On Saturday, Su Jin took a cab to her warehouse on the outskirts alone. When she arrived, there were already several trucks waiting at the entrance.
They were carrying her solar-powered generator, the paddy huskers, food processors, and the small oil press. Su Jin took the drinks and cigarettes she had prepared in advance and offered them to the truck drivers. The drivers were ecstatic. Although this place was a little far out for them, the tobacco was more than worth it. The cigarettes were already worth the money they would earn with this delivery.
Su Jin had an ulterior motive, of course. She did not have any movers at her warehouse, so she had to ask the drivers to help her carry the things inside. The machines were not light, and even with a forklift to help, they were exhausted by the end of it. Still, they had accepted her gifts, so they might as well help her. Besides, the lady seemed nice enough.
The drivers took a short break after they moved the stuff in, and Su Jin gave them each a red packet with a little bonus before they left. She assured them that it was a tradition where she came from, so that they could share a little cheer.
The drivers accepted their bonuses gladly. What an unexpected windfall, the red packets had 500 bucks each inside! The young lady's hometown tradition was great.
Not long after the drivers left, the blades Su Jin had ordered arrived as well. By then, Su Jin had just moved all the machines from the warehouse into her dimension, so the bespectacled man and the driver who brought the knives over only saw an empty warehouse.
The two of them handed over the goods, and then Su Jin bid the bespectacled man goodbye. Next, she was planning to buy some supplies from a nearby market to leave for Zhang Chunyang.
There were many people at the produce market in the outskirts. It was probably because more people came out for grocery shopping on Saturdays.
Su Jin bought fifty bags of rice, thirty bags or flour, and ten barrels of cooking oil at a basic necessities store. She then gave the store owner the address of the warehouse and asked him to send the goods there in the afternoon. Luckily, the owner was nice enough to not ask for a delivery fee. In return, Su Jin bought some more red beans, green beans, soy beans, sesame seeds, and peanuts at the store, purchasing in bulk each time. The owner was so happy that he ignored the other customers, cheerfully trailing behind Su Jin with his notebook and rapidly noting down everything she ordered. The last thing he wanted to do was miss something.
Su Jin's mother and grandmother liked cooking multi-grain congee for their purported health benefits, so Su Jin bought everything she could. The ingredients would not go bad in her dimension anytime soon, anyway.
Other than these food stuffs, Su Jin also bought several dozen cartons of cans, ham, and other easily preserved, portable food supplies. She could not get vacuum-packed biscuits at the market, so she bought a hundred boxes of instant noodles instead.
After she left the market, Su Jin found a Lanzhou noodle shop and had a bowl of lamian. She had some portions of beef and a few drinks to go, too. That way, she would not have to worry about going hungry when she was waiting at the warehouse for the goods to arrive that afternoon, Su Jin thought to herself happily.
However, her wanton spending eventually drew unwanted attention.
When Su Jin was waiting at the warehouse, a few young men approached her, saying that they were here to collect a warehouse protection fee.
They were clearly local gangsters, and they were not even wearing a uniform. It seemed they did not even bother to hide their malevolent motives. The warehouse had been sitting empty for a long time, but suddenly there were so many incoming deliveries here, so the thugs nearby wanted to check things out for themselves. They were curious to see who the newcomer was and what they were storing in the warehouse.
One of the blondes saw that Su Jin was the only person in the warehouse, so he gave the fatty next to him a meaningful look. The other men burst out laughing in unison.
Su Jin did not even want to stand up. They were weaklings whose habitual hedonism was written on their faces. She even suspected they had a drug history. Their footsteps were unsteady and their eye bags extremely evident.
"Hey, girlie! Aren't you scared, staying here all alone? Shall we give you a good lovin'?" The fat man at the center sneered as he approached Su Jin.
"Burp~" Su Jin burped loudly without a shred of decorum. She might have drank too much Sprite just now, but it sure as hell felt good.
The men saw that Su Jin did not look scared at all. She even burped so boldly in front of them, so she was obviously looking down on them. In case, they were going to have to show this little princess the ways of this cruel world.
Su Jin sat on a rack in the warehouse, her legs swinging in the air without a care in the world. The blonde was the first to reach her, trying to pull her down. The moment he touched her calf, though, she sent him flying with a spinning kick.
There was a loud crash as he hit a metal shelf nearby. His head was bleeding, and he collapsed to the ground, motionless.
The fatty was furious now. He did not expect this girl to be this fearless, so he was determined to make her beg for mercy later.
Su Jin saw the fatty pull out a dagger from behind him, lunging right at her. In response, she grabbed the half-full bottle of Sprite next to her and threw it at him.
There was another loud crash.
The other underlings behind the fat man rubbed their eyes. Were they seeing things? Did their boss, the fat guy, just get knocked out by a bottle of Sprite?
They exchanged a look and decided to rush her together. No matter how strong the girl seemed, there was no way she could take on all these men by herself, right?
That was the sight that greeted the grocery store owners when he arrived with the goods. Su Jin had gotten up and ran toward the men who were trying to grab her, launching into the air and kicking them hard. The men hit the ground, one after the other.
…
"Clap clap clap!" The owners here with their deliveries burst into applause.
Su Jin, "..."
The blonde, "..."
Fatty and his underlings, "..."
One of the owners, the one who brought the cans and preserved meats, even asked her worriedly if she was fine and if they should call the cops.
Su Jin glanced at the men on the ground. "Why are you still here? Do you want meet the nice Mr. Policemen?"
"No, no, thanks."
One of the thugs scrambled to his feet, and the others helped the unconscious blonde and fatty away from the warehouse. They had no intention of going to the station. With their histories, they would be in a ton of trouble if they got arrested again.
If Su Jin had more time, she would have dragged them to the station, no question. However, her priority now was to handle things here and get back to H City as soon as possible.
The owners were more than happy to see Su Jin teach those thugs a lesson, especially after all the trouble the thugs were constantly causing them. It seemed that there were modern-day heroines, after all!
After they put the goods down and showered her with praise, the owners began leaving the warehouse. Before they went, Su Jin reminded them to stock up some more because she might be buying from them in the future.
Her real intentions were just to remind them, of course. Soon, it would become impossible for her to come back here for more shopping anymore.
The owners all nodded in agreement. They were already planning to fill up their own warehouses.
More than a month later, when the zombie crisis struck, those supplies would become unbelievably important. When that happened, the grocery store owners would all silently thank Su Jin for her help.
Su Jin sent the owners away and looked at the goods neatly lined up on the shelves. With a wave of her hand, she moved some of them into her dimension and left most of the rest in the warehouse. She even left some portable stoves and gas canisters she had happened to buy today in the warehouse, then she took out ten watermelon knives from her storage and left them here too.
Once that was done, Su Jin finally left the warehouse. Now she could only hope that Zhang Chunyang would eventually get his hands on these supplies!
Upon returning to her hotel, Su Jin was about to call Zhang Chunyang to come retrieve the warehouse key from her, but Zhang Chunyang beat her to the chase by calling her first. He asked her when her flight was the next day so he could fetch her to the airport.
Su Jin told him and the two of them chatted for a while before hanging up.
A glance at her phone told her that it was not yet eight in the evening. In that case, Su Jin decided to go into the dimension and survey her harvest today.
Almost immediately after she teleported into the dimension, she accidentally tripped on something.
It turned out that everything she put into the dimension that day had piled up on the stone platform, which was barely larger than a well cover. That included the machines and boxes of blades. As soon as she came in, she had stepped on the smooth power generator and fell onto the pile of rice and flour.
…
Su Jin was slightly exasperated. The logistics of this dimension were a little illogical… Could it be because Immortal Lu lived in ancient times, so he did not bring that many things in here?
She dismissed her wild imagination and turned back to sorting out the goods with her mind.
Firstly, she chose a larger room in one of the side halls of Lu Mansion to serve as their weapon arsenal. She moved the rice, flour, beans and oil into the building next to that. They only took up about a tenth of the dimension in there, because she had not bought too many food supplies today.
After all, she was just beginning to stockpile her supplies, so Su Jin was not in too much of a rush. More than that, she planned to return to H City and have her family join in the hoarding.
Other than Lu Hao, no one else in her family knew that she was going back tomorrow. This was mainly because she wanted to talk to Lu Hao about the dimension first. Although she had activated it, strictly speaking it was still a treasure Lu Hao's ancestor had left for his descendants. It was only a coincidence that Su Jin had stumbled across it and become its owner.
If she really wanted to let her family members in later, she would probably need to get his permission first.
As far as Su Jin remembered, Lu Hao was a man of few words. It had been a year since they first met until they got married, but the two of them had not really interacted that much over the past year. They would go on dates a few times every month, but they only went for movies and had meals together. After dinner, Lu Hao would send Su Jin home.
That was why Su Jin always thought that Lu Hao was somewhat emotionless. Their mundane daily conversations aside, Su Jin had never properly opened her heart to him.
As a husband, he was more than qualified. Her parents, grandparents, and even the rest of her relatives all thought that he was great. As a couple, however, she kept feeling as though they were missing something.
Perhaps it was because she acted too independent most of them. The apocalypse was upon them, though, and their family would be headed right for destruction if they could not work together closely.
She had experienced this once before, and she did not know if she could change things by starting over. However, right now she was confident that she would be able to carry her family through this safely.