Dragon's Origin

Chapter 331: Exceeding Expectations (Part 1)

The government's handling of this matter delivered a tremendous shock to everyone who heard the news. Ninety-seven people, including their families, were beheaded for their involvement.

The charges were simple: extorting one million gold coins, an exceptionally large sum, a heinous crime, and only by killing them could public anger be appeased.

A total of six rouge and cosmetic shops were implicated, and all six owners were involved in the planning and execution of the scheme. They were all arrested as masterminds, their entire families beheaded, and their properties confiscated.

As soon as the verdict was announced, not only did people dare not harbor any crooked thoughts when visiting Run Zi Fang, but even the con artists and scammers in the capital disappeared without a trace. Even those who remained in the capital were cautious and dared not easily engage in any more crooked schemes.

The atmosphere in the capital improved greatly for a time!

The originator of all this, Marquis Changsheng Wang Sheng, was unaware of these events. He was currently lounging in his mansion, with Mei'er handing him cosmetics. At least four maids were running around the room, fetching or placing cosmetics according to Mei'er's instructions, and another four literate maids were taking notes diligently, listening to Wang Sheng's commentary.

……

Seventy-two percent.

Seventy-two point three percent.

Seventy-two point five percent.

……

Carefully sniffing with his nose and commenting with his mouth, Wang Sheng's mind was mostly in his Yuan Soul space.

Each type of cosmetic would bring his giant cauldron a solidification of a few tenths of a percent. Some more, some less, but there had never been a case where it didn't increase.

These days, Wang Sheng had been staying in Mei'er's cosmetic collection room, and apart from cultivation, exercise, and meals, he was appraising these cosmetics.

During this period, Wang Sheng discovered several other cosmetics with the same problems as the whitening foundation, mostly whitening products. Run Zi Fang immediately removed these products from the shelves, stopped selling them, and recalled all those that had already been sold.

This product recall system alone brought Run Zi Fang a great reputation. In this day and age, in this world, not to mention ordinary small vendors, even stores like Yu Bao Zhai and Bao Qing Yu Tang didn't operate like this. At most, if a major problem was caught red-handed and there was no way to escape the blame, they would compensate with some gold coins. It was absolutely impossible to easily recall items that had already been sold.

For major problems, they would secretly remove the products from the shelves without telling consumers, simply saying that there were no goods. For minor problems, those that were not so obvious, they would continue to sell as usual, at most slightly reducing the price. Anyway, in this world, there were always people who were greedy, always people who would disregard their own safety for a little profit. With a slight price reduction and promotion, piles and piles of people would rush to buy.

Only Run Zi Fang would immediately recall the products in full and without any discounts after discovering a problem. This alone gave Run Zi Fang a great reputation, and a very good reputation at that.

The consequence of this reputation was that people no longer doubted Run Zi Fang's products and bought them with confidence. Anyway, everyone believed that if there was a problem, Run Zi Fang would fully refund them, would not let them suffer losses or be deceived, and would not let them use problematic products.

In just three days, Run Zi Fang's sales not only did not decline due to the voluntary removal and recall of these products, but instead soared by 30%. Less than 10% of the people who returned the products chose to refund the gold coins, and the rest exchanged them for other products of equal value.

Mei'er was beaming with joy, needless to say. Even the Emperor and Empress in the palace were surprised by the sales reports of these few days.

The Emperor was completely convinced. The two businesses that Wang Sheng casually created, Qian Sheng Yuan and Run Zi Fang, were both generating tens of millions or even hundreds of millions in net profit each year, making it impossible for people not to admire him.

These businesses were not new, but no one could do them so well, so richly and colorfully. Logically, what good things had the Emperor and Empress not seen? What good things could move them? However, the Emperor himself had privately collected at least six sets of Qian Sheng Yuan's master-level products, and the Empress, like Mei'er, had specially vacated a palace room to store her carefully selected best cosmetics.

Not to mention anything else, there were hundreds of types of lipsticks and lip glosses alone. Every day, letting the Emperor choose the lip color she would use that day from so many lipsticks had become the Empress's favorite game, and she was enjoying it immensely.

Of course, the poor Emperor completely behaved like an ordinary man who couldn't distinguish the colors of lipsticks at all. Every time he chose the wrong color, he would be blamed by the Empress for not paying attention to her and even choosing the wrong color of her lipstick.

However, the same problem was not a problem at all for Wang Sheng. With the enhanced vision from the Chi Wen transformation, Wang Sheng could distinguish not only hundreds of different colors, but also color differences with an RGB value difference of just one. Playing this game, Mei'er lost every single time.

Not only could he see, but now Wang Sheng could put on a blindfold, smell Mei'er's scent, and accurately pick out which cosmetics she had used, from foundation to various creams, lipsticks, eye shadows, blushes, and even what kind of cleaning products she had used. Mei'er didn't dare to play such a game with him at all.

They were both major shareholders, the same products, the same game, but the Emperor cried every day, while Wang Sheng sang triumphant songs. People just couldn't be compared to each other.

……

Eighty-four point six percent.

Eighty-four point eight percent.

……

Wang Sheng calculated that the solidification of the giant cauldron was getting closer and closer to completion. He hadn't even smelled half of Mei'er's collection of cosmetics yet, and those that weren't collected accounted for the majority. He believed that it was no longer a dream to improve his sense of smell without the help of alchemy.

The alchemists were still working hard on refining pills, but now their purpose had become purely to verify the efficacy of the medicinal materials produced in the Thousand Desolation Land. Even so, they were refining pills enthusiastically, and the pile of paper used for recording was already thick.

The latest novels are first published on Liu Jiu Shu Ba!

……

Ninety-seven point three percent.

Ninety-seven point five percent.

……

Wang Sheng's life was very regular and very luxurious. He went to bed on time, cultivated on time, got up on time, exercised on time, soaked in medicinal baths on time, and ate on time. In the afternoon, he would go to Mei'er's collection to appraise each item. In just ten days, the giant cauldron in the Yuan Soul space was almost completely solidified.

The closer he got to success, the less hurried Wang Sheng became. He didn't change his life routine just because he was a little short, and still maintained a fixed rhythm of life.

……

Ninety-nine point five percent.

Ninety-nine point seven percent.

Ninety-nine point nine percent.

One hundred percent.

Finally, the giant cauldron was completely solidified, almost becoming a whole. As long as Wang Sheng was willing, he could trigger the Heaven and Earth Body Tempering at any time and complete the Suanni transformation.