Wang Xudong confirmed that the decoration style this time is completely different from the last time. The decoration style this time is based on the combination of modern and classical styles. When Wang Xudong told the designer about modern Chinese style, the decoration master immediately understood
Wang Xudong understood what he meant. Then came the details. Wang Xudong walked around the house with the designer and spent the whole morning explaining his understanding and decoration details to the designer.
In the end, the decoration cost was determined to be 280,000 yuan, not a penny less.
After Wang Xudong settled the decoration matter, he called Li Xiaotian at noon that day. The two of them found a place to have lunch and set off directly in his van in the afternoon.
The two people started from the East China Sea and drove all the way to the west. They drove all day and night, and finally drove from the easternmost part of the motherland to the westernmost part. After staying in a hotel in the city for a day, they continued to drive and traveled to remote areas according to the map.
We drove to the small county town, and then drove from the county town to the small township.
Every time they went to a small town, the two of them would stop the car and search along the town. What they were looking for was a handmade leather shoe shop. What they were looking for were old folk craftsmen of handmade leather shoes. And this handmade leather shoe craft is very popular in the city.
They have long been extinct, so what Wang Xudong wants is to go to the poorest areas to find them. Only in these poorest areas can it be possible to find people who still insist on making handmade leather shoes.
However, even in the most impoverished and remote counties and towns, there are very few shops making handmade leather shoes. It takes almost a dozen villages and towns to find one. Even if you find one, you can’t find one.
People who do crafts may not necessarily meet Wang Xudong's requirements.
On the third day of the search, Wang Xudong finally found a simple shop labeled "Leather Shoe Shop" at the end of the street in a small town. The layout of the shop was almost exactly the same as that of Wang Xudong's father's shop. There was a shop about four years old.
A middle-aged man in his teens is sitting in a simple shop making shoes. There are no people in the shop. It can be seen that the business is not good.
Wang Xudong walked into the store, took a look, walked directly to the wooden shelf, picked up the finished shoes placed on it, and looked at them in his hands. He was an expert, and you could tell at a glance the level of the master through the shoes he had made.
The shoemaker saw Wang Xudong and Li Xiaotian coming in and hurriedly came over to greet them. However, he was a little surprised to see that Wang Xudong and Li Xiaotian were dressed completely differently from the locals.
"You two, do you want to make shoes?" the shoemaker asked quickly, speaking in the local dialect. Although he could not understand it clearly, Wang Xudong and Li Xiaotian could roughly understand it.
"Are these shoes all handmade?" Li Xiaotian asked, while Wang Xudong still stood looking at each pair of shoes carefully.
"It must be handmade. How can it be so cheap if it's not handmade?"
"Cheap? Is it cheaper to make it by hand?" Li Xiaotian heard this statement for the first time, and then asked the master: "How much does a pair of your shoes cost?"
"It depends on what kind of thing you want to make. There are expensive ones of 100 yuan and cheap ones of 50 yuan."
"So cheap?" Even Li Xiaotian couldn't help but be surprised.
"What do you call it?" Wang Xudong asked after putting down his shoes.
"My surname is Ma."
"Master Ma, how is your shoe-selling business doing?"
"It's okay, so-so." How can ordinary business people say that their business is not doing well, but Wang Xudong also knows from this that business is indeed not doing well.
"Okay, Master Ma, can you make customized shoes?"
“Customized shoes?”
"Just measure your feet and make shoes."
"It can be done. I have been making shoes since I was a child. I have been making shoes for decades. There are some shoes that I don't know how to make? But I said that to measure your feet and make shoes, you need to make new molds. Making the molds is very laborious. This
The price will be higher.”
"Money is not an issue. How much do you think a pair is suitable for?"
"At least two hundred dollars a pair."
"Two hundred, right? Yes, we can make a pair for each of us."
"That's okay, you two can choose the style yourself. Which style do you want? Pointed toe or flat toe."
"Can you make the same style as he has on his feet?" Wang Xudong asked, pointing to the leather shoes on Li Xiaotian's feet.
"Of course you can do it. I have been doing it for decades. I started learning to make leather shoes when I was five years old. As long as I have seen all the shoes, there is nothing I can't do. But to be honest, the leather of your shoes is made here.
It’s not easy to find, but you can make it, but you have to pay extra, and I have to go to the city to get the leather.”
"We've talked about the money, no problem. It's as much as you say. Also, Master Ma, I want to make a pair of shoes and high heels for my wife. Can you do it?"
"What can't you do? You are definitely not from our mountains. Don't underestimate us. Women in our mountains also wear high heels. Look, I have high heels, but
I didn't show it off." Master Ma said and took out two pairs of high heels from a box. To be honest, the styles were very ugly.
Wang Xudong took the high heels and looked at them carefully, looking at the details. While looking at them, he asked: "Why don't you show off your high heels?"
"To tell you the truth, I can't sell high-heeled shoes in this store. Most women don't like them. Men pay attention to the quality of their shoes, so they like to buy them from me. They are durable and cheap. Women buy shoes, especially high-heeled shoes.
What they want is to look good, and they don’t care about quality. My hand-made high heels are not as good-looking as those machine-made high heels. They don’t know the goods.”
Hearing this explanation, Wang Xudong laughed, and then asked Li Xiaotian to take out a photo of a pair of high heels and said to Master Ma: "I will give you a thousand yuan for a pair. How about you make a pair of high heels exactly like these for my wife?"
?”
"One thousand yuan? That much?" Master Ma was startled when he heard it. Then he took the photo handed over by Li Xiaotian and looked at it carefully, frowning as he looked at it.
"What? Can't do it?"
"How is it possible that I can't do it? As long as I've seen it, there's nothing I can't do, but your shoe bar is a bit complicated. I have to do it slowly and research it. The most important thing is that there are so many things on it,
There is no way I can find these little tricks to sew them on for you, and the pictures you drew on them, I just make shoes, I can’t draw."
"These are not problems. I don't need you to put things on it, and I don't need you to make patterns. I just want you to make a pair of shoes like this for me. Look at this picture and make me a pair of shoes that are exactly the same. The size
Just make it according to size 6. Is that okay?"
"It's okay, but when do you want it? It may take some time."
"Let's do this. We have two pairs of men's leather shoes, plus this pair of women's leather shoes. I will give you a total of fifteen hundred yuan. I will give you a deposit of five hundred yuan first. You can finish it in half a month, and I will come in half a month.
I want to get the shoes from you, and then give you the remaining one thousand yuan. However, you must make the same shoes. We both need shoes and this pair of high heels. Is there any problem?"
"No problem." Master Ma was very happy with the five hundred yuan. (To be continued)