Chapter 99: My Second Brother Is Amazing

To welcome Zhang Rui, Lu Lin asked Yun Niang to cook Braised Dongpo Pork for him.

Braised Dongpo Pork was an iconic traditional Chinese braised pork belly recipe of Hangzhou, created by Su Dong Po, a famous scholar in history. It was made with pork belly. Half fat, half lean meat and was stewed with yellow rice wine. The taste would leave everyone's mouth watering copiously for more.

Chen Chun'er doted on her son, she was secretly worried what if her son couldn't eat well in the store. Lu Lin felt that he needed to set Chun'er's mind at rest.

Zhang Rui's father was a butcher, so they were able to eat meat all the time, unlike other villagers who tended to only cook meat at festivals. However, the taste of Braised Dongpo Pork had won Zhang Rui's heart. Zhang Rui had never eaten such delicious dish before, so he ate three bowls of rice in one go.

Chen Xiao Mai was very curious about this cousin he met for the first time. He was amazed that Cousin Rui could eat three bowls of rice in one meal, he couldn't help but clap his hands for Cousin Rui.

"Cousin, you're awesome. Tell you a little secret, Lin Gege over there is a picky eater, he only eats lean meat, he won't touch any fat meat," Chen Xiao Mai glanced at Lu Lin and made a face.

Lu Lin curled his lips and thought to himself, 'The little brat Mai is calling me a picky eater, come on, I'd like to call myself a foodie, I only eat food that I love."

Seeing Chen Xiao Mai clapping his hands for him, Zhang Rui couldn't help but blush a little.

Zhang Rui scratched his head awkwardly. If someone else said this to him, he would most likely suspect that the other person was being sarcastic, but this was said by innocent Mai. Zhang Rui knew that Mai really meant that he wished he could eat as much, he didn't have any bad intentions when he said that.

Lu Lin served Zhang Rui a large piece of meat and smiled. "A good appetite is a blessing, I'm happy you are enjoying the food, Rui."

Zhang Rui said awkwardly, "Lin Ge, I never knew that you could cook meat like this, it's so delicious."

Lu Lin smiled and thought to himself, 'This is just Braised Dongpo Pork, I think people would go crazy if I play the documentary A Bite of China for them.'

"Eat, Rui. Don't worry, the food here is enough."

When Chen Chun'er was here, she specifically said that Zhang Rui had a big appetite, so Lu Lin felt he had to make sure that Zhang Rui could have a full belly.

Zhang Rui nodded his head, feeling so grateful. When Zhang Rui and his friends went to a neighboring town to do business, all of them talked about him behind his back that he ate too much.

Zhang Rui thought to himself, 'The people here are so nice, I really need to work hard. If every meal is as delicious as this one, I don't mind working for free.'

Although Zhang Rui had tried his best to restrain himself, he still didn't resist the temptation to mix the rice with the gravy. In the end, he meant to lick his bowl, but Lu Lin stopped him by saying they would have even better food for dinner.

Zhang Rui was so excited to hear that, he once again told himself that he would work hard and not let down his parents and cousins.

......

Kids all idolized bigger kids, so Chen Xiao Mai kept following his Cousin Rui around like a shadow, he had even shared his snacks with his Cousin Rui.

Zhang Rui adored this younger cousin, they got along so well.

"Cousin Rui, do you have a beloved?" Chen Xiao Mai sat by Zhang Rui who was chopping firewood.

Zhang Rui smiled awkwardly, "Not yet."

Zhang Rui scratched his head. He felt that there was no need for him to get married too early, but his parents seemed to be anxious for his marriage. Matchmakers in his village had introduced two girls to her before, but both girls took to their heels when they heard that his father was Butcher Zhang.

Chen Xiao Mai shook his legs and said proudly, "Cousin Rui, but do you know my Second Brother is already engaged?"

"Your second brother is amazing!" Zhang Rui played along.

Zhang Rui recalled his mother had mentioned that Chen Xiao Cai got engaged with a Bio. It seemed like there were rumors since Chen Xiao Cai and that Bio were always together, so their families decided to help them to get engaged to dispel the rumors.

Chen Xiao Mai nodded and said proudly, "Yeah! Second Brother is indeed very amazing, he can do math and he is proficient in abacus."

Zhang Rui was confused. "Your second brother, where did he go?" Zhang Rui had been here for many days, but he hadn't met Chen Xiao Cai.

"He went to a neighboring town to do business. Lin Ge said that Second Brother was doing great," Chen Xiao Mai said.

"Really? Has he made money?" Zhang Rui asked curiously.

Chen Xiao Mai said with a proud look on his face, "Of course! Lin Ge said that Second Brother had made a lot of money already. With a talent like his, the sky's the limit. Every time Second Brother came back, he would bring me some local specialties."

Zhang Rui's eyes sparkled as he heard that, he admired the Chen Brothers even more now. A few months ago, Zhang Rui and a few friends went to a neighboring town to do business, but some officials took their goods on the way. He didn't earn a single cent of money from that trip, as a matter of fact, he had suffered great loss.

Hearing Chen Xiao Mai's words, Zhang Rui felt a little more admiration for his cousin Chen Xiao Cai, who he had never met.

......

The sales of dolls in the store started to go downhill as the days got warmer.

When it was cold, cuddling a doll was a great enjoyment, but furry dolls started to get in the way as the weather slowly heated up.

Seeing that the dolls got less popular, Lu Lin wondered if he should launch something new now.

Chen Xiao Mi checked the account book and said, "Business is going slow recently."

Lu Lin nodded and said, "It is true."

Chen Xiao Mi sighed and said, "Business is really not easy to do! We always need to set trend, constantly launching new products and keeping people interested. People are always expecting novel products."

"There's no rush. We can deal with the grain in the cellar first."

In autumn, there was a bountiful harvest in the field and the food prices were relatively low. In spring, the new crop has not yet come in, the price of grain had increased.

Lu Lin dug a huge cellar near the residence. In autumn, he bulk bought a lot of grain and stored it in the cellar. Now he had been selling them slowly, earning about 10 taels of silver so far. Although 10 taels of silver was not much, it was important to 'not put all your eggs into one basket'. A lot of farmers would only have an income of 10 tales of silver a year.

Lu Lin found that it was a universal fact that the rich got richer.

......

Chen Xiao Cai also encountered the same problem in Willow Town.

Chen Xiao Cai tilted his head and said to Shen Chi, "Chi, have you noticed that the dolls aren't as popular now?"

Shen Chi nodded and said, "Yes. But that's doing business, we can't rely on one product, we need to have new things in different seasons."

Nothing was absolute risk-free in the world. There were good years and bad years in harvesting, let alone doing business.

There were copycat stores starting to sell counterfeit dolls, and they were selling them for cheaper. With that being said, most customers would still ignore those copycat stores and come to Sino Commercial Store directly. To be honest, it was the whole industry that was not doing great.

The fake store that had snatched their title and their rental was struggling real hard.

The shop owner might have some be anxious to achieve quick success and instant benefits, the dolls sold in his store were not as exquisite, the rough craftsmanship was really unappealing. There were many other copycat stores on the market, so that store didn't have any any advantage. It was said that the owner had been losing money and he was considering closing the business.

"Although business starts to go downhill, we still have at least 50 taels of silver turnover per day, that's not bad to be honest." When Chen Xiao Cai just took over the shop, he would shudder with fear when he held more than ten taels of silver in his hand. However, as days went by, Chen Xiao Cai was used to dealing with a lot of money, he was able to hold 100 taels of silver in hand with poise.

Shen Chi held a doll and said, "It's summer time soon. Sure enough, we should sell fans like last year."

Chen Xiao Cai shook his head. The fans in the store now were all from last year. Since they were old ones from last year, Chen Xiao Cai sold them at half the price like Lu Lin had said. However, there weren't many people who bought them even though they were fifty percent off. It turned out rich people cared about style more than anything.

Even though the business was a bit slow, the account balance was still positive.

Chen Xiao Cai puffed up his cheeks and said, "Lin Ge has told us before, doing business is like this, there's ups and downs, and we should remain calm and collected."

Shen Chi blinked and said, " Lin Ge is really a broad-minded man!"

Chen Xiao Cai nodded without saying anything."

Chen Xiao Cai thought to himself, 'Chi, as a matter of fact, I don't think Lin Ge is as broad-minded as you think he is, he is just filthy rich now, he has what it takes to be calm and collected no matter what life throws at him now. He has sold several lifesize dolls already, he can lead a comfortable life from those sales alone.'

......

Chen Xiao Mai sat in the shop in his fancy brocade clothes.

Lu Lin said that he needed Xiao Mai to watch the store for him to make Mai feel better, Mai was actually just being adorable and being a mascot.

Lu Lin had never expected Mai could be as capable as Cai considering Mai's condition, but he still hoped that Chen Xiao Mai could contribute a little and feel proud of himself.

The business was getting bigger and bigger. Lu Lin felt that it was not a good thing to keep Chen Xiao Mai out of everything.

Chen Xiao Mai would play in the store from time to time, he had learned quite a lot already, he had memorized the price of each item, he had also memorized where every item was. Chen Xiao Mai could not do the math when customers bought more than one item. But he could tell the customer where everything was and the individual price.

Chen Xiao Mai was an adorable looking kid. Whenever female guests came, they would always tease Chen Xiao Mai a bit.

"Are you going back to the village?" asked Chen Xiao Mi.

Lu Lin nodded and said, "Yes." Chen Xiao Mai met Zhang Da Hu at the shop two days ago. Zhang Da Hu said that the wild berries on the mountain were all ripe now, they were even sweeter than last year. He asked if Mai wanted to go back to the mountain to play like they used to, he also asked Mai whether Lu Lin wanted to buy wild berries from the kids this year.

Lu Lin smiled when Mai asked him whether he still wanted the kids to collet berries for him this year.

Lu Lin recalled last year when he asked Cai and Chi to organize the kids in the village to collect berries, Zhang Da Hu collected the most out of all the kids in the village.

Mai kept asking Lu Lin whether he could go back to the village because he missed all the kids. Chen Xiao Mi teased Mai for that, "Mai, I remember you used to tell me that you have no interest in playing with the kids in the village, but look at you now, hurrying us to take you back to village."

"Children are always like this, they like to play with their friends once they become close. It has been a long time since I returned to the village, I'll take Mai back." Lu Lin said.

Chen Xiao Mi nodded and said, "I know, I was just teasing him, I'm glad he has friends now."

"Alright," Lu Lin thought it might be a good idea to make jam again. He could always keep the jam in the convenience store to keep it fresh.

Chen Xiao Mi sighed and said, "It's a shame that our house is sold."

"Granny Shen gave me the key to her house. We can live at her house, don't worry." Lu Lin comforted Chen Xiao Mi, plus he was back in the village to do business with the villagers, he didn't think anyone would give him a hard time.

Chen Xiao Mi nodded and said, "Okay. Granny Shen is so considerate."