Ghostly Fragrance [COMPLETED] [UNEDITED]

The Ghost Merchant

Eventually, the family began packing for the trip to the Capital with the letters in hand. "Thank you for giving us this opportunity to work at Heavenly Aroma," Ming Zhu happily climbed in a wagon smiling at Fangsu.

Fangsu smiled at she patted Ming Zhou's hand, "No, it should be me that was lucky to find such talent while travelling," Reassuring the family that she was happy to find them and suing their talents to help in Fangsu's partnership business and in turn helping them find work, "Anyway, do you know if there is a Merchant Association here?" Fangsu asked Ming Zhu who was familiar with the village.

Ming Zhu nodded, pointing to a street where the Merchant Association was located and Fangsu quickly ran to register herself as a merchant. The process was quite lengthy where she needed to identify herself, handing in the permit to sell merchandise, signing paperwork and registration fee. As the registration process was nearly finished the merchant association manager who was attending to her stared at the young man with an intrigued expression. Seeing a young individual such as this person in front of him wanting to enter the merchant industry that was filled with dirty tricks, black money and exploited traps would probably quickly fall trap to common tricks from underhanded merchants. But, the manager checked over the paperwork the person handed to him.

Fangsu had placed her white mask that only had eye sockets so that she could see to hide her face since it would be hard to pass off as a man with her face but it would suffice since she already had a gender-neutral voice which had helped her in many situations. After signing up for a 6-month membership which was quite normal for a short term merchant which was suitable for Fangsu since she would only take the guise of a merchant when it was needed in a more crowded area. While in more remote and empty areas she would remove the merchant disguise to travel normally.

Fangsu had commissioned a wood carpenter to build her a small but foldable stall that would make for an easy setup for when she would be selling her merchandise. However, the finished product would take a couple of days and this was the time when Fangsu entered the marketplace to look after the placement of certain local shops and other small merchants. The local products that were produced were mostly for seafood, equipment for fishermen and jewellery made from the small shells along with sea jewels that glittered upon the sunlight which bounced on the surface of the jewel and reflected the light elsewhere.

Fangsu went into a jewellery shop to gaze at the shiny brilliance of the sea jewels that reflected light into the walls and ceilings. Each jewel varied in colour but as Fangsu eyes wandered around the shop there were pearls that were varied in colour it was quite a surprise to see the various colours that pearls could come in as she was used to seeing the normal white pearls. The manager of the shop noticed the surprised expression of the newcomer that was being talked about in this village, "Are you interested in the raw jewels and pearl that we have available?" Walking up to the unexpected Fangsu was jumped out of fright at the manager's voice.

Fangsu nodded as she pointed at the pearls which were arranged according to their colour range from the normal whites, pinks, oranges, yellows, purple, blue and greens, "How are these pearls so colourful?" Since Fangsu was not familiar with pearl cultivation which fascinated her. The manager obviously didn't expose his trade secret knowing that it took much effort to procure the colour of the pearls.

Nevertheless, Fangsu understood that no businessman would let out their trade secrets but she would want to take advantage of these colourful pearls that were rarely used. Combining the colour pearls with sea jewels or glass to make a hairpin into various designs would make a popular item amongst nobility especially the younger ones. But, Fangsu entering the jewellery industry would be walking into murky waters. It just wasn't her forte. Turning to the direction of the manager, "I would like to have a couple of custom made jewellery sent to the capital," Fangsu write down the address of the Blossoming Fragrance establishment, "I want five hairpins with the coloured pearls and sea glass also I want three pendants using the most durable sea glass you have here," Drawing each design with a spare piece of paper and a brush.