323: Manipulation — Correction, Marketing Techniques of the Artist

Manipulation — Correction, Marketing Techniques of the Artist

When the day that the disciples would set off for Huangshan arrived, Yujia found herself frankly much more nervous than she expected. 1

With modern tourism, there were definitely risks, such as plane accidents or train crashes, but they didn't seem as terrifying as traveling across the control by foot and carriage. At the pace they planned to take, it was going to take nearly a month to-and-from Huangshan, and the prospects of that were fairly terrifying. Especially after hearing all the horror stories that Zixu had to encounter on his trip, Yujia wondered if freak accidents were going to happen on her vacation as well.

She didn't want to die on a vacation. That just seemed like no fun at all.

In an attempt to distract herself from the prospects of death, Yujia decided to put good use to one of the inventions she had been working on the past few weeks.

While her luggage and the belongings of the other disciples were being loaded onto carriages, she took advantage of the crowd of disciples that would be going on a trip with her. Picking up a box that had been sitting beside her, she approached her fellow disciples and bowed.

Upon seeing her— most of them knew her well, by this point— they stopped in their conversation. Their attention turning to her, they exchanged greetings. 

Then, one of them— Jiang Muyun— pointed out the box in her hands. "What do you have there, Junior Sister?" he questioned with his quiet voice as usual.

Yujia's eyes lit up. Setting the box down, she took out a few of the contents at the top layer. 

"I'm glad you asked!" she declared, holding one of them up in front of her. "These are sketchbooks!" 

For the past few weeks, sketchbooks was one of the inventions she was working on. In the current art culture of Xiang, sketchbooks were not a prominent thing. However, ever since she invented pencils, Yujia was tired of drawing with loose leaf pages. Books, on the other hand, did exist, but it wasn't quite as durable and waterproof as Yujia would've liked. And thus, she began to work on inventing a quality sketchbook to solve this issue. 

After contacting a few artisans, she produced the sketchbooks that were currently in her hand right now. Each sketchbook held four labeled sections, each section filled with a varying type of paper. One section was of soft Raw Xuan paper, excellent for blooming pieces of watercolor. The next one was of a stiffer kind of Ripe Xuan paper, which was better at absorbing water. Typically, Ripe Xuan paper was used for more detailed and meticulous paintings. As Xuan paper was made from elm and mulberry, with a highly complicated process, the high quality paper filling the majority of the sketchbook definitely raised the value of the book.

However, besides the Xuan paper, the two other sections were where things became out of the ordinary. The following section was for oil painting, the paper primed to be suitable for the oil paints. And after that, at the very last section, there was a good, decent chunk of pages dedicated to just pencil sketching. She had the formula specially made to be smooth against the texture of the pencil, yet thick enough to withstand layered sketching movements. After testing sheet after sheet of failure, Yujia could confidently say that for these sketchbooks, she had finally discovered the perfect sketch paper.

Once she collected the four kinds of paper she wanted in her sketchbook, she fashioned a spiral-type design through punching holes, then thread a wire through all of the punched holes. For the two covers, she used a dark stained wood, which elevated the elegance and durability of the book. Furthermore, because of the solid wooden backing, sketching on-the-go would be relatively easy. The need for a table was gone. 

Precisely because of the adaptability, Yujia figured now was a better time to introduce the sketchbook than ever.

Proudly, she opened one up and demonstrated the various sections to her fellow disciples. They marveled at it, like she predicted.

She had long mastered the way of capturing the full attention of these disciples. As total obsessed artists, it only took some pretty art supplies to win over their hearts. After all, that was the same case for Yujia too.

Once she completely explained the sketchbook, she began to distribute them into the arms of each disciple.

The first one she gave it to, who was standing at the front of the crowd, looked at it with shock. "Junior Sister," he began, "this— you're giving it to me?"

Yujia paused, nodding. "Of course! Since you all are my amazing fellow disciples, should I not share these wonderful supplies with everyone? Everyone can have one. There's plenty to go around."

At her generosity, they all thanked her greatly, but their attention was no longer on her as much once they got their hands on their sketchbooks. They became focused on this new supply instead. Yujia swore that the eyes of her seniors and juniors were all shining with excitement.

Each sketchbook, with all the costly quality materials that she commissioned, cost almost twenty silver taels. As Yujia calculated the three-hundred taels slipping away from her hands, she realized that while in the past, she would've died at the idea of giving that amount out for free, this amount of silver no longer fazed her. 

The glory of being rich!

If not for the fact that she was pretending to be all serious and professional in front of the disciples, Yujia may have started laughing. To think that she was all terrified this morning, and the one thing that completely changed her mood was the moment she realized that she was rolling in silver.

Her previous idea that art supplies were the best things in her life was entirely wiped in her mind. It was really money. She was really that greedy. Or to put it better, greedy and shameless at being greedy.

At these thoughts, she found herself unable to hold back a small laugh. It was just as she handed a sketchbook to Jiang Muyun. 

The corners of Muyun's lips turned up. "What's so funny, Junior Sister?" 

"Nothing." Yujia quickly denied, replacing the laugh with a calm smile. "I'm just so happy that you all, as my closest fellow disciples, are so excited to try out this product of mine."

"We should be the ones thanking you," a disciple to the side chimed in. "Now, we can record drawings during the trip!" 

Yunhe, who had already gotten his sketchbook, agreed, "Junior Sister, I finally get to try out the thing that you were working on these past weeks. It's an honor for me, and all of us."

Yujia grinned a little wider. She liked the direction this conversation was going. Holding a hand up to her lips as to politely cover her laughter, she then replied, oh-so-cheerfully, "If everyone does enjoy using their sketchbook, after we return from the trip, be sure to recommend this product to all of your friends and family, alright? It will be selling in Three Inks by that time." 

Within a split moment, they agreed happily. 

On the outside, Yujia kept her serene smile. On the inside, she was madly cheering for herself.

This was the reason, all along, for why she was giving them the sketchbooks for free. After all, what was better than promotion and advertisement than personal recommendations from a friend or family member? She could already picture the customers flocking into Three Inks after word got out on how magnificent the sketchbooks were after the trip. 

And then, all the silver in the world would be… 

Yujia coughed, killing off that piece of imagination from her brain. It was better to not get ahead of herself, or too caught up in the greed. She promptly threw "Idea: Filthy Rich" into the folder of "Daydreams for Later" in her brain.

Now that her mood had improved drastically, and that she cut off the thoughts of money from her brain, Yujia discovered that her optimism for this trip had skyrocketed.

She wasn't going to die on this trip! It was just a casual vacation, after all. 

There was no way that she could possibly die, and even if she did, she would beat up the grim reaper himself if he dared to ruin her brilliant vacation.

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