Chapter 35: Market Saturation

The news that Chen Xiao Mi had made a huge profit by selling gloves had caused yet another upsurge of sour grape talk in Big Stone Village.

Most villagers worked all the year round usually would get a profit about seven or eight taels of silver. But Chen Xiao Mi had made over 50 taels of silver on one Winter Fair.

Fox fur gloves had become the most coveted item among the young masters in town, it had even become a symbol of wealth and status.

Some people who didn't get the fox fur gloves would put on a pair of gloves made of rabbit fur as compromise. Some others bought fox fur and asked tailor shops to make fox fur gloves for them.

This trend had even driven up the fur market in town.

Gloves soon had lost its novelty, the wealthy young masters preferred the fox fur ones while the plain folks preferred rabbit fur ones, and the prices of gloves had soon dropped. A lot of people started to rent stalls in the market and sell homemade gloves.

Chen Xiao Mi didn't go to down these days, but he had heard one thing or two about his fellow villagers had also tried their luck in town by selling gloves. Hearing none of them had made any profit, Chen Xiao Mi gloated over the villagers' failure.

"Lu Lin, you are right about this, the price of gloves is plunging."

A lot of villagers had copied the idea after they head Chen Xiao Mi made a fortune on the fair, they scrambled to buy fur and as a result the price of fur had gone up, thus the cost had rise up as well. Many of the latecomers couldn't break even.

Lu Lin smiled, "Because there's nothing complicated in it, we can sell them for a good price when they are a novelty, but not any more."

Granny Shen's needlework was great, but the embroiders in wealthy families in town had already updated the game, more exquisite and fancy gloves had hit the market too.

Chen Xiao Mi titled his head and said, "My uncle Chen Shou Xin has also bought some fur from the hunter in Big Gulf Village and jumped on the bandwagon of renting a stall in town, but he didn't sell much of them. Animal furs aren't cheap, I'm sure he's losing money already, that fool!"

Lu Lin had encountered Chen Shou Xin several times after he married Chen Xiao Mi. Chen Shou Xin would always look at Lu Lin with contempt like Lu Lin owed him money or something.

Lu Lin and Chen Xiao Cai had become close recently, Chen Xiao Cai had mentioned to him that Lu Lin was once trapped in the mountain for a night, Chen Shou Xin thought Chen Xiao Mi must be dead so he marched towards their house and claimed everything in the house. And he ended up being beaten up by Chen Xiao Mi who came back home safe and sound.

Chen Shou Xin was such a greedy person, chances were he still thought he owned everything that Lu Lin owned even though Lu Lin had already lived independently.

'No wonder that Chen Shou Xin has always been so haughty to me, Chen Xiao Mi spends 10 taels on marrying me, he must fricking think he owns that 10 taels silver hence he owns me', thought Lu Lin.

"How did you know about Chen Shou Xin and his gloves business?" Lu Lin asked with curiosity.

"I heard it from Zhang Da Zhu." Replied Chen Xiao Mi.

"Ah~ speaking of Zhang Da Zhu, he has sent us another batch of firewood recently."

"Yeah, and I've also noticed more and more villagers starting to talk to me."

"That's a good thing!" Lu Lin was happy.

Chen Xiao Mi shook his head, "I beg to differ. They kept asking me whether we need to buy pickle vegetables or sew new clothes, they want us to buy stuff them instead of Granny Shen."

Lu Lin squinted his eyes, "It looks like they knew we are buying stuff from Granny Shen."

Chen Xiao Mi scratched his head, "Yeah, people talk, nothing is a secret in this village."

Chen Xiao Cai always visited Granny Shen with Chen Xiao Mai, of course the villagers had noticed that. The villagers actually had noticed the gloves that Granny Shen made for them, but back then no one knew what those strange things were, and Granny Shen deliberately talked vaguely when others asked her what she was making.

It was already too late when the villagers had the 'a-ha' moment. Chen Xiao Mi had already made 50 taels of silver by selling that novelty.

In Lu House.

Tang interspersed her talk with curses, she was overwhelmed with indignation by the fact that Chen Xiao Mi made yet another fortune.

"Mom, 50 taels? Really?" Lu Tong asked in shock. She wanted to go to the Winter Fair to do some shopping, but she gave that up because she didn't manage to borrow an ox-cart.

Tang nodded, "Two taels for a pair of fox fur gloves! Along with the rabbit fur ones, he must have made more than 50 taels!"

"That's a huge amount of money!" Lu Tong found that jaw-dropping.

The Lu Family was doing pretty well because they had a vast area of farmland, but Lu Cheng Yu's tuition fee was expensive, they were very generous in fawning upon the teachers at school as well, that was an expenditure of dozens of tales.

Lu Tong saved so hard for years for about two taels as her case-dough. She turned green with envy when she heard Chen Xiao Mi made 50 taels on a day.

Even a grand wedding in the village would only cost three or five taels, but that Chen Xiao Mi had made more than 50 taels on a day!