Lu Lin and the Chen brothers arrived at the fair early to get a good stall.
Vendors usually need to pay for a stall, but this Winter Fair was an exception, ‘first come, first served’.
The streets began to hum with life as Lu Lin and Chen Xiao Mi set up the stall, other merchants had arrived one after another, there were lamp merchants, snack merchants, kitchenware merchants, cloth merchants….everything one could want.
Lu Lin set up three sections of gloves on the stall, the section on the left three hundred cents, on the right five hundred, in the middle two taels.
“What? Two taels?” Chen Xiao Cai asked in surprise.
Lu Lin nodded.
Chen Xiao Cai’s eyes opened wide as he saw Lu Lin nod: “You can buy five hundred kilos of sweet potatoes with two taels of silver, I think three hundred is already quite expensive, let alone two taels!”
“It’s made from fox skin, do you know how rare it is?” Lu Lin explained patiently.
Fox fur robes were very popular among the leading officials and prominent figures in the city, it was a pity that the fox Chen Xiao Mi caught was injured in the trap, its skin was not in the best condition. Therefore, Lu Lin had to compromise and he asked Granny Shen to make some gloves with him.
“Cai, Mai, we’re counting on you kids to attract customers. Shout for our gloves! I’ll buy you honey cakes if you do a good job.” Coaxed Lu Lin.
Lu Lin was a bit embarrassed when he saw so many people walking past him, so he thought he’d better bribe the kids and let them shout.
Chen Xiao Cai looked directly at Lu Lin, he hated Lu Lin’s behavior, and he thought Lu Lin was a little calculating.
But Chen Xiao Mai smacked his lips and asked excitedly: “Honey cake, really?”
Lu Lin nodded and answered solemnly: “Yes, honey cake, as much as you want.”
Chen Xiao Mai bit his finger and thought for a moment, then called out at the top of his lungs: “Gloves, look at these amazing fur gloves!”
Chen Xiao Cai held his forehead when he saw Chen Xiao Mai trying his hardest.
‘My little brother is so gullible! I can’t believe he’s shouting in front of so many people, just for a piece of honey cake!’
Chen Xiao Mai continued to stare at Chen Xiao Cai, asking for help. Chen Xiao Cai shook his head and joined his younger brother to boost his spirits.
Chen Xiao Mai was wearing a new winter jacket with a hood with a tiger embroidered on it, his cheeks looked rosy thanks to Lu Lin’s full attention, and his voice was in a pleasant high pitch. Soon many customers gathered around their stall. However, most of the customers would soon turn away due to the crazy high price.
Seeing that, Chen Xiao Cai became a little anxious, he looked towards Lu Lin and suggested lowering the price.
Lu Lin shook his head and said: “No, I think this is the right price.”
‘People will start copying our style, the gloves will be on the market in a few days! There’s no way we can sell them at a good price by then. We have to have confidence, Law of Value, Kiddo, our target group is young masters in rich families.’ Lu Lin thought.
Chen Xiao Cai looked towards Chen Xiao Mi for help, but Chen Xiao Mi said without hesitation: “Listen to Lu Lin.”
Chen Xiao Cai lowered his head, he was surprised to hear that, it seemed like his elder brother was listening to Lu Lin more and more. He knew gers were supposed to listen to their husbands, but he always thought his elder brother was different.
Chen Xiao Mi did not know what was in Chen Xiao Cai’s mind, from his point of view, it was very simple. He thought Lu Lin was more educated and traveled more than him, plus making gloves was Lu Lin’s idea from the start, it made sense to listen to Lu Lin.
The worst case scenario was they could not sell anything, but it was only that the fur and leather had been wasted.
Lu Lin saw a young master wearing an embroidered fox skin robe with a servant following him walking past the stall, he immediately winked at Chen Xiao Mai.
Chen Xiao Mai and Lu Lin had already practiced at home, Chen Xiao Mai understood. He simply raised his hand to demonstrate the glove in his hand and he raised the volume: “Hello, young master, look at our marvelous gloves.”
The young master who was looking around was attracted by Chen Xiao Mai, he turned around and inspected the stall: “What do you have here?”
Lu Lin handed a pair of fox fur gloves to the young master and quickly demonstrated: “It’s called a glove, try it, it will keep your hands warm on a cold night in the study room, you can cover the hood when you are not using your hands, and just like that, you can open the hood when you are studying and writing.”
The young master was immediately interested: “So brilliant, how much is it?”
Lu Lin smiled and said: “Two taels of silver.”
The servant frowned and said: “Two taels of silver? That’s really too expensive!”
Then the servant looked Lu Lin up and down: “I know what you’re thinking, you just rely on our young master who knows nothing about worldly affairs and he’ll pay you this ridiculous amount of money!”
Lu Lin wasn’t surprised when he heard it from the servant. ‘Good boy, trying to protect his young master.’
Lu Lin smiled and began to explain calmly: “These gloves in the middle are made of the finest fox fur you can find on the market, there are only a few pairs in total. If you consider them too expensive, the ones on the right are made of rabbit fur, and cost three hundred cents. It’s a simple design but will also keep you warm. I only suggested the fox fur one because I think it suits you better, young master.”
The young master’s name is Liu Yi, Liu Yi is happy with Lu Lin’s answer: “You are a good businessman, they do look good and I will take them. I want two pairs of fox fur and five pairs of rabbit fur.”
Liu Yi already knows everything, he will use the fox fur himself, and he can send the rabbit fur to his family and friends as a gift.
Lu Lin smiled and said: “Good, a total of five taels and five hundred cents, give me five taels considering you are our first customer.”
Liu Yi accepted the offer readily. With that he hands over the money to Lu Lin, and Lu Lin immediately puts the money into Chen Xiao Mi’s pocket.
Chen Xiao Mi puts the money into the pocket in astonishment, he could not believe Lu Lin had gotten his first deal, he had sold seven pairs of gloves in such a short time.
Gloves were a novelty in that space and time, their stall had attracted many people, but most of them were just looking around, wishing they could make their own gloves.
They had a few customers after Liu Yi, but they only bought the rabbit fur ones. They don’t sell the fox fur until an hour later, a fat lady happily buys two pairs from them.
Chen Xiao Mi is more than happy with the amount of money they have made, it is much better than he expected. ‘Those rich people, they are willing to spend as much as two taels of silver for such a small item!’
A group of well-dressed young masters came to their stall not long after the fat lady left.
“Do you still have your fox fur gloves?”
Lu Lin smiled at them and said: “Only four pairs left.”
Lu Lin narrowed his eyes and thought that this group of people must have seen Liu Yi showing off his gloves.
“I want them all.”
“That’s not fair, we are here together, you have no right to take them all!” A young master glared at his friend who wanted to monopolize the four pairs.
Rich young masters are motivated by pride, they like to show off their family wealth among peers. Two taels of silver for a pair of gloves was very expensive to ordinary people, but it was nothing to the rich kids who were willing to spend an amount of money that could feed a village family for a whole year.
“You know, just sell them to me, I’ll pay you three taels for each pair!”
“You bastard, that’s out of line!”
The group fought with each other for the gloves. Lu Lin and the Chen brothers had to close the stall early thanks to the rich young master.
Lu Lin had noticed some people looking at them funny when the group of young masters surrounded their stall. But Lu Lin didn’t pay much attention to them.
They earned 14 taels of silver from rabbit fur gloves, 40 taels of silver from fox fur and woolen ones. They had made 54 taels of silver in a few hours.
Color flashed on Chen Xiao Mi’s cheeks after he counted the money.
“We had a good day, should we go shopping?” Lu Lin suggested.
Chen Xiao Mi nodded. He took a glance at Lu Lin and said excitedly:
“I wish we could make more gloves, I can’t believe we’ve made so much money! I’ve sold so many animal skins at a cheap price, imagine me keeping them all and making gloves out of them!”
Lu Lin replied: ” It won’t be long before people start copying this idea, don’t blame yourself for not hiding it. Plus we need to thank Grandma Shen, she has great embroidery.”
Chen Xiao Mi nodded: “Yes, the gloves are very well made.”
Chen Xiao Mi bought the children a few pieces of honey cake, Chen Xiao Cai and Chen Xiao Mai ate the hot and soft cake happily.
Chen Xiao Mi bought two new blankets at Lu Lin’s request although he was fine using the old ones, this winter was already much better than previous years. But Lu Lin saw it differently, he thought they might as well improve their quality of life now that they could live a comfortable life.
Chen Xiao Mi did not reject Lu Lin’s suggestion even though he thought Lu Lin was just making a fuss.
Chen Xiao Mi gave Lu Lin some pocket money from the wealth they made from selling gloves, but Lu Lin spent most of their money on buying things for Chen Xiao Mai. Chen Xiao Mai got so excited at the market, he would point at everything and stare at Lu Lin with those puppy dog eyes. Lu Lin ended up buying everything for Chen Xiao Mai.
“Xiao Mi, you’re here!” Yang Heng Zhi suddenly appeared and exclaimed.
“Young Master Yang, what a coincidence!”
Yang Heng Zhi looked angry, he glared at the young couple and said: “I’m here looking for you! I heard you guys sell gloves, how can you sell such good stuff to those bastards with no taste?”
‘Those young masters must have bragged to him, and now he wants some gloves, but we don’t have any left, what should I do?’ Chen Xiao Mi frowned.
“Young Master Yang, I kept some for ourselves, but please take a look if you are interested, the only thing is that your choices will be limited.” Lu Lin replied.
Chen Xiao Mi looked at Lu Lin in surprise, as did Yang Heng Zhi.
“Really?”
Lu Lin nodded and took out three pairs from the carriage, he handed three pairs to Yang Heng Zhi, two pairs of rabbit fur and one fox fur.
Yang Heng Zhi was overjoyed when he saw the fox fur that his classmates failed to buy.
“”Fancy! There’s a pair of fox fur!” Yang Heng Zhi was surprised.
“I kept it just for you when I didn’t see you at the market.” Lu Lin said in a smart way.
“Thank you very much for the thought, Lu Lin. I’ll take all three pairs, keep the change.” Yang Heng Zhi gave Lu Lin five taels of silver and left.
Chen Xiao Mi asked Lu Lin when Yang Heng Zhi left: “Why did you keep three pairs?”
Lu Lin smiled: “I kept them for us, but I wouldn’t mind getting a few more taels now that Young Master Yang likes them so much.”
Chen Xiao Mi silently thought: ‘Keeping fox fur gloves for ourselves? That’s so luxurious, rabbit fur will do the job.’
Lu Lin and Brother Chen had a good time at the market, they returned home after they had their fill.
T/N: Lu Lin is so me lol. I always throw things I don’t want to do to my little brother. I had to do a chocolate fundraiser for a club and I paid by little brother 5 dollars to go around the neighborhood and sell the chocolate lol.
