Su Xiufeng sold clothes priced between fifty and a hundred.
On the opening day, she didn’t invite anyone; she just opened the door, put up a sign advertising a 20% discount on new products, and quietly started her business.
Because she had good taste and the style of the clothes she stocked was quite decent, the business was doing well for the first few days.
She was able to make a net profit of over two hundred dollars a day.
In the past, she definitely would have looked down on this amount of money, but now, thinking that she could keep earning this way, she could make several thousand a month, tens of thousands a year...
She was quite content.
But what she did not expect was that, in just a few days, several similar shops opened nearby. Not only was the quality and style of their clothes comparable to hers, but their prices were also twenty percent cheaper than hers.
That twenty percent was precisely her margin; there was no way she could lower her prices to match, and her business plummeted overnight.
She guessed that she must have been overcharged for her stock and went to square things up with her supplier, only to be stoutly denied any such thing, and even allowed to verify the prices herself.
Indeed, after watching for a while, Su Xiufeng found that the supplier hadn’t tricked her; the price they offered her was the same as it was for everyone else.
Out of pity, the supplier told her, "The prices you mentioned, we can’t get either; I guess they are either deliberately undercutting you, or they have some connections in the south."
Deliberately undercutting her?
Su Xiufeng felt that it was possible.
Song Ting, Shen Ci, Meng Chuyue, as well as others she had offended in the past were all likely candidates.
But would they really spend so much money just to spite her? It seemed so foolish.
After much consideration, Su Xiufeng concluded that her supply chain was not strong enough. After selling her existing stock at wholesale prices, she immediately boarded a train to the southern clothing market to restock.
However, she did not anticipate that soon after she alighted from the train, her money would be stolen.
The last time she was robbed, the thief had left her with three thousand dollars; this time, the thief didn’t spare her a single cent.
Su Xiufeng, finding herself at a dead end, gritted her teeth and walked into a traditional Chinese medicine shop by the roadside.
She decided to exchange a Song Family medicine recipe for some cash.
Actually, she had been considering doing this for a while now, but had not dared to before.
Now, forced by circumstances, she had no choice.
She had not learned medicine before her marriage, and even after marrying Song Ting, as their marital relationship was poor, she had learned nothing from him either.
But as the matriarch of the Song Family, she remembered some recipes for health and beauty treatments.
She decided to sell a beauty recipe first.
In her usual ruthless and decisive manner, she directly asked the shop owner for a private discussion.
She sat down under a large tree in the back courtyard of the medicine shop and stated frankly, "I am from the Imperial medical lineage of the Song Family. My money has been stolen by thieves, or else I wouldn’t come to sell a recipe. If you are sincere, I can come again next time and sell you some more."
The shop owner, nearly sixty years old, was quite magnanimous, and he greeted her with a salute, "So you’re a divine doctor of the Song Family; my apologies. Please discuss the price and the recipe."
"I’m asking for thirty thousand, and the recipe is..."
Su Xiufeng then mentioned one of the more common beauty medicine recipes she knew.
She was not worried that the shop owner would go back on his word; his doing so would be his own loss.
The owner weighed up the recipe and nodded with satisfaction, "All right, I’ll get you the money now, and I hope we can have more cooperation in the future."
Su Xiufeng smiled, "I can also sell another recipe for fifty thousand, but aside from the money, I hope you can find two trustworthy people to help me out over the next few days."
Su Xiufeng was truly frightened by the theft and was desperate for some protection.
The owner agreed without much hesitation.
So Su Xiufeng whispered to him a better beauty recipe.
The owner did not seek outsiders; he directly tasked two clerks from the medicine shop to run errands for Su Xiufeng.
Su Xiufeng thought it over and first bought a cell phone, got a SIM card, called Song Ennian, and also told him about selling the medicine recipes.