Senior Colonel Chu quieted down very quickly. After the two of them chatted for a while, he typed another line of words.
"Tell her that you have a friend who also wants a projection touch watch. Ask her if she can buy it!"
"Sister Xia, this watch of yours is so useful. It's much better than our phones," Liu Ning said with a smile.
"I have a few close friends that got very jealous of me. They all wanted to snatch my watch…"
"Do you have any extra watches? If possible, I want to buy some for my friend…"
"Buy a watch?"
Zhang Yi Xia hesitated.
"If you can't, then forget it…"
"Um, uh…" Zhang Yi Xia gritted her teeth, "Ning-Ning, I'll go ask the supervisor. If it's okay, I'll contact you again!"
"Alright, then I'll have to trouble you, Sister Xia!"
The call ended and the projection disappeared.
Everyone heaved a sigh of relief.
This was the first time they had seen an alien.
"It's so magical. The aliens look exactly like us!"
"Didn't Captain Zhang Tao and the others talk about this before?!"
"That's different. Hearing about it and seeing it with your own eyes are two different things…"
"Yeah. Hey listen, this alien actually speaks Chinese!"
While everyone was discussing, Chief Engineer Yang and Senior Colonel Chu walked into the quiet room.
"It seems like you guessed right. The aliens want to trade with us!"
"Yes, I just don't know what they want…"
Senior Colonel Chu wanted an answer. If the aliens really damaged the spaceship, they would definitely want some resources to repair it.
..
At the moon base.
Just like how Liu Ning had a circle of people standing behind her, Zhao Yu and the others also stood behind Zhang Yi Xia. However, while Liu Ning could only see Zhang Yi Xia on the screen, Zhao Yu could see Liu Ning and everyone around her. And no, Zhao Yu still hadn't made an appearance to Earth yet.
Naturally, Zhao Yu saw Colonel Chu with his tablet. He saw him typing with it, and he could tell that the man was a very important figure. Truth be told, this was the first time he had met a government official of Great Xia.
"Uncle Da, have you connected to Earth's network?"
"I'm connected. Earth's network security technology is not very advanced. We've managed to hack it without being found. We now have access to every region except those without the internet…"
"Very good. Upload everything to the database…"
Zhao Yu nodded and turned to Zhang Yi Xia. "Get it? Business first, then friendship. Do you understand?…"
"I know, sir!" Zhang Yi Xia said with a smile. Seeing that she understood, Zhao Yu didn't bother to say too much.
For the next half a day, both sides waited.
The people on Earth were a lot more anxious than Zhao Yu and his androids. The think tank members of the Earth United Defense Agency, which had been merged by the four major countries, were constantly analysing the situation. Even after drawing out all the possible scenarios, the higher-ups could not help but to worry that the trade wasn't happening.
Finally, when night fell, Zhang Yi Xia called Liu Ning again.
"Ning Ning, after I hung up the phone, I went to look for my supervisors immediately. He didn't have the authority to give out more touch watches, so I went to ask his superiors instead. I kept asking and asking, and just then, I got a response!"
Right now, Liu Ning was no longer surrounded by colleagues from the Great Xia Space Agency, but members of the Earth Joint Defense Agency. It was a different base that she was in now.
Everyone stared at Zhang Yi Xia, waiting for her next words.
"Sister Xia, what's the result?"
While waiting, many negotiation and body language experts had analysed the possible conversation that might happen next and informed Liu Ning of all the countermeasures in advance.
A smile appeared on Zhang Yi Xia's face. "The higher-ups have agreed. They've decided to give your Earth friends another batch of watches…"
"How many?"
"That depends on how many friends you have!"
Liu Ning counted with she fingers, counting all of her aunts one by one. In order to make up the numbers, she even made up fake people.
After counting, she said nervously, "Eighty-seven watches. Sister Xia, am I asking for too much?! "
"It's fine. It's just a watch…" Zhang Yi Xia's tone changed, and she said with a troubled expression,"We can give them away, but we don't have any plans to visit Earth in the short term..."
Senior Colonel Chu quickly took out his tablet and typed a line of words.
"What a coincidence. We of planet Earth happen to have plans to go to the Moon. We can ask a friend to help us bring some along…"
Liu Ning paused for a moment and then said,"In addition, our leader also wants to give out some presents from Earth…"
"Your leader?! " Zhang Yi Xia hesitated, "Are you representing Earth?"
"Uhh, right!"
Liu Ning was a little uneasy. He had already messed up his routine and did not follow the body language expert's teaching. Besides, she already felt guilty for taking advantage of Zhang Yi Xia's feelings.
Senior Colonel Chu sighed. He had not expected this. The aliens were a lot smarter than they had imagined. For one, he didn't believe that Zhang Yi Xia was just socialising with Liu Ning. She must've had instructions from her superiors or boss, whoever they might be.
As it turned out, the aliens had the upper hands in this little exchange that they were having.
Right before he was about to lose focus, Senior Colonel Chu returned to his senses. He continued monitoring the conversation.
The rest of the conversation continued in a direction that the humans had expected. Zhang Yi Xia said that she couldn't represent the base, so she had to ask her superiors.
The call was hung up and picked up half an hour later. This time, beside Zhang Yi Xia, there was another person. It was Ba Jie. As for Liu Ning, she had Senior Colonel Chu come out when it was appropriate to do so. With their superiors next to them, the two tried to keep up the act as best they could.
The two representatives began to negotiate the terms of the deal.
After ten minutes of negotiation, the deal came to an end. In the end, Earth ended up having to make a lot of compromises.
After all, while the aliens had all the time it needed to accumulate resources that it lacked, the Earthlings couldn't really wait to obtain more higher-end technology. The aliens were believed to have planned on leaving the Moon after they fixed their spaceship, and that would take a few decades. If they decided to not trade with Earth at all, Earth would gain nothing in the end.
After the negotiation, it was decided that two batches of goods would be exchanged. The Earthlings also promised to have the aliens come to Earth one time for an inspection of their manufacturing industry.
For the first exchange, 10,000 watches were traded for rare earth and rare metal resources.
The second time, 100,000 watches were traded for more resources.
The third time, the aliens would send a representative to Earth to inspect the construction of the global production line.
Also, it was agreed that all the Earth's currency earned by the Moon aliens could be exchanged for resources from the world's major countries at a price 10% lower than the market price. This was a very big compromise made on the Earthling's side. It really showed how much they wanted to trade with the Moon.
For Zhao Yu, he was pretty happy with what he got. The resources obtained from the first batch of 10,000 watches, alone, were enough for him to build ten star destroyer cannons.
Meanwhile, as the world was still reporting the deeds of the three space heroes, the major countries had already launched four rockets loaded with resources and flew towards the Moon.