Chapter 56: Early-stage Preparations for the Business

Zhang Jin went back home only to see both of his parents looking sulky.

"Mother, what's wrong?"

Zhang Jin's mother frowned and said, "I asked your father to ask the Lus to repay the 2 taels of silver, but your father turned me down."

Zhang Cheng scratched his head in embarrassment and explained, "The Lus have just held a grand wedding ceremony, they don't have a lot of cash in hand."

"They have invited so many guests, I'm sure they have received money as wedding gifts." Zhang Jin chimed in.

Zhang Cheng puffed on his pipe in silence on hearing his son.

Zhang Jin's mother snorted, "That Grandma Lu, I guarantee you she will play dumb and act like she doesn't owe us a penny."

Zhang Cheng cast a glimpse at his wife and said, "What nonsense are you talking about? The Lus have so many mus of farmland, no way will they deny that they owe us 2 taels of silver."

"Let's wait and see." Zhang Jin's mother said coldly, then he changed the subject, "Lu Cheng Yu's bride is not even as pretty as our village girls, I don't know why he married Li Fang Yue."

"The bride is the Secretary-General's sister-in-law, there's a difference." Replied Zhang Cheng.

Zhang Jin's mother rolled his eyes and snorted, "A big difference, she is lazy like the rest of the Lus. I can't wait to see how this turns out."

Zhang Cheng shot a waring look at his wife, "Watch it!"

Zhang Jin thought, 'Mother is right though. It used to be Lu Lin and his dead mother who did all the farm work and the house chores, now even Grandma Lu and Grandpa Lu have to work because the youngsters at home are so lazy.'

The talk about Lu Cheng Yu's wedding ceremony was soon replaced by Lu Tong's wedding ceremony.

Lu Tong's husband Li Ji dispensed with all unnecessary formalities because this was his second marriage and he didn't care about the ostentation any more. The Lus didn't prepare much dowry for Lu Tong on the excuse of short of money.

Some drama happened on Lu Tong's wedding night.

Li Ji's son cried and went to the bridal chamber to look for Li Ji, and there went Lu Tong's wedding night.

Lu Lin and Chen Xiao Mi went to town again to sell another batch of sweet potato wine.

Lu Lin heard some drunkard giving an impassioned speech in the restaurant when Manager Wang went to get him the money, Lu Lin stole a glance at the man, it was Li Fang Yue's elder brother Li Hong.

Li Hong and his friends were gesticulating wildly as they were talking.

Lu Lin had asked about Li Fang Yue from Manager Wang, therefore Manager Wang knew Lu Lin's cousin married Li Fang Yue.

Manager Wang smiled and said, "Li Hong has become a regular to my restaurant since Li Fang Yue got married."

Lu Lin's lips twitched, he had heard that Li Fang Yue had only brought 5 taels of silver as her dowry, now it looked like it was Li Hong who had got the majority of the betrothal present.

Lu Lin and Chen Xiao Mi took a seat and eavesdropped for a while.

It looked like Li Hong was the host, so the guests all fawned upon on him.

A guest had talked about Li Fang Yue's wedding, he spoke highly of Lu Cheng Yu for offering such a handsome amount of betrothal present.

Li Hong talked about Lu Cheng Yu with disdain, he said Lu Cheng Yu was just a villager, a peasant who couldn't change his fate even though he became a Xiucai one day, he was born of humble origins and that would never change.

Li Hong also said that they wouldn't betrothed with Lu Cheng Yu if not for the handsome amount of betrothal present.

Lu Lin and Chen Xiao Mi exchanged a look and they walked away.

"Lu Cheng Yu has seriously miscalculated on this! He loathed our village girls and he spent so much money on his wedding, but his in-laws look down upon on his like this. Can you imagine how the Secretary-General see Lu Cheng Yu and his family?" Lu Lin said to Chen Xiao Mi.

Chen Xiao Mi nodded, he couldn't agree more.

Li Hong recently was having such a good time, he used to think his little sister Li Fang Yue would marry poor because she was ugly, he was so glad that Lu Cheng Yu sent them 30 taels of silver as betrothal present.

Li Hong's older sister Li Ru married the Secretary-General, but the Secretary-General didn't like Li Hong and his family that much. He would always pretend he wasn't home when Li Hong visited them. Li Ru didn't like it when Li Hong visited them, either. She always tried to keep a low-profile to hide the fact that she was just a concubine, but Li Hong always tried to draw more attention to Li Ru.

Li Hong grew up in town, but their family only had a small shop, they didn't lead a wealthy life at all. Therefore, Li Hong was always embarrassingly short of money, the 30 taels was like a timely rain for him to put on airs in front of his friends.

Li Hong wanted to take every tale in the beginning, but Li Hong's father insisted that they should at least prepare some dowry for Li Fang Yue.

Lu Lin and Chen Xiao Mi got 16 tales from Manager Wang, they went to the human trader's shop to buy some extra pairs of hands for their commercial house.

There were over a dozen of people waiting to be selected in the shop, among them were two seven-or-eight-year-old kids with sallow complexion, Lu Lin felt sorry for the kids but he didn't plan to buy the kids. He thought he already had Mai and Cai at home, he wasn't confident that he and Chen Xiao Mi could take care of four kids.

"Hey, morning, distinguished guests, what kind of help are you looking for?" the worker at the shop greeted Lu Lin and Chen Xiao Mi with a grin.

"We need a woman who can cook and do needle work", Chen Xiao Mi said, he figured Lu Lin wouldn't have time to cook once the shop was open, then he added, "we also need a man, a strong man who can do some heavy work."

The worker nodded as Chen Xiao Mi said that, he pointed at a family of three to Chen Xiao Mi. "They used to work in a big family, but somehow the man has offended the master in the family and the master has sold them to our shop."

Lu Lin walked closer to the man and woman, both their hands were covered with callus, Lu Lin nodded with satisfaction.

The worker had also introduced some pretty girls who used to be maids in big families to Lu Lin, those maids were expensive, 20 taels of silver each, but Lu Lin took a look at them and shook his head because he could tell those girls could not handle heavy work.

In that time and space, labor was awfully cheap, you could exchange a mu of farmland for a human being. Lu Lin got the man Wan Tie and woman Yun Niang for 10 taels of silver, their kid Wan Xiao Fan came with them for free.

Lu Lin took their indentures and asked them to stay in a bedroom in the residential area of the commercial shop. Then Chen Xiao Mi went back to Big Stone Village to pick up Chen Xiao Cai and Chen Xiao Mai.

Chen Xiao Cai gasped on seeing this huge property, "Big Brother, are we staying here?"

Chen Xiao Mi nodded, "Yes, we are."

Chen Xiao Cai asked with confusion, "Whose property is this? It's huge!"

Chen Xiao Mi told Chen Xiao Cai and Chen Xiao Mai that he was house sitting for the owner, the Wans also worked for the house owner.

Chen Xiao Cai nodded, he had no idea how much money his brother and brother-in-law had, he just found that his brother working for a landlord made sense.

It never occurred to Chen Xiao Cai that his brother and brother-in-law could afford to buy a huge commercial shop in town.

Chen Xiao Cai tugged Chen Xiao Mi's sleeve the next second, "But Big Brother, how are we going to support ourselves?"

"Cai, don't worry, the owner pays me money for house sitting." Chen Xiao Mi lied to Chen Xiao Cai, that excuse was came up by Lu Lin.

Chen Xiao Cai was astonished, "Is there such landlord in town?"

Chen Xiao Cai didn't like those wealthy people, well, you couldn't blame him. Most rich people were heartless, they would exploit the tenant farmers who worked hard all year round. Most tenant farmers couldn't even put food on the table in the end.

Chen Xiao Cai found it beyond comprehension when he heard a landlord was hiring his brother to house sit for him and his brother would get paid for that!

Lu Lin and Chen Xiao Mi counted their savings again, "Now we have 40 taels of silver."

Chen Xiao Mi scratched his head anxiously.

Lu Lin smiled, "We have spent a fair bit recently, but it's okay, 40 taels is a big amount. When we first got married, we had less than 10 taels and we were just fine. Everything is okay, we can always brew more wine."

Chen Xiao Mi nodded and he cast a glimpse at Lu Lin, "You bought so much fabric in different colors and materials, are you going to make schoolbags?"

Lu Lin nodded, "Correct."

Lu Lin showed Chen Xiao Mi his sketch book, he had sketched several designs already.

Chen Xiao Mi had never seen a ball-point pen or a sketch book, he grabbed them and exclaimed in admiration.

Chen Xiao Mi was more amazed by Lu Lin's sketches, he now confident that Lu Lin's business would take off.

"Do people in your hometown use schoolbags like these?" Chen Xiao Mi asked.

Lu Lin nodded, "School bags are the cheapest ones on the market, some people would spend a ridiculous amount of money on a handbag, how do I put this, you could buy 10 pigs with that amount of money!"

Chen Xiao Mi was dumbfounded, "How come people in your hometown are so stupid! 10 pigs! For a handbag!"

"People have different interests, some people just love handbags and they see handbags as a symbol of status. And also, people who can afford a fancy handbag are not worried about food and alike. But I have watched news about some girls taking a loan for handbags. Anyways, let's not judge."

Chen Xiao Mi said with jealousy, "Do you think they can afford to eat meat every day?"

Lu Lin nodded, "I think they can afford to eat meat for every meal."

Meat wasn't expensive in modern society, it was the fresh food like vegetables and fruits that were expensive.

Chen Xiao Mi flipped through the sketch book and said with concern, "Lin, these bags don't look particularly hard to make, I'm worried people are going to copy us like the gloves."

Lu Lin nodded, "Some of them are hard to make, I've thought about it as well, I plan to divide the work, we can hire more workers, each of them is responsible for one link. Maybe it won't stop people from copying from us once and for all, but we can at least make it harder. We don't need to worry about those copycats as long as we can make our brand known."

Chen Xiao Mi found Lu Lin even more attractive when he talked about his business plans with those sparkling eyes.

Chen Xiao Mi handed the sketch book to Lu Lin and said, "Let's put this in a safe place."

Lu Lin nodded, he thought it was high time he should buy some writing brushes, ink sticks, paper and inkstones. He didn't want to raise any suspicion from people when he accidentally showed his ball-point pen.

Chen Xiao Mi couldn't imagine how the villagers were going to talk about him after they found out he bought a huge commercial property in town. They talked for days when he made some money from selling gloves.