Zhang Jin walked into the house and saw that his father and mother both had stern faces, and the atmosphere was not good.
"Mother, what's wrong?"
Zhang said unhappily, "I told your father to take back the two taels of silver he lent to the Lu family, but he didn't ask for it back."
Zhang Cheng said somewhat awkwardly, "The Lu family just finished their business and invited so many people to a banquet. They're not exactly well-off."
“The Lu family invited a lot of people, but didn’t they also collect a lot of money as gifts?” Zhang Jin said.
Hearing his son's words, Zhang Cheng took a puff of his cigarette but remained silent.
Zhang snorted and said, "I think that old hag from the Lu family is trying to pocket the money and not pay it back. She's not satisfied with just taking advantage of others."
Zhang Cheng glanced at Zhang Shi and said helplessly, "What are you saying? The Lu family owns so much land, how could they possibly cheat us out of such a small amount of money?"
"That's hard to say," Zhang said, seeing Zhang Cheng's expression. She didn't dwell on the matter. "Lu Chengyu picked and chose, but how did he end up with such a girl? She's not even as good as the girls in our village. I really don't know what Tang was thinking."
“That’s the registrar’s sister-in-law; she’s not the same as a country girl,” Zhang Cheng said.
Zhang rolled her eyes and sneered, "They're different. He's obviously not capable of doing any work. The Lu family is now just a bunch of lazy good-for-nothings."
Zhang Cheng glared at Zhang Shi and said, "What nonsense are you talking about?"
Zhang Jin thought to himself: What my mother said is right. In the past, the second branch of the Lu family did all the work. Now that the second branch is gone, the old man and the old woman have to work in the fields. Even so, they still can't finish the work. There really aren't many people in the Lu family who can do the work now.
The matter of Lu Chengyu was discussed for a while, but it was quickly replaced by the news of Lu Tong's marriage.
Compared to Lu Chengyu's marriage, the Li family's wedding was much simpler. Li Ji wasn't getting married for the first time, so Lu Tong's marriage was a quick affair. The Lu family was a bit short on money lately, so they didn't prepare much for Lu Tong.
On her first night after getting married, Lu Tong caused a little trouble.
Li Ji's son came to the new house in the middle of the night looking for his father, ruining Lu Tong and Li Ji's wedding night.
Lu Lin and Chen Xiaomi went to town and sold another batch of wine.
As Lu Lin and Chen Xiaomi finished their handover, they overheard someone talking loudly in the restaurant. Lu Lin glanced over and saw that it was Li Hong, Li Fangyue's second brother.
Li Hong was drunk, surrounded by several cronies, who were talking loudly about something.
Lu Lin had previously inquired about the Li family from Manager Wang, so Manager Wang was aware of the relationship between Lu Lin and Li Hong.
Shopkeeper Wang smiled and said, "Li Hong has come many times since Li Fangyue got married."
Lu Lin slightly curled the corners of his mouth. He had also heard that most of Li Fangyue's betrothal gifts had been left in the Li family. Given how much the Li family elders doted on Li Hong, most of the money should have ended up in Li Hong's pocket.
Lu Lin and Chen Xiaomi listened secretly for a while.
Since Li Hong was the one treating, everyone fawned over him, trying to curry favor with him.
Some people also inquired about Lu Chengyu and Li Fangyue's marriage. One young man said with a sour tone that Lu Lin was quite generous, actually willing to offer such a large dowry.
Li Hong, flattered by everyone's praise, spoke disdainfully of Lu Chengyu, saying that Lu Chengyu was just a country bumpkin who struggled to make a living, and that even if he studied, he couldn't change his background. He added that if it weren't for the generous dowry, his family wouldn't have married their sister to Lu Lin.
Lu Lin and Chen Xiaomi listened for a while, then walked away silently.
Lu Chengyu miscalculated this time. "He carefully selected a wife, even thinking that the girls in the village were not good enough for him, and insisted on waiting another year. In the end, he ended up with this family."
If Li Hong has this attitude, then the registrar will probably be even less likely to take Lu Chengyu's family seriously.
Li Hong has been living a very carefree life lately. Many people know that her eldest sister married the registrar. However, the registrar doesn't really like their family. Li Hong was given a cold reception several times when she visited. Her sister also doesn't like family members visiting. Others may not know, but Li Hong knows that her eldest sister was a concubine. After a few visits, she rarely went to the registrar's house anymore.
Li Hong originally thought that his third sister, Li Fangyue, was much less attractive than his eldest sister and was a money-loser who would never find a good husband. However, he never expected that Lu Chengyu would take a liking to her.
Although the Li family lived in town, they didn't have any particularly profitable businesses. The little money they earned from their shops was mostly used to decorate their storefronts, so Li Hong didn't have much money. The Lu family's gift of thirty taels of silver as a betrothal gift made Li Hong quite generous.
Li Hong originally intended to accept all thirty taels of silver, but Li's father still felt sorry for his daughter and left five taels for Li Fangyue.
After Lu Lin and Chen Xiaomi sold a batch of wine and collected sixteen taels of silver, they went to the brokerage firm.
Inside the brokerage firm, a dozen or so people lived in a dilapidated house. Lu Lin saw two little girls, about seven or eight years old, who were pale and thin and looked very pitiful.
Although the child looked pitiful, Lu Lin did not plan to take him home. He already had two younger children at home, as well as Xiaomai, a problem child. Bringing so many children home would not help him or be able to take care of them.
"What kind of person does the boss want?" Ya Zi asked excitedly.
"We need a woman who can cook, and preferably also knows some embroidery." Lu Lin usually cooks for Chen Xiaomi's family, but he needs someone to cook for him as he will be managing the business in the future. "We also need a man, preferably someone with some strength."
After hearing Lu Lin's words, the broker roughly understood the situation. He introduced Lu Lin to a family of three who had originally worked as servants in a wealthy household. However, the family had offended their master and had been sold off.
Lu Lin noticed that the couple's hands were covered in calluses, suggesting they were used to heavy labor, and he was slightly satisfied.
The brokerage firm had several pretty maids who were supposed to be serving in wealthy households. Each maid cost twenty taels of silver, and they didn't look like they were capable of doing any work.
People were very cheap in this era; basically, one person could be bought for the price of one acre of land. In recent years, frequent wars have left behind many orphans, and children are not worth much. Two adults were sold to Lu Lin for 10 taels of silver, and their child was included as part of the sale.
Lu Lin accepted the indenture of the Wan family of three and temporarily settled them in the newly purchased house in town.
Lu Lin went to the countryside and brought the vegetables and wheat to the town.
When Xiaomai saw the house, she was immediately stunned.
"Big brother, will we live here from now on?" Xiaomai asked.
Chen Xiaomi nodded and said, "Yes."
Xiaomai asked somewhat suspiciously, "Big brother, where did this house come from? It's so big!"
Chen Xiaomi told Chen Xiaocai that the house belonged to a very wealthy man, and he was just looking after the house for someone else. As for the three servants in the house, they were left behind by the previous wealthy man. Chen Xiaocai didn't know how much money the house had. After hearing Chen Xiaomi's explanation, he immediately felt that things made sense.
Chen Xiaocai knew that her older brother had recently made some money, but she never imagined that he was rich enough to afford a house in town.
Chen Xiaocai tugged at Chen Xiaomi's sleeve and said, "Big brother, is it alright for us to stay here? What will we eat?"
"Don't worry, we look after houses for people, and the rich people pay us." Chen Xiaomi told Chen Xiaocai the excuse that Lu Lin had come up with.
Chen Xiaocai exclaimed in surprise, "There are actually such wealthy people!"
In Chen Xiaocai's eyes, the wealthy were all heartless and cruel, and in fact, that was indeed the case. Many rich households were indeed wealthy, holding large tracts of land in their hands. They rented out their land and lived a life of luxury on the rent every year, while the villagers in the village worked diligently in the fields every year, yet they still struggled to make ends meet.
Hearing that her older brother had met a very kind and wealthy man who was helping him look after the house and even paying him wages, Chen Xiaocai couldn't help but find it unbelievable.
Lu Lin took the money jar out of the convenience store. Xiao Mi counted the silver in the jar and said, "There are only forty taels left."
Chen Xiaomi scratched her hair, a hint of worry in her eyes.
Lu Lin smiled and said, "It is a bit of a waste, but we still have forty taels left, don't we?" When he first arrived in Chen Xiaomi's house, the entire Chen family didn't even have ten taels of silver. The current situation is already much better. If all else fails, they can continue selling wine.
Chen Xiaomi glanced at Lu Lin and said, "You bought so much fabric, are you going to make that bag you mentioned?" Recently, besides buying people, another big expense has been buying fabric, and she has bought a lot of fabric of various materials.
Lu Lin nodded and said, "Yes!"
Lu Lin took out a ballpoint pen and a notebook and drew various styles of bags for Chen Xiaomi.
Chen Xiaomi had never seen such a magical pen or such paper before, and she was stunned for a moment. She snatched the pen and paper that Lu Lin had taken out and looked at them for a long time, marveling at them.
Seeing the various bags drawn by Lu Lin, Chen Xiaomi vaguely felt that she might become rich.
"Are these all bags from your world?" Chen Xiaomi asked, somewhat surprised.
Lu Lin nodded and said, "Yes! Handbags in our world are incredibly expensive. One handbag can buy dozens of pigs." In his previous life, handbags costing tens of thousands were common, and there were even many costing millions. It wasn't that they were afraid of you being expensive, but rather that you weren't expensive enough.
Chen Xiaomi said, full of confusion, "How can there be such a stupid person? What's the use of a bag? It's not as practical as a pig."
"Everyone has different pursuits. Some people just like bags." An expensive bag best reflects a person's status. "Besides, these people don't have to worry about not being able to afford meat." Of course, there are also people who cut back on their clothes to buy a bag, but that's a minority. Most people who buy designer bags are people who have money to burn.
Chen Xiaomi asked with some envy, "Can we eat meat every meal?"
Lu Lin nodded and said, "Yes, we can eat meat every meal."
Meat wasn't expensive in my past life, and eating meat every meal wasn't difficult. However, when there's no meat to eat, you think about it every day. But if you eat too much meat, you'll crave vegetarian food.
Chen Xiaomi said with some worry, "This bag doesn't seem too difficult to make. If someone learns how to make it, they won't make much money."
Lu Lin nodded and said, "I've thought about that too. However, some bags are quite difficult to make. To prevent others from learning how to make them, I'm considering having people divide the work, with one assistant in charge of one step, and our people doing the final integration."
While this probably won't stop some practices from being leaked, it should at least delay it. Once they've established their brand, they won't have to worry about being imitated.
Chen Xiaomi looked at the sample drawing Lu Lin had made, her eyes flashing with a bright light.
Chen Xiaomi handed the notebook to Lu Lin and said, "Put it away for now, don't let anyone see it."
Lu Lin nodded, secretly wondering when he should buy some writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones. Although ballpoint pens and notebooks were convenient, they were still too out of the ordinary.
Chen Xiaomi and his friends had made some money selling gloves, which seemed to have already caused quite a stir among the villagers. If people knew that they had also bought such a large house in town, they would be incredibly envious.
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