Revolution

The greenhouse was doing better than I expected. There were some minor things I didn't like but I could drag the constructor over and make them amend it later on. The crops were growing very well in neat rows. The bananas and pineapples would be ready in 2-3 months.

The coconuts and cocoa would not be ready for another 5-10 more years. I couldn't do anything about cocoa, but I was seriously considering simply importing the trees over. However, just thinking about carriages with coconut trees poking out of them and curious thieves robbing it along the way was too much for me. I guess Yuan An was not yet ready for coconuts.

However, the strawberries, grapes, kiwis, cherries, apples, oranges and all sorts of seasonal fruits were ready. I could probably get 2-4 harvests a year for each crop. They also made sure to use the volcanic soil that I had transferred and use fruit peels to give the soil nutrition.

Finally, they used my spray bottle to spray-water the plants instead of dumping water or leaving it to rain like always and spaced out the plants properly. This led to beautiful, plump and sweet fruits. Once I was done with my lights I wanted to stack the plants and do vertical farming as well to maximise yield.

What we did was to use the crops in our confections and send them into the market (at a small premium since it was both higher quality than typical and out of season) for sales. To sell the premium, each crate would be packed beautifully. Instead of being all chucked into 1 crate and letting it get bruised along the way, I specially commissioned layered crates and molds for the fruits, to mimic what modern supermarkets used.

This would ensure the fruits would not move around too much while transported. Staff would also wash and polish the fruits so they would be in good condition. Each crate was painted pure white with bold green as a secondary colour to match the white and green harvest moon logo. This extra padding and care, along with the bright coloured crate, harvest moon brochure slotted into every crate and the bright harvest moon logo painted onto the sides of every crate made it truly seem like a premium product.

Each product also got a nice name. "Pink Lady Apples". "Tantalizing Strawberries". "Gem Grapes". "Honey Pears". to differentiate them from common products. However, although the greenhouse was very big, stretching from behind the West Wing making a semi-circle around to the East Wing, there was only so much crops we could yield. So after the first batch was released to the market (only a small portion), Harvest Moon was orders only.

Because this batch did so well, all the Harvest Moon employees also got a bonus. Harvest Moon employees were given the same privileges as other employees. Since they were in agriculture, each were given 7 sets of appropriate work uniforms, gloves, boots, safety equipment and their own bottles and farming sets. They also got complimentary crops every harvest of their choosing within a certain quota.

As for the lightbulbs, I met with the artisans again. After a year and a half at the border, they finally managed to produce prototypes I was happy with, as well as expand the battery source to a proper level to provide a strong enough light to be satisfactory. The batteries we could produce now were essentially simply rechargeable, and moreover they were pretty expensive since we sourced for minerals to do so (I even bought a silver mine), but they were functional.

I also designed some structures on which to hang lights and contracted a blacksmith who would work with the artisans to make them for me. So far we had ceiling lights, dressing table lights, table lights, lamps, torchlights, helmet lights (a.k.a for safety), decorative lights (custom made to your store or home or whatever), coloured lights, fairy lights, as well as neon signs.

Once we figured out how to make the light and the battery, everything else was child's play. Then, it was time to publicize the lights. Brochures and flyers were made. Posters were made. Neon signs were hung up at the entrance of Luna Marche and ceiling and showroom lights were outfitted all throughout the stores in beautiful shapes, sizes, and fittings. We had a demonstration corner set up in the shop for lights alone and purchase of our designed "dressing tables" and whatsoever. Then we sent out the lights.

This time when the noble houses received a basket of our newest products and crops, the inside of each basket was illuminated with a simple white light. When you opened the basket, the inside would be lit up and it would emanate a light much purer and safer than any light fire could make. I also personally worked together with the royal tailor and decided to string a decorative light in a pattern around my dress such that it looked like it was glowing. I went around like this for a whole week, shocking everyone in the palace and on the streets.

I got so many letters, looks and cries of awe that I wasn't able to respond to them all. I also got the Solitaire employees to come in and install the lights all over the Lunar Palace and the Luna Marche umbrella workspace and equip all the staff and every room with at least 1 light. From the first night, Luna Marche was brightly lit.

So brightly lit that it was the first palace you would see from a long distance. Officials and servants all wanted to come to the palace to see, but no one was allowed to since it was a concubine's palace. Lu Qing Yu however, was shocked and amazed to see the idea I made him sign off on was this.

Immediately Solitaire moved on to outfit the entire main palace with lights. Solitaire got so many orders we had to close orders for 3 months. That was even considering we had prepared half a million in stock. Solitaire sold high end, mid end and low end lights.

The light strength and materials would vary for these. However, for safety equipment, they had to be classified under high end. For big companies, Solitaire would give them a buying in bulk discount that made it only mid-end in price per safety helmet.