She glanced at the man, then turned around to find Lu Yu and the others, asking them to try on the mink coats. “The mall only has ten pieces, the styles and sizes might not fit perfectly, but honestly, there’s no way to spend the money.”

Zhang Chao tried on a coat while joking, “Why do I feel like I’m being kept by a rich woman?”

Jiang Ning looked at him with disdain, “Sorry, you’re not my type.”

The two bantered back and forth, and the man came closer again. “Miss, if you really want, we can negotiate.”

The four of them stood together. Since he still dared to follow, it probably wasn’t a robbery or scam.

Jiang Ning explained the situation. Lu Yu and Zhang Chao were pleased, even grabbed some and popped it into their mouths to taste. “Feels about the same as what you get in the mall.”

“Don’t worry, the quality is definitely top-notch.” The man was excited to unexpectedly land a big order. “I only brought five jin (about 2.5 kg) on me, but if you want more, I can arrange it.”

The four of them discussed quietly nearby. Huo Yishen was cautious, “You can get it, but watch out for being cheated.”

The safest way was to trade in multiple batches.

After agreeing, Jiang Ning went back to talk to the man, “We’ll take 250 jin total, but we want to pick it up in parts — 50 jin per day, trading right at the department store entrance.”

The man was momentarily stunned. “I can’t decide that, but I’ll ask right away, please wait a moment.”

He hurriedly left the mall.

Jiang Ning set aside 500,000 yuan, and although she hadn’t spent everything she prepared, she ended up grabbing one more mink coat to just barely reach the amount.

She brought plenty of compression bags, and after paying, packed all the clothes and blankets tightly.

So many people had no money or food and were starving, yet rich people casually spent 500,000 yuan at once. This nearly made the cashier’s eyes pop out — she looked like a spendthrift woman.

Just after leaving the department store, a sharp-faced monkey-like man hurried up, “Our boss agreed, the trade can go ahead.”

He glanced toward a nearby masked man holding a heavy snake-skin bag.

They exchanged looks and walked to a deserted corner.

Huo Yishen went over to check, and only after confirming the quality was good did he nod at Jiang Ning.

Jiang Ning handed the sharp-faced man a black garbage bag she had prepared in advance, containing 100,000 yuan.

The monkey man stuffed it into his big backpack and quickly checked everything.

The department store had military security; no one dared cheat because they feared being shot.

With money and goods exchanged, they agreed on tomorrow’s trade time. The four of them carried the supplies and immediately left on a speedboat.

There were quite a few supplies on board. Lu Yu and Zhang Chao stayed alert, watching the surroundings while Huo Yishen took a detour to avoid crowded areas.

The detour was much longer but offered a wide open view. Anyone approaching would be spotted immediately.

Lu Yu, holding binoculars, suddenly spoke, “What’s that?”

Zhang Chao looked too, and something was floating and sinking in the distance. “Is that a corpse?”

Jiang Ning took the binoculars and stared for a while. “Looks like… a pig.”

A pig? Everyone was surprised and looked more closely.

“It’s a pig, and it’s alive!”

A live pig — how long had it been since they’d eaten pork?

Dog meat was forbidden, but pork should still be okay!

The speedboat slowed and turned to approach the pig drifting in the floodwaters.

Sure enough, it was a live pig, and judging by its head, it was a big one.

Pigs can swim, but it couldn’t fight the vast flood and was just drifting with the current.

It wasn’t afraid of the people approaching and even made “ooh ooh” sounds, seemingly begging for help.

They paddled the boat closer and used the oars to block the swimming pig. Zhang Chao leaned out and grabbed the pig’s front legs.

The pig struggled and squealed but not too violently — it was probably exhausted from soaking in the water.

The group worked together to pull the pig onto the boat. Judging by its skeleton, it was quite large but had lost a lot of weight — looked to be about 200 jin (roughly 100 kg).

The pig lay on the boat, opening its mouth wide, gasping for air: “Oh… oh…”

Suddenly, Jiang Ning took out a stun baton from her bag. The pig let out two piercing screams and was knocked out cold.

Lu Yu and Zhang Chao were speechless.

Huo Yishen said, “Find a place and slaughter it.”

They couldn’t take it back with them — if anyone found out, it would cause big trouble.

Zhang Chao quickly recovered, “How about going to the construction site where we get building materials? Nobody’s around there, and it’s not far from here.”

So, the speedboat headed in that direction.

About six or seven kilometers away, several unfinished buildings stood half submerged in water.

They docked the boat, and the three men carried the pig ashore. Jiang Ning handed over the slaughter knife.

She didn’t participate in the slaughter but took the opportunity to go upstairs while they killed the pig.

The higher floors had more stacked building materials, like cement bricks and rebar.

Jiang Ning wasn’t shy about taking what she could — the Black Soil Garden had over 1,800 cubic meters; she needed to find a way to stockpile as much as possible.

They took everything — though useless now, these materials would be essential for earthquake reconstruction.

Anyone could come here, so there was no worry that Lu Yu and the others would suspect her.

Coming back downstairs, the pig was already slaughtered.

Number 1801 did the butchering, with Lu Yu and Zhang Chao helping out, discussing how to divide the pork.

Except for Jiang Ning, everyone was hopeless in the kitchen. 1801 was a disaster zone — despite killing without blinking, he even managed to burn porridge.

If they couldn’t even handle pork properly, let alone the pig’s offal, they decided to split the pork into four portions and give the offal separately to Jiang Ning.

Jiang Ning wasn’t shy, “Fine, I’ll cook it and call you over to eat.”

1803 took half the pig, and 1801 and 1802 split the other half. Huo Yishen asked Jiang Ning, “Which half do you want?”

“The upper half.”

Actually, the lower half had more meat, but the pig’s face could be braised, and the skull used for soup.

Huo Yishen thought he got a good deal and cut a bit extra for her.

Jiang Ning noticed but said nothing.

Since she couldn’t do much at home, she directed them to cut the meat into small pieces, then packed them into black plastic bags so no one could tell what was inside.

Lu Yu was a bit worried, “We eat meat — won’t others find out?”

“We’re on the top floor, any smell will drift upward. We’ll close the doors and windows tightly while cooking, and if any smell escapes, the rain will wash it away. It should be fine.”

Lu Yu cheered, “Alright, let’s celebrate tonight.”

They’d endured bad times for too long — they needed something exciting.

“Why don’t we cook together? If we make it separately, the smell will be too strong,” Zhang Chao, who liked company, tried to get on good terms with the indifferent 1801. “We’re one big family on the 18th floor.”

Lu Yu agreed, “Yeah, Ning, you cook — you have the best skills among us.”

Seeing 1801 didn’t object, Jiang Ning agreed, “I have hot pot base — how about we have hot pot?”

Everyone agreed, and mouths watered at the mention of hot pot.

Back at Jinrong Complex, the 18th floor caused a stir again.

A boatload of supplies sparked jealousy until eyes turned red, but they had no other choice. Many wanted to band together with the 18th floor, but they simply didn’t accept anyone.

The four were prepared, stuffing rice and pork into large backpacks, with winter clothes and blankets showing on top.

Trying to keep a low profile didn’t work — many were still jealous.

But so what? The 18th floor was full of outlaws, especially that girl who carried a knife.