Chapter 5: Jade Rabbit Opens a Shop: Chinese Smelling Salts
Alice put down her plate and returned to Jane, who had finished dancing and was chatting with Mr. Bingley, who was laughing and talking very happily.
Seeing her coming, Mr. Bingley obviously didn't want her to take up their rare time together and divert Jane's attention. He hurriedly asked, "Miss Alice, why don't you go dancing? If there is anything that is not good enough for you, please let me know."
"It is very kind of you, Mr. Bingley, to have thought of inviting an equal number of ladies and gentlemen. Nothing could be more considerate and tactful," replied Alice.
She glanced at Mr. Darcy, the Meryton peg, who was dancing with her sister, and then tilted her head to look at the blond man standing further away.
"Unfortunately, lately I've been meeting gentlemen who aren't keen on dancing but show up at dances, so I've had to give myself some free time," Alice continued.
Mr. Bingley followed her gaze and immediately understood what Alice was talking about. After all, he was just a bit careless, not really stupid.
"You mean Mr. Moran?" Mr. Bingley explained. "He's a guest of my brother-in-law, Mr. Hurst. Although he's quite famous in London's aristocratic circles, this is the first time I've met him tonight. To be honest, we didn't expect him to accept the invitation before we sent it."
Colonel Fitzwilliam happened to come over to chat at this time. Before he could open his mouth, Mr. Bingley suddenly thought of something and asked directly: "Colonel Fitzwilliam, it seems that you and Mr. Moran went to college at Oxford together."
"That's true," replied Colonel Fitzwilliam.
"Could you please introduce her to that gentleman? Miss Alice wants to meet him."
Colonel Fitzwilliam: "I am a few years older than him, so our schooling times happened to be different. However, the Fitzwilliam family has some connections with the Moran family. If I could just introduce them, I think they would do me some favors. Miss Alice, please."
The people attending the dance gathered in groups of three or four. Alice followed the colonel through the crowd, but she didn't look at the road, her eyes had already locked on her prey.
The prey is still unaware.
As he approached, Colonel Fitzwilliam first greeted the man, then said to himself beside him: "Miss Alice Bennett, please allow me to introduce Mr. Adrian Moran to you."
Adrian Moran, the name fits the bill quite well.
"Miss Bennett." Mr. Moran was clearly not so forgetful that he couldn't even remember the person he had met a few minutes ago. He continued in his arrogant tone, "I don't think we need to waste time on this. After all, there won't be another opportunity to use each other's names in socializing. Today was just an accident."
"I have two older sisters. Just call me Alice." She didn't take his words seriously. She blew away a small insect that had suddenly landed on her white gloves, then looked up at him. "Mr. Moran seems to be overly arbitrary. I have a feeling that it's fate that will bring us together again soon."
The man frowned, not understanding why she was so sure.
But the young lady smiled and invited the introducer to go to the next room to watch her uncle Mr. Gardner play whist.
The dance must eventually end.
It was still the people who greeted and saw off the guests.
"Mr. Gardner, Mrs. Gardner, Miss Bennett, Miss Alice, goodbye. You are always welcome to visit us whenever you are in London." Mrs. Hurst said politely.
"Mrs. Hurst, and Mr. and Miss Bingley, I forgot to tell you a piece of good news," Alice finished calmly. "Jane and I are going to spend the winter in London too. Our homes are only one street away from here, so we can be neighbors again."
"Oh! Really? That's wonderful news!" Mr. Bingley said excitedly. "Which street is it? I'll go and see Miss Bennett and Miss Alice as soon as possible."
Mrs. Hurst, who was standing next to her, pursed her lower lip and tried to maintain a polite smile as if to see the guests off, while Miss Bingley's expression changed instantly.
Alice watched all this with satisfaction and continued, "Mr. Bingley, we would have sent you an invitation even if you hadn't mentioned it. I'm planning to open a drugstore in Bond Street, and I hope you'll come and see me when it opens in a few days."
"Of course! Of course!" Mr. Bingley took a step forward and looked at Jane, so happy that he didn't know where to put his hands and feet.
The sisters behind him all had dark faces.
"We still have some preparations to make for the opening of the store. We're sorry we can't entertain you these two days. See you on the opening day." Alice waved goodbye to Mr. Bingley and his family, and took Jane back to the apartment.
The Bond Street shop was indeed renovated within a week.
The shop is about 2,000 square feet[1], and its overall decoration reveals a fusion of Chinese and Western styles, with both the calm elegance of Chinese style and the colorful and colorful Western style. The shop is arranged according to her requirements with a store in the front and storage in the back, separated by a lacquer screen she bought. The screen is also divided into two parts by wooden partitions. One half is used to store various Chinese medicinal materials and serves as her medicine room. The other half has two small beds for the staff to rest.
On a previous trip to the East End, she'd learned from a new shop assistant, Anna, that she'd grown up in an orphanage and originally lived quite far from Bond Street, so she was happy to stay in the shop at night. Alice had asked her to find a reliable shop assistant to work with her, and she happily agreed.
Now the two of them came, wearing clean and tidy linen dresses, with their hair combed, looking much more energetic than that day.
"Miss Alice, this is Annie, who also grew up in our orphanage," Anna introduced her companion. Annie looked younger than Anna, about 16 years old, and thinner, with a look of timidity that came from being in an unfamiliar environment.
As if she was afraid that Alice would be reluctant to hire her, Anna hurriedly said, "Don't be fooled by her skinny figure; she works very efficiently."
"Then try it first." Alice looked at the calluses on Anne's hands and believed Anna's words for the time being.
She instructed, "Your main job every day is to receive customers in the store and sell the finished ointments. You will also have to do some maid work, such as buying breakfast, washing clothes, and cleaning the rooms. I will pay you an additional salary of 10 shillings each for this."
"We agreed that we could stay in the store tonight." Alice led the two of them into the back compartment. "Once it gets dark, we can prepare to close the store and rest."
Anna and Annie couldn't stop their excitement. This environment was much better than where they used to live, not to mention the very good salary.
"Oh, and when you get your breakfast every day, don't forget to buy a few extra baskets of flowers from the vendor in Hyde Park, so that you can fill the vases in the apartment and the shop." Alice led the way into the pharmacy and pointed to a large wooden table in the middle that served as a dispensing counter. "Now, put these finished ointments into the gift boxes next to them. The rest can be left unpacked and placed on the base of the shelf."
Two days ago, she ordered a batch of specially designed glass bottles from the glassware shop on the street to store ointments.
They had hardly ever touched such fragile items, so both of them were very careful and meticulous in their movements.
Seeing that they acted with propriety, Alice went upstairs to her room to write the invitations.
The shop was set to open three days later, and all the guests who received the invitations showed up as scheduled. Two unexpected guests also came, Mr. Darcy and Miss Darcy.
As the customary music for the opening of a new store in England played, people stood outside the door to receive the attention and congratulations of passers-by.
As the music played, Mr. Darcy inquired about the health of the Bennet family and asked, "Are you two young ladies the only ones present at such a major event?"
Jane smiled. "My uncle and aunt had some urgent business to attend to. Father and Mother haven't taken much pleasure in London, and they think there's no place they'd rather be than Longbourn."
"What about you sisters? Don't you like London either?" Mr. Darcy continued the topic abnormally.
"They'll be back after Aunt Phillips's ball at Meryton," Alice observed, "but one of the sisters may not come to London."
"Who is it?" Mr. Darcy held his breath for a moment and asked as soon as she finished speaking.
"Well, the two youngest ones will definitely want to join in the fun."
Mr. Darcy's eyes were still fixed on her.
"Mary, perhaps, prefers to be with her books and won't leave. Elizabeth, of course, will come." Seeing him calmly look away after hearing the first half of the sentence, she was certain. It was both surprising and unsurprising news.
During the greetings, Miss Bentley did not hesitate to look at the pharmacy with the most critical eyes.
A wooden sign was hung on the door, with the large words "Oriental Alice" painted in gold paint on it particularly eye-catching.
There is a strange-shaped small shop sign extending outward from the right side of the sign. Upon closer inspection, you can see a rabbit standing on the round wooden sign, and the rabbit is holding an object that looks like a hammer.
The shop sign had the words "Chinese Smelling Salts" and "Oriental Ointment" written in two lines of black paint.
On the bright window shelves facing the street, several medium-sized, long-necked glass bottles were scattered, filled with liquids of various colors, some golden, some brownish-red. Unlike other pharmacies that simply used chemicals to adjust the bright colors, the liquids in these bottles also emitted a slight mist and exuded the aroma of herbs.
Mr. Bentley, who couldn't hold back, pointed to the long-necked glass bottle outside the door, curious about it, and asked, "Miss Alice, is this the oriental potion you sell? The potion from the legendary ancient country of China in the far east?"
"That's not what we sell." Alice asked everyone to sit down at the Chinese-style tables and chairs placed nearby, and told Anna to get the long-necked flask and pour a glass for the first batch of guests.
"Oh, can this actually be drunk straight away? It smells faintly fragrant, is this tea? It doesn't taste like it, maybe some kind of medicinal decoction?" Bentley took a sip curiously, smacking his lips, and took another sip. "Not bad, you guys try it too."
Mrs. Hurst and Miss Bingley took a bite with frowns that could kill a mosquito.
"Yes, it's not bad."
"It tastes a bit weird."
The two sisters gave different evaluations.
Mr. Darcy took a sip without any expression on his face, then put it down without any expression on his face. Only after a glance from Mr. Bingley did he say, "It's drinkable."
Miss Darcy had taken a sip of the wine long before her brother, and she continued to sip it, evidently liking it.
"This isn't the tea we usually drink. It's a Chinese herbal tea made from roasted mugwort. It can dispel cold and warm the body, making it perfect for autumn and winter," Alice answered Bentley's initial doubts, then directed Anne to bring a glass bottle of another tea color. "Try this one, too. It's salvia miltiorrhiza tea, which can also warm the body. If you don't like the bitterness, you can add some sugar."
She pointed to a small dish of sugar cubes on the table. After so many years in England, she had become accustomed to their preference for everything to be a little sweet.
"Miss Alice, you really shock me. I never heard that you could do these things before at Longbourn. Young ladies are really versatile. You might surprise us at any time! Don't you think so, Darcy?" Mr. Bingley sighed again while drinking salvia water with sugar cubes, and also talked to Mr. Darcy, trying to get him to join the conversation.
“I’m afraid it would be more appropriate to call it skill rather than talent, as the two are not of the same kind. I still believe that I only know half a dozen ladies who could be called versatile.”[2] The gentleman, who was being dragged into the conversation by his friend, didn’t care and said something unpleasant.
Ladies are obviously more sensitive than gentlemen when it comes to products like smelling salts.
"I suppose those little bottles opposite contain the goods of the shop?" interposed Miss Bingley.
The two gentlemen then turned their attention to the shelves.
There were two rows neatly arranged on the shelf, one row of small boxes wrapped in silk, and the other row of exquisite glass bottles placed on specially customized bases.
Miss Bingley walked over and picked up a bottle, then, making sure she was in full view, and especially in the attention of one person, she returned to the table and sat down with what she considered to be an elegant demeanor.
Everyone looked at her open palm.
The bottle, about a finger's length long, consists of two nested glass bottles. The inner layer has a smooth surface, while the outer layer is embossed with fashionable patterns. There are tiny holes on the left and right sides, which fit the matching silver chain through, tightly connecting the two layers of glass. The glass bottle also has a sealed glass stopper shaped like the dome of a Roman church.
The golden paste, seen through the glass, reveals the elegance pursued by the upper class today without being overly flashy.
"There's actually ointment in the middle of the two bottles. No wonder there's such a striking golden pattern," Miss Darcy said, noting the bottle's remarkable design. "It's not only beautiful, but also saves ladies from the embarrassment of having the ointment inside the bottle look unsightly after use. What a clever idea."
After saying that, he looked at Alice a little embarrassedly.
Alice smiled back. This Miss Darcy was much cuter than her brother. If Mr. Darcy had the good fortune to win over Lizzie, it would seem that the sisters would have the upper hand in the family.
The couple made a sale on the opening day. Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy each bought a bottle of oriental ointment, which Alice named "Awakening Ointment," for their sisters at the market price of 5 pounds. They made a profit of 15 pounds on the first day.
When he quoted the price, everyone except Mr. Bingley and Miss Darcy looked shocked.
Jane completely trusted her sister and didn't ask Alice about the specifics of the pharmaceutical sales. Anna and Anne, despite already knowing their employer had set the price, were still as apprehensive when they heard it again, especially when it was offered directly to a customer. Mr. Darcy's face was etched with the expression "You're blackmailing me," but he was still the first to pay. As for the remaining two, their eyes were filled with the thought, "The Bennetts are really crazy with poverty."
Unfortunately, people who paid the bill so readily only appeared on the opening day, and the following two or three days were not as expected.
Even though he paid some pounds and placed ads in several newspapers, including The Times and The Weekly Express, his shop still had few customers. Only one young lady came into the shop and bought some to make perfume because she thought the ointment smelled good.
Why is it that when I'm not selling medicine, I feel like there are fragile nerves everywhere that need to be saved, but when I really start doing business, it's not the same?
Seeing her bored and utterly exhausted sitting in the store, and Anna and Anne carefully cleaning the shelves nearby, Jane came over and sat down, comforting her, "Smelling salts aren't consumables, after all. Most ladies have them at home, so it's not uncommon to have them if you don't need to buy more."
Yes, now that Mrs. Bennett has been using it for a while and knows the huge difference between smelling salts and wake-up cream, how could anyone else know? And why would they want to replace the smelling salts they already have at home? She couldn't rely on the Bentley sisters, who seemed to have no use for it, could she?
Alice rested her chin on her elbow, and thought of some way of making the difference known to the world.
The author has something to say:
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[1] 2,000 square feet is approximately 200 square meters.
[2] This is a continuation of the original novel’s discussion of Elizabeth’s versatility when she visits Jane, who is ill, at Netherfield Hall.
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