Carving a Brand

The place where Hayun found herself at that moment.

Koff! Koff!

The acrid bite of sawdust and the sweet fragrance of fresh-cut wood stung her nose. With shavings strewn everywhere around her, the coughing simply wouldn't stop.

Rustle.

Stepping through the doorway of the woodworking shop, Hayun offered a careful greeting.

"Hello?"

"Who's there?"

The old man planing a board asked without so much as turning his head.

"I'm looking for a carpenter here by the name of Hwang."

"That'd be me."

Still the old man kept his back turned.

Ahem.

Watching him, Hayun gathered her breath for a moment and explained why she had come.

"I'm a factor with Mansang. I've come because I have a request for you."

"Mansang?"

At the name, the old man's interest stirred.

Swish.

A moment later, he turned around and asked,

"What business does Mansang have way out here?"

"Like I said, a request. They say Master Hwang's craftsmanship is the finest anywhere in these parts?"

"Well, that's not altogether wrong…"

The flattery had evidently landed, for the carpenter's stiff expression softened considerably.

Hayun gently set down the bundle of dried corvina she'd carried on her shoulder onto a cloth on the floor.

"I've come to see about having wooden boxes made to package these corvina."

"Package corvina?"

"That's right."

Master Hwang let out an incredulous laugh.

"What'd you go and make a thing like that for? Just sell 'em as they are, no?"

In response to his reaction, Hayun pointed at the corvina bound in straw twine.

"Master Hwang, do you eat dried corvina every day?"

"Me?"

He answered as if the question were absurd.

"Course not. How could a man eat that pricey fish every day? If I get it once in a blue moon, that's blessing enough."

"That's exactly my point."

Hayun clapped her hands together with a snap.

"Corvina is what you give as a gift, on a special day, to a special person. Which means the packaging has to be special too, doesn't it?"

"Hm. There's something to that."

"Which is why I need a wooden box to hold the fish."

"That much I'll grant you…"

Having heard her out, the carpenter rested his chin on his hand. He still looked doubtful.

"But why an expensive wooden box, of all things? Couldn't you just make wrapping out of paper?"

Hayun answered his question with confidence.

"Because that would look terrible, of course."

"For that reason alone?"

"Rice cakes that look good taste better. You don't know that proverb?"

There was a reason the world's greatest soft drink company had risen to the top. The peculiarly curved shape of its bottle had contributed enormously. Just as that contoured silhouette instantly brought soda to mind, how a product looked on the outside could make a dramatic difference in sales.

There's no real difference in appearance between Yeonggwang corvina and any other corvina. Which means I have no choice but to win on package design.

Knowing this full well was why Hayun had come to the woodworking shop.

"Well… I suppose a pretty wooden box for the fish would be a fine sight to see."

By now convinced by her argument, the old man asked,

"So how would you have me make it?"

"I've brought the drawings right here. Please work from these."

"Hm."

The design Hayun had drawn was surprisingly simple, since mass production was the whole point—a neat rectangular form with a separate lid and body.

Examining the drawings, the carpenter asked as though it were no great challenge,

"And how many of these am I to make?"

"A hundred to start."

"That many?"

Master Hwang's eyes went round at the unexpectedly large quantity.

"That's nothing compared to what we'll need to sell going forward. If things go well, we might need several times more than this."

"Heh. Just how much corvina are you planning to sell, anyway?"

"A lot. A very great deal."

Hayun answered without a trace of doubt. Watching her, the carpenter worked out a rough schedule.

"Let's see… a quantity like this would take me a good week."

"A week, then. And the price?"

"You do talk sweet, so I'll make it five nyang special, just for you."

"Five nyang…"

The calculator in Hayun's head spun rapidly. Five nyang was the price of a single dureum of corvina, but weighed against the profits she was about to earn, it was well worth the investment.

Hayun nodded readily.

"Then let's do it that way. I'll pay when I come to collect the goods."

"Mansang puts its name on its business, so I reckon you won't be shorting me. Done."

The advantage of a large enterprise: credit came easily.

Having secured the commission without difficulty, Hayun asked one more thing.

"Ah—might I see a sample of how the box will turn out, before the full run?"

"Right now?"

"Yes. Better to check now than to have an awkward mess later if something's wrong."

Design inspection. It was work Hayun had done to the point of exhaustion back in her designer days—the habit of stopping by the print shop to check the colors before anything went to press had activated again, even here in Joseon. Whenever a poster or a product box was due out, she would spend hours traveling just to see the finished piece with her own eyes.

"Fine by me. Have a seat there and wait a bit."

"Thank you."

Without a word of complaint, Master Hwang took up his plane and chisel. A few rhythmic strokes of crafting later, a smoothly polished paulownia-wood box sat before Hayun.

"There you have it."

"Thank you."

Hayun turned the box over this way and that. She touched it with her hands, held it up to the sunlight, opened and closed the lid again and again. If he was the finest carpenter in Uiju, it was no lie—the workmanship itself was superb.

The problem was that something about it felt somehow empty.

Too plain.

The box itself was flawless, but it lacked everything else. It was like a luxury handbag with no logo on it. The form had necessarily been simplified, so it was short on eye-catching elements.

"Hm…"

Setting the box down, Hayun asked,

"Could you carve some lettering onto it, by any chance?"

"Lettering?"

"Yes. I'd like it to read Mansang, Yeonggwang Gulbi—to put the Yeonggwang name front and center."

The carpenter frowned.

"That doubles the work, you know. Carving characters is delicate business."

"I know. I'll pay accordingly."

The added process meant a higher unit price, naturally. Master Hwang named the new figure.

"Ten nyang all told. And I'll need to stretch the timeline to two weeks."

"Ten nyang!"

Twice the original budget, and twice the time. The tail had grown bigger than the dog—but Hayun didn't deliberate long.

This isn't just carving letters. It's carving a brand.

Thought of as the launch of a new brand, it was cheap at the price.

Hayun approved the revised figure on the spot.

"Yes. Please do it that way."

"Then you'd best tell me what characters to carve. I don't know more than a handful myself."

"Just write it out like this."

Hayun handed over a paper with the words written out. Taking it, the carpenter fetched a small chisel and brought it to the box lid.

"Here, then?"

"Small, in the lower right corner. Just barely legible."

"Eh? That small?"

The carpenter asked in bafflement.

"Carved that tiny, who's going to see it? Might as well not carve it at all, no?"

Hayun answered his question with a faint smile.

"Being seen isn't what matters. What matters is the sense of refinement. The whole point is showing how much care we've poured into this product."

Master Hwang stared at her in wonder. She was young, but there was something about her that was anything but ordinary. Nodding, he picked up the smallest chisel he had.

"All right. I'll do it your way."

"Thank you."

Shff… shff—

Delicate lettering began to take shape on the lid, carved as painstakingly as a Buddha statue. The sound of the chisel blade biting into the wood rang through the workshop, and beads of sweat gathered on the old man's brow as he concentrated.

Before long, Master Hwang drew a breath and set down the chisel.

"There. Done."

"Thank you for your trouble."

Taking the box, Hayun examined it from every angle.

At last, Mansang, Yeonggwang Gulbi—carved with exquisite precision in characters no bigger than a fingernail. Where the wooden box had been bland before, the lettering lent it an air of refined antiquity.

That's it!

The design had come out exactly as she intended, and Hayun silently rejoined.

Click.

Then she opened the box and carried on with the finishing work.

Swipe, swipe—press.

She carefully lined the inside of the box with paste-stiffened hanji paper, then laid a bed of fine straw across the bottom to cradle the fish.

"And finally…"

Like a secret weapon, Hayun drew something from her breast. It was none other than a spool of pure silk thread.

Ssshh.

Hayun unspooled the silk at once and began binding the corvina one fish at a time.

"Wh-what in the blazes!"

Seeing this, Master Hwang cried out in sheer disbelief.

"You'd use precious silk thread for nothing but binding corvina?"

A single spool of silk thread demanded countless hours and processes. Thread had to be drawn from cocoons strand by single strand, joined with meticulous care, then boiled, twisted, and dried before one spool was finally complete. The price of one such spool equaled a full dureum of corvina. What had gone into this box alone already soared past ten nyang.

It's fine. Better this than something half-hearted.

Even so, Hayun poured herself into the work without a word.

"Phew. There."

Before long, Hayun wiped away the sweat streaming down her face and set the finished piece on the floor.

"Ohhh!"

At the sight of it, Master Hwang couldn't hold back his admiration.

"Now that's luxury! That's no corvina—that's a treasure chest!"

From the elegant paulownia box and the fish nestled so lovingly within radiated an inexpressible dignity. An ordinary dried corvina had been transformed, then and there, into something worthy of being presented before the King himself.

"Perfect. Exactly right. Please make the rest just like this."

Only now did a satisfied smile bloom across Hayun's face as she looked over the finished product.

Wrapping the completed box in her cloth, she said,

"I'll come back in two weeks. You must keep to the promised date."

"Don't you fret! No matter what happens, I'll have it finished!"

Master Hwang beat his chest with confident assurance. Seeing Hayun's work had set his heart ablaze.

"Then I'll leave you to it."

And so, her order placed, Hayun slipped out of the woodworking shop, the freshly finished box wrapped in cloth in her hands.

"Now for the next step…"

Her gaze rose to a certain rooftop. The sun-baked tiles gleamed brilliantly in the light.

The finest yangban household in all of Uiju. The great roof of Royal Secretary Min's estate.

"Time to crack open a client."

Carrying her Mansang, Yeonggwang Gulbi, Hayun set off for Min Seungji's residence.