Volume 1 Princess Taiping Grows Up Chapter 58 The Value of Commodities
Li Yuechen seized the opportunity and added some goat milk and essential oil.
Essential oils do exist in this era, but they are not called essential oils, but perfume.
And from what Xiaohe said, it seems that it is not obtained through distillation, but through extraction, so the purity cannot be compared with the essential oils of the future.
The only good thing about it is that it is purely natural and does not contain any chemical additives.
After all, to make soap, it still needs some fragrance.
Speaking of fragrance, we have to say that from ancient times to the present, human beings have been constantly searching for beautiful tastes.
Whether in the past, present or future.
More than a thousand years later, perfume has become a major product in daily life in most parts of the country.
But when it comes to incense, most people still think of incense sticks first.
What lies behind this is probably the power of culture. What you taste is not just the flavor, but also the artistic conception of curling smoke and overflowing fragrance.
Li Yuechen shook his head and came back to his senses. Seeing that the sticky liquid in the porcelain jar was almost empty, he ordered other eunuchs to come over, put on thick animal leather gloves, and slowly pour the liquid in the jar into the mold that had been set up next to them.
Fu Lai, who was very curious, took two steps forward and smelled the fragrance of flowers as soon as he got close.
He bent down and asked curiously, "Your Highness, what is this?"
"Don't ask, you will know after it's done." Li Yuechen waved his hand mysteriously, and then asked them to put the assembled molds in the sun for a few days.
Looking at the irregular white lumps inside the mold, Fulai tilted his head and followed Li Yuechen without asking any more questions.
Li Yuechen told the palace maid next to her to keep an eye on her, and then she went back to the palace to read and practice calligraphy.
Shangguan Wan'er and her two sisters were all there. Fulai took a small sachet, lit a little incense, and hung it in front of the table.
The curling green smoke soon filled the hall, floating above the people without dispersing.
After a while, Fulai brought an account book: "Your Highness, this is the recent income and expenditure record of the store."
"Um."
Li Yuechen agreed, picked it up, flipped through it, and wrote and drew on the table with his fingers.
Princess Xuancheng smiled and said, "No wonder Chen'er said a few days ago that he was good at mathematics. It turned out that he was studying account books?"
"I guess so." Li Yuechen smiled.
About five minutes later, Li Yuechen nodded and called Fu Lai over: "Okay, your nephew did a good job!"
"Thank you for the compliment, Your Highness." Fulai stood up and left with the account book.
Princess Xuancheng seemed a little surprised: "I didn't expect Chen'er to calculate so quickly. He calculated a large amount of several hundred coins in just a moment."
Only someone like you who has never been tortured by advanced mathematics can say such a thing. Can simple addition and subtraction be considered difficult?
"How difficult is this? It's extremely simple." Li Yuechen said indifferently.
Such a calm tone successfully aroused Princess Xuancheng's curiosity: "Then how did Chen'er calculate it just now?"
Li Yuechen thought that since she had nothing to do, she might as well give her some scientific knowledge.
So he wrote down the Arabic numerals directly on the paper, "First of all, with these numbers, it is extremely easy to form any number..."
Princess Xuancheng was quite smart and learned it quickly.
So Li Yuechen began to explain to her the concepts of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division based on Arabic numerals .
Princess Yi Yang and Shangguan Wan'er beside them were also listening with great interest.
"Multiplication is the addition of multiple groups of numbers. Just like the Nine-Nine Song, seven plus seven times seven equals forty-nine. Conversely, division is the division of numbers into multiple groups. For example, forty-nine can be divided into seven equal groups, and each group contains seven..."
After explaining the concept, Li Yuechen performed a small vertical multiplication formula on the numbers in the account and got the final number.
"See, it's very simple, right?" Li Yuechen put down the pen.
"I didn't expect it to be so magical!" Princess Xuancheng's eyes lit up and she exclaimed in disbelief.
Princess Yi Yang and Shangguan Wan'er beside them opened their eyes wide, and carefully experienced the magic of mathematics at this moment.
Princess Xuancheng raised her head and asked: "Are there any other examples?"
Li Yuechen nodded and began to explain to her many cases in elementary school mathematics.
Princess Xuancheng seemed to think that mathematics was useless a few days ago, but after seeing the magic of it with her own eyes today, she was immediately attracted to it.
Li Yuechen talked to her for about an hour and then planned to go out and check on her soap.
Princess Xuancheng grabbed her arm and said, "Wait, wait..."
"I think it's better to do this." Li Yuechen took the paper on the table and started writing, "Sister, why don't you try to apply what I just said."
As he spoke, he wrote down two questions on a piece of paper.
They are "A canned food costs 5 coins. Buy 5 and get 1 free. How much do you need to buy 45 bottles?" and "A soap costs 16 coins. Buy 3 and get 1 free. You have 176 coins. How many can you buy?"
After finishing writing, Li Yuechen pushed the paper in his hand forward and tapped on the paper with his fingers.
He grinned and said, "Sister, why don't you see if you can answer these two questions."
After saying that, she turned around and went to the backyard to check the soap, leaving Shangguan Wan'er and Princess Yi Yang looking at Princess Xuancheng who was in deep thought with curiosity.
It was obvious that the two of them were also secretly calculating in their minds, but judging from their expressions, they were not as deeply involved as Princess Xuancheng.
Princess Xuancheng fell into deep thought and began to calculate on paper.
Li Yuechen came to the backyard and saw that the soap in the mold had begun to solidify. It was pure white and even had a faint glitter in the sunlight.
Pick up the mold plate, put your head close to it and smell it gently with your eyes closed. A faint floral scent rushes straight into your brain through your nasal cavity.
"Not bad, not bad..." Li Yuechen opened his eyes, nodded and muttered to himself.
Fu Lai on the side still looked curious, but did not ask any more questions.
Then Li Yuechen asked them to take the mold tray into the hall and gently cover it with a wooden board.
Back in the palace, Li Yuechen found that Princess Yi Yang and Shangguan Wan'er had already started reading other books, while Princess Xuancheng was still pondering over the two questions.
In fact, what Li Yuechen taught him was enough to solve the problem, but he had just learned it, so his reaction was a little slow.
In a blink of an eye , three days passed.
Li Yuechen opened the wooden board covering the soap and took a look. He found a piece of cloth, then asked two eunuchs to turn the mold plate over and push it down.
"Clatter..." More than a dozen pieces of soap fell down and landed in the middle of the pulled apart cloth.
Li Yuechen took out two pieces and handed them to Fulai and Xiaohe respectively: "You can try to wash your hands with this now. The specific usage is..."
After listening to her explanation, the two took the soap and went to wash their hands.
He took a piece of cloth, wrapped up the remaining ten or so pieces, and carried them into the main hall.
Just as I put down the soap, Fulai and Xiaohe came back with surprised looks on their faces.
Li Yuechen sat cross-legged in front of the table with an unfathomable smile on his face: "How is the effect?"
Fu Lai's surprised expression remained unchanged: "Your Highness, this thing is truly magical!"
"Yes." Xiao He also replied, "I still have a fragrance in my hand now ..."
As he spoke, he unconsciously put his hands in front of his face and sniffed hard.
Seeing her like this, Li Yuechen didn't laugh at her, but just smiled and said, "I'll give those two pieces to you."
Fulai and Xiaohe exchanged a glance and bowed respectfully at the same time: "Thank you, Your Highness, for the reward!"
Afterwards, Li Yuechen gave one piece each to her two elder sisters, Shangguan Wan'er and Zheng.
Anyway, there are only a dozen or so test products in the first batch, and we have no plans to sell them. It would be better to let more people try them and see the effects first.
As for my parents, let's wait and see the results of the experiment for a while.
So Li Yuechen warned: "Don't let other people know about this. I'll see how effective it is and then present it to my parents!"
Several people said they understood.
…
The next day, she took her two sisters and Shangguan Wan'er to practice yoga in the morning as usual.
Today is the day to go to Liu Rengui's house for inspection. Li Yuechen took a carriage to his master's house to practice.
After returning from lunch, I just sat down to eat when I saw Princess Xuancheng running over excitedly: "Look, Chen'er, I figured it out!"
As he spoke, he handed over the paper in his hand.
Li Yuechen took it and looked at it, and found that the conclusion process was written in great detail. Although it was a bit long-winded, it did provide a good answer.
So he smiled and nodded: "Yes, it seems that my sister is very talented in mathematics."
"Really?" Princess Xuancheng didn't quite understand. "I just think these are very interesting."
"Why don't you explain something more interesting to Sister this afternoon?"
"Okay!" Princess Xuancheng nodded.
…
For the following period of time, Li Yuechen explained mathematics to her every afternoon.
Time flies, and it’s the end of October in a blink of an eye.
The first batch of soaps that Li Yuechen sent out has basically been used up, and the effect... is obvious.
Fulai and Xiaohe have completely fallen in love with this thing. Now that it is almost used up, they dare not ask her for more. Every day they are thinking about how to get her to give them another piece.
It was Princess Yi Yang who asked if she could be given another piece of soap, as she had almost used up the soap she had bought.
After these words were spoken, everyone else looked at Li Yuechen eagerly.
Li Yuechen gave each of them another piece, and then took the remaining three pieces to Anfu Hall.
Li Zhi has been looking good and in a good mood recently. When he saw Li Yuechen coming, he asked her to come over and talk to him.
Li Yuechen sat directly on the low table next to him and grinned: "Grandpa, I have researched a new tool again."
"Oh?" Li Zhi was obviously interested. "Tell me about it."
Li Yuechen didn't keep him in suspense and directly took out a piece of soap and handed it to him: "Grandpa, please look, this is it."
"Hmm?" Li Zhi took it, looked at it, and then smelled it. "What is this? Is it ointment?"
"No, this thing is used to clean the body. Grandpa, why don't you wash your hands and try it." Li Yuechen reminded.
Li Zhi nodded, asked Zhang Chengxin to bring a basin of water, and then began to wash his hands according to Li Yuechen's instructions.
Wu Zetian also walked over curiously, wanting to see what it was.
Under Li Yuechen's guidance, Li Zhi's hands were soon covered with white foam. He then put his hands into a copper basin and washed off the foam with water.
After drying his hands with a sheepskin towel, Li Zhi looked at his hands carefully: "Hiss... This feels a little special! And..."
At this point, he put his hands in front of his nose and smelled: "Hmm, there is also a floral scent."
Wu Zetian asked Zhang Chengxin to change the basin of water. After trying it herself, she nodded with joy: "It's really a good thing. I feel my hands are much cleaner now."
Li Yuechen chuckled: "This soap can not only be used to wash hands, but also to clean the body. Just be careful not to put it in your mouth or eyes!"
"Hahaha..." Li Zhi laughed twice, "Not bad, not bad! You are worthy of being my daughter!"
"I will use this thing to earn money from those ministers, so that my parents won't worry about money!" said Li Yuechen.
Li Zhi nodded: "Yeah! Good idea!"
This time, Wu Zetian didn't say anything, but took a new piece of soap and started thinking seriously.
Li Yuechen took out the last piece and handed it to Zhang Chengxin: "Eunuch Zhang, this is for you!"
"Oh, thank you for the reward, Your Highness!" Zhang Chengxin was surprised, bowed respectfully, and took it carefully with both hands .
Li Yuechen waved her hand, turned her head and smiled: "In the future, when grandpa and mom use this to clean their bodies, they will smell good every day!"
Li Zhi happily picked her up and put his head against hers: "Oh, my good daughter!"
Li Yuechen chuckled and started to play around with Li Zhi. Zhang Chengxin tactfully saluted Wu Zetian silently and quietly left.
After playing around with the two of them for a while, Li Yuechen took his leave.
Only Li Zhi and Wu Zetian were left in the Renshou Hall.
Li Zhi lay down on the rocking chair again, grabbed the health ball and started rolling it again: "I can't believe that Chen Er gave me a big surprise this time!"
"Yes, once this product is released, it will definitely make huge profits!" Wu Zetian grabbed the new soap and smiled, "At the beginning, Chen'er said that he would open a store to help Your Majesty solve the financial difficulties. Now it seems that it can really be realized."
Li Zhi nodded: "I have always believed that Chen'er is a genius, and he is definitely a blessing to our Tang Dynasty... I am afraid that this thing can really make those aristocratic families spend a lot of money."
"Perhaps we should remind Chen'er to set the price higher," Wu Zetian said with a smile, "This way, it will be difficult for them to resell it."
"Hahaha... Mei Niang is the one who understands me!" Li Zhi laughed, but then shook his head, "But I think Chen'er should also be very clear about this! Why don't we wait and see the situation first."
Wu Zetian nodded: "Then let's do as your majesty says!"
The two were discussing the price issue here, and Li Yuechen was indeed thinking about this issue.
If we just talk about the cost, as long as you sell this thing for twenty cents each, you will make a profit.
But the problem is that this price is no longer affordable for ordinary people. Perhaps using assembly lines for mass production can reduce costs a lot, but Li Yuechen also doesn't want anyone to use his products to be resellers.
So...what method should we think of to ensure maximum benefits?
