Chapter 93: Every Word You Say, I Believe!

According to the editor’s suggestion, and with the New Year holiday added in, the update schedule will be adjusted for now: two chapters a day for the time being. During the Three Rivers and Strong Recommendation periods, there will be at least three chapters a day. After the book goes on sale next month, the updates will settle into a stable burst. This book’s free public period is two months, and it has already been confirmed to go on sale on the first day of next month. I hope all readers will understand and offer their generous support. My deepest thanks!

By the way, Qidian is running an event these days. After logging in, you can search for Hidden in the Activity Center and join the Hidden Fans team to receive generous rewards. I hope all my good friends will join enthusiastically! For every 200 members, one extra chapter will be added!

A little while later, Monkey came out of the room carrying five molds and handed them to Zhao Guoyang.

Looking at the roughness of these molds, Zhao Guoyang could only shake his head inwardly.

Clearly, these molds were still quite far from the items drawn on his blueprint, and at the very least, their smoothness fell well short of his standards.

Zhao Guoyang was not surprised by this. After all, the level of mold-making technology in the early 1990s was plainly still far behind the era he had come from after his rebirth.

These five molds had flaws in their workmanship, but the basic shape was decent. At worst, the finished pieces made from them would simply be a little less refined.

Zhao Guoyang first chose a butterfly-shaped mold and set it aside. Then he opened the hot-chamber furnace of the die-casting machine, adjusted the temperature, and placed inside it a cut piece of S50C spring steel.

Not long after, the furnace reached melting temperature, and the S50C spring steel quickly turned into a pool of molten metal.

Zhao Guoyang casually picked up the butterfly-shaped mold, placed it in the pressure chamber, and then injected the molten metal into it through the gooseneck passage.

Once it was filled, Zhao Guoyang immediately closed the mold and slid it horizontally into the die-casting machine’s cooling chamber.

After leaving it there for a while, and waiting until the molten metal inside had nearly set, Zhao Guoyang carefully removed the mold from the cooling chamber, then slid the upper half of the mold horizontally aside to expose the lower half.

Watching Zhao Guoyang’s series of smooth, fluid movements, Monkey was utterly astonished.

The moment the upper and lower halves separated, Zhao Guoyang’s eyes sharpened for an instant, then relaxed. He said softly, “Done. It’s finished.”

“Huh? It’s already done?” Monkey asked, looking a little baffled.

Zhao Guoyang gave him a nudge with his chin. “Yeah, more or less. Go get me a basin of cold water. There’s one last step left—quenching.”

“Okay, okay, I’m going now...” Monkey bolted out at once.

Soon, Monkey brought back a basin of water. Wearing asbestos gloves, Zhao Guoyang took out the small butterfly-shaped piece lying in the lower mold and gently placed it into the water.

It was about ten minutes before Zhao Guoyang took the small part back out.

He removed the gloves, put the little ornament in his palm, and turned it over to admire it.

Seeing this butterfly decoration, the sort one rarely saw in ordinary life, Monkey was already stunned speechless.

He swallowed hard and stammered, “Guo... Guoyang, I’ve seen this thing on TV. It’s a hair clip worn by celebrities! Does that mean... we’ve succeeded?”

Zhao Guoyang looked up at him and smiled, showing his teeth. “Of course we succeeded. Come on, take a close look. The workmanship is pretty decent, isn’t it?”

Monkey took the hair clip, examined it over and over, and only then confirmed with excitement, “That’s right, Guoyang, this is definitely the kind of hair clip I’ve seen before. This thing is rare. There aren’t many women in our village who wear one.”

“Well, ‘rare’ is probably too strong a word. In the big cities, accessories like this are actually fairly common,” Zhao Guoyang said, waving the hair clip in his hand.

Monkey couldn’t help rubbing his hands together. “Guoyang, what’s our cost on this thing? How much can we sell one for?”

After a moment’s thought, Zhao Guoyang said, “As for cost... one ton of S50C spring steel is only a few thousand yuan. As for these five sets of molds, you know better than I do whether we paid anything for them. The equipment didn’t cost us any rent either. After adding everything up, the total cost should be around five thousand yuan.”

“Then... with five thousand yuan of cost, how many of these butterfly hair clips can we make?” Monkey asked again.

Zhao Guoyang smiled and held up two fingers, shaking them at Monkey.

Seeing the gesture, Monkey felt an inexplicable chill. “Two hundred?”

Zhao Guoyang shook his head.

“Two thousand? Ah, that many?” Monkey lowered his head and muttered to himself, “With how nicely these hair clips are made, each one can easily sell for three or four yuan. Two thousand of them would be seven or eight thousand yuan, so wouldn’t we make two or three thousand all at once?”

“Haha, we’ve hit it big, we’ve made it big, Guoyang!” After figuring out the numbers, Monkey was so excited he was shouting and jumping around.

Seeing how thrilled Monkey was, Zhao Guoyang could not help snorting with amusement. “What two thousand? What two or three thousand? You’ve got the numbers wrong.”

“Huh? I got them wrong?” Monkey immediately looked at Zhao Guoyang in alarm.

“Yes, of course you got them wrong.” Zhao Guoyang raised his hand and said leisurely, “For this kind of hair clip, one kilogram of spring steel can make about twenty pieces. A ton works out to twenty thousand. And the price you just calculated is a bit low too.

“When I was on a business trip in Yangcheng, I learned that hair clips of this workmanship generally sell for around seven or eight yuan on the market...”

“Twenty thousand? Seven or eight yuan?” Monkey was completely stunned.

Zhao Guoyang said calmly, “Mm. If sales are guaranteed, then this ton of S50C spring steel should bring in roughly several tens of thousands of yuan. After all, we’re selling wholesale, not retail, and we still have to deduct normal expenses like electricity, shipping, and material loss.

“On top of that, people like you and my partner Sister Rou—one handling production, one handling sales—both need salaries. A thousand yuan a month for each of you wouldn’t be too much, would it? And that Ergazi fellow would need at least five hundred a month too, right?”

“Ah!”

As soon as Zhao Guoyang finished speaking, Monkey was so startled that he sat down hard on the ground.

Looking at his dumbfounded expression, Zhao Guoyang paid him no mind and kept making the remaining four sets of molds on his own.

Monkey sat dazed for a long while before it seemed he gradually understood something.

Watching Zhao Guoyang, still as composed as ever, continue making hair clips, Monkey let out a howl: “Ooooh... Guoyang, we’re rich! We’re really rich!”

“What do you mean, rich?” Zhao Guoyang scolded him irritably.

“Stop distracting me for now. Wait until I finish cranking out this last batch of hair clips before you start talking again!”

Monkey dared not disobey Zhao Guoyang’s words. He had a bellyful of things he wanted to say, but he could only hold them in.

After Zhao Guoyang took the last feather-shaped hair clip out of the cold water, Monkey was finally released.

He hopped over to Zhao Guoyang and said, his face flushed red, “Guoyang, what you just said was all true, right? This one deal can really make us several tens of thousands of yuan?”

“Mm. Several tens of thousands should be a conservative estimate. Of course, that’s the profit for our factory. If split among three people, you and Sister Rou would each get around ten thousand yuan or so.”

“Over ten thousand? If I could take home a thousand, I’d already be burning incense in gratitude!” Monkey said, slapping the top of his head hard.

Seeing how rarely worldly he looked, Zhao Guoyang couldn’t help smiling. “Heh, just ten thousand yuan and you’re this excited? Let me tell you, our little workshop is going to grow bigger and stronger in the future, aiming for annual revenue in the tens of millions. So tell me—do you believe it or not?”

“I believe it. Guoyang, every single word you say, I believe!” Monkey said eagerly, nodding again and again.