Chapter 71: Fullmoon-shaped Fan

With two stores in hand, plus Lu Lin had been launching new designs from time to time, the business of Sino Commercial House was not bad, and the income was stable.

Lu Lin was still doing the wine-making business.

"Lu Lin, is it true you have something called fridge in your hometown?. You can have ice in summer?"

"Yes! The benefits of fridge are too many."

"Do you know how to make a fridge?" Chen Xiao Mi looked at Lu Lin with admiration.

'Chen Xiao Mi, you think too highly of him. Although I've learned some circuit issues on my physics books, but I have forgotten them all. "No, I don't."

Chen Xiao Mi sighed, "It's a pity."

Lu Lin smiled. "If you want ice in this summer, you don't have to have a fridge. It seems like there are some kind of stone called saltpeter that can absorb a large amount of heat in the water and condense water into ice. However, I'm not sure whether it's actually feasible."

Chen Xiao Mi narrowed his eyes and said, "I heard that there is ice in summer in the Imperial Palace."

In this time and space, it was not impossible to use ice in summer. The most common method was to create an ice cellar. Most of the ice cellars were built underground. In winter, the ice was stored in the ice cellar to isolate light and heat and you could use the ice stored in the cellar in summer.

But all ice cellars were built at tremendous cost, it was not something the common people could afford. It was usually a luxury for members of the imperial house.

Lu Lin held his chin and said, "Let's not covet stuff that only the Emperor can enjoy."

Chen Xiao Mi pulled over a piece of cloth and said doubtfully, "You recently found some embroidery ladies in the village and you asked them to work on some strange things!"

Lu Lin laughed and shook his head, "We are not making strange things. I think it's a little boring to only sell schoolbags, so I want to sell full moon-shaped fans."

A while ago, many people in the village came over to ask him if he was hiring embroidery ladies. The business in the store was on the right track now, they didn't need to hire any more embroidery ladies. If Lu Lin hired new workers and replace them with the old ones, it would definitely cause dissatisfaction, not to mention that Lu Lin did not want to change people.

It was easy to offend people if he just spurned them. Lu Lin just told the villagers that he was going to buy some delicate embroidery products recently. If people in the village embroidered any embroidery, they could come to him and he would pay a handsome price.

"Full-moon shaped fan? What is that?"

"It's a round fan made of cloth or other fabric, it is an accessory popular with ladies."

"Is it also something from your hometown?"

Lu Lin nodded and said, "Yeah!" The fans here were divided into two types. One was palm-leaf fan and the other was folding paper fan.

The price of a palm-leaf fan was very cheap, you could get one with 5 cents. Paper fans were more pricy, it varied from 10 cents to several tales of silver, all depend on the craftsmanship and the artist who painted or inscribed on the fan.

Lu Lin nodded, "Yeah! I wanted to make full moon-shaped fans, other fans are so boring, I love it the artists can do landscape painting, ink painting, flower-and-bird painting on full moon-shaped fans."

Most of the fans used by the young ladies were paper fans. No one in this time and space had come up with the idea of making full-moon shaped fans.

Recently, it was getting hotter and hotter. He should be able to take the opportunity to make a profit.

Many of the embroidery ladies in the village studied embroidery since they were young, they were all pretty great. Lu Lin had drawn some patterns and asked them to embroider on the fans, the finished products were very beautiful.

"Speaking of embroidery ladies, a few days ago, I met a strange character," Lu Lin said.

Chen Xiao Mi glanced at Lu Lin and said, "Who is it?"

Lu Lin shook his head and said, "I didn't recognize her, but she indeed looked very familiar, I'm sure I've seen her before. She's fat and arrogant. As soon as she came over, she told me that she was great at embroidery. She told me to fire Granny Shen and said that Granny Shen were old so her hands must be shaky. She said she could do better."

"Give her a good beating!"

Lu Lin nodded and said, "I turned her down. Honestly, Mi, I value Granny Shen's personality as much as her craftsmanship." Lu Lin paused for a second and said, "However, after I rejected her, the woman said that I didn't want to offend the Village Head Zhang Cheng."

Chen Xiao Mi nodded and said, "I see, maybe she is Village Head's sister. Our Village Head has a sister who likes to take advantage of people in his name, but the Village Head seems to really dote on this sister."

"Oh I see!" Knowing the woman was the Village Head's sister, everything made sense, but Lu Lin didn't care much. He and the people he cared about were no longer living in the village and naturally no one could control them.

In fact, Lu Lin didn't like Zhang Cheng in the first place. In the host Lu Lin's memory, Zhang Cheng had persuaded his father to listen to Grandma Lu and join the army, otherwise villagers would call him unfilial. He had also said Lu Cheng Yu would have great achievements in the future and they could all ride on his coattails.

In Lu Lin's opinion, Zhang Cheng looked like he tried hard to bring glory to the village, , but he was just a guy who considered himself always right.

......

Lu Lin said that he would buy the embroidery products with a good price, so the villagers actively came over to collect the needles and thread.

Because they were all from the same village, Lu Lin didn't charge any deposit from them for the needles and thread. However, all of them had signed in and registered how much stuff they had taken. You needed to hand over your products if you wanted to collect more needles and thread.

Most people in the village were honest and would not swindle, but Lu Lin enforced that system just in case.

Soon, various embroidery products were delivered to Lu Lin one after another. Lu Lin gave them good money as he promised.

During this period of time, Chen Xiao Mi had been busy making fans.

The frames, coverings and handles were made by the ladies, but it was Chen Xiao Mi who was in charge of the last step. Lu Lin found that Chen Xiao Mi seemed to be artistic, he had done an amazing job in putting every part together.

Recently, Lu Lin had ordered quite a lot of frames and coverings. However, the workers had no idea what they were making, they all thought the coverings were for the bags. After all, the Sino Commercial House would launch a new bag from time to time.

After accumulating a batch of fans, Lu Lin released the first batch in the store, they were sold for 200 cents each.

Sino Commercial House was the most popular shopping destination for wealthy ladies in town, they went crazy over the fans on the first day.

Their bags were mainly targeted at the students, while the fans were aimed at rich ladies. The exquisite fans had immediately attracted quite a few rich ladies, and some of them would just buy dozens of them as presents to friends.

Full moon shaped-fans were so exquisite, they made perfect presents.

"This is mine."

"But I come first."

"I said I wanted to buy it earlier than you."

......

Chen Xiao Cai and Shen Chi were shocked by the two ladies fighting for the fan. Shen Chi really did not understand it! If there was only one fan left in the store, the fight was understandable, but there were still seven fans on the rack! The next second two ladies said at the same time, "I want them all, all seven of them!"

"Manager, what do you think we should do?" The two young ladies turned their eyes to Chen Xiao Cai.

Chen Xiao Cai thought for a while and said tentatively, "How about half for each?"

"But I put my hand on the fan first! Why do I need to let her have half? "

"That's so not true! You elbowed your way through me! I'll pick first, and you can have the rest."

......

Chen Xiao Cai suddenly recalled what Lu Lin once said. 'People would get competitive when there are a lot of customers in the store.' The young lady in green who came earlier was originally picking out fans one by one, but she couldn't decide which one to buy. When the young lady in purple came in and put her hand on one, the young lady in green panicked and said she wanted them all.

The two ladies might know each other and it seemed like neither of them was willing to take a step back.

Chen Xiao Cai asked Shen Chi to go to the backyard to pick up a new batch of fans and with that the two ladies bought what they wanted and left the store. The fans were so popular, some designs were sold out within just a few days.

Chen Xiao Cai said with disbelief, "I didn't expect the fan to be so popular."

Shen Chi nodded, "Yeah!"

In Shen Chi's opinion, palm-leaf fans were cheaper and more practical. People in the village liked to grab a big palm-leaf fan and sit in the yard after dinner.

The full moon shaped-fans were sold for 200 cents each! That was outrageous! However, it seemed like many rich ladies were crazy for them. Some young masters also came to the store to buy fans as presents to their sweethearts and elder female relatives.

After they launched fans, the schoolbag business also became better because there were more people browsing and hanging out in the store.

Chen Xiao Cai was always so busy, Chen Xiao Mi would have to help him from time to time, but they both enjoyed it.

The exquisite fans suddenly became a symbol of elegance in the eyes of the rich ladies in Forest Town.

Lu Lin sent a batch of fans to Willow Town, they were a hit there as well.

......

In the Lus' house.

Lin Xiu'er looked at the fan in Li Fang Yue's hand and complained, "We don't have enough food to eat at home. But look at you, spending so much money on something so useless."

Li Fang Yue held the fan and said, "Fourth Aunt, I didn't spend any money on this one. My sister bought it for me as a present. Actually, it was the Secretary-General who bought a few for my sister, and my sister gave me one."

A few days ago, Lin Xiu'er visited the Secretary-General's house with Li Fang Yue and she fell in love with that big house immediately.

Lin Xiu'er found that everything in the Secretary-General house looked so nice. Even the servant girls looked so pretty.

On the other hand, everything seemed to be in a mess in her family. She thought even the servants lead a better life than her.

Lin Xiu'er smiled and said, "Since your sister is so rich, why don't you let her send you a few more? None of us has a fan yet."

"Auntie, you are joking. This fan is very expensive. I don't dare to ask my sister for more!"

"Your sister dotes on you the most, I'm sure she won't blame you."

Lin Xiu'er rubbed the fan in her hand. She could tell that Grandma Lu really liked her fan as well, but she only had one, she didn't want to give it to Grandma Lu.

Lin Xiu'er looked at the fan in Li Fang Yue's hand and was a little envious.

As far as Li Fang Yue knew, this full moon shaped-fan was also invented by Sino Commercial House just like schoolbags. They were sold for 200 cents each, but their business was booming, rich masters and ladies would just buy a dozen in one go.