Across from her, the tension on Dennis and Arnold's faces eased up quite a bit. Dennis glanced around and said, "As you can see, we already have a supplier." Natalie knew exactly what he was trying to do—push the price down. She gave a light smile. "If your supply's already solid, then I won't waste your time." With that, she turned to get back in the car. "Wait!" Arnold quickly called out. "No need to rush off! We can talk things through, business is all about negotiation, right?" Natalie smirked and turned back around. She had the advantage of her past-life experience and could tell their stock wasn't nearly enough to meet demand. With sales as hot as they were today, there was no way these two were going to pass up the chance to buy more inventory. And now that they were the ones asking her to stay, she held the upper hand. There was a glint of amusement in her eyes. "So, how do you want to talk?" Dennis stepped in with a friendly grin. "May I ask your name, ma'am?" "Ashford," Natalie replied. Dennis extended a hand. "Nice to meet you, Ms. Ashford. I'm Dennis Griffith, and this here's my brother, Arnold." Natalie gave a polite nod. "Pleasure." Dennis didn't mind the cool reception. Still smiling, he pulled his hand back. "Of course, we already have a supply chain. But business is business, you always compare options. What's the quality of your herbs, and what price are you offering?"Natalie pulled two sample pieces from her pocket and handed them over. Dennis accepted them with both hands and examined them carefully. His eyes lit up. "These are fresh-grown, aren't they? Homegrown stock? Looks pretty damn good. Didn't think there were still places out there where you could grow medicine like this." Natalie gave him a mysterious little smile. "Some people still have ways to grow things. But it's not mine, I source it from elsewhere." Dennis gave her a knowing look. This woman clearly had some serious connections. Carrying a gun was one thing, but in a world like this, anyone with access to fresh-grown herbs was no ordinary trader. His tone grew even friendlier. "Mind if I ask how much you've got and what your price is?" They were selling dried echinacea—going for 20 pounds of food per 1.5 ounces, which meant one pound of dried herb traded for 200 pounds of grain. But what Natalie had was fresh. And it took three pounds of fresh herbs to dry down into one pound of usable product. So her fresh stuff was effectively worth about 70 pounds of grain per pound after processing. Natalie told them, "Sixty pounds of grain per pound of fresh echinacea." "Sixty?!" Dennis looked conflicted. "You've seen what we're selling it for ... the profit margin's really not that high. And in this heat, just running the stall is a pain in the ass ... " Natalie was firm. "My price is fixed. No haggling." She paused, then added, "You're still clearing ten pounds of food profit per pound. That's not nothing." Dennis thought it over. Echinacea was in high demand right now, and their current stash definitely wasn't going to be enough. Sure, her offer didn't leave them with a huge margin, but profit was profit, and in times like these, stocking up on food was what really mattered. Besides, if they didn't buy Natalie's stock, they'd lose their monopoly on customers and end up competing with her instead. And with the quality of her goods being better than theirs, she could undercut them easily. Dennis made a decision. Low profit was still profit, and if she had quantity, they could flip a decent gain. So he asked, "How much do you have on hand, Ms. Ashford?" Natalie raised a brow. "How much do you want?" Dennis almost laughed at the boldness. This woman really talks like she's got an endless supply. They were backed by the Mervyns of the Tyro Group, and even they had only managed to come up with 800 pounds of herbs. How much more could she possibly have? Dennis tested the waters. "How about 500 pounds?" Natalie agreed without hesitation. "No problem." Her first harvest had yielded 300 pounds, and the second batch came in at 700 pounds. Together, that made a full thousand pounds of fresh herbs. Dennis was caught off guard by how quickly she said yes. "Ms. Ashford, you've got more than 500 pounds on hand?" Natalie nodded. Arnold quickly stepped closer. "You can really supply a thousand pounds?"Natalie thought for a moment, then said, "I can." Dennis's eyes lit up. "Ms. Ashford, you're the real deal! At your price, we'll take the full thousand pounds of echinacea." The profit might be slim, but with volume like that? It was a gold mine. With Natalie making deals this bold, whoever was backing her had to be on par with the Tyro Group. Could she be with the Holland Group? Natalie, unaware of his internal speculation, was doing the math in her head. A thousand pounds of echinacea, 60 pounds of grain per pound—that came out to 60,000 pounds of food. Thirty tons. Not bad for a crop of herbs. She smiled. "Deal." Arnold, however, looked a little awkward. "The thing is we don't have 30 tons of food on hand right now. Any chance you could give us a little time? We'll flip what we have first, then pay you once we've cycled through." Natalie nodded in understanding. "One week from now?" The brothers lit up. "Works for us!"