Chapter 37: Beauty Salon
Song Yanxi had been busy for over half a month; today when Du Juan asked her to go for a beauty treatment, she finally found a rare moment to relax amid her hectic schedule.
It was rare for Du Juan to hang out with her nowadays, fortunately, Song Yanxi wasn’t the type to look down on others after becoming wealthy.
The two agreed to meet downstairs. When together, Du Juan preferred not to drive anymore; it was much more enjoyable to ride in a convertible Bentley.
Song Yanxi herself only drove the Panamera when there were a lot of people; otherwise, she preferred the Bentley.
“Yanxi, your husband has rented out yet another whole floor for an office. It looks like your family is set to monopolize Shijingshan’s fruit market,” Du Juan said.
In late July, feeling that the headquarters was no longer sufficient, Chen Pingsheng once again rented out the entire ninth floor for Tengsheng Fruit’s finance department and training room.
This was Du Juan’s heartfelt congratulations.
She had seen how quickly they had expanded within the year.
After Beixin’an had no rivals, they moved straight into Shijingshan, which was now causing quite a stir.
Their company’s colleagues hardly believed it.
The once humble Chen Pingsheng, who used to pick up his wife every day on a small scooter, had developed so fast.
“Monopolizing is out of the question; it’s just that we’re opening stores rapidly. Pingsheng is now planning to open some community stores there. Our family is going to be quite busy these next two months,” Song Yanxi responded.
“Being busy is good. Otherwise, who would take care of your Bentley?” Du Juan commented.
She added, “Speaking of which, wasn’t this car bought with your husband? How come I’ve never seen him drive it?”
“He thinks it’s too showy and doesn’t like to drive it, still sticking to his own big car. I can’t just leave such an expensive car collecting dust at home, can I?”
Makes sense, it seemed the gift was really for herself.
Du Juan was at a loss for words, as having a Bentley or two didn’t seem to make much of a difference to her family’s financial situation.
Their plan was to go for a beauty treatment together.
Song Yanxi still remembered her man’s advice: if there was an opportunity, she should start her own high-end beauty salon.
She shared this idea with Du Juan, telling her to keep an eye out too.
The beauty salon they visited wasn’t too high-end; it was a large chain specializing in women’s beauty treatments.
It seemed that to better understand these beauty services, Song Yanxi took on various treatments including buttock care, facial care, breast care, and uterine care.
When it came to women’s treatments, any body part could have its own membership.
Take buttock care, for example.
There was news story once about someone who spent millions each year just to maintain her perky buttocks.
She wasn’t as extravagant, but she still spent nine thousand eight hundred for a ten-session buttock care card.
The main effect was lifting the buttocks.
As for the breasts, well, there were even more options.
There were treatments solely for preventing sagging and others for lifting the breasts.
Breast lifting was a major service offered by beauty salons and something many women were willing to invest in.
There were many beautiful women these days, most of them with a flat A cup.
Men, of course, understand.
Before getting together, when holding hands was the limit, one would be concerned with the face. But after the relationship advances, the focus often shifts to breasts.
After all, a larger bust was what countless men adored.
Thus, breast care became a hot service in beauty salons.
As for facial care, that was a bottomless pit.
Many female stars from Xiangjiang were known as ageless goddesses who publicly taught people how to maintain their looks.
But that’s all nonsense.
What matters is the willingness to spend money.
Just like this salon, their best facial care package cost a hefty sixty-eight thousand for ten sessions.
Apparently, it’s a French brand.
Sixty-eight thousand would only last two months. If one desired to have a twenty-something face at the age of forty, then they must consistently use these high-end facial care brands.
Or opt for anti-aging treatments.
Only after thoroughly understanding beauty salons did Song Yanxi suddenly realize why her man was so interested in them.
It was extremely profitable.
The array of services was extensive.
For instance, these beauticians, after just three months of training, could start practicing.
For a facial treatment costing nine hundred and eighty, they would only earn a few tens in commission.
All that remained was profit margin.
If this business was done well, one could truly say it raked in gold by the bucketful.
The in-store services were secondary; the key was the partnerships the beauty salon had with medical aesthetic companies.
Just by referring a customer, you didn’t have to do anything else and you got half the commission.
Take for instance an aesthetician here, who last month referred a Class A customer to a high-end cosmetic surgery hospital in Capital City.
The client had both eyes and nose done, spending over five hundred thousand altogether.
The beauty salon just made an introduction, didn’t assume any risk, and took half of that more than five hundred thousand.
It’s clear just how lucrative this industry can be.
Song Yanxi also had her own personal beautician, not much older than her.
Also from out of town.
Her greatest dream was to buy a house in Capital City, and previously looking at her situation, it seemed quite average.
So the packages she recommended weren’t particularly high-end.
But later, when she found out Song Yanxi drove a Bentley, the recommended services never dropped below a few thousand.
And that was just for a single session.
After that, the suggested membership cards were all tens of thousands.
Song Yanxi was wealthy, able to pull out seven or eight million from her private coffers at any time.
But she was just wealthy, not foolish.
If it had been her own salon, she’d have spent freely, but the key point was, it wasn’t hers.
The priciest she ever went was a buttocks care session for nine thousand eight hundred.
And a bust care session for six thousand eight hundred.
No matter how the beautician painted it in glorious terms, she kept clear of those fanciful services.
Yet even this small beauty salon managed to astonish her.
After she finished today’s facial treatment and had her buttocks done,
she was heading home to give her husband a surprise.
When the two of them were leaving, a consultant manager came out from the store.
Just looking at her face, she looked sly and cunning.
“This woman has money. Why didn’t you offer her the French care package?”
“I told you, she wouldn’t go for it.”
“She drives that kind of car; what’s so difficult about selling a few-thousand-dollar treatment? If you can’t handle it, next time we’ll send Xiao Lin. Only if she takes up the French care can we have the chance to sell her a sixty-eight thousand treatment course.”
Beauty salons were all about schemes.
The manager had been eyeing Song Yanxi for a long time, reasoning that a Bentley driver should already be a Class B customer of the salon.
Upgrading to Class A was merely a matter of time.
But this major client just wouldn’t move up a tier.
The manager thought it was an issue with the beautician and was resolved to have the salon’s top salesperson serve her next time.
Just getting her to upgrade once, they could then maintain that level of spending in the long run.
A Bentley-driving woman not spending tens of thousands on her face in a year, could she even face herself?
How else would she keep a man’s heart?
Unbeknownst to her, Song Yanxi had become the salon’s biggest cash cow.
Song Yanxi drove to the children’s amusement park to pick up Chen Qi and Little An’an. If it hadn’t been for Chen Qi, her little aunt, helping her with the child these past two months, she would have been even busier.
Chen An’an seemed to have reverted to the days without parental oversight, frolicking joyfully every day.
Always thinking about going here to play or there to see animals.
Song Yanxi had wanted to sign her up for some hobby classes, but Chen Pingsheng thought it wasn’t necessary.
They didn’t do all that when they were growing up and ended up just fine.
Kids should enjoy their childhood as it comes.
No need to be like those Capital City parents, constantly talking about getting a head start.
“Getting a head start,” in the eyes of Chen Pingsheng,
meant making more money. In the future, he could give his daughter a building to collect rent from.
That was much better than learning to dance or play an instrument.