The reason Mei Mengzhen agreed to give out incense as gifts was pretty simple: incense belonged to the category that could be produced endlessly, so she didn't need to worry about running out after giving it away for a while. Plus, they hadn't set the incense price particularly high—not that "not particularly high" means cheap, it just means cheap compared to Xiyuan's usual prices. Compare it to incense outside, and theirs is still a lot more expensive.
Most importantly, perfume and incense were new products, and hadn't officially gone on sale yet. Giving them as gifts served as promotion, so handing out these two items was actually a pretty cost-effective trade.
Once the free gifts were settled, it was truly Mei Mengzhen and Fan Tianyu running around non-stop, finally getting the incense delivered to New Xiyuan before opening day.
Anyway, that's beside the point.
