Transmigrating To The Ancient Times With Lu's Convenience

Chapter 29

Casual laborers who tried to find work in town would always get exploited, but not many laborers knew how to build kang, so both Liu Gui Yong's team and the Big Stone Village team were getting paid pretty well in town. Therefore, the Big Stone Village team had been so busy building kang in town that they didn't have time to teach their fellow villagers the skills or build kangs for the villagers who had been dying for a kang.

Zhang Cheng banged on Chen Xiao Mi's door and blamed Chen Xiao Mi for teaching Liu Gui Yong's team instead of the fellow villagers the skills, but Lu Lin talked back to him with just one sentence, "Village Head, you are the one who told me the fellow villagers were too busy to work for us, aren't you? It's not like I prefer looking for help from the Big Gulf Village, I just couldn't find any help from our own village."

Zhang Cheng didn't see that coming, he didn't expect Lu Lin would talk back to an elder like him. He turned furious and left in embarrassment.

Zhang Cheng was even more furious when the villagers who had learned the skills from Chen Xiao Mi were not keen on teaching their fellow villagers, they had been so busy working for the wealthy families in town.

Lu Lin understood why the villagers were indifferent to Zhang Cheng, the villagers he had picked to work for him were all from a deprived background, he understood they would rather accumulate some wealth first before sharing this skill.

In Chen Xiao Mi's house.

Chen Xiao Mi just counted their savings, he pouted, "We have less than ten taels left. Our building project went over the budget, we ended up spending two more taels than we have planned."

Lu Lin was amused by how meticulous Chen Xiao Mi was when he counted the money, he felt Chen Xiao Mi was like a tiger when he was out in the mountain hunting, but he was like a cute little squirrel when he was counting their savings.

Lu Lin nodded and said, "Yeah, we spent a little more than we planned, but that's still enough for us to pass this winter comfortably. We can sell another batch of alcohol in town to have some more cash in hand in case something comes up."

Chen Xiao Mi nodded and said, "That's right."

"We can finish the final touch ups for the new room in just a few days." Lu Lin said casually.

Chen Xiao Mi got the undertone and he blushed.

"Are these hide for sell?" Lu Lin pointed at the animal skin piled by the door.

Chen Xiao Mi nodded.

Chen Xiao Mi didn't slack off in hunting even though they had made a fortune from selling alcohol, he had always seen hunting as his foothold that he would never give up on. But Chen Xiao Mi did have become more cautious when he was hunting, he would not risk his life on hunt those ferocious animals for more money.

Lu Lin took a closer look at the hide and said, "Do you mind not selling them? We can sew them as lining in our winter jackets. I can even ask Granny Shen to make aa few gloves for us, the hides here are all of good quality, I'm sure we can make gloves out of them and sell them for a good price."

"Gloves? What are those?"

Lu Lin reached out his hand to explain it, "Gloves are like jackets for hands, you put them on in winter, so you don't have chilblains."

Chen Xiao Mi tilted his head and sighed with emotion, "Wow, is it also a thing popular in your hometown? That's so refined!"

Lu Lin smiled and scratched his head shyly.

What Chen Xiao Mi didn't say out loud was he actually wasn't interested in wearing those gloves, he found that too dainty for him, he just thought he would tear those gloves apart within ten minutes considering it was all labor-intensive work that he was doing.

Lu Lin needed to put this "you kids need to sleep in a different room" lecture on the agenda now that the new room was all done.

Lu Lin had been racking his brains on how to make it easier for Chen Xiao Cai, he didn't come up with anything good, so he just decided to go with it.

"Xiao Cai, you are a big boy now, do you know big brave boys don't share a room with the adults. Don't be afraid, this is a good practice before you get married."

Chen Xiao Cai pouted, he was not interested in getting married.

"Xiao Cai, I know what you are thinking, but you will get married sooner or later. Sharing a room with Xiao Mai is a good thing, it means you are a big boy who can take care of your baby brother now, you guys have a big kang all to yourselves, and the best part is you will no longer hear your brother's snore 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 has been snoring at night, see, it works out pretty well in the end. Me and your big brother won't hear you snoring if you sleep in the new room with Xiao Mai."

Chen Xiao Cai knew where Lu Lin was heading, he stamped his foot and said, "I will sleep in the new room with Xiao Mai, I will take good care of him."

"I have faith in you." Lu Lin grinned and said, "We are running out of pickled vegetables, would you like to buy more from Granny Shen?"

Lu Lin had been buying a fair bit of pickled vegetables from Granny Shen recently, sometimes he would just encourage Chen Xiao Cai and Chen Xiao Mai to run the errand for him, because he thought talking to people was good for kids.

Chen Xiao Cai nodded and said, "I'd love to."

"Good boy, these are for you." Lu Lin handed Chen Xiao Cai some chestnuts roasted with sugar as snack.

Lu Lin had picked some chestnuts in the mountains, he had made some chestnuts roasted with sugar this day as a snack for the kids, both Chen Xiao Cai and Chen Xiao Mai loved the sweet flavor.

Lu Lin was surprised when Chen Xiao Mi told him the villagers didn't know the chestnuts were edible because the shells were so hard and prickly, he felt sorry for them because chestnuts were so yummy.

Lu Lin had been storing some chestnuts in his shop, he roasted some with sugar that day for the kids, but Chen Xiao Mi wanted to have some as well, and he had fallen in love with the flavor after the first bite.

"Xiao Cai, feel free to share some with you friends." Lu Lin encouraged Chen Xiao Cai.

Chen Xiao Cai frowned, "Why would I do that? I can finish these by myself, and I can always share them with my brothers."

"You can make more friends by being nice and generous."

"Friends? The kids in the village are so dumb, I don't want to be friends with them." Chen Xiao Cai pouted.

Chen Xiao Mi knew that was Chen Xiao Cai's self-protection mechanism because Chen Xiao Cai tried to make friends with the other kids for so long, but the other kids turned him down because of the stupid stuff their parents told them, they would bully Chen Xiao Cai and stay away from him. As time went by, Chen Xiao Cai leaned to shut himself away.

Lu Lin knew he couldn't force Chen Xiao Cai to do something he wasn't ready for, he just nodded and patted Chen Xiao Cai's head.

Chen Xiao Cai stuffed the chestnuts into his pockets. The pockets were sewed by Granny Shen on Lu Lin's request, and they were so useful, Granny Shen started to sew pockets on Shen Chi's clothes as well.

'I don't mind sharing some with Shen Chi if I meet him later.' Thought Chen Xiao Cai.

Chen Xiao Cai got along with Shen Chi pretty well.

Chen Xiao Mai was so excited when he Chen Xiao Cai asked him whether he would like to go to Granny Shen's with him. Chen Xiao Mai didn't have any chance to go out and meet people before Lu Lin came to the family because he had been so sickly, now he became healthier and he would love to go out more.

Granny Shen welcomed the two boys on seeing them in her yard. Granny Shen and Lu Lin had become close over the past few days, she had made some money from sewing clothes and selling pickled vegetables to him.