TATLC Chapter 36 — The Chen Family Comes for Money

At the Chen Shouxin’s.

Zhang Yuehong stared at the pile of gloves with a worried frown. “These are such good quality items. How come no one’s buying them?”

Chen Shouxin had seen Chen Xiaomi making money selling gloves at the market, so he didn’t even bother browsing around. He went straight to the fur market to buy fox fur. At the time, several other people also wanted to buy fox fur, and they all got into a bidding war.

The fox fur originally cost five taels of silver, but Chen Shouxin stubbornly spent seven taels to buy all the fox fur from the pelt shop.

Chen Shouxin originally thought that with such a large piece of fox fur, he could make over ten pairs of gloves and still have a profit of ten or twenty taels of silver. Who would have known that no one wanted to buy them?! Before, those rich young masters had been so quick to spend two taels of silver on gloves.

At the time, someone had even offered the high price of three taels of silver to get Chen Xiaomi to sell him the gloves.

Now he was selling them for one tael of silver each, and still couldn’t find buyers. After a lot of sweet talking, he finally managed to sell two pairs at the price of one tael for two pairs.

Chen Shouxin gritted his teeth. “That damn brat ruined me!”

Chen Jing, on the other hand, was quite pleased. Since Chen Shouxin’s gloves weren’t selling, Chen Jing got to wear them himself, which actually made him stand out a bit among his classmates. There were quite a few wealthy students at the county school, but there were even more from poor families.

Zhang Yuehong glanced at Chen Jing. “Why aren’t your classmates buying gloves anymore?”

“They all have them already, and some are too poor. Rabbit fur gloves are good enough for them,” Chen Jing said.

Even though they were all scholars, scholars had their own social circles. When the rich young masters from town went to study, they even brought book boys with them. They rarely mixed with these country students. Chen Jing’s gloves were just for showing off to people like Lu Chengyu.

Zhang Yuehong sighed. “What are we going to do now!”

When he bought the fox fur earlier, Old Man Chen already scolded him for wasting money. At the time, Chen Shouxin promised he could turn around and sell it for dozens of taels. Now, instead of making a profit, they’d lost several taels. If the old man found out, he would definitely be angry.

“Ah Jing! Why don’t you take a couple pairs to the academy? If someone wants them…”

Chen Jing scowled, “Mom, I’m going to be an official in the future. How can I stoop to peddling goods like a merchant?” Selling gloves at the academy? How humiliating!

Zhang Yuehong paused for a moment. “You’re right, you’re right. Your mother wasn’t thinking.”

Chen Laoda still wouldn’t give up and made several more trips to town, but he couldn’t find anyone to buy the gloves. Instead, there were more people selling gloves. Chen Laoda’s fox fur gloves had no buyers, while some people selling rabbit fur gloves took the approach of small profits and quick sales, and their business was actually doing okay.

The winter weather was too cold, and going to town once wasn’t easy. At first, he could still rent someone’s ox cart, but after going too many times, people thought the money was too little and didn’t want to rent to him anymore. Chen Laoda could only walk there. After a few times, Chen Laoda didn’t want to go anymore.

…

At Chen Xiaomi’s

“Chen Xiaomi, Chen Xiaomi, get out here!” An impatient voice rang out in the courtyard.

When Chen Xiaomi heard this voice, a cold glint flashed in his eyes. He grabbed the sharpened bamboo spear from the room and walked outside.

Lu Rong took one look at his stance and immediately felt a chill run down his spine.

“Chen Xiaomi, your grandfather is sick. Go back and see him.”

Chen Xiaomi snorted lightly. “He’s sick, what does that have to do with me?”

Chen Shouxin glared at Chen Xiaomi. “Chen Xiaomi, you damned thing, your grandfather is sick and you don’t even care.”

Chen Xiaomi said mockingly, “Why should I care? When Xiaomai was sick, he also stopped us from calling a doctor, saying he would naturally get better. The old man has such a strong body, he’ll naturally get better too.”

“You bastard, is that any way to talk? How could our Chen family produce such a disobedient and unfilial thing like you!” Chen Shouxin said, furious with shame.

Chen Xiaomi narrowed his eyes. “You shameless bastard, I was already separated from the family long ago. We agreed before that we had nothing to do with each other. Now that you see I’m making money, you want to come take advantage. No matter how much money I make, it has nothing to do with you. Get lost.”

Chen Shouxin looked at Chen Xiaomi with hatred. “You bastard, your father would crawl out of his grave if he saw how you’re behaving!”

Chen Xiaomi’s expression darkened. “I’m unfilial? You’re so filial, why don’t you pay for the old man’s medical treatment! Coming here asking me for money, what are you pretending for? If my father really crawled out of his grave, the person he’d be looking for is you.”

Back then, it was indeed Grandma Chen who made his father go hunting in the mountains, but if it wasn’t for this good uncle of his stirring things up behind the scenes, the old hag alone would not have been so insistent. But what was the point in dwelling on the past? The dead were gone.

Chen Shouxin gnashed his teeth. “Laoer, look down from heaven! This little bastard you gave birth to doesn’t acknowledge his grandfather or grandmother. This is asking for divine punishment…”

Chen Xiaomi waved his bamboo spear impatiently. “Get lost quickly, or I’ll beat you out of here.”

Lu Lin walked out from the house. Chen Shouxin glared at Lu Lin, then turned his gaze back to Chen Xiaomi. “Look at you, where do you look like a Shuang’er? You even spent ten taels of silver to buy a man. Shameless.”

Chen Xiaomi laughed coldly. “If you have so much free time, go manage your son instead. You don’t need to worry about me.”

“I don’t care. Your grandfather is sick. If you don’t give me ten taels of silver today, I won’t leave,” Chen Shouxin said.

A fierce look flashed in Chen Xiaomi’s eyes. He raised his bamboo spear and charged at Chen Shouxin.

At first, Chen Shouxin acted like he wasn’t afraid of anything, but when he saw Chen Xiaomi’s murderous expression, he got scared and ran away, tripping over himself in hurry.

After driving away Chen Shouxin, Chen Xiaomi returned to sit on the kang, looking somewhat dazed.

Lu Lin rubbed Chen Xiaomi’s head. “What’s wrong?”

Chen Xiaomi took a deep breath. “I don’t know if my father would blame me.”

Lu Lin smiled. “You did the right thing. Of course your father wouldn’t blame you. If he did blame you, then he’d be the one who couldn’t tell right from wrong.”

Chen Xiaomi looked up at Lu Lin and suddenly said, “Back then, you framed that old woman for stealing money.”

Lu Lin’s eyes darted sideways. It had been so long since that incident, Lu Lin didn’t expect Chen Xiaomi to bring it up now. “If she hadn’t come looking for trouble, I wouldn’t have bothered with her.”

…

“Laoda, did you get the money back?” Grandma Chen asked urgently when she saw her eldest son return.

Chen Shouxin shook his head. “He won’t give it.”

“That damned brat, he’s made so much money but he’s still so stingy!” Li said angrily.

Old Man Chen sighed with disappointment. “Forget it.”

“Forget it? How can we forget it?!” Li gritted her teeth. That was dozens of taels of silver! Li bitterly regretted separating Chen Xiaomi from the family back then. She never would have thought that Chen Xiaomi, that damned guy, would actually have a day when he’d become successful.

Old Man Chen got angry too. “If we don’t forget it, then what can we do?”

When Old Man Chen yelled at her, Li finally restrained herself a bit.

“You’re such a grown man, but you’re still so reckless. Do you think money is that easy to make?” Old Man Chen sighed.

Seven taels of silver was quite a lot of money for the Chen family.

Li shifted uncomfortably. “You can’t blame the eldest son for this. Who told those people in town not to know good quality when they see it?”

Li had also heard about Chen Xiaomi making money. Apparently, several young masters had fought over things at Chen Xiaomi’s stall, and even though the items were so expensive, they acted like they didn’t cost money at all.

“How can it be so easy to do business with rich people?” the third son Chen Shouren sighed, then continued, “Those young masters have all kinds of connections. I heard that those who aren’t short of money, when they couldn’t buy fox fur, just took apart their own fox fur coats. Da-ge, when you did this, you should have thought it through first. This was the family’s money for buying meat, and you spent it all on that stuff. What are we going to eat for New Year?”

When Chen Laoda heard his third brother speak up, his face immediately didn’t look good. “I was just trying to make more money.”

“Da-ge, fox fur doesn’t need that much silver. I think you got cheated,” Chen Shouren shook his head and said gloomily.

Chen Laoda’s face darkened. Chen Shouren’s words clearly implied that he had no business sense. Sure, the fox fur wasn’t worth that much, but with prices already driven up at the time, what else could he have done?

“Those shop owners in town are all no good, they just know how to cheat people out of money,” Grandma Chen fumed.

When Chen Laoda heard the old woman’s words, he felt quite embarrassed. When his mother said this, she was also confirming that he had been cheated.

…

Chen Shouxin trudged gloomily out of Old Man Chen’s room and back to the courtyard.

Zhang Yuehong looked worried. “What did Father-in-Law say?” Since the gloves hadn’t sold, her life wasn’t easy either. Grandma Chen always felt it was because her craftsmanship was too poor that they couldn’t sell, but what she made was obviously the same as what Chen Xiaomi had sold.

“He didn’t say much, but Father was a bit unhappy,” Chen Shouxin said gloomily.

“Chen Xiaomi only has brute strength, so how did he suddenly understand so many things?” Chen Jing said, puzzled.

First it was the kang, then the gloves. These shouldn’t be things that an idiot like Chen Xiaomi could think up. If Chen Xiaomi was so capable, his previous life wouldn’t have been so miserable!

“I heard he discovered something in the mountains,” Chen Shouxin said.

“In the mountains?” Chen Jing asked, confused.

Chen Shouxin nodded. “There have been years of war for the past century. Some people lived in the mountains to avoid disaster, making a living by hunting. There were also some down-and-out scholars from noble families who lived as hermits in the mountains. Chen Xiaomi seems to have found books that those people left behind.”

Chen Jing scoffed, “But Chen Xiaomi can’t even read.” Chen Jing was the only scholar in the Chen family. Although his studies weren’t going well, Chen Jing was still proud of his status as a scholar.

“Maybe the books had illustrations,” Chen Shouxin said.

“Then where are these books now?” Chen Jing’s eyes lit up. If there were more things like gloves in those books, wouldn’t he be able to show off among his classmates?

“They were apparently burned,” Chen Shouxin said.

Chen Jing cried out in shock, “Burned?”

Chen Shouxin nodded. “That’s what people are saying.”

Chen Shouxin had gotten this information because of things Lu Lin occasionally taught Xiaomai. Xiaomai was simple-minded, but everyone thought he was easy to fool! Chen Xiaomai only provided some clues, and the villagers filled in a whole bunch of details themselves.

Chen Jing’s face twisted in disgust. “That guy really wastes heaven’s gifts! To actually do such a thing, but his luck was really too good.”