Chapter Eight - Alan And The Four Tea Leaves

"What kind of bullshit costs one point? If it costed more points than I had, I could assume that your appearance would happen at a critical point when I earned the remaining amount," Alan said to Chun Chun.

"You know what they say about assumptions. They make an ass of--," Chun Chun started speaking.

"Shut up," Alan interrupted him.

"One. Point. One. Fucking. Point," Alan poked Chun Chun in the chest with each word he enunciated.

"Let's not overreact," Chun Chun responded while sweating ten gallons of sweat.

"Why did it cost one point, and not zero, huh little frog?" Alan asked while giving Chun Chun an icy death stare.

A mercury thermometer floating in the air changed from almost full of red liquid to almost empty. The liquid turned icy blue as the temperature level bottomed out, and ice crystals rapidly grew on the thermometer. Chun Chun froze with hesitation as Alan seen straight through him, because Chun Chun turned into a crystal clear ice sculpture.

"Why are you being so tough on him?" Fenrir asked Alan with a worried look on her face.

"Value can be perceived by difficulty in obtaining. Higher prices. Longer waiting times. Protecting something behind lock and guard. Hoarding. Preventing access. Seeing other people want or have something you don't have. These make things desirable.

This little frog, Chun Chun, picked the absolute lowest price still possible with a cost. That is inconvenience pricing. The extremely low price of one point, makes it look ready to sell to anyone, because no one seems to want it, but the truth is Chun Chun doesn't want to be seen. One point of cost is the least desirable price to pay. Raising the price would add perceived value. Free could be useful when needed. Even paying me to make Chun Chun visible would make it more desirable to choose to do so, because I'd be gaining net worth.

No one else besides me seeing Chun Chun makes having conversations extremely difficult and frustrating. Chun Chun tried to choose a price that attempts to exceeded the inconvenience I was having, so I would choose to keep suffering. But this whole world is pain and suffering. There are no opportunities to get ahead or find respite. It's just an accumulation of violence until death," Alan went on a tirade while B-roll cutaway scenes showed people shopping in a busy market.

"You seem very stressed. Perhaps some of master Che's calming tea will help you relax," a mysterious old man commented.

Alan span around twice while doing a double take.

Alan sighed, "I do feel thirsty."

"My name is Kanamori," the slightly less mysterious old man told Alan.

Alan sat cross-legged on the ground, and wiped his face in the palms of his hands before saying with exhaustion, "I am Alan. The feline hominid woman with two tails in joss paper armor is Fenrir. That short bloated frog over there with slightly wide-set toadish eyes is Chun Chun."

Fenrir and Chun Chun looked shocked. Kanamori dug a small pit in the ground, and lit a small pile of twigs and scraps of paper inside it with his qi energy. Kanamori then added a mixture of charcoal and bird egg sized rocks to the fire in the pit.

"Are you gonna stare or sit," Kanamori asked Fenrir and Chun Chun while laughing.

"How can they be so rude?" Fenrir asked Chun Chun in a hushed voice while blocking her mouth with her hand.

"He called it relaxing tea, but they are loud, and the water is dirtied by the rocks he is adding into the pot of water," Chun Chun whispered to Fenrir as they both sat in a kneeling position.

"They step on their own faces to stand on ceremony," Alan said while elbow jabbing Kanamori toasting tea leaves in the smoke over the fire.

Kanamori laughed vigorously, and didn't notice the dried tea leaves had caught fire. He dunked them in the dirty frothing black foamed water, and shook the muddied water off the tea leaves. It sprayed all over Chun Chun's and Fenrir's face.

"How does the first pour taste," Kanamori said while laughing.

"Their hands are shaking, but their fingers aren't tapping in appreciation," Alan commented with a grin.

"Maybe they're not impressed, but I have a show stopper," Kanamori stated.

Old man Kanamori held the pot above his head, and poured out the water into another pot held low as possible, then dumped the rocks out of the first pot above his head into the fire. Sparks of red hot embers danced, and steam rose off cooking wet rocks into the air. The water poured back and forth between the copper pots. Kanamori kept the height of the two pots always changing without spilling a drop.

"How can so much fire help the water work?" Fenrir asked skeptically.

Kanamori juggled one copper tea pot with his feet, while pouring into it with the other pot behind his back. For the grand finale two half-filled tea pots were kicked into the air while pouring out. Kanamori held two tea cups in each hand. Two cups filled while he did a front flip, and the other two cups filled as Kanamori spun around with his arms stretched out to catch the remaining falling tea.

"Master Che's calming tea is served," Kanamori said while bowing down on one foot, while his other foot caught a copper tea pot.

Alan clapped loudly when the second copper pot's handle caught on the spout of the first pot without Kanamori looking back.

Kanamori was breathing heavily after so much showmanship. Chun Chun and Fenrir closed each other's slacked jaws while staring at Kanamori.

"It tastes really good," Alan commented after drinking his cup of tea so fast he coughed and spat out much of it.

Chun Chun and Fenrir looked at each other worried while taking the first sip, and then the taste reached their brains.

Kanamori smiled while sipping his tea.