Chapter 156: Short-changed Length
City C was a place where Gu Wanrong had lived for a full eighteen years without ever leaving, from her birth until the end of the National College Entrance Examination.
To this day, there were many attractions in City C that even outsiders knew well, yet Gu Wanrong had never visited them.
Instead, in City J, where Jinhua Universityâthe school Gu Wanrong attendedâwas located, she had left her footprints at every single museum, viral street, and popular scenic spot over her four years of university.
She realized this while on the way back from accompanying Gu Huaichang and Wen Yinghua to pay their respects at the cemetery for her grandparents and parents.
Wen Yinghua mentioned that they hadn’t stepped foot in City C for decades and would be returning tomorrow; she hoped to see more of City C’s streets and scenes in the limited time remaining.
After Gu Huaichang and Wen Yinghua left on the high-speed rail home, Gu Wanrong didn’t feel an urgent need to return from City C to the Capital for the New Year. She decided to simply stay in City C and take the opportunity to re-discover the city.
On this day, Gu Wanrong wore a green Ming-style Hanfu, experiencing life in the ancient town in an immersive way.
“Hello, excuse me, do you have a sanitary pad?” A girl also wearing Hanfu approached and asked shyly.
“Yes.” Gu Wanrong opened the gold box with inlaid gems and lotus patterns hanging from her shoulder and took one out to hand to her. “Here, can you use this brand?”
During these days, Gu Wanrong’s period was also approaching. Every time she went out, Butler Liu would pack sanitary pads into the bag Gu Wanrong carried.
“I can.” Taking the pad, the girl said “thank you” and left in a hurry.
Perhaps because it was already nearly time for Gu Wanrong’s period, or maybe the “Period Effect” was just too effectiveâafter leaving the ancient town, Gu Wanrong felt her period suddenly arrive.
She found the nearest supermarket and went straight to the sanitary pad section in the daily necessities area.
Gu Wanrong was shocked by the prices of the various brands. She hadn’t bought individual packs of sanitary pads in a supermarket for quite some time. Was the original price this expensive?
Twenty or thirty yuan for one pack?
In her memory, weren’t they around ten yuan?
There was no time to think about anything else. She grabbed a pack of a brand she had used before, checked out, and left.
A small matter like this was forgotten after it passed.
Until Gu Wanrong scrolled to a post where the poster had shared a screenshot of a table showing the results of her tests on various brands and models of sanitary pads.
Gu Wanrong remembered how she had been shocked by the prices a few days agoâthe lowest being over twenty and the expensive ones being forty or fiftyâand thought the poster was also talking about this.
However, it wasn’t just that.
With this poster, there was no “Blacklist” for sanitary pads, because they were all “black” (bad).
The actual measured length of all the sanitary pads was shorter than the standard size on the packaging, without exception. Seeing this, Gu Wanrong thought she would also measure them herself to see if it was as the poster said.
So, she pulled out the sanitary pads she was using.
There were only two brands in her drawer: one she had temporarily bought at the supermarket a few days ago, and the other her monthly supply placed there by Butler Liu.
The results showed that only the one Gu Wanrong had bought herself was short-changed. The labeled length was 290mm, but the actual length was 285mm, and the actual cotton length used was only 250mmâa full 40mm less.
There was absolutely no discrepancy from the poster’s measurement results.
“Butler Liu!”
“Miss, what are your instructions?”
After Butler Liu arrived, she saw with confusion that Gu Wanrong was holding a ruler, with several opened sanitary pads laid out on the table before her.
“Look, the pads I bought and the ones measured by this poster are all shorter in actual length than the labeled length. Why are the ones you put in different?” Gu Wanrong tapped the table, asking Butler Liu in confusion.
Butler Liu realized; so it was about this.
“Miss, the sanitary pads you use are all specially customized for you from the manufacturer.”
“Ah?” Gu Wanrong hadn’t expected this to be the reason. Sanitary pads could be customized? This truly broadened her horizons.
Butler Liu continued to explain, “Whether itâs domestic or foreign brands for sanitary pads, tampons, etc., there are certain levels of issues with their hygienic conditions, raw materials, size specifications, and other standards. That is why I have customized your period products for you.”
“After the brand sends them, we conduct sampling inspections. Once a product has a problem, the brand simply cannot escape the liability from Yingyuan Law Firm.”
No wonder everything she used before was cleared out and replaced with new items after Butler Liu took office.
Gu Wanrong suddenly understood.
Gu Wanrong had received the answer she wanted, so Butler Liu quietly tidied the table and then left the room softly.
The heat of the topic regarding sanitary pad sizes on the internet was growing higher and higher, with more and more bloggers and netizens coming forward with their own accounts.
Some people took their measurement results to ask the brands, and the customer service’s answer was that a 4% discrepancy was a normal phenomenon.
However, is it a normal phenomenon when there is only -4% and no +4%?
Some merchants directly said if you don’t like it, don’t buy it: “If you find it unacceptable, you can choose not to buy.”
Previous negative news about substandard raw materials, insect eggs in sanitary pads, or foreign objects and insects were being refocused on.
Even if one wasn’t unlucky enough to encounter the problems above, other universal phenomena still existed.
The wings on both sides always stuck to the glue on the back of the pad; periods in summer were always sticky and stuffy, while thin pads would leak; using 280mm or 290mm night pads during the day and 430mm extra-long pads or sleep pants at night; panty liners being too short, narrow, and thin, guaranteed to leak onto underwear.
Brands were launching new upgraded series of sanitary pads every year, yet these problems remained unresolved.
However, the specially customized sanitary pads requested by Butler Liu had none of the above issues during the time Gu Wanrong had used them.
This showed that it wasn’t that it couldn’t be done, but that they weren’t willing to do it.
Gu Wanrong recalled her feelings before she had changed to the new period products. Only with a comparison did she realize there had been so much discomfort. It wasn’t that she hadn’t thought about it, but that she had become used to this discomfort time and again, year after year.
But this was not a discomfort that must be endured.
Every woman should have the right to experience her period comfortably.
“I forgot to ask Butler Liu about the cost of these customized period products.” Gu Wanrong spoke to herself with some frustration.
Sigh, just thinking about it, she knew it wouldn’t be cheapâthey were made of mulberry silk.
Replacing mulberry silk and such items that weren’t strictly necessary, it should be possible to produce pads that were thin, absorbent, leak-proof, and sufficiently long and wide, yet also affordable and high-quality.
Translator’s Note: “Short-changed Length” (č´ĺŽéż) is a play on words regarding the actual length being less than the labeled one. Ming-style Hanfu is a traditional Chinese dress from the Ming Dynasty. “Checked for the water meter” (ćĽć°´čĄ¨) was used again, referring to being investigated. Yingyuan Law Firm is the high-powered legal team associated with Gu Wanrong’s company.
Gu Wanrong is starting to notice real-world problems. Do you think Qianyuan Group will enter the sanitary product market next?
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