Chapter 8: Molds (Thanks to the alliance leader reward from Brother Bao Bao my lord)

At 5 PM, the courier brother delivered the molds mailed by Qin Xiuli.

6 sets of solid wood molds, weighing a total of over sixty jin. Seeing Ouyang, who didn't believe that one mold weighed over ten jin, insisted on holding one and standing on the scale, only to find that he had actually gained 8 jin, and started to emo.

Qin Huai chose to ignore it and took the animal molds to try making a set.

Very successful.

Fast speed, uniform size and shape, and most importantly, not much subsequent processing is needed. The molds themselves are delicate enough, and the little rabbits, little mice, and little pigs pressed out are vivid and lifelike, which are styles children will like.

"It can actually be pressed out; I thought this kind of mold could only be used for mooncakes and osmanthus cakes." Seeing Ouyang, who ended his emo, exclaimed, pointing to another set of molds that hadn't been used, "Could it be that the Sun Wukong and Zhu Bajie on this set of molds can also be pressed out?"

"It can press out a rough shape," Qin Huai said. "Subsequent processing and coloring are needed. If the craftsmanship is good, the final product is similar to a dough figurine."

"That's not bad." Seeing Ouyang instantly became interested, "I met someone making dough figurines on the street when I took my nephew out two years ago. To be honest, I don't think they were very good; you could roughly tell it was Sun Wukong, but you couldn't look at it closely at all. 25 yuan each, can't be eaten and isn't fun to play with. My nephew broke it before we finished shopping. If you can mass-produce this, three in a batch, 3 minutes at a time, that's an hourly wage of 1500!"

"Qin Huai, why are you still opening a cafeteria? Just set up a stall at the entrance of the affiliated primary school; you're going to get rich!"

Qin Huai really wanted to take out his system panel and show Seeing Ouyang what he could rely on with his beginner finger techniques—relying on the stupidity and money of elementary school students and the tolerance of the urban management?

"You make one now, and I'll take it to give to my nephew so he can open up a sales channel for you. He's at the affiliated primary school." Seeing Ouyang felt he had already seen a bright future.

By then, Qin Huai would produce, he would sell, and getting rich would be just around the corner.

Qin Huai spread his hands: "I can't."

Seeing Ouyang:?

"You can't? Then how could your family have these molds?! Could it be that Uncle can?!" Seeing Ouyang felt it was time to build a friendship with Qin Congwen.

"My dad can't either."

Seeing Ouyang:??

"It's like this. These 6 sets of molds were ordered by my dad 27 years ago when he hadn't opened a breakfast shop yet, from the most famous carpenter in our county. He spent a lot of money. In my mom's words, if my dad hadn't ordered these 6 sets of molds back then but used this money to buy a small house in the city, our family would have been financially free long ago."

Seeing Ouyang: 0.0

"This thing is so expensive?"

"That's not it; it's mainly because houses in the city were cheap back then, even cheaper than in our county."

"Then why did Uncle spend a huge sum of money to order a set of molds he wouldn't use at all?" Seeing Ouyang didn't understand.

To this, Qin Huai expressed that this was a very long story. Speaking of this, he had to mention Qin Congwen's grand ambition.

Don't look at Qin Congwen opening a breakfast shop for more than twenty years with average craftsmanship; he was once a person with dreams. Because of its geographical location, Qu County was also prosperous for a period of time more than twenty years ago, with many merchants coming and going, including many wealthy people, and both restaurant and hotel businesses were very good. At that time, Qin Congwen's dream was to open a snack shop, steady and steady, first becoming the best in the county, then the whole province, and finally moving toward the whole country.

It just so happened that the most famous restaurant in the whole county at that time was engaged in income generation. In addition to normal Chinese lunch and dinner, they also sold snacks all day long, with many patterns, all kinds of cute animal styles, and series of gift boxes. Zodiac signs, the 108 heroes of Liangshan, Journey to the West styles—as long as the price was right, they could even be customized. There was nothing you couldn't think of, nothing they couldn't do. In just a few months, the restaurant's snacks became a famous specialty of Qu County, and merchants coming and going liked to buy a few sets as gifts.

Once snacks became popular, there were many followers. Every snack shop in Qu County, if there was one, all found carpenters to customize the same molds. Those who couldn't make high-end ones fought a price war and rolled in the low-end market. Under everyone's concerted involution, the carpenters in Qu County became hot, and Qin Congwen, who cherished the snack dream, also followed the trend to find a carpenter to order molds. Not only did he queue up, but he also added money, spent huge sums of money to customize molds, and became the number one sucker in the snack fever craze.

A few years later, the restaurant closed because the chef ran away. Without a leader, the cheap snacks of snack shops that only had molds but no hard craftsmanship were no longer popular.

Today, Qu County is no longer a transportation hub but an ordinary small county. The old brands have closed, and Qin Congwen, who changed to opening a breakfast shop because he couldn't open a snack shop, accidentally opened the Qin family breakfast shop into an "old brand." Now, except for Qin Congwen occasionally taking out the well-preserved molds that are still 99% new to mourn the money he spent following the trend back then, it is estimated that not many people remember that the specialty of Qu County was snack gift boxes.

"When my dad asked Carpenter Zhang to customize it back then, Carpenter Zhang even advised my dad, telling my dad that the Journey to the West series wasn't that simple. The restaurant dared to sell it because the master's craftsmanship was good. Molds can only press out a rough shape, and subsequent processing and coloring are needed. But my dad didn't believe in evil back then. He didn't know how to make snacks at all back then, and he was fearless. He didn't know that subsequent processing was so difficult. You think you made Sun Wukong, but others think you made the Spirit King."

"The final result was that the molds were made, but he couldn't make them. Those simple basic styles could be made by every snack shop in the county, and they tasted better than what my dad made. So later, my dad didn't open a snack shop at all, found the neighbor auntie next door to apprentice to learn how to make buns, and opened a breakfast shop."

"These six sets of molds have been left at home. He couldn't bear to throw them away, and couldn't sell them. Thanks to the good quality of the wood, they haven't rotted or been eaten by insects for so many years, and now they can be considered useful."

To this, Seeing Ouyang could only regretfully express:

"Why did Uncle decide on the Journey to the West template back then? If he had decided on the Zodiac, wouldn't our dough figurine business have started?"

"The Zodiac is so good; children must like it!"

Qin Huai felt that if Qin Congwen could hear Seeing Ouyang's words, he would definitely say: What do you know? Journey to the West only has the 4 masters and disciples of Tang Seng, and the Zodiac has a full 12. It costs three times as much money; do you understand cost-effectiveness?

Seeing Ouyang, who didn't understand cost-effectiveness, stayed at Qin Huai's house to mooch off another dinner, and finally took two large bags of red bean hedgehog buns home under Qin Luo's moved gaze. Before Seeing Ouyang left, Qin Luo didn't even dare to cheer, and only screamed after confirming that Seeing Ouyang had already taken the elevator.

"Great, I don't have to eat red bean hedgehog buns anymore!"

"Brother, what are we eating tomorrow morning?"

Qin Huai pointed to a batch of rabbit buns made when testing the molds in the kitchen this afternoon: "Eat red bean rabbit buns; other fillings haven't been made yet."

Qin Luo: o(°△°|||)︴

The alliance leader bonus will be added together when it's on the shelves (I can't write it now (*))

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 9 =====