A little over a month after Curio Pavilion opened.
Not only had it shown no signs of decline, it had instead grown more and more explosive.
This blind box craze, which began in Leping County, had already swept through several wealthy surrounding counties. Every morning before dawn, the entrance of Curio Pavilion was packed with traffic and lined with long queues.
The newly launched “Classic of Mountains and Seas” series was instantly snatched up the moment it was released.
Miss Xie Qing still maintained her habit of inspecting the shop every day. She stood in the private room on the second floor, holding a cup of warm pre-rain tea, looking down through the fine bamboo blinds at the bustling crowd below with a cold gaze.
At first, everything had been within her control.
But in the past few days, her calm brows had grown increasingly furrowed.
In the crowd, there were always a few familiar figures who appeared every single day without fail.
At the third quarter of the hour of Chen, at the very front of the line, there was always a man wearing a faded grey cap. He never spoke, his expression numb, always precisely on time to buy two boxes of the most expensive “Classic of Mountains and Seas.”
At the first quarter of the hour of Wei, when the afternoon crowd thinned slightly, an old woman with a red cord tied at her waist would squeeze forward and tremblingly buy another two boxes.
At dusk, when the final batch of goods was sold, a young man with a slight limp in his left leg would always be the one to take them away.
Miss Xie Qing set down her teacup, her gaze turning colder.
She walked to the front window and pushed open a small crack. As expected, under the half-withered locust tree at the street corner, the man in the grey cap was handing items to a young man in fine clothing.
The young man in brocade handed over a silver ingot, while the grey-capped man passed him the two unopened “Classic of Mountains and Seas” boxes. They were immediately resold for triple the price.
Damn ticket scalpers.
A surge of anger rose in Miss Xie Qing’s heart.
This was not merely a loss of small profits. It was a desecration of the joy she had carefully created around the blind box experience. Customers who wanted to buy but could not were instead forced to endure price gouging.
If this continued, Curio Pavilion’s reputation would eventually be destroyed by these greedy rats.
“Chun Cao,” she said coldly.
“Yes, Miss, I am here.”
“Grind the ink. I will draft an announcement.”
Half an hour later, a new notice was posted at the entrance of Curio Pavilion.
It was personally written by Miss Xie Qing, her handwriting elegant yet carrying a faint edge of anger.
“From today onward, for the ‘Classic of Mountains and Seas’ and ‘Twelve Flower Gods’ premium series, each person is limited to two boxes per day per purchase.”
“To ensure fairness, every buyer must have one ‘plum blossom seal’ stamped on the back of their hand. This mark is made with a specially prepared sandalwood oil blend and will not fade for one day, nor can it be washed off.”
At the end of the notice, she added one line:
“The original intention of this shop is to allow more friends to experience the joy of opening boxes. Rare goods should be cherished, and enjoyment shared. We ask for your understanding.”
The common people gathered around and praised it loudly.
The few “familiar faces” read the notice, spat in frustration, and melted into the crowd.
Miss Xie Qing thought the situation would settle here.
However, she underestimated human nature.
On the third day, she stood upstairs and felt as if she had fallen into an ice pit.
The long queue was still there.
But the people in line had changed completely.
No longer the same familiar faces, they were now a group of emaciated beggars in tattered clothes, along with a few idle street ruffians.
They stood in line with blank expressions, mechanically handing over money, receiving goods, extending their hands, and getting stamped.
Then they limped toward the alley entrance.
Miss Xie Qing saw it with her own eyes. The grey-capped man was waiting there, beside a large barrel filled with murky soapy water.
The beggars would step forward, thrust their hands into the water, and scrub hard. The sandalwood plum blossom seal that was meant to last a full day was violently washed away, leaving visible bloody abrasions.
The grey-capped man would then toss them two copper coins and take the blind boxes.
Even worse, a few bold scalpers openly resold goods right outside Curio Pavilion at inflated prices, blatantly disrupting order.
“No need to queue! ‘Classic of Mountains and Seas’ blind boxes! No need to queue!”
“Despicable!”
Miss Xie Qing slammed her fist against the window frame.
The purchase limit had been rendered completely useless.
She locked herself in her room and did not even come down for dinner.
Chun Cao was so anxious she was sweating, but there was nothing she could do and could only pace outside the door.
Under the candlelight, Miss Xie Qing closed her eyes and began to think.
Real-name registration was the most effective method from her previous life.
But in this era, how could she implement real identity verification?
She thought of household registration records.
No, that would not work. With thousands of customers every day, if every person had to be checked against household records, the queue would stretch all the way to the city gates. And how could clerks quickly determine whether Zhang San or Li Si had already purchased today?
This would require a massive ledger and several full-time clerks.
The efficiency was too low. It would destroy the most important advantage of blind boxes, convenience and impulse buying.
What about membership cards? A special token issued to each customer?
But cards could be borrowed or forged.
Unless…
Miss Xie Qing bit the end of her brush.
Unless the card and the person could correspond one-to-one.
Better yet, if there were someone who could recognize every card and every face.
That was simply impossible.
How could anyone remember over a thousand faces?
For the first time, she felt a deep sense of helplessness.
The next day.
The long queue outside Curio Pavilion remained unchanged. The scalpers’ hired assistants still blended in among the crowd.
Just as Miss Xie Qing arrived on the second floor, she suddenly heard a commotion erupting downstairs.
In the queue below, a tall, broad-shouldered man with a face full of scars was forcibly cut in line. He shoved aside a thin figure in front of him.
It was a boy of about thirteen or fourteen.
The boy wore ill-fitting oversized men’s clothing, a faded blue cloth robe with two patches sewn onto it.
His face was delicate, smeared with dirt and soot, but his eyes were startlingly bright.
“Hey!” the boy shouted, his voice still carrying childishness but filled with anger.
“You! The one in the grey robe! Cutting in line and you think you’re justified? Do you think everyone here is blind?”
The man was one of the scalper leaders. He sneered and waved his arm. “Get lost, brat! Don’t ruin my business!”
“Oh—I remember you! You think changing your clothes today means I can’t recognize that big pancake face of yours?”
The entire crowd fell silent.
The boy showed no fear at all. He pointed directly at the man’s nose.
“On the day before yesterday, you wore a straw hat and queued three times! You bought six ‘Classic of Mountains and Seas’ boxes alone!”
“Yesterday, you changed to a square cloth headwrap and came twice! You bought four ‘Flower God’ boxes!”
The boy grew even angrier and suddenly pointed toward several suspicious men further back in line.
“And you! The one with triangular eyes! You came with him yesterday!”
“You! You! All of you are in the same group! You buy everything, then resell it across the street at high prices! Shameless!”
These words struck like thunder.
The scalpers who were exposed instantly turned pale. A few of them, panicking, pushed through the crowd and fled on the spot.
On the second floor, Miss Xie Qing watched this scene.
And she saw it.
Her impossible solution.