Qiao Xin woke from her dream with a jolt. This time, she felt only a mix of heartache and fury. That idiot, she muttered, can’t you take better care of yourself?
Glancing at the clock, she saw it was 4:30 AM. She hurried to wash up, dressed quickly, and grabbed her keys.
She drove to the area near yesterday’s rental shop, found a blind spot without surveillance, and tucked her own car into her dimensional space. She planned to rely on rentals for the time being—it would be safer to keep her own car in the space. If she were to suddenly transmigrate, she couldn’t bear the thought of leaving it behind; it was, after all, the first car she and Lin Qing had bought together after they started making decent money.
Today, Qiao Xin wore the rugged work clothes she used to wear for odd jobs. She pulled her hair into a high, practical bun and wore a face mask. Looking every bit the laborer made it easier to inspect goods and haggle.
She arrived at the rental shop, picked up the small van she’d rented, and headed straight for the city’s largest agricultural market.
By 5:00 AM, the market was already a chaotic, bustling hive of activity. Vehicles queued to get in, and it took five full minutes for Qiao Xin to enter. This was the largest wholesale hub in C-City, divided into four zones.
The East Zone was for fruits and vegetables, with a smaller seafood section at the far end. The North Zone housed grains, oils, seasonings, and kitchenware. The South Zone was split between red meat (beef and lamb) and poultry (pork, chicken, duck, and goose). The West Zone was the most eclectic, filled with semi-finished foods, frozen goods, snacks, beverages, liquor, flowers, fish fry, hardware, and seed shops.
She could find nearly 60% of everything she needed right here.
Following the large signs, Qiao Xin expertly maneuvered her van into the East Zone. After parking, she headed straight for the largest vegetable wholesaler. The produce was sprawled across the ground in designated sections for each vendor. Small-time peddlers were there filling crates, while large tractor-trailers were lined up for bulk orders. With refrigerated storage nearby, everything was fresh; most of the day’s stock would be sold off by noon.
It was mid-summer, and the variety was staggering. As Qiao Xin walked by, the boss shouted over the din, “Take a look around, miss! Just call me when you’re ready to buy!” He then turned back to tally accounts for another customer.
Tomatoes—regular and cherry; cucumbers, white cucumbers, baby pickling melons, bitter gourds, yardlong beans, snap beans, flat beans, purple beans, white beans, globe eggplants, long eggplants, green eggplants…
Spinach, baby bok choy, youmoycai, water spinach, chives, lettuce, crown daisy, amaranth, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, purple cabbage…
Carrots, daikon radishes, green radishes, mustard greens, zucchini, winter melon, pumpkins, baby pumpkins…
Broccoli, cauliflower, organic cauliflower, asparagus, water bamboo, gailan, asparagus lettuce, celery, okra…
And every variety of sweet potato, white potato, and red-skinned potato imaginable. Qiao Xin was dazzled. She quickly waved the boss over.
“Boss, I want one hundred jin of every single variety of vegetable and fruit you have.”
The boss had seen many bulk buyers, but never one like this. He spoke up, genuinely concerned, “Miss, I have hundreds of varieties here. Are you sure? If you can’t use these greens, they won’t be fresh by tomorrow.”
Qiao Xin knew she didn’t need to worry thanks to her space, but she intended to grow her own food, and since green vegetables grew so quickly, she didn’t want to waste money on excess. “Thank you for the advice, boss. Let’s make it thirty jin for each type of leafy green, and fifty jin for the others. Please give me a good deal!”
Even with the smaller quantities, the sheer number of varieties added up quickly. The boss smiled. “Don’t worry, miss. I’ll give you the rock-bottom wholesale prices. Except for the high-end greens, I’ll charge you six to eight jiao per jin. Tomatoes will be one yuan, cucumbers eight jiao, snap beans one-fifty, and yardlong beans two yuan.”
Before the boss could continue, Qiao Xin cut him off. “Boss, just make me a list and calculate the total. I’m going to pull my truck around.”
“Sure thing! You’re efficient, miss. I’ll tally it up and have my staff get the product ready.”
Qiao Xin waved a hand. “Make sure you pick the best quality, boss. If it’s not up to par, I won’t pay.”
“Don’t you worry. It’ll be farm-fresh.”
Qiao Xin backed the truck into a corner where it wouldn’t obstruct the flow of traffic. Seeing the truck parked, the workers were quick to open the back doors and start loading. They were sharp—using wooden planks to create partitions so the vegetables wouldn’t get crushed, which also allowed them to stack more.
The boss had the list ready quickly. Qiao Xin glanced at it: 5,843 yuan. While paying, she spotted the garlic and ginger sitting by the desk—essential ingredients—so she added two hundred jin of each.
Recalling that she didn’t know if the ancient world she was headed to had sweet potatoes or regular potatoes, and knowing that her own farming efforts wouldn’t yield a harvest immediately, she added another two hundred jin of sweet potatoes and five hundred jin of potatoes. She also ordered five hundred jin each of premium Xinjiang and Liuao honey potatoes—they were notoriously delicious.
In the end, she paid 7,000 yuan, the boss gladly waiving the odd change.
After the first load was packed, Qiao Xin drove out of the market. She circled the block for half an hour before heading back in; by then, the back of the truck was completely empty, all the produce safely tucked away in her space. It took three trips in total to finish loading all the vegetables. During the process, she also picked up odds and ends: green onions, chives, bell peppers, chili peppers, and bird’s eye chilies, spending another 1,000 yuan.
By the time she finished with the vegetables, the sun was high in the sky. She ate a roujiamo in the truck as breakfast and drove to the fruit section.
Watermelons, cantaloupes, various musk melons, bananas, peaches, nectarines, yellow peaches, apricots, black plums, dragon fruit, fragrant pears, apples, oranges, avocados, loquats, bayberries, mangosteens…
She bought five hundred jin of every variety currently available. Sadly, many of her favorite grapes weren’t in season, and most of what was available had been sitting in cold storage, so she passed—she planned to buy grape saplings instead.
Strawberries were also out of season; the ones available were expensive and, after tasting a few, lacked flavor, so she bought only a few boxes. Her favorite, sugarcane, was only available pre-peeled and vacuum-packed; she bought twenty bags, noting that she could buy seedlings online to grow them herself.
She bought ten durians, which were 19 yuan per jin even at wholesale prices. Mentally retreating to her space, she gazed longingly at the two mountains in the distance. I’m counting on you, she thought. Whether I’ll be able to eat delicious fruit in the future depends on you.
Buying the fruit made her heart ache—it cost her 51,000 yuan. Used to a frugal life, it was her first time spending money so freely, and her heart was pounding.
By the time she finished transporting all the fruit, it was 2:00 PM. She stopped at a nearby diner for a braised eggplant rice bowl. It was so delicious she ordered twenty more to-go portions.
Checking her watch, it was exactly 3:00 PM. The packed meals were ready, and with the owner’s help loading them into the truck, she rushed toward the housing fund office. She had made an appointment for 3:30 PM, and she had exactly half an hour to get there.