Chapter 42: Jam For Sale

Chen Xiao Mi stared at the jar of jam, "How long do we have to wait for?"

"Is it cool yet?"

"No."

"A little longer then."

"Okay."

Chen Xiao Mi and Lu Lin went a few rounds like that, and finally Lu Lin said the jam was ready at the fifth round.

Chen Xiao Mi dipped a finger and had a taste, he closed his eyes and said, "Y-U-M-M-Y!"

Lu Lin had a taste too, but Lu Lin found it too sweet.

"No, I think it's perfect." Chen Xiao Mi didn't get it, why would someone say something was too sweet.

Lu Lin cast a glimpse at Chen Xiao Mi and thought, 'Maybe he is right, maybe the locals here do enjoy sweets.'

Chen Xiao Mi had gulped down about half a bowl of jam while Lu Lin wasn't paying attention.

"Stop, your teeth will rotten."

Chen Xiao Mi pouted, 'food is food, food is good!'

Lu Lin made a whole batch of jam using the berries the kids had picked, he stored them in the shop, he planned to sell them to Manager Wang when they went to town next time to sell sweet potato wine.

Chen Xiao Mi had hidden two jars of jam, he had no access to Lu Lin's shop, and he knew Lu Lin would refuse to give him jam in large amount.

"It's not healthy", "You need to take care of your teeth", "This is junk food too"... ...

"Aiya, Lu Lin, Chen Xiao Mi, you guys are finally here!" Manger Wang beamed with smiles.

Their wine was much in demand, Manger Wang hoped to buy more this time.

"How much are you selling this time?"

"10 jars of beer, 30 jars of sweet potato wine."

"Great, great!" with that Manger Wang asked the busboys to carry the alcohol into the cellar, and he handed Lu Lin 17 taels of silver.

Lu Lin looked at Manger Wang and said, "I've made something new recently, can I ask you to have a look?"

"Oh? What is it?" Manager Wang was interested.

Lu Lin handed a little jar of jam to Manager Wang, Manager Wang had a taste and exclaimed, "Wow, what is this thing, tastes so good! You are very generous with sugar and berries, I think the customers will love it!"

Lu Lin smiled, "Correct. I've put a lot of sugar, so it's not cheap, otherwise I'll end up losing money."

Manager Wang had one more taste and said, "How many days can I store them though?"

'How sharp-eyed! He has asked the key question, the shelf life!'

"Around seven days." Lu Lin replied.

"Sounds good enough."

The couple decided to sell their jam in Good Luck Restaurant, one tael of silver for one jar, Manager Wang could get 200 cents for each jar that was sold.

The high price had scared people away in the beginning, but more and more people showed interest in them. And they became very popular.

Several days later, the berries in the mountain were ripe again. Lu Lin asked Chen Xiao Cai to pick some more with his friends, same price as last time, 3 cents.

It went so smooth this time, Chen Xiao Cai had gathered a group of kids in no time.

As a matter of fact, there were always kids asking Chen Xiao Cai whether he still wanted berries in the past few days, but Chen Xiao Cai had turned them down because Lu Lin had not mentioned a thing.

Chen Xiao Cai now trusted Lu Lin completely. Everyone else in the village all thought it was Chen Xiao Mi who came up with the idea of kang and gloves, but Chen Xiao Cai was well aware it was actually Lu Lin. This kid had realized more and more his brother-in-law was an amazing man even though both Lu Lin and Chen Xiao Mi tried to hide a lot of things from him.

Zhang Da Hu had brought his little sister Zhang Mei Zi this time, soon the kids scattered around in the mountain and picked all the good berries in the mountain.

Lu Lin checked the berries and paid the kids in the evening. There were more kids than baskets this time, so some baskets were filled up by two kids together.

"Mi, one more basket has gone missing."

Chen Xiao Mi frowned, he felt like this was no accident, someone must have stolen the basket, just like last time.

"This is not right, I need to ask Cai about this. It's just so strange, what if it continues." Chen Xiao Mi stood akimbo.

"What? We've lost one basket?" Chen Xiao Cai was surprised.

Chen Xiao Mi nodded.

Chen Xiao Cai squinted his eyes and said, "I think it's Lu Song Shi."

Chen Xiao Cai was a bit overwhelmed the first time he organized the kids to pick berries, he couldn't recall who was there, but this time he observed carefully and he remembered who were there with him and who took baskets from him.

Zhang Da Hu had mentioned that this Lu Song Shi had egged them on bullying him and speaking ill of Chen Xiao Mi, so Chen Xiao Cai was surprised to see Lu Song Shi among the kids.

Chen Xiao Cai hesitated a bit when Lu Song Shi asked for a basket, he gave Lu Song Shi in the end, but he didn't recall seeing Lu Song Shi sending the basket back.

Now he was even more sure he had not seen Lu Song Shi sending the basket back when Chen Xiao Mi mentioned there was one basket missing.

Chen Xiao Mi pressed his head, Lu Song Shi was Lu Lin's Fourth Uncle's son.

Chen Xiao Mi was very glad that the Lus agreed to marry Lu Lin into his family, that Lu Lin now was a different soul. But Lu Lin was still a Lu in name, Chen Xiao Mi found this quite tricky.

"Forget it, just some baskets, let's all watch out next time." Chen Xiao Mi decided to give up.

Lu Lin took a deep breath, he couldn't bear the sight of Grandma Lu, it wasn't because he was scared of that annoying woman, he just didn't like the drama, plus the feudal ethical code valued filial piety. Arguing with an elder, regardless of who was in the right, meant you had lost moral high ground already.

Several days later, Chen Xiao Cai had organized another berry picking. Three new kids had joined them, Chen Xiao Cai had seen Lu Song Shi again this time.

Chen Xiao Cai gave the baskets to the other kids on purpose, Lu Song Shi ended up not getting a basket.

Chen Xiao Cai told the kids it's okay if they wanted to use their own baskets, he would count them in the small baskets and pay them the accordingly.

Zhang Da Hu was glad to hear that, he grabbed a huge basket from home.

Picking berries for Chen Xiao Cai now was growing vigorously in Big Stone Village, some adults got so jealous when they heard some kids had earned about 100 cents per day, but they knew they shouldn't steal kids' jobs, so they sent their kids to work for Chen Xiao Cai.

Chen Xiao Cai had become the new kids leader in the village now.

"Dad, look, I made this money." Zhang Da Man held the coins Lu Lin paid him in cupped hands.

Zhang Jin smiled, "Good job, Man!"

Zhang Da Man was pleased to hear that, "Zhang Da Hu made the most, and I'm the runner-up!"

Kids were pretty competitive on berry picking, the winner would feel so proud.

Zhang Jin sighed on seeing the coins his son had made. He used to think Lu Lin and Chen Xiao Mi would stay poor forever, but little did he expect the young couple has been prospering with each passing day.

"What's with the coins?" asked Zhang Cheng, the Village head.

Zhang Da Man said with pride, "Grandpa, I made this money!"

Zhang Cheng wasn't happy about that, "You went to pick berries for Chen Xiao Cai, right? But I told you not to play with him."

Zhang Jin frowned, "Father, how can you say that to a kid? Plus Man feels happy that he is making some allowance."

Zhang Cheng sighed, "But Chen Xiao Cai is Chen Xiao Mi's little brother, Chen Xiao Mi is bad influence."

"Father, you are overthinking, it's not like that." Zhang Jin countered.

The jam was popular in town, Manager Wang could sell two dozen jars on a good day, but not a lot of people could afford to eat it as a snack regularly, so there were bad days when Manager Wang couldn't sell any. Lu Lin stored a lot of jam in the shop.

Chen Xiao Cai didn't know exactly what Lu Lin had done with the berries, he just took it for granted that Lu Lin was using the berries to brew wine, that was what he had been telling the other kids as well. Therefore, no one had thought the "Good Luck Jam" in town was made by Lu Lin and Chen Xiao Mi.

The customers who had bought jam all became returned customers, they loved the flavor. Especially the elders who had lost teeth, they enjoyed the soft and creamy texture.

The young masters also liked to buy them to impress the ladies. Sugar was very rare, jam was a novelty as well, the ladies also liked jam.

"Lu Lin, you are finally here!" Manager Wang exclaimed on seeing Lu Lin.

"What's wrong?" Lu Lin looked confused.

"It's that jam, it's sold out days ago, so many customers are asking me about it, I plan to visit you soon if you don't show up by tomorrow."

"Really? I thought they were hard to sell." Lu Lin was surprised.

"Are you kidding me?" Manager Wang laughed, "Landlord Li held a gathering two days ago, he is one of the wealthiest people in town, he prepared a jar of jam on every table, all the guests fell in love with the flavor and they came to my restaurant to buy more."

Lu Lin was glad to hear that, 'Great! Now more and more people know about the jam thanks to that Landlord Li!'

Lu Lin handed Manager Wang 30 jars of jam this time.

"Is this all?" Manager Wang looked disappointed.

"They will go off in 7 days, I tent to not make too much."

"Don't worry, I guarantee you I can sell them even though you double the amount!" Manager Wang smiled.