Chapter 232: A Big Pie
“Really?”
Lu Chengjing chuckled lightly: “Of course, how could I deceive Niangzi?”
“Alright then, you’ll teach her.” Shang Wan happily settled it, so she wouldn’t have to worry about hiring a master.
As they spoke, the two arrived at the garden.
The little one watching the snow in the pavilion spotted them sharply and immediately came running over with her little short legs.
“Mother!”
“Daddy!”
This little voice was so tender, it went straight to the heart.
Dressed heavily in winter, the little baby girl’s short and stout body directly turned into a ball, a fluffy one at that.
Shang Wan saw a round and plump white ball charging toward her; it was impressive that something so round could run this fast.
She bent down to catch the child, picked her up, and leaned in to plant a kiss on the little baby girl’s white and tender little cheek.
Yuan Yuan giggled and also puckered her little mouth to kiss her mother back.
Of course, Daddy wasn’t forgotten either.
The family of three walked to the pavilion, where Shang Wan greeted the youth in the pavilion, “Mister Duanmu.”
The youth sat upright, dressed in a green robe with a white fox fur cloak over it, his skin fair and his features relaxed, making him approachable at first sight.
Such a refined and handsome person had the character ‘Kui’ in his name.
Duanmu Kui, whether in temperament or build, had nothing to do with ‘burly’, but was somewhat related to ‘chief’ or ‘Kui Xing’.
—The little divine doctor of Suzhou Prefecture, whose master was unknown to anyone, but whose medical skill was exquisite and who had quite a reputation in Suzhou and Hangzhou.
As for why Duanmu Kui appeared in Dongning County, thousands of miles away, in Shang Wan’s words, it was all fate.
Fate made this rising divine doctor jump right into her Shang Wan’s bowl.
The story behind it started with Zhong Li selling Jade Visage Powder and White Jade Paste to Suzhou and Hangzhou.
Suzhou and Hangzhou were already prosperous, with plenty of good things, and even Zhong Li hadn’t expected that Jade Visage Powder and White Jade Paste from the Spiritual Medicine Pavilion could break through the fierce competition so quickly, becoming all the rage across Suzhou and Hangzhou in a short time, even selling out completely at one point.
Such popular medicines naturally caught the attention of the little divine doctor Duanmu Kui.
Duanmu Kui had absolute curiosity toward any medicine he hadn’t seen before; after learning of the miraculous effects of Jade Visage Powder and White Jade Paste, he had someone buy a portion for him, trying to analyze the formulas of the two medicines.
He wouldn’t have been so puzzled if he hadn’t analyzed them, but once he did, his mind was full of question marks.
Both were the most ordinary formulas, using common medicinal herbs.
Could something like this really take Suzhou and Hangzhou by storm?
Could it be that everyone had been fooled by unscrupulous merchants?
With the intention of exposing fakes, Duanmu Kui decided to try them personally.
He made his own portions of ‘Jade Visage Powder’ and ‘White Jade Paste’ according to the formulas he analyzed.
Left cheek with the purchased one, right cheek with his own.
In no more than three days, there was a clear comparison.
The left cheek’s effect was superior.
Duanmu Kui stared at the face in the mirror, thinking left and right; setting aside subtle differences in medicinal herbs, he turned his attention to the medicinal water he had overlooked.
The medicinal water used with Jade Visage Powder had a very faint pink hue; just by the scent, it should contain rose juice.
As for the rest, Duanmu Kui couldn’t smell or taste it.
He tested it with silver needles, medicinal water, and other methods, but couldn’t figure out what was in it.
Duanmu Kui made bold guesses and carefully verified them.
He used the medicinal water with his own ‘Jade Visage Powder’ and added some to the ‘White Jade Paste’.
After another three days of use, though not as good as the original, it was indeed better than before.
Duanmu Kui felt the secret lay in this bottle of medicinal water, so he studied it intently, trying to replicate it.
But after trying all sorts of methods, he could make medicinal water with similar effects.
However, it required a huge amount of materials, some rare and hard to obtain, making it impossible to sell in large quantities at such affordable prices.
Doing business is all about making money, and Duanmu Kui couldn’t figure out how the creator of the medicinal water could sell it at such low prices.
So, the little divine doctor approached Zhong Li’s subordinate, wanting to meet the person who made Jade Visage Powder and White Jade Paste.
But the response was that the person wasn’t in Suzhou and Hangzhou, but thousands of miles away from Suzhou Prefecture.
A mere thousand miles couldn’t stop the little divine doctor’s pursuit of truth.
Packing his bundle, bringing provisions, Duanmu Kui traveled over mountains and rivers with a merchant caravan to the distant Dongning County.
What happened after that was easy to imagine.
How could Shang Wan let meat that came to her mouth slip away?
The formula master she had been dreaming of and searching for had delivered himself to her door; how could she not seize this pie from the sky?
Shang Wan made a deal with Duanmu Kui.
Shang Wan gave Duanmu Kui a small bottle of Spiritual Spring Water each month—of course, publicly called ‘ancestral medicinal water’—to study as he wished.
In return, Duanmu Kui developed various ointments and medicinal powders according to her ideas, including face wash, shampoo, bath products, and more.
It wasn’t free research; if they sold well, she gave Duanmu Kui a commission, and provided free food, lodging, and manpower.
If Duanmu Kui wanted to go out to take pulses or treat patients in between, that was fine, as long as it didn’t interfere with his main work; he could do whatever he wanted.
Whenever Duanmu Kui figured out the formula for the ‘ancestral medicinal water’, he could freely choose to leave or stay.
Regarding this, Duanmu Kui only thought for less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea before agreeing.
He was a lone wanderer to begin with; people who wanted him to treat them would come no matter how far, so it didn’t matter where he stayed.
Their cooperation thus began happily.
With Duanmu Kui’s strength, Shang Wan’s ideas, and the addition of Spiritual Spring Water, the Spiritual Medicine Pavilion launched one or two new products every month.
They could be for internal or external use; as for effects and target conditions, it all depended on what Shang Wan wanted to sell.
Shang Wan couldn’t just imagine randomly; she had to look at market demand, the customers’ demand.
Thus, customer follow-ups and hiring people for internal testing were gorgeously born.
Therefore, the Spiritual Medicine Pavilion’s new products hadn’t yet faced the issue of not selling; on the contrary, they were quite popular.
Zhong Li and Shang Wan’s cooperation no longer stopped at just Jade Visage Powder and White Jade Paste; new products were included in the scope.
Other traveling merchants also came to discuss cooperation, and Shang Wan selectively partnered with a few.
These traveling merchants mainly sold in neighboring small countries, not domestically.
Shang Wan’s cooperation terms remained the same: the medicine packaging must bear the Spiritual Medicine Pavilion’s emblem.
The traveling merchants were in the reselling business anyway—selling northern goods to the south, eastern goods to the west—and didn’t care about emblems, agreeing readily.
Just like that, the foreign market opened up.
The Spiritual Medicine Pavilion’s medicines, with their solid strength, remained popular in neighboring small countries.
Though not as much as domestically, it was still flourishing everywhere.
Shang Wan got to experience the joy of wealth rolling in and counting money lying down.
At the same time, she also experienced being envied, threatened and lured, and regarded as a thorn in the side both openly and secretly.
With so few people in the city, if everyone bought from the Spiritual Medicine Pavilion, how could the other apothecaries stay in business?
