Chapter 124: Chen Xing
With Zhou Qian’s words, Huai Yu felt reassured.
She took out her little notebook and seriously pondered what she needed to buy. When it was about time, she left to meet Uncle Zaozi at the entrance of the Hongsheng trading market.
Uncle Zaozi arrived punctually at 9:00. After a night of swelling, his face—which had been bruised and swollen yesterday—looked even more bloated now. The bruising had spread, and the colors looked even scarier than yesterday, like a bottle of soy sauce had been spilled over it.
One of his eyes was squinting and wouldn’t open no matter how he tried.
If Huai Yu looked at him a second longer, she would have burst out laughing. Fortunately, she only glanced once before quickly turning her head away, sparing poor Uncle Zaozi’s pride.
But even if she didn’t tease him, he wanted to tease her, “Aiya, that meal was way too filling… Little Yu, have you had breakfast yet? You know, when I saw you blocking in front of me yesterday, I was so touched! I even wanted to invite you over for a meal.”
“My wife, she’s the best wife in the world! The buns she makes—oh, don’t even get me started on how good they taste! Look at you…”
As he spoke, he clicked his tongue in regret, “If you hadn’t said later that we’re not familiar, wouldn’t I have invited you already?”
“Oh right, what did you have for breakfast?”
Huai Yu smiled with her lips pressed together, “This morning I was a bit rushed, so I just grabbed a quick bite. Bamboo shoot and pork fat fried rice, with stir-fried soybean sprouts… nothing special, probably not as tasty as your buns.”
If Uncle Zaozi’s face hadn’t already been all kinds of colors, Huai Yu would have seen his face turn blue and red again.
Because the buns that morning had only been wild vegetable filling with a bit of pork fat—mutant level 11 at best, which already counted as a luxurious breakfast.
But listening to Huai Yu describe hers, and thinking of the aroma of those bamboo shoots she had… no matter what, that had to taste better than mutant level 11, right?
Uncle Zaozi instantly felt suffocated.
Huai Yu curiously asked, “Uncle Zaozi, are we going to the highway entrance first or to Sister Xing’s place?”
Sister Xing—what a sweet way to call her!
“Of course, we’ll go to Chen Xing’s place first,” Uncle Zaozi replied grumpily. “The highway entrance is just there; it won’t run away. We can go any day. But Chen Xing is often out and about. It’s rare she’s back, and you two have a bit of fate. If you don’t take this chance to buy a few things from her, you’ll miss out.”
“Oh right, what do you want to buy?”
Uncle Zaozi was thinking that adventurers have all sorts of good stuff in their hands, all kinds of quality. If Huai Yu had an eye for picking, she might actually score something nice.
As they talked, they boarded the bus to Baishao Road. After sitting down, Huai Yu pulled out her notebook from her bag, “I want to buy a big water vat, and a pickling jar, and it’d be best to get a few more kimchi crocks… I wonder if there are any large rice bins for sale…”
She couldn’t buy a better water storage tank at the trading market, but summer was coming, and stored water in plastic tanks would breed bacteria easily. What she really needed was an old-fashioned big ceramic vat.
It stores water, prevents bacteria, and keeps cool.
As for a big rice bin… actually, another water vat would do the same job—she was thinking of a way to store Keta Rō’s poop balls.
It really worked hard; it could pile up a small basin’s worth in a day. Huai Yu didn’t know how to store it, and since the go-to advice was always “cool and dry,” she figured another water vat was the way to go.
And the kimchi crocks.
Summer was coming, and everything spoiled fast. If you didn’t sun-dry it, you had to pickle it.
She flipped through her notebook—every page said “vat, vat, vat.” This made Uncle Zaozi burst out laughing, then give her a big thumbs-up, “Good, good, good! Buy exactly these, just as you planned!”
…
The bus rattled along for over half an hour before reaching Baishao Road. Huai Yu was unfamiliar with the city, so she followed Uncle Zaozi step by step until they found a rundown residential area—
Bihai Mingzhu.
Building A05 was a small shopping center. The entire row of storefronts was empty, and A05 stood in the middle, with a sign painted in red:
[Galaxy Exploration & Collection Company]
All in all, it matched the current dilapidated, post-disaster look of everything.
When they walked in, Chen Xing was lounging in an office chair, her long legs propped up on the table, hands gripping a game console, intensely focused.
She barely lifted her eyelids when she heard them come in and quickly said, “Hang on, hang on, let me finish this round.”
Huai Yu looked around the big empty shop—only three or five people inside, lounging on bean bags or deck chairs, either reading books, holding e-readers, or playing games. Someone was even snoring.
As for the so-called company, other than sofas, chairs, and tables, there was basically nothing for sale.
The whole place screamed “half-hearted.”
But Uncle Zaozi, knowing Huai Yu was inexperienced, walked her around and explained, “Teams like theirs, the well-known exploration teams, if they have good stuff, it gets pre-ordered and picked up right at the highway checkpoint.”
“Some odds and ends might be sold to familiar vendors—like Boss Tang from Huaxia Gold. He often buys good stuff from exploration teams. He pays well and is straightforward. A lot of teams like to leave their best finds with him.”
Huai Yu, after circling around, couldn’t help but stare at the game console in Chen Xing’s hands.
She’d seen the same red-and-blue console in Boss Tang’s shop before. Everyone seemed to love it—it had to be super fun, right?
But back then, she was too broke to even think about it.
Now that she was here, she didn’t dare buy it, but asking was okay, right? So she asked curiously, “If there’s no electricity, would this thing be useless at home?”
Uncle Zaozi wasn’t surprised, “No electricity? Just buy a generator! A diesel generator costs around 5000 points. You’ll need to keep buying diesel later, but it makes daily electricity use a lot easier.”
Just then, Chen Xing seemed to finish her game, set the console down on the table, and said to Huai Yu, “If you’re not in a hurry, don’t rush to buy a generator. I heard the higher-ups plan to restart infrastructure once everyone’s lives are back on track.”
“First will be road repairs—it should be quick since our old roads weren’t bad, just a bit wrecked these past years. Next will be water and electricity.”
“Right now, there aren’t many households with electricity in the city. Even if there is power, the price is sky-high, and people don’t dare use it. A lot of factory machines survived the disasters, but they can’t afford to run them now. Leave them unused too long and there’ll be damage… so just wait a bit.”
Huai Yu felt troubled.
Because she didn’t know whether road and power repairs would reach the Rose Corridor where she lived.
It seemed like she was just buying ordinary things, but with no delivery services, she could only hope Chen Xing’s vehicle could help.
