Top white, rich and beautiful, the princess is reborn and the revenge story

A few years ago, alchemy became popular in the Daqing Dynasty. At first, Taoist disciples made it in the mountains and sold it to rich people who wanted to live forever.

Later, doctors discovered that by refining medicines using alchemy methods, they could obtain some medicines with comprehensive effects, and thus the profession of pharmacist emerged in the market.

Later, an alchemist's poor operation caused the alchemy room to explode, killing many people. People then realized that refining medicines and pills was very dangerous. Since then, the practice of alchemy and pill refining has gradually declined. Wu Rong lost his livelihood and became a retainer in Zhao Yuanqing's house.

Zhao Yuanqing thought it was possible. "Do you have the confidence to make this... fragrant water?"

"I can give it a try, but I need something from the princess."

"Okay, if you need anything, go ask the butler."

"Yes."

Zhao Yuanqing thought this was a promising idea, so he rewarded Wu Rong with double the reward and assigned him two knowledgeable people to work with him to develop the fragrant water.

After collecting and organizing all the opinions, Zhao Yuanqing decided to try all kinds of methods.

Zhuque Street is the most luxurious street in Chang'an City. Zhao Yuanqing has several shops there. She picked out the largest one, which is a three-story building.

The original goods were vacated, and rows of wooden grids were built against the walls around the first floor. A spice was placed in each grid with the name of the spice written on it. The grids were curtained with transparent glass, which prevented the spices from mixing with each other and allowed customers to see at a glance.

There is a large table in the middle of the room, on which are placed some rattan winnowing baskets, inside which are some incense balls, incense burners, incense spoons, incense shovels, etc. These are all matching products of spices and are reasonably priced.

There are two types of shop assistants: male waiters and female maids, who serve male and female customers respectively and wear uniform clothes. Each of them is given an incense burner and incense ball to facilitate the testing of spices for customers.

The first floor is for common spices, while the second floor is for precious spices. The design is more exquisite and there are soft couches for guests to rest.

The third floor is filled with four kinds of premium spices: ambergris, agarwood, musk and sandalwood, and the decoration design is even more luxurious.

After more than ten days of preparation, Zhao Yuanqing's "Zuixiangfeng" spice shop opened on an auspicious day.

Before the opening, one of Zhao Yuanqing's followers volunteered to write a short story specifically to promote the spice shop and gave it to storytellers in teahouses and taverns to promote it.

On the opening day, many people flocked to Zui Xiang Feng because they had run out of spices and had been wanting to buy more for a long time!

When they went in and took a look, people exclaimed, "Why is it so expensive? It's more than half the price of what the foreign merchants sell it for!"

This is Zhao Yuanqing’s pricing strategy. He deliberately set the price more than twice that of the Hu merchants, and the precious spices were even several times more expensive.

After all, Zhao Yuanqing owns all the spices; he's the only one in the city. Besides, spice production is limited, and precious spices are hard to come by, so why not charge a bit more? If you think it's too expensive, don't buy it!

As a princess, Zhao Yuanqing knew very well the temperaments of those dignitaries. They were all vain and competitive, and face was more important than anything else. The more expensive the product, the more they would buy it, for fear of being outdone by others. Spices were luxury goods and they never cheated the poor.

Zhao Yuanqing's prediction was correct. While those wealthy people were buying up everything, they were also furiously criticizing Zhao Yuanqing. But they never stopped grabbing the spices. After all, Zhao Yuanqing's shop had the most complete and best selection! And the shop was so elegant and luxurious, befitting their status! Buy, buy, buy!

On the first day, more than half of Zui Xiang Feng's spices were sold. In just three or four days, all the goods in the store were sold out. Zhao Yuanqing made a fortune. Zui Xiang Feng became famous in Chang'an City. Its medium-priced sachets and handkerchiefs were also welcomed by many ordinary people, and spices entered the homes of ordinary people.

However, this way of selling made Zhao Yuanqing feel a crisis. If he continued like this, the spices in the two rooms would not be enough to sell, so he had to sell them sparingly.

From then on, Zhao Yuanqing introduced quantitative sales, with only one batch of goods per day, which would be sold out until they were all sold out. Despite the customers' complaints, he was able to sell out most of the spices every day.

The next year, when the Hu merchants came back to sell spices with their bags on their backs, they found that their way of selling from door to door was outdated. People thought the spices they took out of the bags were too cheap, and everyone wanted to buy exquisite and high-end ones. The Hu merchants had no choice but to sell the spices they brought to Zhao Yuanqing.

A few years later, Zhao Yuanqing actually became the largest spice merchant in the Daqing Dynasty and expanded Zui Xiang Feng to all parts of the country. That’s another story.

After the spice shop was on track, Zhao Yuanqing handed it over to the right person, as she had more important things to do.

That day, Zhao Yuanqing arrived at the palace and brought back some news from the people who had checked on Lu Ruoyi in Fanyang.

Lu Ruoyi's father, Lu Zhen, was a branch of the Fanyang Lu family and served as the dean of the Fanyang Academy. The Lu family had two daughters and one son. Lu Ruoyi was the eldest daughter. Her younger sister married her cousin, and her younger brother was not married yet.

According to people at Fanyang Academy, Lu Zhen doted on his eldest daughter, Lu Ruoyi, and often took her to play at the academy when she was young. When she grew up, Lu Ruoyi often dressed up as a man to attend classes at the academy.

"With a mix of men and women, will Lu Ruoyi have a crush on a certain student?"

“No such information was found.”

There was little useful information, so Zhao Yuanqing returned to the princess's mansion. She also sent people to keep an eye on Lu Ruoyi and Cui Hao, and it was time to ask them.

Fan Wuji stared at Lu Ruoyi and Zi Ning. He reported, "The Crown Princess often goes to several places: the palace, burns incense, and goes to Mount Li to soak in the hot springs."

“Where should I burn incense?”

"Xingguo Temple and Taihe Temple, there are only these two temples."

Zhao Yuanqing frowned. She had never heard of Lu Ruoyi believing in Buddhism in her previous life. How could she not know that Lu Ruoyi loved incense? However, burning incense and chanting Buddha's name was a pastime for women, so it was not surprising.

"When she went to the hot springs, did she go alone or with someone?"

"I don't know about this. I only followed him as far as Mount Li, and after that I couldn't get any closer."

That’s all the news about Lu Ruoyi.

"Where's Zining?"

"Princess, her movements are very regular. She goes out shopping every three days, and the stores she goes to are all pretty much the same."

Fan Wuji handed a piece of paper to Zhao Yuanqing, "The store address and name are here."

"Is there anything unusual about her?"

"Once, she was followed by two ruffians. The three of them went into an inn. After a while, she was the only one who came out. The two ruffians disappeared without a trace."

This was all that Fan Wuji had found out. Zhao Yuanqing rewarded him handsomely and asked him to keep an eye on the situation and report any news immediately.

Next is Li Chang, who is targeting the Cui family.

"Recently, Cui Hao and Princess Rongchang have been in close contact. They've met several times in teahouses, and Princess Rongchang has always worn a veil. The Cui family is now extremely wealthy. Even the gatekeepers are saying that they're going to marry the princess and that they're about to rise to prominence."

Zhao Yuanqing sneered. The Cui family appeared noble and elegant on the surface, but they were extremely greedy inside. Once Zhao Baozhu entered the Cui family, there would definitely be something interesting to watch.

She rewarded Li Chang and asked him to continue watching.