The space merchants’ reply made both Ren Tao and Xiao Niao smirk. Even Yao Yuan realized that the merchants must have cheated during their previous conversation. There must be something valuable in the list mankind had provided that was given a low value. This latest response was probably the only honest thing the space merchants had said.
However, this knowledge calmed Yao Yuan. Profit is profit, no matter whether it was for primitive or advanced civilizations, in space or on Earth, profit was a yardstick that was clear and universal.
Trade between two parties was possible only because there was profit involved. Now that the space merchants had shown interest in some of the minerals available on the Hope [1], the next course of action would be to find out what it was, to identify the leverage so to speak.
[1] No idea where this sudden leap in plot comes from. The author didn’t mention anything about the space merchants eyeing the minerals on the Hope before this. But for the sake of plot, let’s just assume that did happen.