Chapter 022: Are You the Devil? Buying So Many Things

She needed to stock up on enough lighters and matches. During escapes or when living in open spaces, lighting matches to start fires for cooking would be convenient.

In the years following the apocalypse, there would be no water, electricity, or gas supply. Everyday items like lighters, wood, and all combustible materials will be exchanged for work points and food. Even lighting a fire would become difficult.

Many small things in life are only appreciated when you’ve lost them.

Like kitchen knives and machetes.

If her family had a few knives in her previous life, they wouldn’t have been beaten to death with sticks and glass bottles. The half-year of riots after the apocalypse was terrifying, and countless people were bloodily suppressed later on.

At the same time, China introduced new laws: all kitchen knives, machetes, iron scissors, and iron rods could be exchanged for half a mouthful of coarse grain. The state would melt them down to produce materials for the artificial sun.

Every household exchanged their knives for coarse grains. People would even search flooded and collapsed houses for them.

In less than three months, kitchen knives had almost disappeared in China.

If Jing Shu admired anyone after the apocalypse, it was still the Communist Party. While foreign countries were in chaos, the domestic scene was harmonious. As for murder and robbery, you’d need weapons, right? Guns were strictly controlled, kitchen knives were exchanged for coarse grain, and wooden sticks were used as fuel.

You could use a broken chair as a weapon, but you’d probably be reported before you even get there. Reporting someone could earn you one work point, which could be exchanged for half a mouthful of food.

Fine, even if you insisted on robbery—for what? To rob people? Not everyone has bathed or changed clothes for years; if you could stand it, the other party might be willing.

Rob food? Anyone who could venture out to dig up rotten roots had nothing to eat. Instead of risking being reported and having your whole family sent for re-education, you might as well look for bugs—it’s faster.

The state not only deprived you of weapons for robbery but also took away your reasons for it. Being able to live like a salted fish was already good enough.

In this life, Jing Shu bought many sets of machetes and large kitchen knives.

She also went to the black market and spent 500,000 yuan to buy some prohibited repeating crossbows and arrows, preparing for the half-year of darkness where humanity lost its morality, and home invasions, robberies, and murders were rampant. Jing Shu thought it would be best to get two guns, but unfortunately, she had no channels… Should she steal one?

She bought seven military tents that were banned from sale—waterproof, windproof, breathable, weighing 3.5 kg, and easy to set up with a single pull. She spent a total of 120,000 yuan. Even if they had to sleep in the open during an earthquake, they could rest comfortably!

Then there were large outdoor backpacks, down sleeping bags, moisture-proof mats, windproof clothing, fully enclosed spacesuits, various warm and waterproof shoes, climbing ropes, safety harnesses, ascenders, descenders—all useful for climbing and escaping after the apocalypse. Snowshoes, mountain goggles, down jackets and pants, cookware, stoves, multifunctional kettles, and other outdoor gear—essential for post-apocalyptic migration!

Additionally, she bought some fuel canisters and kerosene for heating food and staying warm anytime. Jing Shu couldn’t help but sigh that outdoor enthusiasts were truly wealthy; a random windproof jacket cost over a thousand yuan, and a good set of equipment would be at least 100,000 yuan.

She spent a total of 500,000 yuan on outdoor supplies, storing them all in the storage room of her large bedroom on the second floor, given their quantity and variety.

She also bought the latest gasoline generator, which was very quiet and had a long lifespan.

She made multiple trips to various gas stations, purchasing 10,000 liters of 95-octane gasoline in batches, spending 45,000 yuan. This used up 10 cubic meters of Jing Shu’s space (1 cubic meter = 1,000 liters).

If her Rubik’s Cube space could upgrade before the apocalypse, she would store more gasoline. Then she could use a hybrid car.

Jing Shu spent an entire day buying frozen foods, filling four commercial freezers, and also filling the villa’s original refrigerator.

She hadn’t dared to buy frozen foods before because she knew they were the most expensive…

First, she bought her favorite Yuqing sausages. The pure meat sausages sold for 10 yuan each in supermarkets; the wholesale price was 4.8 yuan per sausage. Jing Shu bought 8,000 sausages, equivalent to 200 boxes, spending 38,400 yuan.

After eating Yuqing sausages, she never wanted to eat the 2-yuan sausages again.

She bought 1,000 pounds each of compressed beef and mutton. After the apocalypse, she could use a meat slicer to cut them into beef and mutton slices for a hot pot, dipping them in sesame oil and garlic sauce… Alright, that alone cost 100,000 yuan.

She purchased top-quality pure beef steaks, including T-bone, ribeye, filet mignon, sirloin, and strip steaks—a total of 8,000 steaks, spending 240,000 yuan.

Of course, a steak must be paired with a sausage and a fried egg to have soul… *Slurp*.

Ice cream was life-saving in the first year of the apocalypse. She bought 120 buckets of 9-liter Häagen-Dazs ice cream at 1,300 yuan per bucket, filling 1 cubic meter of space and half a refrigerator, and spent 156,000 yuan.

Since she was already here, why not buy some ingredients that would no longer be available after the apocalypse? She had beef and mutton slices in a hot pot; why not get some side dishes?

So Jing Shu bought various hot pot ingredients, like fish tofu, beef balls, shrimp balls, fish balls, rice cakes, and broad vermicelli. She also bought 200 convenient self-heating hot pots at 30 yuan each.

What if she craved KFC in the apocalypse? KFC also uses various brands of frozen products. Jing Shu found and bought them all: French fries, popcorn chicken, chicken wings, bacon, chicken strips, crispy chicken nuggets, and skewered meat, all in several boxes.

Pizza Hut’s pizzas, egg tarts, cheese, and butter for pan-fried steaks were must-haves, though very expensive.

Finally, she swept up some pastries like glutinous rice balls, wontons, dumplings, mooncakes, and frozen cakes. Seeing that over a million yuan had dwindled to just over 200,000 yuan, Jing Shu quickly stopped, as she’d need money for other things later.

Jing Shu really wanted to say to herself, “Are you the devil? Buying so many things.”

Finally, before the 21st, she had stored everything that needed storing and bought everything that needed buying. After all, she couldn’t have a pond full of fish appear today and a bunch of chickens and ducks appear tomorrow while her grandparents were staying.

After the kitchen renovation, the villa’s kitchen became much larger. Jing Shu packed dried goods, flour, rice, and grains into 60-liter boxes, filling the cabinets. On top of the cabinets were various bulk seasonings she’d taken out. Four large refrigerators were lined up against what used to be the dining room.

Chicken, duck, and quail eggs were neatly packed, forming three tall stacks of egg cartons.

Beside them were boxes of 60-liter space-grown vegetables like chili peppers, mustard greens, cabbage, and white radish that wouldn’t spoil easily, filling half the kitchen and finally saving Jing Shu some space.

A door was opened in one corner of the kitchen, leading directly to the villa’s backyard boiler room, where there were two more stoves for cooking.

Even though the supplies were in the cabinets and refrigerators, Jing Shu still installed a security door for the large 40-plus-square-meter kitchen, forming an independent room. In the apocalypse, she’d lock the door, and no one would know what was inside.

Early this morning, Jing Shu brought a car full of luggage and her grandparents to the villa, starting her plan to make chili sauce and kimchi… Ahem, investing 2 million yuan into her live-streaming career! It’s a career!

Grandma and Grandpa Jing were very excited, asking many questions, but Grandpa Jing’s focus was clearly different. For example, “If I become popular and everyone likes me, but you’re not popular, what will we do?”

Jing Shu: “…” Grandpa, aren’t you overthinking this?

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Author’s Note:

I can’t see the cover I made myself. Has any cutie seen it? Give me a shout.