Chapter 596: Morality

All the Tea Leaves were arranged and displayed according to their varying quality. Xuanyuan took them to his side, then looked at them together with the others from the Xuanyuan Tribe. Chou explained from the side: "Tea Leaves appear in these few different qualities based on the difference in raw material quality, as well as the difficulty of production and the different techniques. The kind everyone is drinking now is the best we currently have in Huaxia. Just from the amount of Tea Leaves we brought back last time from your Xuanyuan Tribe's own Suiren clan, the scented tea made from it wasn't enough to go around for the people in this room."

"It is not that we do not want to make it well, but the conditions do not allow it. Therefore, this kind of scented tea has a very high value. As for the worst kind of tea, even the poorest people in Huaxia can afford to drink it, but because the tea trade with your two tribes has been cut off for a year, many people have not been able to exchange for tea now."

Xuanyuan picked up a piece of the worst tea and asked: "Then for tea like this, how many tender leaves do you think it is worth?"

Chou lowered his head and calculated silently, then said: "I think the cost alone would be six jin of tea leaves. If we want to earn a little more, it would have to be eight or nine jin."

Changxian felt Huaxia was too much of a rip-off and blurted out: "Eight or nine jin of tender leaves for one jin of dried leaves, tsk tsk."

Chou was not angry; after all, everyone has their own work. They did not understand the production of tea leaves, so naturally, they would think this price was outrageous. He explained again: "One jin of tea leaves requires five jin of tender leaves to be made, not to mention the trouble during production, the expenses of our travel back and forth, and the grain needed to exchange for the tea leaves. Therefore, I think this price is already low enough."

Changxian was stunned by Chou's words, but after thinking about it carefully, it was indeed as Chou said; just the loss from turning tender leaves into dried leaves was very significant. So he shut his mouth and stopped talking.

Everyone from the Xuanyuan Tribe had seen the differences in the tea leaves, and they could indeed see the difference in quality through comparison. The one they were drinking now was truly the best.

Xuanyuan asked Baifeng again: "We can plant Tea Trees and then trade with you every time after harvesting, but how can you guarantee that you will always trade with us without interruption? If you say you will stop and then just stop, wouldn't we have wasted our time and wasted our land?"

Baifeng knew there was a glimmer of hope for this matter. As long as it was negotiated, Huaxia would be able to have a stable source of tea leaves, and the output would be greater than before.

"First of all, you can see that we in Huaxia really need tea leaves. Although we can get by without them, we certainly want them if they can be obtained. Therefore, as long as your Xuanyuan Tribe does not use tea leaves to threaten us and does not raise prices at will, we will naturally conduct trade stably."

Xuanyuan was still somewhat hesitant, still thinking about the pros and cons, while everyone from the Xuanyuan Tribe was talking and communicating with each other, discussing the feasibility of this matter.

Through the fragmented sentences, Baifeng could judge that the majority agreed, because this trade had no downsides for them, only benefits. Plus, as Baifeng said, the Xuanyuan Tribe had enough mountainous land that could not grow grain and could not be lived on; planting some Tea Trees would be perfectly fine.

The only thing they worried about was that Huaxia would not keep its word, causing them to waste time and land for nothing.

Neither Xuanyuan nor Baifeng believed in oaths. This thing used to be useful, but now, because it had been broken too many times, it could no longer be trusted.

However, Baifeng was willing to bring out another useful thing, which was a contract. Written on paper, there was always proof. By binding it with morality, although there were no legal sanctions, it was one more piece of evidence than empty words. You could refuse to admit you had sworn an oath, but once a contract was signed, you could only burn your own copy.

Baifeng interrupted their discussion at the right moment: "Xuanyuan, we can sign a contract, just like the ones we signed when we traded before. However, this time we must sign for a longer term to agree on future matters."

Xuanyuan was somewhat dismissive: "Don't you not believe in things like oaths?"

Baifeng shook his head: "No, I indeed do not believe in oaths, but this is a contract. What restricts the execution of a contract is not the punishment of gods, but people themselves—it is human morality. Only when people break away from savagery does something like morality emerge."

Xuanyuan was puzzled: "What is 'morality'? And what does it have to do with the 'Great Dao'?"

Zhishou was also staring fixedly at Baifeng.

Baifeng was also thinking about how to explain this term. After thinking for a while, he said: "Morality is a kind of restriction that the Great Dao imposes on the human race. There is no punishment, but it must be observed because people have broken away from the restrictions of the wilderness. People are not monkeys. From the moment people put on clothes and covered their lower bodies with Grass, morality had already appeared. People need mutual trust. Without mutual trust, even people living in the same tribe are the same as two wild beasts meeting in the wild."

Baifeng turned his gaze to Count Qibo: "For example, when you met Qibo at the Qi River Tribe, you made him a promise, whether it was giving him status or wealth. But in reality, at first, Qibo received nothing, and you could even take it back at any time now, but you did not. Why wouldn't you? Because 'morality' is restricting you. I ask you, if you were to take back everything you gave Qibo now for no reason, would you be willing to?"

Xuanyuan thought for a moment, pointed to his own heart with great confusion, and said: "I feel I cannot do it, because as soon as I think about this matter, I feel very flustered here. Is this, morality?"

Baifeng smiled and nodded: "That's right, this is morality. In fact, you will not receive any punishment from Heaven for not following morality; the punishment you receive comes from people. First, you yourself will feel uneasy in your heart. This uneasiness will follow you because of your previous moral level, not knowing when it will disappear. Moreover, it will also make you lose everyone's trust. Wherever you are known, you will be unable to move an inch and will be unable to do anything, because others will think you are a person who lacks morality and is not worthy of trust."

"Do you know? In our Huaxia, precisely because of the constraints of morality, theft and robbery almost never happen, because once they appear, the person who violates morality will feel that they are like a beast in Huaxia, not living like a human being."

Xuanyuan was still somewhat puzzled: "Then since morality exists, why do many people not know about morality, nor will they follow it, and even less will they feel uneasy because they did not follow it? And why do immoral things happen in your Huaxia?"

Baifeng's tone turned stern: "Morality, as long as you know what morality is, it will exist. Not knowing, on the contrary, is nothing. Knowing morality and following morality is to be a true human. Like you, you possess morality, you just don't know its name. Some people know morality but do not have it, because the amount of morality everyone possesses is different. For those who have little or no morality, they need 'law' to restrict them."