Chapter 8 – Swipe the Black Card Freely!

The transfer paperwork for the RV and the sports cars was quickly completed, and on the other side, Jiang Yan also finished the registration for the small cargo truck.

She even had the cab and cargo compartment thoroughly cleaned and disinfected.

As usual, dressed in casual sportswear with a wig, cap, and mask, Jiang Yan drove the small cargo truck straight toward the city’s largest wholesale market.

The wholesale market was located quite far from the city center, and after all the delays from dealing with the car sales paperwork, by the time she arrived, it was already past 10 a.m.

Jiang Yan had checked online: the best place to buy rice, flour, grains, and oil was a wholesale market like this. Prices were reasonable, quality and supply were reliable, and the quantities were large.

Since she had an appointment with Du Zitong to view houses in the afternoon, her plan this morning was to secure the bulk staples first—rice, flour, grain, and oil.

This was Jiang Yan’s first time visiting a wholesale market.

Even though it was already late morning, the place was still bustling with people.

She spent about an hour walking around the entire market, asking about prices and getting a general sense of the going rates for staple foods. Only then did she step into the largest grain and oil wholesale shop in the market.

Inside, several employees were busy serving customers. When they saw her walk in with a backpack, mask, and cap, their eyes immediately turned wary.

But the boss’s wife had a keen eye. At a glance, she could tell that this young woman in stylish sportswear was a big spender.

Putting down the iPad she’d been using to watch dramas, she walked over with a beaming smile:
“Beauty, what can I help you with today?”

Jiang Yan glanced at the other customers, then lowered her voice:
“Boss lady, I want everything in your store.”

The boss’s wife: “??!!”

What? Everything?!
Did I hear that right?!
Surely I must be hallucinating from standing up too fast…

But she was a seasoned businesswoman, used to big deals and wild requests. With a smile still on her face, she asked again:
“Beauty, how much did you say you want?”

Jiang Yan answered calmly:
“I said, I’ll take it all. Also—Wuchang rice, Thai jasmine rice, Zhefang tribute rice, and Daohuaxiang rice—the best quality ones. How much stock do you have of each? I want at least six thousand kilos of each. For the rest—flour, beans, organic camellia oil, the best quality peanut oil and rapeseed oil—five thousand kilos each. As for the other items I can’t name, three thousand kilos each.”

This shop didn’t sell imported olive oil, but she planned to buy that abroad later.

Last night she had looked up some statistics: assuming a person lives to 100, they consume about 10,000 kilos of rice, 1,000 kilos of cooking oil, 2,000 kilos of sugar, and 200 kilos of salt in a lifetime.

She herself didn’t eat much staple food, and had always gone light on oil, sugar, and salt. Even so, she would need at least half those amounts.

What’s more, her storage zone in the space had frozen time, so she didn’t have to worry about rice turning old or oil going rancid.

As for salt, after that island nation dumped nuclear wastewater, sea salt safety had become an issue.

This shop sold rock salt, so she intended to stockpile a lot.

She had money and storage space—so she could afford to be a little extravagant.

Besides, while the black soil in her space could be used for planting, she wasn’t too confident in her farming abilities.

Simple vegetables and flowers were fine, but crops like rice and wheat? At most, she’d try growing a few as an experiment—not on a large scale.

Apart from rice, the shop also sold high-gluten flour, low-gluten flour, yeast, black rice, purple rice, millet, glutinous rice, quinoa, sesame, coix seeds, red beans, soybeans, mung beans, peanuts, and more.

As a southerner, Jiang Yan usually ate more rice, but she wouldn’t turn down flour or beans—she’d buy everything.

Among noodles, her favorite was fine egg vermicelli, so she made sure to order plenty.

In another corner of the shop were brown sugar, red sugar, white sugar, rock sugar, and honey.
Further on were salt, soy sauce, sesame oil, and all kinds of condiments.

Normally, she controlled her sugar intake and rarely ate sweets. But once the Great Freeze came, sugar would be an invaluable source of energy.

Since she was stocking up for the apocalypse, there was no way she’d skip it.

Being able to settle most supplies in one store saved her the trouble of running around.

“All of it… eight thousand kilos???”

The boss’s wife was stunned for a moment, but her business instincts kicked in before her brain did:
“Beauty, I’ll have to check the inventory records. If we don’t have enough in stock, I can call in more from other suppliers. But are you sure you want it all? For an order this size, just the deposit could be over ten million yuan. Especially since the best-quality Wuchang rice doesn’t come cheap.”

Before she could finish, Jiang Yan had already pulled out her bank card:
“Go ahead and calculate. Tell me how much the deposit and the full amount are. I’ll pay the deposit now. As for the goods, I’ll give you a few warehouse addresses later. Have your people contact me before delivery.”

The boss’s wife’s eyes widened when she saw the black card in Jiang Yan’s hand. After a quick glance at the other customers in the store, she carefully gestured toward a tea table in the back:

“Little sister, why don’t you come sit in my office and have some tea? I just need to confirm a few details with you. This is a massive order—I wouldn’t want to make a mistake and delay you.”

After all, the reason her business had lasted so many years was caution and careful management.

Of course, she loved customers like Jiang Yan. But she also worried: why would someone suddenly buy so much? Could there be some hidden agenda?

After all, the government cracked down on hoarding and speculation.

And since most of Jiang Yan’s request required additional stock, that tied into wholesale commodity futures pricing.

If she made the wrong call and the goods arrived when prices peaked, she could end up taking a loss.

Jiang Yan glanced at the office and nodded in agreement.

The boss’s wife was straightforward and smart, so their conversation went smoothly.

She explained that since the order was so large, Jiang Yan could only pay a down payment (定金), not a reservation fee (订金).

The two words sounded the same, but their meanings were different.

A reservation fee could be refunded if the order was canceled, but a down payment was non-refundable.

Naturally, Jiang Yan understood.

The boss’s wife also pointed out one major issue: sugar was a strategic commodity, and as for salt, Jiang Yan was trying to buy too much. They couldn’t sell her that quantity outright.

If she insisted on getting that much, it would require extra money for them to use their connections and source it.

For Jiang Yan, of course, that wasn’t a problem.

After all, if money could solve it, then it wasn’t really a problem at all.