Chapter Forty-Seven: Lin Garment Processing Factory

After Lin Miaomiao finished speaking, Li Zheng nodded and said to her, “It’s just the beginning, but a franchise fee of one hundred taels seems a bit steep, doesn’t it?”

Hearing this, Lin Miaomiao broke into a broad smile and replied, “The franchise fee, you say?”

Her eyes twinkled with calculation. Then she said, “Look, we’ve been working together for a while, and we trust each other. How about this: fifty taels for the first year, seventy for the second, and a hundred for the third. What do you think?”

Li Zheng scratched his chin, considering. He thought the business was viable, so he and Lin Miaomiao came to an agreement. Lin Miaomiao instructed her trusted manager, Lin Jiwang, to draft a contract.

She handed the contract to Li Zheng. After they both signed, Lin Miaomiao watched as Li Zheng took a small seal from his pocket, stamped it by his signature, and pressed his fingerprint on it.

A wave of envy swept over Lin Miaomiao; she pressed her own fingerprint beside her name with a hint of jealousy, then gazed longingly at the seal in Li Zheng’s hand.

Noticing her look, Li Zheng boasted, “See? Anyone with a flourishing business has a seal like this.”

Lin Miaomiao’s jealousy only grew. Trying to shake it off, she gathered Lin Jiwang, Lin Langluan, and Lin Langze and headed to her little ranch.

She only kept ten sheep there. Seeing Lin Jiwang’s literacy and composed demeanor, she felt it was a waste of his talent to have him tutor Lin Langluan and Lin Langze.

So, over the next few days, Lin Miaomiao began teaching Lin Jiwang some principles of modern accounting. He learned quickly, while Lin Miaomiao found the ancient bookkeeping methods rather baffling.

She introduced Arabic numerals and units like tens, hundreds, and thousands to Lin Jiwang, then taught him about debit and credit.

She entrusted him with the accounts of her various factories, and Lin Jiwang kept the books with impressive clarity.

Lin Miaomiao decided to send him to the capital to train the bookkeepers at the hotpot restaurant she co-owned with Li Yanan to the same standard.

After discussing this with Li Yanan, who readily agreed, Lin Miaomiao resolved to let Lin Jiwang gain more experience before dispatching him to the capital if he performed well.

Upon arriving at the ranch, Lin Miaomiao, along with Anqi, Li Zheng, Lin Langluan, Lin Langze, and Lin Jiwang, began the important task of combing wool.

While they were there, Lin Miaomiao saw Madam Zhao’s eldest child cleaning the sheep pen. Madam Zhao worked at Lin Miaomiao’s pastry factory most days and couldn’t always tend the sheep.

Her children willingly took on the responsibility of caring for the sheep and cleaning the pens. Lin Miaomiao felt a pang seeing how neatly the children had tidied up.

As the mistress, Lin Miaomiao noticed how shy the children were around her. Smiling, she greeted them and took apples from her basket, offering them to the children.

In this era, apples were a luxury only the wealthy could afford. For poor families like theirs, having enough to eat was already a blessing, let alone enjoying fruit.

To Lin Miaomiao, apples didn’t seem so expensive. In her modern life, she had been pampered since childhood. She remembered wanting watermelon in winter while at university and buying a slice just to satisfy the craving—even though winter watermelons cost more, it wasn’t a significant expense.

Seeing the children’s awkwardness, she simply put an apple into each of their hands and reminded them, “Go ahead, but make sure to wash your hands and the apples before you eat.”

The children nodded. The eldest, Liu’s child, was already twelve. Lin Miaomiao recalled that she herself was starting middle school at twelve, and her greatest challenge then was biking to school.

She’d always been sensitive to cold and heat, but as her father doted on his daughter, she had been raised in comfort.

Back then, seeing her peers cycle to school, she wanted to join them, so she bought a cute pink bicycle and happily rode it to class every day—until she eventually tired of it.

Her mother saw it as a form of exercise and refused her plea to stop cycling, insisting she continue.

The hardest times, she remembered, were biking against the wind. Now, seeing this twelve-year-old boy feeding sheep and cutting grass, she felt deeply moved by his hardship.

She noticed how well the sheep were cared for and thanked the three children, “Thank you. The sheep are in wonderful condition.”

The eldest boy shook his head and replied, “It’s what we should do. You pay us, so we ought to take good care of the sheep.”

Lin Miaomiao smiled at his words. She thought to let the children stay and play a while, but the eldest waved her off, “We need to get back. We’ve planted vegetables in the yard this year, so we’ll have fresh greens to eat.”

Lin Miaomiao nodded, and the children ran home, leaving her standing there, lost in thought.

Li Zheng, seeing her dazed, tapped her shoulder with his fan, “What are you daydreaming about?”

She glanced at him, then picked up her basket and comb to groom the sheep. These sheep had been brushed since they were young and, unafraid, let her comb them as she pleased.

She knew that once the weather warmed, it would be time to shear them. In ancient times, there were no clippers—only scissors.

Each person took a comb and a basket, and they began combing the sheep. Soon, their baskets were full, as wool was light and fluffy. After finishing, they rode the carriage back to Lin Miaomiao’s little courtyard.

Anqi now served as Lin Miaomiao’s general manager. She handled only major decisions, leaving the smaller matters to Anqi, who reported factory earnings to her daily.

Thanks to the popularity of Li Yanan’s hotpot restaurant in the capital, many households were buying hotpot base, and Lin Miaomiao’s factory was making a tidy profit.

Li Zheng had also opened a hotpot restaurant in the capital but soon shifted his focus elsewhere, so the orders for Lin Miaomiao’s hotpot base far outstripped supply.

She expanded her factories several times, yet demand remained high. Meanwhile, a new development was unfolding at the border.

Sensing opportunity, several merchants came to Da’ankou seeking out Lin Miaomiao’s factory, which was easy to find.

With her newfound wealth, Lin Miaomiao suggested to Li Yanan that they sponsor bedding for the local courier stations. She hired village women near the fifteen border towns to make quilts, their covers all bearing the Lin Food Processing Factory name. Thus, most travelers at the border soon knew of Lin Miaomiao’s factory.

She also took Anqi and Lin Jiwang along to learn about factory management and modern bookkeeping methods.

Anqi became adept at handling merchant orders, and Lin Jiwang could manage a factory himself.

Sometimes, as Lin Miaomiao looked at the piles of bright silver coins, she marveled at her own prosperity.

Though the border had fifteen cities, life there was bustling. She opened a Lin Clothing Processing Factory in Yeyang Prefecture, near Da’ankou.

There, she also established a large ranch, hiring workers from nearby impoverished villages.

She distributed her specially made combs; during the season for shearing large sheep, scissors were used, while at other times, wool was combed out.

She taught the village women to spin the wool into yarn, then sent it to another village for dyeing.

She sorted the colored yarn and began wholesaling it. Many merchants saw opportunity in this as well.

She knitted a few sweaters herself, which soon sparked a trend of knitting sweaters and scarves. Instead of embroidered pouches, young ladies began gifting scarves to their beloveds.

Li Yanan and Li Zheng, her loyal clients, placed large orders. Lin Miaomiao pored over her account books with delight, occasionally laughing aloud.

Seeing her so happy, Li Yanan asked, “What’s making you so cheerful? Is counting silver really that much fun?”

Lin Miaomiao pouted and thought, “Back in the modern world, I’d have woken from dreams laughing if I could count stacks of RMB until my hands were sore.”

Now, what made her happiest was counting silver until her hands ached. She retorted to Li Yanan, “Isn’t it joyful to count silver? Doesn’t money make you happy?”

Anqi was always by her side. Lin Miaomiao had always called him “Hei Qi,” but finding the name unpleasant, Li Yanan suggested, “Call him Lin Qi.”

As a shadow guard, Anqi had no real name or right to one. When Li Yanan had first told Lin Miaomiao to call him Hei Qi, she’d assumed it was due to his complexion.

But “Qi” was a homophone for “Seven,” and Li Yanan regarded Anqi with a calm glance. “From now on, stay by Miss Lin’s side and serve her well.”

Anqi bowed in acknowledgment. Lin Miaomiao found their exchange puzzling, but Anqi understood: from this day forward, his master was Lin Miaomiao.