Liu Xing's Suggestion: Barter

One o'clock in the afternoon.

Lunch was over, and Lin Yuan was sorting stock in the shop.

As he worked, he thought about how to develop the pet food shop.

Zilan's [Spirit Dew] had served as a brick tossed out to draw jade. If it brought more customers through the door, some would surely pick up other things while they were there.

But apart from [Spirit Dew], the shop's next most valuable product was [Purple Star Vine], which did not even have a grade.

Its price was ordinary. Over time, that would squander the extra business [Spirit Dew] brought in.

The pet food shop should soon be upgraded to a two-star pet food shop.

When that happened, he would have to rebuild its product lineup.

Lin Yuan had always put a lot of thought into the shop. It was the fruit of more than a decade of his parents' hard work.

That little pet food shop was also the warm home he had grown up in.

Expansion, new products, even the purchase of new pet beasts to help run the business—these plans were taking shape in his mind, one by one.

Just then, a somewhat familiar voice sounded behind him.

"Lin Yuan? What are you doing here?"

Lin Yuan turned. It was Liu Xing, still wearing his gold-rimmed glasses and a T-shirt printed with four pet beasts.

One was Zizi the [Illusion Dream Butterfly], front and center.

Of the other three, one was Jinjin the [Mist-Hiding Spider]. The remaining two were probably Liu Xing's contracted pet beasts. All three were printed a little smaller than Zizi.

Thinking of all the messages Liu Xing had sent over the past two days, and how he had probably come to buy [Spirit Dew] for Zizi, a lyric suddenly came to Lin Yuan's mind: what you couldn't have would always stir your heart; what you favored never feared a thing.

Liu Xing was careless, but he was no fool.

Before Lin Yuan could answer, he had more or less guessed the truth.

"Well, you little rascal. This pet food shop belongs to your family, doesn't it?" He glanced at the sign, then at Lin Yuan's work apron. "Then why did you message me 'hope you get good news' yesterday, with an excited emoji?"

"I was wondering how a kid as steady as a middle-aged man had suddenly started sending cute emojis."

Lin Yuan smiled. "You've been troubled by love lately. I thought I'd lighten the mood."

Liu Xing put a hand to his forehead. "Don't mock me. Everything I've done was for study and research! As a Two-Star Beast Breeder, it's my duty!"

"All right, enough banter. Since the [Spirit Dew] is yours, I won't bother with all those sales pitches I prepared. Let's get straight to the point."

"Sure, Liu Xing. Let's talk upstairs," Lin Yuan said.

Normally, he would never invite a customer upstairs. It was a private space. But although he had known Liu Xing for only two days, Lin Yuan had already come to trust his character.

In the second-floor sitting room.

"The [Purple Star Vine] you have here is growing beautifully," Liu Xing said with a smile. "I'll buy some to plant in Zizi's home. She should like it—everything's purple."

Realizing he had wandered off topic, Liu Xing quickly turned serious. "Lin Yuan, you know why I'm here today. But now that I know the [Spirit Dew] is yours, I want to give you some sincere advice."

"Go ahead," Lin Yuan said, listening quietly.

"I carefully analyzed this product yesterday against the three points that Four-Star Researcher described. Among Transcendent products, it stands in a class of its own."

"If you only consider recovery and healing, there are some competing Low-Grade Commander products."

"But add in its ability to gradually clear up certain lingering ailments, and that's an effect you generally only see in rare High-Grade Commander products."

"Of course, [Spirit Dew] is still a Transcendent-grade product at heart, so it can't match those products in sheer effectiveness."

"What makes it unique is that it combines all three effects in one."

"The Pet Beast Alliance's official appraisal sets price limits. A Transcendent-grade product can't be sold above a certain Alliance Coin price. I'd guess yours is already the most expensive Transcendent-grade product on the market—the first of its kind."

"Which means its value is definitely greater than its price."

Lin Yuan listened closely. Part of Liu Xing's reasoning matched what he himself had considered yesterday.

Liu Xing continued, "Products like this have another natural advantage: higher output."

"It makes sense that lower-grade products are easier to produce than higher-grade ones. Even if [Spirit Dew] has competitors, those products cost more and are harder to find. Doesn't that make [Spirit Dew] even more valuable?"

"A product's price has never reflected only the product itself. It also reflects market demand and how distinctive the product is."

"And your [Spirit Dew] tastes good, too. Both people and pet beasts can drink it, and it's especially irresistible to insect- and plant-type pet beasts."

"I bet some merchants have already approached you. Tell me what you're thinking." As Liu Xing spoke, he seemed to forget that he had come to buy [Spirit Dew] himself.

He had shifted entirely to Lin Yuan's side, helping him see things from a merchant's perspective.

Following Liu Xing's train of thought, Lin Yuan laid out the ideas he had organized that day:

"My family can only produce a limited amount of [Spirit Dew] each day. I have a few plans for it."

"First, I'll keep selling fixed quantities of [Spirit Dew] at set times through my Online Shop, at the price set by the Pet Beast Alliance. That'll help me reach the market and let more people know that Yuanming Pet Food Shop has a good product."

"Second, I'll keep some for myself. After all, it's very useful for a Novice Beast Tamer like me when raising pet beasts."

"Third, I do plan to work with merchants, but I don't want to be just a supplier. I want to use their broader platforms to get the name of [Spirit Dew] out there."

"And merchants will only be allowed to sell products made by further processing [Spirit Dew]. The raw [Spirit Dew] itself will be sold exclusively by my pet food shop."

"Finally, keeping stock on hand matters, too. I can sell it to customers who come in person, like you, Liu Xing, or to people with a particularly strong need for it."

"Like you said, demand can sometimes bring returns beyond what the product itself is worth."

Liu Xing was stunned for a moment by how orderly and logical Lin Yuan's thinking was. He would never have considered things so thoroughly himself.

"Lin Yuan, you'd better stop calling me your senior..." He scratched his head. "Next to you, I feel like a little kid who's never seen the world. When you call me that, it sounds like you're making fun of me."

"I've felt that way since the day before yesterday."

"From now on, let's just call each other by name, as brothers."

"Your reasoning is sound. If you want to grow your family's shop, exclusive rights are a label you absolutely need to establish."

"You can work out the details of any partnership with other shops. But my Lineage isn't in business—we're Beast Breeders—so I can't give you much detailed advice off the top of my head."

"If you need it, I can find someone from my Lineage who knows more about business to give you better advice."

"But there's one more thing you've overlooked."

Liu Xing paused, deliberately keeping him in suspense.

"Money is the foundation we Beast Tamers and Beast Breeders need, but our pet beasts and we ourselves are the core of the tower that is our strength."

"And the precious materials, tools, instruments, techniques, and equipment we buy with money form its framework."

"There are plenty of rich people in this world, but plenty of things money can't buy, too."

"With a material like yours, you can sell it outright when you're short on cash."

"But if you're not short on cash, the best approach is to barter."

At that, Lin Yuan's eyes lit up.

Was he short on money? He certainly still was.

But he could afford to look further ahead.

Money might hold him back for a while, but it would not be a problem forever.

The truly valuable things were the ones money could not buy—the ones he could only get in exchange.

"I'd already done the math. I was going to offer you double for the [Spirit Dew]: sixty thousand Alliance Coins for ten drops. I'd even pay eighty thousand."

"But you're a good friend, and we were fated to meet."

"I just had an idea. There's something good I could offer you."

"Something that can let a plant-type pet beast produce more of its product without harming it."

With that, he took out a gem-shaped stone glowing with pure green light. Its soft radiance was beautiful.

A surge of life force washed over Lin Yuan.

Liu Xing wanted to trade something this precious for [Spirit Dew]?