Chapter 6: Becoming a Hamster

Two hours later.

After inspecting several warehouses, Jiang Yan and Du Zitong regrouped in front of the largest, but most remote, warehouse.

“Yan-jie, this warehouse should meet your requirements best. Back when your family’s courier company was still around, this was one of their transit warehouses, so the surrounding transportation is very convenient, and it’s well-sealed. The only downside is that there’s surveillance inside. If you want it removed, we might need to compensate the owner a bit,” Du Zitong explained as he opened the warehouse door. “Also, there are a bunch of shelves inside. I think they’re from a supermarket that closed down and are being stored here temporarily while the owner looks for a buyer. But if you need the space, they can clear everything out for you within a day.”

Jiang Yan glanced inside and was secretly delighted.

Talk about a pillow showing up when you’re sleepy!

This warehouse was indeed huge, and it had all the necessary loading docks and facilities.

All the bulk orders she’d be placing in the coming days could be delivered here.

As for the shelves inside, Jiang Yan took a quick look—they were all top quality, with extra-thick steel plates, and looked practically brand new.

They’d be perfect for her storage space.

Plus, since they were second-hand, the price should be reasonable.

“They’re planning to sell these shelves?” she asked.

“Yes, Yan-jie,” Du Zitong replied, a bit puzzled.

Jiang Yan smiled and waved her hand. “I’ll take them all!”

“Are you sure, Yan-jie?” Du Zitong was stunned for a second, then couldn’t help but ask, “Are you planning to open a supermarket with all this?”

Jiang Yan nodded.

Du Zitong: “...”

He really couldn’t figure it out. Why would a rich heiress worth billions, who could just coast through life and be an influencer, suddenly take an interest in running a supermarket—a tough business with thin margins?

But it wasn’t his place to pry any further.

Scratching his head, Du Zitong led Jiang Yan to another nearby warehouse, one with a much better environment and plenty of outdoor water taps.

On the way, Jiang Yan reviewed her plan: after the apocalypse, food and water would be the most essential resources to stockpile.

Aside from natural disasters causing shortages, there was also the issue of nuclear-contaminated water being discharged by the island nation.

Although the contaminated water wouldn’t spread globally right away, it contained over sixty radioactive nuclides that current technology couldn’t fully remove. Some of these would evaporate with seawater, enter the atmosphere, and eventually fall as rain all over the planet.

And that’s not even counting the floods, torrential rains, and seawater backflow that would come with the disasters, making the pollution even worse.

She’d looked it up: over a lifetime, a person uses about 50–100 tons of drinking water, and for daily needs—laundry, cooking, bathing, flushing toilets—it’s 7,000–10,000 tons.

Of course, she couldn’t stockpile water at a one-to-one ratio.

After all, she’d already encountered miraculous things like controlling man-eating plants and being reborn—maybe she should think bigger. Who knew, maybe she’d live another five hundred years.

The key was, after the apocalypse, cash and gold would lose their value.

Anything could happen then, and having more supplies on hand could always come in handy.

As for how much to buy? The more, the better—she had both money and storage space.

She’d calculated that 1,000 tons of drinking water would take over a hundred trucks to deliver—there was no way she could have that sent directly to her villa without attracting attention.

Her plan was to negotiate bulk orders directly with mineral water manufacturers, have everything delivered to the warehouse, and then transfer it all into her storage space.

If the order was too large for one supplier to handle, she’d just buy from several well-known brands.

As for water for daily use, obviously she couldn’t use bottled water for everything.

No matter how rich she was, that would be too extravagant. At most, she’d buy some water purification equipment to go with it.

She found food-grade PE water tanks online, each holding 30 tons. She planned to order a thousand of them.

Those tanks were sturdy, high-quality, acid- and alkali-resistant, UV-resistant, and came with valves for easy water access. But they weren’t cheap—each one cost at least 20,000 yuan.

With a few taps on her phone, she spent 20 million in an instant.

Once the tanks arrived and were filled with tap water, she’d transfer them into her storage space.

She’d estimated that even if a tap ran non-stop, it would only fill about 30 tons a day, so those scenes in novels where the protagonist frantically fills barrels at home were a bit unrealistic.

She knew she couldn’t do it all alone, so she planned to have Du Zitong hire some temporary workers.

Once the tanks arrived, the workers would be responsible for filling them at the warehouse.

After all the tanks were full, she’d move them into her storage space.

Jiang Yan also considered hiring a professional team to help with procurement—after all, she was just one person.

She remembered that in her parents’ company, whenever there was a large, temporary purchase, the bidding department would hire a professional tendering company.

These companies would handle price inquiries and comparisons for specific goods, select the best suppliers, ensure lower prices, and supervise the process for quality assurance.

As her mother used to say: let professionals handle professional tasks.

However, given the type and quantity of supplies Jiang Yan needed to buy, she’d probably have to set up a trading company related to supermarkets before approaching a tendering company.

Registering a company was easy enough, and some of the required qualifications could be put off for now.

But given how much attention she was already attracting, any public move could spark unpredictable rumors and consequences.

Of course, she could always find an agent to act on her behalf and stay behind the scenes.

But right now, although she was surrounded by people, there wasn’t anyone she could trust 100% to act as her agent.

After weighing her options, Jiang Yan decided to handle it herself.

If she dealt directly with major suppliers, they’d want long-term business and probably wouldn’t leak her plans for at least three months.

As for whether her bulk purchases would attract government attention, she wasn’t worried.

Dealing with officials privately was far better than trending online and being scrutinized by hundreds of thousands or even millions of people.

After all, keyboard warriors were experts at making mountains out of molehills.

Besides, she still had plenty of time. It might be tiring, but quietly stockpiling like a hamster wasn’t so bad.

*

By the time she’d finished inspecting all the warehouses she liked, it was nearly evening.

Du Zitong was efficient, and Jiang Yan was generous with money, so all the warehouses could be cleared out and the rental agreements signed the very next day.

Jiang Yan didn’t plan to rent for long.

Depending on her plans for each warehouse, the rental periods varied, but the longest was only two months."