TATLC Chapter 29 – Building the Kang Bed

Liu Guiyong felt somewhat resentful watching people from Dashi Village rush to take over the work.

However, since he wasn’t originally from Dashi Village, and now the villagers themselves had stepped forward, he naturally didn’t want to offend anyone in someone else’s territory.

Liu Guiyong secretly blamed his son for not keeping quiet. When someone asked about wages, the boy just honestly told them everything.

Liu Wu could only scratch his head awkwardly when his father glared at him.

Liu Wu was a straightforward person. Several times he’d been stopped and lectured about how Chen Xiaomi was no good, and that working for the Chen family would likely bring no benefit. They warned that he’d end up working for free without earning a single coin. They also said Chen Xiaomi was heartless and had beaten many members of the Chen family, so those working for him might get beaten at any moment.

Liu Wu became annoyed and argued with them, saying the wages were settled daily and quite generous, so they wouldn’t suffer any loss.

Liu Wu genuinely felt that Chen Xiaomi and Lu Lin were good people and couldn’t stand villagers badmouthing them. When provoked, he said many things he shouldn’t have, and there was no taking them back

The villagers Lu Lin selected were relatively honest. Many villagers came, including several who wanted to take advantage of the situation.

Lu Lin chose those with better reputations who were also struggling financially. These people worked diligently after receiving payment.

When locals and outsiders worked together, there was inevitably some sense of competition. The local villagers didn’t want to be pushed out by outsiders, and the outsiders didn’t want to lose their jobs.

After about ten more days, the house was almost finished. The shed, chicken coop, and duck pen were completed earlier, so Lu Lin arranged for several people to dig a cellar.

After the cellar was dug, Chen Xiaomi had them lay floor tiles.

Several villagers thought this was an unnecessary expense, but since the owners didn’t mind spending the money, they naturally didn’t object.

Chen Xiaocai had been very busy lately. He helped Lu Lin, fed the chickens and ducks, and watched over Chen Xiaomai to stop him from running off.

Since splitting from the Chen family, few people had paid attention to Chen Xiaocai. But now, with so many people working at their home, the villagers would chat with him.

Many villagers were curious about where Chen Xiaomi got the money to buy the mule and renovate the house, and they couldn’t help trying to find out indirectly.

When the house was almost finished, they needed to build the kang bed.

On the day of building the kang, both local and outside workers at the Chen house were present. Knowing the benefits of a kang bed, those working for the Chen family offered to forgo three days’ wages in exchange for learning how to build one, and Chen Xiaomi agreed.

As soon as their work for Chen Xiaomi was completed, those who had helped at the Chen house became highly sought after. Villagers rushed to hire them to build kang beds, and their status skyrocketed overnight.

Many villagers regretted not establishing good relations with Chen Xiaomi earlier. If they had, they could’ve learned the skill and earned some extra silver.

…

Zhang Cheng sat smoking in his house and was in a bad mood.

Several villagers who had learned to build kangs were now overwhelmingly busy.

Zhang Cheng resented that Lu Lin would rather teach outsiders than his fellow villagers. By now, word about the kang beds had spread to town, and wealthy households there wanted them built. Townspeople were much richer than countryside villagers, so the village builders had all gone to town.

Since those outsiders also knew how to build kangs, the two groups formed a competitive relationship.

Still, demand was high enough that both groups worked in town without conflict.

Zhang Cheng fumed. If only villagers from Dashi Village knew this skill, they would have monopolized the market.

Those who could build kangs in the village were mainly those who used to worked for Lu Lin. Others who wanted to join were told to wait until next year.

Those who had worked for Chen Xiaomi were now the objects of much envy.

Many rich people in town had money, but they were stingy. Villagers who went to town were often exploited. However, since few people knew the skill of building kang beds, rich households paid extremely high prices to get their kang beds built sooner. As a result, those with the skill spent their days rushing to town, while countryside familied who wanted kang beds built had to wait.

Zhang Cheng confronted Lu Lin about this, blaming him for teaching the skill to outsiders. Lu Lin shut him down with a single response: if Zhang Cheng didn’t say that there were no villagers available back then, Lu Lin wouldn’t have needed to find people from outside the village!

Zhang Cheng was furious with Lu Lin and decided that he was just as hopeless as Chen Xiaomi.

What angered Zhang Cheng even more was that people like Zhang Zhuzi, who had learned the skill from Lu Lin, ran off to build kang beds in town without bringing along any fellow villagers.

Lu Lin understood their choice. Everyone had self-interest. The wealthy villagers wouldn’t freely share their grain just because they had extra. Those who came to help earlier were from struggling families. They finally found a profitable livelihood, and they didn’t want to bring in competition so quickly. They wanted to earn money for a while first.

…

At the Chen house.

Chen Xiaomi counted the money and complained to Lu Lin, “We only have nine taels and eight hundred wen left.”

Chen Xiaomi originally planned to spend eight taels on building the house but accidentally went over budget and spent more than ten taels.

Lu Lin watched Chen Xiaomi holding the clay jar and counting silver seriously, finding it secretly amusing. When Chen Xiaomi was hunting, he was like a tiger, but when counting money, he was like a little squirrel.

Lu Lin nodded, “That much silver is enough to get through winter.”

Chen Xiaomi nodded, “That’s true.”

Lu Lin calculated that in a couple of days, he could sell this year’s last batch of wine. After that, they could honestly prepare for winter.

“The room next door should be dry enough to live in after a few more days,” Lu Lin said.

Chen Xiaomi nodded with a simple “Oh,” but the tips of his ears turned red.

Lu Lin looked at the animal hides nearby and asked, “Are you planning to sell these?”

Chen Xiaomi nodded.

Although selling wine was profitable, Chen Xiaomi hadn’t neglected hunting during this period. In his opinion, hunting was still his primary livelihood, but things had changed somewhat from before. Chen Xiaomi had become more cautious and no longer provoked dangerous prey.

Lu Lin examined the animal hides and said, “Let’s not sell them. Sewing the hides into the lining of clothes will keep us warmer. I also want to ask Grandma Shen to make two pairs of gloves. These furs are quite good. If these are properly processed, they should fetch a high price as gloves.”

“What are gloves?”

Lu Lin stretched out his hand and explained, “Gloves are things worn on your hands for warmth. With gloves, you’re less likely to get frostbite.”

Chen Xiaomi tilted his head curiously, “People from your place really live delicately, huh? You even have things like that.”

Lu Lin smiled and said, “It’s not that unusual.”

Chen Xiaomi looked at Lu Lin, thinking, Once a young master, always a young master, so fussy! For someone like him who works all day without rest, wouldn’t wearing gloves just be a waste?

…

With the house built, “living separately” was put on the agenda.

Lu Lin decided to find an opportunity to give Chen Xiaocai a lesson in maturity.

Several days later, Lu Lin finally found his chance.

“Xiaocai! You’re growing up now, soon you’ll be taking a wife and having children. From now on, you should sleep by yourself. You’re a man, don’t be afraid!”

Chen Xiaocai glared fiercely at Lu Lin. He was still young and had no desire to take a wife so early.

Lu Lin glanced at Chen Xiaocai and said, “You should know that day will come eventually. Actually, there’s nothing wrong with sleeping in a separate room. You’ll be in the next room with just Xiaomai. The bed is big, and you won’t be disturbed by your brother’s snoring.”

Chen Xiaocai blushed as he protested, “Da-ge doesn’t snore!”

Lu Lin tilted his head and said, “If your brother doesn’t snore, then was it you snoring all along? That’s fine too. If you sleep next door, you won’t disturb your brother and me when you’re asleep.”

Chen Xiaocai looked at Lu Lin glumly and said, “I don’t snore either.”

“How would you know if you don’t snore when you’re asleep?” Lu Lin shook his head.

Chen Xiaocai gritted his teeth, glaring at Lu Lin, and said, “I’ll take Xiaomai to sleep next door. I’ll take good care of him.”

Lu Lin nodded with satisfaction, “Is that so? Very good.”

With the matter resolved, Lu Lin’s mood improved considerably. “We’re out of spicy cabbage. Why don’t you go buy some from Grandma Shen?”

Since they started building the house, Lu Lin had often bought vegetables from Grandma Shen, gradually purchasing quite a lot. At first, Lu Lin went himself, but later he sent Chen Xiaocai with Chen Xiaomai. Lu Lin believed children should interact with the outside world and play with peers their age. Staying cooped up at home all day could lead to becoming withdrawn.

Chen Xiaocai nodded and said, “Okay.”

“Here, take these,” Lu Lin gave Chen Xiaocai two handfuls of sugar-roasted chestnuts.

There were several chestnut trees in the forest Lu Lin frequented. He previously collected some and stored them in the convenience store. Recently, he roasted some as snacks. The children here had few treats to eat, so the sugar-roasted chestnuts were very popular.

Lu Lin felt that the people here really didn’t recognize the goldmine they were sitting on.

Since chestnuts had prickly shells, surprisingly no one here ate them.

Lu Lin kept some stored in the convenience store and would occasionally take out a handful as snacks for the three brothers, which was very convenient.

Lu Lin had originally roasted them for Xiaocai and Xiaomai, but when Xiaomi saw them, he brought back a lot of chestnuts from the mountains. After roasting, they were stored in the convenience store, and were always warm when taken out. Sometimes when Chen Xiaomi was hungry, he would ask Lu Lin for some.

“If you meet other children you get along with, share some with them,” Lu Lin said.

Chen Xiaocai frowned and asked, “Why should I share with others?” It was winter now, vegetables were becoming rare, and soon they’d only have vegetables from the cellar.

Lu Lin frowned and said, “If you share with others, they’ll want to play with you!”

Chen Xiaocai puffed out his cheeks and said, “They’re all stupid. I don’t want to play with them.”

Chen Xiaocai was still a child after all. When they first left the Chen family, he had wanted to play with the village children. However, those children had been warned by their parents to stay away from him, and some even threw stones at him. After a while, Chen Xiaocai stopped trying to play with others.

Lu Lin frowned and said, “Fine then, if there’s no one you want to give them to, keep them for yourself.”

Chen Xiaocai put the chestnuts into his pocket. These clothing pockets were specially sewn by Grandma Shen at Lu Lin’s request. After seeing them, Grandma Shen thought they were quite practical and had sewn pockets on Shen Chi’s clothes as well.

Chen Xiaocai thought, If I meet Shen Chi at Grandma Shen’s house, I could share some with him.

Chen Xiaocai had delivered vegetables to the Shen house several times and got along fairly well with Shen Chi.

After accepting the task, Chen Xiaocai left with Chen Xiaomai.

Chen Xiaomai was very excited to hear that his second brother would take him out.

At his age, Chen Xiaomai was naturally active. Previously, due to his poor health, Chen Xiaomi had kept him at home. Now that he was better, Chen Xiaomi also hoped that Chen Xiaomai would go out more to avoid becoming depressed from being confined.

Grandma Shen was very welcoming when she saw Chen Xiaocai and Chen Xiaomai arrive.

When the Chen family was building their house, Lu Lin bought many vegetables from Grandma Shen. Gradually, Grandma Shen earned five hundred wen, and the relationship between the two families grew much closer.