"The old man's method of brewing tea is very special. Why haven't I seen you participate in barter transactions before?" Mo Lan looked at the old man and felt that he was very uneasy, cautious, and not very enthusiastic.
Upon hearing Mo Lan's question, the old man hesitated, his grip on his pipe tightening. "I heard there's a trade fair here in Ye County, with many merchants, so our village thought we'd try our luck. The tea trees that grow here are different from others; the new tea doesn't taste good when drunk directly. It needs to be stored for several years before the flavor develops. So selling our tea is very difficult. The tea we're transporting is our village's stock that's been stored for many years. The taste is excellent, but the appearance isn't very appealing."
"To come to participate in the trade fair, our entire village pooled our money and effort, working hard for more than two months to get here. We had never left the mountains before; tea merchants always came in to buy tea, and life in the village was very hard. So we wanted to come and explore the market ourselves."
Mo Lan listened to the old man's explanation and nodded in understanding. "I see. Your tea does look rather plain, but after trying it, the taste is indeed quite good. I'm willing to order a batch. I guarantee the price will be fair. I'll have someone come and find you later."
"Thank you for buying our tea, young lady. Now I can finally give an account to the people in the village."
The old man was probably surprised that Mo Lan was so easy to talk to, and he was very excited, his face wrinkles trembling slightly.
"To be honest, I am the village chief. I led the younger generation out to explore this place, but I was not sure if I could sell anything. If we fail, I will lose all face." Carrying the hopes of the entire village, even if the villagers didn't say anything, he felt ashamed to have failed them.
"No need to thank me, we're just having a fair trade. If sales are good, we can talk about long-term cooperation, and even transportation won't be a problem." Mo Lan smiled. She knew a little about tea farmers these days. Growing and selling tea often depended on the weather, and it was true that they lived a hard life.
As the two walked out of the exchange, Qin Su remained silent. To be honest, he couldn't quite understand Mo Lan's personality. When she was cold, she seemed aloof and unapproachable, as if nothing could catch her eye. But he hadn't expected her to be so enthusiastic with a complete stranger.
He couldn't suppress his doubts any longer, "How can you be sure that what the old man said is true?"
"It was my intuition. Besides, their ultimate goal was to sell tea, which just happened to be what I needed."
Mo Lan raised an eyebrow, feeling a surge of pride in her heart, since she knew the history of the development of border trade tea.
She simply moved the time forward.
Hearing Mo Lan's tone, Qin Su was speechless. Indeed, it was just a fair trade, one willing to buy and the other willing to sell.
"Sister Lan... it really is you! I thought I was seeing things."
With a joyful shout, a tall, unseen man, Qi Yan Kalun, stood before Mo Lan.
"Karen, how did you get through the customs?" Mo Lan looked up at Karen, who was blocking most of the sunlight.
"Haha... I sent a letter to Feng Yu'an a while ago, telling him that I was coming to attend the trade fair in Guannei. Didn't Sister Lan know?"
Karen looked at Mo Lan with surprise, then suddenly realized, "Little Lan, have you been gone for a long time again? Otherwise, how come you didn't know I wrote to Feng Yu'an Da?"
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