Chapter 57: "Designer" Schoolbags
Lu Lin asked Wan Tie's wife Yun Niang to look for embroiderers in town. Lu Lin offered them 25 cents per day, they hired over ten female embroiderers within one day. People wanted to work, but there weren't enough places hiring, so the hiring went smoothly.
There were more people asking whether they are still hiring the next day, Yun Niang told them they had hired enough workers at the moment, those people were left in disappointment.
Yun Niang was a great seamstress and embroiderer, she was in charge of the integrating all the parts of the bags together.
Lu Lin found Wan Tie rather sophisticated for a servant, Yun Niang was a beautiful woman, but unfortunately her face was disfigured by a long red scar. Their son Wan Xiao Fan was very emaciated and shy, Lu Lin noticed there were some empyrosis scars on Wan Xiao Fan's forearm, he had no idea how it happened.
Both Wan Tie and Yun Niang loved their son dearly, they were so gentle and patient when they talked to Wan Xiao Fan.
According to the worker in the human trader's shop, Wan Tie's parents were servants in a big family, so Wan Tie was born a servant. Yun Niang was the madam's maid, but she offended the madam, so the madam scarred her face to punish her and the madam married her to Wan Tie.
Maids were socially inferior, they would work for the madam since they were little girls and they would usually end up being sold to human traders when they got old.
A lot of maids dreamed of becoming the master or the young master's concubine, even though concubines still suffered severe social disadvantage.
On the plus side, both Chen Xiao Cai and Chen Xiao Mai were nice to Wan Xiao Fan. Chen Xiao Mai didn't get to meet kids younger than him very often, so he was very excited about playing with Wan Xiao Fan.
But Wan Xiao Fan seemed to fear Chen Xiao Mai and Chen Xiao Cai, sometimes he would just freeze when Chen Xiao Mai chased after him and play with him.
Lu Lin found that a bit strange, kids of Wan Xiao Fan's age were supposed to be lively and active, but he guessed maybe Wan Xiao Fan was once hurt by his playmates, the empyrosis scars on his forearm were probably caused by his playmates.
Chen Xiao Mai had a warm heart, he would always share his snacks with Wan Xiao Fan, but Wan Xiao Fan dared not take anything from him, Chen Xiao Mai would just pout in sadness when Wan Xiao Fan ran away from him.
Yun Niang was in charge of the embroiderers that Lu Lin hired, luckily the embroiderers all worked very hard for fear of losing the job.
Lu Lin and Chen Xiao Mi lived in the east bedroom while Chen Xiao Cai and Chen Xiao Mai lived in the west bedroom, the main bedroom was vacant. Wan Tie and Yun Niang took one of the servants' room.
"Tie, don't you find our masters a bit strange, why don't they take the main bedroom?" Yun Niang asked Wan Tie.
Wan Tie sighed, "Let's not talk about the masters behind their backs."
Wan Tie's parents were servants, he was born a servant, so he learned to observe people's speech and behavior since he was a little boy, and that had paid off. He became the butler in that family, all the masters and madams trusted him.
Yun Niang was the madam's maid, Wan Tie had a crush on Yun Niang since he first met her, but the master hankered after Yun Niang's beauty, the madam scarred Yun Niang's face out of jealousy. The master lost interest in Yun Niang since she was disfigured, the madam made use of the opportunity and married Yun Niang to Wan Tie.
Wan Tie cherished Yun Niang all the same after her face was disfigured, they had a beautiful family not long after they got married, Wan Xiao Fan was a cute boy. But good times didn't last long, the madam's son fell into disfavor after the master's concubine gave birth to a son.
The madam's son was incited by some servants who had ulterior motives, he started to find fault with Wan Xiao Fan. He asked Wan Xiao Fan to serve him in his study, but he abused Wan Xiao Fan at his own will, poor Wan Xiao Fan was nearly beaten to death.
In that time and space, even the government wouldn't intervene in servants who had signed indentures.
Wan Tie couldn't just sit back and watch his son suffering like this, he contradicted the young master once and the madam decided to sell them to the human trader in a rage.
Yun Niang was glad that both Chen Xiao Cai and Chen Xiao Mai were so nice to her son, her son had become a bit special since he was abused by the young master, she had always felt sorry for her son. She always guessed she was part of the reason why her son was abused by the young master.
Yun Niang was the madam's maid, and she always caught the master staring at her since she married into his family with the madam. The madam had disfigured her face out of jealousy, the master had lost interest in her since that. But the master started to taking concubines, the madam always vented her anger on Yun Niang.
Things started to worsen since the master married Concubine Lin, Concubine Lin was great at creating conflicts between the master and the madam. She asked the servants and the maids to rake up the old matters like the madam disfiguring Yun Niang's face out of jealousy. The madam abused Yun Niang even more, she found an excuse and sell them to a human trader.
They had endured countless hardships after they were sold to the human trader, the human trader would give the three of them a bun for a whole day's ration.
Wan Tie squinted his eyes and said, "Master Lu is such a genius, those schoolbags are amazing!"
Yun Niang was the one who put different parts together, Wan Tie had seen the finished products as well. Wan Tie used to be a butler in a big family, he always thought he had seen a lot of novelties, but never had he seen anything like the schoolbags.
Yun Niang nodded, "I think the schoolbags will be popular among the students."
Yun Niang had put together several schoolbags of different styles, Lu Lin brought some to the shop and started to sell. It didn't start off great, people had no idea what those bags were for and they showed zero interest in them. Lu Lin sent two to Councilor Yang's kids.
Councilor Yang was one of the wealthiest people in town, the stuff he and his family members used were likely to become a trend.
Councilor Yang's kids carried the schoolbags to school this day, and soon they had attracted their classmates' attention."
"Yang Teng, Yang Miao, your bags are so pretty! I haven't seen a bag like this before."
Yang Teng and Yang Miao enjoyed all the attention, soon they became a little bit light-headed.
"This is called schoolbag, see, it has many sections within, you can put books and stationery in different sections, and look over here, you can tie a knot here to keep all your stuff in place. How convenient is that!" Yang Teng demonstrated his schoolbag to his classmates, he had fondled his schoolbag for a long time when he was home and now he was more than happy to show off in front of his classmates.
"What's more, check out the straps, you can carry it on your back just like this." Yang Miao chimed in.
The kids were all amazed by the schoolbag. Yang Teng then showed off the wooden pendant hanging on the straps.
The kids asked Yang Teng and Yang Miao where they could get a schoolbag like this.
"Sino Commercial Shop just around the corner!"
The kids asked their parents to buy schoolbag for them first thing they left school that day.
Schoolbags had soon swept the entire school thanks to Yang Teng and Yang Miao.
Nearly half of the kids in school bought schoolbags within a few days. Kids who still didn't have schoolbags would feel so dwarfed when they walked past kids who walked with a strut, showing off their new schoolbags.
And a few more days later, nearly every kid went to school with a schoolbag bought from Sino Commercial House.
The price of schoolbags ranged from 100 cents to 1 tael according to design and fabric.
Lu Lin had also hired a carpenter to carve wooden pendants as ornaments on the schoolbags. Lu Lin was once again amazed by the craftsmanship of that time and space, all the pendants were so exquisite, even an adult like him was fond of the pendants, let alone kids.
The schoolbag had become a hit, a trademark of the Sino Commercial House.
Lu Lin found out that Wan Tie was literate, he was by no means a scholar, but he was about to read and write, he knew some basic math as well. Therefore, Lu Lin hired Wan Tie as the manager of the shop.
There were several kids from Big Stone Village went to the school near Lu Lin's shop, Lu Lin didn't want to be seen in the shop, plus Wan Tie had the experience of being a butler, so he asked Wan Tie to take over all the administration work, Wan Tie didn't let him down, he had been doing an excellent job.
Lu Cheng Yu had noticed a lot of his classmates had bought schoolbags, he didn't want to be looked down upon, so he decided to ask for money from Grandma Lu and get one as well.
The Lus were strapped for cash due to Lu Cheng Yu's grand wedding ceremony, but Grandma Lu didn't have the heart to say no to her favorite grandson, so Lu Cheng Yu ended up getting 300 cents from his grandma.
Lu Cheng Yu didn't pass the exam to become a Xiucai, he was depressed so he had asked for a few days leave from school on the excuse of his wedding.
But soon he was fed up with the drama at home. Li Fang Yue didn't get along with neither Grandma Lu nor Tang, and she would complain tearfully to Lu Cheng Yu that she was mistreated.
Lu Cheng Yu didn't have the patience to comfort this average-looking wife, but he had to do it for the sake of Li Fang Yue's brother-in-law. In the end, he decided to go back to school early to stay away from the drama.
Lu Cheng Yu learned from his classmates that the best schoolbag was as expensive as 1 tael, he stroked the 300 cents that Grandma Lu just gave him and was at a loss what he should do.
He decided to go to the Sino Commercial House with his classmates to have a look first anyways. What came to Lu Cheng Yu's sight as soon as he entered the shop was a rack full of schoolbags with different price tags hanging under them.
Lu Cheng Yu exclaimed in the heart that a schoolbag made of a few pieces of fabric could be this expensive, but he bought one he could afford in the end.
"I've never heard of this Sino Commercial House before, when was it open?" Lu Cheng Yu asked one of his classmates.
"I don't know about the details either, the ex-owner moved to a different province so he sold this property."
"Yeah, the ex-owner's first son has passed the highest imperial examination and is appointed as governor in some other province, their entire family moved together with the son, that is why the ex-owner has sold such a great property. This shop and the residential area in the back." Chimed in the other classmate.
"It must be very expensive." Lu Cheng Yu murmured.
"You are not wrong, I heard the new owner bought it for 250 taels of silver!"
"Do you know anything about the new owner?"
"No, the new owner keeps a low profile."
Lu Cheng Yu raised his head and looked at the shop sign with jealous, he found it unfair that he struggled to buy a schoolbag yet the owner could afford to spend 250 tales on a property.
Little did Lu Cheng Yu expect this new owner was Lu Lin, his cousin whom he had despised since they were young.