20 Yue District's Luna Marche Office Building

Luna Marche paid high wages, gave you the option to have breaks and free food, and provided a beautiful, airy workspace. In this era where women had limited jobs, and often had to work in dirty or cramped environments with little pay, Luna Marche was outstanding. The 3 teahouses and lounges were also a very novel idea. Luna Marche became a place where noble ladies could meet up to chat, and also discuss the latest gossip. At the same time, they would naturally be intrigued by Luna Marche's offerings.

My employees were often former servants, slaves or prostitutes. I wanted to give them a change to change their lives and experience a better environment. Many women did not have the option or ability to get out of their current lifestyles. But they had to pass the character test and be hardworking and harmonious with the rest of my employees. They also had to be trustworthy and not deflect to competitors or sell our products or information outside. If they had troubles, they should let me know and I would find a way to help.

It took 2 weeks of apprehensive (and embarrassed) testing, but the pads were a resounding success. We got mass orders from every noble household we sent out the pads to, keeping our pad division busy for at least 3 months. Cosmetics on the other hand, made with our signature glitter, were much easier to produce. We produced eyebrow paint, foundation (safe and without mercury, as was the norm, and had moistening elements), eyeshadow, rouge, and lipstick, huadian (the decorative element on the forehead), and face rollers. Currently, I was also working on a beautifying "face mist", which was just flower-scented distilled water, together with some herbs that were good for beauty.

My 21st century knowledge and creation of unique (and improved products) to this era plus Hua Ling and Yu Hui's knowledge and know-how of preferred trends nowadays was a lethal combination. Our makeup products were cased in porcelain, jade or other precious materials hand painted and crafted delicately by out trusted supplier, scented with flowers, and came with application tools such as the makeup brush or sponge (easy enough to make) that greatly increased the accuracy of the application.

There was also an embossed "Luna Marche" symbol on each of our products. Every month, we would come up with a new "series/line" of products, which were just different colours, combinations or uses of a product, and put them in the store. Our premium customers got delivery as usual, and we also mass-produced a store catalogue every month and delivery form which got sent out as well.

The pads on the other hand, were the closest to 21st century pads I could possibly make. The materials were easy enough to find, but making them absorbent, and sticky without damaging clothes was difficult. I was also having difficulty making designs on the pads that wouldn't bleed in contact with blood, but scented pads were alright. They came in beautiful casing (as did the rest of the products), and required a wooden press to make.

Since I deemed it a women's necessity, all our employees got 6 free pads a month for their own needs. Currently, we only produced basic pads, but I had blueprints for longer pads, pads with wings, as well as extra-absorbent maternity pads. We would slowly roll these out over the year, and market them accordingly. I also had some ideas for tampons though we would need a different press for that. For noble ladies who were very active, such as those who danced or did martial arts, they might prefer tampons. My issue was also creating a spray bottle for facial mist.

With the current materials available, it was hard to find one that could be crafted into the necessary shape, was flexible enough, and also would not leak. However, I believed I found the answer in bamboo. In just a few months, noble ladies went from admiration, to envy, to jealousy to amazement at my products. Since they could buy it too, there was no reason to hate me. However, Luna Marche was exploding in popularity and would need to expand to maintain its operations.

I had long scouted a few pieces of land in the city and bought them. With my bonuses, income as a second rank official and the income Luna Marche was now bringing in, I had been secretly constructing a large office building in a prime (non- shopping) district of the city, and had also purchased the land to its left and right.

If needed, I could use the land to extend the building. For the time being, the surrounding land I owned was surrounded by a beautiful spring garden, manicured and immaculate. This office building was at least 3 times the size of the current building, and had designated employee workspaces for each department. It was also 8 floors (the current limit of construction capacity for this era).

I had coined it the cosmetics department, the women's necessities department, the women's novelty department, the women's empowerment department (yet to be open), and it also had space for 2 more departments that were not yet open. This office building was to be open next week, after 1.5 years of secret construction. I had long known I wanted to open a business, and had commissioned a building since I knew I couldn't use the flagship store as a manufacturing office forever.

This building featured a lobby with a beautiful reception with a lounge area. The second floor had a large teahouse with complimentary food, lounge area, sleeping pods, a 2 large workshop rooms (for guests to teach employees how to cook, or give massages etc). The 3rd to 7th floor were spaces for departments. Currently, only the 3rd to 5th floor were occupied, though they were all decorated. Each department had beautiful wallpaper, plants, "meeting rooms", a decorated lift lobby, and brainstorm areas. They also each had a product wall where their products were displayed as well as a tea area where they could make their own tea if they didn't want to go down to the teahouses.

On the 8th floor was the executive suites. Hua Ling, Yu Hui and I all had an office. The building was decked out in white and light wood, as well as pastel hues. It had a mail delivery service, back area to receive logistics, complimentary stationery and the like. At night, a tutor would come into one of the workshops to teach any employees who wanted to, to read and write. All stationery would be provided and at the end of the workshop they would get free notebooks. They would also have a higher chance to be promoted.

The equipment had already been moved and the desks and lights were already fitted. Hearing all the perks, no one had any complaints about moving over. I closed Luna Marche for a day and everyone came over together. I had also completed employee interviews and the signing on process and had hired 2 dozen new employees to help with the workload. For my current employees who were keen, promising and showed good performance, I promoted them to have more responsibilities and to become managers. They enjoyed a slightly more private office in the department and more pay and bonuses.

Everyone oohed and ahhed in amazement as they entered the campus. The Luna Marche office building in Yue District was entirely gated, with admin staff and security. Each employee was given an identity token which they had to show to gain access to the building. This was to protect the employees, who were entirely female.

There was a large expanse of beautiful garden, and even a fountain in front of the office building. As they went in, I introduced them to each floor, the facilities and explained what each feature was for. The admin staff had a large enclosed workspace on the 1st floor as well, though there were only 2 currently. They would help to brief employees, manage signups and reception, ensure employee welfare, and ensure the building was maintained properly.

We spent the whole day settling in, admiring the facilities, and getting used to the equipment. Then, Hua Ling, Yu Hui and I went back to the flagship store. The 4th, 5th, and 6th floor were also converted to beautiful showrooms, while the 7th floor was converted to more offices. Since we had to just move out the equipment and place fittings and furniture in the office, after closing for a week, we were open for business again, brighter and more beautiful. The 3rd office on the 8th floor was filled by our new Creative Manager, Gu Wei. Gu Wei used to be a top prostitute at one of the most sought-after brothels in the city.

After making enough money to retire in her prime, she felt listless at not having a job but never wanted to go back. She joined Luna Marche as an employee. She was full of ideas and know how, having been working with women for nearly a decade. She would help to advance ideas, make improvements on existing products, and suggest new products to help Luna Marche roll out new product line after product line and keep up to date. She knew what women wanted and needed the most, and also what men wanted to see on women.

The 8th floor also got some new renovations and perks. The store was staffed, the products were arranged on glittering jade aisles, and we were open for business again. While everyone got used to their new roles, I still had to be on site quite a lot. I also promoted an employee to be a "Human Resources" Manager who would be stationed at the office building to manage the staff.

Fei Yan was another outstanding member of staff who showed great people skills. She had worked in a great variety of trades, and was highly praised by the rest of the staff. She would be making sure everything ran smoothly at the office, managed staff relations and came up with new employee empowerment programmes, managed recruitment and kept employees happy and made sure to quell discontent. Since she was around 30, she was a natural mother figure to many of the young girls who worked here, and also could emphasise with the working mothers.