Chapter 889: To Be Kind
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Old Master Bai and Madam Bai seemed to have taken a calming pill.
Yu Youyao continued, “There are pros and cons to everything. The People’s Relief Hall is deeply involved in a human life case, and it will push the Bai Residence to the top of the limelight. However, as long as the government office investigates and proves that the People’s Relief Hall is innocent, it will also indirectly prove that there’s no problem with the medicine in the People’s Relief Hall. It will make the commoners more convinced. The Bai Residence’s reputation will be damaged, but its reputation won’t decrease. The Bai Residence will have more reason to identify the Han Clan from the perspective of the victim.”
The Bai couple was extremely excited. They quickly knelt in the hall to thank her. “Thank you for your kindness, Princess.”
… .
As early as when the Bai couple decided to join the King of the North, they were already prepared to use money to save their lives.
This matter could not be delayed. The next morning, the Bai Residence posted notices at the entrances of all the Baiji Medicinal Shops and the People’s Relief Hall in Xiangping City.
They announced to the public that Princess Shaoyi had gone to the Dragon Phoenix Temple to offer incense and pray for the refugees. She prayed that plagues and disasters would not descend. Madam Bai was lucky to have received Princess Shaoyi’s permission to enter the temple and witness Princess Shaoyi’s elegance. When she heard the Sutra of the Medicine Buddha from Zen Master Hui Ji, one of the Six Wise Monks from the Precious Peace Temple, she was enlightened by Bodhisattva and was determined to be kind.
As soon as the notice was released, it caused an uproar in Xiangping City.
The content of the notice seemed quite ridiculous, but often, people with great virtue could attract people to do good deeds, creating their virtuous reputation. Princess Shaoyi was originally known as a “living Bodhisattva”. Buddhism was also meant to teach all living beings to plant and obtain good karma.
In that case, it made sense for Madam Bai to be determined to be kind after receiving Princess Shaoyi’s guidance and enlightenment.
There was still the latter part of the notice. “The People’s Relief Hall is one of the Bai Residence’s businesses. Baiji was greedy and sold the inferior medicinal herbs produced to the commoners at a reduced price. We’re guilty of earning ill-gotten gains.”
“From today onwards, the inferior medicinal herbs produced by Baiji will not be sold in the People’s Relief Hall. The People’s Relief Hall will be permanently closed.”
“The prices at all the Baiji Medicinal Shops will be permanently reduced by 20%.”
“From today onwards, for three days, all customers who buy medicinal herbs from this shop will enjoy a 30% discount. Each family will only be able to buy one portion once. The second-grade medicinal herbs will no longer be sold officially. Half of them will be sold, while the other half will be given to customers who need them.”
“The Baiji Medicinal Shop will start a five-day volunteer medical consultation. All the commoners who partic.i.p.ate in the volunteer medical consultation will be given low-grade medicinal herbs for free according to the severity of their illness.”
“The inferior medicinal herbs sold by the People’s Relief Hall have been tested by Sun Sheng and have medicinal effects. Please take them at ease.”
“The Bai Residence is deeply sorry that the People’s Relief Hall was inhumane as a business and deceived its customers. We will also repay the vast population. From now on, we will definitely follow your instructions and be kind. We will report this to the public.”
As soon as the notice spread, there were various opinions.
The commoners scolded Baiji for being shameless, but there was nothing to scold.
The commoners in Xiangping City who couldn’t afford medicinal herbs all bought them from the People’s Relief Hall. Although they were inferior medicinal herbs, they had the effect of treating illnesses and saving lives. The price was indeed cheaper than other medicinal shops.
Therefore, after a short period of indignation, the commoners’ attention was diverted by the series of activities such as lowering prices, discounts, volunteer consultations, and giving medicine.
They were not even in the mood to scold them. They ran to the Baiji Medicinal Shop to buy the medicinal herbs and queued up for the volunteer consultation.
The price of medicinal herbs was relatively high, causing most commoners to almost not be able to afford them. Naturally, they could not miss such a good opportunity like reduced prices and a discount.
How could a person not fall sick?
It was also good to prepare medicine for colds, injuries, heat reduction, detoxification, and so on.
When Yu Youyao heard about the situation outside, everything was as she had expected. “Discounts, volunteer consultations, and giving medicine will cause the Bai Residence to suffer from a shortage of medicinal herbs and insufficient funds, causing the Bai Residence to suffer a huge loss. However, this is only for a moment. The Bai Residence has its own source of medicinal herbs and many business partners. As long as its foundation is still there, it will recover quickly.”
Uncle Sun did not care about this. He was only a little curious. “The ox bezoar sold by the People’s Relief Hall is fake and has no medicinal effect. Recently, the People’s Relief Hall has not bought ox bezoar. Then, Madam Zhang’s husband died from taking the medicine that wrongly included ox bezoar. It’s not valid at all. You just have to report this matter to the government office. This case won’t implicate the Bai Residence.”
After understanding Madam Zhang’s case, he first checked the ox bezoar sold in Jimin Hall.
Ox bezoar was obtained from the guts and liver of special cows. It was an expensive medicine and was mostly from the northwest, Liaodong, and other places where special cows were raised. It was very rare. It was also because ox bezoar was precious and rare that many people faked it. Some fake ox bezoars could even look authentic. Only experienced doctors could tell.
Not all special cows could bear ox bezoar, and ox bezoar could not be truly raised. Most of them were bought from cattle feeders. Those of good quality would naturally be left in the Baiji Medicinal Shop. Those of lower quality would be sold in the People’s Relief Hall.
The medical skills of the physicians in the People’s Relief Hall were average. It was not common for the People’s Relief Hall to have expensive medicinal herbs like ox bezoar. They did not have much contact with them, so they naturally did not know how to distinguish them.
Uncle Sun continued, “Although selling inferior medicinal herbs will damage the Bai Residence’s reputation, the Han Clan’s plan to deal with the Bai Residence will also fail. Why go through so much trouble to arrange this show?”
The Bai Residence did not need to reduce prices, discounts, volunteer consultations, and medicine to deal with the Han Clan at all. They could easily survive this calamity.
However, Yu Youyao had hidden the case of the fake ox bezoar and deliberately caused the Bai Residence to suffer losses.
It seemed a little unkind.
Yu Youyao’s lips curled up slightly. “The medicinal herbs in the North are more expensive, and the commoners can’t afford them. It turned out that it was also the land-owning cla.s.s who joined forces with the medicinal herb merchants to control the medicinal herbs business and wantonly raised the price of the herbs to restrict the va.s.sal lords. Since I’ve interfered in this matter, I can’t sit back and do nothing.”
Why did the Bai Residence open the People’s Relief Hall to help the people and sell low-grade medicinal herbs?
It was all because the medicinal herbs in the North were more expensive. The Bai family felt that even inferior medicinal herbs were profitable. Not only did they sell the inferior medicinal herbs they produced, but they also bought inferior medicinal herbs from other medicinal herb merchants wantonly to sell them for profit.
As far as she knew, the Bai Residence had a large number of second-grade medicinal herbs.
Anyone who knew pharmacology could tell the quality of the medicinal herbs. It was definitely not a secret in the North that the Bai Residence publicly sold inferior medicinal herbs. The Bai Residence was the first and definitely not the last.
“Only when the Bai Residence and the other medicinal herbs merchants see the unbearable consequences of selling inferior medicinal herbs will they take it as a warning and not use inferior medicinal herbs to profit anymore. This is one of the reasons.”
Uncle Sun agreed deeply.
“Second, if the Bai Residence reduces the price, it will cause a huge impact on the other medicinal herb merchants. The other medicinal herb merchants will also reduce their prices one after another to compete with Baiji. When the medicinal prices of the three provinces of Liaodong fall, the commoners will be able to afford them. Good-quality medicine will also cause a head-on blow to the medicinal herbs business in Shanxi. At the same time, they will give warning to other merchants who have maliciously raised the price.”
It was no different from fighting a tiger from afar.
This move was to deal with the n.o.bles.