Chapter 118 Photo Studio Opens
After Shen Zhi finished explaining the matters here, she returned to Shitou Village with Cao Gonggong. She was now taking advantage of the gap between seedling cultivation to train her photographers, makeup artists, and photo retouchers.
A message came from the shop that the decoration had been completed, and Wang Feng had already led people to clean it up. Various equipment had been transported to the shop, and the employees had packed up their dormitories and moved in.
Before going to the shop to give everyone training, Shen Zhi found the village head.
The village head has been free these days. The potatoes have been planted, and my third uncle has taught them how to grow sweet potato seedlings. Spring plowing has not yet begun.
"Grandpa Village Head, I'm here to discuss something with you today. In a few months, potatoes and sweet potatoes will be harvested in large quantities, and we can't eat all the fresh ones at once. Moreover, the emperor has already trial-planted hundreds of acres of potatoes and sweet potatoes in Qingzhou Prefecture. If the harvest is good, the whole country will promote their cultivation in the future. So I want to build a workshop to produce potato flour and sweet potato flour. Firstly, I can process them into vermicelli for our own villagers for free, which is convenient for storage; secondly, if anyone wants to sell vermicelli, I can collect them on their behalf or help find sales channels to help the villagers increase their income; thirdly, this workshop will definitely need to hire people to work, and I want to find some capable and trustworthy people in our village and provide them with a stable job." Shen Zhi said.
The village head was delighted after hearing this. If this thing can be done, our Stone Village will become a popular place, and the villagers' lives will definitely be better. "Girl, grandpa supports you in this matter. If you need grandpa's help, just tell me."
Shen Zhi smiled and said, "Grandpa Lizheng, don't we have ten acres of dry land near Erdan's home in our village? I want to buy that land and build a workshop. While we are not busy now, let's hurry up and build the workshop."
"Okay, grandpa will do it tomorrow. The people are ready. There are more than a hundred young and middle-aged people in our village. They are all idle at home. Everyone will be willing to do it. Just tell grandpa if you have any requirements." The head of the village patted his chest and promised that it would be done.
Shen Zhi took out two hundred taels of silver and gave it to the head of the village. He also gave him the blueprint of the workshop, told him what to pay attention to and mentioned the issue of wages. He left only after everything was arranged.
In the next few days, Shen Zhi stayed in the shop to train everyone. She required everyone to learn every skill and not let one person delay the important things. Everyone studied very seriously, absorbing water like a sponge. It's a joke. In other places, people who have a skill are very secretive, for fear that others will learn it secretly and teach the apprentice, which will starve the master to death.
After they got the hang of it, Shen Zhi took them outdoors to collect materials and taught them various outdoor shooting techniques and makeup requirements.
As for photo editing, it took quite a long time. They had never touched electronic products, but fortunately they were all servants of the government before, so they could read a few words. Shen Zhi had already set the font to traditional Chinese, and taught them basic operations such as typing. After they were somewhat proficient, he taught them photo editing, printing, and laminating.
After learning everything, Shen Zhi began to prepare for the opening of the business.
Shen Zhi bought all kinds of clothing, headwear, and cosmetics in the space. They were so beautiful that they had never appeared in this era. Even several female employees couldn't put them down when they saw them.
Shen Zhi found a few children nearby, put makeup on them, changed into beautiful clothes, took beautiful photos of them, put the photos in frames and placed them in the lobby so that customers could see them as soon as they entered the store.
Shen Zhi asked someone to calculate an auspicious date and decided to open the store on the eighth day of the second lunar month.
On the opening day, Shen Zhi invited a lion dance team to perform in front of the store. Two rows of shop assistants in uniform stood in front of the store. They were neatly dressed, with their hair simply tied up and light makeup on, looking quite elegant.
There were a lot of people watching outside the shop. They were all looking at the five big words "Memories Photo Studio" on the sign, and had no idea what this shop was for.
"Xiao Zhi," Song Rou began to shout from outside the crowd. Shen Zhi saw her coming with a group of rich ladies. In addition to Yang Wantang, there were a few familiar faces among them, all of whom were those who wanted to take photos at the plum blossom viewing banquet that day.
"Sister Song Rou, Sister Wan Tang and all the sisters, welcome to our shop. Come in and have a seat," Shen Zhi greeted everyone while asking the staff to take them in. "Hua Hua, take these sisters to the VIP room upstairs and serve the cakes and fruit drinks to the sisters."
Huahua immediately took Song Rou and the other ladies upstairs and entered an elegant VIP room, which was furnished with soft leather sofas, a large walnut table, simple chairs, and a chest of drawers of the same color against the wall. Photos of various sizes were hung on the wall. Shen Zhi specially replaced the windows with white lattice glass windows and light green lace curtains.
The ladies who have always been extravagant were attracted by the decoration style here.
"Look at this picture," one lady shouted.
Everyone gathered around and saw a large photo frame hanging on the wall. Inside was a lot of small photos. It was a photo of a woman from her infancy to her eighties. Each photo had a few years of age written below it. From the looks of it, it was obvious that it was the same person's growth process. This was a photo that Shen Zhi had synthesized in space using technology.
"Wow, this is so meaningful. When I get older, I can see what I looked like when I was a child. No wonder it's called the Memory Photo Studio."
"Yes, look, she was so beautiful when she was fifteen or sixteen, and so gentle in her twenties."
"And this one, look, this is a family of three generations, ten people, it's really lively. My family also has three generations, tomorrow I will call my grandparents and parents to take a photo like this together."
Everyone chattered and looked at all the photos on the wall, even admiring the vertical photo frames on the chest of drawers.
At this time, Huahua came in with a large tray of cakes and juice. The cakes were small cakes made by Shen Zhi and topped with fruits, and the juice was freshly squeezed.
Song Rou liked this kind of small cake the most. She led everyone to sit at the long table. Huahua placed the small cakes in front of them one by one, poured juice on them, and then quietly left.
The ladies were so fond of the exquisite little pastries that they couldn't bear to eat them. Song Rou didn't care and stuffed them into her mouth, praising them for being delicious while eating.
Shen Zhi welcomed another distinguished guest. The county magistrate Song Shijie and his wife also arrived, and the housekeeper behind them was holding a golden toad as a gift.
"Mr. Yixiang, congratulations. The opening of your new store will surely bring you a lot of money in the future." Song Shijie bowed and congratulated him.
Shen Zhi hurriedly thanked them and personally led the two to the VIP room on the second floor. He served them tea and snacks, and after a few words of greeting, he went downstairs to entertain the guests.
Shen and Shen Zhen were also helping downstairs. Third uncle, third aunt and Ah Si were all there, but there were too many people here and they were afraid of bumping into Ah Si, so they let Ah Si and the others rest in the backyard.