Chapter 1517: A Boat of Tea Leaves

"Is that true? What if you encounter a rainstorm or dark clouds? With no sun, and the stars and moon invisible, what do you rely on to distinguish direction? In a dense forest, can you really tell the direction clearly?"

"Xuanyuan, I believe that someone like you, who often has to roam the wilderness, must have had the experience of losing your way. But with this, you won't have to fear anything. Whether it is day or night, whether it is windy or raining, with it, you will not lose your way."

Xuanyuan remained unmoved: "But there is only one of it, so which person should I give it to? It is not as if I will encounter such a situation every time. And even if I do, finding a place to hide for a few days until I can see the sun again before moving on is also possible. Why should I spend a Boat of Tea Leaves to trade for it? It is completely unreasonable."

"Others can hide for a few days, even if they die, it doesn't matter. But you are different, Xuanyuan. If you cannot find your direction, how much time might be delayed? If you have something important to do, will it be delayed?"

"For example, war. You have seen Fengbo and Yushi. What if they blow wind and rain during a war to make you lose your way? This is the best, most suitable thing."

"As a Tribal Chief, your life and time are far more precious than those of other ordinary tribesmen. Therefore, you should use this kind of thing to ensure that your direction is always in your own hands."

What Baifeng said was very reasonable and truly tempted Xuanyuan. His life was indeed important, and this thing might come in handy at some most critical, most special juncture. But thinking of Baifeng's nature, such an important thing might be everywhere in Huaxia; otherwise, how could he be willing to trade it to him?

Like the Telescope, there were many people in all of Huaxia who possessed one, but not a single one was traded to the Xuanyuan Tribe. Every time they cooperated, they would give them usage rights for a while, but would not gift it to Xuanyuan. Xuanyuan had tried hinting and asking directly, but could not get one.

Because Baifeng knew that the technical difficulty of the Telescope was not high. As long as Xuanyuan took it back and dismantled it, he would know what kind of structure was inside, and then he could naturally imitate it.

They did not have Glass, but White Crystal existed too much and too widely in Nature. Pure, sufficiently transparent White Crystal was not a very rare thing. As long as one found it and polished it, one could make a new Telescope. The most important thing was that this Phylum of technology could not be mastered by the Xuanyuan Tribe.

Even the hardness of White Crystal was slightly higher than Glass. The Telescope lenses currently produced by Huaxia had a relatively short actual lifespan because they lacked coatings. Long-term use, exposure to wind and sun, and wiping with hands caused them to become increasingly dirty, and they also had scratches, basically needing replacement every year.

Moreover, current sealing technology was also equivalent to non-existent. As long as there was rain, fog, or humidity, mold and fogging would soon appear. Even later-generation SLR lenses found it difficult to avoid this situation. Once mold or fog appeared, unless one hired someone to dismantle and clean it—and it might not be cleaned thoroughly because the mycelium would erode the coating layer—the lens would eventually be completely ruined. A lens worth tens of thousands might only be worth a few hundred. This was the case even with the support of high technology, let alone the crude structure of this era.

Huaxia's high-quality Telescope lenses were still ground from White Crystal; after all, it was more durable. Plus, when White Crystal formed in Nature, the air bubbles inside were even fewer than in Glass, making it more transparent and pure.

Baifeng himself also had White Crystal glasses. They used tea-colored crystal, not White Crystal. After grinding, he used a Copper-Gold Alloy to make the frames. The entire rimless pair of glasses was very cool and eye-protecting when going out in the summer sun.

They were flat lenses with no prescription. People in this era had excellent eyesight; those with bad eyes had been eliminated by Nature. Baifeng naturally inherited the good eyesight of this body and did not need nearsighted glasses. Whether he would get presbyopia later was hard to say.

These Sunglasses were good in every way, but the disadvantage was that they were too heavy. Wearing them pressed on the nose and ears, so they could not be worn for a long time and could only be used for short trips under the hot sun.

Now it had also become one of Baifeng's personal items. This year he was going to command a war, so marching under the scorching sun was inevitable. Sunglasses naturally had great use, and they were very stylish. Perhaps he could open up another market in the Xuanyuan Tribe; the Huaxia market could not sell them for a high price.

After all, Huaxia had no concept of copyright, and Baifeng would not restrict ordinary people from imitating and producing them. So, things like this with no technical difficulty were easily popularized in Huaxia. It was just that finding suitable, tea-colored White Crystal with few impurities was relatively difficult.

Regarding something like a compass, Xuanyuan felt that everyone in Huaxia must have one. Now he was specifically trying to swindle him: "I'm afraid this thing is everywhere in your Huaxia, a very cheap thing. Now you want a Boat of Tea Leaves from me; this is probably not right, Baifeng?"

Baifeng did not feel embarrassed at all: "It's not to the point of everyone having one, but there is certainly no shortage in Huaxia. After all, it is such an important and useful thing, so I naturally have to equip my own people with more, right?"

"This is the first one for your Xuanyuan Tribe, so it is naturally a bit more expensive. Later, when we in Huaxia have a surplus, perhaps it will be a bit cheaper for you, but exactly how many years later that will be, is not certain."

"Think about it, do you want it or not? I will not lower the price of a Boat of Tea Leaves. However, I don't necessarily insist on Spring Tea; Summer Tea or Autumn Tea is also fine. As long as it is one Boat, that's enough."

This price made Xuanyuan feel a bit easier to accept. Because of quality reasons, the price of Spring Tea was more than ten times higher than Summer or Autumn Tea. The quality of Summer and Autumn Tea was very poor; when sent to Huaxia, it could only be drunk by the lowest-level people after processing—the kind of tea leaves boiled in a big pot after working every day and drunk after cooling down.

Anyone who could snatch Spring Tea or afford to buy Spring Tea was unwilling to drink Summer or Autumn Tea. In any case, one had to have a little bit of Spring Tea at home to save face; drinking Summer or Autumn Tea while working was fine.

Summer and Autumn Tea were cheap, but a Boat was not a small amount. Xuanyuan did not change a single word of this price, but pointed to his own small Boat and said: "A Boat of Tea Leaves, fine, but it can only be a Boat of Tea Leaves of that size, and it can only be Summer Tea or Autumn Tea."

Baifeng took a look; that small Boat could only hold five or six hundred catties of Tea Leaves. But this little thing had almost no value, so trading it for that much Tea Leaves was fine. So he agreed to Xuanyuan: "Fine, a trade is a trade. Now it is yours."