Chapter 70: Ridiculous Rumor

Lu Lin found that the aesthetics of Forest Town and Willow Town seemed to be somewhat different. Some of the bags that no one showed any interest in Forest Town's were quite popular when they were brought to Willow Town. Of course, there were also some popular bags in Forest Town that got old-shouldered in Willow Town.

Lu Lin found that Forest Town and Willow Town both had a few so-called 'influencers'. The bags that these people bought were more likely to become the popular ones, Lu Lin couldn't help but recall those 'beauty influencers' on Instagrax.

During this period of time, Lu Lin launched a few new handbags.

For some rich people, what mattered most to them was not money, but that they could buy good things as soon as possible. Therefore, although there was a 'copycat' shop in town with more competitive prices, the latest bags were still very popular.

Granny Shen stayed in town for a while and she took Shen Chi back to the village this day.

Knowing that Granny Shen was going back, Lu Lin lent the mule carriage to Granny Shen.

Granny Shen was getting more and more familiar with Lu Lin, so she didn't reject it. She thought about bringing more vegetables for Lu Lin as a return gift when she came back.

Lu Lin had been busy and sometimes he just went to the market to buy vegetables. In Granny Shen's opinion, this kind of behavior was a huge waste!

Granny Shen took Shen Chi to work in the farmland as soon as they arrived home. Several villagers were surprised to see Granny Shen and Shen Chi, they surrounded them quickly.

"Granny Shen, you're back! I haven't seen you for quite a while!"

Granny Shen smiled and said, "Yeah!"

"Granny Shen, you and Shen Chi didn't come back very often. Are you living in town?"

"Yeah!"

"The rent in town is so expensive. Where do you live?"

"The master is rich, and there are a few servants' rooms. Me and Chi are living in one of the servants room." With that Granny realized it must be Lu Lin who had negotiated a room for her and Chi.

Accommodation was a big problem. The female workers in this store were all relatively close to the town. If they lived far away, they would have to waste a lot of time commuting.

"Chi, you are staying in town every day now, you are no longer a bumpkin boy."

Shen Chi smiled awkwardly, "Auntie, you are joking."

"How is that joking? I heard that Chen Xiao Mi's brother Chen Xiao Cai used to work in the same shop as you, but now he is nowhere to be seen. Have they sold him?" A chubby woman asked in a careless manner.

Shen Chi was startled by the woman's words. "How is that possible?"

The woman smiled awkwardly and said, "I heard it from Grandma Chen. Grandma Chen said the reason why Chen Xiao Mi stopped her from selling Cai was because he wanted to sell Cai and keep the money to himself."

Shen Chi blinked. It was hard to imagine that there would be such ridiculous rumors in the village.

Chen Xiao Cai was sent to Willow Town by Lu Lin to be the shopkeeper. Some people in the village thought that Cai was sold!

"Granny Shen! What does Lu Lin do in town? How come I heard that he is in charge of all the female workers?"

Granny Shen smiled and said, "He is in charge. Maybe it is the boss's idea."

"Granny Shen! Look at my embroidery skills! Can you take me to the shop and give me a job?"

Granny Shen said, "Well, I don't have that authority."

Although the residence area was quite spacious, all the rooms except the main bedroom for the shop owner were taken. The Chen Brothers and Lu Lin had taken the West and the East bedrooms. There might be a servants' room left, but Granny Shen didn't lie, only Lu Lin had the authority to hire people.

Although three servants' rooms sounded a lot, some female workers might stay in the servants 'rooms on rainy days. Hence, they were not always empty.

Granny Shen and Shen Chi spent their whole day working in the farmland. But from time to time people would come up to Granny Shen and ask her if they could also go work in to the shop.

Seeing that Granny Shen disagreed, people would just mean mug her.

Granny Shen was helpless. She took care of the farmland and returned to town in advance.

......

Lu Lin looked at Shen Chi and said in surprise, "Someone from the Chen family said that I sold Xiao Cai, have you heard that in the village?"

Shen Chi nodded. "Yes! Some villagers even still believe it."

When Shen Chi returned to the village, he heard a lot of rumors. A lot of them were about how Lu Lin was worried that Chen Xiao Cai would take away all his and Chen Xiao Mi's money in the future, so he sold Chen Xiao Cai.

Tang kept complaining all day. She said Lu Lin was an idiot, he sold Xiao Cai and that was a good move, but he should have sent some money to them.

Some people suspected that Lu Lin was worried that Xiao Mi would give all the money to Xiao Cai in the future, so he sold Xiao Cai in advance.

Lu Lin stood akimbo, he couldn't help scratching his hair with frustration. He couldn't believe people altuaclly believe those ridiculous rumors!

Lu Lin took a deep breath and couldn't help pondering. It had been a while since he sent Chen Xiao Cai to Willow Town. It was indeed not appropriate for a child to stay outside for so long.

"You said you wanted to send Wan Li to Willow Town and ask Cai to back?" asked Chen Xiao Mi.

Lu Lin nodded and said, "Yes, I plan to swap their positions."

Chen Xiao Mi hadn't seen Chen Xiao Cai for some time, he missed him.

Lu Lin sighed and he thought about the disadvantages.

"Mi, the Chen family will probably come and cause trouble again when they see Cai in the shop, the Chen family couldn't sit still when Cai was just a salesperson in the shop, imagine when they see Cai managing the store."

Chen Xiao Mi pouted and said, "If they make trouble, I will just kick them out."

Lu Lin thought for a moment and said, "All righty then, let's welcome our boy home then."

......

Granny Shen looked at Shen Chi and said, "Ah Chi, you're in a good mood!"

Shen Chi said awkwardly, " Lin Gege said Cai would be back soon."

Granny Shen asked with concern, "Why is that? How about the new branch at Willow Town then? "

Shen Chi blinked and said, "I heard that Manager Wan will head over Willow Town. Manager Wan is older and more experienced."

Granny Shen was a little surprised, "Why did Lu Lin suddenly transfer Cai back? Is Cai all right? Did he make trouble? " In Granny Shen's opinion, Chen Xiao Cai was capable, but he was still too young.

"No, Cai is doing great. However, I told Lin Gege that some villagers said he sold Cai. Maybe that's the reason..." Shen Chi lowered his head.

Shen Chi always hoped that Chen Xiao Cai would come back, but he didn't expect Lu Lin would ask Cai to come back due to those rumors. He just wanted to give Lu Lin a friendly reminder.

After a few days, Lu Lin and Wan Li delivered a batch of bags to Willow Town together, the Wan Li stayed over and he brought and Chen Xiao Cai back.

......

Chen Xiao Mai saw Chen Xiao Cai and screamed. He threw himself at his Second Brother.

The two brothers who hadn't seen each other for a long time both got a bit emotional.

Shen Chi stood aside and looked at Chen Xiao Cai quietly. Their eyes met and they both immediately blushed.

Lu Lin saw that and grinned, 'These two, sweet sweet puppy love! But they are indeed too young, they are kids.'

But on a second thought, Lu Lin thought that it wasn't a bad idea for the two kids to meet the one they adored at such a young age. A lot of people in this time and space had to accept arranged marriage, most of them hadn't seen each other before the wedding day. And they ended up being stuck in a terrible marriage but neither of them had the courage to get a divorce.

Lu Lin found it strange that although there were a lot of arranged marriages here, there were few people chose to get a divorce.

In a place where food and clothing were a problem, divorce was not really considered by many people. In addition, this place was very strict in etiquette and ethical codes. Even if many women were being mistreated, they wouldn't even think about getting a divorce.

Chen Xiao Cai took over the position of manager in the shop in Forest Town. Lu Lin asked Shen Chi to help him.

Shen Chi recently had more time to learn a mathematics and practice abacus, he had made huge progress on that.

Wan Li, who was managing the shop before Cai took over, was actually a servant. But people didn't know that and they respected Wan Li a great deal.

And now a lot of people didn't take Chen Xiao Cai and Shen Chi seriously. There were often some villagers from Big Stone Village who came to the shop to just have a chitchat and ask information about vacancies.

Sometimes, there was a lot of people in the store who didn't come to buy anything. They were all there chatting with Chen Xiao Cai and Shen Chi. Most of them were very well-behaved, but there were one or two of them who kept rubbing the bags with their dirty hands.

Chen Xiao Cai was great in building a rapport with customers, but his hands were tied when the villagers kept talking to him.

Fortunately, it was not easy for the villagers to come to town, the chitchats didn't happen every day.

......

"Chen Xiao Cai is so young, but he is so skillful in abacus!"

"Chen Xiao Cai was so thin and sickly, but now he looks quite handsome!"

"This Chen Xiao Cai is helping in the store. He should also have monthly wage. The Chen Xiao Mi family is working in the town, so they must have made a lot of money.

The villagers liked to go to the Sino Commercial House to take a look when they went to the market in town. Soon villagers started to talk about Cai with admiration.

Grandma Chen was not happy when she heard the village people praise her grandson Chen Xiao Cai. Grandma Chen favored her first son and his family, therefore, she felt sulky instead of proud or happy when she heard Chen Xiao Mi was doing well in town.

"I didn't expect the Chen brothers to really gain a foothold in town," Zhang Cheng was surprised.

"I went to Sino Commercial House a few days ago. The business in the store is very good," Zhang Jin said.

Zhang Cheng said with envy, "Chen Xiao Mi is really lucky. He and his family are working in such a store. Behind that store is a residence area. It seems that Lu Lin is in charge of arranging the accommodation for all the workers. If Lu Lin has such power, maybe people in our village could stay in the store for the night whenever we go to town."

Zhang Jin said helplessly, "Father, what are you talking about? The house was not Lu Lin's, we cannot trouble him so much if it was Lu Lin's."

Getting refuted by his son, Zhang Cheng said unhappily, "Lu Lin and Chen Xiao Mi are from our village. It's only natural to help the villagers. How expensive the inn in town is?! I heard that Granny Shen and Shen Chi have occupied a room, so have some mountain people. There are two children who live there too."

Zhang Jin glanced at Zhang Cheng and said sullenly, "Father, why did you bring this up all of a sudden? What are the villagers saying now? Father, we need to be on good terms with the Chens, let's not offend them."

Zhang Cheng said awkwardly, "I'm just saying it casually, but Lu Lin has done something wrong, there are so many embroidery ladies in our village, but he hasn't hired even one of our villagers."

"Did Aunty say something to you?" Zhang Jin had an aunt who had some embroidery skills. His Aunt would occasionally sell some embroidery products in town to better support her family. But this Aunt of his liked to take advantage of people.

Zhang Jin's wife was also good at embroidery. Some time ago, that aunt had come over to take his wife's embroidery and said that she was going to help them to sell the products in town.

Her wife thought that her aunt's had a stable customer base, so she was loud in her thanks when Aunt said she would help her. However, Aunt only gave them a pathetic amount of money in the end saying the market had crashed. The money aunt gave them couldn't even cover the cost of the needle and thread.

A few times later, her wife no longer believed this aunt. As far as Zhang Jin knew, his aunt had indeed lied, she had pocketed the profit.

"Your aunt's skills are as great as Granny Shen's. Plus Granny Shen is old." Zhang Cheng said.

Zhang Jin said sullenly, "Father, Lu Lin has every right to hire whoever he wants. Don't get involved in this."

His aunt was not a kind-hearted person. As far as he knew, Granny Shen's position in the shop was quite important. The Chen brothers are doing well now. Zhang Jin didn't want to offend them or Granny Shen.

But he had heard that two female workers in their store were poached by a rival shop, which seemed to have affected them quite a bit.