Chapter 2: A Shopping Spree

“What should I buy for food?” Bai An walked through the largest store in the city, staring at the dazzling array of shelves in front of her, wondering whether she should just buy the entire mall. But she quickly gave up on the idea.

When the apocalypse begins, everyone will flock to malls looking for supplies. When that kind of emergency situation hits, it would be too despairing to find the shelves empty.

But in Bai An’s current situation, she couldn’t wait a second longer for online shopping. After thinking it over, she figured coming directly to the mall was faster.

She spotted a familiar brand of rice and turned to the store clerk, saying,

“I’ll take thirty thousand bags of this rice.”

“Thirty thousand bags?” The clerk looked confused, speaking softly in surprise. Who comes to the supermarket and asks for thirty thousand bags of rice?

The clerk rubbed his hands, hesitated for a moment, then said, “Our store might not have enough in stock, but our manager should be able to take you to our supplier’s wholesale site.”

“Thanks,” Bai An nodded in response, still thinking about what else to buy. Hearing the clerk’s suggestion made sense, so she agreed.

The manager, who rushed over, was momentarily stunned when he saw that the customer wanting thirty thousand bags of rice was just a little girl. But his professional demeanor kicked in, and he quickly regained his composure.

“We don’t have that much stock, but if you don’t mind, I can take you to the wholesale site.”

Bai An followed the manager to the wholesale site and was immediately excited as she saw the bustling, massive market before her. Her hands trembled slightly as she eagerly told the staff in front of her,

“I want to meet your biggest boss.”

The staff, seeing the girl the manager brought, was puzzled but went ahead and found the boss.

The boss wasn’t there, so the market administrator, a man with a bit of a bald spot and a kindly appearance, came over instead.

Thinking he was meeting a big customer, he rushed over, only to see the manager standing next to the young girl.

“What’s the matter?”

Bai An looked at the cheerful, slightly portly man and politely said,

“I want to buy everything here. Name your price.”

“Wow,” the administrator smiled even wider, teasing her, “You’re young, but you have big ambitions. Buying everything here isn’t cheap. This is the biggest wholesale market in Haiyuan City.”

“According to market prices, it would be this amount.”

The boss held up five fingers in front of Bai An.

Bai An frowned and hesitated before quoting a number.

The administrator burst into laughter when he heard her number. “Little girl, how could such a large wholesale market be worth this much? The daily turnover here is more than that!”

Bai An hadn’t realized how expensive this wholesale market was—it’s over a hundred million. It seemed her experience was still too limited.

Although she couldn’t afford to buy the entire market, since she was already here, Bai An decided she should at least get some supplies.

“I’ll take thirty thousand bags of rice, noodles, and, hmm, also thirty thousand bags of steamed buns from over there.”

“Alright, but if you want this much stuff, we’ll need an address to deliver it to,” the administrator said, looking at Bai An.

Bai An picked up a nearby ledger from the staff and wrote down a remote address.

“Give me thirty thousand bags of all the spices and foods here, including vegetables and frozen products,” Bai An said, shoving the address into the boss’s hands. “Although I can’t buy this whole place, I can still buy all of these.”

The manager, who had worked in the wholesale market for many years, wasn’t worried that Bai An would back out. He took the address from her and handed it to a staff member behind him.

“You little girl sure are impressive. We’ll get everything to you by tomorrow at the latest,” the manager said.

“Thank you,” Bai An smiled sweetly at him and then said, “Since I’m buying so much, can I get a discount?”

“Haha, young people these days,” the manager chuckled, clapping his hands. “Of course, we can.”

After finishing her food shopping, Bai An walked along the street, thinking about what else to buy.

As she casually glanced to the side, she found herself standing by an elderly man selling watermelons. She asked, “Do you sell watermelon knives?”

The man held a sharp watermelon knife in his hand, still stained with dark red juice. It looked a bit eerie.

Bai An had no choice but to take the knife and walk to a secluded corner, where she placed it into her space.

As she walked back on the street, she slapped her forehead.

Right, clothes!

She spotted a clothing store nearby and thought she should go to the wholesale market for clothes.

Bai An took a taxi to the clothing wholesale market on the outskirts of town. As soon as she entered, she felt the gaze of countless people on her.

“This girl is really pretty.”

“Pretty, but what use is that? She probably doesn’t have much money. I wonder what she’s even doing here.”

Wang Abo, an elderly woman, furrowed her brows as she overheard the comments and disagreed. “How can you say that? A customer is a customer, no matter how much they buy. We should treat them well.”

Bai An, who had been observing the two old women from a distance, quickly realized that the fabric from their shops was the best and the prices were the most reasonable.

She had been wavering between the two, but now, the decision was clear.

“Auntie, I’ll take thirty thousand pieces of clothing for everyone, from newborn babies to people in their seventies or eighties, for every season—spring, summer, fall, winter, men and women, and the simplest, most convenient styles.”

Wang Abo, hearing this, became so excited that she didn’t know what to do with her hands. She clapped and pulled out a small notebook to write it down, muttering to herself, “Okay, okay.”

After paying and providing her address, Bai An glanced at the other elderly woman, who had been speaking to Wang Abo earlier. Now, she was watching with envy as Wang Abo prepared the order.

With most of the supplies she needed for the apocalypse ready, only some weapons were missing.

Bai An sighed as she looked at her remaining savings. The tens of millions seemed neither too much nor too little. Even though she felt like she hadn’t bought that much, the money was already gone.

Although she knew that money would be worthless during the apocalypse, spending so much in such a short time still made her uneasy.

“Even if the apocalypse doesn’t come, with all these things, I’ll be able to live a stable life,” Bai An thought to herself as she made her way home.

Along the way, she passed a small snack shop. The storefront looked quite modern, but the snacks inside had a nostalgic feel.

“We can’t live on just food in the apocalypse, right?” Bai An thought, tapping her head and speaking softly to herself. “Sometimes we need some snacks too.”

With that, she shook the snacks in her hand. They wouldn’t last long, so she turned around and walked into the shop. She said to the shopkeeper, “Can you give me three boxes of each snack you have?”

“Shopping really is fun,” Bai An said, lying on the grass in her space. “Tomorrow, I’ll pack everything up and turn this place into my own kingdom.”