The eunuch looked at him for a long moment. Then, slowly, he bowed. Deeper this time. "This servant will stay, my lady. I have nowhere better to go anyway."
Not the most enthusiastic endorsement, but it was honest. Alex could work honestly.
"Good. Then your first task is to help Xiao Cui with the supplies she's bringing. And I need you to find out something for me. Discreetly. I want to know which merchant families supply perfume to the palace, how much they charge, and who their primary customers are. Can you do that?"
"I... yes, my lady. But it may take a few days."
"That's fine. Just be subtle about it."
After the eunuch left, looking bemused, Xiao Cui unpacked the supplies. Alex examined them with satisfaction. Not everything he had asked for, because some things apparently didn't exist or weren't available, but enough to work with.
"Now," he said, "I need a workspace. Clear that table. And bring me a pot of boiling water."
"Are you sure you're well enough to be working, mistress? You just woke up!"
"I'm fine. And I need to start generating revenue immediately. Every day we wait is a day Consort Su gets stronger and we stay weak."
That logic seemed to convince her. As Xiao Cui bustled around preparing the workspace, Alex rolled up his sleeves. The arms were thin, the hands soft and uncallused. Useless hands. But they would learn.
He had built an empire once before. He could do it again.
Even if he had to do it wearing a dress.
***
Three hours later, Alex had produced four small bottles of perfume. The extraction process had been crude without proper equipment, and the scent balance wasn't quite what he had been aiming for. But they were good. Better than good, actually. They were unique.
He had made four different variations. One with floral notes that would appeal to romantic types. One with spice and wood tones for more mature women. One light and fresh for younger girls. And one that was subtle and elegant, barely there, for women who wanted to smell expensive without being obvious about it.
Xiao Cui sniffed each bottle with increasing amazement. "These smell wonderful! Much better than the perfumes the merchants sell! How did you know how to blend them?"
"Divine inspiration," Alex said dryly. Actually, it was chemistry plus his memories of expensive perfumes he had bought for corporate gifts and occasionally for women he was sleeping with. But divine inspiration sounded better.
"Who are we going to sell them to?"
Good question. He couldn't exactly set up a shop in the market. Consorts weren't allowed to leave the palace or conduct business directly. He needed intermediaries.
"Do any of the palace maids come from merchant families?" he asked.
Xiao Cui thought about it. "Hmm. There's Mei Ling, who serves Consort Chen. Her father runs a fabric shop in the city. And... oh! There's Wen Hua, who serves Consort Li. Her uncle is a merchant who supplies herbs to the imperial pharmacy."
"Perfect. Here's what we're going to do. Tomorrow, I want you to approach Mei Ling. Be friendly. Give her one of the floral perfumes as a gift. Don't tell her I made it. Just say you came across it and thought she might like it. Let her wear it for a few days. Other people will notice and ask where she got it. That's when you mention that you might be able to get more, for a price."
Xiao Cui's eyes widened. "That's... that's very clever!"
"It's called marketing. You create demand before you reveal supply. Once people want it, they'll pay premium prices." Alex stoppered the bottles carefully. "The key is to make it seem exclusive and difficult to obtain. We're not selling to everyone. We're selling to the wives and daughters of wealthy officials. Limited quantities. High prices. Luxury positioning."
"But what if they ask who made it?"
"You tell them it's a secret recipe from a mysterious perfume maker who only works with select clients. The more mysterious, the more valuable it seems. People always want what they can't easily have."
It was basic human psychology. The same principle that made limited edition products sell out and made exclusive clubs more desirable. Scarcity increased perceived value.
"We'll start with these four bottles as samples," Alex continued. "If they sell, we'll need to scale up production, which means more supplies and more workspace. But that's a later problem. First, we prove the concept."
"How much should we charge?"
Alex calculated. He needed to price high enough to position this as a luxury product, but not so high that no one would take the risk on an unknown maker. "Start at ten taels per bottle for the basic scents. Fifteen for the elegant one. If they negotiate, don't go below eight taels."
Xiao Cui gasped. "But that's... that's so expensive! The palace perfumes only cost five taels!"
"Exactly. We're not competing with palace perfumes. We're offering something better and more exclusive. If we price it the same as the standard product, people will assume it's the same quality. High price signals high value." He had learned that lesson during his first tech startup. The cheapest product doesn't win. The product that makes customers feel smart and sophisticated wins.
"If you say so, Lingxi." Xiao Cui still looked doubtful, but she carefully packed the bottles away.
Alex felt the exhaustion hitting him. Three hours of work after being poisoned and bedridden for three days was probably pushing it. But he had needed to start immediately. In business, momentum was everything. Hesitation killed companies.
He made his way back to the bed and sat down carefully. "Tomorrow," he said, "after you talk to Mei Ling, I need you to start gathering that information I asked about. The power structure, the relationships, who owes whom favors. I need a complete map of the harem politics."
"I'll do my best!"
"And Xiao Cui? One more thing. I need you to find out about martial arts training."
"Martial arts?"
"Yes. If there are any guards or instructors in the palace who might be willing to teach a consort self-defense. Discreetly."
"But... consorts aren't supposed to learn fighting!"
"Consorts also aren't supposed to get poisoned by rivals, but here we are." Alex lay back on the bed. "I'm not going to rely on other people to protect me. I need to be able to defend myself. Find out who we can approach and what it would cost to hire them quietly."
"That's going to be very difficult, Lingxi. And expensive."
"I know. But it's necessary. A weak target invites attacks. A strong target discourages them." He closed his eyes. "Now let me rest. Wake me for dinner. And Xiao Cui?"
"Yes?"
"Good work today. You're adapting quickly."
He heard her small, pleased gasp, and then her footsteps as she left the room quietly.
Alex let himself drift toward sleep, his mind still working through calculations and plans. The perfume was just the first step. He needed multiple revenue streams. Diversification was key to business survival.
What else could he create or improve using modern knowledge? Games, like he had mentioned in the original plan. Maybe some basic mechanical improvements to household tools. Information was always valuable; he could potentially sell intelligence to various factions, though that was risky.
And at some point, he needed to deal with Consort Su.
She had tried to kill him. That debt needed to be repaid. But not yet. Not until he was stronger and had better positioning. Revenge was a dish best served cold, and right now, he was operating from a position of weakness.
But that would change.
Alex Sterling had never stayed weak for long.
As he drifted off to sleep, his last thought was almost amusing. Somewhere in the afterlife, the original Yan Lingxi was probably screaming in horror at what he was doing to her body and reputation.
Sorry, lady, he thought. But you're dead, and I'm not. And I'm not about to waste this second chance playing by the rules of a rigged game.
The harem wanted to crush him?
The harem had no idea what it was dealing with.
And by the time they figured it out, it would be far too late.