Chapter 74 - Sixty-Five: Proverbs
After lunch, around two in the afternoon, Malin accompanied by Faye and Maya set out—the National Publishing House had a scheduled discussion at three forty. Before that, Malin and Faye were to visit the snack shop and tool shop they co-owned to check on business.
Indeed, Malin had partnered with Faye in opening two shops: one was a snack shop selling various delicious treats from Malin’s memory, and the other was a tool shop offering items not usually found on the market, such as climbing picks with rock-breaking effects, St. George physics swords with durability effects, revolver grips with a matte finish, barrels of heavy caliber long guns and fine steel short gun barrels, and mechanical sights of competition-grade precision.
The snack shop was a 30% venture for Malin and 70% for Faye, whereas the tool shop was the opposite, with Malin holding 70% and Faye 30%.
The reason for this was that in the snack business, Malin merely contributed a few ideas and nothing more, while many items in the tool shop were created based on the design drawings Malin provided.
By the way, the tool shop employed a team of Dwarven artisans led by a master craftsman, who happened to be the father of Malin’s classmate Xingyan, named Bluesteel Iron Anvil.
If you’ve forgotten who Xingyan is, no worries—it’s enough to remember that she’s a Northern Dwarf without a beard but still a robust dwarven beauty (or rather, a handsome youth).
The snack shop was located to the south of the city, close to the rented accommodation, making it the first stop. As a hands-off shopkeeper, Malin’s usual visits were simply to buy sticky rice snacks—the sticky rice had been brought over from Thainan. Although it was not cultivated by local farmers, Malin still managed to collect it through the Church. Furthermore, Malin had asked shipping groups to fetch some seeds from Thainan and hired some farmers to grow them.
Besides being a Church member’s initiative, which ensured meticulous care by the farmers, the Goddess of Harvest Church’s expertise in farming, combined with Faye’s curiosity about glutinous rice cakes, led her to hire a couple of Druid Apprentices. Consequently, the crop yield was good, prompting Faye to buy a piece of land near her villa to construct a granary and windmill.