TATLC Chapter 21 – You’re a Young Master?

Chen Xiaomi was very curious about the little house inside Lu Lin’s body, but couldn’t think of what to ask right away. Suddenly, he had an idea.

“Xiaomai said you gave him sugared water. Do you still have any?”

Lu Lin took out a bottle of Nutri-Express. Chen Xiaomi eagerly accepted it and took a drink.

Chen Xiaomi gulped down half the bottle of the milk. It really is delicious! Full of milk flavor, but without any fishy taste. Since Chen Xiaomi had drunk quite a bit of water before coming out, he couldn’t finish more than half the bottle.

“If you can’t finish it, give it to me,” Lu Lin said.

Chen Xiaomi pulled his hand back slightly, somewhat reluctant, with a protective look on his face.

Lu Lin smiled and said, “Next time you want to drink, I’ll take one out for you. However, this thing can’t be seen in public. The villagers would find it strange.”

Chen Xiaomi thought this made sense and returned the half-empty bottle to Lu Lin.

Lu Lin put the bottle back into the convenience store.

Chen Xiaomi suddenly thought of something and asked, “Can the store inside your body store things?”

Lu Lin nodded. “Yes, it can.”

Chen Xiaomi tilted his head and said, “So you’re saying that last time I didn’t need to carry that heavy wild boar on my back? I could have just placed it in your store and taken it out later?”

Lu Lin: “…” Well, he wasn’t wrong. “But people would’ve found it weird if they saw.”

Chen Xiaomi glared at Lu Lin, probably understanding why Lu Lin didn’t tell him.

If he had something so precious, he wouldn’t casually tell others about it either.

“As long as you don’t have bad intentions, I won’t tell anyone,” Chen Xiaomi said.

Lu Lin smiled and replied, “Okay!”

Chen Xiaomi looked at Lu Lin and asked, “What kind of things do you have in that store? There’s going to be a market in town in a few days. Do you have anything we could sell?”

“There’s not much, just some food. It should be enough to get through this winter without any problems,” Lu Lin answered.

Chen Xiaomi felt a flash of excitement hearing Lu Lin’s words. Food that could last through winter would be worth at least five or six taels of silver.

After discussing it with Lu Lin, they decided to keep this a secret from Chen Xiaocai. Chen Xiaomi felt that his brother was too young and might accidentally let something slip.

Deep down, Chen Xiaomi wasn’t a traditional or conservative person. Knowing about the existence of the convenience store didn’t scare him. If anything, it made him even more enthusiastic.

“Do you have anything more ordinary that we could sell?” he asked.

Chen Xiaomi thought about the beads Lu Lin had sold before, but such rare items shouldn’t be sold repeatedly. Something more common would be better.

“We could probably sell alcohol, but we can’t sell it directly,” Lu Lin said.

Chen Xiaomi asked curiously, “Alcohol? You have alcohol in your store?”

Lu Lin nodded. “Yes.”

Alcohol was a valuable commodity! It could be given as gifts when visiting relatives and friends. Compared to regular items like milk, alcohol had a longer shelf life. The cost wasn’t high either. A large portion of Lu Lin’s convenience store profits came from alcohol.

So, the convenience store had plenty of alcohol. Lu Lin had stocked various brands of beer, with over a hundred boxes stacked up.

However, the packaging was a problem. Selling it as-is would definitely be inappropriate.

“Take some out for me to see,” Chen Xiaomi said with curiosity.

Brewing alcohol required a lot of grain, so alcohol prices were quite high. Top-quality alcohol cost about one tael of silver per jar, mid-grade needed around two hundred wen per jar, and lower-grade was cheaper but still cost thirty wen. The price difference between grades was huge.

Lu Lin took out a can of alcohol, and Chen Xiaomi took it and had a taste.

Lu Lin looked at him and asked, “How does it taste?”

Chen Xiaomi smacked his lips and said, “Pretty good.”

Having only tasted ordinary rice wine before, Chen Xiaomi couldn’t really distinguish quality.

“If we could sell some alcohol, we could buy a mule,” Lu Lin said.

Chen Xiaomi asked unhappily, “What do we need a mule for?”

Without hesitation, Lu Lin replied, “With a mule, we could use it for transportation!”

Chen Xiaomi said irritably, “Why waste money on that? We can just walk.”

Lu Lin disagreed, “You always need to take your game to the city. Having a mule would make things more convenient. And with a mule cart, we could occasionally take Xiaocai and Xiaomai to town to see the world!”

Chen Xiaomi looked at Lu Lin and rolled his eyes. This guy was already daydreaming before they’d even made any money. But still…

Having a mule would indeed be more convenient.

Chen Xiaomi shook his head. If they bought a mule, they’d have to feed it regularly. Their family wasn’t like those with farmland who needed animals for fieldwork.

Buying a mule was too extravagant. Besides, wealth shouldn’t be flaunted. In his current situation, buying a mule would attract too much attention. If they bought such a thing, who knows how jealous others might become. But being envied could be a good thing. It was better than villagers gossiping behind his back about how miserable he was after leaving the Chen family!

As he thought about it, Chen Xiaomi couldn’t help but feel tempted. He couldn’t borrow a cart and had been ridiculed for having to walk to town. Once, and a cart from the village happened to pass by. Several villagers were inside, some looking at him with pity, others with smugness.

Although no one said it to his face, Chen Xiaomi knew that many villagers claimed he was heartless and would eventually be devoured by creatures in the mountains.

“Were you a young master before?” Chen Xiaomi asked.

Lu Lin nodded. “You could say that.”

In his previous life, he had been a struggling commoner. The money from his convenience store had been enough to eat well and dress warmly, but buying property in the city was out of the question unless he got lucky with a demolition payout. Still, compared to the “young masters” of this world, his life back then had been far more comfortable.

“A young master who cooks?” Chen Xiaomi was skeptical.

Lu Lin smiled and said, “There’s something you don’t understand. It was my hobby.”

Chen Xiaomi curled his lips and said, “We can’t really sell this alcohol.” He had never seen a can before and found it fascinating. “This is iron, right?”

Lu Lin nodded. “Yes.”

“Using such nice metal just for alcohol? And it’s useless after one use?” Chen Xiaomi said, baffled.

Lu Lin nodded again. “Yeah, kind of a waste.” He didn’t have the heart to tell Chen Xiaomi that in the world he came from, iron cans were practically worthless.