Chapter 6: Demand
1342 Words
Li Zhi and Li Xing spent the entire morning approaching well-dressed women and handing out the soap samples. By midday, they had given away all 500 small bars.
In the afternoon, Li Zhi went out again to buy more raw materials. This time, he spent one tael and seven mace of silver on large and small parcels of supplies. He spent the rest of the afternoon at home producing 200 full-size bars of soap. The next day, as soon as dawn broke, Li Zhi opened the shop doors, brimming with confidence in his product. He was ready and waiting for a flood of customers.
But they waited all morning, their eyes straining down the street, and not a single customer came to buy soap. By noon, Li Xing was utterly dejected. Sitting in the shop, he muttered, "Brother… your method isn't working. We wasted over a tael of silver, and we haven't sold a single bar."
Even though the product wasn't selling yet, Li Xing still admired Li Zhi for creating such an amazing thing and had resumed calling him "brother" instead of using his name directly. Li Zhi paced back and forth in the shop entrance, his own anxiety growing. He had bet everything on this soap to save his family from ruin; failure was not an option.
If the soap didn't sell, wouldn't he end up having to become someone's servant? Still, he had faith in the product itself. This revolutionary item could save labor in washing clothes and economically protect garments. For bathing, it could thoroughly clean the body, vastly improving hygiene standards for the era. It had to have a market. The only problem was likely customers' distrust of a new product.
Gritting his teeth, Li Zhi said, "If that's how it is, we'll give away more samples today. We'll keep giving them away until someone comes to buy."
"Give away more?" Li Xing asked weakly. "That's money…"
"Sometimes you have to risk the bait to catch the fish. Go, Li Xing. Cut the large bars into small pieces. We'll give away another thousand samples today."
Seeing his brother's decisive determination, Li Xing was surprised. He’s changed completely, he thought to himself. And to be fair, this soap is the only possible way to save the family. Left with no other choice, Li Xing also resolved to go all in. He got up and went to cut the soap.
Li Zhi and Li Xing cut up forty large bars, producing a thousand small samples, and began their giveaway promotion in front of the shop again. They spent the whole afternoon at it, giving away a thousand sample bars. Still, no customers came to buy the full-size soap.
Though Li Zhi didn't voice it, the pressure was immense. They had spent so much money; there had to be a return. At dinner that evening, Li Zhi didn't say much to his mother, Madame Zheng, merely taking a few bites of food before going to bed to sleep.
Li Xing, however, sat at the table and explained to their mother what this "soap" was that they had been making the past two days. The success or failure of this gamble to save the family was of monumental importance. The weight of it pressed heavily on Li Zhi. He tossed and turned all night, only managing to fall into a fitful sleep near dawn.
In truth, Li Zhi was being a bit too impatient. It wasn't that his soap wasn't accepted; it was simply that in the middle of this cold month, women didn't wash clothes every single day. The sample bars had just been given out; the housewives hadn't even started using them yet. Why would they come to buy a whole bar the very next day? Even if someone used their sample that same afternoon and happened to use it all up, they wouldn't wash clothes again the next day in this cold weather, and thus wouldn't be in a hurry to buy more immediately.
Fortunately, some women did do laundry in front of other women, demonstrating the soap's effects and creating some more immediate demand.
Madam Liu, the wife from the Gu household, had received a small sample bar on Hengda Street in the eastern city the previous morning. The next day, she brought it to the neighborhood well to wash clothes.
That day, carrying a bucket of clothes, a small stool, and a laundry bat, she walked to the well and greeted the other women there. "Sister Zhang, Sister Liu, Sister Xue, you're here too."
The woman called Sister Zhang, who was beating clothes with her laundry bat, smiled and replied, "Yes, doing the washing. The well water isn't as freezing on the hands as the river water. I've been coming here to wash these past few days."
Madam Liu chatted idly with the other women as she drew a bucket of water from the well and poured it into her washing tub. She took out her small stool, sat by the well, fished out the dirtiest undergarment from the tub, and took the small sample soap. She rubbed it a few times on the collar, a spot that was notoriously hard to clean.
Her actions immediately caught the attention of the other women.
Sister Zhang stopped her laundry bat and asked loudly, "Sister Liu, what's that yellowish thing you're rubbing on the collar? Is it soapberry paste?"
"No! It's something called 'soap' I got on Hengda Street yesterday. They say it's even better than soapberry paste for getting out dirt. I'm seeing if it can clean this collar." As she spoke, Madam Liu finished applying the soap and began scrubbing.
Hearing this, the other three women stopped their laundry bats and watched Madam Liu's movements intently. Madam Liu scrubbed once, then again. Where the soap had been applied, the collar began to produce a rich, white lather. Surprised, Madam Liu scrubbed a few more times before plunging the soapy collar into the water.
She swished it in the water a few times to rinse off the white foam. When she lifted the once-filthy collar to inspect it, under the astonished gazes of the other women, the collar was perfectly clean, the black grime completely gone.
"Heavens! It's clean! It's really clean! Even that impossible-to-clean collar is clean! The black stains are gone!"
"Where did this treasure come from?" The women all stood up, clustering around Madam Liu in delight. Sister Zhang snatched the undergarment from Madam Liu's hands, turning the clean collar over and over, examining it. "It's truly spotless! This soap is amazing. You don't even need the laundry bat. The clothes won't get beaten and damaged."
The woman called Sister Xue eagerly asked, "Sister Liu, where did you get this soap? I want to buy a piece too!"
The woman next to her, Sister Liu, asked, "Is this soap expensive? If it costs as much as soapberry paste, we probably can't afford it."
Pleased that the soap worked, Madam Liu smiled. "According to the shopkeeper, it's not a costly thing. A piece twenty-five times this size sells for only twenty wen."
Hearing this, Sister Liu's face lit up with joy. "Then my family can afford it too! I'll go buy a piece tomorrow. No more need to beat clothes with a big stick and ruin them."
Madam Liu added with a smile, "The shopkeeper said this soap can also be used to wash the body, and it gets you very clean too."
Hearing that, Sister Zhang and Sister Xue exclaimed, "Only twenty wen? That's more than worth it! Let's go! We'll all go together tomorrow and buy a piece to use."
Early on the third morning, just as Li Zhi was lifting the first wooden panel of the shop door open, he saw several women gathered in front of his shop. Seeing Li Zhi arrive to open up, the women crowded forward, asking through the gap in the door, "Young man, is this where you sell soap?"
Finally, someone had come to buy soap.
- Writer
