"Brother. The next time you come back, I want you to buy me a new mattress." Zhang Qin Ling requested with a mouthful of grilled lamb bites.
"Empty your mouth before you speak. How can you be a lady if you're this rough? Totally not enough feminine at all." Zhang Qin Feng knocked her head for acting like this.
"I don't want to get married, so what? I'll act how I want and do what I like!" Zhang Qin Ling stuffed another stick of bbq lamb into her mouth.
"Lulu, don't learn all these kinds of stuff from her." Zhang Qin Feng pointed at his sister while talking to Lulu.
...
...
On Monday morning, he headed straight to the factory's zone of Changzhou.
After picking up the edible goods of 110,000 dollars, Zhang Qin Feng drives the 400,000 dollars Titan's Truck back to his QIN-FENG GOODS TRADING located in the rural area.
Since there's no reason for him to drives the Model Jaguar and the Diva 6th Series, Zhang Qin Feng left the keys to his father to enjoy driving them around. Well, that's because it was an upgrade from a less than 100,000 dollars car into a 600 to 700 thousand dollars car.
"There's another 25 minutes before 12pm afternoon. Let's take a break before I start the business." Zhang Qin Feng checked the time after he's done moving the goods, and decided to take a rest.
By the time he finishes his noodle, the scenery outside already changed into the apocalypse version. Dim, dull, and depressing.
"The shop is open! It's really open at 12pm afternoon!" the people wandering outside of the building gathered the moment the gate covering the General Store rolled away.
And with the sign open is lighted, it means that the General Store is now open and ready for business!
"Boss! Please check the scraps I brought here! I've been waiting for you to open for almost a day now..." the elder said. From how he looks, this elder is between his sixties or seventies.
"Customer, please drop your scraps on the machine over there and bring me the receipt. I will only accept 5 receipts each day. Those that yet to get their chance are allowed to leave the baskets here, but only five as well!" Zhang Qin Feng said.
The elders moved the scraps over to the deposit machine. The disturbance in sound due to scraps rolling into the storage continues for about twenty minutes before it finally stopped.
"Boss, this is my slip." the first elderly came over with his slip.
== == == == ==
QIN-FENG GOODS TRADING
-
Deposit:
[1] Scraps of 16 different brands / Condition varies **16**
[2] Tianlang Equipment's Anode Variant / Broken **1**
-
Issued:
(17) Red Meteorite Core
== == == == ==
"Since all the scraps are useless except the Anode Variant, I can only pay you a Red Meteorite Core as payment. Do you..." in the box of scraps given by the elder, only the Anode Variant worth a single core. And as he's asking for the elder to choose either the Red Meteorite Core or food, he instantly replied,
"A packet of biscuits, please!" he requested for a pack of biscuits instead.
"Alright." Zhang Qin Feng passed a bottle of drinking water, bread, biscuits, and a can of sardine in the tomato puree.
"Next!"
== == == == ==
QIN-FENG GOODS TRADING
-
Deposit:
[1] Scraps of 21 different brands / Condition varies **21**
[2] Daschund Manufacturing Graphic Panel / Broken **3**
-
Issued:
(24) Red Meteorite Core
== == == == ==
"Here you go!" Zhang Qin Feng handed the usual three goods reward and three cans of chicken curry.
"Who's next?"
== == == == ==
QIN-FENG GOODS TRADING
-
Deposit:
[1] Scraps of 12 different brands / Condition varies **12**
[2] Titanium Steel Co's Grade C Steel / Broken **2**
-
Issued:
(14) Red Meteorite Core
== == == == ==
The flow continues. After the five elders, other customers started to ask the reason people's queuing outside his store. After some explanation and resolving some misunderstanding, most of them left except someone that just get here.
"Hello, boss." Dan Mi came to the Zhang Qin Feng once it was not that busy.
"Oh! Somebody is here for his reward." Zhang Qin Feng chuckled. It seems that the attraction of one food item for each people he managed to bring to me and the bonus of a pack of instant noodles is hard to let go.
"Hehehe... It's because your shop is popular with survivors. Plus, the food item you sold to us tastes better than the disgusting Protein Bars sold by Xicheng Base." Dan Mi explained himself to make sure there's no misunderstanding between them.
"Protein Bar? Shouldn't the protein bar taste good?" Zhang Qin Feng's misunderstanding can be said to be understandable, due to the lack of exposure to the world outside of this General Store.
The protein bar mentioned by Zhang Qin Feng is none other than those flapjacks or nutty bars with some caramel. One of the best brands, Stickers, can be found all over the shops back in his world.
But the Protein Bar mentioned by Dan Mi is one that made from a mixture from fruits grown on Seedling and the flesh from grown-up reptiles hatched from Carrier. And because there's a lack of condiments here in Dimension X31-ITE, the protein bar produced by the machine are tasteless.
...
After getting his portion of food, Dan Mi left with a promise that tomorrow will be a busy day for Zhang Qin Feng as well. The business for Monday is not as good as his first day, but with something to expect every 12pm afternoon, Zhang Qin Feng is much more motivated.
The moment his surrounding turned into a pitch-black night, Zhang Qin Feng stretched his tired body before he prepares a simple midnight dinner.
After his quick meal, Zhang Qin Feng checked.
A total of 21 credits worth of food items are given out for free to the five elders and Dan Mi for today's business. But in return, Zhang Qin Feng collected 250kilograms worth of technological scraps. He also avoided paying 60 credits worth for the technology scraps, just by using 3 edible items in exchange.
"Although this method is viable for now, it may not continue for long." Zhang Qin Feng calculates his profit and cost, while at the same time, brainstorming the possibility to use the survivors to earn more money.
The reason people are obeying his rules is due to starvation. When people are hungry, losing 10 credits to exchange for water, bread, and canned food is nothing much to complain about.
But when a person is fed, he will have time to think.
A person that knows how to think has to be controlled through a different method. And to Zhang Qin Feng, who only has food in his General Store, it is an impossible task to achieve.
Control the food supply? That's a stupid act.
"How about... Creating something else that is in high demand from the other survivors?" Zhang Qin Feng suddenly came up with an idea.
If there's no market for a product to sell, then we'll create a market for it!
What's more, he has a proper workshop inside the store that is capable of manufacturing goods from the Dimension X31-ITE!