The manager stood to the side with his shoulders hunched, his voice trembling, "Manager, the Treasure Pavilion has a new rouge that not only has a color that is eight or nine parts similar to our Peach Blossom Smile rouge, but it is also one or two hundred coins cheaper, so it has attracted a lot of customers."
After saying that, she carefully took out a box and handed it over, "This is a sample that I specially asked my daughter to buy, it's called 'Begonia in Spring'."
Many people know that the owner of Yu Yan Zhai is named Yu Yan, but what many people don't know is that the person behind Yu Yan Zhai's success is actually a man.
Shopkeeper Yu was nearly fifty years old, with graying temples, but his face was very well-maintained. If it weren't for the fine lines showing through his furrowed brows, he would look like a handsome man in his early thirties.
“Treasure Pavilion, Treasure Pavilion, it’s that Treasure Pavilion again. I could tolerate her before when she wasn’t in the capital, but who knew she would leave Pingyang County and insist on coming to the capital to stir up trouble? I think she’s got a death wish.” He slammed his hand on the table.
The manager didn't dare to answer, but simply handed the box forward a little further. Only then did Manager Yu turn his gaze to the gilded and painted box, looking rather disdainful. "What good stuff could such a fancy thing have!" he said, but he had already taken it with his hand.
"Why can't I open this broken box?" Shopkeeper Yu roughly tried to pry open the lid, his knuckles turning white, but the box wouldn't budge.
The manager quickly stepped forward and pointed to a thin, long groove on the side of the box. "Shopkeeper, please don't rush. You need to press here to open it."
With some skepticism, Manager Yu pressed the mechanism. With a soft "click," the lid popped open a crack. He raised his eyebrows in surprise, not bothering to look at what was inside, but instead holding the box and examining it closely.
The manager standing nearby said, "The staff at the Treasure Pavilion said that this kind of box is very convenient to carry when going out. It won't spill if you put it in your bag, and you can touch up your makeup anytime."
"Hmph, do you need to say anything?" Manager Yu glared at him. He had been running the rouge shop for over thirty years and had seen all kinds of exquisite boxes. Naturally, he could see the advantages of this box at a glance.
Things like rouge and lipstick have always been inconvenient to carry around, since they can easily come loose and stain clothes if you keep them on your person, and you can't lock them up either, since the locks are bigger than the boxes.
To solve this problem, their shop had made a rotating disc box, but it would still open by itself if shaken too much. Later, they came up with a solution: they included a small cloth bag of a suitable size with the rouge box. By putting the rouge box in the bag, tightening the drawstring, and then tying the box together, they could prevent the lid from opening when shaken.
The downside is that when you want to touch up your makeup, you need to untie the rope and open the bag, which undoubtedly adds a lot of trouble.
But the box in front of us is quite ingenious. When closed, the mechanism fits the box body perfectly, and it won't open even if bumped. It can only be opened by pressing it in with a fingernail.
But how did the lid pop open by itself? He squinted at it for a long time before discovering that there was a delicate wire ring hidden in the hinge. When the lid was closed, the wire was flattened, and when the lid was opened, it would pop open automatically.
"So that's how it is!" Shopkeeper Yu exclaimed in admiration, his eyes gleaming. The box was inlaid with wood, but it didn't look like any precious wood, so the cost wouldn't be too high. The wire ring and the hinge looked rather delicate, but considering that only half of the white-glazed daylily vases in his kiln were usable, it didn't seem so unacceptable.
After making a plan in his mind, he instructed the steward, "Tomorrow, find a few craftsmen to make a replica of this box and bring a few samples for me to see." After saying that, he looked at the main body of the rouge, and what he saw made him so angry that his eyes blazed with fury.
"This color is clearly made to resemble 'Peach Blossom Smile'! Even the ratio of cinnabar to rose dew is..." He suddenly stopped, a sinister glint in his eyes: "Go check if the colorists in the workshop have been behaving strangely lately."
He then dabbed some rouge on his fingertip, rubbed it together, and brought it to his nose to smell it. His expression relaxed slightly. "The color is not the same. It looks much more vulgar than 'Peach Blossom Smile.' If that's the case, how can it affect the business of 'Peach Blossom Smile'? Is it because you didn't do your job well?"
The manager shrank back, saying, "Manager, it's really... there's been a rumor circulating in the capital lately that using 'Peach Blossom Smile' will damage the skin..."
"Absurd!" Manager Yu slammed his hand on the table. "'Peach Blossom Smile' has already sold countless bottles. If there were any problems, someone would have already spoken up. This is clearly a frame-up!"
"Initially, the rumors weren't about 'Peach Blossom Smile' itself damaging the skin," the manager explained carefully. "It was because Peach Blossom Smile is difficult to wash off and requires rubbing with salt. People outside said that this washing method would damage the skin, and indeed many customers reported that their skin became particularly prone to redness after using 'Peach Blossom Smile.' Gradually, the rumor became that using 'Peach Blossom Smile' would damage the skin."
Shopkeeper Yu's temples bulged with veins. "How could that be? I've tried it myself. The effect of scrubbing with salt is excellent. How could it damage the skin?"
The manager mustered his courage and said, "Manager, you don't wear makeup very often, so you don't use salt to scrub your face very often. But many women use it every day. Moreover, men's skin is naturally thicker. My wife used to scrub her face with salt for ten days in a row, and her face would hurt when the wind blew. It only got better after she stopped using it."
Manager Yu said angrily, "Why are you only bringing up such an important matter now!"
"We never thought of it that way before, we just assumed it was because of the cold weather and strong winds..."
As the owner of a cosmetics shop, Manager Yu knew better than anyone how much damaging rumors could be to a business. Otherwise, he wouldn't have used the same method to deal with them when Treasure Pavilion first opened. Unfortunately, his attempt to ruin Treasure Pavilion's reputation backfired, and instead, Treasure Pavilion demonstrated a responsible attitude in the matter.
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