TATLC Chapter 56

Zhang Jin walked into the house and saw his parents with serious expressions on their faces. The atmosphere was tense.

“Mom, what’s wrong?” he asked.

Wife Zhang[mfn]It’s actually 张氏 Zhang-shi. So her clan/maiden name is also Zhang. But if I follow my current naming convention and call her Zhang, it’s a bit confusing since she’s talking to her son and husband, who are both also Zhang. If I call her Zhang-shi, I feel like I should go back and change Wang, Tang and others to follow the -shi naming convention, and I’m too lazy to do that. Hmm, let me know which one you prefer.[/mfn]replied irritably, “I told your father to get back the two taels of silver we lent to the Lu family, but he didn’t bring it back.”

Zhang Cheng explained awkwardly, “The Lu family just finished hosting a big event. They had so many guests to feed. They’re a bit tight on money right now.”

“But didn’t they collect a lot of gift money from all those guests?” Zhang Jin pointed out.

Hearing his son’s words, Zhang Cheng took a drag from his pipe without responding.

Wife Zhang let out a light snort and said, “I think that old hypocrite from the Lu family plans to pocket our silver and never return it. She’s already taken enough advantage of us.”

Zhang Cheng glanced at his wife and replied helplessly, “What are you saying? The Lu family owns so much land. They wouldn’t cheat us out of such a small amount.”

“Who knows?” Wife Zhang noticed Zhang Cheng’s expression and decided not to push the issue further. “After all that searching, Lu Chengyu ended up choosing that girl? She’s not even as good as the girls from our village. I really don’t understand what Tang is thinking.”

“She’s the sister-in-law of the Chief Clerk. She’s bound to be different from country girls,” Zhang Cheng said.

Wife Zhang rolled her eyes and scoffed, “Oh, she’s different alright. One look and you can tell she’s not the hardworking type. The Lu family is full of lazy good-for-nothings now.”

Zhang Cheng shot his wife a glare and said, “What nonsense are you spouting?”

Zhang Jin thought to himself, Mom’s not wrong. The Lu family used to rely on the second branch to do all the work. Now that they’re gone, even the grandparents have to go work the fields. And even then, they can’t finish everything. The Lu family really doesn’t have many capable people left.

The gossip about Lu Chengyu’s marriage lasted for a while before being replaced by news of Lu Tong’s marriage.

Compared to Lu Chengyu’s wedding, the Li family’s ceremony was much simpler. Since this wasn’t Li Ji’s[mfn]Previously, the raw in Chapter 51 said Li Jizheng, but in this chapter it’s just Li Ji. Anyway, I’m just following the raw lol.[/mfn] first marriage, Lu Tong’s wedding was rushed through without much fanfare. The Lu family had been tight on money lately and didn’t prepare much for Lu Tong’s dowry.

On Lu Tong’s first night at her new home, a small incident occurred. Li Ji’s son came to the bridal chamber in the middle of the night looking for his father, disrupting Lu Tong and Li Ji’s wedding night.

—[mfn]That’s an abrupt scene change, so I’m placing a separator here lol[/mfn]

Lu Lin and Chen Xiaomi made a trip to town and sold another batch of wine.

Just as Lu Lin and Chen Xiaomi finished their transaction, they overheard someone speaking loudly in the restaurant. Lu Lin peeked over and discovered it was Li Hong, Li Fangyue’s second brother.

Li Hong was drunk, surrounded by several cronies, all loudly debating something.

Lu Lin had previously asked Manager Wang about the Li family, so Manager Wang was aware of Lu Lin’s connection to Li Hong.

Manager Wang smiled and said, “Li Hong has been here many times since Li Fangyue got married.”

Lu Lin’s lips curled into a slight smile. He heard that most of Li Fangyue’s betrothal gift had stayed with the Li family. Given how Li Hong’s parents doted on him, most of that money probably ended up in Li Hong’s pocket.

Lu Lin and Chen Xiaomi eavesdropped for a while.

Since Li Hong was treating everyone, the group flattered him shamelessly, competing to curry his favor.

Someone asked about Lu Chengyu and Li Fangyue’s marriage. A young man said with sour envy, “Lu Lin’s quite generous, isn’t he? To think he’d offer such a large dowry.”

Basking in the crowd’s admiration, Li Hong spoke dismissively of Lu Chengyu, calling him a muddy-legged country bumpkin who dug in the dirt. No amount of book learning could change his lowly origins. If not for the generous dowry, their family would never have agreed to marry their sister to him.

After listening for a while, Lu Lin and Chen Xiaomi walked away in silence.

“Lu Chengyu miscalculated this time,” Lu Lin said. “He was so picky when searching for a wife, thinking the village girls weren’t good enough for him. He even waited an extra year, and this is the family he ended up with.”

If Li Hong had this attitude, that Chief Clerk probably wouldn’t think much of Lu Chengyu’s family either.

Li Hong had been living quite extravagantly lately. Many people knew his eldest sister had married the Chief Clerk, but the official didn’t particularly like this branch of in-laws. Li Hong had received cold treatment during his several visits, and his sister didn’t welcome family visits either. Others might not know, but Li Hong was aware his eldest sister was only a concubine. After a few visits, he rarely went to the Chief Clerk’s home anymore.

Li Hong had originally thought his third sister Li Fangyue, being less attractive than their eldest sister, was a money-losing commodity who wouldn’t find a good marriage. He never expected Lu Chengyu would take an interest in her.

Although the Li family lived in town, they didn’t have a particularly profitable business. The small earnings from their shop went toward keeping up appearances, so Li Hong never had much money. The thirty taels of silver from the Lu family had allowed him to live lavishly for a while.

Li Hong had initially wanted to keep all thirty taels, but his father still cared somewhat for his daughter and left five taels for Li Fangyue.

After selling a batch of wine, Lu Lin and Chen Xiaomi collected sixteen taels of silver and headed to the broker’s place.

At the broker’s, over a dozen people were crammed into a dilapidated house. Among them, Lu Lin spotted two girls about seven or eight years old, skinny and sickly-looking. They looked pitiful.

Although the children looked miserable, Lu Lin had no intention of taking them home. They already had two kids to care for, plus Xiaomai, who had his own issues. Adding more children wouldn’t help. They couldn’t take care of that many.

“What kind of person are you looking for, boss?” the broker asked excitedly.

“I need a woman who can cook, preferably with some embroidery skills,” Chen Xiaomi said. Lu Lin usually cooked for the family, but with him needing to manage the business going forward, they needed someone else to handle the cooking. “And also a man, preferably someone strong.”

Hearing Lu Lin’s requirements, the broker seemed to get the idea. He introduced a family of three who had previously worked as servants in a wealthy household. The family had offended their masters and were sold off as a result.

Lu Lin noticed calluses on both the husband’s and wife’s hands, suggesting they were accustomed to hard labor, which pleased him somewhat.

The broker had several attractive young women who had likely served in wealthy households before. One cost twenty taels of silver, but she didn’t look like someone who could do hard work.

People were very cheap in this era. Basically, the price of one mu of land could buy a person. In recent years, frequent wars had left many orphans, and children weren’t worth much. The two adults were sold to Lu Lin for 10 taels of silver, with their child thrown in as an extra.

Lu Lin collected the family’s slave contracts and temporarily settled them in the newly purchased house in town.

Lu Lin made a trip to the village to bring Xiaocai and Xiaomai to town.

Xiaomai was stunned when he saw the house.

“Da-ge, will we be living here from now on?” Xiaomai asked.

Chen Xiaomi nodded and said, “Yes.”

Xiaomai asked suspiciously, “Da-ge, this house is so big. Where did it come from?”

Chen Xiaomi told Chen Xiaocai that the house belonged to a wealthy man and that he was just helping to look after it. As for the three servants in the house, they had been left behind by the previous owner. Chen Xiaocai wasn’t very clear about how much money the family had, so hearing Chen Xiaomi’s explanation made everything seem reasonable to him.

Chen Xiaocai knew his big brother had earned some silver recently, but he never imagined his brother had enough money to afford a house in town.

Chen Xiaocai tugged on Chen Xiaomi’s sleeve and asked, “Da-ge, is it right for us to live here? What will we eat?”

“Don’t worry, we’re looking after the house for someone, and the wealthy owner is paying us,” Chen Xiaomi repeated the excuse Lu Lin came up with.

Chen Xiaocai said in amazement, “I can’t believe there’s such a generous rich person.”

In Chen Xiaocai’s eyes, wealthy people were typically cruel and exploitative, which was indeed often the case. Many rich households owned large tracts of land that they leased out, living luxuriously off the rent while villagers who worked diligently in the fields all year could barely make ends meet.

Hearing that his big brother had met an unusually kind wealthy person who paid them to look after a house seemed incredible to Chen Xiaocai.

Lu Lin took the money jar from the convenience store. Xiaomi counted the silver inside and said, “Only forty taels left.”

Chen Xiaomi scratched his head, showing hints of worry.

Lu Lin smiled and said, “We’ve been spending quite quickly, but we still have forty taels, don’t we?” When he first arrived at Chen Xiaomi’s place, the Chen family didn’t even have ten taels of silver to their name. Their current situation was already much better. If necessary, they could always continue selling wine.

Chen Xiaomi glanced at Lu Lin and asked, “You bought so much fabric. Are you going to make those bags you mentioned?” Recently, besides buying people, another major expense had been fabric. They bought many different types.

Lu Lin nodded and said, “Yes!”

Lu Lin took out a ballpoint pen and notebook to draw various bag designs for Chen Xiaomi.

Chen Xiaomi had never seen such a magical pen or paper before and was stunned for a moment. He grabbed the pen and paper from Lu Lin and examined them in awe for a long while.

Looking at the different bags Lu Lin drew, Chen Xiaomi vaguely felt there was potential for wealth.

“Are these bags from your world?” Chen Xiaomi asked in surprise.

Lu Lin nodded and said, “Yes! Bags in our world are quite expensive. One bag can cost as much as dozens of pigs.” In his previous life, bags costing tens of thousands were common, and there were even many bags worth millions. It wasn’t about being expensive. It was about not being expensive enough.

Chen Xiaomi asked in confusion, “How could anyone be so stupid? What use are bags? Pigs are much more practical.”

“Different people have different pursuits. Some people just like bags,” Lu Lin explained. An expensive bag best reflected a person’s worth. “Besides, these people don’t worry about having meat to eat.” Of course, there were those who skimped on necessities to buy a bag, but they were the minority. Most people who bought designer bags were those with money to spare.

Chen Xiaomi asked enviously, “Do they eat meat with every meal?”

Lu Lin nodded and said, “Yes, they eat meat with every meal.”

In his previous life, meat wasn’t expensive, and eating it daily wasn’t difficult. However, meat was something you craved when you couldn’t have it, but when you ate too much, you’d start wanting vegetables instead.

Chen Xiaomi said worriedly, “These bags don’t look too difficult to make. If someone copies them, we won’t make much money.”

Lu Lin nodded and said, “I’ve thought about that too. Some bags are actually quite difficult to make. To prevent people from copying them, I’m considering having workers specialize in different steps, with each helper responsible for one part, and then our people will do the final assembly.”

Although this probably wouldn’t completely prevent manufacturing techniques from leaking, it could delay it. Once they established their brand, they wouldn’t need to worry about copycats.

Chen Xiaomi looked at Lu Lin’s sketches, his eyes gleaming with excitement.

Chen Xiaomi stuffed the notebook back to Lu Lin and said, “Put it away for now. Don’t let anyone see it.”

Lu Lin nodded, silently thinking about when he should buy some traditional writing materials. Ballpoint pens and notebooks were convenient, but they were too conspicuous.

Chen Xiaomi and Lu Lin already earned some money from selling gloves, which apparently caused quite a stir among the villagers. If people found out they bought such a large house in town, who knew how envious they would become.

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