Chinese Medicine: Starting with Daily Intelligence

Chapter 509: Chapter 509: Developing the Ultra High-End

"What?"

Ishii’s eyes widened when he heard Yamada. "Mr. Yamada," he said, staring, "you’re a leading authority on Chinese medicine for our Great Japanese Empire. How could one trip to China scare the courage right out of you?"

"I’m not scared. I’m facing reality."

Yamada gave a bitter smile. "That young man... he’s too strong. So strong it makes me despair."

He then vividly recounted what he’d witnessed at the Feng City Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, especially the part where Li Xu used the Ghost Gate Thirteen Needles and the Ten Thousand Year Old Agarwood to snatch a man from the jaws of death.

"Ten Thousand Year Agarwood? Bringing the dead back to life?"

Fujiwara and Ishii were dumbfounded.

"Th-that’s impossible! It’s not scientific!"

Ishii shouted.

"There are many things science can’t explain."

Yamada said somberly, "But I saw it with my own eyes. That fragrance... it still lingers in my mind. Compared to that, the medicines we have are utter trash."

The car fell into a dead silence.

It wasn’t just shock, but overwhelming jealousy.

On what grounds?

Why should some young doctor in China possess such a heaven-defying, miraculous object?

The three of them had dinner at a high-end restaurant. Despite the table being laden with delicacies, everything tasted like sawdust. No one had the heart to lift their chopsticks, and the meal ended abruptly.

...

Back at corporate headquarters, Ishii had nowhere to vent his simmering anger, so he immediately called an emergency meeting with his top executives.

The atmosphere in the conference room was heavy.

"Speak! Have you all gone mute?"

Ishii slammed his hand on the table. "Ding’s Pharmaceutical Factory is walking all over us! What are we going to do?"

The executives all kept their heads down, none daring to make a sound.

The marketing manager forced himself to stand up and report, "President, according to the latest data, sales of Ding’s Sanitary Napkin are still climbing. Their herbal formula is genuinely effective, and word-of-mouth is spreading fast. Our mid-range market share has already been eroded by nearly thirty percent..."

"Useless! All of you are useless!"

Ishii’s face was ashen with rage as he threw the documents all over the floor.

The marketing manager wiped away his cold sweat and cautiously suggested, "President, actually... we’re not without options. If we try to take them on directly in the mid-range market, we truly can’t compete on cost or effectiveness. As for the low-end market, the profit margins are too thin to be worth our while."

"So why don’t we... focus on the ultra-premium market?"

"Ultra-premium?"

Ishii frowned.

"Yes," the marketing manager analyzed. "According to our market research, there’s a segment of high-income women who are not price-sensitive. They care more about a product’s ’high-tech feel’ and ’sense of prestige.’ When they shop, they only buy what’s expensive, not what’s necessarily best."

"We could add ’negative ion chips’ to our sanitary napkins, or claim they contain some rare mugwort extract, and focus on concepts like ’antibacterial,’ ’womb-warming,’ and ’soothing.’ Even if the actual effects are negligible, as long as we hype the concept properly and design luxurious enough packaging, we can jack up the price."

Ishii’s eyes lit up.

This was certainly a strategy. They could avoid a head-on clash with Ding’s Pharmaceutical Factory’s "affordable and effective" approach and instead prey on high-end users who had more money than sense.

"That’s a good idea."

Ishii nodded and looked at the others. "What does everyone else think?"

Seeing their boss’s expression soften, the other executives quickly chimed in with their agreement. "It’ll work. It’ll definitely work."

"The brand image of our Japanese products has always been strong. As long as the packaging is on point and we tell a good story, people will definitely buy it."

"Then it’s settled."

Ishii brought the gavel down, so to speak. "R&D, get on it immediately. Make those negative ion chips, and add some nano-silver ions or something. In short, the more esoteric it sounds, the better. We need to get this to market as quickly as possible to shore up our premium image."

"What’s a suitable price?" the marketing manager asked. "A normal pack of sanitary napkins costs around ten or twenty."

Ishii sneered. "That’s for ordinary people. Since we’re making an ultra-premium product, we can’t play by the usual rules."

He held up a hand, five fingers spread. "Five hundred yuan. For a single pad."

"What? Five hundred for one pad?" The marketing manager was taken aback. "Is-isn’t that too expensive?"

"Expensive is good," Ishii said smugly. "Only by being expensive can it signify status. Only by being expensive will it make those vain consumers feel like they’re getting their money’s worth. That’s the logic of luxury goods."

"It’s settled. Go and implement it."

...

「At a hotpot restaurant in Feng City.」

Steam rose from a bubbling yin-yang hotpot, its fragrant aroma filling the air.

Song Sisi, Lin Xiaoyu, and Yang Qing, three best friends, sat gathered around the pot in high spirits.

"Come on, let’s have a toast first."

Lin Xiaoyu raised her glass of plum juice. "A toast to our Sisi, who’s getting more and more beautiful."

"Oh, stop."

Song Sisi clinked glasses with them, smiling.

While they were waiting for the rest of their food to arrive, Lin Xiaoyu suddenly leaned in conspiratorially and whispered, "Hey, Yang Qing, have you heard? There’s a super juicy piece of gossip going around."

"What is it?"

Yang Qing asked curiously.

"Our Doctor Li has a treasure that can bring people back from the dead."

Lin Xiaoyu shared. "They say a few days ago, he saved a patient who was a goner. Even the experts from the United States had declared it a lost cause, but Doctor Li used that treasure and, just like that, brought the person back to life."

"For real? Bringing someone back from the dead?"

Yang Qing looked skeptical. "That sounds like something out of a fantasy novel."

Lin Xiaoyu turned to Song Sisi. "Sisi, you were there, so you must know. Quick, tell us, is it true?"

Song Sisi smiled, pressing her lips together, and nodded. "It’s true."

"But..."

She paused. "It’s not as exaggerated as the rumors make it out to be. It was mainly due to Li Xu’s profound medical skill, plus the fact that the medicine was indeed precious and extremely rare."

"Wow, so it’s actually true!"

Lin Xiaoyu and Yang Qing immediately looked at her with admiration. "Doctor Li is incredible! He’s practically a Divine Physician reborn."

Just then, Lin Xiaoyu’s nose twitched, and she sniffed the air quizzically.

"Huh? Do you guys smell that?"

"Smell what?" Yang Qing asked.

"A fragrance."

Lin Xiaoyu took another deep breath. "It’s not the smell of the hotpot, nor is it some cheap perfume. It’s... a very pleasant, very refreshing fragrance. It makes you want to breathe it in deeply. I feel like my mind has suddenly become clear."

Yang Qing also sniffed carefully, her eyes lighting up. "Hey? You’re right, it smells amazing. And the scent seems to be lingering right here around our table; it’s not dissipating at all."

"Is it someone’s perfume? It’s so high-class."

Yang Qing looked around. "This smells way better than my Chanel perfume that cost several thousand."

Lin Xiaoyu looked at Song Sisi, who was just smiling without a word. "Sisi, you don’t smell it? You’re not surprised at all?"

Song Sisi picked up a piece of beef tripe from the hotpot with her chopsticks and said with a smile, "Of course I smell it. Because... the fragrance is coming from me."

"Huh?"

Both Lin Xiaoyu and Yang Qing froze, their chopsticks hovering in mid-air as they stared at Song Sisi in disbelief.