Naked Sword Art Chapter 253 - Perfume Girl

Chapter 253 - Perfume Girl

Xiao Fang and Li Xiang stayed on the roof even after the sun went down, but he eventually cut their session short because he was expecting Lai Yun to arrive soon.
After Li Xiang left, Xiao Fang went downstairs and made a few arrangements before heading to his office room. All he could do now was wait.
In his boredom, he took out his Phoenix Jade Hairpin then played with it in his hands as he inspected it. Ever since he won it from the Swordsman club trial test, he was unable to make it release the enormous amount of Qi he knew it contained.
'What's so special about this thing anyways,' he thought.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.
Xiao Fang stored the Hairpin in his spatial ring, then put his blindfold back on before he answered it. It was Jiang Mei. Standing behind her was Lai Yun and a girl he never met..
"Thank you, Jiang Mei," Xiao Fang said.
Jiang Mei smiled at him, then gestured for the girls to go inside. Once they were in, Jiang Mei stepped outside then closed the door behind them.
This wasn't Lai Yun's first time walking into a guild house, but she had never been in one this big before. So she was taken aback by its size.
"Take a seat," Xiao Fang said to the girl standing behind Lai Yun.
"It's a nice place you got here," the shy girl said as she took a seat in the only chair available.
"Thank you, what's your name?" Xiao Fang asked.
"You can call me Yuan Fei."
"Welcome to my guild house, Yuan Fei. It's nice to finally meet you."
...
Yuan Fei:
No-Class disciple, 162cm tall, plain robes, and she wore her long black hair down.
She was only slightly above average in appearance which meant she was severely below average compared to the extremely beautiful girls in the inner court. However, a beautiful face meant absolutely nothing to a blindfolded man like Xiao Fang.
Yuan Fei had a very strong sense of smell, so her only hobby was making perfumes. She didn't practice her cultivation often, but she had to work hard to get into the inner court, so that she would have access to more types of flowers, plants, and herbs.
...
Yuan Fei stared at the Xiao Fang with a strange expression on her face, as she tried to figure him out.
Lai Yun had only told her that one of her Phoenix-Class classmates wanted to meet her, but she didn't tell her why. Still, she didn't want to pass up the opportunity to meet with another Phoenix-Class disciple. She thought if she was lucky, she might even be able to sell some of her perfumes. However, since he was a man, she didn't think he'd be interested in buying them.
"Erm... I don't mean to be rude, but is there a reason why you wanted to meet me?" Yuan Fei asked.
"You sell perfumes, right?"
"I do."
"Do you mind if I take a look?"
Yuan Fei was surprised that he was even curious about her perfumes at all, but thinking about it now, why else would he ask her to come.
"Not at all," she replied.
She quickly took her perfume bottles out then put them on his desk. Despite her attempt to present them nicely, the containers were all plain, and uninteresting.
Lai Yun frowned when she saw them, but she didn't say anything since it wasn't any of her business.
Xiao Fang picked one of them up then gave them a whiff. They smelled really nice, but the smell wasn't strong at all. He thought Lai Yun had earlier put too little when he smelled it in class, but it seemed that the perfumes were just too weak.
"How many merit points do you make a month selling these?" Xiao Fang asked.
Yuan Fei wasn't good with money, and people always intimidated her into lowering her price, so she didn't make very much. For a time, she was just glad that people liked her product, but she didn't like the way they treated her like trash. She always wanted to become popular and make more money with her craft, but being a No-Class disciple for 2 years humbled her into having much simpler goals.
"Not much. Maybe a few hundred," she smiled awkwardly.
She knew she was making even less than that, but she was too embarrassed to say it. Of course, Xiao Fang knew she was lying, but he didn't call her out on it.
There were a few small bottles on his desk, so he asked about each of them. Seeing that someone was interested about her perfumes, she started to tell him all kind of things she learned about them, but she was careful not to disclose any information about the exact herbs she used.
Xiao Fang could tell that making perfumes was a big part of her life, but not only did she love doing it, she seemed extremely knowledgeable on the topic as well.
Satisfied by what she told him, Xiao Fang took out a scroll with some writing on it then handed it to Yuan Fei. She accepted the scroll then began to read through it. Suddenly, her eyes began to widen as she read it.
"Is... is this really for me?"
What she held in her hand was a contract, and what Xiao Fang was offering her were several tools, equipment, resources, merit points, and a clean working space in the Nameless guild's lab. On top of that, he was also inviting her to join his guild, which meant she would have access to even more plants and herbs only disciples in a guild could get.
What he was offering her were things she would've never been able to get on her own. It was almost like a dream come true.
"I-I don't understand. What would you have to gain by inviting me into your guild?" Yuan Fei said as she tried to calm down.
"95% of the profits would go to the guild, but since you'll be a guild member, I'll be giving you an allowance like everybody else."
"How much?" She asked with trembling hands.
"1,000 merit points... a week."