22 - Chapter 20
The three were nonplussed by Sa Bina’s announcement.
“So our first foray into the business world will be in baking.” continued Sa Bina. “We have created contracts with a blacksmith, glassmith, alchemist, dairy farmer and winemaker. We are still yet to finalise an artificer or two to help with the rest of our plans. I am still looking for suitable locations for our storefront in the noble quarter.”
“That is already a lot, are we going to be able to support them with enough work?” asked Be Net.
“Don’t worry, I have a lot for them to do.” replied Sa Bina.”Now, I had a plan to use some of the empty space on this estate to support my business plans. I want to create an event venue, near the main entrance to the main estate. It will have enough space to seat up to 200 people in a restaurant setting. We will offer breakfast and lunch. The dinner service will be reserved for entertainment, or for private hire. We may even use it to host auctions. Apart from that we will need a large kitchen, dairy workshop and cold storage.”
“Isn’t that a little ambitious, my lady.” asked Be Net, “There is no public venue of that size anywhere in the city. Only the individual nobles estates would even come close to that size and they are hardly used. Only the royal palace would be bigger.”
“I plan to entice our wealthier merchants to become enchanted with the setting, with them competing to get bookings.” replied Sa Bina. “Most would love to show off their wealth, but are unable to in the heart of the city. It will also give us a venue to hold our own events. Lastly, the expense would not be wasted, as it would raise the value of this estate, so we don’t lose out in any case, just tie up some assets long term.”
“That would also mean we need to hire a lot more people, my lady, “said Lou Sie. “And train them up to work to your standard.”
“Yes, it does.” replied Sa Bina. “When I am done, not only will people frequent our venue, but we will be selling bread to everyone who can afford it. I can see the looks of incredulity on your faces, but once you have tasted my bread, you will all want to eat nothing else. Lou Sie, since we have only just moved in, we have a little leeway, but I am sure we will need to host a function to make introductions to the nobles and the wealthy of the city. I intend to use that event to promote a selection of new delicacies. I also intend to make it a semiregular event, and use it to promote new items we develop in the interim.”
After that pronouncement Sa Bina and her retainers spent the rest of dinner going over the details of her plans and working out what she would need to make her plans a reality. They agreed that Sa Bina would need to take on a restaurant manager, a business manager, a head cook and a maitre-d as a bare minimum. They would start the search for appropriate people, looking both within their current retainers and bringing in talent from the next day. Thankfully those positions did not need to be filled urgently, and would only be required once the buildings were complete. Sa Bina did not intend to wait and wanted to start the process of creating new items from tomorrow. She would use her existing staff to start experimenting. Talking about experimenting, she wondered how her yeast farming was progressing.
After dinner, Sa Bina went down to the kitchen to take a look at her yeast culture. It seemed to be progressing well and would be ready for a trail run the next day. She gave instructions to the cook to ensure nothing went wrong with her yeast. She hoped to start producing high quality bread within the week. It was the easiest recipe to replicate, though it would be harder without all the tools.
After her inspections, Sa Bina went off to bed. She wanted to be properly rested. Another night of her by now recurring dreams of clouds and flying followed. She awoke refreshed with no memory of her dreams. She felt lighter, almost as if she was floating. She put it down to a restful sleep and prepared for the day ahead. She had a lot to achieve today.
She went down for breakfast to find Lou Sie already waiting for her. “The business owners are here already and waiting for you, my lady,” said Lou Sie on seeing her.
“Ask Be Net to show them around the estate, and then go and access their workshops.” replied Sa Bina. “After breakfast we are going to the sect inn to interview for the artificer roles. We can meet them after we return, and finalise the contracts with everyone. Then I can spend time with them all explaining what I want from them all and in what order.”
After a good breakfast they headed out for the inn. Lou Sie had passed on the instructions to Be Net and he had taken her new hires in hand.
It didn’t take long for them to arrive at the inn. As they entered they found Sun Li waiting for them.
“Greetings, my lady.” said Sun Li. “I see you like an early start.”
“Greetings Sun Li,“ replied Sa Bina. “Have you met Lou Sie, my secretary? Yes I have a lot to get done today, and thought an early start would be for the best. I hope I am not too early.”
“No, the prospects are already here.” replied Sun Li, “When they realised the opportunity on offer there was a lot of interest. We have some excellent people here today including a few masters.”
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“That’s good.” replied Sa Bina. “I hope they are all aware of the need to transfer to our kingdom?”
“Yes they have all been informed,” replied Sun Li, “Only those that are happy to proceed are here, we lost about half of those interested due to that stipulation, but a few previously uninterested people changed their mind. Still the elder guaranteed that they have the qualities you are looking for.”
“Excellent.”, replied Sa Bina. “Let's get started, I need to make a decision. I have a lot to get done today.”
With that stated the interviews. Sa Bina decided to interview the more senior applicants first, and then add the selected person to the interview panel for the junior role. They had 11 applicants for the master artificer role ranging from the newly qualified to an old master. Sa Bina had them leave most of the questioning to her, she needed to be able to work with whoever she hired, and if they were not happy taking direction from her, either due to her age or being female, then the relationship would never work.
It was as she had feared, most of the masters chafed at being questioned by what one of them called her, an unschooled girl that had no business questioning her betters. Suffice it to say his interview ended promptly at that point. They lost 7 out of the 11 due to poor attitude. Still not everyone was the same, out of the four left, three were newly promoted and the last was the old master.
Goa Ye was in his 50s and had been a master artificer for over three decades. He was happy to take direction from her, and came across very well. His wife had recently passed away, and he had no other immediate family. He was looking for direction and a new challenge, something he thought Sa Bina could provide. He quickly became Sa Bina’s first pick and joined the interview panel.
Surprisingly, Sa Bina also liked Pan Deming, a newly promoted master artificer in his mid 20s. It helped that he had trained extensively under Gao Ye. He had a very calm demeanour, and once he realised that Goa Ye had already accepted the contract, was very eager to continue to work with him. He specialised in architectural work, something that Sa Bina sorely needed. He had already discussed the opportunity with his wife and they were happy to transfer over. His wife was an aspiring artist, so there was another potential hire there.
Since Sa Bina had already hired two artificers, they debated whether to end the interview there. Sa Bina felt a little bad not even giving people an opportunity to be heard, so decided to carry on the interviews, not with Pan Deming also on the panel.
There had been 26 journeymen who had come to try their luck and again a lot chafed at working for a young girl. Though not as vocal as some of the masters, their attitude was quite clear to see. The 26 were quickly cut down to only 6. Sa Bina was used to sexist attitudes and with the burden of her young age, had been expecting this sort of behaviour, but it still annoyed her. The reason any of them were here was that they were not talented cultivators, most only at the starting stages of body enhancement. Even Gao Ye had only just reached the Qi gathering stage. She thought their arrogance did not match their meagre skills.
Still it was a quick way to cut down the numbers, and saved her a lot of time that would have been wasted on interviews. Out of the six, most were following a traditional route, and would not add anything different to her existing team. She wasn't sure she needed a third at this stage. Just as she was wondering if she had really wasted her time, she came across Wan Zin. He was gregarious and outspoken. He had also trained under Gao Ye, but the reason he had not yet earned his promotion to master was due to his desire to chart his own path. He liked to experiment with unusual designs.
Sa Bina liked his ideas and thought she could direct him to her more ambitious projects. She made the offer, making it clear that mostly he would be focused on delivering to her agenda. He knew he was struggling to progress, and jumped at the offer. With that Sa Bina had finished what she needed to start her first project.
Lou Sie worked through the paperwork with the three, then sent them off to collect their families and belongings before moving to the estate.
As Lou Sie worked, Sa Bina chatted with Sun Li, mostly making small talk; she did let her in on her plan to invite the worthies of the city to a meet and greet event. Sun Li advised her on some general etiquette for such events and names to add to the list or watch out for.
It wasn’t long until they were done. Checking the time, the interviews had proceeded at pace, mostly due to the bad attitude of the applicants, so Sa Bina decided to drop in to see the minister. She still had some time before Be Net would be done with her hires.
She went in to see Hang Fo, and was greeted with ready paperwork. The amended contract was awaiting her review and signature. Hang Fo had also included the minor amendments to what was considered costs, as per Sa Bina’s push back and it was acceptable to her. Once the contract was signed they discussed the progress of the search for the law on supplying a foreign guild operating in the kingdom.
“We have found the law,” said Hang Fo, handing her a copy. “It was just as you suspected, and was passed the same day as the original law.”
Sa Bina took the paperwork and spent some time reading the law in detail working through the implications. Thankfully, laws were much simpler in this world, not having suffered at the hands of the legal profession.
“So if I am reading this right, the existing guilds have to supply materials at a fixed 20% over production costs or prevailing market rates, whichever is lower,” said Sa Bina. “That will let our guild buy raw materials at a good price. The concern is that it does not mention local businesses purchasing from the guild. The other issue is that it sets limits on how much material may be procured at half or less of total production.”
“I can see the nobles trying to use cost inflation to raise the price,” continued Sa Bina. “But we can cut that out by forcing an audit. They will cave on the price rather than let us complete the audits for the fear we will find something else. They will try to say that local businesses can’t buy from us, but it doesn't say they can’t, it doesn't mention them at all, so it applies both ways. We need some examples of things nobles do, where the law doesn't mention nobles to use against them when they bring out the argument. The biggest challenge will be the amount. Still it gives us a strong basis to push back.”
“You know this will just make things worse right?” asked Hang Fo. “They will struggle to stop us via legal routes, so they are more likely to employ underhanded methods.”
“They were always going to do that, minister.” replied Sa Bina. “We will have to plan accordingly. You do understand I will need a standing army to defend my interests right?”