If she dared to conduct such large-scale business in one place for a long time, she would have been targeted and arrested long ago. Although trade regulations weren’t as strict as they used to be, if one was too bold or drew too much attention, the authorities couldn’t simply pretend not to see it.
This was exactly why Zheng Youcai had taken the initiative to leave his phone number with Jun Ning after buying his goods. He was currently worried whether she would actually call him. After all, with such high-quality goods in hand, she had absolutely no trouble finding buyers. If Jun Ning didn’t call, his only option was to frequent the Shigang market—or other rural markets—to search for her and hope for another lucky encounter.
Zheng Youcai felt a pang of deep regret; had he known the quality was this exceptional, he would have bought even more. He wasn’t the only one; almost everyone who had purchased items from Jun Ning felt the same way after tasting the meat and eggs.
Compared to the anxiety of those unable to find her, Song Weian and Du Juan were much more composed. They felt secretly lucky that Jun Ning had driven them home and that they had established a rapport. Jun Ning had promised to visit them again, which was a relief; otherwise, they wouldn’t have known where to start looking for her.
Meanwhile, after dropping off the couple, Jun Ning drove the small truck back to the Bailu Brigade. Just before reaching the village, she stored the truck and the intelligent robot back into her spatial dimension.
She pulled out a pair of large, round baskets. In one, she packed rice and flour from her space. In the other, she loaded:
Pork, beef, rabbit, and lamb.
Apples and bananas.
Melon seeds, peanuts, and milk candies.
Peanut oil and fresh vegetables.
As she carried the heavy load back into the village, a lazy and greedy female villager approached her out of curiosity. “Ah Ning, what did you buy? Why did you get so much at once?”
Jun Ning replied with a polite, patient smile, “Now that I’ve moved out of the ‘Educated Youth’ station, I went to the market to buy some food and daily necessities.”
“Oh, I see. What kind of good food did you get? Let me have a look!”
Jun Ning dreaded this type of prying. She didn’t want to get tangled up in conversation, so she said directly, “I have things to do, I’ll be going now.”
Seeing the flash of frustrated greed on the woman’s face, Jun Ning felt relieved. Fortunately, she had covered the baskets with lids. If that nosy woman had seen the sheer volume of high-quality goods, she would have turned green with envy, and who knows what kind of rumors she would have started?
Once Jun Ning safely reached her temporary new home, she let out a long sigh of relief. Having been busy since early morning without a break, the moment her mind relaxed, a wave of exhaustion hit her. She felt like she could fall asleep right where she stood.
After confirming no one was around, she locked her door and slipped into her spatial dimension. She headed straight for the hot spring pool, soaking in the warm, comfortable spiritual spring water.
In the Primordial Fragment Space, the spiritual energy was incredibly dense. Not only did the flora and fauna contain this energy, but every water source was infused with it. As the spiritual energy seeped into her body, it rapidly replenished her drained mental and physical strength.
Feeling revitalized, Jun Ning returned to the cozy villa she had designed herself within the space. Reclining on a beanbag chair, she had her robot butler bring her several plates of delicacies. She ate until she was stuffed, letting out a satisfied burp.
Two hundred years into the future, technology had become incredibly advanced. Robots were almost indistinguishable from humans, and things like flying cars, holographic imaging, and interstellar travel were commonplace. In that era, factories were almost entirely automated. The need for human labor had dwindled. Suddenly finding herself in this technologically backwards era was a bit of a culture shock; fortunately, this familiar spatial world made her feel as though she were still living in the future.
Jun Ning shook off her wandering thoughts and pulled out the money she had earned today. The currency of this era consisted of ten-yuan, five-yuan, two-yuan, and one-yuan notes, along with various denominations of cents (jiao and fen). Seeing such a massive pile of small bills stacked together was quite a sight.
After spending over half an hour counting, she reached the final total: 2,855 yuan.
She had rounded down the change during the sales to make the transactions and calculations faster. Looking at the mountain of goods she had moved today compared to this amount of money, Jun Ning felt that the value of her high-quality spatial goods was severely underestimated in this era. However, given the local income levels, it was impossible to sell at a much higher price.
Unless, she thought, I switch to selling high-value items like bicycles, watches, televisions, or refrigerators.
She decided to have the robots search the warehouse stock in her space to see how many “retro” or “nostalgic” items she had that would fit this era. Before the apocalypse, many people in the future loved vintage products. Several shops she had scavenged were dedicated to nostalgic goods, and she even had a factory’s worth of inventory. To the people of the future, items from the 1960s and 70s were considered antiques, often displayed in museums.
At 4:00 PM, Jun Ning left the space to prepare the housewarming dinner for her guests. She looked at her ingredients and drafted a menu. Braised Pork was a staple of this era and a must-have. She also planned:
Stir-fried Beef with Ginger and Scallion.
Spicy Diced Rabbit.
Lamb Stew with Radish.
Steamed Sea Bass.
Stir-fried Pork with Cucumber.
Garlic Sautéed Greens.
Eggplant with Green Beans.
Tomato and Egg Soup.
Nine dishes in total, representing the wish for “long-lasting” (a play on the word for nine) happiness. However, as she tried to manage multiple dishes using a traditional wood-burning stove, she realized she had overestimated her manual cooking skills in this primitive setting.
In the end, she ducked back into her space. With the help of her intelligent robots, she was able to quickly finish preparing this incredibly delicious feast.