Su Qingluan began to describe the horrifying scene in a very casual tone: "At first, Li Niang was just a little tired and had a cough, but she thought she had caught a cold, so she asked a doctor to prescribe medicine, but it didn't get better."
"Then she started to feel some pain in her bones and a loss of appetite. Not only did she lose her appetite, she also felt nauseous and wanted to vomit."
"Later, when Li Niang ate fried or hard foods, her gums would often bleed. She also developed ulcers in her mouth."
"A few months later, Li Niang accidentally fell to the ground in an accident. It was actually a very common thing, but the unusual thing was that Li Niang's fall was not heavy, but the arm that was supporting the ground was completely broken - her bones had become too fragile."
"Li Niang was seriously injured and had to stay in bed. Her parents loved their daughter very much and sought out famous doctors, but they could not diagnose the reason for her deteriorating condition."
"Gradually, Li Niang began to notice hard bumps forming on her body. These bumps were painless at first, but gradually began to break open, causing severe pain. Li Niang felt like she was in hell every day."
"However, neither the local famous doctors nor the barefoot doctors could figure out why Li Niang's health was deteriorating. This led her parents to seek help from the gods, placing their hopes on the spirits."
"But the situation didn't get better. It got worse and worse. Li Niang was horrified to find that her parents were becoming increasingly less energetic. Then, their teeth started bleeding—just like she had been about a year ago. It was as if they had been cursed by some terrible curse."
When Song Bo heard this, he felt a chill run down his back, giving him a shudder. He smiled dryly and said, "I... Madam Su, can we not tell stories with all this mystique?"
Mu Xingzhi beside him chuckled and said, "Qingluan, please don't be offended. Although Song Bo is very skilled, he cannot stand hearing about these ghosts and gods."
"Things about ghosts and gods?" Su Qingluan blinked. "There are neither ghosts nor gods in this story."
After taking a sip of tea to moisten her throat, Su Qingluan continued, "More than a month later, Li Niang finally succumbed to her illness and passed away. Li Niang's parents had originally told her friends about it, hoping they would see her off, but they never expected that several of them would become ill."
"And the only two people who came to pay their respects seemed to be struggling to hold on, and their mental state was not very good."
"Li Niang's parents loved their daughter so much that they couldn't believe she had died in such an unclear manner. So they went around asking around and finally discovered that her closest friends, their family members, and the servants who served them all had, to varying degrees, displayed the same symptoms Li Niang had experienced!"
"After careful questioning and verification, it turned out that these people were exactly the ones to whom Li Niang had distributed the night-shining pearl powder! Only then did everyone realize how terrifying murderous intent was hidden beneath that beautiful, shimmering light!"
"But..." Song Bo was still a little unconvinced, "Couldn't it be a coincidence? After all, many people who have used night-shining pearls for lighting for many years are also in good health and live to a ripe old age in peace."
Mu Xingzhi was obviously much calmer than Song Bo. He thought for a moment, then looked up at Su Qingluan. "So, you just asked if the night pearl glows when it's exposed to sunlight?"
Although she had experienced this countless times during casual conversations, Su Qingluan couldn't help but sigh once again: This man in front of her is really sharp. Every time he speaks, as long as he wants, he can get straight to the point.
However, she had no intention of hiding it, so she nodded and said, "That's right. Those night-shining pearls that can be worn for a long time usually don't glow on their own, but need to be exposed to sunlight. But Li Niang's night-shining pearl glows on its own, and the light doesn't diminish over time."
In fact, so-called "night pearls," especially those that can self-luminesce, are likely to contain natural radioactive elements. These beautiful but deadly lights are produced by the decay of radioactive elements.
In fact, Su Qingluan did not tell the truth completely. As the nuclides decayed and gradually disappeared, the light would naturally dim and disappear one day.
However, the half-life of radionuclides can easily be hundreds or even thousands of years, making it of little use to humans, whose lifespans are only a few decades. Therefore, Su Qingluan simply assumed that the light produced by radionuclides would generally not diminish.
In fact, although the story of Su Qingluan is fictional, it does have a real prototype - and the real story is even more absurd and terrifying, making people feel cold.
When Madame Curie discovered and successfully extracted the element radium, when people found that radium could make tumors disappear, and when radium could emit a faint, beautiful green light in the dark, a terrible disaster began.
In order to make huge profits, greedy businessmen packaged radium as a "miracle drug" that could cure all diseases, added it to various health foods, cosmetics, decorations and other daily necessities, and then sold it at sky-high prices under the concept of "health care".
These businessmen who have thrown their consciences to dogs are making a fortune, while the general public who are unaware of the truth are falling ill due to exposure to excessive amounts of radioactive substances. It is really chilling.
However, Su Qingluan had no way of explaining concepts such as "nuclear fission", "attenuation", "half-life", "radiation damage", etc. to the person in front of her, so she could only make up such a story on the spot.
As for whether the two people in front of her believed it and to what extent they believed it, it was not something she could decide.
In fact, Mu Xingzhi believed it, and later wrote about it in a letter to the friend who gave him the night pearl - the friend did it unintentionally, after all, he himself had a similar "night pearl".
However, writing letters was a matter for the future. Su Qingluan breathed a sigh of relief after solving the problem of the "Death Night Pearl". She turned around and began to discuss with Mu Xingzhi the main reason they came here - the outer packaging of the new series of jams.
"This new series should have three new flavors." Su Qingluan said.
That's right, since Aunt Zhang has clearly stipulated that "the new series must have at least three new jams", then she must have regarded this minimum requirement as the number of jams in this full set - nonsense, the fewer new flavors, the higher the unit price of each flavor can be sold, and the lower her production cost will be. Only a fool would make more new flavors to dilute the profits.
What's more, Su Qingluan is not planning to make a one-time deal. The only way to attract customers is to introduce new flavors of jam over a long period of time.
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