Chapter 15
At the same time, at the place where Hayun was.
“Cough! Cough!”
The pungent dust of sawdust and the fragrant smell of wood stung the tip of her nose. She couldn’t stop coughing because of the mess of sawdust scattered all around her.
Rustle.
Hayun stepped into the woodworking shop and carefully offered a greeting.
“Hello.”
“Who are you?”
An old man working a hand plane asked without even turning his head.
“Who is the person called Carpenter Hwang?”
“That would be me.”
The old man was still facing away from her.
“Ahem.”
Seeing him like that, Hayun composed herself for a moment before explaining why she had come.
“I’m a haengsu from Man-sang. I came because there’s something I’d like to ask you to make.”
“Man-sang?”
At the mention of Man-sang, the old man showed interest.
Swish.
A moment later, the old man turned around and asked,
“What brings someone from Man-sang here?”
“As I said, I came because I have something I’d like to ask you to make. I heard Carpenter Hwang’s skills are the best around here?”
“Well, I can’t say that’s completely wrong…”
Perhaps the compliment wasn’t unpleasant, because Carpenter Hwang’s stiff expression softened considerably.
Hayun carefully lowered the dureum of gulbi she had carried over her shoulder onto a wrapping cloth.
“I came because I was thinking of having a wooden box made to package the gulbi in here.”
“Package the gulbi?”
“Yes.”
Carpenter Hwang let out a hollow laugh as though he found the idea absurd.
“Why go to the trouble of making something like that? Can’t you just sell it as it is?”
At Carpenter Hwang’s reaction, Hayun pointed toward the gulbi tied together with straw.
“Carpenter Hwang, do you normally enjoy eating gulbi every day?”
“Me?”
Carpenter Hwang answered as though the question were ridiculous.
“Of course not. How could I eat gulbi that expensive every day? I’d be grateful if I could have it once in a while.”
“That’s exactly what I mean.”
Hayun clapped her hands.
“Gulbi is something you give as a gift to someone special on a special occasion. Naturally, shouldn’t the packaging be special too?”
“Hmm, you do have a point.”
“That’s why we need a wooden box to put the gulbi in.”
“That may be true, but……”
After hearing her explanation, Carpenter Hwang rested his chin on his hand.
He still looked puzzled.
“Why go out of your way to use an expensive wooden box? Couldn’t you just make wrapping paper out of paper?”
Hayun answered confidently.
“Because it wouldn’t look good.”
“Just for that reason?”
“Don’t you know the saying, ‘A well-presented dish is more appetizing’?”
The reason Co**-Co** was able to rise to become the world’s greatest carbonated beverage company.
A strangely shaped bottle made a tremendous contribution to that success.
Just as the curved shape of the bottle alone naturally reminded people of a carbonated drink, sales could change dramatically depending on how the product itself was shaped.
‘Yeonggwang gulbi and other gulbi don’t look all that different on the outside. In that case, the only way to compete is through package design.’
Knowing this, Hayun had come to the woodworking shop to have a wooden box made.
“Well… gulbi would certainly look nicer if it were in a pretty wooden box.”
By now, persuaded by Hayun’s words, Carpenter Hwang asked,
“Then how should I make it?”
“I brought a blueprint I drew here. Please use this as a reference when making it.”
“Hmm.”
The blueprint Hayun had drawn was surprisingly simple because she had mass production in mind. It was a neat, square shape with the lid and body separated.
After examining the blueprint, Carpenter Hwang asked as though it would be no trouble at all,
“Then how many of these do you need?”
“Please make just one hundred to start with.”
“That many?”
Carpenter Hwang’s eyes widened at the larger-than-expected quantity.
“That isn’t even much compared to how much we’ll have to sell in the future. If things go well, I may have to make several times this amount.”
“Haha, just how much gulbi are you planning to sell?”
“A lot. A whole lot.”
Hayun answered confidently.
Seeing her like that, Carpenter Hwang roughly calculated the schedule.
“Let’s see… For this amount, it’ll take a full week at least.”
“A week… How much will it cost?”
“You’re quite the smooth talker, so I’ll make a special price of five nyang for you.”
“Five nyang…”
The calculator in Hayun’s head began spinning rapidly.
Five nyang was the price of one dureum of gulbi, but compared to the profits she would make in the future, it was well worth the investment.
Hayun readily nodded.
“Then please do that. I’ll pay when I come to pick up the goods later.”
“With Man-sang’s name behind you, surely you won’t run off without paying. All right.”
The advantage of being a major corporation: It was easy to buy on credit.
Having completed the commission without difficulty, Hayun asked,
“Ah, by any chance, could I see a sample of what the wooden box will look like before it’s made?”
“Right now?”
“Yes. If I check it now, then if something goes wrong later, it won’t make things uncomfortable for either of us.”
Design supervision.
It was work Hayun had done to the point of exhaustion when she was a designer. The habit of visiting factories to check the colors before printed materials came out had followed her even into Joseon.
Whenever a poster or product box was due to be produced, Hayun would take however many hours necessary to see the finished product with her own eyes.
“All right. Sit over there and wait a moment.”
“Yes.”
Carpenter Hwang grabbed his plane and chisel without complaint. Then, after several thunk, thunk sounds, a smoothly carved paulownia box was placed in front of Hayun.
“Here it is.”
“Thank you.”
Hayun examined the box from every angle.
She touched it with her hands, held it up to the sunlight, and repeatedly opened and closed the lid. As expected of the best carpenter in Uiju, the craftsmanship itself was excellent.
There was just one problem: something felt empty.
‘It’s too simple.’
There was nothing to fault with the wooden box itself, but it was lacking something else.
It was like a luxury handbag without a logo.
Because the shape had necessarily been simplified, there were fewer noticeable elements than she had expected.
“Hmm…”
Hayun set the box down and asked,
“Could you possibly carve some letters into this?”
“Letters?”
“Yes. I want to write ‘Yeonggwang Gulbi’ to emphasize that it comes from Yeonggwang.”
Upon hearing that, Carpenter Hwang furrowed his brow.
“That would double the work… Carving letters is delicate work.”
“I know. I’ll pay you accordingly.”
Since another step had been added to the production process, the unit price naturally increased as well.
Carpenter Hwang gave her the revised price.
“Ten nyang in total. And we’ll have to extend the production period to two weeks.”
“Ten nyang!”
Twice the original budget… Twice the production time.
The situation was one where the tail was wagging the dog, but Hayun didn’t deliberate for long.
‘I’m not simply carving letters. I’m carving a brand.’
If she thought of it as launching a new brand, it was a low price to pay.
Hayun immediately accepted the revised price.
“Yes. Please do that.”
“Tell me exactly what characters you want me to write as well. I don’t know that many characters myself.”
“You can write it like this.”
Hayun wrote down the characters and handed them over.
Carpenter Hwang took the paper and brought a small chisel to the lid of the wooden box.
“Write them here?”
“Small, right at the bottom-right corner. Small enough that they’re barely visible.”
“Huh? That small?”
Carpenter Hwang asked with a puzzled expression.
“If you make them that small, will anyone even be able to see them? Then what’s the point of carving the letters at all?”
Hayun smiled gently and answered,
“It’s not important that they’re easy to see. What matters is how tasteful they are. The key is showing how much effort we put into this product.”
Carpenter Hwang looked at Hayun with fascination. Though she was young, there was something extraordinary about her.
Carpenter Hwang nodded and picked up the smallest chisel he could find.
“All right. I’ll do as you say.”
“Thank you.”
Delicate characters began to be carved into the lid as precisely as if he were sculpting a Buddhist statue.
Shhk, shhk
The sound of the chisel blade cutting into the wood echoed through the workshop. Beads of sweat formed between Carpenter Hwang’s brows as he concentrated.
A little later, Carpenter Hwang caught his breath and set down the chisel.
“Done.”
“Thank you for your hard work.”
Hayun took the wooden box and examined it from every angle.
[Man-sang, Yeonggwang Gulbi]
The Chinese characters reading “Man-sang, Yeonggwang Gulbi” had been intricately carved into the lid in a size no larger than a fingernail. With the addition of the lettering to the plain wooden box, it gave off a much more refined, antique atmosphere.
‘Perfect!’
Seeing the design come out exactly as intended, Hayun inwardly cheered.
Click.
Then Hayun opened the box and began additional work.
Swish, swish, slice
She carefully lined the inside of the wooden box with sized hanji paper and laid fine straw across the bottom to create a place for the gulbi to rest.
“And finally……”
As though pulling out a secret weapon, Hayun took something from inside her clothes.
What she pulled out was none other than a skein of silk thread.
Swish.
Hayun immediately unwound the skein of silk thread. Then she began tying the gulbi together one by one with it.
“Th-that crazy!”
Seeing this, Carpenter Hwang was dumbfounded and shouted.
“You’re using that precious silk thread just to tie gulbi together?”
It took an enormous amount of time and effort to make a single skein of silk thread.
First, the silk had to be drawn one strand at a time from silkworm cocoons. Then the strands had to be carefully joined together, boiled in water, twisted, and dried before a single skein could finally be completed.
The price of one skein of silk thread made in this way was equivalent to one dureum of gulbi.
The amount of money that had gone into this alone was already well over ten nyang.
‘It’s fine. This is better than making something half-hearted.’
Even so, Hayun silently concentrated solely on her work.
“Phew, done.”
A little later, Hayun wiped away the sweat running down her face and placed the finished product on the floor.
“Oh!”
Carpenter Hwang couldn’t hide his admiration when he saw it.
“It really is luxurious! This isn’t gulbi anymore… It’s practically a treasure!”
The luxurious paulownia box and the gulbi carefully placed inside it exuded an elegance that was difficult to explain.
The ordinary gulbi had been transformed into something that would not have looked out of place even if it were presented to the king.
“It’s good. It’s perfect. Please make them exactly like this.”
At last, a satisfied smile spread across Hayun’s lips as she looked at the finished product.
As Hayun wrapped the completed wooden box in a cloth, she said,
“I’ll come back to pick them up in two weeks. You absolutely have to keep the promised date.”
“Don’t worry! I’ll have them finished no matter what happens!”
Carpenter Hwang thumped his chest confidently.
Seeing Hayun’s work had made his heart burn with enthusiasm.
“Then, take care.”
Having ordered the wooden boxes, Hayun left the woodworking shop.
The finished wooden box from moments ago was wrapped in a cloth in her hands.
“Now, the next step…”
Hayun’s gaze turned toward a rooftop.
The roof tiles, heated by the sunlight, were shining brilliantly.
The finest yangban household in Uiju.
It was the enormous roof of Minister Min’s residence.
“It’s time to break into a new client account.”
Hayun headed toward Minister Min’s residence with the [Man-sang, Yeonggwang Gulbi].
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