Chapter 95 Grand Opening (I)
After that day, Su Luo fell ill and had constant sneezing and runny nose. Fortunately, there was no shortage of doctors at home. After taking a few prescriptions of medicinal decoctions, Su Luo never wanted to catch a cold again in his life. He also suggested to Li Jianyuan and others to make some ready-made pills to treat colds, which would definitely be more popular than boiled medicinal decoctions.
Li Jianyuan said that there are patent medicines, but most of them are chronic medicines for nourishing the body and replenishing qi. The efficacy of patent medicines is not as good as decoctions , especially for diseases like colds. Decoctions can also induce sweating, and may only take two doses to cure. Patent medicines need to be taken for several days, which not only increases costs but also troubles patients.
Su Luo was filled with emotion after hearing this. Doctors in ancient times were still conscientious. Hundreds of years later, hospitals would rather patients stay sick forever so that they can spend money. Last time, Su Luo's grandfather was sick and had surgery. Halfway through the surgery, a nurse came out with a receipt and asked a certain family member to pay for the blood transfusion. It just so happened that there were so many patients that day. After waiting in line for half a day, the money for the blood bag was finally paid. The doctors only hung up the blood bag after seeing the receipt. The poor grandfather lay on the operating table for more than ten minutes without blood. I really don't know in the minds of those doctors, which is more important, the receipt or the human life.
Su Luo hadn't seen Zhou Chongwen in the past few days. Su Luo knew that he was deliberately avoiding her. When they occasionally met, he didn't look as good as before, but looked very stiff. Finally, he said to Su Luo: "I want to go to Jianchang to persuade the princess to change her mind. Do you think it's okay?"
"How can the princess see you? Besides, her brother is seriously ill. The princess won't care about these things. Let's wait until the princess returns from Jianchang."
Zhou Chongwen looked speechless, as if he believed that this was Su Luo's excuse. If he went to Jianchang now, the princess might not come back to Nanjing, and Su Luo's wish to advance into the aristocratic world would not be fulfilled.
Only Su Luo herself knew the truth. She didn't know what to say to Zhou Chongwen. This was probably the so-called cold war, but these two words mostly appeared between lovers, so they... shouldn't be considered as such.
The two of them ended up like this, and Su was the one who was most worried. She had lost a lot of weight in the past few days, but she didn't complain to Su Luo, and instead advised Su Luo to cherish someone. The more she did this, the sadder Su Luo felt, but she had her own plans, and before there was a result, she couldn't promise anything to Su.
Perhaps it was Su Luo's attitude that made people feel that she did not care about the consequences . Zhou Chongwen seemed even more distant when he saw Su Luo again. Bao Zixing kept sighing and his hair fell out in clumps due to worry.
Su Luo seemed to have forgotten about this matter. After class every day, she would go out to find socialites to cultivate relationships. During this period of time, she attended four or five large socialite gatherings. When people introduced her, they would say that she was Miss Su, and then add a sentence "She is the godson of Princess Huairou." Almost everyone knew her, and she was quite well-known among the socialites.
By the time the famous Chinese medical scientist Li Shizhen arrived in Nanjing, Su Luo had reached an unprecedented level of business. There were small gatherings of one or two days, and large gatherings of three or five days. She had no time to take care of the old man. The old man also ignored her and was busier than her every day. He went to the bookstore every day to supervise the engraving of the plates, but was sent back several times. People said that he was useless and just a nuisance. Because the current printing technology is based on plate-setting movable type, after a plate is typeset, it will be sent to the warehouse and sealed for formal printing. The old man went to proofread the manuscript with a serious spirit, and he really found a typo. He picked out the typo and wanted the typesetter to change it, but the plate was scattered and had to be re-typed.
Su Luo said that it was absolutely not acceptable to have typos, and questioned the quality of the typesetting of the bookstore. The master in charge of that page said that it was typed according to the book. If you don't believe it, you can see it. Su Luo took a look and it was really the same. The truth was revealed. It was Old Li who wrote the typos. Old Li was as if he had been hit hard. He apologized to the master and went to the wall to draw circles. At the same time, he was worried that there might be typos in other volumes, so he wanted to suspend the work of the bookstore and proofread the manuscript first.
Su Luo said that you are worrying too much. Such words passed down to later generations are not called typos, but homophones, and future generations will cover them up for you... In the end, Old Li still went to proofread the manuscript, and no one could persuade him.
In this way, the old man was away from home all day, and Su Luo was also away from home all day. It was unknown how she got along with the ladies. But she had more and more clothes and jewelry, and she couldn't use ordinary things. Otherwise, why is it difficult to be a lady? The clothing fee alone could support many out-of-school children. Ordinary people couldn't afford it.
When Su Luo first arrived in Nanjing, his liquid assets were 6,000 taels of silver, which is equivalent to 3 to 4 million RMB. He was considered to have a small fortune, but in the past few months, he had to deal with house renovation, research funds, book sponsorship, and socialite costs... At the charity sale that the princess participated in, he even spent several hundred taels to buy a big bottle. It cannot be eaten or used, and it is just a waste of money for rich people.
These expenses caused Su Luo's assets to shrink. One day, she went to take out the silver bills from the small box in her closet, only to find that the thickness of the silver bills had been reduced by half. After counting the remaining ones, there were still about three thousand five hundred taels. Su Luo immediately broke out in a cold sweat. She never knew that she had such a talent for spending money.
After hesitating for a long time over the banknote, Su Luo called the maid in Su's room and asked her to go and inform Miss Ji Mei that she would not attend the evening party.
It can be said that the gatherings these days were not in vain. At least Su Luo has successfully entered the small group around Ji Mei. They have also verbally agreed to become the first batch of high-V members of Shiseido. As for the annual fee... just charge it according to personal worth.
The little girl responded and went there quickly. However, Su received the news faster than Ji Mei. She came to Su Luo's room worriedly and asked if Su Luo was feeling unwell.
"I have turned over a new leaf." Su Luo took out the box again, counted out a thousand taels of silver and gave it to Su to keep. "It will be open in less than half a month. It is more important to get Shiseido in good shape first. Didn't Old Li bring a female apprentice? I will go and talk to her right away."
That person is called Tang Jiao, she is not yet 30 years old this year, and her husband's surname is Liu. In fact, her husband is the disciple of Old Li. When he was a child, he suffered from a leg disease. On weekdays, he didn't see any pain. But when it was cloudy and rainy, he would feel unbearable pain. Tang Jiao learned massage techniques and massaged her husband every day. Whether it worked or not was irrelevant, but the friendship between the two was there. Unfortunately, Tang Jiao lost her husband due to a serious illness. She was only 25 that year.
Because it was not easy for women to find jobs outside, Old Li asked her to come to the clinic to help with dispensing medicine. She knew a lot about medical theories and pharmacology through daily exposure, and was exactly the operational talent that Su Luo urgently needed.
