this is even more beautiful than the statues on Caiyi bridge.”
“Look, look, the looks this girl is giving, the way she stares at me, it’s almost like she wants me.”
Han Youpeng stared at the magical pictures in his hands, while wishing for a magnifying glass to take a closer look.
Having gotten past the shock, Han Youpeng remembered why he is looking at these pictures.
“Wait, that’s not right, why are you making me look at these pictures?”
Han Youpeng is lost like being stuck in a complex maze: “Although I would love to possess these magnificent works of art, but clearly that’s not right. I don’t even have enough to afford them.”
Ye Qing took back the pictures and pointed to the shape of the marble: “Take a closer look, what shape are these marble blocks?”
“Looks like?” Just now did Han Youpeng pay any attention to the marble, but taking another long look, he finally managed to understand the hint. These rocks look almost like curbstones.
“Curbstones?”
“Yes.” Ye Qing conspiratorially stated: “What would you say if the city’s main streets were changed to these curbstones, what do you think the effects would be?”
“It will…… It will……” Han Youpeng’s mouth appeared to have been stuffed with a printing press. After stuttering for ages, he finally let out a complete sentence.
“I know! Zhongyun’s municipal government would definitely go broke!”