The schoolbags in the shop were selling very well, which made Wan Tie very happy. As servants who had signed indentures, their lives were closely related to their masters.
Lu Lin and Chen Xiaomi seemed like nice people and probably wouldn't hit anyone, which secretly relieved Wan Tie. What worried Wan Tie was that if the master didn't have money, he definitely wouldn't be able to pay their wages, and they might not even be able to afford a full meal. If the master had money, it shouldn't be difficult for them to make a living.
Previously, his son had suffered greatly at the hands of the young master, which made Wan Tie not have high goals in life. He only hoped that his son could grow up smoothly.
When Lu Lin returned home, he saw Chen Xiaomi studying blueprints. Lu Lin drew many bag designs for Chen Xiaomi, but since there were no zippers in this era, many styles of bags could not be made. Chen Xiaomi and Lu Lin would get together to discuss alternative solutions.
"Backpacks are selling really well lately," Chen Xiaomi said. Lu Lin had stockpiled a batch of backpacks before starting to sell them.
Even so, the dozens of backpacks that were put on the shelves were snapped up immediately. As far as he knew, not only were people from their town buying them, but some people also bought the backpacks and sold them elsewhere.
Lu Lin nodded and said, "Yes!"
Lu Lin had previously taught Chen Xiaomi the multiplication tables, which Chen Xiaomi mastered very quickly. He had also taught her addition and subtraction, and she was quite good at arithmetic. Although the business had been handed over to Wan Tie, Chen Xiaomi would still check the accounts in the ledgers every night. This was to ensure she had a clear understanding of the business's profits and to better master arithmetic.
Chen Xiaomi did some calculations and said, "In the past few days, we sold a total of 210 bags. After deducting the wages paid to the female workers, the net income was 40 taels."
Chen Xiaomi looked at the silver in his hand and secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He had been spending money like water lately and hadn't seen any income, which made him a little anxious. Now that he had some income, Chen Xiaomi finally breathed a sigh of relief.
"The backpacks are selling very well, but I estimate that they won't be selling as well after a while," Chen Xiaomi said.
Lu Lin nodded. "Possibly."
There are only so many wealthy people in the town. Once all those wealthy people have a backpack, it will probably stop selling. When the backpacks first started selling, they were selling like hotcakes, but recently the market has started to cool down.
"If we keep releasing new backpack models, they should still be able to sell well," Lu Lin said.
Chen Xiaomi scribbled on a piece of paper with a pen in hand, "Perhaps I can design some bags suitable for wealthy women."
Lu Lin nodded. "I can consider it. Women's money is always easy to earn. There are many wealthy women here who spend their days playing cards and watching operas; they seem quite rich."
"Take your time." They then took out their backpacks. There was no need to rush; they should proceed cautiously first.
With the business of the trading company stabilizing, Lu Lin planned to take Xiaocai and Xiaomai back to his hometown for a trip.
Lu Lin estimated that some of the vegetables in the garden should be almost ready to be harvested, and that he should try to save money where possible.
Many of Xiaocai and Xiaomai's playmates also live in the countryside. Although the two of them didn't say it, Lu Lin could tell that they occasionally thought about going back to their hometown.
Lu Lin decided to return to his hometown and took Wan Xiaofan with him.
It wasn't that he was petty, but he had to be careful. If they all left, only the Wan family would be left in town. If that family secretly ran away, his twenty taels of silver would be wasted.
Chen Xiaomi's house was located in a relatively remote area, so even though she had been in town for many days, not many people noticed her.
"Brother Lin, you're back!" Chen Chi was happy to see Lu Lin and the others.
Chen Xiaocai and Chen Xiaomai were gone for many days. Chen Chi was used to playing with the two of them, and he was really not used to it.
"Brother Lin, I've been raising your chickens and ducks at my house. Would you like me to send them over?" Chen Chi asked.
Lu Lin blinked. After buying a house in town, he had been considering moving. The move was rather rushed; he had secretly stored all the grain in the small shop and moved it to town. However, moving the chickens and ducks was a bit more difficult. Before, during the busy farming season, Lu Lin had seen that Granny Shen was getting on in years and still had to tend several acres of land, so he lent her his mule. Since the move was so rushed and he couldn't manage the livestock, he had entrusted several animals to Granny Shen's care, leaving only some grain.
When Lu Lin moved, he didn't expect to stay in the city for nearly twenty days. He entrusted the livestock at home to Granny Shen to take care of for more than twenty days.
Lu Lin felt slightly embarrassed. Those poultry were quite voracious eaters; after so many days, the grain he had left behind should have been eaten long ago.
Lu Lin went to the Shen family's house. All of Lu's chickens, ducks, and geese were kept in enclosures and were being raised very well. It was clear that the people raising them were very dedicated.
Lu Lin gave Grandma Shen a chicken and a goose.
We slaughtered the two that were about the same size, and planned to move the others to town to raise.
The children quickly became friends. Xiao Cai asked Chen Chi about what was happening in the countryside, while Chen Chi inquired about interesting things in the city.
The Lu family recently held two happy events: Lu Chengyu's wedding was a grand and lively affair, while Lu Tong's wedding was rather quiet and unassuming, which has been the talk of the town for quite some time.
"Big brother, Shen Chi said that the Lu family had a fight a few days ago, apparently because of Shen Fangyue's brother." Chen Xiaocai said. Chen Xiaomi nodded and said "Oh," without much surprise.
When Chen Xiaomi went to the restaurant earlier, she happened to run into Li Hong treating everyone to dinner, which was probably paid for with the Lu family's betrothal gifts. Li Hong took advantage of the Lu family and didn't even say a kind word. Chen Xiaomi guessed that what Li Hong said must have reached the Lu family's ears.
Just as Chen Xiaomi had predicted, the Tang family prepared so many betrothal gifts in the hope that Li Fangyue would bring back more. When the engagement was made, the matchmaker implied that the Li family was a wealthy family in town with shops and plenty of money, and would not take advantage of the Lu family. The money was just a formality to make things sound better.
The matchmaker showered her with compliments, and Tang, having too much faith in her son, believed her. As a result, Li Fangyue returned with several taels of silver. Tang felt deeply cheated and immediately found fault with her new daughter-in-law. If it were an ordinary family's daughter-in-law, Tang would have already lost her temper. However, Li Fangyue had a powerful brother-in-law, so Tang didn't dare to go too far.
Lu Chengyu had become somewhat obsessed after failing the imperial examination for the lowest degree, constantly dreaming of rising to prominence.
After marrying Li Fangyue, Lu Chengyu was greatly disappointed that he did not get in touch with the registrar as expected.
Li Fangyue was of average appearance. Not only did Madam Tang regret it, but Lu Chengyu himself was also filled with regret.
Lu Chengyu was dissatisfied, but he had agreed to the marriage himself, so even if he regretted it, he didn't say it out loud and embarrass himself. Tang Shi didn't dare to scold or beat Li Fangyue, but she still dared to order Li Fangyue around to do chores.
Li Fangyue was in the wrong, but as someone's wife, she had no choice but to do the work. Tang Shi was used to exploiting people and was also holding back her anger, so she dumped a lot of work on Li Fangyue. Li Fangyue wasn't Lu Lin's mother, so when she was exploited too much, she would throw a tantrum and often complain that she wanted to go back to her parents' home to ask her brother-in-law for help.
The Tang family had no choice but to exploit the family too much.
At this moment, the words Li Hong said in town reached the ears of the Lu family. Tang almost vomited blood in anger. The Li family had taken so much money from them, married off a worthless woman, and even looked down on them for being peasants. All the money they had given away had ended up in the bellies of Li Hong and his cronies.
Mrs. Tang was always strong-willed, and she was almost furious when she found out.
Knowing the Lu family's current situation, Lu Lin was genuinely gloating.
Lu Lin talked with Granny Shen for a while and told her that he was working in the city and needed someone to be in charge. He invited Granny Shen to come to the city to work. Granny Shen was very surprised to hear this.
When country folk come to the city to work, they are always nitpicked by their employers. Granny Shen never expected that Lu Lin would ask an old woman like her to come to the city to manage dozens of female workers.
Yunniang was in charge of making the schoolbags.
When Lu Lin was buying people, he wanted someone who could cook, because in this era, it was always criticized for men to be in the kitchen all the time.
Lu Lin found Yunniang, whose skills were quite good. However, Yunniang was busy making buns all day long, so there was no one to cook.
When there was a real shortage of manpower, Lu Lin would go and cook a meal.
Wan Tie felt very bad for being so startled when he saw Lu Lin cooking.
The Chen family was originally very poor, so cooking was nothing to them. However, now that he was at least somewhat wealthy, it wouldn't be appropriate for him to cook every day. But he didn't trust ordinary people, and hiring servants would be a waste.
After thinking it over, Lu Lin decided to target Granny Shen. It wasn't easy for Granny Shen to raise a young man on her own, and the two had worked together several times before. Granny Shen was also quite skilled at needlework.
After packing her luggage, Granny Shen went to the city with Lu Lin. Yunniang was very welcoming of Granny Shen's arrival, since she was the one who did the final integration, which was a lot of work.
Others might think about learning a skill and then switching jobs, but Yunniang had signed a contract of servitude, so naturally she wouldn't have that thought.
Granny Shen was very curious about the house where Lu Lin and Chen Xiaomi lived. There were three servants' quarters. Apart from the Wan family's house, the other female workers lived very close to each other, as most of them went home. Granny Shen and Shen Chi were also assigned to one of the rooms.
Chen Chi is a young man, and young men in this world all need to learn some needlework, which is one of their advantages.
Grandma Shen agreed to come and work, partly so that Shen Chi could learn some needlework.
Grandma Shen was very curious about the schoolbags she was making, but she didn't ask any more questions.
With Yunniang's guidance, Granny Shen quickly got the hang of it.
Lu Lin was initially worried that if he made too many schoolbags, they wouldn't sell. However, his worries were somewhat unnecessary. Some wealthy families in the city purchased a large number of schoolbags and gave them to people in other towns. After the reputation spread, more and more people came to buy the bags, and Lu Lin had to hire a few more people to expand the production scale.
Lu Lin recently developed a new type of linen bag. Unlike the bags sold to students at the school, which focus on style and aesthetics, this bag prioritizes practicality.
These bags are relatively inexpensive, costing only eighty coins each. They are very spacious and sturdy, and are mainly sold to itinerant merchants who travel from street to street. Although the profit margin on these bags is relatively small, they are popular because many people buy them.
Chen Xiaomi was in a very good mood because the business was doing well.
Chen Xiaomi has already mastered the arithmetic methods that Lu Lin taught her.
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