Chapter 1736 – Newly Minted Business Tycoon
“Alan, you’re being way too dramatic with this.”
On the official road ten miles outside Zhanjiang Pass, a hundred guards dressed as retinue were protecting several horse-drawn carriages.
A voice filled with warmth floated out from the carriage, followed by a young boy’s clear and pure retort, tinged with a hint of embarrassment. The boy in question, of course, was Sun Lan; just listening to his voice could paint a vivid picture of him stamping his feet.
“Rong Li, you’re as fair as jade, so of course, you don’t have to worry—it’s easy for you to understand our struggles!”
Sun Lan pouted in frustration, stirring a jade bowl with a small jade spoon. Occasionally, he scooped a few spoonfuls from the array of small green sandalwood boxes on the table to mix into his bowl. After busying himself for half the day, he meticulously layered the thick concoction onto his face.
When Feng Yi walked in, what he saw was Sun Lan, mask-making; his entire face was covered in a thick layer of pearl and coix powder, leaving only his two eyes and mouth exposed. Witnessing this scene made even the usually stoic Feng Yi crack a smile.
“You wouldn’t understand; this is a wildly popular whitening method in Wanzhou,” Sun Lan said, peering into a small mirror. The heavy mask wasn’t very comfortable, and he spoke cautiously, afraid of breaking it, “Many distinguished scholars are crazy for it. Just look at my grandfather—doesn’t he seem younger? He insists on doing it every three days, and he really does look much younger!”
Sun Lan had been running around like a Husky at Zhanjiang Pass. He had to wake up before dawn to exercise for half an hour, then rush through breakfast before heading to work, only to come home at sunset and dive into Golden Scales Academy’s textbooks until he could finally collapse into bed at the first sign of midnight.
His days were jam-packed; when would he find the time to catch up on the latest beauty trends in Wanzhou?
So how did Sun Lan know about these beauty tricks from there?
This thought made Sun Lan feel like his worldview was being reshaped. His grandfather had surprisingly gathered all sorts of methods for using pearl masks, documenting everything from the combinations to the quantities of auxiliary materials used! If it weren’t for this, he’d have no idea his grandfather was living the life of luxury—working on his rabbit hot pot while still maintaining his beauty routine!
Feng Yi was almost taken aback, “Grandpa… does a beauty mask before bed?”
Imagining the old man meticulously preparing a mask while reading sent chills down his spine.
“This method… I haven’t heard of it before…”
Feng Yi knew that pearl powder was good for the skin but had never thought of applying it this way—mixing it into a paste to slather on one’s face… how bizarre!
Sun Lan explained, “It’s supposedly a recent trend. The southern rivers produce river pearls, and there’s a pearl-gathering girl who, feeling for her struggling family, got inspired and learnt to cultivate pearls artificially—raising oysters to produce pearls by human effort. She struck it rich, and her neighbors copied her, causing river pearl prices to crash because they’re oversupplied.”
The people around the river were mainly pearl divers, and pearl diving was arduous and perilous, often resulting in tragedies.
With chaos beginning to unfold, life got tougher for these divers; people were struggling to put food on the table, let alone play with pearls. Even so, they couldn’t abandon pearl diving; they had to dive even more to survive, which led to an increase in pearl production but a decrease in selling prices, leaving the divers with no words to express their pain.
When Feng Yi was still studying at the academy, his teacher had mentioned this issue.
He hadn’t expected that the folks over there had figured out how to artificially cultivate pearls, causing an overflow of river pearls.
Feng Yi remarked, “Scholars are so crazy about pearl powder for skincare, so pearl prices…”
Sun Lan grinned, “Of course, they went up a bit, but not by much. That’s kind of good, too—before, every household was raising river pearls, which caused their prices to plummet, and many divers lost everything. Now, some of the lower-quality pearls are being sold by the batch to beauty merchants, turning them into powder; they sell wonderfully well, giving many in the neighborhood a lifeline.”
Listening to this, Feng Yi relaxed his furrowed brow a little.
Sun Lan continued, “My grandpa told me, do you know who the big buyers of river pearls are?”
Feng Yi asked, “Who?”
Sun Lan replied, “General Fu’s family.”
Feng Yi’s heart skipped a beat in surprise, “General Fu is still at the front; being single and lonely, how could he get involved in such business?”
Though it was just a few words, Feng Yi had an inkling of the colossal profits lurking behind this business.
There was no law explicitly prohibiting officials from doing business, but competing with the people for profits was surely looked down upon by the scholars.
Sun Lan shook his head and mimicked, “Grandpa’s exact words—’That little wolf cub brought back a good daughter-in-law; how lucky can one get with ancestors’ graves spewing smoke!'”
Feng Yi pieced it together.
“Lady Hui?”
“Yeah, what an impressive lady—truly someone not to be underestimated.”
Encouraged by Jiang Pengji, Hui Jun hadn’t resigned herself to a life in the inner courtyard; instead, she was eager to start a business and carve out a path for herself.
With the water-powered spinning wheel already up and running, it had been in trial operation for a couple of years, showing decent results. However, since cotton wasn’t yet mass-produced, the spinning wheel could only weave a limited variety of textiles. For now, she was just dabbling, but it was enough for Hui Jun to open a fabric shop.
She studied numerous documents on fabric dyeing, printing techniques, and various cosmetic powders. Capitalizing on her connections with Jiang Pengji and Fu Wang, her new venture was quite successful.
Of course, Hui Jun’s ambitions didn’t stop at merely making ends meet; she aimed to make loads and loads of money.
She wanted to grow the business, prioritizing service and product quality above all.
Initially, she managed everything herself, but after the shop found its footing, she didn’t slack off and regularly checked in, keeping a strict quality control.
In the palace, there was already a habit of using pearl powder for beauty; Hui Jun didn’t want to miss out on this golden opportunity, requiring a stable and cheap supply of pearls.
On a fortuitous note, she learned about the river pearls flooding the market near the Jiang River, making them extremely cheap and unsellable.
Hui Jun had a rough early life but got incredibly lucky later. She sent people to acquire river pearls and bought many secret recipes from a pearl-diving girl. Although this girl claimed the recipes were from the Summer dynasty’s palace, Hui Jun remained skeptical—if such recipes existed, the noble ladies surrounding her would surely know about them. The Summer dynasty had fallen many years ago, but those noble families’ legacies remained intact…
What exactly are the noble families?
They were people living luxuriously, surpassing the royalty in societal standards; if such imperial recipes existed, how could they not be aware?
Not every excuse could pass as a legitimate reason for citing imperial recipes from the Summer dynasty…
