Chapter 92 - Women's World

"My Lady, the candidates chosen by Manager Jun are here." Li Wu came to notify Jiang Ying Yue who was currently resting after returning from the mountains.

She had paid another visit to the mountains this morning to grab some more herbs for creating new batches of cosmetics. She once again encountered the same hellhound whom she met during her previous visit.

While she was busy collecting herbs, Silver was busy chatting with the hellhound even though he accompanied her to the mountains to help her in collecting herbs and also to keep her safe.

Since she needed a lot of herbs, she spend nearly four hours in the forest, and all the work made her very tired. At the moment, she felt like doing nothing and just taking a nap. However, there were still a lot of important works that needed her attention.

Opening her eyes, she gave a slight nod to Li Wu who left the room to continue with her work. Jiang Ying Yue had assigned the girl to train the new group of servants whom she had purchased the previous evening for her new store.

The jewelry shop that Gu Chen's family owned was located near the southern part of the Capital city, closer to the palace and in the midst of where the houses of the officials were located. 

She had decided to shift her cosmetic shop into the so-called jewelry shop of the Gu family. Since most of her customers were the ladies of noble families, it would be better for her business to be located near their residence.

On the other hand, the current shop of 'Glamour and Fashion' would continue working on clothes along with a new addition of jewelry floor that she had decided to open on the second floor that had been left empty all this while.

While the maids who had been working with her in the cosmetics wing for the past two months were going to accompany her to their new store along with Li Wu and Li Qi, she still needed more servants and also talented ones who could learn her skills and help her with her business. 

As she walked down the stairs and appeared on the ground floor, she found a group of around twenty people waiting for her in the sitting area.

In the past two months, her shop had become somewhat popular among the locals. It was not really for the clothes that they sold but because of the high-quality cosmetics and her makeup skills. Besides, somehow it had been leaked that she was paying around ten silvers or so to the workers of the store as their salary.

Even though it was the Capital City of the prosperous Hyuang Empire, it didn't mean that earning ten silver taels every month was an easy job, especially for poor people like servants and slaves. They could barely earn a few silver taels and some copper coins after working so hard for the entire day. But here she was, giving out so many silver taels only for eight hours of their work each day. 

"My Lady, here are the designs that they have submitted." Manager Jun handed her some parchments on which several jewelry designs were carved. 

"Are they all original?" Jiang Ying Yue asked as she checked the designs.

"Yes, My Lady. All those who copied the designs from other stores have already been sent away." Manager Jun replied with a slight bow of his head.

Jiang Ying Yue seemed impressed as she lightly nodded her head in approval. Her judgment about this Jun guy wasn't wrong. Just in two months, he had learned a lot. He was not only one of her most trusted workers but he was also sharp-minded. So far, he hadn't disappointed her even once.

As she looked through the sketches, two particular designs caught her attention. One of those designs was the simplest one among all the designs. It was a design of earrings made of white jade.

The other design that caught her attention was that of a wooden hairpin. Though the item used for the hairpin was wood, the designer had carved a beautiful peony on the very end of the hairpin. Something that she hadn't seen so far in the market.

Usually, women from poor families used wooden hairpins and those hairpins were as simple looking as one could. However, it was the first time when she had seen a design of a wooden hairpin that appeared as beautiful and detailed as a jade hairpin used by the women of the noble families.

A smile appeared on her lips but no one saw it because of the veil. She handed the two designs to Manager Jun to take a look at before she turned her attention towards the group of people standing in front of her.

"May I ask who designed these two designs?" She watched as a man in his early forties and a woman of the same age stepped forward and bowed their heads to greet her.

"Are you two a couple?" Jiang Ying Yue asked and wasn't even surprised when they nodded their heads in agreement.

"You want to gift your wife jade earrings even if they are the simplest ones while your wife wants to create jewelry that could be cheap but bring happiness to people when they wear it. I'm impressed by both of you." She praised the couple who once again bowed their heads in gratitude.

"Manager Jun, take care of their hiring process and make sure to get all the details right. I'll send you the contracts within a couple of minutes, have them signed. Serve refreshments to the rest of them and then send them away." She told the young man who immediately nodded his head before he left to take care of the work.

Jiang Ying Yue was about to return to her cosmetic wing when she was stopped by one of the designers who had come for the interview.

"Lady Yue, may I ask why you didn't choose the others. There are many designs that are more beautiful and detailed than theirs." The woman asked as she pointed at the designs that were resting on the table.

Jiang Ying Yue tilted her head slightly as she observed the woman before turning her attention towards the rest of the group of people standing in her shop.

"Then tell me, according to you guys is the design of the jewelry the main criteria to become a good designer?" She asked and watched as almost everyone hesitated to answer her question.

"If that's what you think then I'm sorry but I can't hire you in my shop because that's not what I think. And if you think that a good designer needs more than just skills, then you already have the answer as to why I didn't select someone from the rest of your group. Have a nice day." Jiang Ying Yue didn't wait anymore as she turned around and walked away. 

For the rest of the day, she was busy taking care of her customers and also taking care of the preparation of the shifting of her cosmetic shop.

She had decided to name her shop - 'Women's World'. The store had only two floors unlike the three floors of her current shop but even two were more than enough for her to run her business at full speed. Currently, the shop was going through renovations so that she could open it as soon as possible.

Both Li Wu and Li Qi had been learning under Manager Jun's guidance for the past two months. While Li Wu was better at handling accounts, Li Qi was more opt at handling managerial works. 

Jiang Ying Yue had decided to ask for Silver's help so that the guy could help the Li sisters to learn more about their works. Just two months of training won't help them run a shop, they needed more training time and guidance.

"Who is going to take care of this shop if you are going to shift to your new shop?" Gu Chen asked that evening when he found her packing stuff in boxes.

"You." That's all Jiang Ying Yue said as she continued with packing up the cosmetics and skincare products.

Her answer left Gu Chen dumbfounded for a while as he tried to see if she was serious or just joking with him. However, looking at her serious face, it didn't seem like she was in the mood of joking around. 

"What are you planning to do now?" He asked while taking a seat next to her office table which was currently a big mess.

"I currently found a news that has given me the courage to just walk out and face the lackeys of the Prime Minister with full confidence." She told him with a shrug of her shoulders before she moved to clear the table.

"What news?" He asked curiously.

Jiang Ying Yue finally stopped for a few seconds to look at the young man as she answered, "Your father and brother are returning to the Capital next month."