“Extreme cold and blizzards? How much snow? How cold?” Wang Bantong grinned. Just as he’d thought, a child.
To still believe such talk. Even at the coldest point of winter around here it was only about minus 5°C, how could there possibly be a blizzard? “Girl, you must have been fooled by someone. Never mind, since you’ve come all this way to my door, I’ll sell you one.”
Having finished teasing the child, Wang Bantong got up and led her into the room to fetch a stove.
“Sir, I really wasn’t lying to you.” Ye Yi knew that whatever she said, no one would believe it, but she kept thinking that if one more person knew and prepared a little earlier, then maybe a few more would survive.
She didn’t dare go to the local authorities with it, after all, she had no proof of her words, and she couldn’t very well say she wasn’t from this world. If she did, the most likely outcome was being locked up and sliced apart for research.
Wang Bantong carried out a stove as big as a water bucket and set it beside the girl, then earnestly advised her, “Little miss, better not believe those strange claims. Oh, right, this stove is very heavy. How are you going to carry it away?”
Talk like that couldn’t even fool an old man like him, how had a young girl been taken in?
“Sir, I’d like some of the honeycomb coal in the courtyard too. Do you sell it?” Knowing the old man before her didn’t believe her, Ye Yi didn’t press the point further.
Just wait, soon he’d know she really hadn’t been lying!
“That? One yuan apiece.” Wang Bantong said offhandedly.
“That expensive? Then how much for the stove?” Ye Yi didn’t expect a single honeycomb briquette to cost so much. But there was no help for it, if she didn’t want to freeze to death, she had to buy them.
“If you’re buying the coal, I’ll give you a discount on the stove, 50.” Wang Bantong looked the girl over, she didn’t seem to have much money, so he dropped the price. To him it was only a matter of earning more or less anyway.
He wasn’t short of that little bit of money.
Ye Yi did a quick calculation: she still had 320 yuan on her. After buying the stove she’d have 270, enough for about 100 briquettes. With what was left she’d need to buy a small knife for self-defense, plus some meat and fish.
She thought for a moment, then, afraid the old man would think it too few, asked quietly, “Sir, I want 100 briquettes, is that all right?”
“A hundred? What’s a young girl buying that many for?” Wang Bantong was startled. He’d assumed the girl was buying for fun and never imagined she’d want so many.
“Didn’t I say? Extreme cold and blizzards are coming, so I’m buying them to stay warm.” Ye Yi told the old man the truth again, even though he probably now took her for someone with a screw loose.
Wang Bantong didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. The girl really was single-track in the head, he’d told her someone had fooled her, and she still believed there’d be extreme cold and blizzards.
So he simply went along with her logic and thought up something else for her. “For warmth, you’d do better to buy a fire basin than a stove.”
“A fire basin? What’s it look like? Is it warmer than a stove?” Ye Yi asked curiously. Childhood was too long ago, she didn’t quite remember how they’d kept warm back then.
“Warmer, of course. The hole in the middle of a stove is smaller, it can only hold briquettes. A fire basin is bigger, it can burn coal or wood. Put a rack on top and you can boil water and cook.” Wang Bantong recommended it. Most importantly, it was cheap.
“So do you have a fire basin, sir?” Ye Yi looked down at the stove at her feet. The hole in the middle was a bit small, her place was so large that one little stove might not be warm enough.
“I do.”
“I want one. How much?”
“25 apiece.” Wang Bantong turned back into the room and brought out a stainless-steel fire basin bigger than an ordinary washbasin, about 60 centimeters tall, with a grilling grate on top.
Looking at the actual thing, Ye Yi found it very good and nodded with satisfaction. A fire basin this big would definitely be enough to hold the boards she gathered.
“Then you won’t need the stove, will you?” Seeing how pleased the girl was with the fire basin, Wang Bantong made to take the stove back, so she’d lose a little less money.
“I do want it, I’ll take both, sir. Just add it all up!” Ye Yi hurriedly stopped him, afraid he’d suddenly refuse to sell.
In the end Ye Yi spent 175, buying a stove, a fire basin, and 100 honeycomb briquettes.
Unable to think of any other way, Wang Bantong walked into the courtyard, counted out 100 briquettes, stacked them in the middle of the yard, and said, “This much coal, how are you going to carry it away?”
Looking at all these things, he didn’t believe the girl could haul it all off by herself. When her family’s grown-ups came, he’d have a good talk with them, watch the girl closely, don’t let her get taken in.
Once Ye Yi confirmed the old man had counted correctly, she stepped up to him and said, “Sir, didn’t you not believe what I said just now? I think that after you see this, you’ll definitely believe me.”
With that, ignoring the old man’s reaction, she placed her hand on the briquettes and stored them all in the fifth slot of the system Backpack. Then she put the stove and the fire basin into the system Backpack too, taking up the sixth and seventh slots.
While the old man stood dumbstruck, Ye Yi opened the courtyard gate and walked out.
Only outside did she realize the sky had begun to darken, storm clouds spread across the whole heavens, and a great many small birds were spreading their wings and flying south. The sky looked very wrong.
Seeing this, Ye Yi’s heart lurched. The blizzard wasn’t about to arrive, was it?
She hurried to make the most of her time and leave. She hadn’t gone far when a man in a tracksuit came toward her. Ye Yi couldn’t help lifting her eyes to glance at him, and stopped. This young fellow really was good-looking.
Although his hair was in a buzz cut and he wore an ordinary tracksuit, nothing could hide that tough-guy air about him. He walked with vigor and gave off a reliable feeling.
A town like this had such a handsome young man?
She instinctively lowered her gaze to his wrist, but the tracksuit sleeve blocked it, so there was no way to tell whether he was a native.
Forget it. There were thousands upon thousands of good-looking men, in the face of survival, all of it was passing clouds.
Thinking of her still-unresolved Survival Points, she kept her eyes fixed ahead and, forcing herself to stay composed, continued hurrying back.
She’d been out nearly till noon, and the sky looked bad, she needed to pick up the pace. She hadn’t gone a few steps before her stomach began to growl.
She spotted a bakery by the roadside and spent 10 yuan on a loaf of bread with ten slices in it. She ate four slices, felt a little full, and stopped, the rest could still make a meal or two.
“Er’gou, stop running around and barking.” Not far off, a woman held her dog’s leash as it suddenly began running about wildly. The little dog dashing and yapping up ahead seemed to have been spooked by something. Before long, the other leashed dogs began running and barking wildly too.
The whole scene descended into chaos at once. Watching what was unfolding before her, Ye Yi mused: usually before a disaster, animals had a premonition. Was the blizzard really about to arrive?
She carefully skirted around them and hurried toward the vegetable market not far ahead.
Walking into the market, she found it bustling with people coming and going, both natives and outsiders. The natives who knew each other chatted, all at leisure. The outsiders rushed in and out, in a great hurry.
Had she come a step too late? She quickly asked an auntie beside her where the meat was sold, then jogged over, only to find a long line already formed.
Ye Yi picked a line where there was still plenty of meat and, while waiting, thought about what else she needed to buy.
As it happened, right next to the line was the fish stall. She hailed the vendor and bought three big grass carp for 25 yuan, then asked him to gut and clean them for her.
Some outsiders saw this and bought some fish too. Before long the vendor’s fish were all sold out.
After about ten minutes in line, it was finally Ye Yi’s turn.
The plump uncle in an apron called out in a rough voice, “Little miss, take a look, which piece do you want?”
Ye Yi looked down. There wasn’t much meat left on the stall, and nothing much to choose from, so she just casually pointed at two pieces marbled with fat and lean. “Uncle, these two, please.”
“Righto.” The plump uncle picked up the two pieces she’d pointed at, put them on the scale, and entered the price.
While Ye Yi waited, she didn’t even ask the price per catty, she just looked at the figure on the scale: 90 yuan.
Before the uncle could speak, she took out 100 in cash, handed it over, and took the plastic bag of meat.
Taking the cash, the uncle muttered in puzzlement as he made change, “Why’s everyone paying cash today?”
“Here, 10 yuan change.”
Ye Yi took the money, said nothing more, and turned to leave. In a crowded, prying place, it was better to keep a low profile.
She found a small shop and spent 10 yuan on a long fruit knife. With the last 20 yuan she went to the frozen section and bought some frozen food.
The market was too crowded, with nowhere to duck away from the crowd. Ye Yi could only find a restroom, hide inside, put the meat, fish, and frozen food into one plastic bag, and store it in the system Backpack.
She opened the wristband to check the system Backpack, a single plastic bag showed in the eighth slot. Glancing at the Backpack, there were only two slots left before it was full. Ye Yi looked at the fruit knife in her hand, thought about it, and put it in the ninth slot.
Now there was only one slot left in the system Backpack. In the course of storing things she’d learned one more thing: when different items were placed in one bag, the system counted them as a single bag.
Later, if she had money, she could buy more identical boxes, put items inside them, and then store the boxes in the Backpack, that way she could stash even more supplies.
She just didn’t know how many identical items could stack in one slot. Based on her gaming experience, it should be able to stack up to 100.
Ye Yi patted her own head. If she’d thought of it earlier, she could have bought one extra briquette to test with.
Having finished everything, she at last felt safe enough to open the restroom door, checked that no one was around, and carefully stepped out.
Crossing the market hall, before she even reached the exit she heard the crowd outside screaming frantically and a crackling, clattering sound of impacts overhead.
What was happening?
The crowd fell into chaos at once. Those inside wanted to go out to see what was going on, while those outside frantically squeezed in. Ye Yi was jostled back and forth by the crowd, shoved all the way to the very edge, and, looking up, could just make out the sky outside.