Chapter 116: Greed

“Since you can’t tell them apart, don’t casually change the price.”

“We don’t need to raise the price out of spite, that might end up hurting our own customers,” Ye Xin Ran said.

“Alright, it’s your formula, we’ll follow your lead,” Li Mo said. “Let’s do it your way. I’m curious to see what Shun Medical Hall plans to do.”

---

Meanwhile, in the back hall of Shun Medical Hall, Manager Cai was checking the earnings for the past few days, counting on his abacus.

The accountant, trying to flatter him, said, “Manager, you’re really something. You managed to buy the “Snow Beauty Ointment” from Yong Le Hall, rebrand it, and then resell it for 300 taels of silver. This deal is really profitable!”

“100 taels for a jar? That’s not a profit,” Manager Cai responded. “Once we get our hands on the formula, we’ll make our own ointment. That’s where the real profit is! At that point, we’ll raise the price to 500 taels per jar, and people will still fight to buy it!”

The accountant asked, “But Yong Le Hall has always been at odds with us. Do you think they’ll sell the formula to us?”

“They don’t want to sell now, but they don’t get to decide,” Manager Cai replied with a smirk. He stopped what he was doing and continued with confidence.

“Once we’ve stockpiled 500 jars of “Snow Beauty Ointment”, we’ll spread the word that Yong Le Hall’s ointment is made from our stolen formula. But they’ve missed an important ingredient, which could cause irreversible damage to the skin.

Then, we’ll send a few people to make a scene at their shop. After that, they won’t be able to run their business smoothly. To keep their doors open, they’ll have to sell us the formula. If they refuse, we’ll pressure them to shut down.

After all, the owner has a lot of connections. Destroying a small place like Yong Le Hall will be a piece of cake.”

The accountant hurriedly praised him, “Manager, you truly have a plan!”

He complimented him with his mouth, but inwardly, he was thinking: Yong Le Hall is really out of luck, getting targeted like this.

Manager Cai resumed counting the money on his abacus, his mind already imagining the prosperous future ahead.

Although their “Jade Skin Ointment” was good, they could only make five jars a year, which was far too few. Now, with the excellent “Jade Beauty Ointment” as a substitute, he was excited to think about how the owner would reward him.

The more he thought about it, the prouder he felt.

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In Yun Bian Village, after Ye Xin Ran returned home, she greeted Xiao Huai’an and immediately went into her room.

“I need to research the medicine in my room. Let the children know not to come looking for me,” she said.

“Don’t worry,” Xiao Huai’an reassured her.

Xiao Huai’an responded with a hum.

He trusted that Ye Xin Ran could make medicine in her room, but how exactly she made it, he still didn’t know.

It was probably like that day when she disappeared into the room first and then came back after finishing the medicine.

Xiao Huai’an didn’t dare to think too much about these things.

Would Ye Xin Ran ever tell him the truth one day?

He shook his head.

After all, he still had secrets of his own. Who was he to demand that others reveal all their secrets?

Putting aside the past things that neither of them wanted to discuss or couldn’t talk about, they got along very well.

Thinking of this, Xiao Huai’an felt a little relieved.

“Uncle, did you do something wrong?”

Xiao Huai’an was still lost in thought when he suddenly saw Chang An, who had just come back from school, running over and tilting his head to ask.

“What’s wrong?”

“You must have done something wrong. Otherwise, why would Aunt not let you go back to your room?”

Chang An pointed to the door behind Xiao Huai’an.

“Aunt is busy and doesn’t want anyone to disturb her. You’re not allowed to go in, do you hear me?”

Xiao Huai’an told the two children who had come over.

“Got it! After we finish feeding the horses and chickens, I’ll take my brother back to the room to study!” Chang Sheng said responsibly.

Xiao Huai’an nodded.

After giving his instructions to the children, he didn’t stay at the door any longer but went to the backyard to chop firewood.

Xiao Huai’an’s firewood-chopping movements were very practiced.

With each swing of the axe, no matter how thick the wood was, it would split evenly in two.

This time, with each swing, he tried to channel the internal energy that he hadn’t used in a long time from his Dan Tian.

The sense of resistance in his internal energy grew weaker and weaker, and it seemed that his internal strength was gradually recovering.

This was something Xiao Huai’an hadn’t expected.

He thought his leg injury had healed, but he didn’t expect that the long-standing bruising in his body seemed to be slowly disappearing as well.

Could it be because of Xin Ran’s medicine?

Not only him, but Chang An’s health was also improving day by day.

It had been such a long time, and his heart condition seemed to have never relapsed.

As he thought about this, the axe in his hand suddenly went astray.

He suddenly remembered something. When he was a child, his mother had once told him that if he sincerely made a vow to Guanyin Bodhisattva, Guanyin might hear his heart’s desire and help him fulfill it.

As a child, he didn’t understand much, but he would kneel there every day, wishing for a wife as beautiful as a fairy.

Could it be that Guanyin really heard his wish?

Xiao Huai’an shook his head, feeling that his thoughts were too absurd.

In the laboratory, Ye Xin Ran was carefully researching all the data involved in the production of Snowy Skin Ointment.

No one could imitate her work.

If this were the later times, perhaps she could apply for a patient to protect her rights, but in this era, it could only depend on one’s own strategies and skills.

She reviewed the plan in her mind again.

After confirming there were no issues, she tested adding a new herb to the formula.

Once the herb was added, the ointment turned a purplish-red color.

After five minutes, the purplish-red color disappeared completely, and the ointment returned to its original grassy green.

Ye Xin Ran scooped some of the ointment and applied it to her forearm.

The ointment was quickly absorbed by the skin, leaving only a faint green layer on top.

After rinsing, her forearm returned to its original snow-white appearance.

However, upon closer inspection, one would notice a faint purple hue remaining in the skin’s texture.

The purple tint was so subtle that, unless Ye Xin Ran specifically looked for it, one would never notice it.

Ye Xin Ran was very satisfied with this result.

It seemed to have worked.

She scooped all the prepared ointment and placed it in a red jar.

This time, she didn’t immediately seal the lid but made a mark on the inner side of the lid with a ballpoint pen before closing it.

Ten days. She only needed ten days to verify the effect of the new ointment.

During these ten days, how much ointment the Shun Medical Hall bought from them would also determine how significant the impact of this matter would be.

With this thought, Ye Xin Ran began to hope that Shun Medical Hall would buy more.

Human greed is insatiable.

Since they weren’t content with earning money in an honest way, they would have to bear the consequences brought on by their greed.