Little Miss Fortune: I Will Bring Prosperity to My Tang Family!-Chapter 81: The Young Tycoon Inspects the Market

Chapter 75

The Young Tycoon Inspects the Market

The grandparent-grandchild duo maneuvered their new cart out of the house, heading towards Jiangnan City. Xiaolin, who hadn’t left the house for a long time, looked around with great interest.

Along the way, not much had changed, but the area near her shop and market had begun to be fenced off. People likely saw this area as an important future trading hub and started buying up the land.

Fortunately, before her mother gave birth to her younger brother, she had her father buy an additional five mu of land next to the shop. In the future, she planned to build row houses there and rent them out. If there were no tenants, she would use the space to open more shops herself.

The market itself was bustling. The inner-city market had been permanently closed, leaving only small stalls in front of rental houses still open. As a result, most of the city’s residents came to her market to shop. Uncle Mustache’s pork shop had also rented a stall here.

Xiaolin walked with her hands clasped behind her back, her head held slightly high and her stomach pushed forward. The old merchants, upon seeing the Little Tycoon, greeted her enthusiastically. Some even shared vegetables and snacks with her, which Hui Song had to gather into the basket.

The Little Tycoon greeted the stall renters warmly. New merchants looked on curiously but were soon informed by the old renters. However, there were still some who stubbornly clung to their own ideas without changing.

“Well well well, walking around with her head held high, acting like a noble lady. She’s just a market manager, hmph.”

Xiaolin glanced over before continuing her way. She didn’t want to bother with an ignorant old woman who had only grown in body but not in mind. Old in appearance and age, but her brain had stopped growing at two years old.

“Little Tycoon, are you inspecting the market? Come, take some steamed buns from me. I saw you liked them last time,” the steamed bun seller, whose stall was opposite the rude woman’s, called out affectionately to the chubby little girl, handing her a wrapped bun.

“Thank you, beautiful grandmother, beautiful from the outside and the inside.” Xiaolin accepted the bun package, not forgetting to flatter the vendor, who nearly twisted herself into a coil from the praise.

“Sweet talking, aren’t you?”

“Hehe, I’m just telling the truth.” The chubby girl smiled with squinted eyes, reaching into the package to take a big bite of a bun. The beautiful grandmother had given her four buns.

“You truly are a sweet-talking child. The stall fee is very cheap, just ten brass coins a day. Back when I sold in the city, the earnings hardly covered the stall rent. How do you expect to cover the land and construction costs with such low fees?” Asked a nearby vegetable seller.

“Maybe in ten years or so, hehe. I’m not aiming for profit because my family has a shop. The main reason for setting up the market is because I want to help villagers earn an income,”

The little girl’s words moved the vendors. The adorable child was thinking about the livelihood of ordinary villagers like them. She truly had a kind heart.

“Good girl, may you prosper.”

“Thank you, grandmother.” The chubby girl smiled so widely her eyes closed, her round cheeks full of the delicious bun.

Upon hearing this, the rude woman pouted and rolled her eyes towards the market roof. But when she saw Hui Song walking up, she quickly changed her expression. She hurriedly straightened her clothes and flashed a sweet smile, but Hui Song, noticing her, felt more horror than anything else.

"We came to buy pork bones, didn’t we, you little piggy? We’ve been walking around the vegetable market so long that the basket is almost full of vegetables," Hui Song said to his granddaughter, who was happily munching on a steamed bun.

Xiaolin looked at her grandfather holding the vegetable basket. Initially, they had planned to fill the basket with pork bones and meat, but now it was overflowing with vegetables. The little girl giggled, her eyes catching sight of someone looking at her grandfather with a hungry expression.

"Well, I haven’t been to the market in a long time, grandpa. But we can go buy the pork now. Otherwise, my beautiful grandmother will wait too long and miss you so much that she won’t be able to do anything," Xiaolin said, clinging to Hui Song’s arm and teasing someone who was now blushing furiously.

Hui Song, considering his granddaughter’s words, smiled. He quickly carried his granddaughter out of the vegetable market and headed to the fresh meat market. He wanted to finish shopping quickly and return to his beloved wife.

Xiaolin, being carried, could only blink as the large, steamed bun still hung from her mouth. Before she knew it, they were standing in front of Uncle Mustache’s pork shop.

"Oh hey, Little Tycoon, it’s been a while," greeted the long-mustached man, recognizing the little girl he used to see every morning, though she hadn’t been around for some time.

"Hello, Uncle Mustache. My mother just gave birth to my little sibling, so I’ve been helping her take care of the baby," Xiaolin replied.

"Oh! Another young tycoon in the making! Congratulations!"

"Hehe, thank you, uncle," the chubby girl grinned broadly.

"So, what will it be today, Master Hui?"

The long-mustached man asked Hui Song, who visited every morning to collect the daily stall fees. Merchants who intended to sell long-term paid monthly instead, at just two hundred eighty brass coins per month.

" I’ll take three jin of pork bones, two jin of ribs, ten jin of lard, and two jin of pork meat today, please."

"Right away, sir."

The mustached man quickly began cutting the pork as ordered. Xiaolin watched while nibbling on her steamed bun. She didn’t often visit the meat market, except when they were selling at their Larb shop.

“Grandpa, before we go back, can we stop by the larb shop? Or do you want to visit Grandpa Song?” The little girl tugged on her grandfather’s sleeve. Hui Song looked down at his granddaughter before answering.

“Let’s not. We’ll just go tomorrow instead” Xiaolin nodded enthusiastically.

After buying the pork, the grandfather and granddaughter walked hand in hand out of the market, crossing the street to their larb shop, which was now bustling with customers. Xiaolin looked pleased. Although her larb shop was small, it sold out every day.

The profits were still divided daily. In the evenings, the two partners would bring all the money to Xiaolin to divide the costs, wages, and profits. A portion was also set aside for shop improvements or repairs.

“Hey, Xiaolin, Uncle Song” Liu Hao, who spotted them first, greeted them with a broad smile. He carried food to the customers’ table before walking over to the grandfather-granddaughter pair.

“Please come inside, Uncle Song. Xiaolin, did you come to the market?”

“Yes, we came to buy pork for dinner. And these vegetables are thanks to the sweet-talking of this little fatty,” Hui Song replied, glancing at the chubby girl who was covering her mouth, giggling.

Hearing that, Liu Hao chuckled at the thought of the little girl sweet-talking the vendors into giving her things out of affection.

“Getting things for free isn’t a bad thing, is it?”

“It’s good, but those things are for sale. If they give them to you every day, what will they sell?”

“They give them because they aren’t in need. Who would give things to others if it caused them trouble?” The chubby girl took a bun and handed it to her tall uncle.

“See how clever your granddaughter is,” Hui Song sighed lightly.

“And am I not your granddaughter too, Grandpa?” The chubby girl made a mock pout.

“Alright, alright, stop teasing me, you little rascal.”

“Hehe.”

“Xiaolin!” Tianchen, hearing the cheerful voice of his niece, rushed out from the back of the shop.

“Where did you go, Uncle?”

“I was helping Brother Ye grill some chicken. We used to grill chicken and fish in front of the shop, but sometimes the wind blew the smoke inside. So, I moved the grill to the back instead.”

Xiaolin nodded, noticing her greedy uncle eyeing the bun in her hand. The chubby girl handed him a new bun. Tianchen took it and ate it with delight.

“This one is for Uncle Ye,” she said, handing the remaining bun to Liu Hao.

“Alright, if there’s nothing else, let’s go home. The pork bone soup needs time to simmer to be delicious,” Hui Song said, taking his granddaughter’s hand and preparing to leave. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

“Are you making pork bone soup today?” Asked Tianchen with his eyes lit up.

“Yes, I’m making bone broth with lotus roots.”

“Oh! When is it going to be dinner time? I can’t wait to eat it”

“You greedy one, get back to grilling chicken. The customers at table three are still waiting,” Liu Hao scolded, shooing the greedy man back. Tianchen chuckled sheepishly but returned to the kitchen.

"At first, I wondered if you opened a restaurant, would there be any food left for customers, or would Tianchen eat it all?"

Hui Song joked, making Xiaolin and Liu Hao laugh.

Tianchen, sensing he was being talked about, poked his head through the back door and loudly protested, prompting the grandfather and granddaughter to quickly walk away.

When they got home, Xiaolin went to check on the vegetable plot, leaving the cooking to her grandmother, with her grandfather assisting.

"There are weeds everywhere," the chubby girl said, looking over the thriving vegetable patch, some of which was empty because the vegetables had been harvested for the restaurant.

The round little girl sat down and started pulling weeds diligently. Seeing the beautiful Chinese kale made her crave stir-fried kale with minced pork. Her initial intent to pull weeds turned into uprooting kale and running to her grandmother.

"Grandma, I want some stir-fried kale with minced pork, please," she said, handing the freshly picked kale to Zhang Ruo.

"Alright, I’ll make it for you," Zhang Ruo replied, taking the kale from her granddaughter and disappearing into the kitchen with a bucket of lard.

Xiaolin looked around for her grandfather. She thought he would be helping her grandmother, but when she went to the backyard, he was nowhere to be seen.

"Grandma, where did grandpa go?" She shouted.

"He’s over by the barn,"

Hearing this, Xiaolin sighed. Her grandfather was shirking work again. The vegetable plot was full of weeds, making it difficult for the vegetables to grow properly. Some of the vegetables hadn’t even fully grown yet.

As she pondered, her round eyes noticed four or five children playing with Xiao Zhong. An idea for solving the problem came to her. She called the children over and explained the job.

"I want to hire you to pull weeds in my vegetable plot. Will you do it?"

"How much will you pay us?" The children asked excitedly. Last time, they had earned money for picking wild green onions, and their parents praised them for being good kids who could earn money at such a young age.

“Today, if you can clear one plot of weeds, I’ll give each of you five brass coins. The plot is quite long, so I’m paying you a bit more,” Xiaolin led the children to the vegetable plot on the other side of the house.

After showing the children the plot, she watched them work for a while before heading to the bathroom to wash up. She then changed her clothes in her room and went to lie down and play with her chubby little brother.

“Xiaoyu, your big sister is here!”

“Ahh!”

Xiaolin played with her little brother until they both fell asleep. They woke up in the late afternoon when her mother had to wake her because her little employees had been standing around for a while, waiting for their wages.

The chubby girl sat groggily for a moment before going to fetch the wages and distribute them to the children. She also told them to gather wild green onions to sell to her in the morning.

She would also hire them to weed the vegetable plots in the afternoon. The children left, chattering excitedly about being able to earn their own money.

“Yawnnn, I’m still sleepy,” she said with a wide yawn. She looked at her still-sleeping baby brother and then lay down to rest her head on her mother’s soft lap.

“Get up and wash your face, dear. Dinner will be ready soon,” Hui Ning said, stroking her daughter’s messy hair. She hadn’t untied Xiaolin’s hair bun because she had only just fallen asleep.

“Mm, I’m sleepy,” she mumbled, nuzzling her round face into her mother’s belly.

“Who told you not to take a nap in the afternoon? That’s why you’re so sleepy now.”

The round-cheeked girl didn’t hear her mother’s scolding because she was already half-asleep. Hui Ning, seeing her daughter’s sleepy state, didn’t say anything more. She just let the little girl sleep again and untied her hair bun.

The babbling of her baby brother woke the sleepyhead up. She looked around in confusion, seeing her two uncles playing with the chubby baby, before a wet cloth wiped her face, waking her up fully.

“Your brother has been awake for a while. He was playing alone until the two boys came home,” Hui Ning said to her daughter with her hand holding a cloth cleaning her little girl’s eyes. Once she was done, she lifted the wooden basin with the cloth outside.

“Why didn’t you wake up your big sister, Xiaoyu?”.

“Goo! Pfft,” the baby replied, blowing bubbles as if to say, I tried, but you wouldn’t wake up!

“Here’s the money we earned today,” Liu Hao said, handing a money pouch to the chubby girl.

Xiaolin took it and counted the money, dividing it into four piles. The first pile was for buying supplies for the shop, while the other three were their shares of the profits.

“Today, each of us made thirteen taels of silver!” The chubby girl exclaimed, placing her share into her small cloth pouch.

“Today was exceptionally good, especially with the grilled chicken; we could barely keep up,” Tianchen said happily, putting his share into his small cloth pouch.

“Have you paid Uncle Ye yet?”

              

“Yes, I did,” Liu Hao replied.

“If we can manage, we should add more grilled chicken to the menu,”

“We were planning to do that anyway. Oh, and today someone offered to sell us chickens. If we want them butchered, it’s an extra fifty brass coins,”

“Is that per chicken?” Xiaolin asked, her eyes wide. That seemed too expensive.

“No, that’s for all the chickens,”

“That’s great!” the chubby girl’s eyes sparkled.

“Liu Hao, take some pork bone soup with lotus roots for yourself. Tianchen, could you take the pot of soup to the Shi family? Your mother has already portioned it out,” Hui Ning instructed as she approached the two men.

“Of course!” Tianchen replied loudly. When it came to food, he was always ready.

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