Chapter 72: Chapter 71: It’s Better to Be a Child
After lunch, Daya took her four younger sisters and, with small carving knives in hand, they followed their father’s guidance and practiced carving on some scrap wood.
Ye Shiqi, who was only a few months old, and Siwa, the youngest, were among them. Concerned, Hongji repeatedly cautioned them to be careful, fearing they might hurt themselves.
“Hongji, isn’t this just foolery? Allowing such young children to learn? What can they possibly learn? They shouldn’t even be holding knives,” Hongji’s father reprimanded him for his lack of consideration as a parent.
“Yeah, these money-losing propositions are a waste of learning. Do you really think they can master it? Even if they do, it only benefits other families. If they cut themselves and become disabled, they’ll be even less valuable,” Mrs. Lai said when she saw no outsiders were present in the courtyard, speaking without restraint.
Ye Shuzhi and Ye Shuzhen had expressed a desire to learn in the morning, but with so many people around, they retreated to their room to do needlework. After lunch, they had resumed their usual laziness.
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However, when they heard Daya and the young children learning from their elder brother in the courtyard, they ignored their father’s criticisms and their mother’s sarcastic comments and stepped out of their room.
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“Elder brother, do you have any more carving knives?”
“Yes, elder brother, you promised to teach us,”
Hongji, chastised by his father, felt that his father’s words stemmed from concern about the children being too young and getting hurt. Disgusted by his mother’s comments, he chose not to argue.
Addressing his younger sisters’ inquiries, he pointed to the toolbox and said, “There are a few smaller carving knives there. If you want to learn, take a piece of scrap wood like them and try carving!”
“Elder brother, don’t you have wood that has already been sketched? Let me carve that!” Ye Shuzhen felt that she needed to produce a finished piece in her learning, wanting to brag about her first carved piece to her sisters in the evening.
“Yes, elder brother, just using plain wood without any drawn figures, we can’t carve any likeness,” Ye Shuzhi felt her marriage was approaching and she needed to learn carving quickly.
Hongji, hearing his sisters’ remarks, told them:
“Learning carving isn’t something you can succeed at in one day or suddenly. Look how long your brother has been learning to carve. I only just sold my first finished product. You want to start with wood I have already drawn on, that’s just wasting my wood. Those pieces have already been commissioned and can’t be messed with.”
Mrs. Lai heard her daughters’ request and, though she didn’t rebuke them, she agreed with her son that wasting materials already promised to customers wouldn’t yield the clean profit they were after.
“Both of you, listen to your brother. This is how our family earns money. Learn slowly like the other children,” she responded.
“Listen to your elder brother,” Hongji’s father added. “As people, especially in our profession, we must fulfill our promises. We have taken advance payments and must deliver, so go play elsewhere if you just want to fool around.”
After their elder brother spoke, Ye Shuzhi and Ye Shuzhen wanted to protest but were scolded by their mother, and their father supported their elder brother as well.
Feeling somewhat resentful yet not daring to say more, they moved to the side, picked up a piece of scrap wood, and began carving, stroke by stroke.
They had heard what their elder brother had taught the young children just now, but even though they held carving knives, they couldn’t carve even a little bit. They realized the task was not as easy as it seemed. They saw that besides carving knives, other tools were also needed to shape the wooden Bodhisattva.
Usually, they hadn’t paid attention to how their elder brother carved. They only knew that carpentry required using many tools to shape a piece of furniture.
Ye Shuzhi and Ye Shuzhen exchanged glances, then looked at the foolish children, worried that at their current pace, they might not carve anything in one day.
Hongji encouraged the children to learn, but it was just basic skills he hoped they’d pick up, not expecting them to actually produce a toy. To avoid accidents, there were additional tools required for carving that he hadn’t shown them.
In every profession, besides the master teaching the apprentice, the apprentice must also learn through personal experience and long-term practice beside the master, only then might one day they master the skills fully.
Ye Shiqi saw the wood in her hands, her carving knife not very sharp, and despite holding the knife, she couldn’t make even a small mark.
She looked at her four elder sisters who appeared very serious, and she knew her two aunts’ intentions – they wanted to master it all at once.
Ye Shiqi knew mastering any craft wasn’t something that could be learned instantly. Anyone expecting to learn it in a day was merely daydreaming.
She didn’t randomly carve; she gently sketched a small wooden figure’s head in the wood, before carefully cutting the excess wood off.
As time gradually passed, more people entered their home’s courtyard in the afternoon, seeing the entire Lai family busy working in the thatched cottage area, all except for Mrs. Lai who sat leisurely eating pumpkin seeds and drinking tea.
The attentive villagers realized that Hongji wanted to pass on his carving skills to his sisters and his children.
The villagers who had just come in greeted the family and left their children there, telling them to watch and learn carving from them.
The children didn’t understand the adults’ intentions. Hearing their directives, the boys thought it might be easier for them than for girls who were already learning to carve.
Some of the girls, seeing the daughters of the family carving, were also inspired to learn carving, in addition to needlework, from the adults.
In the afternoon, more and more village children entered their house and gathered outside the workshop to watch.
With too many people blocking the light, Hongji could only ask them not to obstruct the light, though he didn’t send them away.
Mrs. Lai disliked the crowd, but many of the children’s parents had made down payments with her, so it wasn’t appropriate to turn them away.
Hongji’s father understood the villagers’ thoughts; it was hard to reject the neighborhood children from watching, asking only that they keep quiet. As for whether they could truly learn the craft?
That would depend on the children’s dexterity and cleverness. Even amongst his own family, it depended on each individual’s natural aptitude to learn fully from the master or to possibly outdo him—these were all matters of personal capability.
By nightfall, with his father’s help, Hongji had finished carving five wooden Bodhisattva statues and even had time to carve two animal model toys.
Under the appreciative gaze of the villagers who came to collect their pre-paid goods, plus a few others who had made down payments for the next day or the day after, and some who had been initially uninterested but changed their minds upon seeing the completed, varnished Bodhisattva statues, people made down payments.
Hongji felt a great sense of accomplishment that day, preparing to put away the two animal toys.
“Elder brother, put those two wooden animals in my room,” Ye Shuzhen tried to snatch them.
“Little sister, you’re too old to still play with these toys. These are for my children to carve,” Hongji quickly stowed away the toys.