Chapter 217 The Opening of the Herbal Medicine Shop
"Haitang..." Xie Wanniang's tone and voice clearly revealed her guilt. She waved the silver note in her hand at Haitang, "Tell me, wouldn't you say I'm taking advantage of a favor?"
Haitang looked delighted and shook her head vigorously, "Of course not!"
When her daughter saved that child, she was completely unaware of the wealth of his mother and uncles, and after saving the child, she never hinted that she needed them to repay her life-saving grace.
They never even mentioned Xie Wanniang's lack of money to the child. Haitang was also puzzled as to how the child knew about it.
She comforted her daughter, "Don't overthink it. Whether it's money or gifts, they all gave them to you voluntarily. You've never once asked them to repay you in any way."
Xie Wanniang thought about it and agreed. She herself had no intention of taking advantage of the kindness, and how much the other party was willing to give was their own business.
She would be pleasantly surprised if the amount was large, but she wouldn't mind if the amount was small. Even if the other party didn't offer any thanks, she would only feel fortunate to have saved such a young child.
She thought for a moment and said, "You're right. I received too many gifts all at once, and I subconsciously felt guilty."
The reason she didn't suspect the other party was trying to buy back the favor with money was because the child's mother had earnestly expressed her strong desire to maintain a long-term relationship with her in the letter.
She called to Haitang, "Grind the ink for me, I need to write a reply to that lady."
Haitang nodded vigorously, like a chick pecking at rice, "Okay!"
The master and servant worked together, one grinding ink and the other preparing paper and pen. Then, Xie Wanniang carefully wrote a letter to the child's mother.
After finishing the letter, she put the five hundred taels of silver into her money box. "What should I give as a return gift?"
Ideally, it should be something that is very valuable to others, but has a very low cost to her.
After thinking it over and over for about half an hour, Xie Wanniang picked up her pen again and wrote a total of ten prescriptions in her neat and unremarkable handwriting.
All the recipes are medicinal diet recipes. Half of them are for the child. Although he has recovered from his injuries and illnesses, his body is still somewhat weak and needs long-term conditioning. The other half are general health-preserving recipes suitable for all ages and different seasons.
Xie Wanniang was meticulous in her work. She wrote down everything clearly on paper, including the ingredients, types and amounts of herbs, cooking tips and precautions, and who was suitable and unsuitable to eat the food.
She had countless such things stored in her mind, which were worthless to her, but to others of this era, these things, which contained a certain amount of knowledge or technology, were all family heirlooms that they had to cherish, even hide away and carefully preserve.
Its value is second only to the books in their home, far surpassing anything like jewels, jade, fabrics, or cosmetics.
Of course, even so, Xie Wanniang still had to give the other party some physical gifts.
She opened the storeroom, picked out a few wolf and fox pelts that she had carefully kept and that others had given her, and then asked Haitang to take people to buy some local specialties.
Besides that, Chang Yao didn't have anyone move them away, but instead gave them ornaments, porcelain, and other items, which she also picked out to make up the numbers.
She didn't have time to redo the embroidery, so she only took some small trinkets she had embroidered before, such as pillowcases, pillow towels, handkerchiefs, purses, money bags, and so on.
In addition, she also gave the other party many copies of books, although about half of them were medical books. But it didn't matter. Those scholars, such as her adoptive father and his relatives, subordinates and students, would be keen to collect medical books even if they did not study medicine.
To be precise, as long as it's a book—no, I should say, as long as it records some knowledge or skills, even if it's just a single page, a bamboo slip, or a broken stele—they will have a strong desire to collect it.
After writing down everything she had prepared on the list, Xie Wanniang realized that her list was far too short. So she added two turquoise stones, two amber stones, a large quantity of exotic foods from beyond the Great Wall, some wine that she had personally purified, and some sausages, cured meats, cured duck, meat sauce, and mushroom sauce that she had prepared with others before the New Year...
After gathering most of the goods, Xie Wanniang was finally satisfied and sent someone to the capital again.
Five days after the guards who were responsible for delivering the return gifts left, Xie Wanniang's herbal medicine shop officially opened.
Because there was no resident doctor in the shop and the location was relatively remote, her shop didn't have many customers even on its opening day.
The shopkeeper, accountant, and shop assistants, who were also family members of border soldiers, were all very worried when they saw that the shop was deserted and not lively at all.
However, because it was the auspicious day for the opening of the herbal medicine shop, they dared not openly show their worries.
Everyone was clearly very worried inside, but they still had to force a smile on their faces.
Xie Wanniang noticed that these people hadn't completely concealed their worries, but she didn't offer any explanation or comfort. She figured they would soon realize from the changes in the shop's accounts that they really didn't need to worry about the shop's business.
Unlike clinics, whose customers are all residents of Yi County, herbal medicine shops have a much more limited customer base.
They don't treat patients, they only sell medicine, which means that only clinics, itinerant doctors, rural doctors, female doctors, and Taoist priests will become their potential customers.
This is a common characteristic of all herbal medicine shops, so this will not be a fatal weakness for Xie Wanniang's herbal medicine shop.
To carve out a niche for herself from the competition in other herbal medicine shops, she needed to do more than change her customer base; she needed to strengthen her competitive advantage.
For example, providing customers with more affordable and high-quality medicines, or making sure that the variety of medicinal herbs in your herbal medicine shop is more complete than ever before.
Of course, some underhanded methods are also necessary. For example, those in charge of purchasing at the clinic should be given some benefits as well.
The first two points were met with nods of agreement from her newly hired manager, accountant, and staff, but the last point was something the staff had never anticipated.
Xie Wanniang was not surprised by this, after all, the new employees she had hired had done things that had nothing to do with business before they came to work for her.
Whether it's farming or raising livestock, these are things that can be done well as long as you are serious and experienced enough; they don't require you to have a particularly clever mind.
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