When Mrs. Tang returned home, she looked very unwell.

Li Fangyue roughly knew that Tang had gone out to ask Lu Lin for money. When she saw that Tang had returned, she wanted to ask Tang about the situation.

After becoming pregnant, the elders in Li Fangyue's family placed high hopes on this pregnancy, which made Li Fangyue stand up straighter.

After Lu Lin exposed Tang's shortcomings, she felt that marrying Li Fangyue was a bad omen for her family. At this moment, Li Fangyue came to Tang's side, which angered Tang.

In a fit of anger, Tang argued with Li Fangyue and hit her a few times.

Li Fangyue hadn't been targeted by the Tang family for a long time, so when she saw the Tang family suddenly going crazy, she naturally fought back, and the two of them started wrestling.

The two women argued, which attracted the old lady's attention. Seeing that Tang was acting like a madwoman, Li Fangyue figured she wouldn't get away with it and left dejectedly.

Wang looked at Tang and said with some dissatisfaction, "Eldest daughter-in-law, what's wrong with you? Why are you taking your anger out on your granddaughter-in-law? What if the child gets hurt?"

Mrs. Tang was very angry before, but now that she has calmed down, she realizes that she was a bit reckless.

Wang glanced towards the door and muttered, "What if she goes to her sister to complain and angers the registrar?"

Hearing the old lady mention the registrar, Wang felt a pang of bitterness in her heart. She wished the registrar truly cared about this sister-in-law, but she feared he didn't care at all. However, she couldn't say this to the old lady.

Mrs. Tang was scolded by the old lady, but she couldn't argue back, so she could only sulk.

When Lu Chengyu returned from the academy, he heard about the fight between his mother and wife.

"Mother, why are you arguing with Fangyue?" Lu Chengyu didn't like Li Fangyue very much, but she still cherished the child in Li Fangyue's belly.

Lu Chengyu is considered quite old in the village; many of his peers' children are already running around everywhere.

The Lu family has been embroiled in constant strife lately, much to the amusement of outsiders, which Lu Chengyu finds extremely embarrassing.

Madam Tang said resentfully, "That wretched girl, how much money did the family spend to marry her, and all she does is embarrass me."

Lu Chengyu wanted to ignore the Li family's affairs. Some time ago, under Li Ru's influence, Lu Chengyu met with the registrar and the two had a pleasant conversation. The registrar also promised to help him. This improved Lu Chengyu's attitude towards Li Fangyue a lot. Seeing that his mother had brought up the matter again, Lu Chengyu said unhappily, "Mother, why bring this up again?"

Although Li Ru was only a concubine, as long as she could speak with the registrar, it didn't matter whether she was a wife or a concubine. Lu Chengyu really didn't want to admit that he had made the wrong choice.

Tang said sullenly, "I went to Lu Lin to borrow money today, but he didn't agree. He seems to know that Li Ru is a concubine."

Lu Chengyu asked excitedly, "Lu Lin knows? Mother, are you mistaken? What did he say?"

Tang nodded, somewhat annoyed, and said, "He said that the registrar's first wife's surname was Ji, so why not Li?"

Lu Chengyu suddenly clenched his fists, his face flushed with shame and indignation, and he looked utterly disheveled, as if his true colors had been exposed.

"Where did that brat hear that news from?" Mrs. Tang said sullenly.

Lu Chengyu gritted his teeth and had to admit that Lu Lin had changed a lot recently. He was now managing many things at Huaxia Trading Company. He had even seen several business owners in town having dinner with Lu Lin before, and it seemed that Lu Lin was quite popular.

Lu Chengyu felt a little panicked. If Lu Lin knew, wouldn't many other people know too?

Inside the villa.

Looking at the pile of schoolbags in the room, Chen Xiaomi said with some surprise, "There are so many."

"Because it's based on work, everyone is very motivated."

Lu Lin currently only has fifteen officially employed staff, but he doesn't mind if people take the fabric back, finish making it, and then deliver it back.

The employees who received the fabric from here could ask their sisters-in-law or daughters to help with the work. After it was finished, they could also have someone else deliver it and then take on another task. So, although the store only had fifteen employees, there were actually more, which is why the backpacks were made very quickly.

In order to make more money, many people are putting in their best efforts, and before they know it, they have too much inventory.

Lu Lin pondered that the female workers were working so hard because they were afraid that if they suddenly lost their jobs, unemployment would be a big problem no matter where they were.

Lu Lin has recently paid out several dozen taels of silver in rewards.

Chen Xiaomi looked at the pile of schoolbags in the room and said, "It seems we need to slow down for now; we've been doing too much."

Lu Lin nodded and said, "It seems so."

Having done so much, he can take a break and sell slowly. Alternatively, he could rent a shop in a neighboring town, open a branch, and sell the bags there. Although some small vendors buy from him and resell them, the volume is not very large.

Lu Lin thought it was feasible more and more, so he told Chen Xiaomi about it.

"Let's go to the next town." Chen Xiaomi vaguely felt it was feasible, but also felt that the journey might be a bit too far. If they left in the morning, they might not be able to return by evening.

"What a pity! We couldn't make many of the styles, otherwise we could have sold a lot more." Chen Xiaomi sighed, a hint of worry in her voice.

Lu Lin knew there were many styles of bags, but many of the styles he knew couldn't be made for various reasons, the most common being problems with the zippers. Lu Lin had just bought a batch of fabric a few days ago; if the bags didn't sell, that batch of fabric would probably be stuck with him.

“It’s fine if we don’t go. We can sell them slowly. We’ve already made a lot of money in the early stages, and we’ve already recouped our investment,” Lu Lin said.

Chen Xiaomi thought about it and agreed. By selling bags, after deducting costs, she had already earned more than a hundred taels of silver. If she were to forage for food in the mountains, she didn't know how long she would have to work to earn that much money. However, even though she had earned some money, she couldn't stop there, after all, she had so many mouths to feed at home.

Lu Lin looked at the silver in the jar and counted it, saying, "There are 150 taels left."

Chen Xiaomi blinked and said, "So many again? Is a large part of this earned from selling alcohol?"

Lu Lin shook his head and said, "No, we mainly sell bags."

Recently, he has gradually reduced the frequency of selling wine. Sweet potato wine is quite complicated to brew, and there are no more raw materials. The wine in the store is becoming less and less with each sale, and Lu Lin himself is not very willing to part with it. When he met Manager Wang before, Manager Wang seemed to have a lot of complaints about this.

Lu Lin and Chen Xiaomi lay together, talking about opening a branch store, and then they fell asleep.

Lu Lin got up early and walked into the hall, where he saw Chen Xiaocai biting her pen, looking deep in thought.

"You're up?" Lu Lin glanced at Chen Xiaocai, thinking to himself: This kid is really self-disciplined, getting up so early. In his world, if children had a holiday, they would easily sleep until noon.

Chen Xiaocai glanced at Lu Lin and said, "It's getting late, the roosters have been crowing for ages."

Lu Lin: "..." If a rooster is going to crow, it's fine to crow. There's no need for a rooster to crow and then get up!

"What are you doing?" Chen Xiaocai glanced at Lu Lin and said, "I'm calculating the income and expenses. Business has been slow lately, but we still have to pay wages every day. The fabric isn't cheap either. If this continues, we'll be losing money every day."

Lu Lin: "..." This kid is thinking so much. "So, what are your thoughts?"

Chen Xiaocai nodded and said, "We still need to find a way to sell more bags, otherwise we'll be eating dirt."

Lu Lin curled his lip, thinking to himself: It's not that easy to eat dirt. This brat is still afraid of being poor.

"Brother Lin, the shop is losing money. Will the big boss have any thoughts about this? Will he abandon us?" Chen Xiaocai asked worriedly.

"The big boss is out, and he doesn't even know we're losing money..." Lu Lin said.

Chen Xiaocai breathed a sigh of relief and said, "I see. However, I still think it's not good to lose money."

"Alright, alright, come out with me."

"Where to?" Chen Xiaocai asked.

"You'll see when you get there."

Lu Lin led Chen Xiaocai toward the market.

Chen Xiaocai followed Lu Lin and said sullenly, "Brother Lu, what are we going to the market for?" He thought Lu Lin was going to take him somewhere else, but it turned out to be the market.

"Of course, we go to the market to buy food."

"What should we buy?" Chen Xiaocai asked.

"Let's see what's available at the market. We might consider buying an old hen; that's the most nutritious."

Chen Xiaocai: "..." Recently, sometimes, the shop can't even sell one bag a day. Brother Lu even wanted to buy an old hen. However, chicken soup is very delicious, and the chicken meat is also very tasty. Chen Xiaocai couldn't help but lick her lips.

Lu Lin thought to himself: The weather is getting hotter and hotter, and Xiaomi's appetite seems to be not very good lately. She has vomited after eating a lot. She should be given some nourishment.

Lu Lin arrived at the town and saw a group of people gathered around something.

A young master-like man said loudly, "I'll bid sixteen taels for this bear; that's high enough."

"Twenty taels."

“I’m telling you, hunter, don’t be too greedy. Your bear’s fur is badly damaged. Only I, the young master, am willing to pay sixteen taels. Others wouldn’t even be willing to pay twelve taels.”

"Twenty taels."

The arrogant young man looked at Qin Yi with a hint of anger on his face.

Lu Lin squeezed through the crowd and glanced at the crowd, saying with some surprise, "Uncle Qin."

Qin Yi was also somewhat surprised to see Lu Lin. Qin Lang's eyes lit up when he saw Lu Lin, and then he looked at Lu Lin expectantly. Being looked at by a big boy with pleading eyes, Lu Lin couldn't help but feel a little strange.

Lu Lin spent twenty taels of silver to buy Qin Yi's black bear.

Qin Yi was very grateful and eagerly offered to return the black bear to Lu Lin.

Lu Lin invited Qin Yi and Qin Ming to the villa. On the way, Lu Lin heard about the Qin family's situation. A few days ago, Qin Yi and his two sons had their eyes on a black bear and set a trap to capture it. Although they caught the bear, Qin Ming suffered an accident during the process and broke his leg.

After Qin Yi found a doctor, the doctor said that treating his injuries would cost at least twenty taels of silver. Therefore, the young master asked for sixteen taels, which Qin Yi refused to budge on.

Knowing Qin Yi's experience, Lu Lin couldn't help but sigh that the mountain people had it tough. They finally caught a big guy, but they couldn't even afford to treat him. Of course, it was also possible that Qin Yi didn't know the market price and was ripped off by a quack doctor.