Lu Lin had Wan Tie’s wife, Yun Niang, recruit women skilled in embroidery from town.
He offered a wage of twenty-five wen per day, and quickly found workers. In this era, many people eagerly wanted work but couldn’t find any.
With the busy farming season now over, twenty-five wen per day was quite attractive.
After Yun Niang hired about ten people, others still came asking if more workers were needed. Learning that no more positions were available, many left disappointed.
Yun Niang’s needlework skills were quite good, so she handled the final assembly of the more complex bags.
Lu Lin noticed something unusual about Wan Tie’s family. Wan Tie seemed like a man who had seen the world, and Yun Niang must have been pretty once, but a scar on her face had marred her beauty.
Their child, Wan Xiaofan, was extremely thin and timid, as if afraid of people.
Once, Lu Lin noticed a patch of burn-like scars on the boy’s arm, but he had no idea how they got there.
Both Wan Tie and Yun Niang doted on their son. When speaking to Wan Xiaofan, they used soft, patient voices, as if afraid of scaring him.
Since Lu Lin bought Wan Tie’s family, he naturally asked the broker about their background.
According to what he learned, Wan Tie’s family were hereditary servants. Wan Tie’s parents had also been servants, while Yun Niang had originally been a dowry maid from a wealthy family. She might have offended the lady of the family and had her face scratched, and then she was married off to Wan Tie.
In this era, maids held very low status. They worked in households while young, but when they grew older, most were sold off.
When maids were sold, they were typically older and couldn’t be sold to good families.
Many maids dreamed of being taken as concubines by their masters or young masters, but even as concubines, their status remained very low.
Lu Lin brought over Xiaocai and Xiaomai. Xiaomai was curious about Wan Xiaofan. He usually interacted with older children, so he was very curious and happy to suddenly meet someone younger than him.
Wan Xiaofan seemed terrified of Xiaomai. Sometimes when Xiaomai grabbed him, he would freeze completely, too scared to move.
At first, Lu Lin thought Wan Xiaofan was just naturally timid, but later suspected he might have been hurt by other children.
Lu Lin secretly guessed that the scars on Wan Xiaofan’s arm had been caused by other children.
Xiaomai was actually kind-hearted and sometimes offered to share his snacks with Wan Xiaofan. However, Wan Xiaofan never dared to accept them, which greatly disappointed Xiaomai.
Lu Lin put Yun Niang in charge of managing the embroiderers he had hired. The workers were very obedient, probably afraid that they would lose their jobs, and worked very diligently.
Lu Lin and Chen Xiaomi lived in the east wing, while Chen Xiaocai and Xiaomai lived in the west wing, leaving the main house empty.
Wan Tie and Yun Niang lived in the servants’ quarters. The Lu family was still relatively small, with only three servant rooms in total.
“Husband, what do you make of these two masters?” Yun Niang found Lu Lin and Chen Xiaomi, who bought them, extremely strange.
Wan Tie sighed and said, “Just focus on doing good work.”
Wan Tie’s father had been a servant, so he was born into servitude. Their masters weren’t particularly kind, so Wan Tie had learned from childhood to read people’s moods. Wan Tie was quite skilled at this and gradually worked his way up to a steward position. Although still a servant, it was a respectable position.
Yun Niang had originally been a dowry maid for the First Wife. Wan Tie had been quite fond of her, but unfortunately, the young master had taken an interest in her as well. Consumed by jealousy, the First Wife slashed Yun Niang’s face. Once her face was disfigured, the young master lost interest, and the First Wife promptly arranged her marriage to Wan Tie.
Although Yun Niang’s face was ruined, for a servant like Wan Tie, finding a wife was difficult in the first place. Marrying Yun Niang was still considered a stroke of luck. After their marriage, they had a son, Wan Xiaofan. Life had been decent, but after the young master’s concubine gave birth to a son, the First Wife’s own son gradually fell out of favor.
The young master, perhaps instigated by someone, developed a strong dislike for Wan Xiaofan. He took Wan Xiaofan as his book boy. He abused the boy relentlessly, nearly beating him to death several times.
For servants who had signed contracts of indenture, even if they were beaten to death, authorities wouldn’t intervene as long as someone paid the right bribes.
Unable to bear seeing his son suffer, Wan Tie disobeyed the young master, angering the madam, who then sold their family of three.
Yun Niang glanced at Wan Xiaofan, worried about her son.
After being bullied for the past two years, Wan Xiaofan’s mental state had subtly deteriorated. Yun Niang felt so much guilt toward her son.
As a former dowry maid of the First Wife, Yun Niang knew that the one who bullied Wan Xiaofan was the First Wife’s son. She suspected the young master’s mistreatment of her son was partly because of her.
Shortly after she arrived as the lady’s dowry maid, the young master became interested in her. Out of jealousy, the young miss had scarred her face. Seeing her disfigured, the young master lost interest in her.
The young master wasn’t faithful. Soon after his wedding, he brought in concubines one after another. When his wife was unhappy, she would take it out on Yun Niang.
Two years ago, the young master had taken a concubine named Lin from a brothel. Charming, passionate, and understanding, she quickly became his favorite.
After Lin entered the household, rumors spread about the First Wife’s vicious nature. The story of Yun Niang’s disfigurement was brought up again. As the First Wife’s reputation suffered, Yun Niang’s life became even more difficult.
After being sold off, the family drifted from place to place. The slave trader didn’t care about their survival, giving them only half a steamed bun daily, just enough to keep them from starving.
Wan Tie remarked with wonder, “The bags that Young Master Lu makes are really special.”
Yunniang handled the final assembly, and Wan Tie had seen the finished bags. Having served as a steward in a wealthy household, he was no stranger to fine goods, yet he had never seen anything like these.
Yun Niang nodded and said, “These bags should be popular among scholars.”
After stockpiling various styles of bags, Lu Lin took a batch to sell at the store.
Ancient people always needed time to accept new items. When the bags were displayed, people didn’t understand their purpose, and few bought them. To open up the market, Lu Lin gave several away to Landlord Yang’s family for free.
Landlord Yang’s family was among the wealthiest in town. Whatever the Yang family used easily became a trend for others.
When the two Yang children arrived at school wearing their backpacks, they immediately caused a sensation.
“Yang Teng, your bag is so beautiful!”
As soon as Yang Teng and Yang Miao appeared at the academy, they were surrounded by several students.
The students gathered around to stare at their backpacks, making Yang Teng and Yang Miao puff up with pride.
“This is called a ‘book bag.’ It can hold a lot of books, and it even has compartments inside! See this drawstring? Just pull it tight, and it closes up. It’s very convenient!” After receiving the bag, Yang Teng played with it for a long time at home and was now eager to show it off.
“Here are two shoulder straps, so you can carry it on your back.”
His enthusiastic demonstration drew gasps of admiration from the other students.
The bag’s beautiful wooden charms also caught everyone’s attention.
The students looked on with envy. When they learned that these bags were sold at a nearby shop, they decided to go buy one after school.
The two bags Lu Lin had given to the Yang family immediately became popular at the academy.
Children’s competitive nature is no less than adults’. Several children from wealthy families saw the bags carried by the two Yang children and rushed to Lu Lin’s store that very day.
Within a few days, almost half the students at the academy were carrying bags.
Standing at the school entrance, one could see a group of young students marching past proudly with their bags on their backs.
A few more days passed, and almost every student at the academy had a bag.
The bags sold at the trading company ranged from one hundred wen for the cheapest to one silver tael for the most expensive.
The more expensive bags were made with better fabric.
Lu Lin also found several carpenters to make delicate charms that could be strung onto the bags as decorations.
Although mechanical technology in this era was somewhat backward, there were still many skilled craftsmen. Carpenters who made exquisite wooden hairpins could certainly create intricate charms without difficulty.
The bags sold like hotcakes, and soon, nearly every student in the nearby academies owned one.
What surprised Lu Lin was that Wan Tie, whom he bought, was actually literate. Although his knowledge was limited, he also knew some arithmetic, so Lu Lin sent him to work as the manager of the store.
The village had many students attending the county school. Lu Lin’s shop was close to the academy, and since he didn’t want to attract too much attention, at least not yet. So, he assigned all public-facing duties to Wan Tie. Having previously worked as a steward, Wan Tie handled them exceptionally well.
When Lu Chengyu returned to the academy, he saw many classmates already wearing bags.
After some thought, he decided to buy one after class.
Although the Lu family had been tight on money lately, Grandma Lu still doted on him. Knowing he would return to county school, she worried his classmates might look down on him and gave him three hundred coins.
After failing the Xiucai examination, Lu Chengyu had been depressed for a while and used his upcoming marriage as an excuse to hide at home.
Recently, tensions between Wang, Tang, and Li Fangyue had been escalating, turning the house into a constant battleground of arguments.
Whenever Li Fangyue was scolded, she would run to Lu Chengyu to cry and complain.
Lu Chengyu was somewhat dissatisfied with his plain-looking wife but had to appease her out of consideration for her family.
With the domestic disputes escalating, Lu Chengyu found himself overwhelmed and chose to escape by returning to the academy.
Seeing his classmates with their stylish new bags, he grew interested. But when he learned that the highest-quality ones cost over a tael of silver, he couldn’t help but feel short of money.
After school, Lu Chengyu and several classmates visited Lu Lin’s Huaxia Trading Company.
As soon as he entered the shop, Lu Chengyu saw rows of bags displayed, each with a price tag. There were various quality levels available. Although he felt that charging several hundred wen or even more than one tael of silver for bags made of a few pieces of cloth was outrageous, he still spent the money to buy one.
“This Huaxia Trading Company wasn’t here before, was it?” Lu Chengyu asked.
“This shop used to sell general goods, but it seems the ownership changed recently.”
“I heard the previous owner moved away and sold both the shop and the residence behind it.”
“That must’ve cost a fortune,” said Lu Chengyu.
“Absolutely. Rumor has it it went for over two hundred taels.”
“Who bought the property?”
“The new owner keeps a low profile.”
Staring at the shop’s signboard, Lu Chengyu felt a pang of envy. His own family had been struggling financially because of his wedding expenses, so hearing about someone casually dropping over two hundred taels on a shop and residence instantly stirred resentment in him.
While Lu Chengyu envied the owner’s wealth, he never imagined that the owner might be Lu Lin, whom he had always despised.
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