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Title: The Dreamer in the Spring Boudoir
Chapter 315 - It feels so nice to rely on someone's reputation (2)
(T/N: The author changed the name of the rouge store from Tianxiang to Mohong.)
This woman had voluptuously red lips. Just from her stance, Ji Man could see that she was a sharp and bold woman. However, this wasn't important. The important part was that her skin wasn't very good. Her dry hands had cracks and calluses. Ji Man gave her a small container of hand cream.
"What is this?" The female restaurateur looked at Ji Man skeptically.
Smiling, Ji Man brought out Marquis Jingwen's household token for her. She also took out a flier. "This is a newly released product from Mohong. We're looking for people to try it. Seeing that you're such a beautiful woman, it'll provide us helpful word of mouth advertising if this cream turns out effective for you. That's why I'm giving you a sample."
It wasn't clear if it was because Ji Man was a persuasive speaker or if it was because she was using Marquis Jingwen's household token, but the female restaurateur happily accept the cream and said that she would definitely use it. After that, Ji Man found a female brother owner, anfemale innkeeper, a female shopkeeper for a fruit store, and other women that would be useful in providing publicity for her products. As soon as each of them saw Marquis Jingwen's household token, they each happily took the creams and said they would use it.
Just as she had finished her task and was about to go to Mohong, she bumped into Liu Rufeng again.
Instead of fleeing in panic like yesterday, she saluted him. "Sir Liu."
Smiling, Li Rufeng responded in kind. "This one had acted too impudently yesterday."
"It's this one that failed to recognize your importance," Ji Man said with a smile, "It was only after this one returned home that this one heard from the junzhu that you're a promising youth and it would be good to make friends with you. This one has only recently come to Jing Province and though you were..."
"That's alright." Shaking his fan, Liu Rufeng very gently said, "The weather is good today too. There's a gathering of scholars at Qianbai today. Brother Ji, would you be interested in going?"
Ji Man's eyes brightened. This Liu Rufeng was truly an important person. Could it be that this person wanted to get closer to Marquis Jingwen, so he was being extra helpful to her?
Ji Man shamelessly said, "It's so rare to get an invitation from Brother Liu. How could this one refuse? Let's go then. It'll be good to widen one's horizons. It's okay if my servant girl comes with us, right?"
Liu Rufeng glanced at Dengxin and said with a smile, "Sure. Brother Li, your servant girl is quite pleasing to look at."
Feeling slightly annoyed, Dengxin kept her head lowered as she followed Ji Man. She didn't like impetuous people. Unfortunately, it was likely that she would meet plenty of these types of people if she followed her master outside to do business.
To Dengxin's surprise, Ji Man pulled her into her arms and grinned. "Isn't that so? She's stunningly beautiful, right? Once I've saved up enough for bridal gifts, I'm going to marry her."
With her hair tied up in a jade hair accessory and dressed in a masculine black robe, Ji Man pulled off a convincing image of a Casanova. She was just a bit shorter than the average man. She had painted her eyebrows thicker and pasted on a mustache. Even knowing all this, Dengxin still ended up blushing when her master embraced her.
Liu Rufeng loudly laughed. He turned his head and said, "Brother Ji, this way please."
Business had to be done slowly, and people had to be slowly handled too. Ji Man followed Liu Rufeng to Qianbai, and he introduced to her many men that she could collaborate with. When they finally left, he even said, "Jing Province isn't a big place. Even if you make a fortune here, it won't be a big fortune. Brother Ji, are you interested in going to the capital?"
Without even considering, Ji Man replied, "Not interested."
Liu Rufeng was quite surprised. "Why? The capital is the most flourishing place to be. Brother Ji, if you want to do business, that place would naturally be the best. Moreover, this one has a couple of friends there too. If you ever need help, feel free to ask me."
"I want to earn enough to launch a business venture first. Brother Li, thank you for your help today." Ji Man cupped her fist at him. After bidding farewell, she returned to the estate and had Dengxin go buy a work of calligraphy to send to Liu Rufeng's estate and invite him over to Marquis Jingwen's estate in the passing.
Having receiving Liu Rufeng's care, it wouldn't be appropriate to repay him with money, so she sent him a gift instead.
After that, Ji Man hired a group of workers and set up a small workshop outside the city. She started to seriously produce a series of skincare products.
The capital? She wouldn't return there unless she absolutely prepared.
Two months later, Ji Man finally earned enough money to open a store of her own with its own signboard and no longer needed to sell her products through Mohong.
Because the creams were new items and only the rich would be able pay well, Ji Man focused on promoting her products to aristocratic families. By borrowing Marquis Jingwen's household reputation, the sale of the skincare products went increasingly well. Girls from less well-off families would save up their monthly allowance for quite a while just to buy a box of these creams.
In Jing Province, knockoffs of cold cream had already flooded the marketplace and caused the price to drop from several silver taels to only five silver coins. In contrast, these skincare products hadn't oversaturated the market yet, so these creams could be sold at a price of five to ten silver taels depending on box size. These creams were a revolutionary product for women in ancient times. In addition, an advertising campaign and the refined boxes that these creams came in helped their popularity. For a period of time, all of the older women from aristocratic families in Jing Province used the product.
Actually, the cost to make one box of cream was only two silver coins.
(T/N: Ten silver coins is one silver tael.)
Feminine beauty products were all exorbitantly expensive, but in order to make to make themselves feel better, these women willing allowed themselves to be gouged by these prices.
After busily working for two months until her business was on track, Ji Man handed over the daily management of her store to Dengxin while she paid visits to various families with Liu Rufeng. During these visits, she presented the hosts with all sorts of novel gifts.
For a store to do well, there were countless behind-the scenes influences. Originally, Ji Man wasn't familiar with this type of stuff. Fortunately, Liu Rufeng knew and guided her with one thing after another, so everything went well.
Very quickly, Ji Man was once again living the life of happily counting her banknotes that came pouring in.
Errong's belly was becoming bigger and bigger. Ji Zhu had already entered the army. Once Ji Zhu had achieved success, these two people could be reunited again, right?
As she was counting her banknotes, Ji Man's hands paused. She suddenly really wanted to know how Ning Yuxuan and Wen Wan were doing right now.
A servant girl rushed inside. She was so agitated that even her voice had changed as she called out, "Miss Ji."
Translator Ramblings: So, everyone in Marquis Jingwen's household knows that Ji Man is a woman, and she's using her real name and the Marquis Jingwen's household token to do business... Isn't she making it way too easy for people to figure out that she's cross-dressing? Is this a case of Ji Man treating everyone as an idiot and the other people are humoring her?