Smack!
The priceless A4 sheet in Fatty Wang’s hand fluttered to the ground like a kite with its string cut.
The color instantly drained from his plump face. His lips trembled as his eyes locked onto Lin Qi as though he had seen a ghost in broad daylight.
“F… fi… fifty thousand tons?!”
His voice had completely changed pitch, shrill like a duck getting its neck stepped on. He slapped his thigh violently and gulped down a mouthful of cold tea before barely suppressing his racing heartbeat.
“Boss Lin, you’re not messing with me, are you? Does this order say fifty thousand jin… or fifty thousand tons?!”
Fifty thousand jin would merely make someone a major client. Fatty Wang could pull that from his warehouse immediately.
But fifty thousand tons?!
That was a full hundred million jin of rice!
Enough to feed a medium-sized city for several months!
Even if he emptied the entire inventory of every merchant in Wanhui International Grain & Oil City, he still wouldn’t have half that amount! It would take dozens of freight trains just to transport it all!
Leaning back in her chair, Lin Qi watched Fatty Wang’s horrified expression with cold amusement hidden beneath her baseball cap.
In her previous life, during the third month of the extreme cold apocalypse, a moldy biscuit had been worth a human life.
For half a handful of sand-mixed sorghum rice, human nature had completely collapsed.
And now—
What she intended to buy was enough carbohydrates to feed herself into her next life.
“Boss Wang, do I look like I’m joking with you?”
Lin Qi’s voice remained perfectly calm as she lightly tapped the million yuan in cash on the table with her slender fingers.
“I already told you. This is an emergency wartime procurement order from an international organization, and it’s being shipped to a politically unstable warzone in Africa. This is only part of the quantity. There’s more to come.”
“If you think you can’t handle it, I can easily find someone else. I’m sure plenty of people across the southern provinces would love to swallow a piece of meat this big.”
“No, no, no! Ancestor Lin, please don’t leave!”
The moment he heard she might switch suppliers, the last trace of rationality in Fatty Wang’s mind was instantly devoured by overwhelming greed.
After twenty years in the grain and oil business, he understood exactly how terrifying the profit margins on this deal would be.
If he completed this order, not only could he retire immediately—he’d become a legend in the southern grain trade!
“I can handle it! Even if I have to wear down the thresholds of every processing factory in several provinces, even if I have to drink every state reserve manager under the table, I’ll gather the goods for you!”
Fatty Wang’s fat shook violently with excitement as he hurriedly picked up the A4 sheet from the floor like it was an imperial decree and carefully continued reading.
But the contents that followed nearly sent his blood pressure through the roof.
【Premium High-Gluten Flour: 30,000 Tons】
【Premium Cold-Pressed Peanut Oil: 10,000 Tons】
【Non-GMO Soybean Oil: 10,000 Tons】
【Cornmeal, Millet, Sorghum Rice, Mung Beans, Red Beans, Soybeans: 1,000 Tons Each】
“Hiss—”
Fatty Wang sucked in a cold breath, feeling as though his worldview had just been nuked.
“Boss… Boss Lin…” He swallowed hard, his hands shaking like a Parkinson’s patient while holding the list. “T-this is too insane! Forget helping Africa—this is enough supplies to found an entirely new country!”
Rice. Flour. Cooking oil. Mixed grains…
The list practically covered every essential carbohydrate and fat source needed for human survival.
And every number was suffocatingly massive.
“Don’t ask questions you shouldn’t ask. Remember what I told you earlier—I only care about results.”
Lin Qi cut off his shock. Her gaze was like tangible blades of ice stabbing toward him.
“All rice and flour must use thick moisture-proof vacuum packaging. Fifty-jin bags for easy transport and unloading. Every barrel of cooking oil must be sealed in ten-jin iron containers. Absolutely no damage allowed.”
In the apocalypse, nothing was more terrifying than damp or moldy supplies.
Even though her space maintained absolute stasis, damaged packaging exposed to alternating extreme heat and freezing cold could still spoil once removed.
“Understood! Moisture-proof vacuum packaging! Sealed iron barrels! Everything will be handled at the highest standard!”
Fatty Wang now looked at Lin Qi as though she were a glowing God of Wealth.
“However…” He rubbed his hands together, revealing the shrewdness of a businessman. “Boss Lin, you understand that moving this amount of goods will involve astronomical logistics and coordination costs. Regarding the funds…”
Lin Qi let out a cold laugh.
She had expected this question.
Without hesitation, she pulled out her black-and-gold Swiss Supreme Bank card and slapped it onto the nanmu tea table.
“There’s over ten billion in liquid cash sitting in this card. I’m paying the full amount upfront.”
“F-full payment?!”
Fatty Wang nearly had a heart attack.
In a business circle where delayed payments and IOUs were the norm, someone placing an order this huge and paying in full immediately?!
It felt like an entire mountain of gold and silver had fallen from the sky and smashed into his head.
“Calculate the total,” Lin Qi urged coldly.
Fatty Wang instantly came alive as though injected with adrenaline. He pulled out a calculator and hammered away at the buttons so quickly his fingers became a blur.
“Wuchang rice at wholesale base price—3.5 yuan per jin… flour at 2.8… peanut oil…”
Ten minutes later, drenched in sweat, Fatty Wang finally quoted a number.
“Boss Lin, I’ve already given you the absolute lowest wholesale prices! The total for this batch of staple foods and grain oils is… thirty-eight billion five hundred million yuan!”
After naming the price, he nervously watched Lin Qi’s expression.
Even for someone with over ten billion in cash, this was still nearly four billion in hard currency!
But Lin Qi didn’t even blink.
Not only did she not bargain—
She pushed the Swiss bank card further forward.
“Swipe it.”
Beep—
As the POS machine printed the successful transaction receipt, Fatty Wang stared at the solid thirty-eight billion five hundred million yuan deposited into his account.
His legs nearly gave out beneath him.
“Boss… Boss Lin! You’re my living ancestor!”
Holding the transaction receipt with both hands, he was so excited he could barely speak coherently.
“Don’t worry! I’m issuing orders immediately! I’ll mobilize every logistics fleet across the province and have them hauling goods from every major grain depot twenty-four hours a day!”
“Speed matters. I rented a fifty-thousand-square-meter logistics warehouse. I’ll send you the address later.”
Lin Qi stood up, looking down at him from above.
“By eight tonight, I want to see at least two thousand tons of supplies inside the warehouse. If you fail, I withdraw my investment immediately.”
The apocalypse was getting closer and closer.
She had no extra time to waste.
“Mission guaranteed completed! The first batch of twenty thousand tons of rice and flour will arrive by eight tonight sharp!”
Fatty Wang slapped his chest in assurance, his mind already flooded with visions of the terrifying commission profits this deal would bring.
“Good.”
Lin Qi nodded and turned to leave.
But just as she reached the shop entrance, she suddenly paused and looked back at Fatty Wang.
“Oh right, Boss Wang.”
A trace of extreme madness flashed through her eyes, as though she had just remembered something she desperately craved.
“Besides staple foods… how are your seasonings sold here?”
Fatty Wang froze for a moment before exploding with delight.
The God of Wealth wanted to add more orders?!
“Yes, yes, yes! In Wanhui Grain & Oil City, if I say I’m second, no one dares claim first! Boss Lin, what seasonings do you need?”
Lin Qi didn’t answer immediately.
Instead, she walked back to the tea table.
She knew staple foods could keep people alive.
But in those hopeless frozen wastelands and rotten floodwaters, the only thing capable of soothing humanity’s collapsing minds was intensely stimulating flavor.
Especially—
Salt.
After the apocalypse erupted, seawater became contaminated by nuclear waste and unknown viruses. Inland salt lakes dried up and froze solid. Even acid rain corroded every exposed surface resource.
Salt would become a strategic hard currency ten times more valuable than rice!
Without salt, people would swell up, lose strength, and become too weak to even lift weapons against zombies and marauders.
“Bring me paper and a pen.”
Lin Qi’s voice sounded like a whisper from hell itself.
The next string of numbers would once again challenge Fatty Wang’s mental limits.
“Iodized refined salt, highest-grade moisture-proof packaging…”
She paused briefly before speaking each word slowly and clearly:
“Prepare ten thousand tons for me.”
The blood pressure Fatty Wang had just barely stabilized exploded once more with a loud boom.