Chapter 005: Stocking Up on Seasonings

Seasonings like vinegar, sugar, and salt theoretically don’t expire. As long as spices like star anise and cinnamon are kept dry, they’re fine too. These can be stored for a long time, so it’s worth stockpiling more in the villa’s basement without taking up precious space in her Rubik’s Cube space.

Jing Shu discreetly wiped the saliva from the corner of her mouth and said to the busy calculating lady boss, “I’ll take 1,000 catties of aged vinegar; 200 catties each of salt, soy sauce, white sugar, rock sugar, chicken essence, oyster sauce, and star anise; and 100 catties each of five-spice powder, cumin, Sichuan pepper powder, cinnamon powder, black pepper powder, baking soda, cooking wine, and cold-pressed sesame oil.”

Although the items were sold by weight, in reality, the vinegar came in 5-liter portable jugs, soy sauce and oyster sauce in 1-liter jugs, cooking wine and sesame oil in glass bottles, and the rest in 500-gram or 250-gram packages, making them very convenient to use.

The lady boss quickly wrote up the order, glanced up at Jing Shu, and asked, “Doubanjiang (fermented bean paste), chili sauce, and chili powder sell very well. Don’t you want some?”

Jing Shu thought for a moment. She planned to stockpile raw materials in the first month and process food in the second month. By then, she’d definitely pickle a lot of vegetables. She could make chili sauce from the peppers grown in her space. As for doubanjiang, she could make it too, but it wouldn’t taste like the store-bought kind.

“Then add another 200 catties of doubanjiang,” Jing Shu said, unconsciously swallowing a mouthful of saliva, which earned her a strange look from the lady boss. This girl had been swallowing saliva since she entered; could she be ill?

The lady boss continued calculating, and Jing Shu also started crunching numbers on her phone’s calculator. She wasn’t the type to accept whatever price the shopkeeper quoted.

“That’ll be 12,890 yuan in total!” Jing Shu announced first. The lady boss nodded, recalculated to confirm, and then said, “Orders over 10,000 yuan come with a free case of curry blocks.” Jing Shu immediately thought of curry chicken rice, and her mouth started watering again.

Jing Shu left her address, paid the money, received the receipt from the boss, exchanged phone numbers, and agreed on delivery before the end of the day. She happily left the shop and continued exploring.

With 1,630 yuan left, the vegetable stalls were already emptying, and the seasoning shops were starting to close. Jing Shu decided to make some additional purchases: she bought 10 catties of whole black peppercorns for 80 yuan—freshly ground over steak would be incredibly delicious; she wholesale-ordered 100 catties of brown sugar for 600 yuan and 150 jars of Wangzhihe fermented bean curd for 920 yuan, all to be delivered together by the seasoning shop.

With only 30 yuan left and the sky turning dark, Jing Shu took a taxi home.

When Jing’s father returned home from work today, he stealthily prepared to take out 500 yuan to buy a birthday gift for Old Sun’s son. However, when he opened his stash, there was only one 100-yuan bill left. His expression changed unpredictably—shocked, uneasy, and unwilling—all at once, probably recalling the fear of being dominated by the “demon king.”

When Jing Shu arrived home, she saw her father sitting on the bedside with a constipated expression, sighing and hesitating whether to confess to Jing’s mother. Jing’s mother was cooking in the kitchen. “You little rascal, always come home right at mealtime.”

Smelling the aroma mixed with a burnt scent, her mother’s cooking skills were as bad as ever. Looking at her mother’s still relatively young and pretty face from ten years ago, Jing Shu felt a lump in her throat, not daring to imagine how her mother would look ten years later—aged, with white hair and malnourished, gaunt cheeks.

Suppressing her emotions only strengthened Jing Shu’s resolve to sell the house and car to stockpile supplies, determined not only to keep the family well-fed during the apocalypse but also to live a good life.

Just after dinner, the deliveries of mushroom kits and seasonings arrived together. Under her parents’ puzzled gazes, Jing Shu had all twenty-some large boxes moved into her bedroom. She then took out the contract to show her parents and explained, “Zhu Zhengqi helped me find a marketing team. They said they’d package me into a gourmet internet celebrity, live-streaming while selling food. So this afternoon, I went to wholesale seasonings.”

Since she couldn’t let her parents know about the space, she had to openly explain the reason for stockpiling supplies to avoid arousing suspicion in the future. Jing Shu felt she was a genius for coming up with this plan that killed three birds with one stone.

“Why did you buy so much? Can you use it all?” As the family cook, her mother was always concerned about economic issues.

“Won’t hundreds of jars of pickled vegetables need thousands of catties of vinegar?” Jing Shu pulled her parents aside and explained the process of building a persona, hype, hiring internet trolls, how much it costs, how to accept advertisements once she became popular, and how profitable it could be.

Just like in her previous life, her parents immediately started figuring out how to help their daughter with her career, not wanting to worry about her future once she succeeded.

Jing Shu added, “A rich second-generation making and selling gourmet food by herself—this kind of persona needs to be live-streamed from the villa. We also need to renovate some areas of the villa.”

“Alright, tomorrow I’ll find people for you. Labor and materials will be at cost. Once the money is freed up, we’ll renovate as you wish,” her father agreed without hesitation. He always unconditionally supported the three women in his life, no matter what they wanted to do.

“Let’s sell that commercial property and my car,” her father decided, making the same choice as in her previous life without hesitation.

“We can sell my car too, but we’re still short by 600,000 yuan,” her mother said worriedly. “How about selling this apartment and moving to the villa?”

“Commuting from the villa to work is over 30 kilometers; that won’t do,” her father objected, mainly because the villa was too remote.

Jing Shu suggested, “The contract says we need to pay an 800,000 yuan deposit within three days. Why don’t we sell the commercial property and Dad’s car first to pay the deposit? If we don’t have enough time, we can borrow some emergency funds from Aunt, Uncle, and my aunts. We have a month to gather the rest.”

In this life, Jing Shu no longer felt any guilt about spending her parents’ money; instead, she was excited. She wanted her parents to see her aunt’s true colors through the act of borrowing money.

So they agreed on this plan. They immediately registered the sale information on 58.com, setting lower prices due to urgency and requiring full payment. Jing Shu aimed to attract wealthy buyers, leaving ordinary people out of it.

“Dad, look, it’s Uncle Sun’s son’s 23rd birthday today. Did you give him a gift?” Jing Shu showed her father a picture from her social media feed.

“Not giving one this year,” her father said gloomily. With his secret stash gone, what could he give?

“Oh, Dad, look! Uncle Sun’s son just got a new Mercedes-Benz and said, ‘Thanks to Dad for the birthday gift! So lavish.'” After saying this, Jing Shu saw her father’s face darken. Knowing when to stop, she quickly left. “Uncle Sun, who owes you 100,000 yuan, better cough it up soon.”

Back in her bedroom, Jing Shu closed the door. She first stored the mushroom kits, which occupied one cubic meter in her space, then moved all the boxes into her Rubik’s Cube space. Using her perspective ability, she checked everything: the unopened packages of salt, chicken essence, sesame oil—all quantities were correct and the dates were fresh. Only after confirming did she place them back in her bedroom. Although 3,000 catties of seasonings sounded like a lot, stacked high, they only formed three rows and didn’t take up much space. Jing Shu marked off the items she’d purchased on her phone’s checklist, noting quantities and adding curry blocks (100 boxes per case), 10 catties of black peppercorns, 100 catties of brown sugar, 150 jars of Wangzhihe fermented bean curd, and 22 mushroom kits.

Organizing her stockpile was Jing Shu’s happiest time; it was like counting money every day.

—

Author’s Note:

All the prices have been verified and researched, referencing previous wholesale prices. Every amount of money spent has been carefully calculated, real and effective—not randomly written. O(∩_∩)O