TATLC Chapter 42 — Selling Jam

Chen Xiaomi leaned against the table, eyeing the jam. “Is it ready now?”

“It’ll be ready once it cools down.”

After waiting for what felt like forever, Chen Xiaomi finally heard Lu Lin say it was ready.

He couldn’t wait to scoop up some jam and taste it. He sucked on his finger with a blissful expression. “Ah! It’s delicious.”

Lu Lin also dipped a bit to try it and frowned slightly. “It seems a little too sweet.”

“I think it tastes great!” Chen Xiaomi looked at Lu Lin, thinking he was really strange. Sweet wasn’t good? This young master’s taste was so different from his. Even with meat, Lu Lin liked eating that dry, lean meat without any fat.

Lu Lin glanced at Xiaomi and figured maybe he was right. After all, Xiaomi was the local here.

In the time it took Lu Lin to space out, Chen Xiaomi had already finished half the jar of jam.

Lu Lin sighed. “Don’t eat too much. You’ll get cavities.”

Chen Xiaomi rolled his eyes. Lu Lin’s worries were so unnecessary. Who would pass up good food just to fret over things that might not even happen? Always worrying about this and that, really strange.

Lu Lin made all the wild berries he had collected into jam, then stored it in the convenience store. He planned to take it to the restaurant along with the sweet potato wine in a few days to sell.

While Lu Lin wasn’t looking, Chen Xiaomi sneakily hid two jars for himself.

Once things went into the convenience store, Lu Lin’s permission was needed to take them out again. Chen Xiaomi deeply hated all that nagging – like “you can’t eat too much!” and “you’ll get cavities!” and “it’s all junk food!” – but there was nothing he could do about it.

…

“Lu Xiao-ge, Chen Xiao-ge, you’re finally here!” The owner of Hongyun Restaurant welcomed them both very warmly.

The wine that Lu Lin and Chen Xiaomi delivered to the restaurant sold very well, and their cooperation was going smoothly.

“How much wine do you have this time?” Manager Wang asked somewhat impatiently.

“Ten jars of the first type, thirty jars of the second type.”

Manager Wang smiled. “Very good, very good.” Manager Wang called over several workers to move all the wine into the cellar, and Lu Lin received seventeen taels of silver.

Lu Lin looked at Manager Wang. “I have something new here, something I made by chance. I thought you might want to take a look.”

“Really? What is it?”

Lu Lin took out a jar of jam. Manager Wang took a taste and nodded approvingly. “This is good! There should be quite a few customers who’d like this. But you must have used a lot of sugar, right? You’re really willing to invest.”

Lu Lin smiled. “Yes, I used a lot of sugar, so it won’t be cheap. If it were cheap, I wouldn’t even recover my costs.”

Manager Wang examined the jam. “This stuff is good, but how many days can it be stored?”

Lu Lin’s heart skipped a beat. This guy knows his stuff! He immediately got to the point. “It can be stored for about seven days.”

Manager Wang smiled. “Seven days! That’s enough.”

Lu Lin and Chen Xiaomi left the jam at Hongyun Restaurant to be sold on consignment.

They agreed on a price of one tael per jar, and for each jar sold, the restaurant could take a commission of two hundred wen.

At first, the jam’s high price made it a hard sell. But gradually, more and more customers started buying.

…

A few days later, another batch of wild berries ripened in the forest, so Lu Lin gave the basket to Chen Xiaocai and had him find people to pick wild berries again.

This time, recruiting helpers went much smoother. In fact, ever since Xiaocai had hired people last time, villagers had been stopping him to ask if he needed more berry pickers.

But without Lu Lin’s confirmation, he didn’t dare accept randomly.

Chen Xiaocai now trusted Lu Lin completely. The villagers all thought the glove idea came from his big brother, but Chen Xiaocai knew clearly that it was Lu Lin’s idea.

Although Chen Xiaomi kept many things from him, since they lived under the same roof after all, Chen Xiaocai couldn’t help but notice how extraordinary Lu Lin was.

Finally, Lu Lin was collecting wild berries again. Several children snatched up all the small baskets around Chen Xiaocai.

This time Zhang Dahu even brought his sister Zhang Meizi along too. The children worked busily and enthusiastically, and soon the wild berries that had grown in the forest were picked clean again.

By evening, Lu Lin collected the wild berries, paid the copper coins, and let the children go home.

This time there were more children helping to pick wild berries. Some children who didn’t get baskets cooperated with those who did, with two people picking one basket together.

Lu Lin counted the baskets and said to Chen Xiaomi, “Another basket is missing.”

Chen Xiaomi frowned. The basket that went missing last time was never returned by anyone, and now another one was gone. It was very likely the same person did it.

Chen Xiaomi put his hands on his hips. “Something’s not right here. I’ll ask Xiaocai about it.” They bought those baskets for five wen each, and losing one each time was too strange, even though they weren’t worth much money.

“A basket is missing?” Chen Xiaocai blinked in surprise.

Chen Xiaomi nodded. “Yes.”

Chen Xiaocai frowned. “It might be Lu Songshi who did it.”

The first time he found people to pick wild berries, Chen Xiaocai felt a bit unsure, so things were somewhat chaotic. This time everyone was familiar with the process, so he could roughly remember who came to get baskets. He remembered that Lu Songshi also got a basket from him.

Xiaocai had hesitated before handing him one, since Zhang Dabao had warned him that Lu Songshi had been badmouthing his brother and urging others to avoid him.

In the end, to avoid trouble, he’d given Songshi a basket anyway. But later, he never saw him return with any berries.

Now, hearing his big brother say that a basket was missing, Chen Xiaocai remembered.

Since this involved the Lu family, Chen Xiaomi felt a slight headache coming on.

Chen Xiaomi actually felt quite grateful in his heart, grateful that the Lu family was willing to let Lu Lin marry into his household, grateful that a scholar like Lu Lin had taken over the original body.

After all, Lu Lin’s original body was still tied to the Lu family, which made Chen Xiaomi’s attitude toward the Lu family somewhat complicated.

Chen Xiaomi squinted his eyes. “Forget it, they’re just a few baskets. We’ll just be more careful next time.”

Lu Lin took a deep breath. He was still somewhat wary of Grandma Lu’s unreasonable troublemaking ways. It wasn’t that he was afraid, but making a fuss over a few wen wasn’t worth it. In this era of strict feudal ethics, arguing with an elder would make you wrong even if you were right.

…

A few days later, Chen Xiaocai organized people to collect wild berries for the third time. All the children who had helped pick berries the previous two times came, and this time there were three new members joining. When distributing baskets, Lu Songshi appeared again.

When Chen Xiaocai was handing out baskets, he deliberately left him for last, so Lu Songshi didn’t get one.

Chen Xiaocai told everyone that those who didn’t get baskets could use their own family’s baskets to pick wild berries, and they could pour them into the small baskets for counting later.

When Zhang Dahu heard Chen Xiaocai say this, he went home and brought a big basket.

The wild berry picking was going on enthusiastically in the village. At first, some adults just thought it was children earning pocket money, but later they discovered that after several trips, one child had actually earned over a hundred coins, and suddenly they all felt restless.

However, the village adults were too embarrassed to compete with children for work, so they just sent out all their own children when it was time to pick wild berries.

After picking wild berries several times, Chen Xiaocai suddenly won the admiration of many children in the village.

“Dad, look at the money I earned.” Zhang Daman held up the copper coins for Zhang Jin to see.

Zhang Jin smiled. “Daman is amazing.”

Zhang Daman puffed out his chest. “Except for Zhang Dahu, I earned the most.” Children also had competitive psychology, and there was quite a difference in the copper coins earned between quick and slow children.

Zhang Jin stared at the coins in his son’s hand, feeling conflicted.

He had assumed Lu Lin’s life would fall apart after marrying into the Chen family. Instead, the Chen household kept thriving in ways that made others envious.

“Where did all this money come from?” Zhang Cheng walked in and asked.

Zhang Daman grinned. “I earned it!”

Instead of praise, Zhang Cheng scowled. “You went to help Chen Xiaocai pick wild berries. Didn’t I tell you not to go?”

Zhang Daman didn’t get praise, and his smile immediately vanished. “Grandpa is so annoying.” He stomped out of the room in a huff.

Zhang Jin frowned. “Dad, it’s a good thing that Daman can earn money!”

Zhang Cheng frowned and sighed. “Chen Xiaocai is Chen Xiaomi’s younger brother! If he spends all his time with that boy, he’ll pick up bad habits.”

Zhang Jin shook his head. “Dad, you’re overthinking this. It’s not as serious as you’re making it out to be!”

…

The jam sold quite well in town. On good business days, they could sell over ten bottles a day. However, this stuff was rather expensive after all, and not too many people could afford it. Sometimes they couldn’t even sell one bottle in a day. Lu Lin didn’t take out all the jam at once, keeping most of it stored in the convenience store.

Chen Xiaocai only had a vague understanding of the jam business.

He told people that the collected wild berries were used for brewing wine, so the villagers didn’t connect the “Immortal Jam” sold at Hongyun Restaurant with Lu Lin and Chen Xiaocai.

The jam tasted extremely good. At first, everyone didn’t know what jam was, and only a few people bought it to try something new.

But everyone who tried it liked it very much, and there were many repeat customers.

The jam had a sweet and sour taste that was very popular with the elderly in town. Some wealthy people, after developing a liking for it, liked to buy it all up.

Jam at one tael of silver per bottle was sky-high for many people, but for some wealthy young masters who were willing to spend lavishly to make a beauty smile, it was nothing.

Sugar was still a rare luxury here, and the jam was very sweet, which suited many people’s preferences.

“Lu Xiao-ge, you’re finally here.” Manager Wang looked visibly relieved when he spotted Lu Lin.

Lu Lin raised an eyebrow. “What’s the matter?”

Manager Wang sighed. “It’s all because of that jam. Quite a few people are asking for more stock. If you hadn’t come to deliver goods, I would have had to go find you.”

Lu Lin frowned. “Wasn’t it not selling very well?”

Manager Wang smiled bitterly. “You’re joking, right? A couple days ago, a landlord in town had a celebration. Master Li is quite wealthy, and he prepared a bottle of Immortal Jam for each table. The guests at the banquet praised the jam endlessly and suddenly everyone became interested in it.”

Ah, so that’s it, Lu Lin realized. Before, the jam’s reputation only spread within a small circle, but with this banquet, it must have gained wider recognition.

Lu Lin gave Manager Wang thirty bottles of jam. Manager Wang frowned. “Is this all there is?”

Lu Lin smiled. “After all, it can only be stored for seven days, so I don’t dare make too much.”

Manager Wang smiled. “Don’t worry, recently we can sell however much you make. If you can make more, please make more.”