Chapter 29: Making New Friends

Liu Gui Yong bore a grudge when he saw the villagers in Big Stone Village trying to steal his job, but he didn't show it. He kept blaming his other son Liu Wu for having conversations with the prying villagers, and he glared at Liu Wu when he found out Liu Wu had told the villagers their wage.

Liu Wu just scratched his head when he saw his father glaring at him.

Liu Wu had a quick tongue and always said what he thought without much deliberation. He got mad when the villagers tried to convince him that neither Chen Xiao Mi nor Lu Lin was good person, and they wouldn't pay him on time for sure.

Liu Wu defended Chen Xiao Mi and Lu Lin, he told the villagers to mind their own business and all of his team members were getting paid on time. Some cunning villagers took advantage of Liu Wu's outspoken nature, they deliberately asked him detailed questions, Liu Wu fell for that, he had said something that was meant to be a secret.

Lu Lin had selected several honest and hard-working villagers from Big Stone Village, the villagers were grateful for Lu Lin's kindness, and they worked industriously.

It became so interesting, the villagers and Liu Gui Yong's team worked in a competitive way, both teams wanted to outshine.

It only took Liu Gui Yong's team ten days or so to build the room, Big Stone Village team was unwilling to lag behind, they finished building the mule carriage, chicken coop, goose coop ahead of schedule as well. Lu Lin asked the Big Stone Village team to dig a cellar and laying bricks in the new room.

The villagers were happy that they kept getting work and getting paid, but they couldn't help but wonder how exactly Lu Lin and Chen Xiao Mi could had so much money to keep paying them to work for them.

They knew they didn't have a chance to get anything useful from Liu Gui Yong's team, so they decided to approach Chen Xiao Cai after some calculating.

Chen Xiao Cai had been as busy as a bee recently, he needed to keep an eye on all the animals and he was in charge of feeding them three times a day. So the villagers had seen Chen Xiao Cai quite a fair bit in the yard, they would just always beat around the bush, trying to pry for information, they wish they could have a clue why all of a sudden Chen Xiao Mi became so rich.

Soon Chen Xiao Mi and Lu Lin decided to build a kang in the new room as well. Both Liu Gui Yong's team and the Big Stone Village team watched them attentively on the day they built the kang.

The Big Stone Village team had even declared that they were willing to work for free for them for three days as long as they could watch and learn how to build kang. Chen Xiao Mi and Lu Lin thought about it and they nodded their assent.

The villagers soon became hotcakes after they had learned how to build kang, so many rich families were willing to hire them with a high price to have a kang for winter.

Other villagers wished they were on good terms with Chen Xiao Mi as well, they were jealous of their friends who were making a fortune through leaning from Chen Xiao Mi.

Zhang Cheng, the Village Head, was so depressed due to that.

As the Village Head, he wanted their entire village to shake off poverty and become prosperous. He kept blaming Chen Xiao Mi and Lu Lin for teaching Liu Gui Yong and his team who were from the other village the skills to build kang. He insisted such skills should be exclusive to their own village, thus the villagers could go to town and work for those wealthy families.

Zhang Cheng would squint his eyes and imagine how great it was going to be if only their own villagers knew how to build kang, they didn't have to compete with Liu Gui Yong's team, and they could price themselves out of the market.

Casual laborers who tried to find work in town would always get exploited, but not many laborers knew how to build kang, so both Liu Gui Yong's team and the Big Stone Village team were getting paid pretty well in town. Therefore, the Big Stone Village team had been so busy building kang in town that they didn't have time to teach their fellow villagers the skills or build kangs for the villagers who had been dying for a kang.

Zhang Cheng banged on Chen Xiao Mi's door and blamed Chen Xiao Mi for teaching Liu Gui Yong's team instead of the fellow villagers the skills, but Lu Lin talked back to him with just one sentence, "Village Head, you are the one who told me the fellow villagers were too busy to work for us, aren't you? It's not like I prefer looking for help from the Big Gulf Village, I just couldn't find any help from our own village."

Zhang Cheng didn't see that coming, he didn't expect Lu Lin would talk back to an elder like him. He turned furious and left in embarrassment.

Zhang Cheng was even more furious when the villagers who had learned the skills from Chen Xiao Mi were not keen on teaching their fellow villagers, they had been so busy working for the wealthy families in town.

Lu Lin understood why the villagers were indifferent to Zhang Cheng, the villagers he had picked to work for him were all from a deprived background, he understood they would rather accumulate some wealth first before sharing this skill.

In Chen Xiao Mi's house.

Chen Xiao Mi just counted their savings, he pouted, "We have less than ten taels left. Our building project went over the budget, we ended up spending two more taels than we have planned."

Lu Lin was amused by how meticulous Chen Xiao Mi was when he counted the money, he felt Chen Xiao Mi was like a tiger when he was out in the mountain hunting, but he was like a cute little squirrel when he was counting their savings.

Lu Lin nodded and said, "Yeah, we spent a little more than we planned, but that's still enough for us to pass this winter comfortably. We can sell another batch of alcohol in town to have some more cash in hand in case something comes up."

Chen Xiao Mi nodded and said, "That's right."

"We can finish the final touch ups for the new room in just a few days." Lu Lin said casually.

Chen Xiao Mi got the undertone and he blushed.

"Are these hide for sell?" Lu Lin pointed at the animal skin piled by the door.

Chen Xiao Mi nodded.

Chen Xiao Mi didn't slack off in hunting even though they had made a fortune from selling alcohol, he had always seen hunting as his foothold that he would never give up on. But Chen Xiao Mi did have become more cautious when he was hunting, he would not risk his life on hunt those ferocious animals for more money.

Lu Lin took a closer look at the hide and said, "Do you mind not selling them? We can sew them as lining in our winter jackets. I can even ask Granny Shen to make aa few gloves for us, the hides here are all of good quality, I'm sure we can make gloves out of them and sell them for a good price."

"Gloves? What are those?"

Lu Lin reached out his hand to explain it, "Gloves are like jackets for hands, you put them on in winter, so you don't have chilblains."

Chen Xiao Mi tilted his head and sighed with emotion, "Wow, is it also a thing popular in your hometown? That's so refined!"

Lu Lin smiled and scratched his head shyly.

What Chen Xiao Mi didn't say out loud was he actually wasn't interested in wearing those gloves, he found that too dainty for him, he just thought he would tear those gloves apart within ten minutes considering it was all labor-intensive work that he was doing.

Lu Lin needed to put this "you kids need to sleep in a different room" lecture on the agenda now that the new room was all done.

Lu Lin had been racking his brains on how to make it easier for Chen Xiao Cai, he didn't come up with anything good, so he just decided to go with it.

"Xiao Cai, you are a big boy now, do you know big brave boys don't share a room with the adults. Don't be afraid, this is a good practice before you get married."

Chen Xiao Cai pouted, he was not interested in getting married.

"Xiao Cai, I know what you are thinking, but you will get married sooner or later. Sharing a room with Xiao Mai is a good thing, it means you are a big boy who can take care of your baby brother now, you guys have a big kang all to yourselves, and the best part is you will no longer hear your brother's snore at night!" Lu Lin thought he did a good job in convincing Chen Xiao Cai.

Chen Xiao Cai said, "But my big brother doesn't snore."

Lu Lin smiled, "Ah~ so it's you who has been snoring at night, see, it works out pretty well in the end. Me and your big brother won't hear you snoring if you sleep in the new room with Xiao Mai."

Chen Xiao Cai knew where Lu Lin was heading, he stamped his foot and said, "I will sleep in the new room with Xiao Mai, I will take good care of him."

"I have faith in you." Lu Lin grinned and said, "We are running out of pickled vegetables, would you like to buy more from Granny Shen?"

Lu Lin had been buying a fair bit of pickled vegetables from Granny Shen recently, sometimes he would just encourage Chen Xiao Cai and Chen Xiao Mai to run the errand for him, because he thought talking to people was good for kids.

Chen Xiao Cai nodded and said, "I'd love to."

"Good boy, these are for you." Lu Lin handed Chen Xiao Cai some chestnuts roasted with sugar as snack.

Lu Lin had picked some chestnuts in the mountains, he had made some chestnuts roasted with sugar this day as a snack for the kids, both Chen Xiao Cai and Chen Xiao Mai loved the sweet flavor.

Lu Lin was surprised when Chen Xiao Mi told him the villagers didn't know the chestnuts were edible because the shells were so hard and prickly, he felt sorry for them because chestnuts were so yummy.

Lu Lin had been storing some chestnuts in his shop, he roasted some with sugar that day for the kids, but Chen Xiao Mi wanted to have some as well, and he had fallen in love with the flavor after the first bite.

"Xiao Cai, feel free to share some with you friends." Lu Lin encouraged Chen Xiao Cai.

Chen Xiao Cai frowned, "Why would I do that? I can finish these by myself, and I can always share them with my brothers."

"You can make more friends by being nice and generous."

"Friends? The kids in the village are so dumb, I don't want to be friends with them." Chen Xiao Cai pouted.

Chen Xiao Mi knew that was Chen Xiao Cai's self-protection mechanism because Chen Xiao Cai tried to make friends with the other kids for so long, but the other kids turned him down because of the stupid stuff their parents told them, they would bully Chen Xiao Cai and stay away from him. As time went by, Chen Xiao Cai leaned to shut himself away.

Lu Lin knew he couldn't force Chen Xiao Cai to do something he wasn't ready for, he just nodded and patted Chen Xiao Cai's head.

Chen Xiao Cai stuffed the chestnuts into his pockets. The pockets were sewed by Granny Shen on Lu Lin's request, and they were so useful, Granny Shen started to sew pockets on Shen Chi's clothes as well.

'I don't mind sharing some with Shen Chi if I meet him later.' Thought Chen Xiao Cai.

Chen Xiao Cai got along with Shen Chi pretty well.

Chen Xiao Mai was so excited when he Chen Xiao Cai asked him whether he would like to go to Granny Shen's with him. Chen Xiao Mai didn't have any chance to go out and meet people before Lu Lin came to the family because he had been so sickly, now he became healthier and he would love to go out more.

Granny Shen welcomed the two boys on seeing them in her yard. Granny Shen and Lu Lin had become close over the past few days, she had made some money from sewing clothes and selling pickled vegetables to him.