Su Mom shuttled through the major grain and oil markets of Yun City.
Because the variety she needed to stockpile was large and heavy, buying everything in one market risked running out of stock.
Therefore, Su Mom didn’t mind the hassle and chose several markets.
For staple foods—rice, flour, millet, black rice, potatoes—she purchased 10,000 tons of each.
For various beans—soybeans, peas, yellow soybeans, mung beans, red beans—she bought 1,000 tons each.
For condiments and seasonings—peanut oil, olive oil, chili oil, bean paste, salt, sugar, chicken essence, MSG, vinegar, soy sauce, cumin powder, Lao Gan Ma chili sauce, pepper powder, chili powder—she purchased 100 tons of each.
The total cost came to 560 million yuan.
Next, she needed to stockpile vegetables at various farmers’ markets.
Leafy vegetables: cabbage, spinach, lettuce, coriander, water spinach, celery—1,000 tons each.
Onion and garlic varieties: scallions, garlic, ginger, garlic sprouts—1,000 tons each.
Gourd and melon varieties: sponge gourd, winter melon, pumpkin, bitter melon, cucumber, corn—1,000 tons each.
Nightshades: tomatoes, eggplants, green peppers, red peppers—1,000 tons each.
Root vegetables: radish, carrots, bamboo shoots, lettuce stem—1,000 tons each.
Mushrooms: shiitake, button mushrooms, king oyster mushrooms, tea tree mushrooms, enoki mushrooms—1,000 tons each.
The total cost was 480 million yuan.
Such an abundant food supply was enough not only for the Su family of three plus the little monkey but could even meet the lifetime food needs of several hundred people.
In the apocalypse, food resources were especially tight.
Thinking that grain could be exchanged for more resources later, Su Mom considered this 1.1 billion yuan spend just like pouring water.
At noon, Su Yu and Su Mom gathered for lunch.
They exchanged information about the goods purchased that morning.
The basic grain reserves were already more than enough.
To be safe, they also put seeds on the shopping list.
Su Mom, in charge of buying seeds, didn’t pick and choose.
She purchased one ton each of various types of seeds.
As a biology PhD, she was skilled in planting vegetables and fruits.
At the same time, Su Mom bought nutrient soil, cultivation pots, shovels, watering cans, and other planting supplies.
The total cost was 4 million yuan.
Su Yu’s car was now parked near an orchard on the outskirts of the city.
She held a fruit purchase order in her hand.
Seasonal fruits included watermelon, yangmei (Chinese bayberry), peaches, mangoes, bananas, grapes—1,000 tons each.
For this orchard spanning thousands of acres, Su Yu’s purchase volume was entirely feasible.
The orchard owner, worth hundreds of millions, was an old gentleman.
He saw Su Yu come to buy fruit, with such a large quantity, and that she was young and pretty.
Her detailed purchase list even included a thorough survey of the orchard’s prices.
The old man smiled warmly and quite liked this kind of buyer.
“Miss, I have some pineapple strawberries I developed myself. Grandpa will give you some.”
Though he said “give you some,” the orchard workers soon delivered 1,000 jin (about 500 kg).
The old man’s smiling face made it hard for Su Yu to refuse directly.
Originally planning to negotiate the price down, Su Yu chose to remain silent, taking it as a thank-you gift for the pineapple strawberries.
Unexpectedly, when the orchard owner totaled the bill, he automatically gave Su Yu a discount.
The total cost was 130 million yuan.
Su Yu wasn’t one to talk much, but seeing the old man was a good match, she secretly advised, “The weather’s hot recently, fruit prices are high and selling well, so I bought more stock. Grandpa, you should also prepare more water and food at home to avoid rising market prices.”
The orchard was quite far from the city center.
As the orchard owner, the old man probably wasn’t short of food.
So Su Yu didn’t say more.
Seasonal fruits were easy to buy, but for off-season fruits, they could only be ordered online and wait for delivery.
Meanwhile, Su Yu also ordered durians from Thailand as a domestic fruit market owner.
Durian shells are heavy while the flesh is light, so she ordered 2,000 tons.
Also included were Thailand’s specialty fruits: wax apples, coconuts, ruby grapefruit, jade green pomelo, dragon palace fruit—1,000 tons each.
Including shipping fees and various customs duties, the total cost was 300 million yuan.
By this point, Su Mom and Su Yu had spent 2 billion yuan on stockpiling.
The sky was gradually darkening.
Su Yu listened to the music playing inside the car and turned up the air conditioning a few degrees.
Then she drove on the road home.
It was already nine o’clock at night, but the outdoor temperature showed no sign of dropping.
At 33°C, elderly people taking night walks were fanning themselves.
The summer heat was nothing unusual; for nearly ten years, August had always been unbearably hot.
People didn’t pay much attention to this heatwave.
No one would have guessed such extreme heat would continue to rise.
Thinking about the changes coming in the world, Su Yu knew they had to speed up stockpiling supplies.
The next day, Su Yu appeared at the snack wholesale market.
Cheese wafers, Shile potato chips, Good Times seaweed, caramel sunflower seeds, Star Cup snacks, dried plums, Xilang jelly, dried fruits, Youyou spicy chicken feet, chicken wings, Maisuli biscuits, shredded squid, fruit leather, Fude chocolate, Ziwang milk candy, pork jerky, and all kinds of snacks.
Su Yu bought 1,000 boxes of each.
Of course, this also included various instant foods: self-heating rice, self-heating hotpot, Yitong instant noodles, Haomei ham sausages, Kuan A spicy noodles—100 boxes of each.
Since the space contained plenty of staple foods, the Su family didn’t really need instant food.
So Su Yu only bought a small amount.
The wholesale market manager handled communication with the major suppliers; Su Yu didn’t have to place orders with each vendor herself.
The total cost came to 12 million yuan.
While settling the bill, the market manager exchanged a few words with Su Yu.
Su Yu casually gave an excuse, and the manager didn’t ask further.
But Su Yu still felt something was off.
Someone was watching her.
Removing her sunglasses, Su Yu saw the reflection in the lenses and understood.
She couldn’t help but smile slightly.
Su Yu drove on the road toward the warehouse.
Behind her car, more than a dozen large trucks loaded with snacks followed.
Soon they arrived at the warehouse.
More than a dozen young people got off the trucks.
They needed to unload and carry the goods inside.
“Miss Su, don’t leave just yet. Wait and check the goods. If anything’s missing later, no one will know who’s responsible.”
The leader, a dark-skinned young man, said to Su Yu.
Su Yu smiled slightly.
Of course, she wouldn’t leave.
Normally, unloading was their job, but the leader insisted she guide them.
He also worried she might leave.
Their calculations were sharp.
Su Yu crossed her legs and sat on a chair in the warehouse.
Better to clear some hidden risks right away.
The dark-skinned young man hummed a tune while moving boxes, clearly in a good mood.
“Qiang-ge, you go first, I’ll go second.”
He handed a cigarette to the dark-skinned young man, known as Qiang-ge.
At this moment, Qiang-ge was completely infatuated.
He didn’t think at all about the background of the person who could afford to buy all these supplies outright.
He just figured that even ten or so of them together could easily handle one little girl.
“Record a video later. She won’t dare call the police. Otherwise, such a beautiful woman’s reputation would be ruined.”
Qiang-ge gave his instructions.