The Carpenter's Secret

There are many stories in life.

It really happened around us.

Different sounds will appear.

There will also be different attitudes.

Are you willing to trace back to the source or go with the flow?

today,

Let me tell you a story about "Eccentric Zhang"...

He's a "celebrity" around here. Everyone knows him, and when people talk about him, they always say, "Him? He's a weirdo!"

He often wore a simple work jacket and carried a woodworking tool bag; he was known as "Zhang the Eccentric".

Master Zhang's craftsmanship is exceptional. The furniture he makes has perfectly straight and smooth edges, precise and neat nailing and riveting, a solid structure, and exquisite workmanship. After completing a set of cabinets, everyone gives him a thumbs up. Besides making furniture, he also enjoys studying materials, craftsmanship, and aesthetic design. Therefore, he often patiently explains to homeowners what kind of boards to choose, what kind of hardware to select, and how to judge the quality of materials. Because of the recognition of his craftsmanship, Master Zhang's "works" are ubiquitous in our city. Every homeowner who has hired Master Zhang is satisfied with the furniture he makes. However... they all describe Master Zhang like this:

It turns out that whenever someone asked him to make furniture, he would always emphasize that the homeowner should choose the right materials. If the materials the homeowner bought met his expectations, his dark face would be full of smiles. If the boards the homeowner bought were not good: they had gaps, layers, or a pungent smell, he would not care whether the homeowner minded or not. He would keep nagging and urging them to replace the inferior materials, and he would patiently explain the selection criteria again and again.

The strangest thing is that Mr. Zhang would carefully collect all the leftover scraps and carry them away! This really saved the homeowners a lot of trouble. Some kind-hearted homeowners, worried about Mr. Zhang's workload, even threw away the scraps themselves, but Mr. Zhang would repeatedly express his regret. This action made everyone think Mr. Zhang was odd; otherwise, why would he be so conflicted?

Until one day, when I was doing volunteer work with a friend, I unexpectedly met Master Zhang at the welfare home. During our conversation, I finally learned the reason why he was "strange"!

Master Zhang is actually an orphan. He was adopted by a carpenter when he was a child, and he learned all his skills from his adoptive father. After growing up, he made a living by woodworking.

Since he started his own business, Mr. Zhang has been providing free services to the welfare home in his spare time.

He used the scraps of boards he collected to make small bookshelves, stools, toys and other small furniture for the children. Because they were scraps, he made various kinds of boards, including single-color, two-color, multi-color, textured and untextured boards. With his rich color matching skills and woodworking experience, Master Zhang made the colorful furniture that the children loved. These were the closest thing to the "colorful fairy tale" of the children in the welfare home.

At this point, Mr. Zhang became a little embarrassed.

He also said that sometimes these "scrap materials" were not used to make small furniture, so he would pack them up in large bags and rent a storage room on the first floor of a neighbor's house to store them. This storage room became Mr. Zhang's temporary carpentry workshop.

He always tells homeowners how to choose boards because he is worried that they might buy boards of unstable quality or that do not meet environmental standards because they do not understand the materials, and end up suffering losses, causing their families and the children in the welfare home to get sick due to excessive formaldehyde in the materials.

Mr. Zhang, a carpenter who has spent half his life working in the industry, is not good with words, but he knows very well that only environmentally friendly, high-quality boards can be safely used by children, allowing them to grow up freely in a pollution-free environment...