Chapter Three: Keep Stockpiling, Keep Dancing

Jiang Huan’s eyes were as sharp as blades; if this man ever caught on that she had a spatial ability, she might have to silence him for good.

“Miss, this is a private strawberry garden. Picking is not allowed,” the young man said, looking at her as if she were a thief.

Jiang Huan felt a moment of embarrassment but also relief—thankfully, she hadn’t been discovered. After all, the apocalypse hadn’t arrived yet, and murder was still illegal.

But she could use this opportunity to buy the strawberries outright.

“Oh, I’m not here to steal strawberries—I want to buy them. I’ll take all you have,” she said.

The young man’s expression was surprised. “There’s quite a lot here. You want to buy it all?”

Jiang Huan nodded, sensing his suspicion, and added, “It’s for company employee benefits, so the quantity needs to be large.”

“All right, wait here a moment,” the young man replied, pulling out a tiny, old-fashioned cell phone. The phone looked like it was older than Jiang Huan herself, and she couldn’t help but stare. Who still used such ancient devices these days?

In less than ten minutes, a slightly stooped old man jogged over—likely the true manager of the strawberry garden. Barely catching his breath, he asked if Jiang Huan really intended to buy all the strawberries.

“Yes. I’m a purchasing agent from Xi Trading Company. If your strawberries are fresh, tasty, and reasonably priced, I’ll take them all—and consider working with you in the future,” Jiang Huan lied with practiced ease.

“Oh, I see. Miss, you’re quite young to be a purchasing agent—impressive!” The old man, introducing himself as Old Xie, showered her with compliments until she could only force a polite smile.

Old Xie invited her into the shed to taste the strawberries, assuring her they were pesticide-free and harmless.

Inside, Jiang Huan saw the strawberries—each one as if measured by a ruler, the size of her palm. She hesitated; with such perfect form, who’d believe they’d used no growth stimulants? Yet, Old Xie and his grandson ate them freely, so Jiang Huan couldn’t help popping one into her mouth as well.

Oh—this was delicious! Incredibly delicious!

She ate another, savoring the sweet, juicy burst and the fragrant aroma that seemed to reach the crown of her head. She immediately asked how much it would cost to buy the entire harvest.

“You have a good eye, Miss. Ours are the tastiest, healthiest strawberries in the city, ten yuan per kilo. Does that work for you?”

Ten yuan per kilo wasn’t expensive at wholesale rates. Jiang Huan pursued the total price.

“Our greenhouse covers one acre and yields over three thousand jin. We have nine greenhouses, so at least thirty thousand jin. The cost is about one hundred fifty to one hundred seventy thousand; we’ll pick and deliver for free, and if any are spoiled, we’ll compensate double,” Old Xie explained.

A mere hundred and fifty thousand or so—Jiang Huan paid in full on the spot, left her contact information, and told them to call when the order was ready.

She had only taken a few steps when she stopped and asked the young man, “Do you know the owners of the other orchards nearby?”

He nodded succinctly, “Yes.”

Knowing his grandson wasn’t one for small talk, Old Xie chimed in, “I’ll introduce you! They’re all from our village. This boy here, whatever he plants thrives. Any fruit he grows is delicious and fragrant, and none of it is treated with pesticides. See? I just pick and eat straight away.”

Even if the lighting wasn’t ideal, the taste didn’t lie. She tried fruit from random trees—it was all excellent, so she decided to take every orchard’s produce as well.

Since she would personally transport the fruit, the other orchard owners gave her prices so low it was outrageous. In the supermarket, four oranges would cost twenty or thirty yuan, but here, just a few. She bought out the total output of several small orchards and all the wild mountain goods they had packed for market—fresh and dried—spending only around two million altogether.

By the time Jiang Huan returned to her luxury apartment, it was already nine thirty at night. She washed up, contacted a massive factory to order several million in frozen goods for next-day delivery, and finally fell into a deep sleep.

In her dreams, the pain of skinned, bruised knees lingered faintly, and icy water brought a suffocating chill. Frowning in her sleep, she curled up, tossing until she woke herself.

Outside, the chirping of birds accompanied a pale mist, creating a dreamlike, fairyland atmosphere. The fog had grown thicker, tinged with gray and black; rain and a cold snap would arrive tomorrow. Once her online orders were delivered, she would leave.

It was only seven o’clock. Jiang Huan picked up her phone, placed an order for fifty portions of dim sum from a tea restaurant, and had it delivered to her apartment. She also called ahead to reserve two hundred afternoon portions, and ordered ten tables’ worth of dishes from a high-end private kitchen, just waiting for the deliveries to arrive.

She ended up sitting with her brother, eating shrimp dumplings, soy-sauce chicken feet, pineapple cakes, silky egg custard—finishing off the meal, the table was littered with takeout boxes.

Had she always had such an appetite? Was she destined to a gluttonous fate in this new life?

Once she was full, she took her brother to school, telling him to play happily there—it was better than being cooped up at home. Then she headed to the warehouse to collect the vehicles and other supplies, as well as the express delivery orders that had arrived.

The frozen goods arrived as promised, though she had no idea how the supplier managed it. She then went to the bank to collect her gold bars—half a billion’s worth, packed in several boxes, with the manager personally seeing her off and loading her up with complimentary gifts.

She hurried to the warehouse-style supermarket to stock up on snacks: sunflower seeds, peanuts, chips, desserts—she even cleaned out their forty-nine-yuan roast chickens. She picked up everything that would spoil first in extreme cold, and bought out every roadside shop’s roast and braised delicacies—chicken, duck, tofu, duck neck, duck intestine. Anything that caught her eye, she bought. She also collected the banquet meals she’d ordered from various hotels.

At noon, she took Jiang Xi to a hot pot restaurant for a lavish meal—fresh-cut beef and lamb, a fragrant broth, delicious fresh meat. She bought two large sacks of hot pot base, and ordered two more to be delivered daily to her apartment—leaving the staff and diners baffled.

Just outside the hot pot restaurant was the tea house. She picked up the two hundred portions of afternoon tea she’d reserved, and pre-ordered five hundred portions per day for the next three days. If she hadn’t paid in cash, they might have thought she was joking.

Next came hygiene supplies—tissues, sanitary pads, bath products. She bought dozens of outfits, five sets of tools and materials at the hardware store, and two complete camping kits from the camping club at five thousand each.

She bought the largest water towers, wooden barrels, and even a family-sized inflatable pool—if nothing else, it could serve as a giant bathtub or water tank.

By four in the afternoon, the snack street had opened, and she bought out two thousand portions of snacks in one go.

She bought cement and had a giant water pit built in an open space, fetched water from the water plant, the reservoir, and the park—after a hard day, she stopped for another meal of sour beef soup. She even fetched water from a high-end amusement park’s water world, stockpiling plenty of free domestic water in the pit, the towers, and the huge barrels.

Every day, she found time to download science videos, entertainment, music—her hard drives were overflowing.

By evening, the strawberry garden informed her that the other fruit was packed and ready. Jiang Huan drove over, and while villagers and Old Xie loaded her car, she discreetly tucked away several boxes into her spatial storage. As the vehicle filled, the villagers and Old Xie watched with curiosity, wondering if the car could really hold so much.

The man called Xiao Zhou measured the car with his eyes, as if doubting it could be true.