Daily Life in the Countryside After Being Reborn

Chapter 772: Chapter 103: Swept Up by Coincidence

"International Jewelry Exhibition, that’s a woman’s affair, I’m not interested," Yezi slickly declined, women, oh, they do love shiny things.

"But I’ve already asked someone to buy tickets, could you please just come with me? I heard Patek Philippe released a really beautiful watch this year," Xu Lan Ya continued coquettishly, too bad the skills that never failed her on others didn’t work at all on Yezi.

"Sorry, I’m really pressed for time, maybe you could ask Aisha to go see it with you. I’ve heard she’s been wanting to buy a watch recently, you two are women, should be better at giving advice. That’s all, I’ve got things to do, let’s leave it at that," after hanging up the phone as if running for his life, Yezi thought for a moment and simply turned off his phone.

Anyway, he was working his tail off at the convention center, Xiao Xian would be able to find him if needed; as for others, being unreachable was for the best.

What Yezi didn’t know, was that shortly after he turned off his phone, Li Quqi, who was still in Beijing for the International Jewelry Exhibition, tried to call him.

Not only Xu Lan Ya called several times yesterday, even Li Quqi, his own father, got almost the same treatment.

Unable to get through, Li Quqi also got sufficiently angry, "That rascal, turned off his phone again. It’s mid-March already since the beginning of the year, barely sees him turn his phone on properly, don’t know what he’s so busy with, trying to get him to help is so difficult."

"Don’t be upset, Master Li, how about this, I’ll help you out," accompanying Li Quqi was a young man named Yila from an ethnic minority, who was the son of a representative from Yunnan attending the National People’s Congress.

Yila had come to Beijing with his father to broaden his horizons and got to know Li Quqi through an introduction. Seeing they were about the same age, Li Quqi treated him quite warmly.

When Yila first met Li Quqi, seeing that he was a plainly dressed Miao person from Guizhou, there was a hint of disdain. But later on, after hearing that Li Quqi was a national treasure-level master silver craftsman, Yila changed his opinion.

In Yila’s village, they also had some silver-making skills, but it was never as famous as the Miao Clan’s silverware.

Yila himself had apprenticed under a local silver craftsman, and after a few years of learning, disdained the craft for being a low-earning and tedious job, and gave it up. Coming to Beijing this time, he was also looking to see if there was a way to find some lucrative business.

In recent years, with the improvement of domestic living standards, various high-end jewelry brands have been vying for the Chinese market.

Aside from the fashionable brands from Europe and America, for the Chinese during festivals and celebrations, or for births and weddings, gold remains the most practical gift.

Yet looking at Liu Fu Jewelry, Lao Fengxiang, and Zhou Dafu, not one of their gold jewelry stores is a domestic brand, a big problem for the China Jewelry Industry Association, the organizer.

Then, at a critical moment, a deputy director in the association had an idea: if there were no good gold craftsmen in the country, couldn’t silverware, second only to gold, be used as a substitute?

Some objected, saying silver isn’t as valuable as gold and showing it at the exhibition might demean the stature of the event. After several days of thought, the chairman of the association concluded that while silverware is indeed less prestigious than gold, a good silver craftsman’s skills could compensate for the material’s shortcomings.

After inviting many well-known exhibitors from home and abroad, the organizing committee learned that master silver craftsman Li Quqi was still in Beijing.

The relevant person in charge invited Li Quqi and told him the ins and outs of the situation, as well as the embarrassing position the domestic jewelry and jewelry brands were facing.

The intention was to hope he could open a special silverware workshop for exhibition at the convention center, to save face for the country’s traditional jewelry industry. As compensation, the exhibition space would be free of charge this time, and the cost of the silver material and booth decoration would also be handled by the organizers.

When the organizers came to visit that day, it just so happened that Yila ran into them.

Yila had seen Li Quqi’s works, and they were indeed absolutely exquisite. The silver craftsmanship of the Miao family was passed down to sons not daughters, and it was rumoured that Li Quqi’s only son, Li Ye, had drowned while traveling abroad years earlier, but then it was said he wasn’t dead, just out wandering.

Being a young man from the mountains himself, Yila took it upon himself to assume that few ethnic minority young men who went out to make a living would be willing to return to the hardship of mountain life.

Li Quqi’s skills were definitely going to be lost, so Yila took the opportunity to stay in Beijing, hoping to fill the gap while Li Quqi was participating in the International Jewelry Exhibition to apprentice under him.