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Whether the apocalypse was truly coming or not, it was better to stock up first.
Whether she was about to time-travel or face the end of the world, it couldn’t hurt to store more things inside the space.
But—she didn’t have much money!
No, maybe she should consider taking out a small loan. If neither time travel nor the apocalypse happened, she could always resell the goods to pay off the debt.
First, she would head to the small commodity wholesale market in the city. There was still an old bicycle at home—though a bit beat-up, it could still be ridden.
She pedaled the bicycle into town, found a place to store it, and then transferred to a long-distance bus. The bus was fairly crowded, but in two hours, she arrived in the city.
She headed straight for the small commodities market. As soon as she entered, she began placing orders:
These were all consumables, so the more the better.
Then she bought:
She didn’t know which era she might end up in, so she prepared a bit of everything. Supplies for the apocalypse had to be ready, too.
Ahead was the cookware wholesale section.
She bought:
And for condiments:
Other kitchen and household items included:
One hundred assorted hair accessories—these could be resold elsewhere for a profit.
She also bought ten pairs of scissors.
(Placed the order, paid a deposit, left her phone number, and arranged for afternoon delivery.)
After casually grabbing a bowl of liangpi noodles to eat, she headed over to the snack wholesale market—so many people!
She stocked up on:
She paid a deposit for these too, took the order receipt, left her phone number, and arranged for delivery by 5 PM.
She also rented a warehouse nearby for a day. The owner initially refused to rent it out for just one day, so she gave him 300 yuan to seal the deal.
Next, she went to the fabric wholesale market. At the curtain stall, she placed an order for five old-style cotton quilts. Seeing rolls of white cotton, red cotton, and green cotton cloth, she grabbed five bolts of each. She also bought 50 jin of cotton stuffing, 10 sewing kits, 10 sets of bed sheets and quilt covers, and 50 meters of curtain fabric. She picked up hooks and curtain trims—10 sets in total—left her phone number again and paid a deposit, asking the shop to rush the delivery for 7 PM.
She hurried back to the warehouse and began calling each vendor to give them the address and ask them to deliver early.
Finally, she sat down to rest, took a sip of water, and started thinking—what else did she still need?
She had already bought so many things, but the money just wasn’t enough!
Then she remembered a colleague saying that she could apply for a loan online. She could also shop on Pinduoduo and other platforms. She cobbled things together across a few platforms and managed to scrape together ninety thousand yuan, then placed more orders directly online.
* Jin (斤) is a traditional Chinese unit of weight, equal to approximately 500 grams or 1.1 pounds.
Various seeds—three bags of each type.
Three saplings for every kind of fruit tree.
One box of compressed biscuits—she didn’t dare buy more, worried the platform would flag it.
Ten military water canteens.
Two daggers.
Two Swiss army knives.
Three military iron shovels.
One box of military lighters.
Three large packs of matches.
One outdoor backpack.
Ten pairs of men’s sneakers, ten pairs of women’s sneakers.
Ten men’s outdoor jackets, ten women’s outdoor jackets.
Twenty pairs of outdoor goggles.
One box of milk tea.
One box of coffee.
Twenty bags of black sesame paste.
Twenty jin of fruit candies.
Ten jin of milk candies.
Six jars of lollipops.
Three buckets of hair ties.
Ten storage baskets.
Ten storage cabinets.
Once all the shopkeepers had delivered the goods and the people were gone, she received them into the space.
Along the way, someone asked if she was planning to open a supermarket. She had no choice but to say she was planning to open one in the suburbs.
She was completely exhausted by the end of the day. She hailed a cab to head to the hotel she’d booked online for a good rest. Tomorrow, she would check out the fruit market and the wholesale meat suppliers.
For all the online purchases, she used the address of her old family home. She wondered whether the folks back in her hometown—or Wang Li—would start gossiping if they saw she was buying so many things.
Whatever. If anyone asked, she’d just say she was planning to open a small shop in the village. If she could bluff her way through it for now, that was good enough!
The next morning, she headed straight for the wholesale fruit and vegetable market. She bought:
At the dried goods section, she bought:
She borrowed a small storage room from one of the vegetable vendors for half a day. The vendor didn’t use it during that time anyway and let her store her goods there.
(She happened to know the vendor’s wife.)
She told her she’d move everything out that afternoon—just borrowing the space for a short while.
She then turned into the meat wholesale market and placed orders for:
She paid a deposit, left her phone number, and told the shop to deliver the goods in the afternoon to the storage room across from the vegetable market.
Next, she went to the place that sold water buckets. They had white plastic buckets with lids, so she ordered 150 of them—she planned to fill each one with water.
First, she needed to rent another storage room. There was a beverage wholesaler nearby too, and she had to stock some drinks as well.
She called the number posted on the wall and was told there was a storage unit nearby, so she reserved it, went over to pick up the key, and paid the one-day rental fee—120 yuan.
Then she placed orders for:
Across the street was a candy shop. She bought:
That would be enough for the day.
She needed to go collect everything now. Running back and forth, she made sure all the goods were packed and in place, then returned all the borrowed keys.
Finally, she hailed a taxi and headed back to the hotel. She planned to take a good shower and go to bed early—this body really couldn’t handle the exhaustion.