“So why take over this shop if it wasn’t doing well? Aren’t you just setting yourself up for loss?” the shop owner asked Nan Feng.
Nan Feng lied to him, “Of course I wouldn’t lose out. I’m not selling clothes – I know that selling gold makes money, so I’m selling lanterns here without hesitation.”
“…” The owner agreed. He couldn’t simply switch to selling lanterns – clothes were what he was familiar with. Not only would he lose money if he switched his product, he would also have to start from scratch. It would be better to relocate; he decided that he didn’t want to stay here anymore.
After this conversation, Nan Feng quickly reached an agreement with the original owner to take over the shop. She signed a three-year lease with the landlord that afternoon, agreeing to pay on a monthly basis.
…
Now that she had the shop, the next step was renovation. This place used to sell clothes, so it needed a new look to sell cosmetic products. Nan Feng thought of modern cosmetic shops and suddenly she had an idea.
She went to the city to find a painter. He made a few drawings of fair, beautiful women, each holding a whitening face mask and a watermelon facial cleanser. Next to each of them, Nan Feng asked the painter to write a bold slogan: “Xiangkou, the secret to radiant skin for a softer and fairer complexion.”
Beneath that, a smaller line detailing the benefits of each product was listed.
Once the painter completed the illustrations, she converted them into promotional stands which she positioned outside her shop daily.
Despite the shop not being officially open yet, passersby found the promotional stands intriguing, often stopping to take a look:
“Huh, what’s this selling?”
“Facial cleanser…for washing your face, right? Look, there are instructions: ’Apply a fingernail-sized amount on your face daily for instantly clear and hydrated skin all day long.’
“Whitening magic facial mask? Just like magic, apply it on your face for 15 minutes for instant moisture. If a married woman uses it, her husband will love her even more. A maiden who uses it will have the matchmaker knocking at her door. A grandmother who uses it will look younger and younger day by day…”
“Really? Could it be that miraculous?”
“Look, the opening date is listed at the bottom. The 30th of this month, just a few more days.”
“Let’s check it out then.”
“…”
At this time, Nan Feng was in the town of Clearwater finding a carpenter to help make her signboard.
She knew a carpenter in town who did excellent work. After relaying her requirements, she hitched a ride on a donkey cart back to Daoping Village.
When Nan Feng returned, the villagers surrounded her with queries: “Why are you back, Feng? Where’s your father?”, “I heard you’re going to open a shop in the city, how is it going?”, “Is your father’s leg better?”
Nan Feng fielded these questions all the way back to Aqiu’s house.
She had talked to Aqiu a few times before about giving her facial masks, then Aqiu would help Nan Feng with a task. Nan Feng had already briefed her on it last time; this time, she specifically came back to tell her the exact date.
Aqiu was so excited about going to town in three days that she couldn’t sleep. She promised to complete the task, but she did have a worry: she had never left the village before and was unsure of the way.
“Don’t worry,” Nan Feng reassured her, “Ye Ge will come to pick you up.”
She had already arranged this with Ye Ge in advance.
“Ye Ge is going to come back? Isn’t he a high-ranking official in the city? Does he have time to come back? I heard that being a guard means you have to be with the county lord all the time, even during meals and sleep,” Aqiu seemed a bit anxious.