A few days ago, Zhou Lihua had withdrawn all the family’s savings and handed the money to Zhou Jiayue, telling her to boldly go ahead and gather supplies without worrying about the cost.
The family had a total of 1.46 million yuan in savings, which was somewhat more than she had expected.
She had already spent every last bit of her own savings when she bought the books earlier.
Of the 1.46 million yuan, she planned to spend 700,000 yuan directly ordering supplies from the supermarket. If she had the supermarket prepare everything in advance and simply went to collect the goods, it would save her a great deal of time.
After leaving the supermarket, the second place Zhou Jiayue went was a butcher shop.
“Boss, I want two thousand jin of pork, one thousand jin of beef, and one thousand jin of mutton. Can you prepare all of that within three days?”
Zhou Jiayue immediately started talking in quantities of thousands of jin.
The meat alone would cost around 110,000 or 120,000 yuan.
The butcher wiped the sweat from his forehead.
“You want that much? Little girl, the weather has been so hot lately. If you can’t finish all that meat quickly and it goes bad, it would be such a waste.”
Although business at the butcher shop had been poor recently because of the weather, the owner did not want to make money at someone else’s expense, so he still reminded her.
Zhou Jiayue smiled.
“My family runs a restaurant, and we have quite a few banquets coming up recently, so we can use it all. Boss, when can you have it ready?”
“If you need it urgently, I can deliver it the day after tomorrow.” The butcher’s relative owned a slaughterhouse that handled pigs, cattle, and sheep. Several thousand jin of meat could be prepared simply by slaughtering a few dozen more animals.
“Alright. Let’s exchange contact information and call each other when the time comes. I’ll transfer ten thousand yuan to you as a deposit first, and I’ll come to collect the meat the day after tomorrow.”
Zhou Jiayue dealt with everything quickly. After exchanging phone numbers with the butcher, she rushed toward her next destination.
“Boss, one thousand chickens and one thousand ducks. I need them processed and ready for delivery within three days.”
“Boss, I want 200 of your largest gas cylinders.”
“Boss, I’ll take 20 sets of this cookware.”
After leaving the supermarket, Zhou Jiayue began rushing all over the county.
The landlord in Fu City would be leaving in three days, so she had to get there as soon as possible.
She had already finished reading all the books in the county. Even though she could exploit loopholes in the system by writing different notes in the books, the efficiency was simply too low.
Besides that, the rented house needed to be reinforced. Regardless of anything else, ordinary doors would not withstand being pried open several times after the apocalypse. If she encountered someone more desperate, a few swings of a hammer would be enough to destroy the door completely.
And Xing County was simply too small. There were many things she could not buy there at all and would have to get them in the city.
After running around for an entire day, Zhou Jiayue ordered nearly every supply she could find and arranged to collect everything two days later.
As for everyday clothing, Zhou Jiayue did not buy any from local stores.
Instead, she chose to shop online.
For one thing, the clothes in the stores were simply too expensive and flashy without being practical. For another, her Interstitial Space was already struggling to accommodate all the food. There was hardly any room left for other things.
So she decided to have the clothes shipped directly to Fu City.
Two days later, the butcher was the first to call.
Two thousand jin of pork, one thousand jin of beef, and one thousand jin of mutton cost a total of 111,000 yuan after including the deposit she had already paid. The owner even gave her an extra ten jin of pork head meat.
Next came the one thousand chickens and one thousand ducks, which cost 50,000 yuan.
The 200 gas cylinders, each holding 15 kilograms, cost 42,000 yuan.
Zhou Jiayue had also purchased 20 alcohol stoves and ten thousand 50 gram alcohol fuel blocks online. The online store even included twenty lighters as a free gift. The total cost was 8,200 yuan, and these were also shipped to Fu City.
The supermarket is also called. They had urgently brought in goods from other places and had finally managed to deliver everything within three days.
There were 1,000 buckets of cooking oil, each containing 5 liters, 10 tons of rice, 5 tons of flour, 5 tons of noodles, and 20,000 boxes of various flavors of self heating rice, self heating hot pot, and other ready to eat foods. She had specifically purchased 20,000 bags of instant noodles in different flavors, as well as 2 tons of various grains and 5,000 buckets of mineral water, each containing 15 liters.
Among the seasonings, there were 5,000 jin of salt, 2,000 jin of sugar, 1,000 jin of monosodium glutamate, and 1,000 bottles each of soy sauce and vinegar.
There were also 5 tons of various fresh vegetables, 2 tons of various fruits, and 5,000 chicken eggs and 5,000 duck eggs.
She also bought more than ten types of sauces and side dishes to go with rice, including mushroom beef sauce, mountain radish strips, cured meat with country style vegetables, Lao Gan Ma, crispy chopped chili with preserved vegetables, and many others, with 500 bottles of each type.
Then there were personal care products. She bought 1,000 bottles each of shampoo, body wash, and facial cleanser, along with 100 sets each of towels, toothbrushes, washbasins, buckets, and other items. She also bought 1,000 jin of laundry detergent, 2,000 packs of tissues with 300 sheets per pack, and 1,000 packs of women’s sanitary products designed for an entire cycle.
When everything was settled, the total cost, including the deposit, came to exactly 699,000 yuan.
After paying for all the supplies, she had spent a total of 1.4566 million yuan. Of the money Zhou Lihua had given her, only 3,400 yuan remained on the card.
Zhou Jiayue sucked in a breath.
Money really did disappear quickly. There were still so many things she had not bought yet.
Since the Interstitial Space had a preservation function, Zhou Jiayue prioritized putting all the food that could spoil easily, such as meat, vegetables, and fruits, into the space. She continued putting in anything else that would fit. Whatever could not fit had to be temporarily stored in the rented warehouse.
After dealing with all the supplies she had purchased, Zhou Jiayue said goodbye to her family and boarded the bus to Fu City, drenched in sweat.
Sitting in the vehicle, Zhou Jiayue felt so hot that her head was dizzy and heavy. She thought she might be suffering from heatstroke.
Heatstroke…
Heatstroke!
Zhou Jiayue slapped her forehead. No wonder she had felt like she was constantly forgetting something.
Medicine!
After the apocalypse, food would be scarce, but medicine would be even harder to find.
At a critical moment, even a single fever reducing pill could save someone’s life!
Zhou Jiayue rubbed her forehead. The weather had really made her stupid.
But in all honesty, even if she wanted to buy medicine, there were many medications that an ordinary person simply could not purchase. She would need access to special channels.
Zhou Jiayue frowned and thought for a long time before finally remembering someone.
She had majored in traditional Chinese medicine at university. In her previous life, the reason she had managed to survive for three years in the cannibalistic apocalypse despite having virtually no fighting ability was that her mediocre knowledge after studying for more than two years had allowed her to earn a living during a time when medicine and doctors were both desperately scarce.
She had a senior student in her direct academic line at university with whom she had a pretty good relationship. After graduation, that senior had not become a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner. Instead, she had become a seller of Western medicine and was constantly scolded by their mentor for betraying her profession.
Thinking of this person, Zhou Jiayue perked up and first sent her senior a message on WeChat.
After chatting briefly about their recent lives, Zhou Jiayue got straight to the point.
“Senior Sister Feifei, I have a friend who wants to buy some medicine. Do you have any channels?”
The other person quickly sent back a question mark sticker.
“What kind of medicine does your friend want to buy?”
“My friend’s family runs a clinic. Their previous supplier stopped doing business because of some problems with his wife, so my friend’s family is currently looking for another source for their medicine. I happen to know you, so I thought I’d ask if you could help.”
Zhou Jiayue had already mastered the art of saying whatever was appropriate to whoever she was talking to, and she could do it without the slightest hint of embarrassment or guilt.
Li Feifei replied, “Send me your friend’s WeChat.”
“Alright. Thank you, Senior Sister Feifei.”
Zhou Jiayue sent over another WeChat account that she rarely used.
A friend request soon arrived.
“Hello, I’m Jiayue’s senior sister, Li Feifei. Jiayue said, “Are you currently looking for a medicine supplier?”
Zhou Jiayue smiled faintly and replied from another phone.
“Hello, Senior Sister Feifei. Yes. My family’s clinic used to have a medicine supplier, but he quit the business because of some personal matters. Recently, I asked Jiayue to help me look for a new supplier.”
“I see. In that case, I have…”
Li Feifei first introduced her own work, then sent over information about the medicine suppliers she worked with. She said that if Zhou Jiayue was interested, she could help connect them.
The corners of Zhou Jiayue’s lips lifted slightly.
Success.