Eternal madness

Chapter 40 Head Chef
Clutching the lantern, Zhang Laifu turned to the teahouse waiter and asked, "What's the quality of this lantern?"

The shopkeeper was stunned for a moment: "This is just a paper lantern, what quality does it have?"

"Which workshop made this paper lantern?"

Upon hearing this, the shopkeeper understood: "Just walk straight along Zhuyou Road until you reach the South Street intersection, then turn left into the alley. You'll see a large shop there called Lao Liangdeng Shop. It's very bright and spacious. If you can't find it, just ask around at the street corner. Everyone doing business around here knows it."

Zhang Laifu walked along the road. There was a restaurant on the side of the road, and the owner gave each customer who came out a small lantern.

There's an inn ahead, and the innkeeper gives a small lantern to any guest who goes out at night.

There was a bookstore up ahead. A customer bought two books, and the bookstore owner gave him a lantern as a gift.

Further ahead was a bookstore, where a young woman came out to see off a guest, also handing him a lantern.

Giving a small paper lantern to a traveler at night seems to be a custom in Wansheng Prefecture.

Zhang Laifu walked all the way to the old lighting shop and stood in front of the door for a long time.

The shop was indeed spacious, with a large three-bay facade but no signboard. Upon entering, there was no counter.

There were more than a dozen long tables set up inside the room, and the tables were covered with lanterns, all made of paper.

A stout man in his fifties, with a half-smoked cigarette dangling from his lips and stroking his shiny bald head, approached Zhang Laifu: "Buying lamps? How many?"

Zhang Laifu looked around: "Is this the old lighting shop?"

"What a question! The lamp shop is right in front of you, can't you see it?"

Zhang Laifu said, "I saw the lamp shop, but I didn't see the sign, so I don't know if this is Lao Liang..."

The shopkeeper, Yang Laoliang, pointed to his bald head: "Isn't my head shiny enough? What need do I have for a signboard?"

His head was indeed shiny, white and bright, with an oily sheen; it was dazzling even when illuminated under a lantern.

Seeing that Zhang Laifu was carrying three lanterns—a gauze lantern and a cow horn lantern in his left hand, and a paper lantern in his right—Yang Laoliang asked, "Are you actually buying lanterns?"

Looking at the room full of paper lanterns, Zhang Laifu felt as if he were home.

These aren't lanterns, they're clearly a house full of wives!
This time it's definitely true, he's someone who works in this industry.

Zhang Laifu placed the three lanterns aside, clasped his hands in a fist salute to the shopkeeper, and said, "I've come here to learn a trade."

"Learn a skill?" Old Yang stared at Zhang Laifu, looking him up and down, before agreeing, "Come with me."

Do you agree?
He did agree; the paper lantern shop was straightforward and didn't stand on ceremony.

Lao Liang led Zhang Laifu through the front hall to the back courtyard, where there were even more lanterns than in the front hall.

"Master Wang, someone wants to learn the trade."

"Bring it here."

Lao Liang brought Zhang Laifu to Master Wang. Judging from his appearance, Master Wang was around sixty years old, with gray hair, a dark face, deep-set eyes, bright eyes, and a straight back. He was wearing a blue and white short jacket with a cotton-padded coat over it.

Standing next to him were two young men, one about twenty-five or twenty-six years old, and the other looking about seventeen or eighteen.

Yang Laoliang said to Zhang Laifu, "You stand with them. They are both newly accepted apprentices."

The man, in his early twenties, was named Deng Yuechuan. He had come to learn the craft a month ago.

The young man, who was seventeen or eighteen, was named Chen Xiaowang. He arrived two days earlier than Zhang Laifu.

Yang Laoliang gave a brief introduction: "These two will be your senior brothers from now on. If you don't understand anything, ask them. I'm not one for formalities. You don't need to bring gifts or hold a banquet, but the rules for learning the craft can't be broken. You have to write a letter of apprenticeship. You'll be learning the craft here for three years. Food and lodging will be provided, but no wages will be paid."

Three years is too long, so Zhang Laifu discussed with Lao Liang: "Could I work here temporarily for now?"

Old Liang frowned: "If you want to be a day laborer, you need a certificate of completion to prove that you have learned this trade. At the very least, you need to be an apprentice before you can earn a living. Who is your master? Let me see the certificate."

It turns out that becoming a trainee isn't something that happens casually; you need a formal apprenticeship certificate.

Chen Xiaowang whispered to Zhang Laifu, "Without a graduation certificate, you won't be able to do anything in the future. The guild won't allow you to do business on your own. You should stay here and learn a trade."

A skill cannot be learned casually, so Zhang Laifu asked Yang Laoliang, "Do we have a master craftsman here?"

Yang Laoliang laughed: "What do you think? Without a master craftsman, could my shop have grown this big? Just look at the quality of these paper lanterns, and you can tell the craftsmanship here."

It's really hard to judge the skill level here.

Unlike Mingzhaozhai and Ruihuafang, Laoliang Lantern Shop usually only makes the simplest paper lanterns. All the lanterns are basically the same style, and they are made separately when there are special orders.

"I got a big order tonight, and Master Wang is going to handle it himself." Chen Xiaowang winked at Zhang Laifu. For some reason, he felt a sense of familiarity with Zhang Laifu. Zhang Laifu stared blankly at Chen Xiaowang: "He doesn't usually handle things?"

“How could I let Master do any work normally!” Chen Xiaowang looked around, as if he were talking about some unknown secret, “You don’t know, do you? Master Wang’s nickname is Wang Tiaodeng. He’s a second-level craftsman. You usually don’t see such a master.”

Zhang Laifu watched Wang Tiaodeng intently, but Wang Tiaodeng didn't immediately start. He asked Deng Yuechuan to come up and try first.

Deng Yuechuan had only been an apprentice for a month and was clearly inexperienced. He took eight sharpened bamboo strips, heated them over a fire for a moment, put on cotton gloves, and began to break the bamboo strips.

Chen Xiaowang said to Zhang Laifu, "This is to bend the bamboo strips to make a frame."

Nearly ten minutes later, Deng Yuechuan had broken eight small bamboo strips. Perhaps the heat was not right, or perhaps he did not control the force well, but the curves of the bamboo strips that Deng Yuechuan broke were not quite the same. The eight bamboo strips circled together, and the shape did not look like a lantern.

"Not only does it look bad, but the bottom and top wheels won't go up either!" Chen Xiaowang was very worried for Deng Yuechuan.

Deng Yuechuan was also anxious. The bottom and top rings, which are the two rings on the top and bottom of the lantern, are also made of bamboo and used to fix the frame. The curvature of the bamboo is not uniform, so it cannot form a flat surface on these two rings, and naturally it cannot be fixed.

He tried to pry and pull, attempting to forcibly fix the skeleton, but Wang Tiaodeng stepped forward and kicked him, cursing, "Get out of here! Go watch from the side!"

Deng Yuechuan stood aside, head down, not daring to speak.

Holding Deng Yuechuan's twisted and crooked skeleton, Wang Tiaodeng asked Chen Xiaowang, "Why do you think he did this job so badly?"

Chen Xiaowang lowered his head and said, "His skills are not up to par."

"Do you even need to tell me?" Master Wang kicked Chen Xiaowang again, then turned to Zhang Laifu. "You were watching too, why did he do the job like this?"

Zhang Laifu distanced himself from Lao Wang, not wanting to be kicked, and he had indeed noticed the problem: "These bamboo pieces are all different widths and thicknesses, but they are required to be made into the same shape. It's really too difficult to do it by hand alone."

Chen Xiaowang looked at Zhang Laifu in surprise. He had been an apprentice for two days, but he was still not as articulate as a newcomer.

The bamboo strips used to make the frame are indeed quite rough; some of them are of different lengths. Why didn't I think of that?

Wang Tiaodeng nodded: "Yes, it's really not easy to make a skeleton with just your two hands. Do you have any good ideas?"

Zhang Laifu puffed out his chest confidently. He had learned some similar knowledge in college: "It's too hasty to just start doing it directly. There aren't even the most basic size markings on the bamboo strips."

To ensure a high success rate in frame construction, the first step is to select suitable bamboo strips. Overly long or thick strips should be reprocessed, while overly short or thin strips should be discarded.

It's best to draw up the blueprints in advance, control the dimensions of each part and the curvature of the bends, strictly control the heating time, and then use professional tools..."

"Why are you talking about all that useless stuff?" Wang Tiaodeng interrupted Zhang Laifu. "Are you doing carpentry work? Why are you arguing with me about dimensions?"

Zhang Laifu thought for a moment: "Isn't this similar to carpentry?"

"Not nearly as good!" Wang Tiaodeng took eight bamboo strips, placed them next to the brazier, and began to roast the bamboo strips.

Chen Xiaowang said in a low voice, "Do you know, just mastering the heat control for roasting bamboo strips can take a year!"

"Don't you have to pay for bamboo? You just throw away the ones you can't choose? Is that how you do business?" After the bamboo strips were roasted, Master Wang didn't even put on gloves. He picked up eight bamboo strips and broke them, bending all of them into the same arc.

Chen Xiaowang said, "This move is even more powerful. It involves breaking all eight bamboo strips at once. Many apprentices can't learn it even after years of practice."

"Why are you still arguing with me about blueprints? What's the use of blueprints!" Master Wang waved his hand, and an apprentice brought over two bamboo rings. He put them together with both hands, threaded two bamboo strips through and wrapped them, and the frame was completed.

An apprentice handed over some rough-edged paper for printing. Master Wang held the paper between his index and middle fingers, wrapped it around the frame, pushed it with his thumb, and twisted his wrist. The lantern was now finished.

Then someone handed him a wire, and Wang Tiaodeng fixed the wire to the mouth of the lantern, bending the top into a hook to hang the lantern pole and the bottom into a stick to insert the candle.

After setting up the pole and inserting the candle, Wang lit it with a lamp and asked Zhang Laifu, "Is it lit yet?"

Zhang Laifu nodded and said, "It's lit up."

Wang Tiaodeng shook the lantern: "Including the candle inside, this lantern costs two coins. If you buy it in bulk here, you can sell it for one and a half coins!"
For something this cheap, where would we find the time to select materials, take measurements, and make markings? All that fancy stuff is nonsense!

After saying that, Master Wang took dozens of bamboo strips, heated them over a fire, and then twisted and bent them in his hands. In less than a minute, he made about twenty lantern frames.

"Paste the paper!" Master Wang called out, and a group of apprentices stepped forward to paste the paper, while another group of apprentices chopped bamboo, whittled the poles, and prepared the materials.

Zhang Laifu was amazed by Wang Tiaodeng's hand speed; his hands were faster than a machine.

Chen Xiaowang pulled Zhang Laifu along: "What are you standing there for? Come and work with your master!"

“No rush to work,” Zhang Laifu turned to Yang Laoliang, “I’ll sign the apprenticeship agreement first.”

P.S.: Ox horn lanterns are high-end lamps with complex manufacturing processes, and artisans often have unique apprenticeships. Paper lanterns are relatively simple to make, and even laymen can make them, but because they lack the intricacies, they are labor-intensive and expensive to produce, and therefore cannot be sold. Hence, artisans also have unique apprenticeships.

The craft of gauze lantern making has its own set of techniques; covering the lanterns with gauze is a unique skill. Besides these, there is also the craft of wire lanterns, which also has its own dedicated artisans and workshops. Historical records of various industries clearly distinguish these industries, showing that they are entirely different trades.

(End of this chapter)