Chapter 225: Both Boys and Girls Have to Protect Themselves
In the next pages were portraits of other people he knew. Because their interactions didn’t overlap, Mu Jingzhe didn’t know Ji Buwang’s other acquaintances either, so she had just drawn the ones she knew.
For example, Uncle Li, Shao Dong, Shao Xi, Shao Qihai, Shao Qiyang, Li Zhaodi, Mu Teng, and Mu Han. When he flipped to Uncle Li’s page, Ji Buwang gazed at him for a long time. “So that’s what you look like, Uncle Li.”
As for Shao Dong and his siblings, because they were still growing up, these portraits were only temporary.
Although they were temporary, because Mu Jingzhe was used to drawing them, they were all very lifelike.
Ji Buwang kept smiling until he saw Shao Qihai and Shao Qiyang. He pouted and mumbled, “I don’t want to remember them…”
Although he said that, Ji Buwang still took a few serious looks. It was for no other reason than to compare himself to them.
“From the looks of it, both of them are quite good-looking, but not as good-looking as me.”
After reaching this conclusion, Ji Buwang flipped the page in satisfaction. When he saw Li Zhaodi, Ji Buwang couldn’t help but let out an ‘oh’.
Mu Jingzhe had drawn a vivid portrait of Li Zhaodi, so the bandit-like appearance of Li Zhaodi with her sunglasses and curly hair was fully depicted. Although her biological mother’s filter gave her a cute appearance, it couldn’t conceal the hint of banditry in her.
Ji Buwang laughed. “So this is what Auntie looks like… She really doesn’t look like Jingzhe. Jingzhe looks like her father, and so does Mu Han.”
Ji Buwang flipped through the pages of the notebook back and forth, rolling on the bed fondly. His only regret was that Mu Jingzhe hadn’t drawn herself in it.
While Ji Buwang was happy, Shao Qihai and Shao Qiyang weren’t very happy. Shao Qihai even looked forward to his birthday so that he could receive a birthday gift.
However, after Ji Buwang’s birthday, Mu Jingzhe was very busy. The hair ornament business was steadily developing. Meanwhile, Shao Qiyang’s courier business gradually stabilized, so Mu Jingzhe naturally had to collaborate with him. It was also a mutually beneficial arrangement.
After this development, Mu Jingzhe didn’t have the time to deliver the goods personally every time. Her main focus now was managing the creation process of the designs. For this job, she specifically hired two designers. One of them was a real designer, the kind who had graduated from university. She already had a job, but Mu Jingzhe didn’t give up and asked her to work part-time.
The other person was a woman from Great Eastern Village. This woman was very talented and drew the most gorgeous flowers. The color combination was novel, and she had been born to be in this line of work. After accidentally seeing her creations, Mu Jingzhe had invited her to be a designer alone.
As the team expanded, Mu Jingzhe focused more on other matters.
The production at the paper manufacturing factory went very smoothly. Mu Jingzhe recruited a batch of salespeople for the marketing department. There was a guaranteed salary and commission, and both men and women were hired. At first, the girls couldn’t quite let go, but after some training, they began to develop their sales skills.
Other than the toilet paper sales, the promotion of the sanitary pads went quite well and it really created a market. However, male salespeople did run into some problems promoting the sanitary pads. Firstly, perhaps initially they couldn’t quite let go. Secondly, the customers weren’t willing to listen to men. It was fine if the customer ran away shyly, but when they encountered tough ones, they might get beaten up, either because the customers felt that they were shameless or because they thought that they were deliberately teasing them. After being chased and beaten a few times, they had no choice but to give up. Then, they mainly promoted toilet paper.
Soon, the majority of the people left in the marketing department were women, including the employees improving the design of the sanitary pads. Mu Jingzhe felt that this was quite good. Girls knew how to design such stuff to make it more comfortable, and this also increased the female employment rate.
In order to expand the market, Mu Jingzhe produced one or two independently packaged sanitary napkins to be given away for free according to the feedback and based on some of her experience in her previous life.
Many people were used to using broad toilet paper and had never used sanitary pads before. They didn’t want to change either and felt that it was expensive or something along that line. However, they definitely wouldn’t refuse something if it was free.
Mu Jingzhe felt that compared to toilet paper, sanitary pads were much more useful. Therefore, it was a good idea to give out free sanitary pads for everyone to try them. They couldn’t guarantee that everyone would switch to using sanitary pads after trying them, but it would be enough if just ten percent of those people switched to using the pads.
After producing the free samples, Mu Jingzhe brought a batch back to the village herself, wanting to distribute them to the villagers. Shao Dong, Little Bei, and the others were used to taking a look whenever Mu Jingzhe brought something back and they would always be pleasantly surprised by what they saw.
However, this time, they couldn’t understand. “Mom, what is this?” Shao Qihai stuck his head out to look curiously.
“You don’t need to use this. This is… a sanitary pad. Girls use it when they grow up.” Thinking that Shao Dong and Shao Xi were already eight years old, she realized time passed very quickly and they would turn nine in the blink of an eye. Thus, it was about time they gained some physiological knowledge. Besides, it wasn’t like a sanitary pad was something shameful, so she directly told them about it.
The five kids’ reaction was alright. They only took a few curious glances. On the other hand, Shao Qihai choked on the air he was breathing.
Then, he looked at Mu Jingzhe, wanting to say something, but stopped himself. Mu Jingzhe said, “It’s not a big deal to tell them about it. If you hide things, it makes one more curious. Look, now that I told them, they’re not that curious anymore.”
Children’s curiosity was very strange. The more adults tried to cover up things, the more they wanted to understand.
“Besides, when they’re about to grow up, you should also pass on to them some physiological knowledge and tell them about certain changes. I’ll also tell Little Bei when she grows up.”
If Shao Qihai hadn’t come back, she might have asked Shao Qiyang to tell the children about it in the future. Usually, she would teach them a little herself, but since Shao Qihai had come back, she asked him to do it instead.
Shao Qihai looked at the frank Mu Jingzhe and remembered what it was like to be young. He suddenly felt that what she’d said was right, so he nodded.
He didn’t know that the reason the five kids had accepted it so quickly was because Mu Jingzhe had already laid the foundation. At the time, there were no diapers. Many two or three-year-old kids were still wearing open-crotch pants[1], regardless of whether they were boys or girls.
However, upon thinking of the ways people in the future educated their kids, and because she had seen many news reports, Mu Jingzhe decided it was better to be safe than sorry and told the kids that they had to learn to protect themselves.
She had told them not to take off their clothes or casually let other people hug them.
Both boys and girls had to protect themselves. Although the people in Great Eastern Village looked normal at the moment, who knew? It was just a precautionary measure. Furthermore, the five kids often went out now.
Mu Jingzhe started distributing sanitary pads that day. First, she distributed them to the young ladies and young wives who worked for her. Then, she looked for other people who were already old acquaintances and whom she didn’t feel uncomfortable mentioning this to.
Li Zhaodi also helped. Carrying a bag of sanitary pads, she ran from door to door, sincerely recommending them to everyone. “I didn’t think of using this before, but Jingzhe said it’s good stuff and insisted on giving it to me last time. I couldn’t bear to refuse, so I tried it. It’s much better than paper. You must remember to try it!”
Li Zhaodi put a lot of effort into this. Firstly, she really thought that it was good, and secondly, she felt that Jingzhe could earn money if people ended up buying it, so she was especially enthusiastic.
[1] clothing worn by toddlers in China, designed with either an unsewn seam over the buttocks and crotch or a hole over the center of the buttocks