According to historical records, there are tens of thousands of beauties in the palace of Qin Shi Huang, and the rouge gouache consumed every day can dye through the Wei River, although Chen Xu has been to the harem a few times, but he can only see a corner, how many women Qin Shi Huang has He not only does not know, the entire Great Qin can be said to be not very clear, the concubines, maids and princesses of the monarchs of the six countries are all taken home by Qin Da to help take care of them, and the number is completely a mystery.

In fact, the consumption of the entire harem of Qin Shi Huang is actually no less than raising hundreds of thousands of troops, just to build hundreds of sleeping palaces, I don't know how much people have been consumed, and in addition to the palace, in fact, the biggest consumption of the harem is daily consumption such as food, clothing, and housing, these concubines and palace maids do not say that they are all dressed and eaten, but at least in life are still very luxurious, the chicken, duck and fish meat that the people can't afford to eat has never been lacking every day, and the silk and silk silk and cold clothes still need to be replaced every year, just these two things, The annual expenditure of the entire Shaofu is estimated to be no less than 10 million yuan, plus the expenses of entering and leaving the carriage and horses, rouge, gouache and other expenses, etc., there is no difference between the entire harem and raising a large army.

If perfume comes out, in order to please Qin Shi Huang, I am afraid that all the concubines and palace maids with a little status will try their best to get a bottle of perfume to add temptation and charm to themselves, and then they will ask the officials of the Shaofu to ask for money and even do some messy things in order to achieve their goals, and this matter will inevitably become a headache for Qin Shi Huang.

Not only did the emperor have a headache, but Chen Xu actually had a headache.

Perfume is not like glass, porcelain, tea and wine, although these things are valuable, but they come from a wide range of sources, Chen Xu can send them to the palace in a cart to meet the needs of the emperor, and these things are not only Chen Xu's family, if the emperor needs, there are a lot of businessmen who can provide, but perfume is different, even if Chen Xu announces the production method, not to mention the difficulty of picking petals, just distilling high-purity alcohol and refining essential oils This laboratory process is a huge problem, scarce resources plus complex processes, It is destined that the production of perfumes will not be too high, and the price in the market will remain high.

In other words, perfume is destined to be an extremely scarce luxury, and like high-end perfumes in later generations, it is destined to be ridiculously expensive.

Even if Chen Xu wants to be cheap, he can't be cheap in the end, just picking and collecting flowers is a big expense, just this little perfume, hundreds of people in the entire Hou Mansion have been busy for most of the day, and even used many farmers in the fiefdom, although most of them are women and children, but in the end, it is still labor.

If a person is busy for a day's work, then the labor cost alone is more than 4,000 yuan, plus it took two days to distill in the laboratory, as well as alcohol, distilled water, blending, and finally a bottle for special perfume.

Such a high-end luxury must not be made of ordinary porcelain bottles, glass bottles, crystal bottles, and in order to avoid light and prevent perfume from deterioration, it must also be made of colored crystals, which is a large expense.

Also, in order to facilitate the use of perfumes, it is also necessary to develop a press-type spray bottle, and there is no experience that can be used for reference at the moment, so Chen Xu needs to explore it.

Therefore, in general, perfume will be a small and expensive extremely luxurious item, and it will surpass porcelain glass to become the most expensive commodity in Chen Xu's hands.

But no matter what, once the perfume is taken out, it is no longer possible to keep it secret, there is a group of alchemists in the laboratory and a group of unfuel-efficient ladies in their own house, and the perfume will inevitably soon cause a sensation again among the noble ladies and even ordinary women in Xianyang.

As for the emperor, Chen Xu felt that he had to find a way to dispose of it properly, after all, it was impossible for this kind of thing to hide from the emperor, and it was impossible for such a good thing not to be used by his harem concubines, the price was still secondary, the emperor was rich in the entire Great Qin, even if it was a pure business model, he would definitely be able to afford it, but the output was the bigger obstacle.

However, Qin Shi Huang has a relatively big advantage, that is, he will not force him to buy and sell, let alone force merchants to give things to him.

According to the custom of the Zhou Dynasty, as long as it is not a slave, the king and the princes have no right to deprive the people of their property, of course, this is also superficial, in fact, it can be continuously increased by decree, in fact, this tradition has been inherited and carried forward by later generations, the so-called annual tax is similar, the tax is different every year, once ordinary people are born, it is to pay taxes to the country, from birth to death, only sickness and paying taxes, are two things that everyone can not escape.

(Note: The word "national" originally meant the people of the country, and the country referred to the city in ancient times, that is, in ancient times, the national referred to the people in the city, and the rest were the native turtles in the countryside, so the common people basically referred to the countrymen, and the common people referred to ordinary civilians with Li Min and Qianshou, and the common people, especially referring to the nobles with fiefs, as for the word "people", it referred to all human beings, and was later redefined by Ma Dabeard, which became a purely political term representing the proletariat.) However, after the Shang and Zhou dynasties to the Great Qin, various titles began to be unified, and the people, the common people, the Li people, the heads of Qian, and even the common people began to refer to the common people. ）

Fan Caiwei and Chen Xu have similar cognitions of perfume as a luxury, and think that even if it is a good thing to make money, it is also a little hot.

At the moment, Chen Xu has two choices.

One is to make his own perfume and sell it, and then regularly send some concubines to the emperor to distribute to the harem, so that Chen Xu's pressure will be very great, and in the end he may be thankless and unable to make ends meet.

The second is to send the perfume production method and formula to the emperor, let the emperor set up a special perfume workshop for the royal family, and he is responsible for arranging people to guide the production until he is proficient.

Although the second method is good, it may have a not-so-good ending, that is, the emperor will eventually throw all the things of the royal perfume workshop to Chen Xu, which is actually not much different from the first method.

hugged Fan Caiwei and discussed for a long time, touched and pinched the interest, and went to the room to turn the phoenix upside down, and when Chen Xu returned to the Qinghe Courtyard in a happy mood, it was almost time to finish eating.

"Master Hou is back!"

At the gate of the courtyard, watching Chen Xu's carriage and horses return to the house, the two little maids hurriedly ran back to the backyard excitedly to report, and when Chen Xu's carriage drove into the courtyard, Shui Qingrou, Ying Shiyan, Meng Wan and even Fan Caiying, who was almost unable to walk with a big belly, all greeted him together.

"Hey, why are you so neat today!" Looking at a group of big-bellied wives who were supported by the maids with their waists crossed and came out to greet them, Chen Xu hurriedly got out of the car and comforted them.

I didn't go home last night, and today I took the perfume and ran to my sister-in-law's house to offer hospitality, and I also had a good time for most of the day, and now I went back to the house, looking at Yingying Yanyan and a large group of wives and concubines, Chen Xu's heart was like water, and his mood was as peaceful as a monk.

"Husband, has your flower fragrance been refined?" Meng Wan was the most anxious, holding Chen Xu's arm, Qiong Yao's little nose was slightly fluttering, and suddenly her face was surprised and she shouted: "Husband, you are so fragrant, you must have succeeded, right?" ”

Chen Xu: ......

It is said that a woman's nose is a dog, and it is really good, the fragrance on his body is brought from Fan Caiwei, and he took a bath before coming back, but obviously whether it is this primitive era, or a modern city with mixed perfumes more than 2,000 years later, as long as a woman gets closer, she can smell the different smells of her own man, fortunately, Chen Xu can have a group of wives and concubines now, otherwise in the future life, Meng Wan may have taken out a durian now.

"I'll smell it!" Ying Shiyan also came up and sniffed lightly on Chen Xu's clothes, and then looked at Chen Xu's eyes with a pair of beautiful eyes, "It's really fragrant, husband, did you go where Sister Caiwei is?" ”

Chen Xu felt a burst of crows flying overhead, hugged Meng Wan and Ying Shiyan with a dry smile and said, "Are you two whistling dogs with noses?" I can smell it everywhere I go, husband, let's go, go into the house, I'll show you a good thing! ”

"Yes, the husband really refined the fragrance of the flowers, and we no longer have to pick flower petals to bathe every day in the future!" Meng Wan danced happily, and a group of frightened maids hurriedly surrounded her, and then helped her to the backyard.

"Look, this is the credit for the husband who has not slept for two days!" Walking into the hall in the backyard, Chen Xu took out several bottles of prepared perfume and placed them on the table, and a group of women gathered around to carefully look at these glass bottles of different shades and colors.

"Come, do you smell the fragrance?" Chen Xu opened a bottle cap, and suddenly a refreshing fragrance of osmanthus emanated.

"Ah, it's really fragrant, exactly the same as the fragrance of fresh osmanthus!" Meng Wan exclaimed.

"Not only that, but this smell seems to be more fresh and elegant, much better than the sweet fragrance of osmanthus!" Shui Qingrou nodded in surprise with the same face.

Chen Xu dipped his fingers in some perfume and applied it to the water's gentle hand and said with a smile: "This is a perfume made from the floral essential oil extracted from osmanthus, in fact, it is similar to the tea tree oil and sesame oil we eat, but because the petals contain very little sesame oil essence, the production of essential oil is very low, a total of more than ten baskets of flowers, and in the end only got a few bottles of perfume, there are osmanthus flavors, chrysanthemum flavors, and vanilla mixed flavors, you choose for yourself which one you like, Tomorrow I will ask people to go to the glass factory to customize some crystal bottles specially used for perfume, and then you can drop some in the water every time you bathe, or you can just apply it to your skin or even spray it on your clothes......"

Chen Xu demonstrated the use of perfume, and a group of women excitedly opened a few bottles of perfume to choose.