We three went to the market wearing masks and saw many shop owners shouting to sell their products as they needed to achieve their daily targets.
The three of us went to an empty corner and decided to set up our own stall. We placed a wooden face next to the stall and took out foldable chairs made by Aarya. After a month of preparation, we finally sat down without much hassle.
A man passing by noticed that while all the other shopkeepers were shouting, there was one stall where the sellers were quiet. They were covered in masks, neither advertising their products nor shouting to attract buyers. They simply sat there calmly. The man murmured to himself, "Interesting," and approached the stall.
Alex introduced the toothbrush to the man, and Rose demonstrated how to use it. Aarya handled the transaction, pricing the wooden toothbrush at 5 bronze coins and bamboo toothbrushes at 80 bronze coins, as he believed that even if others tried to replicate their product, they wouldn't match their quality at this price.
The man bought toothbrushes for himself and his family. Soon, many others followed, purchasing their toothbrushes. Within three hours, all the toothbrushes were sold. They returned to their workshop with total earnings of 5 gold coins. Aarya gave 1 gold coin each to Alex and Rose, kept 1 gold coin for himself, and saved the remaining 2 gold coins for future investments. They continued this routine: selling products during the day and producing more toothbrushes from noon to evening.
At the time, Aarya didn't have proper tools for marking or drawing; he only used charcoal for his work. This limitation inspired his next project—making pencils. Although he couldn't create erasers, he aimed to develop a tool that would allow precise markings and drawings.
Now, Alex and Rose took charge of selling toothbrushes while Aarya focused on experimenting with creating pencils. He went to the market, bought metal cans, and returned to the workshop. He began by chopping wooden pieces into circular shapes, matching the size of the pencil lead. He placed these pieces in metal cans and heated them over a fire, producing charcoal sticks. He stored half of the charcoal sticks and used the other half to make pencils.
To make the pencils, Aarya crafted a rectangular wooden shape with circular holes to fit the charcoal sticks. He glued another rectangular wooden piece over it and separated the pencils piece by piece. Finally, he shaped them into a circular form for easier use. With this, Aarya successfully created both charcoal sticks and pencils. He decided to brand the pencils under the name "Transform."
The next day, after selling toothbrushes, they introduced the new product—pencils. As usual, they didn't advertise but waited for customers to inquire about the product. Once explained, the customers were intrigued and decided to buy the pencils. Aarya priced the charcoal sticks at 30 bronze coins per piece, sold only in bundles of five, and pencils at 70 bronze coins per piece, sold in bundles of four. Their entire stock sold out in just 45 minutes.
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In a nearby noble house,
some maids were discussing the toothbrushes, charcoal sticks, and pencils. They were writing with pencils and were amazed by how convenient they were.
One of the noble ladies noticed the maids and asked, "What are you doing?"
Startled, the maids tried to hide the paper and pencils, but the noble lady insisted they show what they were hiding. When she saw the paper, it had random games written on it. More strikingly, she noticed the fine and precise strokes, far superior to her feather pens (reeds or quills). She asked, "How can you write with such neat and precise strokes?"
One of the maids hesitantly showed her the pencils. The noble lady was stunned as she had never seen such a tool before. She decided to test it by writing on the paper. After trying it, she exclaimed, "Amazing! I've never seen anything like this before. This is the best thing I could ever find. Tell me, where did you get this?"