Fortunately, that evening, she received a text message from Livinus: ““”I’ll be out of the country for a few days.”““
Sophia initially wanted to ignore it but eventually replied with a simple: ““”Alright!”““
For the next few days, Livinus was indeed absent. Sophia felt a bit relieved, throwing herself into the work at her clinic without much time to think about other things. During this time, Logan invited her out a few times, but she refused each one.
Unbeknownst to her, Sophia’s acne cream and herbal bath packets had been selling online for several days. The acne cream, being affordably priced, had attracted many buyers. When she saw the staggering sales numbers, Sophia found it hard to believe—how could this country have so many people with acne? Back in her homeland, although the acne cream was popular and highly sought after, the general populace valued traditional medicine for its emphasis on health maintenance and prevention, so there weren’t as many cases of severe acne. The proportion here was significantly larger.
Many customers had already confirmed receipt of their purchases.
— ““Baby Face”“: “It really works! I swear I’m not exaggerating. After applying it, some of the redness subsided. My acne wasn’t that bad, and it cleared up in two weeks.”
— ““!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”“: “Just look at my exclamation marks. You’ll know what I mean. This stuff is amazing!”
— ““Took a chance with low expectations, but the results were unbelievable. Check out the photos!”“
— ““Bought it during a livestream! After seeing how well it worked for the presenter, I decided to get two bottles myself. It’s effective, but I’m getting married next month and worry it won’t clear up in time. I want to visit Dr. Smith in person. I’ve already found the clinic’s address and decided to go.”
““Customer Service Reply”“: “Dear customer, if you have local relatives, we recommend asking them to help queue for you, as Dr. Smith’s clinic is very busy. My relatives have been queuing for five days without getting a number.”
““Customer Reply”“: “That popular?!”
““Customer Service Reply”“: “Yes, you’ll see when you visit. Dr. Smith is like a miracle worker!”
— ““Works great! Sharing photos. A million thumbs up! I’ve already posted my buyer’s review on Reddit to give the seller some free advertising.”““
— ““It really works! I shared my results in my friend circle, and now all my friends want to buy it. So many people around me have acne.”““
All positive reviews!
This was within Sophia’s expectations. She had initially planned to check for any negative feedback to see how customers felt and improve her formula accordingly. To her surprise, all the reviews were overwhelmingly positive.
With so many glowing reviews, high customer ratings, and booming sales, coupled with continuous livestreaming by beauty consultants from the Chloe Beauty Salon, the shop’s products were selling incredibly well. Livestreams ran from morning until late at night, with products flying off the shelves every minute. In just a few days, this previously unknown store had achieved total sales exceeding 50,000 orders.
At this moment, a user named ““@Beautylover”“ posted a thread on the Beauty section of Beauty Forum:
“Has anyone noticed that Facetalk store selling acne cream? It’s been aggressively promoted as a miracle cure that clears acne instantly. I bought a bottle today, and guess what? It ruined my face!”
— ““Are you talking about the store run by Chloe Beauty? It’s been pretty popular recently, always on the livestream homepage.”““
— ““How does one get featured on the livestream homepage?”“
““Reply”“: “Apparently, it requires long streaming hours, high conversion rates, and good engagement. Not sure about the details, though.”
— ““That miraculous? medicine practitioners are incredible—they don’t even need a script to exaggerate their claims.”““
— ““If this truly is a miracle cure, it should win a Nobel Prize. Why bother opening a Facetalk store?”““
— ““It’s traditional medicine? TM is just pseudoscience. A lifelong skeptic here—TM has no real effect, just a placebo.”““
Soon after, ““@Beautylover”“ posted photos. In the first picture, her skin appeared smooth with only minor acne barely noticeable. In the second, her face had become horrifyingly disfigured—red, swollen, and festering with pus, her entire complexion looking as if it were rotting away. The sight was shocking.
— ““Oh my god! That’s awful! Was it really caused by that cream?”““
““Beautylover”“: “Yes, it was the herbal cream! My face is ruined. What do I do now?”
At first, the post didn’t stir much commotion—after all, Beauty Forum had hundreds of similar posts daily. But somehow, this thread was suddenly pinned and recommended, drawing countless clicks. The horrifying before-and-after photos attracted widespread attention, and a flood of insults began pouring in, all targeting the Facetalk store and harshly criticizing medicine formulations.
—
Some even went as far as to claim that all traditional medicine products were uncertified and unregulated.
