On the first day, when Wang cursed at the villagers, they did not refute her, which gave Wang the illusion that the villagers were submissive. On the second day, Wang cursed even more fiercely.

Several villagers endured until the evening of the second day, but finally couldn't take it anymore. They went to Grandpa Lu and asked him to pay them for two days' work, because they didn't want to work anymore.

"What's wrong? Why are you quitting?" Old Master Lu asked, somewhat displeased.

The leader of the group said, "Old Master Lu, we're here to make money, not to be scolded. If you pay us our wages, we're not going to work here."

Old Master Lu frowned, feeling somewhat troubled and uneasy. He secretly thought that since he was paying people to do the work, what was wrong with being scolded a couple of times? It was normal to be scolded by superiors while working. Old Master Lu was quite respectable in the village for owning so much land, so he secretly looked down on the villagers.

The fact that the helpers had united made Old Master Lu feel that his authority had been challenged, and he couldn't help but feel annoyed.

When Wang heard several people pestering Old Master Lu for money, she immediately exploded. "You don't work properly and you still want wages? Dream on!"

The villagers were not to be trifled with, and they immediately became enraged upon hearing this.

"What, are you trying to renege on your debt and not pay?"

"You guys are all lazy and still have the nerve to ask for wages. You should be grateful that I even hired you."

Zhang Danian, the leader, looked displeased and said, "Old lady, how can you talk like that? There are plenty of places that need people at this time of year. It doesn't matter who you work for. Don't you even look at how much you're paying? Do you expect us to work day and night for you?"

"That's right. People who went to work at Granny Shen's house before got thirty coins a day, plus two steamed buns at noon."

"I work so hard for the Lu family, and they don't even get a bowl of hot soup for lunch. All they do is rush me."

When Wang heard the others mention Granny Shen, she immediately became furious. Shen Chi pointed her out to Chen Xiaocai, and Wang immediately assumed that Granny Shen was one of Lu Lin's cronies. In her heart, Wang secretly thought that Granny Shen had spent all her money on Lu Lin, and she was quite angry about it before.

Wang got into a big argument with several helpers. Wang had a sharp tongue and cursed at them, leaving the tongue-tied men red-faced with embarrassment.

One of the men got so worked up that he brought up the fact that Wang had driven her son to his death and then stolen money from Chen Xiaomi's house.

Wang was disliked because people said she stole money, even though she hadn't done it at all, but no one believed her.

Wang and several villagers had a big argument and almost came to blows. In the end, the village head was called in to mediate, and the situation calmed down.

As a result, Old Master Lu paid the wages for the workers, but deducted five coins from each person because Wang felt they were not working hard enough. If it weren't for the village head's mediation, Wang would have wanted to deduct even more money.

Old Master Lu secretly felt that his wife was too talkative and had angered everyone. He also felt that the villagers were too unreasonable. He had paid these people to cause trouble, and they had made such a fuss. He had already paid them enough, and the villagers did a poor job but were greedy.

The men were all a little angry, but they didn't want to make a big fuss over five coins. However, doing so would ruin the Lu family's reputation in the village.

When the men returned home and told their wives what had happened, the wives were naturally quite upset.

Some villagers said that Old Master Lu was not kind. He spent dozens of taels of silver to get his grandson a wife without batting an eye, but he would deduct even a few copper coins from the poor people in the village who worked for him. He was truly "rich but heartless".

Several villagers refused to work, but Grandpa Lu didn't pay much attention. In his view, with money, why would he have trouble finding people? However, when he tried to hire more people, he found that no one was willing to work. After inquiring around, Grandpa Lu discovered that the villagers were saying that he liked to renege on his debts, and that they had to be careful when working for him, otherwise they would lose all their wages and end up working for free.

Several villagers on the road pointed and whispered about Grandpa Lu, which greatly angered him.

The Lu family couldn't find anyone to help, so the village head had to step in and find someone for Old Master Lu. However, the newcomer insisted on being paid before starting work, refusing to accept the rule that he would be penalized if he didn't perform well.

Left with no other choice, Old Master Lu had to agree.

When Grandpa Lu came to his senses, he realized that his family had been scolded for being unfair over a few coins, so he could only endure it.

The Lu family's land harvest was fraught with difficulties, but they finally managed to harvest all the crops.

After the autumn harvest, several autumn winds blew, and the weather grew colder and colder, with a hint of winter approaching.

Business at Lu Lin's shop was getting better and better.

The influence of toys is greater than that of schoolbags.

Many merchants went to Lu Lin's shop to buy goods and resell them elsewhere.

To make up for the shortage of manpower, Lu Lin bought two more women who knew how to sew from the broker.

The two women were named Magpie and Lin Chun.

Magpie is twenty-six years old. When Magpie was a child, his family was poor and he was sold by his parents to a wealthy family. He was given the name Magpie, but he forgot his original name later. He worked for that family with trepidation. Although Magpie is only twenty-six years old, he looks like he is in his thirties or forties, probably because he has worked too hard.

When Magpie got old, the wealthy family fell on hard times and could no longer afford to support so many maids and servants, so they sold Magpie again.

Another woman named Lin Chun was twenty-three years old. Her husband had died, and her mother-in-law said she was a jinx to her family, so she sold her off.

The arrival of Magpie and Lin Chun greatly reduced the pressure on Granny Shen and Yunniang, and Lu Lin asked Granny Shen to teach the two how to make dolls.

Grandma Shen was getting old, and her eyesight was declining, making it increasingly difficult for her to do chores. Some time ago, fearing that she would delay Zheng's work, Grandma Shen took the initiative to suggest to Lu Lin that someone else be replaced.

Lu Lin now asked her to teach people how to do chores, which greatly relieved Granny Shen.

With Chen Chi not around, Granny Chen felt a little lonely. The two new women were both pitiful, and Granny Chen felt some sympathy for them. So Granny Chen didn't feel bored being with the two of them.

After Chen Chi left, Xi Que and Lin Chun arrived and lived in the same room as Granny Shen.

Lu Lin and Chen Xiaomi walked down the street, with Chen Xiaomi looking around curiously.

This year's harvest is good, and many farmers have bright smiles on their faces.

Lu Lin saw several villagers selling mountain products and bought some of them on a whim.

Chen Xiaomi looked at what Lu Lin bought and pouted, saying, "Actually, these kinds of things are everywhere on the mountain, there's no need to buy them at all."

“In the past, it was very difficult to buy mountain products, and what you could buy was very likely to be fake…” Chen Xiaomi knew that the “past” Lu Lin was talking about was another world. Chen Xiaomi always felt that it was a very magical place where there was an endless supply of rice, but no mountain delicacies.

Chen Xiaomi pouted and said, "If you like them, buy more."

"Then we don't need to buy too much." Lu Lin glanced at the market in the distance and happened to see a familiar face. "It's Uncle Liu."

Chen Xiaomi blinked and said, "It really is true, it's been a while."

Lu Lin had previously complained that the house in the countryside was too small, so he specially asked Liu Guiyong and others to renovate it. However, now that there are many things to do in town, he doesn't go to the house in the countryside much anymore. Whenever Chen Xiaomiming thinks about the house in the countryside, she feels a little regretful.

"Uncle Liu is selling sweet potatoes!" Lu Lin asked, somewhat puzzled. Last year, sweet potatoes were unsold; did he still plant them this year?

"Should we brew some more sweet potato wine?" Chen Xiaomi asked, glancing at Lu Lin.

Lu Lin nodded and said, "That's a good idea." Brewing wine is a quick way to make money. Although the dolls sell well, you can't put all your eggs in one basket. It's always good to have multiple sources of income.

"Uncle Liu," Chen Xiaomi greeted as she stepped forward.

"Young Master Lin, Brother Xiaomi, it's you two!" Huaxia Trading Company has a great reputation. Liu Guiyong had also inquired about the two of them and knew that Lu Lin and Chen Xiaomi were now working for a big boss in town and making a lot of money. Now, many people in the countryside were also making money by making embroidery for Huaxia Trading Company.

The villagers always had a certain awe for the rich, so much so that Liu Guiyong became somewhat reserved when he saw Chen Xiaomi and Lu Lin.

"Uncle Liu, are you selling sweet potatoes? Don't you sell them to grain stores?" Chen Xiaomi asked.

Liu Guiyong sighed and said with some worry, "They're too small; the grain store won't accept them."

Chen Xiaomi picked up a sweet potato, glanced at it, and said, "Such a small sweet potato isn't enough to eat!"

Lu Lin nudged Chen Xiaomi with his elbow, and Chen Xiaomi gave an embarrassed smile.

Liu Guiyong didn't mind and said with a wry smile, "Brother Xiaomi, don't underestimate our sweet potatoes just because they're small. They're incredibly sweet, but they don't look very appealing! As a result, we can't sell them at all. Sigh, my family grows relatively few. There are many families in our village that grow this all the time. If we can't sell them, we don't know how we'll survive the winter."

Lu Lin asked, somewhat puzzled, "Didn't the sweet potatoes have a sales slump last year? Why are you planting so many again?"

Liu Guiyong said awkwardly, "Well... actually, we were scammed."

Chen Xiaomi asked, somewhat confused, "Were we scammed?"

Liu Guiyong sighed and explained, "The price of sweet potatoes was not high last year, so no one wanted to grow them anymore. Then a man named Liu Qi came before the New Year."

"Liu Qi said he has high-quality sweet potato varieties from the south. These sweet potatoes are much sweeter than ours and are very popular with wealthy people in the south. He told us to plant them and he would come to harvest them in the fall. He guaranteed that his sweet potatoes could sell for several times the price of local sweet potatoes and told us not to worry."

At first, no one believed it, but the man's overall demeanor didn't seem like someone who would lie, so everyone believed him.

Chen Xiaomi tilted her head and asked, "He didn't come this year?"

"They did come over, but they said our sweet potatoes were too small, that they must not have been grown properly and did not meet the standards, so they were unwilling to harvest them."

Chen Xiaomi asked, somewhat puzzled, "Didn't he bring the superior seeds? If they grew to be small, that's his responsibility. But why did they become small?"

Lu Lin tilted his head and said, "It's probably due to differences in geographical environment. The climate in the south is different from here, and the terrain and soil should also be different, so the sweet potatoes grown there are also quite different."

Chen Xiaomi rolled her eyes and asked, "Uncle Liu, do you know this Liu Qi? Does he have any connection with your village?"

Liu Guiyong nodded and said, "Yes, the Liu family used to be poor. Before Liu Qi's father, he went out to do business and I heard that he made a lot of money. He also bought houses and shops in the south and took several concubines. The family was very rich."

Lu Lin blinked, and roughly understood why the people of Dawan Village believed Liu Qi. After all, Liu Qi's father was a successful person who came from Dawan Village.

Chen Xiaomi looked at Lu Lin and said, "If they are really sweet, we can buy some."

Lu Lin nodded and said, "Sure." We can brew some sweet potato wine. Sweet potatoes of all sizes can be used to brew sweet potato wine. If the sweet potatoes are sweet, we can save some sugar.

Lu Lin bought 100 jin of sweet potatoes and asked Yunniang to steam some of them to eat.

Chen Xiaomai really liked this sweet potato and ate three of them in one go.

Qin Lang and Qin Ming were just teenagers, the kind of kids who could eat their fathers out of house and home. Lu Lin told the two kids to eat as much as they wanted, and they ate more than a dozen at once.

Chen Xiaomi ate a sweet potato and said, "It is indeed very sweet, but it is a bit small. It was gone after only a few bites."

There are quite a few people waiting for their meal here. Sweet potatoes aren't expensive, so they can be eaten as a meal. If they can't finish them, they can be fermented into wine, so nothing goes to waste.

Lu Lin glanced at Chen Xiaomi and said, "If you like them, I'll buy more."

Chen Xiaomi nodded and said, "That's fine."