Unlike before, what the other party had sent Li Yaqi was a holographic video-conference room.
A holographic video conference was much like the meetings she convened herself; one could see the other party's holographic image, so that even across several star systems the exchange flowed freely.
Only, this manner of exchange ran up a rather steep per-minute comm fee.
But Li Yaqi didn't care; this was the man who, with a few sentences, had brought her 10 million star coins in wealth.
Never mind the comm fee — let the other party send an address, and she'd likely drop her work and scurry over in a heartbeat.
Entering the holographic video-conference room—
—a masked man was already seated across the round table.
By his build, he was nothing like the aged professor or elderly doctor she'd imagined; he looked very young.
"You're the…" Li Yaqi ventured, doubting his identity, so young was he.
"The T1 Wolf-Louse-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer technology has made Miss Li a tidy fortune, I take it. And Miss Li has a fine head for business — you could have priced it higher, yet you chose a low price to open the market fast, and make a name for Northern Goose." Zhao Chen spoke.
Li Yaqi hurried to say, "This is all thanks to your willingness to provide us the ship, sir. By way of gratitude, though the contract we signed was a buyout, we're still willing to pay you a 5% technology fee on every ship!"
It had to be said, Li Yaqi truly knew how to do business.
Seemingly a 5% outlay conjured from nothing — yet it let her forge a tie with the great figure before her; an excellent investment, beyond doubt.
"This time it isn't the T1 Wolf-Louse I've come to discuss. What I want is to open a deep cooperation with you." Zhao Chen folded his hands on the table, looking straight at the Li Yaqi across from him.
Cooperation?
That, of course, was what Li Yaqi longed for.
"Do you have other ship technologies in hand, sir? We're willing to open cooperation with you on that front — in the future we could even invest in your research lab, and provide the finest environment for starship-technology research!" Li Yaqi laid out one fine condition after another.
To her mind, behind this man there ought to be some starship-technology research organization.
If she could win that research organization over, then for the Northern Goose Starship Technology Group it would be, beyond doubt, an enormous boon!
"What you speak of I don't care about. First hear out my cooperation terms. I'll give you several ship technologies. But this time it isn't a buyout — it's a license. On every ship's profit, I take 70%; and I won't concern myself with any detail of production, transport, sales, and the rest — all of that you bear and see to. To put it plainly, I'm to be a hands-off overseer." Zhao Chen laid out his aim first thing.
70% of the profit.
Li Yaqi at once ran the numbers in her heart: giving him 70%, with all other production, manufacture, transport, and the like borne by her, in the end she could still take a point or two of profit.
But as a merchant, Li Yaqi could hardly agree just like that.
"A 70/30 split is a touch high. And besides your providing the technology, everything else is borne by us… should there be a mishap…"
Before Li Yaqi could finish her merchant's patter—
—Zhao Chen cut in outright. "How much profit the T1 Wolf-Louse has brought you, I think you know very well. And the ship technologies I'm about to hand you — I have absolute confidence they'll be no worse than the T1 Wolf-Louse. The terms I've named will not be altered in the least. If Miss Li is unwilling, then our talk can end right here."
Seeing this man so resolute—
—Li Yaqi had, in truth, long since weighed the pros and cons within: she absolutely had to get her hands on the ship technologies this man held!
"Then might I first see this round's cooperation ship-blueprints?" Li Yaqi asked.
"Once the contract's signed, you'll naturally see them," Zhao Chen said.
Li Yaqi was taken aback; this time the other party's bargaining was resolute, leaving her not a single line of retreat.
This too, in fact, was something Zhao Chen had thought through in advance. The T1 Wolf-Louse had let Li Yaqi taste the sweetness; so long as she wasn't a fool, she'd never give up this cooperation.
"There are, besides, some additional conditions on my end. Though what we sign is a license-and-share contract, in the first three months I need an advance of at least 20 million star coins. This 20 million will be offset against the license-share portion afterward," Zhao Chen added.
That 20 million star coins was, of course, for Zhao Chen's three-month build plan.
His T2 Iron-Hammer-class Heavy Interstellar Industrial Ship was still there, mouth agape and hungry; the remaining raw materials were only enough for it to burn through in under half a month!
20 million star coins?
Hearing Zhao Chen's steep demand, Li Yaqi hesitated a moment.
To this point, the direct profit the T1 Wolf-Louse had brought her came to under 5 million star coins.
To scrape together this 20 million would surely require drawing from the parent company.
But given her present prestige, that was likely no great problem.
"My time's limited; I'll give you 10 minutes to consider." Zhao Chen, at the last, simply set a deadline.
Li Yaqi thought less than half a minute before she made her decision.
She fixed her eyes on Zhao Chen. "I agree to all your terms."
Zhao Chen wore a satisfied look. "You're a clever merchant."
With that, Zhao Chen raised a hand, and holographic images of four ships — one large, three small — appeared before Li Yaqi.
"Here are three T1 ships and one T2 ship. The T1 ships are the T1 Grey-Rat-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer, the T1 Swift-Wolf-class Light Interstellar Cruiser, and a T1 Worker-Ant-class Heavy Interstellar Mining Ship. The T2 ship is a T2 Moose-class Heavy Interstellar Transport. Here are their brief descriptions; the detailed ship-blueprints I'll send to your inbox in a while."
These four ships, of course, Zhao Chen had all redeemed from the System.
It had cost, in all, six task points and 260 System points.
System points spent: 260 · Task points spent: 6.
"A T2 interstellar transport!" A look of delighted astonishment came over Li Yaqi's face.
She'd assumed the ship technologies he'd give her would be only the T1 series — never dreaming he'd hand over three T1 ship technologies at once, and a T2 interstellar transport technology besides.
Interstellar transports might be support-type ships, but their market demand was, on the contrary, the highest of all.
For interstellar trade all relied on interstellar transports; an excellent interstellar transport was indispensable — whether for battlefield need, for running a fief, or for the transport work of interstellar trade.
And once Li Yaqi had read through the descriptions of these ships, her eyes blazed; this was, beyond doubt, a business that could not lose!
"Sir…" Li Yaqi had just lifted her head — only to find the seat across from her long since empty.
This time, once again, she never learned the man's name.
But she'd conceived a boundless curiosity about him besides — to bring out so many T1 ship technologies in a row, and a T2 ship technology on top of it.
It seemed that when she had the time, she'd have to go press her brother thoroughly for word of this mysterious man.