At ten in the morning, Jiang Ci arrived at the Linjiang Car Rental Agency on time.
After a short wait, she saw a black sedan pull into the rental agency.
Jiang Ci stayed in her vehicle.
Her phone chimed with a message.
Pharmaceutical representative: [I'm here, in a black sedan.]
Jiang Ci: [Coming.]
She put on a hat and mask and got out.
She walked over to the black sedan and knocked on the window.
The window rolled down, revealing a man in his early thirties.
The man glanced at Jiang Ci, whose face was completely concealed by her gear, and frowned slightly.
He opened his mouth to say something, but apparently thought of something and held back.
The man got out and opened the trunk. It was packed with medicine.
Jiang Ci wasted no words either and opened the bags to inspect them.
It was all legitimate medicine, with plenty of time left before expiration.
Having resolved an important supply issue, she was in a very good mood.
Lowering her voice, she asked, "How much?"
The man didn't rip her off. His prices were fair; she had done her homework the night before.
If this man had dared to overcharge her, the deal would have been off, and she would have found another way.
Jiang Ci promptly transferred the money to him.
Once he received it, the man immediately broke into a broad smile. "A pleasure doing business with you!"
Then he asked, "Where should I put this medicine?"
Jiang Ci raised an eyebrow and pointed at the van she had rented. "Help me carry it over to that van, thanks."
"Oh, don't mention it."
Working together, they soon moved all the medicine into the van.
The man asked Jiang Ci, "Should I bring the rest of the medicine here too?"
Jiang Ci nodded. "Yes."
"It's a fairly large quantity. I'll need some time to get it ready."
"No problem. Message me when it's ready."
"Payment on delivery."
"Mm."
After confirming everything with Jiang Ci, the man drove away.
She returned to the van, drove to a secluded, deserted corner, and put all the medicine into her space.
She drove for a long time again, heading into the neighboring district, eating only two meat buns along the way.
When she reached a bakery, she bought every loaf of bread and cake they had on display.
Then she went to the next bakery.
Whenever she came across a supermarket, she bought out all the frozen dumplings and tangyuan in its freezers.
Then she moved on to the next supermarket.
Whenever she saw a milk tea shop, she went in and ordered milk tea, a hundred cups at a time.
It wasn't until six that evening that Jiang Ci went back to collect all the milk tea and headed home.
After clearing out several bakeries, she definitely had enough desserts. After all, she wasn't particularly fond of sweets and only occasionally ate them to satisfy a craving; after a couple of bites, they became too cloying.
She had bought five hundred cups of milk tea, all at fifty percent sweetness. She really didn't like sweets, nor did she like sickeningly sweet milk tea, but it didn't taste good without any sweetness either, so a little sweetness was just right.
Later, whenever she had time, she would keep stocking up on milk tea: hot ones for winter, iced ones for summer.
On the way back, she stopped by a water-bottling plant.
Although she had water in her space, she still preferred drinking bottled water. Once she put the villa's water dispenser into her space, getting a drink would be incredibly convenient.
So she ordered fifty thousand large bottles! At five yuan each, that came to 250,000 yuan. She would pick them up tomorrow.
Even if she drank one a day, they would last her 137 years.
She also ordered ten thousand small bottles of mineral water at thirty fen each, spending three thousand yuan.
Following her usual routine, she first went to the snack street to collect all kinds of snacks, then picked up four hundred meals from the restaurant.
The frog and fish restaurant, barbecue shop, lamb rice noodle shop, breakfast shop, rice noodle shop...
Making the rounds like this every day was so annoying.
But this was the safest way. By collecting everything herself, she kept people from knowing where she went, so they wouldn't wonder where all the dishes she ordered were being delivered or who was eating them.
Even though it was annoying and troublesome, she still decided to handle it herself and make the extra trips.
After driving around all day, she was truly exhausted. She ate two squid pies and drank two cups of water, then couldn't eat any more.
After showering, she lay sprawled on the bed, not wanting to move at all.
She soon fell asleep.
After getting up and exercising for two hours, Jiang Ci ate a simple breakfast and drove the van to the rental agency.
She exchanged the van for a truck and drove to the water-bottling plant.
Fifty thousand large bottles of water plus ten thousand bottles of mineral water was quite a lot.
And since she had to pretend to drive around outside before coming back, Jiang Ci spent the entire day on the water-bottling plant.
It took five trips in the morning and another five in the afternoon to haul everything away.
While driving around outside, she put all the water into her space.
She settled the remaining balance with the owner. With that, the water issue was completely resolved.
After switching back to the van, Jiang Ci began collecting all kinds of snacks, dishes, frog and fish, barbecue, lamb rice noodles, breakfast foods, rice noodles, and so on.
Her biggest gain that day was probably discovering another hot pepper soup shop along the way.
Hot pepper soup was her favorite, so she immediately got out and ordered a hundred bowls a day.
The shop also sold fried dough sticks, so she ordered a hundred of those a day too.
If she kept that up for six months, she would have enough for one bowl of hot pepper soup and one fried dough stick a day for fifty years.
So happy ^_^
Jiang Ci's dinner consisted of two bowls of hot pepper soup and two fried dough sticks.
The happiest moment of each day was probably when she slipped under the covers after her evening shower.
She browsed short videos, read news reports, and scrolled through forums and Tieba.
Suddenly, a new message popped up on her phone.
[Wen Qianyue invited you to join the Happy Family group chat.]
Jiang Ci opened the group chat. There were four people in it.
Apart from her and Ms. Wen, there was someone called Peace and Calm. A name that tacky could only belong to her stepfather, Si Jianhua. It suited his personality, too.
The other person was called C, with a military dog as his profile picture.
She could have figured out with her toes that this was her stepbrother.
Then she received a new friend request.
It was her stepfather, Calm and Peace.
After accepting it, Jiang Ci changed his contact name to Si Jianhua.
Everyone in her contacts was listed by their name. She wasn't exaggerating: if a stranger kidnapped her on the street one day and tried to find her parents through her phone, it would be entirely down to fate.
Si Jianhua tagged her in the Happy Family group.
[@C Xiao Ci, come home for a meal this weekend. Your mom's making your favorite mixed soup.]
Before she could get a proper look, Si Jianhua hurriedly recalled the message.
[Oops, I tagged the wrong person. Let me send that again.]
[@C @C]
[What's going on? Xiao Ci and Beichen both use C as their username?]
Jiang Ci: [...Σ(ŎдŎ|||)ﾉﾉ]
That was right. She actually had the same username as her stepbrother.
She used C because of "ci," and it turned out her stepbrother used C because of "chen."
She had lived two lifetimes, and only a second ago had she learned that her stepbrother was called Beichen...
Si Jianhua stopped tagging anyone and simply sent the message.
[Xiao Ci, come home for a meal this weekend. Your mom will make your favorite mixed soup and spicy crayfish.]
Jiang Ci: [Okay.]
As soon as she replied, another text notification arrived on her phone.
[Si Jianhua transferred RMB 1,000,000.00 to your savings account ending in 0765 at 22:16 on March 17. Your current account balance is RMB 3,975,280,000.00.]
In the Happy Family group chat.
Si Jianhua: [Xiao Ci, did you get this month's spending money? Ask me for more if it's not enough.]
Jiang Ci: ...
It was so sudden, and such a generous sum, that she didn't know how to react.
Even when her biological father had been alive, he had never given her this much spending money in a month.
[Got it. Thank you, Dad Si.]
She still seemed unable to bring herself to call him just Dad, but adding Si made it seem less difficult to say.
Si Jianhua stared wide-eyed at the word "Dad," so happy that he couldn't speak.