Chapter 81: Booming Doll Business

Chen Xiao Cai and Shen Chi were calculating the accounts. Shen Chi looked at the number on the account book and he couldn't help but have a moment of panic.

Shen Chi, a young child who had never seen much of the world, was dazed by the number on the account book.

Shen Chi knew that the things in the store were expensive and had high profits, but he didn't know exactly how high it was.

Chen Xiao Cai was also a little shocked, but Chen Xiao Cai had more experience in managing the store than Shen Chi and he handled it better than Shen Chi.

There came the sound of footsteps from the hallway. Chen Xiao Cai looked up and saw Qin Yi walking in.

"Uncle Qin, thank you for your hard work today. If you didn't help maintain order, I'm afraid I'd make a few mistakes," Chen Xiao Cai was so grateful.

Qin Yi smiled and said, "That's the least I can do, Cai. And just by the way, I saw the owner of the fake store in our store today."

The fake shop Qin Yi mentioned was Xia Haisheng who had imitated their name and kicked them out from their rental shop. In fact, there were a lot of stores copied the things in Sino Commercial House. However, Xia Haisheng was the only one who did it in such a flagrant way.

Chen Xiao Cai looked at Qin Yi in surprise, "The owner of the fake store? Did he come to buy dolls?"

There were too many guests in this shop during the day. Chen Xiao Cai was swamped with work and he didn't pay attention to anything else.

Qin Yi shook his head, "I didn't see him buying anything. He just browsed all the dolls."

Chen Xiao Cai frowned and said, "This bastard must be harboring evil designs."

Shen Chi smiled and said, "Most likely he wants to steal ideas from us again." The fake store mainly sold bags and fans. It was autumn already of course they wouldn't make many sales on the fans. There were already many stores selling schoolbags, and the quality of Xia Haisheng's fake bags was not that great, so his profit should not be much.

"This doll business shouldn't be easy to copy," Qin Yi said.

Chen Xiao Cai nodded and said, "Yeah! Even if they want to copy, it would take a lot of time. And we will make a lot of sales during this period of time."

Xia Haisheng returned from Chen Xiao Cai's shop and he hid in his store, sulking.

Xia Haisheng was the son of a concubine. He had been outshined by his older brother, the legitimate son, since he was a child. He had been losing money in all of his businesses. As time went by, his family started to lose faith in him, they said that he had no talent and skills for business.

The thing Xia Haisheng hated the most was that he was not as great as his older brother. Even though his father loved him, he knew his father felt that he was a good-for-nothing as well.

Xia Haisheng had always wanted to show his old man that he had got it, but... he had not done one thing successfully.

Lu Lin's Sino Commercial House branch in Willow Town had attracted quite a lot of attention since day one. Xia Haisheng took a great interested in the store, he opened a similar store and set the price lower, hoping to make good money. However, the reality was not as beautiful as Xia Haisheng thought.

The store had its moment when it first opened, but they didn't make much because the prices of the items were low. Later on, the fans in the shop became unsellable due to the weather. He had too many stocks in the warehouse. The rent of the store was not cheap, he just didn't end up making much money.

Xia Haisheng felt that the stuff in his store didn't sell well, the real Sino Commercial House must be suffering the same problem as well. But they launched a new product called 'dolls' and thei business was booming. The Sino Commercial House had been busy all day today, but his shop was the opposite. Customers who visited his store thinking about buying dolls were all left disappointed.

......

Lu Lin made a calculation and said, "Things are looking great, let's make one more batch of dolls."

Chen Xiao Mi nodded and said, "good."

On the first day of the doll's launching, they had captured everyone's attention. The next few days, everyone calmed down a bit, but there were still many customers. Then the business remained at a stable level.

The dolls were expensive, most people would only buy one or two. There were also people who couldn't afford to buy one, they would just keep coming to the store to browse.

Lu Lin was so surprised to hear one thing from the customers, there was a new trend among the ladies in town now, which was to sew outfits for the dolls.

Most of the dolls that Lu Lin sold had no outfits on. The dolls in outfits were more exquisite and expensive.

Many people decided to make clothes for the dolls.

Some rich ladies would gather together to share thoughts about outfits for the dolls.

Lu Lin was amazed by the rich person in this world. They had nothing to do all day, so they were dying to create new trends and find themselves something to do.

Lu Lin found the two stores had made almost 300 taels combined in just a few days, which made him very excited.

......

In the Yang family, there were several women sitting together and sewing for the dolls.

"Grandmother, I really like the tiger you are holding!"

"Yeah! Mother, you tiger looks so imposing."

"Grandmother, there aren't many tiger dolls in the store. Most of them are rabbits, bear, you have a rare one here, is it limited edition?"

......

The old lady enjoyed the sweet talks from her kids and grandkids. "I heard that there are few tigers, and they were sold out soon. Heng Zhi, the kid is so filial, he asked the manager to make this tige for me."

"Grandmother, I heard that the most rare thing in the store is the lifesize doll, which is also called the most-treasured piece. I will buy you that one day."

Old Madam Yang glanced at her grandson and said, "Don't waste your energy. Those lifesize dolls are not for sale I heard."

"There are exceptions. Someone has just bought a lifesize bear from them with 30 taels of silver."

The old lady looked at her grandson in surprise and said, "30 taels is a large amount of money, let's not spend wisely."

The old lady had heard about the lifesize dolls of Sino Commercial House. Even though the Yang family had money, the old lady still felt 30 taels for a doll was not a wise decision.

"I wonder who bought the lifesize bear," the old lady sounded so curious.

The Yang family was one of the wealthiest families in town, so the old madam wondered who could afford to be more extravagant than them.

" It's a fresh face. I don't think he is from our town."

"The Sino Commercial House is very popular. I'm afraid not surprised that there are people from other town support their business."

"Sino Commercial House's reputation is getting better and better!"

......

As soon as Yang Heng Zhi came back, he saw his mother making clothes. Looking at the size of the clothes, he knew that they were for the dolls.

Yang Heng Zhi couldn't help but feel a little sad. His mother hadn't made clothes for him for a long time, and she had made a pile of clothes for the dolls within a few days. Yang Heng Zhi didn't see the point of making clothes for the dolls who couldn't even feel cold.

"Son, check out these new clothes I just made for the dolls!" Mrs. Yang asked happily when she saw her son coming back.

Yang Heng Zhi smiled, "Mom, your skills are getting better."

Mrs. Yang smiled and said, "Your grandma likes the tiger doll you bought for her. However, your younger brother insists on buying the old lady a lifesize piece."

Yang Heng Zhi lowered his head. Even though the grandma liked him, his younger brother was very good at pleasing the old lady.

"Mom, do you think I should buy the lifesize piece for the old lady as well?"

Mrs. Yang sighed and said, "Your grandmother's thoughts aren't easy to guess! She must like them a lot, but on the other hand, it's so expensive, maybe she will get upset if you really spend that much money on a doll. I really don't know what you should do."

"I see, mom, how about this, I'll go see if there are any new dolls for sale," Yang Heng Zhi said.

Mrs. Yang nodded and said, "Okay."

......

Many women in Big Stone Village were working for the Sino Commercial House. There was a period of time when the business in the commercial house went downhill, many people thought maybe commercial house was going to be out of business soon.

Human nature was so funny. On the one hand, everyone felt that the Sino Commercial House didn't deserve success because the products didn't cost much, but they were sold with such a high price. So they were kind of looking forward to the day when they close down.

On the one hand, there were many villagers who were relying on the Sino Commercial House to make a living, and they hoped the Sino Commercial House could stay afloat for as long as they could. They really needed this income to better support their family.

Lu Lin had been in a great moon recently.

Chen Xiao Mai's favorite doll was a big tiger doll, he held it everywhere he went, refusing to let go of it.

Lu Lin suspected that the reason why Chen Xiao Mai liked the big tiger doll so much was because Chen Xiao Mi had hunted a tiger before, and they got to buy a house and move out from the cave after they sold the tiger.

Tiger dolls were more complicated to make, Lu Lin didn't make many. Most dolls in the store were bears, and all kinds of bears were selling pretty well.

Lu Lin held a mouse doll and said, "This mouse doll is so cute. Why isn't there anyone buy it?"

Chen Xiao Mi blinked and said, "Isn't that normal? Who would like to buy a mouse doll?"

Lu Lin was rendered speechless.

In the modern society, hamsters which were a kind of mice were very popular and let alone Mickey Mouse who was popular all over the world. However, the aesthetics of the people in this time and space were still very traditional.

"I really don't understand why you don't get it, mouse is annoying, they steal grains from us!" Chen Xiao Mi said with some confusion.

Lu Lin smiled and said nothing. 'Fortunately, I didn't make many, otherwise I will end up losing money.'

"Young Master Yang came over and asked me if we could make some deer dolls," Chen Xiao Mi said.

"Deer?"

Chen Xiao Mi nodded, "Yeah! Deer is a sign of longevity. Many old people want to live for a few more years love deer, it's an auspicious sign."

Lu Lin said, "I see!"

Lu Lin thought to himself, 'Filial piety prevails in this time and space. A lot of the children would love to get more allowance money from their grandparents. There are a lot of rich old people, so it seems very necessary for them to please the old people!"

The dolls were getting more popular as it got colder and colder.

They had made more sales on dolls than schoolbags. Many people in other towns were attracted to buy dolls from them by their reputation.

In contrast, the sales of the schoolbags in the store had stagnated, but the bags were well stock in the store.

Lu Lin came up with several ideas to promote the sales of schoolbags, such as adding some doll pendants on the bags and giving away bags for free if you buy a certain number of dolls.

......

Chen Xiao Mi counted the silver in the jar and said excitedly, "It's close to six hundred taels."

Lu Lin nodded, "Yeah!"

Chen Xiao Mi stroked the jar, he couldn't believe they had six hundred taels of silver in hand. On top of the ix hundred taels of silver, they had two commercial properties and a property in the village, that must be close to 1000 taels in total.

Chen Xiao Mi felt like he was on cloud nine, everything felt too good to be true.

When Chen Xiao Mi was hunting in the mountains, he never thought that he could make money without venturing into the mountain or leaving the house.

"It's getting colder and colder every day!" Lu Lin said.

Chen Xiao Mi nodded, "Yeah!"

Recently, the price of the fans had hit bottom low, but the dolls had become more and more popular. Many people wanted to imitate their dolls. However, they had no clue how to do it.

" The autumn harvest is about to start." Chen Xiao Mi said.

Lu Lin thought for a moment and said, "Yeah!" Their family had no farm land and the autumn harvest didn't matter to them. However, Granny Shen's family was different. In addition to the two mus he gave them as part of the betrothal presents, Granny Shen needed to take care of five mus of farm land.

It wan't going to be a daunting task to take care of five mus of land for a big family. However, for the older Granny Shen, it was a bit troublesome.

Shen Chi followed Chen Xiao Cai to Willow Town, and he wouldn't be able to help out either.

Lu Lin thought about it and decided to talk to Granny Shen about the autumn harvest. Granny Shen was getting older and older. If she tripped on the ground at this age, she might not be able to get up.