The Power of Marketing

Before Chen managed to respond, Sai continued:

"I come from a nation in the far west that you probably don't know. But that nation is far more developed than Liyue, nay, it's even more developed than Snezhnaya! You know Snezhnaya, right?"

"Y-yeah."

"Have you heard of its newest invention, the camera?"

"Kamera?"

"Yes! It's a magical artifact that allows one to engrave a moment in time into a sheet of paper just like a painting!"

The merchant was shocked.

"You just need to press a button and then 'snap!' the paper comes out with the exact scene in front of the camera." Sai snapped his fingers and gestured to the urban scene in front of them.

"Wow…" Chen was enthralled by the marvellous creation.

"And let me tell you a secret…" Sai got closer to him.

"Uhum?"

"It doesn't even need magic." He almost whispered.

"Impossible! How can such an incredible thing exist!?" Chen shouted.

"It's true! It's true! I've seen its design myself! It uses a series of complex mechanics to capture the light and 'blast' it against a special type of paper so that it engraves…" Sai held back his exhaustion and explained in some simple terms the general workings of a camera.

He continued: "So far, Snezhnaya only managed to build cameras that engrave scenes in black and white. But in my nation, the scenes are engraved in full, precise colour, much better than the older versions."

Chen was awed by all that. Luckily for Sai, the 'kamera' had yet to be brought to Liyue, so it was a perfect setting for him. Once Chen heard of it, he would undoubtedly trust him more. Or maybe the poor guy just hadn't heard of it. Either way, it worked out great for a long-term partnership.

"Look, I just fought with an… earth dragon… and I'm very tired. I just need some water, vegetables or something to eat and a place to sleep. Once I wake up I'll definitely help you become one of the leading people of Liyue!" Sai grabbed the guy's shoulders.

"Err…" The merchant was still hesitating as he looked left and right for a way to escape.

"I, Sai, will definitely remember this favor for the rest of my life!" Sai was almost begging at this point.

"Alright, alright." Chen sighed. "I trust you. Follow me."

The rest of the night was quickly forgotten by Sai.

…

When Sai woke up it was already past noon. His belly rumbled as he stood up from the dirty carpet on the wooden floor.

The merchant had taken him quite a long way from downtown Liyue, all the way into the huge harbour. Needless to say, it was much larger than the game's.

Looking around the small cabin, Sai figured out that he was alone, at least for the time being. Nonetheless, he refused to just leave like that, so he simply had an old apple and some sips of water and lied back down.

From the looks of the place, he deduced that Chen sold trinkets and odds, whatever thing he thought could catch an eye. But it was clear that he wasn't doing too well, given the poor area and the old hut he lived in.

Not too long after he faded off to sleep, Sai heard the door creaking.

"You're back."

Chen stopped at the entrance, at most a couple meters away from him, and looked surprised for a second.

"You are still here?"

"?? What do you mean?"

Seeing no response from the merchant, Sai added:

"I told you I would help you get rich, right?"

"I guess you did…"

Chen then closed the door behind him and put down a crate.

"Were you selling your wares again?"

"Ah, no, no. Just a little chore I had to do."

Chen didn't know what to do about this situation and Sai felt super awkward just sitting there on the carpet. The latter struggled but slowly stoop up straight and faced the dazed man.

"Are you going to work later, then?"

"Ah, no. I will just take the day off."

"Huh... okay…"

Sai shrugged his worries and fear off and got to the point:

"Before I try to help you, I need to know everything there is to know about your market. Competitors, customers, financial trends, inflation, fares, interest rates… everything. After I get to know it well enough I am confident I can give you a business model that will make you a great merchant." Sai was fairly confident in his modern knowledge of commerce.

"Uh… I sell mostly accessories for clothing, and uh… gems… and cloths, metals and jades."

"…"

"…"

"And who is your supplier?"

"A caravan from Snezhnaya. The 'Sapphire Merchants', they call it."

"Okay, I see… How often do you buy from them?"

"They come once a week, so I usually just buy every time they come."

"Once a week, huh?"

Sai asked several more questions after that, to which many Chen couldn't answer. Sai had to explain another bunch of commercial terms, and the merchant tried hard to keep up. Eventually, hours later, Sai felt he had understood enough.

"Okay, that's enough for now. I believe we can go with what I had thought previously."

After the long conversation, Chen became more and more trusting of Sai's capabilities as a businessman, while Sai noticed more and more that Chen was very uneducated. However, he wasn't stupid. Despite not knowing the value of the information he was giving, Chen managed to quickly understand several of the terms Sai had brought up during the discussion.

"And that is?!" Chen excitedly asked.

"Do you know the power of marketing?"