Chapter 36: Jade Rabbit Saves the Bald Englishman. Great! He’s saved! ...
The store shelves were replaced with a new batch of medicine bottles, still made of glass, with a capacity roughly double that of the wake-up ointment. These bottles were shaped like round pumpkins, and the intricate embossed pattern of Alice's mark on the bottles added a touch of mystery to the ointment.
The cream is a clearer, goose-yellow than the Refreshing Cream, so pale it's almost colorless. To the uninitiated, one might mistake the shelves for empty glass bottles, simply for display.
This hair-strengthening and rejuvenation cream uses a combination of traditional Chinese medicine ingredients, including ginger peel, black aconite root, vitex rotundifolia, and ginseng, mixed with raw sesame oil to form a paste[1]. Apply once a day to the roots of your hair and your scalp. You can also use it as a hair oil to create various hairstyles.
Alice Bennett was no longer a newcomer to London's Vanity Fair. She went to the Times on Fleet Street to meet the editor who had been responsible for publishing the interview on the Jockey Club Awakening Cream incident.
"Miss Alice, you're talking about promoting your store's new medicine?" the editor-in-chief asked, puzzled. "Then you should talk to the person in charge of advertising."
"The new medicine is a hair-strengthening and rejuvenating ointment. I'm sure its efficacy will bring huge rewards to the first newspaper that publishes the news. The news you've spent so much effort hiring correspondents to collect is not as worthy of reporting as this." She gave the name of the new medicine, indicating that she wanted the newspaper's news page rather than an ordinary advertisement.
The gentleman opposite reacted and quickly understood what was said.
"You're saying you've developed a secret formula for treating hair loss?" The editor-in-chief stood up excitedly. "Does it really work? How effective is it?"
He had been involved in the entire Jockey Club Awakening Ointment incident and had great confidence in Alice Pharmaceuticals. After all, the ointment had been on the market for so long and there had been no reports of poor efficacy. The upper class was full of difficult people, and his office, The Times, was the most informed.
"The efficacy of the Hair Rejuvenating Cream is as reliable as the reputation of The Times. They are very suitable." Alice was surprised by his excitement and looked at his relatively normal hair. "But you don't seem to need it."
"I need it, miss." The middle-aged man, who had just looked calm, excitedly peeled off his entire head of brown hair, revealing a nearly bald head. "This is a wig. I don't usually follow fashion trends, so I didn't put any white powder on it, so you can't tell."
"You have no idea how easy it is to lose your hair as a newspaper editor!" Speaking of hair, he suddenly became talkative. "Those upper-class people, do you think they don't wear wigs? They only wear them occasionally in daily life to let their heads breathe, but on important occasions where they need to take off their hats more often, they definitely wear them."
That day, the two talked a lot about the hair strengthening and rejuvenation cream. After returning home, Alice asked someone to send a bottle to the editor for trial.
Soon, The Times, with its headline "British hair may find a savior! Hair-strengthening and rejuvenation cream: the efficacy of an Eastern hair-care secret," was scattered across the streets. With the cries of newsboys, the news that the "Oriental Alice" pharmacy had released a new hair-loss treatment spread like wildfire throughout London.
The report first focused on the number of bald people in the UK, emphasizing that hair loss is a lifelong pain for many Britons. Young women and handsome men often become bald by middle age, or even just before marriage. From then on, they wear wigs and hats to cover up their appearance, and when they return home, they face disdainful looks from their spouses. Those whose hair falls out quickly, until they are completely gone, are at the bottom of the marriage contempt hierarchy.
The report then moves on to the main topic, discussing the efficacy of the drug claimed by Alice, the creator of the book, and exploring the possibility of achieving the goal of curing hair loss in the UK. Finally, it mentions the Jockey Club's "Refreshing Cream" incident, arguing that the ointment should be given full credit. This could be the beginning of a new era for the British to overcome the troubles of baldness.
Newspapers were paying attention to each other. As soon as the Times published the story, other newspapers immediately learned about it, sensed its value, and followed suit to report it.
The Evening Post was the first to report on the hair-rejuvenating cream on the same day, following The Times. However, there was no time to interview the parties involved, so this temporarily added press release was a commentary article analyzing The Times' report: "Can the new cream save suffering Britons? Is it a gift from God, or a scam?"
Subsequently, newspapers such as the Morning Chronicle, the London Gazette, and the Daily News published interview reports such as "A Miracle Elixir? What is this Oriental ointment that claims to regrow hair?", "Hair-Rejuvenating Cream: 'Oriental Alice' Pharmacy Saves Britons Again," and "Miss Alice Bennett Strikes Again, Bald Gentlemen and Ladies Across Britain Are Saved!"
This whirlwind was far more violent and lasting than the last one. Even several weekly and biweekly newspapers such as "Gentleman's Magazine" published reports to pay attention to this matter.
Some tabloids, seeking to attract attention, found intriguing angles to report on the hair of the ointment maker Alice and her network of contacts. The newspapers wrote that Alice herself had thick black hair, and her relatives and friends in London seemed to have no obvious signs of hair loss. Could it be that Alice had strict hair thickness standards even for her friends?
The newspaper cautiously stated that these individuals were almost all young people. To further verify the hair condition of Miss Alice's network, a correspondent traveled to Longbourn to interview her parents, but Mr. Bennett, who was said to be a reclusive man, was nowhere to be found; he declined to be interviewed. It is currently unknown whether her father suffers from hair loss or whether he has used hair rejuvenation cream.
The correspondent only met Mrs. Bennett. She gushed endlessly about the excellence of her daughter Alice, praising her own good upbringing. She then praised the excellence of all her daughters and publicly sought marriage partners for her five unmarried daughters. She sought men of noble birth whose assets would not be less than her eldest son-in-law's annual pension of £5,000. Good looks were a plus. The newspaper published Mrs. Bennett's request verbatim, concluding with a comment: "This lady spoke loudly all afternoon, still full of energy, with no sign of any pre-existing illness. This proves that the refreshing ointment is at least effective, and we can look forward to the new ointment."
If the previous newspapers expressed their trust in Alice's new ointment with high praise but still used cautious words, then the Daily Advertiser, which had a more flexible publication schedule, was extremely complimentary. The report seemed to have seen that the ointment had solved the problem of hair loss that had plagued the British for centuries, and envisioned a beautiful scene of streets in London and other counties full of thick hair.
At the dining table in a townhouse in Mayfair, London, the man spread out the newspaper his servant had brought him and began to peruse it. As he read, he couldn't help but touch his increasingly thinning hair and muttered, "One last try. This must be the last time."
After breakfast, the servant handed over a carefully groomed powdered wig. The man naturally put on the wig and a black top hat, ready to go out for the banquet.
In a single-family villa in St. James's, the hostess was hosting a small gathering of the ladies of a close family. During the meal, one of the ladies noticed the specially crafted glass bottle hanging from her waist and mentioned a news item she had just read in the newspaper: "That Oriental Alice Pharmacy, which sells the awakening ointment, has released a new oriental ointment that's said to be miraculous for treating hair loss."
"It's understandable for a young lady to make an ointment similar to smelling salts, but I doubt she can even cure a condition like hair loss, something even the royal physician can't," a woman said, leisurely sipping tea. So many doctors across Britain have painstakingly researched medical treatments for hair loss for years and generations, but no one has ever truly developed a cure. Hair loss continues. She knew London was full of bald men, but fortunately, her hair was still in good condition, and she was very proud of it.
"I'd like to try it," another wife sighed in mock resignation. "That's exactly what my husband needs. He was a handsome man when we first proposed, but now, alas, the back of his head is bald, and he doesn't like wearing wigs. You all know that he only looks good from the front."
The ladies around them all smiled, covering their lips with their hands, and several of them agreed to buy some and try them out. Almost all of these people had bald husbands, and even sons were gradually showing signs of baldness.
In Kensington and Chelsea, living in a luxurious manor cannot offset people's complaints about hair loss.
"Look at your hair in the mirror. It's almost gone." A stylishly dressed woman, adjusting her clothes, mocked her husband, "Why did my family choose you as my marriage partner? You're such a disgrace to me."
"Oh, don't think I don't know that you wear a wig on your head. All those decorations on your head are just to cover up your thinning hair. How are you better than me?" The husband also retorted.
The woman adjusted the angle of her hat, pressing the top of her head, and glared at her husband: "Who said that? That's all slander! You narrow-minded bald man, forget it!"
"You are the one who knows best whether it is slander or not. After all, people who are losing their hair are the ones who care the most." In order to win the argument, he is willing to hurt the enemy a hundred times and hurt himself two hundred times.
Listening to the quarrel coming from the lady's bedroom, the servant brought in today's morning newspaper tremblingly, and then retreated tremblingly.
The fashionable lady glanced at the newspaper in front of her, and suddenly, a huge headline caught her eye - "Hair Strengthening! Rejuvenation! A Solution for Hair Loss in Britain!" She immediately flipped through the newspaper quickly and carefully.
A moment of joy flashed across her face, but she quickly suppressed it and stood up as if nothing had happened: "I still have so many manor affairs to deal with, I don't have time to care about you."
After saying this, she calmly went downstairs, turned around and called her personal maid, and whispered: "Go to Oriental Alice Pharmacy on Bond Street and buy me an ointment called Hair Strengthening and Rejuvenating Cream. Buy me one bottle first, no, buy two bottles directly." She completely ignored the price of 8 pounds per bottle clearly stated in the newspaper.
On the other side, the husband was surprised that his wife wasn't as determined to win the argument as usual. Something felt amiss, and he looked curiously at the fallen newspaper on the table. His eyes lit up instantly.
He quickly summoned his valet, who pointed to the ointment and photo in the newspaper and said, "Buy me three bottles of this ointment. Don't let my wife know." He had heard his wife mention this pharmacy before. She used to get headaches every time they argued, and later she said it was the refreshing ointment from Oriental Alice Pharmacy that helped. This hair loss treatment must be effective. Humph, anyone with thick, beautiful hair is a handsome man.
That day, many people, inspired by the newspaper news, rushed to buy the hair-strengthening and rejuvenating ointment. Fortunately, Alice had anticipated this and had prepared thousands of bottles in advance. This barely covered the first day's supply. Many high-society figures sent their servants to buy two or three bottles at a time. On the first day alone, she sold over £7,000, netting a profit of nearly £5,000.
Mr. Bingley was stunned to learn how many bottles of ointment were sold in a single day. Mr. Darcy silently estimated the net profit and was also somewhat surprised, but he believed that the value of this business would depend on the subsequent treatment results.
Those men and women who had suffered from hair loss for too long couldn't wait to have their servants apply the ointment on them the same night they bought it.
After opening the exquisite wooden box, they found the item they had been looking forward to for a day lying in a goose yellow silk bag. They loosened the drawstring to reveal the round-bellied pumpkin-shaped medicine bottle inside.
The bottle cap is decorated with pumpkin leaves, but it actually contains a removable glass spoon. Three spoons are just enough for applying to the roots of your hair. One bottle provides enough for about a week of treatment.
The newspaper described the product's effectiveness, which the manufacturer claims usually takes a month to show results, though the specific results vary from person to person. After the treatment, regular use can help maintain hair and prevent recurrence of hair loss, so once a week is sufficient.
They asked their servants to apply the ointment to the roots of their hair. Their scalps immediately felt warm, and the ointment smelled of a strange fragrance.
Everyone who applied the ointment looked forward to its effects.
Aside from his immediate family, no one knew that the Crown Prince of Wales had secretly purchased a hair-strengthening and rejuvenating cream. As a trendsetter in London's fashion world, he was deeply concerned with his image, often camouflaging his baldness with a wig. Unbeknownst to the outside world, he was actually balding for a long time. He was also a keen follower of all things London was going on, and having long followed Alice and her pharmacy, he immediately bought five bottles of the new cream upon seeing it on the shelves.
He meticulously followed the instructions on the card inside the wooden box that contained the ointment, carefully caring for his remaining hair and scalp. Worried the ointment wouldn't work quickly enough, he even had his servants apply the ointment to his entire hair.
Sure enough, after almost a month, light stubble began to appear on his bald scalp.
The Prince of Wales's favorite thing to do now is look in the mirror. He has his servants hold large round mirrors and use them to photograph his hair from all angles to create the perfect look. He even gives them sweet nicknames. He calls the fastest-growing hairs "strong little fellows." To the tiny patches of scalp that haven't fully emerged, where only a faint discoloration is visible, he calls them encouragingly, "Keep up, little darlings." He has his hair recorded and praised at every stage of growth.
The Crown Prince was not the only one to experience this joy. Other British men and women who bought the ointment were also ecstatic a month or two later.
In the Westminster district of London, a noble lady sat in front of her dressing table, looking at the more fluffy hair between her wider hairline, laughing non-stop, and happily rewarded all the servants in the room with large sums of money.
In Lancashire, western England, a man discovered he had grown new hair early in the morning. He screamed and rushed out of his house, clutching several wigs that he had always treasured. He gave them away to everyone he met, grinning as if he had found money. Neighbors said the soon-to-be wealthy factory owner had gone mad.
…
If the last time the Refreshing Cream was only famous among ladies, this time the Hair Strengthening and Rejuvenating Cream has become famous throughout the UK. After all, hair loss problems do not discriminate between men and women.
Nowadays, the way people in the upper class greet each other when they meet has become to ask each other: "Have you regained your youth?" Just by asking this question, even people who are on bad terms with each other can get a friendly smile in response.
Anyone with eyes could see how booming this business was, and Mr. Darcy wasn't the only one who had to settle accounts. Many apothecaries who hadn't secured the exclusive rights to sell the product were eager to learn the secret formula for the hair-strengthening and rejuvenating ointment. Anna and Anne repeatedly told their employers that they had been offered bribes, but they also repeatedly swore that they had never accepted any. Alice ignored these scheming individuals. After all, even if they knew the formula, they couldn't create such a miraculous ointment by simply copying it.
No matter what those people think, pharmacies on the streets across the UK seem to have grown rabbit-shaped signs overnight.
In Hampshire, southern England, outside Charlie's Pharmacy, a tall, blond man stood looking at the rabbit-shaped sign hanging in the store, his gloomy blue eyes showing a hint of confusion.
This is……
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The author has something to say: Before using the hair rejuvenation cream, two men met on the street. A took off his hat to greet B, who took off his hat in return. "Are you bald?" "Are you bald too?"
After using the hair rejuvenation cream, A took off his hat to greet B, who then took off his hat in return. "Have you regained your youth?" "You have regained your youth too?"
[1] Refer to Sansheng ointment in the Standard of Diagnosis and Treatment.
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