Sorry for the late chapter heres an extra one!
Liu Gui Yong bore a grudge when he saw the villagers in Big Stone Village trying to steal his job, but he didn’t show it. He kept blaming his other son Liu Wu for having conversations with the curious villagers, he glared at Liu Wu when he found out Liu Wu had told the villagers about their salaries.
Liu Wu had just scratched his head when he saw his father glaring at him.
Liu Wu had a quick tongue and always said what he thought without much consideration. He became angry when the villagers tried to convince him that neither Chen Xiao Mi nor Lu Lin were good people, and that they would not pay him on time.
Liu Wu defended Chen Xiao Mi and Lu Lin, he told the villagers to mind their own business and all his team members were paid on time. Some cunning villagers took advantage of Liu Wu’s blunt nature, they deliberately asked detailed questions, Liu Wu fell for it, he said something that should have been kept secret.
Lu Lin had selected some honest and hardworking villagers from Big Stone Village, the villagers were grateful for Lu Lin’s kindness, and they worked diligently.
This became very interesting, the villagers and Liu Gui Yong’s team worked in a competitive manner, both teams wanting to outshine each other.
It only took ten days or so to build the rooms, the Big Stone Village team didn’t want to be left behind, they finished the construction of the donkey stables, chicken coops, goose coops ahead of schedule as well. Lu Lin asked the Big Stone Village team to dig the cellar and lay bricks in the new room.
The villagers were happy that they kept getting work and getting paid, but they couldn’t help but wonder how exactly Lu Lin and Chen Xiao Mi could have so much money to keep paying them to work for them.
They knew that they had no chance of getting anything useful from Liu Gui Yong’s team, so they decided to approach Chen Xiao Cai after some calculations.
Chen Xiao Cai had been busy like a bee recently, he had to watch over all the animals and he was responsible for feeding them three times a day. So the villagers had seen Chen Xiao Cai quite a bit in the courtyard, they were always rambling around, trying to pry out information, they hoped they could find out why Chen Xiao Mi had suddenly become so rich.
Soon Chen Xiao Mi and Lu Lin decided to build a kang in the new room as well. Both Liu Gui Yong’s team and the Big Stone Village team watched them attentively on the day they built the kang.
The Big Stone Village team had even expressed willingness to work for free for them for three days as long as they could watch and learn how to build the kang. Chen Xiao Mi and Lu Lin thought about it and they nodded in agreement.
The villagers immediately became hotcakes after they learned how to build kang, so many rich families were willing to hire them at a high price to have kang for the winter.
The other villagers wished they could be on good terms with Chen Xiao Mi as well, they were jealous of their friends who made a lot of money by leaning on Chen Xiao Mi.
Zhang Cheng, the Village Chief, was very distressed about it.
As the Village Chief, he wanted his entire village to escape poverty and become prosperous. He kept blaming Chen Xiao Mi and Lu Lin for teaching Liu Gui Yong and his team from other villages kang-building skills. He insisted that those skills should be exclusive to their own village, so that the villagers could go to the city and work for those rich families.
Zhang Cheng would narrow his eyes and imagine how great it would be if only their own villagers knew how to build kang, they wouldn’t have to compete with Liu Gui Yong’s team, and they could price themselves out of the market.
Casual laborers trying to find work in the city will always be exploited, but there aren’t many laborers who know how to make kang, so both Liu Gui Yong’s team and Big Stone Village’s team get paid pretty well in the city. Hence, the Big Stone Village team was so busy building kangs in the city that they had no time to teach fellow villagers skills or build kangs for villagers who were dying of kang.
Zhang Cheng banged on Chen Xiao Mi’s door and blamed Chen Xiao Mi for teaching Liu Gui Yong’s team rather than fellow villagers skills, but Lu Lin replied back with just one sentence:
“Village Chief, you’re the one who told me my fellow villagers are too busy to work for us, right? It’s not like I’d rather seek help from Big Gulf Village, I just couldn’t find help from our own village.”
Zhang Cheng didn’t see that coming, he didn’t expect Lu Lin to reply to an elder like him. He became angry and left in embarrassment.
Zhang Cheng was even angrier when the villagers who had learned the skills from Chen Xiao Mi were not interested in teaching their fellow villagers, they were busy working for the rich families in the city.
Lu Lin understood why the villagers didn’t care about Zhang Cheng, the villagers he chose to work for him all came from less backgrounds, he understood they would rather accumulate some wealth first before sharing these skills.
At Chen Xiao Mi’s house.
Chen Xiao Mi had just calculated their savings, he frowned: “We have less than ten taels left. Our building project went over budget, we ended up spending two taels more than we planned.”
Lu Lin was amused by how meticulous Chen Xiao Mi was when counting money, he felt Chen Xiao Mi was like a tiger when he was out hunting on the mountain, but he was like a cute little squirrel when he was counting their savings.
Lu Lin nodded and said: “Yes, we spent a little more than we planned, but it was still enough for us to get through this winter comfortably. We can sell another set of alcoholic drinks in town to earn more money in case something happens.”
Chen Xiao Mi nodded and said: “That is correct.”
“We can finish the final repairs for the new room in just a few days.” Lu Lin said casually.
Chen Xiao Mi understood and he blushed.
“Are these animal skins for sale?” Lu Lin pointed to the animal skins piled up near the door.
Chen Xiao Mi nodded.
Chen Xiao Mi did not slack off in hunting even though they had made a lot of money from selling alcohol, he had always seen hunting as his footing that he would never give up. But Chen Xiao Mi became more cautious when he hunted, he would not risk his life to hunt those beasts to earn more money.
Lu Lin took a closer look at the skin and said: “Do you mind not selling it? We can sew it as a lining in our winter jackets. I can even have Grandma Shen make some gloves for us, the skins here are all of good quality, I’m sure we can make gloves out of them and sell them at a good price.”
“Gloves? What’s that?”
Lu Lin stretched out his hand to explain: “Gloves are like jackets for hands, you wear them in winter, so you don’t get sick from the cold.”
Chen Xiao Mi tilted his head and sighed with emotion: “Wow, is that also a popular thing in your hometown? That’s so good!”
Lu Lin smiled and scratched his head shyly.
What Chen Xiao Mi didn’t say out loud was that he wasn’t actually interested in wearing the gloves, he felt they were too pretty for him, he just thought he would tear the gloves off in ten minutes considering it was all labor intensive work he was doing.
Lu Lin needs to put the “you kids need to sleep in the other room” lecture on the agenda now that all the rooms are finished.
Lu Lin had been racking his brain to make it easier for Chen Xiao Cai, he didn’t come up with anything good, so he just decided to go for it.
“Xiao Cai, you’re a big boy now, do you know big brave boys don’t share rooms with adults. Don’t be afraid, this is a good practice before you get married.”
Chen Xiao Cai pouted, he had no interest in getting married.
“Xiao Cai, I know what you are thinking, but sooner or later you will get married. Sharing a room with Xiao Mai is a good thing, it means you are a big boy who can take care of your little brother now, you guys have a big kang to yourselves, and the best part is that you will no longer hear your big brother snoring at night!” Lu Lin thought he did a good job in convincing Chen Xiao Cai.
Chen Xiao Cai said: “But my big brother doesn’t snore.”
Lu Lin smiled: “Ah~ so it’s you who snores at night, see, it finally worked out well. Your big brother and I won’t hear you snoring if you sleep in the new room with Xiao Mai.”
Chen Xiao Cai knew where Lu Lin was going, he stomped his foot and said: “I will sleep in the new room with Xiao Mai, I will take good care of him.”
“I believe you.” Lu Lin grinned and said: “We’re out of pickled vegetables, will you buy more from Grandma Shen?”
Lu Lin recently bought some pickled vegetables from Grandma Shen, sometimes he would just encourage Chen Xiao Cai and Chen Xiao Mai to run errands for him, as he thought talking to people was good for children.
Chen Xiao Cai nodded and said: “I would love to.”
“Good boy, this is for you.” Lu Lin gave Chen Xiao Cai some chestnuts roasted with sugar as a snack.
Lu Lin had picked chestnuts in the mountains, he had made chestnuts roasted with sugar today as a snack for the children, both Chen Xiao Cai and Chen Xiao Mai liked the sweet taste.
Lu Lin was surprised when Chen Xiao Mi told him that the villagers didn’t know the chestnuts were edible as the shells were very hard and thorny, he felt sorry as the chestnuts were very tasty.
Lu Lin had kept some chestnuts in his shop, and roasted them with sugar that day for the children, but Chen Xiao Mi also wanted to eat them, and had fallen in love with the taste after the first bite.
“Xiao Cai, please share with your friends.” Lu Lin encouraged Chen Xiao Cai.
Chen Xiao Cai frowned: “Why should I do that? I can finish this by myself, and I can always share it with my little brother.”
“You can make more friends by being kind and generous.”
“Friends? The kids in the village are so stupid, I don’t want to be friends with them.” Chen Xiao Cai pouted.
Chen Xiao Mi knew it was Chen Xiao Cai’s self-protection mechanism because Chen Xiao Cai tried to make friends with other children for so long, but the other children rejected him because of the stupid things their parents told them, they would bully Chen Xiao Cai and stay away from him. As time passed, Chen Xiao Cai leaned towards shutting himself away.
Lu Lin knew he could not force Chen Xiao Cai to do something he was not ready for, he simply nodded and patted Chen Xiao Cai’s head.
Chen Xiao Cai put the chestnuts into his pocket. The pouch was sewn by Grandma Shen at Lu Lin’s request, and being very useful, Grandma Shen also started sewing pouches on Shen Chi’s clothes.
‘I don’t mind sharing with Shen Chi if I meet him later.’ Chen Xiao Cai thought.
Chen Xiao Cai got along with Shen Chi quite well.
Chen Xiao Mai was very excited when Chen Xiao Cai asked him if he wanted to go to Grandma Shen with him. Chen Xiao Mai did not have the chance to go out and meet people before Lu Lin came to the family because he was very sick, now that he was getting healthier he wanted to go out more often.
Grandma Shen welcomed the two boys when she saw them in her yard. Grandma Shen and Lu Lin became close over the past few days, she made money from sewing clothes and selling pickled vegetables to him.
T/N: comment below what you thought of this chapter!
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