The deputy minister glared at Lu Chengwen and had him sit back down.
Lu Chengwen sat back down.
The deputy minister continued explaining, "That isn't an ordinary herb. It's a medicinal herb with extremely demanding growing conditions. Its yield is already low, and its regrowth cycle..."
"Mr. Deputy Minister." The President cut him off. "Aren't you just hung up on that one herb? You can bring seeds and grow it in our Tianzhu. Then once it grows, you can sell it back to yourselves cheaply."
The deputy minister looked at him. "Mr. President, that herb has extremely demanding environmental requirements!"
He stressed again, "It can't grow in Tianzhu."
A senior Tianzhu official snapped, "How dare you speak to our President like that!? What do you mean!? Oh, so that herb can grow in Huaxia but not in Tianzhu!? Are you saying Huaxia is better and more powerful than Tianzhu? Believe it or not, our army can march over there, flatten Huaxia, and dig up every last herb to make medicine!"
The deputy minister immediately widened his eyes. "What did you say? Say that again? Were you even using your brain when you said that?"
The official was about to continue, but the President stopped him.
The President began smoothing things over, smiling as he said, "We're here to discuss business. Don't make it personal. My colleagues have researched this. Your packaging claims this medicine uses more than thirty herbs, along with some extracted chemical components and some rather simple pharmaceutical procedures!"
"How about this? We remove the two most expensive herbs and increase the amounts of the others. That should lower the cost, right?"
The deputy minister said, "Mr. President, you may not know much about traditional Chinese medicine. The two most expensive herbs you mentioned are the core of