Chapter 32: Collecting Material

Wei Ming felt one yuan was also expensive, but since he said eight jiao, he would reluctantly experience it.

However, this route was indeed quite long, nearly ten kilometers. The driver drove like he was flying, turning left and right to take shortcuts, but it still took more than half an hour.

This driver in the Magic City wasn't very cute. When he tried to chat with him about the Ginseng-Tortoise Nourishing Wine, he said he had never bought or drunk it, and then he had nothing more to say.

You're not good at this; what kind of taxi driver are you if you don't know anything?

"No. 201 Danba Road, this is it." The driver dropped him off and turned around to leave, showing no attachment to the eighty-cent sentiment.

Wei Ming looked at the sun; it was lunchtime. Unfortunately, he couldn't eat the free lunch at the guesthouse; he had to pay for this meal himself.

Outside the pharmaceutical factory, there was a state-run restaurant. Because there were several factories nearby, business was quite good.

He ordered a steamer of buns and a bowl of millet porridge, costing two liang of food coupons and three jiao in cash.

While waiting for his meal, Wei Ming saw a man and a woman at a nearby table wearing work uniforms. One of the girls made him look a few extra times.

It wasn't that she was good-looking; the key was that her work uniform had the words "Modu No. 2 Traditional Chinese Medicine Factory" on the back.

After the meal, he went outside, and Wei Ming stood guard at the gate of the No. 2 Traditional Chinese Medicine Factory. When that female worker finished her meal and walked over, he immediately stepped forward and said: "Hello, comrade."

"Hello, comrade, is something the matter?"

"It's like this, I'm a writer from Beijing, and I want to write a novel about the Ginseng-Tortoise Nourishing Wine from the beginning of the year. Could you take me inside for an interview?"

People in Modu looked down on all outsiders equally, but people from Jingcheng could be a slight exception.

The female worker, who introduced herself as "Jiang Yungui," enthusiastically said: "No problem, but is this really worth writing a novel about?"

"Of course, everything can be a novel." Not only could it be a novel, but someone had even made it into a movie.

Wei Ming registered at the guard station and successfully entered the factory.

Little Jiang had quite a sense of ownership; along the way, she introduced Wei Ming to the glorious achievements of their No. 2 Traditional Chinese Medicine Factory.

The Magic City No. 2 Traditional Chinese Medicine Factory didn't just have the Ginseng-Tortoise Nourishing medicinal wine as a product; in fact, this could only be considered a very small category of product.

Tablets, granules, syrups, oral liquids, capsules, ointments—this traditional Chinese medicine factory had them all. Their flagship products included Compound Danshen Tablets, Yinqiao Jiedu Tablets, Huatuo Ointment, and so on.

Even the medicinal wines weren't limited to just one type; there was also a "Wannianchun" wine, which was the one that truly had the effect of tonifying the kidneys.

Afterward, Little Jiang took him to the medicinal wine workshop.

The production area was off-limits, so Wei Ming met the workshop director, Director Wang, outside the workshop.

"Hello, Director Wang, I am a writer from Beijing. I want to create a novel about the Ginseng-Tortoise Nourishing Wine and would like to learn about the situation regarding this medicinal wine from you. Sorry to bother you."

This Director Wang was in his forties or fifties and looked burdened with worries. However, the title of "writer" was still very useful in this day and age. He pulled himself together and began to introduce the efficacy of the Ginseng-Tortoise Nourishing Wine to Wei Ming.

"Our ingredients include ginseng, longan, goji berries, and other traditional Chinese medicinal herbs. Ginseng tonifies vital energy, longan tonifies blood, so our Ginseng-Angelica Nourishing Wine is a medicinal wine that tonifies both vital energy and blood. It is very suitable for people who are older and have weak vital energy and blood. You are a writer; you must have read *Dream of the Red Chamber*, right?"

"Of course."

Director Wang Zhenxu said: "The Ginseng Nourishing Pills that Lin Daiyu often took in *Dream of the Red Chamber* have a similar principle to our Ginseng-Angelica Nourishing Wine; they are both especially tonifying."

Wei Ming laughed: "Daiyu was so young and still had to use this kind of medicine; then she was truly weak."

It seemed the rumor that Daiyu uprooted a weeping willow was likely untrue. Director Wang added: "Medicinal wine is good, but it shouldn't be drunk in excess. We suggest drinking 20-30 milliliters each time, no more than twice a day. After all, a weak body cannot handle too much tonification."

Wei Ming, a math-hater, calculated rapidly in his head and finally understood: Oh, half a liang each time, no more than one liang a day.

No wonder it was selling generally now; wine that couldn't be drunk heartily certainly wouldn't have high sales. With the word "medicine" in front, medicinal wine was, after all, not wine.

However, if calculated this way, a bottle of wine would only last ten days. That would be 3 bottles a month, which was 45 yuan—equivalent to the salary of an ordinary worker. Not being able to afford it would also limit the product's sales.

Therefore, besides supplying high-income groups who needed tonification, this kind of wine could only rely on temporary popularity to become a hot-selling item. Once the popularity faded, it would naturally return to calm.

Everyone was poor now; unless the overall income of the people increased significantly and a wealthier group emerged, there would be no room for things like "Brain Gold" to survive.

Wei Ming brought up the TV commercial from the beginning of the year, saying that was how he had learned about this wine.

In later generations, Xu Zheng used a short film, *The Duck Prophet*, in *My Country and My Parents* to tell the story of the Ginseng-Angelica Nourishing Wine commercial. From Director Wang, he got a somewhat different truth: in fact, this medicinal wine had been selling quite well at the time and hadn't been backlogged, but it was true that it sold out after the commercial.

So, after coming out of the No. 2 Traditional Chinese Medicine Factory, Wei Ming prepared to go to the Modu TV station to gather material and understand the story behind the advertising placement at the time. This was also a missing part of *The Duck Prophet*.

And as soon as Wei Ming left, Director Wang immediately sought out the sales department head, Liang Lu: There was still so much inventory backlogged in the workshop; could you actually sell it or not?

!

At the time, the effect of the TV commercial was so good that he, as the director, had gotten hot-headed and increased production. As a result, after the popularity passed, buyers returned to rationality, and the out-of-town market hadn't opened up. Now it was truly backlogged!

Just as Wei Ming left the No. 2 Traditional Chinese Medicine Factory, Gong Ying, dressed beautifully, returned home exhausted.

Her sister, Gong Ying, who was three years younger, immediately greeted her: "Sister, how was it? What did the Shanghai Er Yingchang say?"

Gong Ying sighed: "They said there's a new movie called *Lushan Love*, and the female lead is very suitable for me, but unfortunately, the female lead has already been decided."

"Who is it? Chen Chong?"

Two years ago, Director Xie Jin's movie *Youth* made the female lead, Chen Chong, famous. A while ago, she was selected by the Beijing Er Yingchang to star in a movie called *Little Flower*, with Tang Guoqiang as the male lead and Liu Xiaoqing as the supporting actress.

At that time, she was only 16 years old, and now she was only 18.

Gong Ying immediately thought of Wei Ming, who was also eighteen. Oh my, why think of him?

"It's Zhang Yu," she told her sister.

Gong Ying immediately said: "She doesn't look as good as you."

"Don't say that; she is also very pretty. It's just that she is from the Shanghai Er Yingchang. When conditions are similar, the Shanghai Er Yingchang certainly tends to use its own people," Gong Ying said helplessly.

Gong Ying hugged her sister: "It's okay, if they don't use you, it just so happens you can accompany me to sketch tomorrow, how about that?"

She was currently learning to paint from her father. Their father and eldest brother were both painters, and even the sisters had interests and talents in this area.

Gong Ying nodded: "Okay, I'll tell Mom and borrow her camera."

(Seeking monthly tickets, seeking follow-up reading, seeking to rush the rankings! There's also a character thread in the book review section; everyone can participate. Old Buddha has already arranged several roles~)

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 33 =====