Providing a Service

I was so busy with Luna Marche, that I didn't realise I had become a bit of a legend. A noble lady who followed her brother to war, then had a seat in meetings and decided the outcome of diplomatic relations, then started a business that empowered and provided women with beautiful products never seen before, and also protected women by giving them a place to stay. However, some things never change.

I held my head as I read the Ling Clan's latest letter to me. They requested for some products – that was fine. They in addition requested I say good things to Lu Qing Yu for Ling Wan... that was not possible. She made her own bed and now she had to lie in it. I wrote a brief reply, tossed it to the servant, then went back to my mixture.

Every now and then, I tasted a little and scribbled some things down. "Young miss, what are you making?" I explained food flavouring to them. They were amazed but also sceptical. Well, it was natural to be amazed. I had already successfully created food colouring. "I'm almost done. Let's go to the kitchen to test it out."

I had instructed the kitchen staff to not enter the kitchen while we 3 tried out something new. I asked them to simply create the dough for a simple, plain pastry, then added a reasonable amount of both flavouring (blueberry) and colouring. They watched as the dough became a beautiful violet. When it was finally done, it looked like something out of this world. Food colouring wasn't used to deceive people but to make the food look more beautiful. We could simply make blueberry pastries, but adding the colouring would make it a more vibrant and rich violet. They tried it out. "Young miss, will you sell this product?" "This is genius!"

"Not yet." I smiled. "I'll have to test it first." Since I only had the prototypes, more time was needed to create a decent batch of products and get the vials. Since we already served pastries everywhere, this would be a good chance to create some hype. I visited all the Luna Marche kitchens.

The kitchen for the employee teahouses, the kitchen for the noble teahouse... and gave them the containers, briefed them on what it was, then demonstrated. I told them to incorporate it in all the pastries by the next day. No one had any complaints about it. I wasn't asking them to create something new, but to simply mix in a bit more of this. It was very fun to see it change into something ethereal.

Hui Fei, daughter of Minister Fei looked forward to receiving the beautiful basket from Luna Marche every month. It was like receiving a free treasure (it wasn't free, just a free sample). She looked forward to seeing what would come up next. Since she signed up, she felt she lived an easier and more luxurious life. She didn't have to worry too much about her monthly cycle... she got beautiful and scented bath time... she also looked more beautiful and radiant. This time though, the basket contained something completely unexpected.

There weren't any beautiful glass or porcelain bottles. It was a bundle of pastries and a box of tea. Since when did Luna Marche make food? No, it couldn't be that simple. Not only that, the basket was filled with matching blue roses. Roses weren't blue! Her maid went away with the basket and came back with a plate and a pot of tea. She gasped. The plate was filled with delicate looking pastries of different colours. Some were bold, some were a soft pastel.

"And what is this tea?" she asked. "Honey flower tea." She stared as the honey tea came out a beautiful pink. She sniffed the tea suspiciously, then took a sip. It tasted different, somehow. More magical? What was in this tea? And why did the pastries taste different too? Her maid handed her the catalogue.

There was a large picture followed by a section called Celestial Colours (food colouring) which was a magical liquid. If you added a few drops into your food or drink, it would have beauty preserving properties and change colour. You could also add it into your plant water and get different coloured plants (as long as it was white or a light colour).

You could choose whatever colour you wanted. Another section was called Celestial Nectar (food flavouring). If you added a few drops into your food or drink, it would magically take on the flavour of whatever bottle you chose. Convenient to even bring when travelling, bringing an end to tasteless and dull looking food. Hui Fei immediately filled in the order form, ordering a large stock. Wait till it arrived. Father would love it.

After taking over the women's industry, Luna Marche went on to cause a stir in the food industry and gardening industry. I had to handle multiple letters from competitors and trade unions every day. Most of them went in the trash. However, due to this new product, I realised there might be a demand. Anticipating this, Luna Marche's Confectionary Department was born. The Luna Marche Confectionary Department didn't operate out of the office building in Yue district. Instead, I had spent quite a lot of money and effort buying over the shop next to the flagship building, and refurbished it to contain 6 floors.

3 floors would be a confectionary shop – chocolate, pastries, sweets, candies, tea, sweet beverages, desserts – strictly take away only. Because it was just refurbishing, it was very quickly done up. What took the longest was installing the kitchen equipment. The 4th and 5th floor would be the kitchens, and the 6th floor was a lounge and open work space. The confectionary department had the very important job of innovating and creating beautiful, unique and cute confectionaries using Celestial Colours and Celestial Nectar. They would be packaged beautifully and put in the shop to sell, and we also accepted catering or event orders, by appointment only. It would also produce limited edition items such as flavoured ice in the summer and sweet beverages in the winter.

Fei Yan and I had spent a lot of effort to hire and interview experienced dessert chefs, as well as trained existing chefs to come over to operate the shop. Due to the tendency for nobles to have large orders, there were 40 chefs in the 2 kitchens at any one time. Fortunately, the kitchens were large and spacious. I ensured extra windows and ventilation to be installed on the 4th and 5th floor so that it wouldn't get too hot.

Once one went into the Luna Marche Confectionary, one would be met with a wonder. All sorts of exquisite, beautiful confectionery, packaged in a refined and elegant way, on top of shelves that themselves looked like chocolate or sweets. Instalments of large desserts that were human sized were positioned throughout the store. The floor and ceiling were a pastel colour, with colourful sprinkle designs. Cooled desserts sat on beds of coloured ice and coloured flowers adorned every corner.

This was the brainchild of the confectionary department as well as my very specific instructions to the construction staff. I had designed and drawn candies from the 21st century, intending to recreate a candy store or candy land. In this era were candy stores were marble or wood tiled and manned by old men.

A candy store that looked as if you were in a wonderland that jumped at you, served by beautiful and young girls in candy-esque uniforms was marketing at its finest. And there were 3 floors of this! I had also given the confectionary department a stack of recipes for candies they probably hadn't heard of before – wafer bars, tater tots, hundreds and thousands, liquorice, lollipops, candied apples, meringue, cookies, egglets, waffles, layered cake, rainbow cake, no-bake cheesecake, brownies, muffins, fudge, pancakes, icing, sugar decorations, crème brulee, gummies, chocolate, but the favourite had to be cotton candy.

I was only able to introduce cotton candy after having commissioned a machine (which had to be hand pulled). These ingredients were not commonly found in Yuan An and I expended a lot of connections to get a regular supply of them. This meant sitting in many boring dinners and having tea with merchants and whoever had their hand on, say, yeast or cocoa.

I also tried to suggest some European sweets and cakes, as well as Japanese mochi and desserts. The standard of cake here was shocking. Thankfully, cake was very easy to make. Although I wasn't an expert, the chefs were and were able to improve my version by leaps and bounds. Until the store opened, everyone in Luna Marche went home with heaps of cake and candy since the chefs had to practice.

The waiting list was 6 months long. At every event, everyone wanted Luna Marche catering. I had no intentions to expand the kitchens. Making catering hard to get meant more demand. I spent quite a lot of time admiring my taels. Every month, I got 40 000 taels as a second rank official and 18 000 as a noble concubine. However, I was easily making (in profit) 500 000 taels a month from Luna Marche, an astronomical number, and still managing to pay my employees high fees, fund workshops and dorms, and maintain the many buildings and equipment, as well as pay them bonuses.

The reason could be boiled down to how wasteful the nobles were with their money. That, and seeing something they never had before, as well as how others all had it and made a point to keep up with the latest trends, made them spend as well. Not only that, it was very accessible to purchase products.

Every month they got a basket of free goodies, a catalogue and an order form. After trying it out, they could order a whole bunch, or order a set amount every month. If they came to the flagship store to browse and gossip with other noble ladies, the nail salon was on the right and the confectionery was on the left. Usually, noble ladies would send their servants to purchase things for them, but everyone wanted to experience the candy wonderland. As such, sales skyrocketed. Many competitors attempted to imitate Luna Marche to no avail.

Luna Marche now no longer targeted just noble ladies, though that was the main target group. Luna Marche sold low-end nail polish and low-end "pads" to commoners, and men also had a sweet tooth. The sweets would be shared with the entire household, and since nobles were used to asking for more whenever they wanted, and their chefs could not replicate the numerous (and complex) confectionery, they had no choice but to order a huge batch. The confectionery stores usually closed within 2 hours due to how fast it sold out. Even if it was at high prices and in small portions, no one cared.