It was essential to buy enough lighters and matches. During evacuation or when staying in the square, lighting a match to cook or make fire for warmth was very convenient.
After the apocalypse, for several years, water, electricity, and gas were cut off. Everyday scavenged supplies like lighters or wood were all exchanged for food and essentials. Starting a fire was extremely difficult.
Many small things in life only reveal their value once they are lost.
Like kitchen knives and machetes.
If in her previous life her family had had a few kitchen knives, they might not have been killed by people wielding sticks and glass bottles. The six months of riots after the apocalypse were terrifying, with countless deaths.
Meanwhile, new laws were introduced. All kitchen knives, machetes, iron scissors, and iron rods could be exchanged for half a portion of coarse grain. The state used these metals to make materials for a artificial sun.
Every household exchanged their knives for coarse grain. Even collapsed houses in flooded areas were searched for these metals.
Within three months, kitchen knives were almost extinct.
If anyone asked who Jing Shu admired most after the apocalypse, it was the fact that while other countries were calling for war and chaos, China remained peaceful. As for murder and robbery, you still needed a weapon. Guns were strictly regulated, knives had been exchanged for coarse grain, and sticks were used as fuel.
You could take a broken chair as a weapon, but you might be reported before even reaching the target. Reporting someone earned one centimeter of coarse grain.
Even if you wanted to rob, or rape? Everyone hadn't bathed or changed clothes in years. If you could tolerate them, they would cooperate.
Robbing food? Those who went scavenging for rotten roots had almost nothing to eat. It was faster to find bugs yourself than risk being reported and having your entire family reformed.
The state had taken away both your weapons and your reasons to rob. Surviving like a salted fish was already lucky.
In this life, Jing Shu bought many sets of machetes and large kitchen knives.
She also spent 50,000 yuan on some prohibited multi-shot crossbows and arrows to prepare for the dark half-year of human depravity after the apocalypse. She considered buying a couple of guns, but there were no available channels yet. Perhaps she could steal one later?
She bought seven banned military tents, waterproof, windproof, breathable, 3.5 kg each, one-pull setup for easy operation, spending a total of 120,000 yuan. Even during an earthquake, sleeping in the square would be comfortable!
Other outdoor gear included large backpacks, down sleeping bags, moisture-proof mats, windproof clothing, full-seal spacesuits, waterproof and thermal shoes, climbing ropes, harnesses, ascenders and descenders for post-apocalypse climbing and escape, snow boards, high-altitude goggles, down suits, cooking utensils, stoves, and multifunctional water bottles. These were essential for outdoor survival after the apocalypse.
She also bought fuel canisters. Kerosene could heat food and warm the space. Jing Shu sighed, realizing that outdoor adventurers were all rich. Just a good windbreaker cost over a thousand yuan, and a full set of high-quality gear could easily cost over 100,000 yuan.
The outdoor supplies cost 500,000 yuan and were stored in her large bedroom storage room on the second floor because of the quantity and variety.
She bought the latest gasoline generator, low-noise and long-lasting.
She bought 10,000 liters of 95-octane gasoline in batches from multiple stations, costing 45,000 yuan, using 10 cubic meters of Cube Space (1 cubic meter = 1000 liters).
If her Cube Space could upgrade before the apocalypse, she could store even more gasoline for hybrid vehicles.
Jing Shu spent a whole day buying frozen foods, filling four commercial freezers and the villa's existing refrigerator.
She had avoided frozen foods before because of the cost.
She first bought her favorite Yuqing sausages. At a wholesale price of 4.8 yuan per sausage, she bought 8,000 sausages—200 boxes—spending 38,400 yuan.
After eating Yuqing sausages, she never wanted 2-yuan sausages again.
She also bought 500 kg of compressed beef and lamb each. After the apocalypse, she would slice them into beef and lamb rolls for hot pot with sesame oil and garlic sauce, spending 100,000 yuan.
She bought top-grade pure beef steaks: T-bone, ribeye, filet, sirloin, and striploin. 8,000 steaks in total, costing 240,000 yuan.
Of course, a steak needed a sausage and a fried egg to be soulful.
Ice cream was life-saving in the first year of the apocalypse. She bought Haagen-Dazs 9-liter tubs at 1,300 yuan per tub. She purchased 120 tubs, filling 1 cubic meter of Cube Space and half a refrigerator, spending 156,000 yuan.
While buying hot pot beef and lamb rolls, she also needed side dishes.
Jing Shu bought various fish tofu, beef balls, shrimp balls, fish balls, rice cakes, wide noodles, and small self-heating hot pots—200 in total at 30 yuan per box.
Want KFC in the apocalypse? KFC used frozen ingredients. Jing Shu bought them all wholesale: fries, popcorn chicken, wings, bacon, chicken strips, Colonel's chicken nuggets, and bone-in chicken.
Pizza Hut pizza, egg tarts, cheese, butter for frying steaks—all had to be bought, though they were very expensive.
Finally, she bought tangyuan, wontons, dumplings, mooncakes, and frozen cakes. Seeing over 1.2 million spent and only 200,000 yuan left, Jing Shu stopped. She still had other expenses coming.
Jing Shu wanted to say to herself, "Are you a demon? Buying this much stuff."
By the 21st, everything was stored properly and bought. She could not add a pond of fish one day and more chickens and ducks the next while her grandparents were living there.
After remodeling, the villa kitchen was much larger. She stored dry goods, flour, rice, and grains in 60-liter boxes all around the cabinets. On top of the cabinets were bulk spices. Four large freezers lined up against the former dining area.
Chicken, duck, and quail eggs were neatly stored in three tall racks.
Next to them were 60-liter boxes of chili, pickled vegetables, cabbage, and radish, taking up half the kitchen and saving space for Jing Shu.
A door in the corner of the kitchen led to the villa backyard boiler room, where two more stoves were available.
Even though the supplies were in cabinets and freezers, she installed a security door for the 40-square-meter kitchen, making it a separate room. In the apocalypse, no one would know what was inside.
Early that morning, Jing Shu brought luggage and her grandparents to the villa, beginning her chili sauce and spicy cabbage—or rather, her 2-million-yuan live-streaming investment! This was her business!
Her grandparents were excited and asked many questions, though Grandpa Jing's concerns were unusual.
"If I become popular and everyone likes me, but you don't, what will we do?"
Jing Shu: "..."
"My grandpa is overthinking, isn't he?"