Witty Wife, Better Life

Chapter 616: Chapter 606 Custom Furniture

"Excuse me, is this the only style of bed you have?" Shen Yunfang furrowed her brow and asked the furniture sales assistant.

The furniture nowadays wasn’t like the old pieces she swapped from the junkyard, which had historical significance. Even if they were a bit old and damaged, they still exuded elegance after being repaired. Now, these modular furniture designs that were in vogue, Shen Yunfang truly found them unappealing. If she put these in her home, it would look terribly tacky.

Of course, this was just Shen Yunfang’s own opinion. In the eyes of others, these modular pieces were the latest trend.

The sales assistant glanced at Shen Yunfang impatiently, "What else do you want in a bed? Isn’t this one variety enough for you to choose from?"

"Are you on something? I just asked you one question, and you’re raising your voice at me. What kind of customer service is this?" Shen Yunfang hadn’t expected to encounter such a dismissive sales assistant again. She understood but didn’t mean she would silently accept such unfair treatment.

"What kind of customer service? I should say this is already pretty good. Someone as picky as you should be kicked out," the sales assistant’s temper was clearly as big as her voice, not afraid to raise it even louder than Shen Yunfang’s. "If you can’t afford it, don’t buy it. Why put on airs? I have other beds, can you even afford them? Just by looking, I can tell you’re broke."

Shen Yunfang, seeing how spiteful the other party was, lost interest in continuing the argument before the public and, giving her a cold glance, took her two children and left.

"Hmph, pretending to be poor with me. I’ll make you regret it," the sales assistant muttered arrogantly behind her.

Ignoring the gazes of the bystanders, Shen Yunfang led her children straight to the office area, having seen the manager’s office upstairs on her way in.

Shen Yunfang didn’t hold back and immediately reported the furniture sales assistant to the department store manager. She was well aware that she couldn’t appear weak before the manager and couldn’t be too gentle. So, she sharply described the sales assistant’s offensive behavior, highlighting that her husband was a war hero. As the wife of a war hero, she was insulted and demanded someone take responsibility, or else she would go to the organization for an explanation. This was making a mountain out of a molehill, but it worked effectively. The manager, initially indifferent, took her seriously upon hearing this and immediately called over the sales assistant, angrily scolding her and ordering her to apologize to Shen Yunfang. He threatened to send her home if she refused to apologize.

Shen Yunfang proudly accepted the apology from the once arrogant sales assistant. When she left, she unexpectedly got an address to a private furniture maker from the manager.

Happy with this lead, she took her children to the address. The so-called furniture factory was actually a private residence, just one with a large courtyard. When she arrived, she noticed the front gate was open, and people inside were planing wood.

"Excuse me, I heard you make furniture here. Are you still taking orders?" Shen Yunfang shouted from the courtyard entrance.

The young man working in the courtyard looked up when he heard Shen Yunfang’s question, wiped the sweat off his face with his sleeve, and said, "We do, sister. What kind of furniture do you want to have made? Come in and take a look, we have samples." He pointed towards a corner of the courtyard as he spoke.

Shen Yunfang, hearing his invitation, led her children into the courtyard and looked in the direction the young man indicated. There, both finished and unfinished pieces were displayed in a row—indeed, they had everything, but all were of styles currently popular.

The young man set down his tools, took off his gloves, and came towards her, asking, "Sister, do any of these styles catch your eye? Our work is all real quality, and these are the most popular styles in our province’s capital."

Shen Yunfang examined the craftsmanship carefully, and she thought it looked quite good. In reality, she couldn’t tell much difference, she just felt that craftsmen at this time still had real skill, unlike the many deceivers of later times.

"I don’t really like any of these designs. Can I draw my own design for you to make?" asked Shen Yunfang.

The young man was quite surprised; he hadn’t expected such innovative designs to not catch the eye of this older sister, but customer requests are to be satisfied as much as possible. "That works, but I need to see your design first." He was still cautious and didn’t agree upfront, for who knew what sort of design she might produce. If it was like those carved pieces of furniture from before, he wouldn’t be able to make them.

"Okay, then have a look," Shen Yunfang said as she took out the furniture designs she had drawn up in advance.

She had drawn designs for the master bedroom’s bed and nightstands, the vanity, the large wardrobe, bunk beds for the children’s room, a complete set of desks, a shoe rack for the living room (although they already had one, she didn’t like it and wanted a replacement), a set of fabric sofas, a wooden coffee table, kitchen cabinets, and a dining set.

As the young man examined each drawing, his eyes grew brighter and brighter.

"Sister, wait a moment for me, I’m going to find my dad to take a look," the young man said, setting down the sheets of paper and running inside to fetch someone.

It wasn’t long before the young man returned with a man over fifty years old, "Dad, this older sister brought a lot of furniture designs for us to make. Look and see if we can take the job." The young man said this as he took the stack of papers from Shen Yunfang’s hands and handed them to his father.

The older man first nodded at Shen Yunfang, then seriously began to review the designs. Just like the young man, his eyes lit up more and more as he looked.

"Qiangzi, get a chair for this—" he began.

"My surname is Shen."

"Get a chair for Comrade Shen to sit down, and have your mother boil some water," the old man ordered as he continued to study the papers.

"Uncle, no need, I’m not tired. I can just stand for a bit," Shen Yunfang said, her eyes still on her two children playing nearby.

"No, no, sit down, let’s talk about this," the old man insisted, waving the papers in his hand.

What followed was quite straightforward—the old man really appreciated the designs Shen Yunfang had drawn up and hoped that after making Shen Yunfang’s set of furniture, their factory could continue to produce furniture in these styles.

Shen Yunfang had no objections; these designs were clichéd in the future but were classics that had stood the test of time, so she hadn’t thought about using them to make money. The main reason was that the copying ability of the people was too strong. Within a couple of months, similar styles would undoubtedly appear on the market, so she did not plan to expand in this area.

Seeing her generosity, Master Yang (the old man) didn’t think the same way. After some discussion, they agreed the design drawings would be gifted to Master Yang, and in return for making the entire set of furniture from the design drawings for Shen Yunfang, he wouldn’t charge for the labor. However, Shen Yunfang insisted on paying for the materials.

Master Yang had sources for good quality wood, although it was a bit pricey. This wasn’t a problem for Shen Yunfang; she had money and was concerned about quality, not cost. Therefore, she paid a deposit of a thousand yuan for Master Yang to start the work, with the intention of settling the final amount when the work was done—returning any excess or paying any shortfall.