Under the admiring gaze of her ghostly employees, Song Miaozhu calmly expanded her shop once more, this time adding a new section: the Paper Clothes Zone.
Outside the entrance of the ghost shop, she posted a fresh hiring notice:
"Hiring: Ghost Tutors
We are sincerely seeking ghost gentlemen proficient in painting, sewing, calligraphy, bamboo weaving, and paper cutting. Compensation starts at 100 hell coins per lesson, with generous benefits.
All skills taught will be used solely to improve paper crafting, with no intent for external profit.
Interested parties, please submit your résumé issued by the Records Division to a shop assistant.
– Proprietor of Anshou Hall."
Song Miaozhu had decided it was time to invite ghost instructors to help refine these paper-crafting techniques.
Relying solely on online video tutorials to figure things out left too much room for error. A single misunderstanding might lead to flawed craftsmanship, and she wouldn't even realize it.
Besides, how many renowned living masters could compare to the abundance of deceased experts roaming the underworld? Why not take full advantage of the talent pool here and attend daily two-hour sessions taught by ghost masters?
Of course, to stay on the safe side, each ghost instructor would have to sign a confidentiality agreement issued by the Fengdu government office, protected by underworld law. Officially, they'd be listed as teaching a "living soul" with no further details.
Even if the SEIU had spies in the underworld, they would likely assume the ghost tutors were arranged by one of Song Miaozhu's ancestors, never suspecting her true identity.
She told Mao Jinxia and Xu Jingsi the same thing:
"These instructors are for the little boss in the mortal world. If someone comes to submit a résumé, just place it in the empty room on the east side of the warehouse."
In addition to the space reserved for ghost shop inventory and her own private storage, Song Miaozhu had carved out a personal workspace.
For now, she opened it up to Mao Jinxia and Xu Jingsi so they could use it to store applications. Once she found suitable ghost instructors, the room would be converted into a classroom, and she'd revoke their access.
After finishing all that, she returned to the mortal realm to focus on refining her prototype Yin Paper Clothes. A single vest design wasn't nearly enough to fill the newly expanded wardrobe section. She resumed with the original color-blocked vest design, crafting a few more to reinforce her grasp of the cutting techniques.
This time, she made just one red-green version and diversified the rest, creating the same design in different color combos—red-blue, red-purple, yellow-purple, and so on—using bright-colored paper.
Remembering the male ghost client from before, she also made a few men's vests, each in unique color schemes. After photographing and printing records of each one last night, she delivered them to the warehouse of the ghost shop.
Xu Jingsi, who was tending the shop, immediately hung the vests in the Paper Clothes Zone. Twenty color-blocked vests in total—ten for men and ten for women. Once they were delivered, Song Miaozhu didn't think much more about them.
She figured with this variety of satin, color-blocked vests priced at 100,000 hell coins each, they would last her quite a while.
This would give her time to study more masterclasses and draft new blueprints for Paper Clothes. Her goal was to move beyond vests and start producing other styles of simple Yin Paper Clothes. Back when she had learned painting, sewing, and calligraphy, she hadn't been particularly skilled. Even with her spiritual platform filled to the brim with ambient energy, she still couldn't refine it into personal spiritual power.
But when making Yin Paper Clothes, her efficiency in absorbing energy and forming crimson spiritual crystals surpassed even that of crafting third-grade golden lotuses. With this increase in absorption and reduction in waste, her cultivation speed actually improved. Encouraged, she dedicated even more time to refining her skills through master-level tutorials, honing her craftsmanship one step at a time.
Only by improving her skills could her cultivation continue to rise.
When she finished her latest tutorial and finalized the design for a paper T-shirt, she was preparing to head to the basement to craft 3,000 little paper servants to curse Japanese ghost spirits. But just then, through the vision of one of her little paper servants in the ghost shop, she noticed something alarming.
The entire Paper Clothes shelf was empty.
When she checked the treasury, she found a small mountain of hell coins waiting for her. The truth hit her like a thunderclap—unbelievable but undeniable. All twenty vests, both men's and women's styles, had sold out.
Every. Single. One.
And they hadn't even been on the shelves for a full day.
Song Miaozhu was once again amazed by just how wealthy the ghosts of Fengdu were. These 100,000-coin garments? They bought them like pocket change, not a second thought.
Wait—twenty vests, each for 100,000... That meant she had earned 2 million hell coins?
From selling mortal-world goods, she typically made 300,000 coins a day, at most.
No wonder the Secret Art of Paper Crafting rarely mentioned any ancestors making a fortune smuggling mortal-world items. Even those who inherited ghost shops while still alive had kept a low profile.
Partly, it was because being discovered meant serious consequences back in those days. But mostly, it was probably because making money through paper crafting was far more efficient than reselling earthly goods.
With her profits in hand, Song Miaozhu didn't hesitate to spend a million coins to purchase a single high-grade spirit stone. Previously, she'd hesitated to even buy mid-grade stones, which cost just 10,000 coins each.
But now? One high-grade stone worth a million? She didn't blink.
"Ten vests' worth? A bargain."
Mid-grade stones were slightly more efficient than 100 low-grade ones. So wouldn't a high-grade one be even better?
She drew a fine strand of energy into her spiritual platform. Before the whole strand had even entered, she already felt full. Within seconds, the crimson spiritual crystal inside turned a vivid red, and her spiritual power was fully restored. Quickly circulating her spiritual energy through her body to burn off the excess, she finally allowed the remaining energy strand to settle into her spiritual platform.
"High-grade spirit stones really are superior," she murmured in awe.
Even after using it while "servicing" the cursed Japanese little paper figure in the basement with a rooster-blooded needle, the spirit light of the stone hadn't dimmed. It would last her a long time. With the rest of her savings, she could buy nearly four more high-grade spirit stones and still have several hundred thousand coins left.
Considering the damage the little paper servants could inflict on Japanese ghosts, this was more than enough to obliterate their souls completely.
And the ghost shop was still bringing in steady income!
Thinking of profits, Song Miaozhu immediately returned to her paper crafting workshop to begin working on her Paper T-shirt designs. The newly deceased hadn't spent much yet, and those who were still remembered by wealthy families in the mortal realm received regular offerings.
But the true elite of Fengdu were the old ghosts like Sister Xiang Yun—residents of the underworld for centuries. Even though ghosts weren't as conservative as the living, most of the older ones still weren't fond of revealing outfits.
So her Paper T-shirts? Still long-sleeved.
After finishing the T-shirt, Song Miaozhu added simple floral illustrations around the hem, using what she had learned from her illustration video courses.
The T-shirt was red, so she painted bright green leaves and vivid yellow flowers.
And surprisingly, it looked quite good when held up for inspection.
Even without spiritual enhancement, it already qualified as a third-grade Paper Spirit Armor. With just a hint of spiritual energy, it shot straight to fourth-grade quality.