The enthusiastic lad came over to greet us.
"Hello, I plan to buy an iron stove, an iron rack, and then two pots of different sizes, I also need a pair of kettles."
Li Pan checked her notebook which recorded what she needed.
"How tall do you need the rack to be, or tell me what you're using it for. If you're hanging cured meat, you'll need it a bit taller. It's best to have multiple shelves to fully utilize the space. If it's for placing on a counter, it doesn't need to be that tall."
"I'll take both types then."
"We have readymade ones. Here are the two types: this is the shorter one which you can put a wooden countertop on as a table, and you can also store things underneath. This is a drawer, and this is a three-layer shelf."
"This one is taller, suitable for hanging farm produce as well as meat. It's sturdy and useful, but it uses more scrap materials and is slightly more expensive than the short one. We'll deliver it to your door."
"I'll take both types, and I want all those iron pots I just looked at. Don't forget the water boiler, and I also need two stoves of different sizes, more sections for the chimney, and fifty iron hooks of various thicknesses."
"Okay, let me calculate your total, it comes to one thousand five hundred thirty-two yuan. Since you're buying a lot, I'll waive the delivery fee and round down the change. Just give me a round figure, and tell me which farm to deliver to."
"No. 8 Farm."
Li Pan then paid the amount. She had earned a substantial amount of money from selling stevia last time, so she had enough for now.
She bought two iron racks; one was an iron cabinet for storing things. Iron racks and hooks could be used for hanging meat and storing farm produce off the ground. With these cabinets and shelves, they could be utilized now and would still be useful once the house was built.
After paying, the lad was overjoyed. He hurriedly handed her a written note that had their shop's phone number, logo, and a handprint on it. She could keep it as evidence; if they failed to deliver, she could report them to the base, and they'd definitely be shut down.
Base management was extremely strict. If you wanted to do business or live at the base long-term, you had to follow the rules strictly. Severe cases were dealt with harshly, without any mercy.
With the note in hand, Li Pan and Xue Dong went to the grain store, concerned that they might not have enough food for two more men.
They bought a bit more just to tide them over for another couple of months until they could harvest a large quantity of crops. With the boost from superpowers, the crops would grow according to natural laws and would be harvested earlier and yield more. This was the value of Wood Power.
They bought some brown rice and glutinous rice at the grain store since Li Pan wanted to eat sweet rice wine and they didn't have glutinous rice at home.
They also went to another shop to buy some sealed jars and bought liquor, wheat wine, and sorghum wine.
Alcohol was relatively expensive since it required grains to produce, and in these times, there wasn't even enough grain for people to eat, let alone to make alcohol.
"How much is this set of brewing equipment?"
"That set is three thousand yuan. Not many people make alcohol nowadays. This is a small device, just clean it and you can use it. We're selling it cheap."
"Can you make it even cheaper?"
"Really can't do that, it used to sell for seven thousand. Disasters have struck, and there's not even enough food to eat, that's why we're selling it cheap now."
"I'll take it, add some more stuff, like the wine jars, and give me two full sets of wine implements."
Xue Dong immediately took over, haggling fiercely.
After some debate, Xue Dong ended up with ten wine jars, twenty small jars as freebies, and a set of brewing equipment with a distillation scale, all acquired through tough bargaining.
"Oh my! I'll deliver and install it for you, please just go, I can't take this anymore."
The owner was almost at his breaking point. This guy was so serious about bargaining, really pinching every penny without being ashamed.
Most people would just haggle a little and let it be if they couldn't get the price down. But not him, he probed step by step to find the bottom line, pulling a little wool over your eyes here and there, circling around until you couldn't remember what had been promised. He remembered, though.
Li Pan bowed her head to suppress her laughter, and couldn't hold it back any longer. Now she understood why the Base Commander always wanted to avoid him; he was too persistent.
Xue Dong happily took the note and led the way out.
"Pan'er, this set of equipment is quite expensive, but you treat me the best, willing to buy it for me."
Xue Dong had learned how to make alcohol from his father. He had initially worked in logistics at a base and had done this work with others. His skill wasn't great, but it was enough for home brewing.
"I was thinking we'd need alcohol for cooking too. Once we have a bountiful harvest, we'll always have some grains left for you to make alcohol. Consider it an early birthday gift from me."
"Alright, I'm really satisfied with this."
Xue Dong's eyebrows raised in a smile.
"Have you made an appointment with the Base Commander about when to start building the house? We need to hurry, fearing the rainy season might start early."
"I made an appointment long ago. People will be back in a week and will start working as soon as they return. I just reminded them again when I went to the kitchen to bring food to the brothers."
"That's good, Brother. We'll have a home too, right?"
Li Pan looked up at the blue sky and white clouds, her heart filling with more longing and hope.
"Yes, once the farm gets on the right track, we will have a home to settle down in."
Xue Dong smiled and patted her head; she had been through a lot these past few years; it's hard to express in words.
He then went to buy some fabric and had a few blankets and beddings made, making four thick blankets with seven jin of cotton, and also a few lighter ones weighing three to four jin of cotton to buy later.
They also bought the tools Qin Jianzhong mentioned; Xue Dong and another were planning to make a bed and a small cabinet.
Simple furniture was still doable; they would learn while working on it.
After buying everything, he had people deliver the goods to the farm, carrying the smaller items back himself.
They rushed back to the farm before dark, unloaded the goods, and charged the batteries.
When they got home, Qin Jianzhong had already fixed the chicken coop and the cattle and sheep shed, which were not far from the vegetable garden, exactly where they planned to build the breeding area.
"Brother Qin, we're back, and we bought a lot of stuff."
"Hard work. Xue Dong, did you check the Spirit Plant?"
"I did, and they've set some aside for me. I need to pick up quite a few things tomorrow."
"Okay, tomorrow I'll receive the goods."
"Tomorrow, Pan'er and I will start plowing the land, planning to focus on sugarcane and cotton."
"Okay."
After dinner, the three of them worked together to make green bricks; some were used for the chicken coop and cattle shed but they needed to continue making bricks.
The delivery man arrived the next noon, and Qin Jianzhong stored the goods and signed for them.
This time, the medicinal herbs sold for some money, and along with the exchanged senna leaves and other items, after offsetting the exchanged goods, there was still quite a bit of money and Contribution points left, enough for now.
The loquats were also sold, and the money had been transferred to Li Pan's phone and card.
She first went to check on the fields, supplying each plant with her superpower, and in the afternoon, she went around to supply some superpower to the Poison Thorn as well, then moved on to the fruit tree area to apply some superpower and plant the remaining fruit trees.
After finishing these tasks, she looked for Xue Dong to continue clearing land to plant cotton, rapeseed, sugarcane, and beetroot, which were urgently needed materials at the base, purchased year-round.
It was almost the end of April; by the end of May, potatoes and sweet potatoes would be ready for harvest. With the boost from her Wood Element superpower, the maturity time for crops would decrease and yield higher, and as long as the weather was favorable, the results generally wouldn't be too bad.
Over the next two months, they needed to keep an eye on corn, rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and the vegetable garden, all of which were close to being harvested, and they couldn't afford any mistakes.
After plowing the land, she looked around the fields again; there were no issues.
"Brother, I'm going to check on the frogs."
"Okay."
When they returned from the base, they had brought some frogs from Gao Wenbin, specially assigned to handle the insect problems in the field; these mutation frogs were very obedient, only ate insects, and were easy to raise.
Seeing there were no problems, she left.
Tomorrow, they planned to try making sweet rice wine, specially buying sweet wine yeast for it.