TATLC Chapter 72

Lately, many villagers had been making embroidered goods to sell in town, and they’d actually earned quite a bit of money.

In the past, some villagers also made embroidered items, but when they took them to shops in town to sell, the prices often got pushed down, so the profits were pretty low. However, recently, Huaxia Trading Company had been buying up lots of embroidered goods. Basically, as long as the quality was decent, they accepted everything, but they still gave different prices based on the quality of the embroidery.

Since the villagers were making money thanks to Lu Lin, their opinion of him and the Chen brothers had improved significantly. In one courtyard, a group of embroiderers gathered to work.

“Just the other day, my husband took my embroidery to Huaxia Trading Company. Guess what he saw there?” a woman asked smugly.

“What did he see?”

With pride, she replied, “He saw fans being sold in the shop. The fan surfaces were all made of fabric, and the patterns on those fan surfaces were exactly what I embroidered. Our embroidered goods must have been made into fans.”

“I heard about that too. Our embroidered goods seem to have all been made into round fans. They used to sell for two hundred wen each, but recently the price seems to have come down a bit. Still very expensive though.”

“Two hundred wen! With that much money, you might as well buy dozens of palm leaf fans.” Although palm leaf fans were cheap, many poor families still couldn’t bear to buy them. They’d use one fan until it was completely broken before getting a new one.

“We think it’s expensive, but those wealthy merchants and their wives in town don’t think so. I heard when these fans first came out, many people bought them by the dozens.”

“We should hurry up and make more embroidered goods. When the weather gets cooler, these fans probably won’t sell well anymore. Then there won’t be any money to make.”

“Granny Shen really had the best foresight. She got on good terms with Lu Lin early. She must be earning a lot of silver each month in town,” One woman said sourly.

“I heard Zhang Xiuhe wanted Granny Shen’s job, but Lu Lin refused.”

“Zhang Xiuhe really is something. They’re already using Granny Shen, how could they just randomly change people?” Actually, many women in the village envied Granny Shen’s job, but envy aside, everyone wouldn’t just randomly try to steal it.

“Zhang Xiuhe is the village head’s sister after all.”

“So what? Even the village chief can’t just be unreasonable!”

The village head still had some authority in the villagers’ hearts. One woman smiled and changed the subject. “When my husband went there, he saw Chen Xiaocai working as the shopkeeper in the store. That boy has really made something of himself! He handles business worth several taels of silver without batting an eye. He looked very experienced.”

“Chen Xiaocai is becoming more and more capable. If you ask me, studying to become an official is all uncertain. How easy do they think it is to become an official anyway? It’s more practical to learn a skill and earn some silver. That’s what really matters!”

In the evening, Lu An returned home from town.

“Did you get the money?” Lin Xiu’er asked.

Lu An nodded. “Got this month’s pay, but they deducted two hundred wen from me for missing work.”

Lin Xiu’er frowned. “Why?”

Lu An grumbled, “The boss just married a new wife, and that woman wants her brother to replace me at work, so she’s finding fault with me.” Lu An’s job involved managing over forty workers, and who knows how many people were jealous of it.

Lin Xiu’er asked worriedly, “You won’t lose this job, will you?”

Lu An shook his head, a hint of pride in his voice. “Probably not. I’ve been doing this for years, and the men under me listen to me. Even if the boss wants to replace me, he’ll have to think twice.”

Only after hearing this did Lin Xiu’er relax.

If Lu An lost his job, the old woman would definitely throw a fit.

“You’re also an old employee. This boss can’t just hire based on connections. It should probably be fine.” Lin Xiu’er smiled, though it wasn’t clear if she was trying to convince Lu An or herself.

“By the way, is Chen Xiaomi really pregnant?” Lin Xiu’er asked.

Lu An nodded. “Should be. A few months along, I think.”

Lin Xiu’er frowned in confusion. “With his condition, how come the boss of Huaxia Trading Company still uses him?” Lin Xiu’er thought this boss was really strange. Chen Xiaomi was pregnant and Chen Xiaomai was simple-minded. Under normal circumstances, any boss would’ve dismissed them by now.

Shuang’er had relatively low status. When bosses in town hired workers, they generally preferred to use men. If a Shuang’er got pregnant, it would definitely affect their work, and bosses definitely wouldn’t want to use them.

Lu An shook his head. “That big boss of Huaxia Trading Company doesn’t show his face. He seems to have handed everything over to Chen Xiaomi to manage. I heard Chen Xiaomi once saved that boss’s life, so he trusts him a lot.”

For such a large business, it was surprising that the owner would entrust it to Chen Xiaocai as shopkeeper, without worrying that the kid might make mistakes.

“Shen Chi and Chen Xiaocai seem pretty close.”

Lin Xiu’er curled her lips. “That kid Shen Chi is so shameless! A young Shuang’er running around showing his face in public like that. The Shen family isn’t a good family either. There’s just the grandmother and grandson left in the house. Granny Shen must be anxious about Shen Chi’s marriage, so she’s deliberately making him cling to Chen Xiaocai.”

“That brat Chen Xiaocai isn’t any good himself, but Lu Lin and Chen Xiaomi must’ve earned a fortune. Whoever marries into that family should be able to get a pretty good bride price. With Shen Chi’s conditions, landing Xiaocai is already a win for him.”

Lu An narrowed his eyes. This Chen Xiaocai seemed to have become one of the village’s golden son-in-law candidates. If it weren’t for Chen Xiaocai being still a bit too young, people would probably already be coming to arrange marriages. In the past, when village girls mentioned Chen Xiaocai, they were always disdainful, but now when they brought him up, they all talked about how capable Chen Xiaocai was.

In the end, when choosing husbands in the village, it still came down to money. Chen Xiaomi and Lu Lin together could make over forty taels a year. With the relationship between the Chen brothers, Chen Xiaomi definitely wouldn’t shortchange Chen Xiaocai on food and expenses.

Clack, clack. Chen Xiaocai was clicking away at his abacus. A couple days ago, when the shop was crowded, he miscalculated the accounts. When checking the numbers that evening, he discovered they were short four hundred wen.

Losing so much money at once, Chen Xiaocai almost died of anxiety. But Lu Lin comforted him, saying that in business there were always gains and losses, and told him to just be more careful next time.

The shop’s daily earnings were quite good, so Lu Lin really didn’t care about those four hundred wen.

“Chen-xiaozi, are you doing the accounts?”

Chen Xiaocai looked up from the abacus to see a plump woman with a young girl standing at the counter.

Chen Xiaocai recognized her. That woman was the village’s famous shrew, and the little girl behind the woman had once cursed his brother, saying his brother was destined to be like their father, a disaster who would die in the mountains. Of course, she wasn’t the only one. Their grandmother spread this around the village, so others followed suit. The little girl hid behind the woman, completely different from Chen Xiaocai’s impression of her.

Before, when Chen Xiaocai saw that girl, he thought that despite her young age, she was already a little shrew. But now, seeing the girl acting shy and demure made Chen Xiaocai feel uncomfortable.

“Auntie, is there anything you’d like to buy?”

The plump woman smiled. “Everything in your shop is too expensive. Xiaocai, working here must pay well, huh? This place makes a fortune daily.”

Chen Xiaocai said flatly, “The profits belong to the boss. We just get fixed wages, which is not much.”

The woman smiled. “But the boss isn’t here, right? HHow much wages you get is up to your brother, isn’t it?”

Chen Xiaocai forced a smile. “We can’t just do whatever we want.”

Recently, more and more people had been asking about his wages. He was already used to it.

The woman chatted with Xiaocai for quite a while, asking many questions, before finally leaving, making Chen Xiaocai feel annoyed.

The summer heat always made people lose their appetite, so Lu Lin cooked a big pot of mung bean porridge. After chilling it in the well water, he brought it out for everyone to share, which everyone found extremely satisfying.

In the evening, Chen Xiaocai closed the shop and joined Xiaomai and the others with a bowl of mung bean porridge.

Lu Lin stood at the main hall doorway, staring at Chen Xiaocai for a while without saying anything, then left.

Chen Xiaomai looked at Chen Xiaocai strangely. “Er-ge[mfn]Second brother[/mfn], just now Brother Lu kept staring at you, like he wanted to sell you or something.”

Chen Xiaocai shot him a glance. “Don’t talk nonsense.”

He didn’t actually think Lu Lin would sell him, but that look in his eyes was strange. He was probably scheming something again. Maybe he’d send him to the neighboring town like last time.

Chen Xiaomai looked at Shen Chi. “Shen-ge, don’t you think Brother Lin was acting weird just now?”

Shen Chi nodded. “A little.”

Chen Xiaomei was delighted when Shen Chi agreed with him, and broke into a wide grin.

Lu Lin walked into the room and saw Chen Xiaomi completely absorbed on making fans. There was already a thick pile of fans beside him, with two poorly made fans thrown to the side.

Lu Lin said somewhat distressed, “We still have plenty of fans in stock. You don’t need to work so hard.”

Chen Xiaomi shook his head. “No way! Aren’t we supposed to send a batch of goods to Liu Town in a few days?”

Lu Lin stroked his chin. “Maybe the business in Liu Town won’t be good.”

Chen Xiaomi glared at Lu Lin. “Don’t jinx it! Their sales are way better than here.”

Lu Lin nodded, then changed the subject. “I ran into Aunt Zheng from the village today.”

Chen Xiaomi glanced at Lu Lin. “Zhang He’s wife?”

“That’s her.”

“That shrew!” Chen Xiaomi wrinkled his nose in disgust. “Her son likes to bully Xiao[mfn]It’s not a duplicate/error.[/mfn] Xiaocai.”

Lu Lin looked surprised. “Really? She came to me today saying Xiaocai isn’t young anymore and should settle down.”

Chen Xiaomi stared at Lu Lin. “You mean she wants to match her fat girl with Xiaocai?”

Lu Lin nodded. “Exactly.”

Chen Xiaomi rolled his eyes. “That little fat girl of hers has always looked down on Xiaocai. They even fought before.”

“They had a conflict?” Lu Lin asked.

“Before, that girl dropped a handkerchief and Xiaocai found it and returned it to her. That brat complained that Xiaocai dirtied her handkerchief and demanded he buy her a new one.”

Lu Lin was speechless.

“You can’t judge people based on old grudges. Don’t you know? Our Xiaocai is really popular now. To the villagers, our family’s current conditions should be pretty good. Both of us had respectable jobs, Chen Xiaocai works as a shopkeeper in the store and could use an abacus for bookkeeping, so he should be considered capable too.

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