After that, Shen Zhiyao went to the furniture wholesale market, found the owner, and placed orders for all kinds of furniture—most importantly, beds, sofas, dining tables, chairs, coffee tables, TV cabinets, wardrobes, washstands, computer desks, office desks, bookshelves, and safes. Everywhere she went, she bought everything in sight, 100 of each item, before stopping. Once the furniture arrived in her space, she used her mind to decorate each room: a bedroom with an extra-large bed, a study, two walk-in closets, a medical room for future emergencies, a toy room in case she ever married and had children, and a home theater. Once everything was arranged, she stored the remaining furniture and appliances in the home appliance warehouse and finally nodded in satisfaction.
On the third day in G City, she visited a furniture factory. She bought 1,000 sets of curtains in various colors, 10,000 modern bedding sets, 10,000 sets of vintage-style bedding, and 10,000 quilts each weighing 6, 8, 10, and 12 jin, including cotton, down, and silk quilts. She also purchased all the factory’s leftover fabrics—wool, felt, and even older stocks of durable cotton fabrics from previous years. The factory director laughed so hard that three pimples popped on his face. He tried to persuade her about the cotton, but although it wasn’t as cheap as the cotton in X Province, it was still a good deal, so she bought 10,000 jin.
On the fourth day, she went to a food production factory. She bought 100,000 boxes each of instant noodles, snail noodles, self-heating rice, self-heating hotpot, Chongqing noodles, dry noodles, claypot rice, glutinous rice balls, frozen dumplings, hot-and-sour noodles, scallion oil noodles, and more. She also visited a sugar factory nearby, buying 100,000 jin each of white sugar, brown sugar, White Rabbit candy, fruit candies, and lollipops—because with these, you could never buy too much. In the afternoon, she went to a beverage factory, ordering 10,000 cases of bottled water, 10,000 barrels of bulk water, 100,000 cases of soda, various juices, and calcium-fortified milk.
The fifth day was Shen Zhiyao’s last day in G City, and she planned to stockpile clothing and shoes. She bought for all seasons, all styles, for men, women, and children, every size: underwear, socks, military coats, vintage leather shoes, liberation shoes, and modern shoes and sports sneakers—all in quantities of tens of thousands. She stocked handbags, pajamas, and even lingerie, red-faced, but didn’t care—she decided only other people’s embarrassment mattered, not hers.
That night, she didn’t stay at a hotel, instead entering her space to rest. She arranged beds, hung curtains, organized her favorite clothing in one walk-in closet, vintage clothing in another, and neatly displayed all shoes. The remaining items went into the clothing warehouse. She took a long shower, cuddled Bai Bai, set an alarm, and fell asleep. The next morning, upon waking, her exhaustion vanished, perhaps thanks to the exceptionally fresh air inside the space.
Next, she traveled to Y City, famous nationwide for small commodities. She spent a full 100 million yuan buying all sorts of items and purchased thousands of 1970s-era sewing machines, bicycles, watches, radios, TVs, and small green refrigerators, clearing out entire factories. She also stocked 10,000 boxes of period-specific creams and clamshell oil, and enough cookware to last several lifetimes. Without pause, she booked a flight to X City, known for cosmetics with fewer counterfeits. She stocked thousands of sets of her favorite brands, such as La Mer, and tens of thousands of toothpaste, toothbrushes, face washes, hand creams, body lotions, shampoos, conditioners, shower gels, baby diapers, and milk powder of all ages. Of course, she also continued collecting night market delicacies. The shelves she ordered in G City were already nearly full.
She then went to C Province, where she indulged in the most famous hotpot, buying thousands of pounds of hotpot base, various meatballs, meat rolls, shrimp paste, and tripe. Whatever she saw, she bought—never feeling like it was enough.
Next, she went to S Province, the provincial capital. She found the largest printing factory and bought all kinds of books, textbooks, magazines, even manuals on postnatal sow care, spending a total of 30 million yuan. All the books were stored in her book warehouse.
Within one month, her rice, vegetable, meat, fruit, clothing, seed, daily necessities, vintage items, small commodities, furniture and appliance, semi-prepared food, beverage, and prepared food warehouses—all 10-plus in total—were completely filled. During this month, she photographed everything she passed in every city, documenting the country’s prosperity. If she met him again, she would show him how beautifully the country had developed, a lifetime of blessing to be born in China.
With just over 20 days until her traversal, she had spent 3.5 billion yuan. Weapons, vehicles, gasoline, and medicine remained to be purchased—another 2 billion would cover it. These items were difficult to buy domestically, so she planned to purchase them abroad. She decided to visit R Country for a major operation.
First, she went to D Country, spending 100 million yuan on several apocalypse-ready RVs, off-road vehicles, pickups, and motorcycles. Though she might not have a chance to use them, she had previously stocked dozens of similar trucks in China, which was enough. She also spent 300 million yuan to purchase three helicopters and a luxury yacht—things to leave for her children decades later.
Next, she went to S Country and bought 100 million yuan worth of fuel—domestic oil was indeed cheaper than water. With 15 days remaining, she went to M Country, contacted a local classmate through his family, and acquired an intermediary to purchase 1.5 billion yuan worth of military supplies: cold weapons like Tang swords, knuckle knives, claw knives, and Nepalese machetes; firearms including pistols, submachine guns, shotguns, sniper rifles, assault rifles, Gatling guns, grenades, landmines, bullets, bulletproof vests—everything imaginable. She also spent another 100 million yuan via the intermediary to buy medicines, both internal and external, as well as dozens of surgical instruments, filling her medical warehouse. Thirteen days later, the arms, medical, and transport warehouses were fully stocked.
She spent the remaining 500 million yuan to buy gold, jade, diamonds, and other valuables from underground markets, leaving just 100,000 yuan for plane tickets. Her final destination was R Country.
After more than ten hours of flight, she arrived in R Country and went straight to the ports. Collecting everything was too tedious to do normally, so she planned to spend two days acquiring the country’s five largest ports. Under the cover of darkness, dressed all in black with a mask and hat, wearing ice skates to move swiftly, she transported all the containers to her space’s mountain before dawn. By the time R Country noticed and shut down transport, Shen Zhiyao was already on a plane back home.
Finally, Shen Zhiyao decided to return to her hometown, the place she was born and where she wanted to leave. But unexpectedly, something happened on the plane—a thunderstorm she couldn’t fly through caused the plane to plummet. In her panic, she forgot to return to her space. She felt herself entering a black hole, and when she opened her eyes again, she had already traversed to the past.