Early the next morning, Mi Beibei leisurely finished her breakfast before riding her electric scooter to the warehouse that specialized in near-expiration goods.
From a distance, she spotted Boss Wang standing at the warehouse entrance and smiled as she waved.
The moment Boss Wang saw her, a broad smile spread across his face, the wrinkles around his eyes crinkling into crescents.
“Oh! You’re back again, young lady! Looks like business is going well!”
“So-so!” Mi Beibei replied with a cheerful smile. “This time I might need to buy quite a bit more. Boss Wang, can you arrange delivery?”
“Of course!” Boss Wang laughed heartily, patting his chest.
“You’re already one of my regular customers. Leave it to me! Just pick whatever you need, let me know when you’re done, and I’ll have someone deliver it immediately.”
Mi Beibei thanked him and walked briskly into the warehouse.
The shelves were neatly stocked with a dazzling variety of goods.
As she selected items and updated her shopping list, she gradually wandered to another section of the warehouse.
The previous two times she had visited, she hadn’t even noticed this area.
Now her view suddenly opened up.
The shelves were packed with cooking oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and all kinds of seasonings.
Looking at the neatly arranged products, Mi Beibei couldn’t help feeling a little regretful.
If I’d found this section earlier, I wouldn’t have wasted so much money at the wholesale market yesterday.
Still, regret was regret.
She quickly recovered and began scanning the shelves.
Perfect. I can make up for everything I forgot to buy yesterday.
She immediately pulled out the small notebook she always carried and rapidly added Lao Gan Ma chili sauce, doubanjiang, sweet bean sauce, and various rice sauces to her shopping list.
…
After finalizing the sauces, Mi Beibei didn’t leave right away.
She continued exploring the warehouse.
Bright fluorescent lights illuminated the shelves overhead.
Suddenly, a row of shelves tucked away in the corner caught her attention.
There were dried shiitake mushrooms, black fungus, dried bean curd sticks, red dates, and other dried goods.
Each package bore a prominent “near expiration” label.
Standing nearby, she could even smell the faint fragrance of the dried ingredients.
Looking at the various packages, Mi Beibei’s eyes lit up.
She quickly added over a dozen kinds of dried goods—including shiitake mushrooms, black fungus, white fungus, and dried longan—to her notebook, carefully noting the quantity needed for each.
After finishing the list, she checked it twice to make sure nothing had been forgotten before hurrying back to the warehouse entrance with her notebook.
…
After carefully reviewing the densely packed shopping list, Mi Beibei quickly scanned the QR code to pay.
Boss Wang confirmed the payment and smiled so broadly that his eyes nearly disappeared.
“Don’t worry. Everything will be delivered before three o’clock this afternoon! Next time we get new stock, you’ll be the first person I notify!”
She politely thanked him.
As Boss Wang waved goodbye, she rode away on her electric scooter.
Just as she was about to reach home, she suddenly remembered the custom-made shop sign.
She immediately turned the handlebars and headed toward the advertising shop.
…
The moment she pushed open the glass door, the smell of printing ink mixed with the humming of machines greeted her.
“Excuse me, has my sign been finished?”
She walked quickly toward the workbench.
The young employee who was adjusting the equipment looked up and smiled.
“It’s finished! Please wait a moment while I bring it out.”
He disappeared into the storage room behind the counter and soon returned carrying the sign.
It had a bright red background with large yellow lettering.
The words “Food & General Goods” stood out brilliantly under the lights.
Mi Beibei accepted the sign and inspected it carefully.
The size was exactly right.
The layout and lettering were flawless.
She looked at the young employee.
“How much is the remaining balance?”
After paying the rest of the fee, Mi Beibei hugged the sign and hurried home.
Within minutes, she had removed the makeshift cardboard sign outside the storage room window and replaced it with the new one.
…
After installing the sign, Mi Beibei nodded in satisfaction.
Without wasting another second, she began reorganizing the storage room.
She rearranged everything inside to make enough space for the deliveries that would soon arrive.
After finishing the storage room, she cleaned up part of the living room as well, creating additional storage space.
…
Not long afterward, someone knocked on the door.
When Mi Beibei opened it, she found the rice and flour delivery.
The delivery man was a sturdy man in his thirties with an honest smile.
Together they carefully confirmed the delivery quantity and contact information.
After verifying everything, the two of them made trip after trip carrying bags of rice and flour into the apartment.
While moving the goods, the delivery man glanced around at the ordinary home furnishings before looking out the window at the familiar residential buildings.
Unable to contain his curiosity, he asked,
“Miss, why are you buying so much rice and flour?”
Mi Beibei straightened up while carrying a bag of flour, wiped the sweat from her forehead, and laughed.
“Oh, I just opened a supermarket nearby. My warehouse isn’t ready yet, so these supplies have to stay at my apartment temporarily.”
The man nodded in understanding.
“I see.”
He scratched his head honestly, asked no further questions, bent down, and hoisted another sack of rice into the apartment.
…
While Mi Beibei and the delivery man were still busy moving supplies, the medicines she had ordered yesterday also arrived.
It was packed in an enormous box.
Mi Beibei nearly couldn’t lift it.
Fortunately, the courier noticed her struggling and didn’t immediately let go.
Otherwise, the huge box would have crashed onto the floor.
…
Working together, they quickly finished carrying all the rice and flour inside.
Mi Beibei was exhausted.
Sweat covered her forehead, and the back of her clothes was completely soaked.
After seeing the delivery man off, she paused briefly before forcing herself to organize the piles of rice and flour.
Once she finished, she could no longer hold herself up and collapsed into a chair.
…
After resting for quite some time and finally regaining her strength, someone knocked on the door again.
This time it was the cooking oil, salt, and various seasonings she had purchased at the wholesale market.
After another exhausting round of carrying boxes inside, everything was finally moved into the apartment.
By then, her stomach was growling loudly.
She checked her phone.
It was already past one o’clock in the afternoon.
…
She took out a packet of instant noodles, tossed in a vacuum-packed chicken drumstick, and cracked two eggs into the pot.
As the noodles boiled vigorously, the rising steam only made her feel hungrier.
The moment they were ready, she poured them into a large bowl and eagerly began eating.
Every now and then, a sharp hiss escaped her lips after she burned her mouth on the hot noodles.
Just as she finished eating and was cleaning the dishes, the doorbell rang for the third time.
The near-expiration food she had ordered that morning had arrived.
…
Once all the deliveries had finally been put away, every room in Mi Beibei’s apartment—except the bedroom and kitchen—was completely packed.
The driver delivering the near-expiration food happened to be quite talkative.
He repeatedly asked whether she had received some kind of inside information.
“Are we going into another lockdown or something? Otherwise why would you stockpile so much grain, oil, and food?”
Mi Beibei could only laugh helplessly.
She repeatedly explained that all these supplies were meant for resale.
She had simply ordered them early, and because her warehouse wasn’t ready yet, she had no choice but to store everything at home.
Once the warehouse was finished, everything would be moved there.
By the end of the conversation, she was almost out of energy from explaining.
Only then did the delivery driver leave, still looking only half convinced.
…
Still, the incident served as a warning.
This time, she had been careless.
She hadn’t expected people’s curiosity and imagination to run so wild.
In the future, she couldn’t draw this much attention to herself.
Even if it meant more work, she’d rather transport the goods herself.
What Mi Beibei didn’t realize, however, was that someone with ulterior motives had already begun paying attention to her.
…
Meanwhile, in the apocalypse…
The rotten wind swept through the concrete jungle, carrying the hoarse roars of zombies.
Lin Fei skillfully slit the throat of an attacking zombie before casually wiping the blood from his dagger on a piece of torn cloth.
Dragging his aching legs, he entered an abandoned apartment building.
Just as he leaned against a mold-covered wall to rest, something brightly colored suddenly caught his attention.
Looking more closely, he saw a red-and-yellow sign.
He removed the binoculars hanging around his neck, wiped the dirty lenses with the corner of his shirt, and focused carefully.
It was a clean, brightly colored sign that looked as though it had just been made.
Against a bright red background, four large yellow characters read:
Food & General Goods
Lin Fei was completely stunned.
Could it be…
Someone actually opened a shop in this place?
A place overrun by zombies and nearly abandoned?
And it’s selling food?
…
Without blinking, Lin Fei carefully observed the surroundings through his binoculars.
There were noticeably fewer zombies nearby.
Even the zombies wandering close to the area quickly moved away.
Normally, this only happened when a high-level zombie was driving lower-level zombies away.
But it was obvious there wasn’t any high-level zombie nearby.
Furthermore, near the sign there was only a shabby little window, barely larger than the sign itself.
Could this be a trap?
But who would set a trap in a place like this?
And who would it be meant for?
…
While Lin Fei’s mind was filled with questions, the window suddenly changed.
The shabby opening transformed into an ordinary window covered with only a light layer of dust.
Then it slowly opened from the inside.
A young woman with fair skin and rosy cheeks appeared at the window.
Behind her were rows upon rows of neatly stacked supplies, filling the room from floor to ceiling.
…
Lin Fei stared at the sign through his binoculars, caution and curiosity swirling in his eyes.
He stuffed the binoculars back into his backpack, tightened all of his gear, and carefully checked to make sure he hadn’t forgotten anything.
Taking a deep breath, he dashed out of his shelter like an arrow released from a bow.
The rotten air echoed with the guttural cries of zombies.
Moving like a ghost among the ruined buildings, Lin Fei swiftly weaved through the wreckage.
Whenever a zombie blocked his path, his eyes turned icy.
His dagger flashed with cold light as it pierced each zombie’s vital point with clean, precise movements, never giving them a chance to fight back.
After an unknown amount of time, he finally arrived at the very window he had seen through the binoculars.
Looking inside, he saw the young woman.
She was dressed in clean, tidy clothes and was sitting leisurely in a chair beside the window, casually scrolling through her phone.