Cave Refuge

Although Gordon’s words weren’t exactly pleasant, the way he spoke them in a joking tone, coupled with the smile on his face, somehow made them less offensive.

Seeing Gordon and Franklin starting their usual bickering, Yara felt a bit helpless and could only speak up to stop them, "Stop it, this isn’t the place to talk. Haven’t you noticed that everyone is looking at you as if you’re fools? Follow me, let’s find a quiet place to talk properly."

After saying this, Yara took the lead and left, as if it had become a habit. As soon as Yara walked away, Gordon and Franklin stopped their squabbling and immediately followed behind her. Seeing this, Dong Tianyu and Ye Liuyun also hurried to follow in their footsteps.

It was unclear whether Yara had been there before, but under her lead, they had somehow come to a tea house. Dong Tianyu guessed it was likely in Kyoto since, in Pengcheng, a place like a tea house would have been impossible to sustain unless it catered to the Celestials or the like.

Once they entered a private room, Yara asked Dong Tianyu and Ye Liuyun, "What kind of tea do you prefer?"

Dong Tianyu had the habit of drinking tea before the disaster, but it was always Master’s iced black tea. For Ye Liuyun, tea was just a tool for socializing; although she could spin many conversations around it, the truth was that she was neither a fan nor a hater of tea. To her, it was just a beverage.

"I’ll follow the host’s recommendation!" *2

Hearing them say this, Yara understood what they meant.

Tea is a lot like alcohol; those who like it may favor a particular type, like strong spirits, and they can’t stomach anything else. They have no desire to try.

Conversely, those who are not keen on alcohol don’t mind much about what they drink, be it strong or weak, with a full body or a fragrant scent; it’s all the same to them.

Of course, for the true alcohol lovers, as long as it has an alcohol taste it works. If they can’t find any booze, in a pinch, even diluted medicinal alcohol will do.

It’s the same with tea; unless someone really likes a specific type of tea, when they drink most teas, they can only distinguish between liking and disliking. When invited to drink tea by someone else, they drink a bit more if they like it and slightly less if they don’t.

Yara ordered a pot of black tea, which is typically fully oxidized and unless it had been specially treated with additives, while not everyone may like it, most people don’t mind drinking black tea.

During the interval as they waited for the tea, and since there would soon be another interruption when the server arrived with the tea, they didn’t discuss anything serious, just making small talk.

It was during this small talk that the group gained a preliminary understanding of each other.

In the restaurant, based on each other’s appetites, they had confirmed that they must be Martial Artists, and they were right.

However, except for Ye Liuyun, who was still at the Body Tempering Realm, the other three were at the Inner Breath Realm. Among them, Gordon was very close to the Energy Cultivation phase and probably wouldn’t need long to break through after the conclusion of the exchange meeting.

Dong Tianyu also humbly admitted that he was at the Inner Breath Realm as well. Ye Liuyun knew that Dong Tianyu was hiding his true power, but she wisely chose not to comment further on it.

After the server served the tea and left, they ended the small talk. Yara didn’t hide anything and directly stated the purpose of meeting Dong Tianyu and the others at this time.

The purpose was actually quite simple; first, it was to exchange information and introduce the special products from their respective cities that could be traded. Although currently only Kyoto had transport planes that could fly between other cities.

According to the information provided by Gordon, the number of transport planes would keep increasing. Although private ownership wouldn’t be allowed in the short term, personal postal services would be opened up.

Of course, the shipping cost would not be low, but for the unique and profitable specialties from each city, even expensive freight charges could be passed on to the buyers.

So, finding the right partners could be very profitable. The only problem was the issue of trust.

Unlike before the catastrophe when there were platforms to facilitate guaranteed transactions, according to their idea, there would definitely be a need for one party to initially incur the cost of trust, whether it be the buyer paying first and the seller shipping later, or the seller shipping first and the buyer paying upon delivery.

Also, although satellite communication was now possible, obtaining a satellite phone was very difficult, which meant that communication between the two parties was a big challenge.

If it’s a small-scale trade that both parties can accept, the profit is too low. On the other hand, large-scale trades would mean one party bears too high a trust cost, so it’s difficult to push this idea forward for the time being.

However, at this time, they might as well mention what their cities could offer as specialties, so others would have an idea of what was available, and perhaps in the future or if one party was willing to assume the cost of trust, business could be done.

As for Pengcheng, their natural specialty was nutrient supplements. As for the materials from the strange creatures found in the surrounding counties, those with high value were not stable in production, and those stable in production weren’t greatly valued in trade.