Jiang Ci returned to her daily routine of visiting the slaughterhouse every morning and collecting supplies from various shops in the afternoon.
She also set up a shooting range in her space specifically to practice shooting.
The club owner called as well, asking Jiang Ci to pick up her vehicles.
She did not go herself. Instead, she sent him a warehouse address and asked him to deliver the shipping containers straight there.
Her modified RV, Hummer, yacht, and helicopter had all arrived too.
By mid-April, the furniture center had finished making all the remaining storage shelves.
Jiang Ci placed the shelves along both sides of her space and reorganized all her supplies, sorting everything into categories.
On April 17, exactly one month had passed since Si Beichen last transferred spending money to her.
The one million in spending money from Dad Si for this month had long since arrived too. Jiang Ci was itching to make another move on Si Beichen's wallet.
Previously, she had thought Si Beichen would not live to see the natural disasters, so she had shown no restraint when asking him for money.
Now that she reckoned Si Beichen had made it through the danger period through a twist of fate, she wanted to use his money to stockpile more survival supplies for him.
She could not let him freeload off her later. Spending a little time and effort to stockpile supplies for him with his own money was more like it.
The more she thought about it, the more justified she felt. She immediately took out her phone and messaged Si Beichen.
Jiang Ci: [Brother, send me some spending money.]
This time, Si Beichen replied quickly.
Si Beichen: [Didn't I just transfer you a hundred million last month?]
Jiang Ci: [I saved it for my future dowry.]
Si Beichen: [...How much do you want?]
Jiang Ci: [I want a new car. My BMW Mini is long overdue for a replacement.]
Si Beichen: [What car do you want?]
Jiang Ci: [I've got my eye on a Hummer.]
Si Beichen: [Is twenty million enough?]
Jiang Ci: [Don't be so stingy, brother. Send me another hundred million.]
Si Beichen: ...
In the special operations unit's office.
Qian Zimo patted Si Beichen on the shoulder and asked with concern, "Why are you staring blankly at your phone?"
Remembering that Qian Zimo also had a younger sister, Si Beichen frowned and asked, "Does your sister often ask you for money too?"
Qian Zimo thought of his precious younger sister, Qian Ziyou, his expression hard to describe.
"More than that! Qian Ziyou is their biological child. I'm the one they picked up off the street, okay? What's hers is hers, and what's mine is hers too. That girl is always telling Mom and Dad tales about me. I've gotten scolded plenty because of her."
Si Beichen thought of his newly acquired younger sister, Jiang Ci. The girl was exceptionally pretty, and aside from asking him for spending money, she did not cause him trouble the way Qian Zimo's sister did.
Girls ought to be raised in comfort. This was his first time being someone's older brother, too, so he had even less reason to quibble with her over this little bit of money.
Besides, his father had told him that her biological father's family was very wealthy too. She had been raised with money all her life, and now that she had joined their family, her standard of living certainly could not drop.
Si Beichen promptly transferred another hundred million to Jiang Ci.
Jiang Ci counted the digits in the transfer notification, feeling delighted.
She went to Fragrant Orchid Cottage for a meal that weekend as usual.
The following day, Jiang Ci went to X Province.
X Province was a coastal city with abundant seafood, and Jiang Ci ordered a large batch at the wholesale seafood market.
Three days later, she went to the largest and most comprehensive wholesale clothing market in Z Province. Winter clothes, summer clothes, spring and autumn clothes, military overcoats, outdoor jackets, cold-weather clothing, temperature-regulating clothing, yarn, hats, shoes, bedding, thick cotton quilts, down duvets, fabrics, and textiles-she bought a batch of everything for men and women, young and old, regardless of style or age group.
After staying for four or five days, Jiang Ci went to the largest wholesale agricultural market in H Province.
H Province was a major agricultural province, with plentiful grain, oils, canned foods, and seasonings.
Rice, millet, soybeans, red beans, mung beans, wheat, flour, noodles, black rice, cowpeas, and more-she bought them all by the ton.
Peanut oil, sesame oil, rapeseed oil, blended cooking oil, olive oil, sesame oil for hot pot, refined salt, coarse salt, white sugar, rock sugar, chicken bouillon powder, MSG, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, white vinegar, aged vinegar, cooking wine, oyster sauce, soybean paste, sweet bean sauce, chili bean paste, Lao Gan Ma, yeast powder, starch, seasoned soy sauce for steamed fish, sesame paste, and more.
Scallions, ginger, garlic, dried chilies, anise, bay leaves, Sichuan peppercorns, green Sichuan peppercorns, cassia bark, star anise, chili powder, white sesame seeds, black sesame seeds, white pepper, black pepper, ground Sichuan pepper, thirteen-spice powder, ground cumin, barbecue seasoning, hot pot soup bases, and more.
Because the quantities were so enormous, Jiang Ci stayed there for a week before she finished buying everything.
At the end of the month, Jiang Ci went to the food, beverage, tobacco, and liquor market in G Province.
She bought a batch of drinks, alcoholic beverages, cigarettes, tea, assorted snacks, ice cream, and more.
In early May, Jiang Ci went to the wholesale daily necessities market and bought plenty of books, audiovisual materials, newspapers, periodicals, and the like, filling every bookcase in the living room of her house inside the space.
Of course, a girl's cosmetics and skincare products were indispensable. She stocked enough to last more than two lifetimes.
For shampoo, body wash, and soap, she stocked unscented varieties.
Tissues, sanitary pads, safety shorts, and condoms would all become scarce commodities in the future. Jiang Ci stockpiled them in large quantities, partly for her own use and partly to barter for supplies later.
Tableware, towels, rugs, stationery, bags, small accessories, and more-whatever she saw while browsing the wholesale markets, she bought some to take back, whether it was useful or not.
Since she could not grow things in her space, Jiang Ci also made a special trip to the wholesale flower and bird market to buy plenty of potted flowers and plants, which she placed inside her space.
They did add quite a bit of life and vitality to the space.
Jiang Ci also bought plenty of walkie-talkies, radios, flashlights, phones, computers, tablets, and more, downloading offline maps, wilderness survival guides, offline movies, TV shows, games, books, and so on.
At the automobile and auto parts market, there were motorcycles, electric bikes, tricycles, motor vehicles, cars, and more.
Jiang Ci prepared plenty of both fuel-powered and electric means of transportation.
The crayfish she had ordered earlier also began arriving in batches.
To have fresh crayfish to eat in the future, she gritted her teeth and dug an artificial pond inside her space, raising a batch of fish and shrimp in it.
She really was going all out for food.
If the weather became too hot, water was already taken care of, and so was food. What she needed were insecticides, floral water, mosquito coils, solar charging panels, generators, and power banks.
For cooling, she needed evaporative air coolers, electric fans, cooling machines, sun umbrellas, light-blocking panels, and blackout fabric.
If the weather became too cold, she needed diesel generators, radiant heaters, disposable heat packs, chilblain cream, skis, inflatable rafts, tents, ice skates, and assault boats.
For cooking and heating, she needed coal, coal briquettes, charcoal stoves, coal briquette stoves, gas cylinders, charcoal, and more.
She ordered five hundred tons each of charcoal and coal briquettes, picking them up directly from the factories.
By the time she had gathered all these odds and ends, well over half of May had passed, and the month was nearing its end.