Chapter 123: Closing the Net

Housekeeper Ye had already grown impatient.

When she saw Ye Xin Ran return, she quickly stood up. “Ah, you’re finally back! Hurry up and come with me! My lady must be dying with worry.”

“Don’t rush, let me first speak with our shopkeeper,” Ye Xin Ran reassured her, signaling for Li Mo and the others to follow her to the backyard.

Once they were in a secluded spot, Li Mo finally dared to speak up.

“Goodness, what exactly is going on? Could Snow Face Ointment really cause problems?”

Ye Xin Ran shook her head.

“This is the solution I mentioned before, the one I found. I added purple kalam to the Snow Face Ointment. After using it for a while, the skin will show a purple bruise.”

“Then how do we fix it?”

Li Mo knew Ye Xin Ran must have a way to handle it, but still couldn’t help asking.

“I’ve made an antidote. Once applied, the purple bruise will disappear.”

“That’s wonderful!”

Li Mo patted his chest in relief.

Ye Xin Ran teased, “Since I dared to use it, I must have already figured out a solution. Shopkeeper Li, you must have confidence in your business partner!”

At that moment, Xiao Huai’an spoke up.

“I followed that person all the way and saw him definitely entering the back door of Shun Yi Tang.”

Ye Xin Ran nodded.

“Although I suspected they were behind it, it’s still reassuring to witness it with my own eyes.”

“Who? Who are you talking about?”

Li Mo looked confused.

Ye Xin Ran and Xiao Huai’an exchanged a glance, and finally, Ye Xin Ran explained, “The shop was chaotic earlier, so you didn’t notice, but someone was secretly guiding the two women in the crowd.

As soon as my husband arrived, he noticed something wasn’t right. He didn’t go to the county office with us, he went to track him instead.

And as we suspected, it was indeed Shun Yi Tang pulling the strings.”

“If the ancestors of Shun Yi Tang are watching from above, knowing that their descendants are so disgraceful, resorting to such vile methods to make money, I wonder if they’ll be so furious that they rise from their graves.”

Li Mo still had a lot of grievances to vent.

Ye Xin Ran smiled. “Fortunately, we were prepared.

If people don’t harm me, I won’t harm them. But if they do, I’ll eliminate the root cause completely.”

“The net has been cast, and it’s almost time to reel it in.”

Ye Xin Ran said this casually, but Li Mo suddenly felt a chill on the back of his neck.

He touched the back of his neck and glanced at Xiao Huai’an, suddenly feeling a bit concerned about his brother’s future.

Soon after, Ye Xin Ran and Li Mo, along with the housekeeper, arrived at Ye Yuan Wai’s home.

Ye Xin Ran took out the restorative ointment and gave it to the eldest lady of the Zhao family. After she applied it, the purple bruise on her face quickly faded by more than half.

“This ointment is enough for about three days. After using it for three days, the purple bruising on your face will completely fade. By then, you’ll notice that your skin will be a hundred times better than before,” Ye Xin Ran said.

The effect was immediate, and Madam Zhao was very satisfied.

“If it really improves even a little, I’ll definitely continue buying Snow Face Ointment from your store.”

“Please rest assured, Madam. As long as you use it, we will take full responsibility,” Ye Xin Ran assured her.

This incident quickly spread.

There were all kinds of rumors going around.

Some people said the owner of Yong Le Hall was very responsible, solving the issue completely when something went wrong, and that the Snow Face Ointment from Yong Le Hall was trustworthy.

Others said that the Snow Face Ointment from Yong Le Hall had stolen the formula from Shun Yi Tang, and because they didn’t steal the full formula, that’s why this problem occurred. Now that it seemed fixed, who knew if there would be further issues?

Yong Le Hall was really despicable for stealing someone else’s formula. A pharmacy that stole formulas would forever be scorned.

At first, there were more voices supporting Yong Le Hall, but by nightfall, the second opinion started to outweigh the first.

More and more people began to suspect that Yong Le Hall had stolen the formula from Shun Yi Tang.

Some customers who had used the ointment even came to the store to ask: Could they have any problems? What if their faces were ruined?

Li Mo tried his best to reassure the customers.

But inside, he couldn’t help but feel uneasy.

Before leaving, Ye Xin Ran threw him a reassuring remark: “Don’t worry, it just needs more time to settle. The more they jump now, the harder they’ll fall later.”

The “slap in the face” Ye Xin Ran mentioned came soon enough.

Three days later, customers who had used Shun Yi Tang’s Yu Ru Ointment began to show purple bruises on their faces.

At first, no one noticed.

Some worried customers went to Shun Yi Tang to ask, and the shop assistant there only gave vague answers, saying it was a normal situation and that it would gradually improve.

But when they tested the ointment, this issue had never occurred before.

Cai Zhang Gui thought that the issue with the Zhao family was just an isolated case, and he even mocked Yong Le Hall for having bad luck.

But the situation only escalated.

More and more people started to experience the same problem. They no longer believed the claim that it would get better on its own, and they demanded that Shun Yi Tang resolve the issue quickly.

“Yong Le Hall’s Snow Face Ointment caused purple bruises as well. Didn’t they say the problem was because they stole an incomplete formula from your family? So why is Yu Ru Ointment having the same problem now?”

“Exactly! At this point, what’s the difference between Snow Face Ointment and Yu Ru Ointment?”

“There’s still a difference. At least when Yong Le Hall had an issue, the shopkeeper solved it quickly. I saw that Madam Zhao’s purple bruising disappeared in just three days.”

“Cai Zhang Gui, what’s really wrong with your ointment? Don’t tell me you don’t know either?”

Faced with these questions, Cai Zhang Gui was already at his wit’s end.

When three cases appeared, he realized something was terribly wrong. He had the doctors at the clinic work overnight to investigate the cause of the purple bruising.

But the doctors couldn’t find any issues. Eventually, they concluded that the patients’ condition might have been caused by toxins in their bodies.

They suggested using some liver-regulating and detoxifying medicines to help these people expel the toxins from their bodies.

Liver-regulating and detoxifying medicines weren’t cheap.

But since Yong Le Hall was offering free treatment, they couldn’t fall behind.

Cai Zhang Gui ordered the preparation of two hundred doses of medicine to be given to the people who had bought Yu Ru Ointment.

But after taking the medicine, the patients had severe reactions, with intense diarrhea, but the purple bruising didn’t decrease at all.

Cai Zhang Gui was panicked!

“Go, send someone to Yong Le Hall to buy their restorative ointment, no matter the price. Buy as much as they have, and bring it all back!”

He gave the order.

However, when the servant returned, they had nothing to show for it.

“The shopkeeper at Yong Le Hall said they’re not selling the ointment, only giving it away for free. You need to bring proof of purchase to exchange for the medicine.”

“What proof?” Cai Zhang Gui asked, his veins popping with frustration.

“They said the proof is the jar that the Snow Face Ointment comes in.”

“The jar of Snow Face Ointment? Don’t we still have those jars in storage? Quickly, go to the warehouse and get those jars! Take them and exchange them for the restorative ointment!”

Cai Zhang Gui was secretly delighted.

Thank goodness he hadn’t ordered those jars to be destroyed back then.

It seemed that there was always a way out!