The moment something interesting appeared on the item list, Jing Shu perked up. It was a batch of specialty foods from the capital, and what made them precious was the fact that every piece had been freshly made. There were Daoxiang Village pastries, the classic Jing Eight, and all kinds of traditional treats that somehow still survived in this apocalypse. Plenty of shops offered the same varieties, so over a dozen stores had batches listed.
Because production costs in the apocalypse were brutal, everything was expensive, but the taste and quality really did hold up. They were almost identical to the ones Jun Bao gave her last year.
Jing Shu had been craving these little snacks for ages. Things you can't get always itch at your heart, and after tasting them once, she never forgot that explosion of flavor on her tongue.
The problem was that she couldn't recreate that taste at home at all. How could she not be annoyed?
So when the pastry category popped up, she acted like a country bumpkin who had never seen the world. She immediately entered bids on every single pastry. She didn't care whether she'd tried them before or not.
Even Tang Tuoguan, the caretaker with the permanently expressionless face, glanced at her in disbelief. Her hands were moving so fast they left afterimages as she muttered nonstop, "Pork floss cakes, apple crisps, pine nut corn cakes, pork floss rolls, matcha pastries, taro pastries, mung bean cakes, pineapple cakes, red bean pastries, chestnut pastries, and oh right, the famous Jing Eight: Fortune Cakes, Grandmaster Cakes, Longevity Peaches, Celebration Cakes, Silver Ingot Cakes, Rolled Crisps, Chicken Oil Cakes, Jujube Flower Cakes, Sachima. I didn't even get to try the full set last time."
A small box of pastries wasn't as pricey as premium cigarettes, but when she decided to buy out the entire category, it wasn't cheap at all.
The prices had been stable until the moment the trading channel opened. Then everything got snatched up at lightning speed by Jing Shu. A few bestsellers were pushed into auction, but she simply followed along and secured those too. Since their prices rarely fluctuated, there was no need to fight aggressively, and the result was simple.
Jing Shu bought every single pastry.
Don't underestimate pastries. Individually they were nothing, but after Jing Shu swept through them all, she realized the total value was a full one million.
Certified big spender.
For a while, her name spread through the trading hall. People kept guessing who this mysterious buyer was, someone who spent over a million on pastries when most survivors struggled to get enough to eat.
Then everyone watched as Jing Shu showed them what real wealth meant. If something caught her eye, she bought it. She didn't bother worrying about the price. As long as it wasn't far above its real value, she just clicked the bid button.
No one understood the apocalypse's future development better than she did. Others could only predict, but she had a cheat-like foresight. She knew exactly which supplies would become rarer and more valuable.
So whenever a scarce resource appeared, she didn't even pause. She forcefully snatched it. And with time limits on bids, she tapped the plus button so rapidly it looked like she was trying to punch through the screen. Naturally, the results matched her effort.
Then, almost by coincidence, Jing Shu came across something even rarer at this trade fair: a pair of live bamboo rats.
Yes, a breeding pair.
To be honest, even after two lifetimes combined, she'd never eaten a rat before. But she'd watched plenty of documentaries about them. Bamboo rats were clean, raised without viruses, tasted good, reproduced fast, and ate everything.
It was like someone made a checklist of everything Jing Shu wanted in an apocalypse pet:
Edible, with useful byproducts.
Fast reproduction and omnivorous.
Delicious.
She didn't care much about combat ability. After all, her Spirit Spring had turned Xiao Dou into a terrifying force of nature, so as long as something had value, she'd raise it.
And come on, it was already the fourth year of the apocalypse. Something as rare and tasty as bamboo rat poultry was a treasure. Even if her family couldn't accept eating them, she could still raise them to develop a high end food line in the future.
Combat wise, any creature that lived in groups, especially rodents, was frightening. If nurtured with the Spirit Spring, hundreds or thousands of bamboo rats moving in the dark could easily become a deadly force. And when the Ice Age arrived, digging, tunneling, and scouting might seriously end up depending on them.
So she was determined to get them. A breeding pair of bamboo rats was rare enough to tempt plenty of bidders, and the price climbed steadily. But no one could compete with her.
She bought the pair for three million.
Live animals in this world were nearly extinct. Their value couldn't be overstated.
When the two scrawny, dirty, shifty eyed little things arrived in her hands, Jing Shu's first thought was: Would roasted bamboo rat taste better, or would braised bamboo rat be better?
A kid might pick one, but Jing Shu's answer was simple: "I want both."
"Tsk tsk, I'll have to wait a month," she muttered with a tiny sigh.
"A month?" Tang Tuoguan stared at her like he couldn't understand her at all. He didn't get what she meant by needing two months. According to the data he'd prepared, bamboo rats were worth at most two hundred thousand. If it had been another type of poultry, the price might've been even higher.
After all, bamboo rats didn't appeal to everyone, especially the wealthy.
Jing Shu just smiled without explaining. She was only disappointed because she had to wait for the pair to reproduce a batch or two before she could enjoy the meat. As for the three million she spent, she didn't care. Those numbers were meaningless compared to the safety of owning a living, breeding species in the apocalypse.
The seller even tossed in some bamboo shoots and a breeding guide as thanks for driving the price so high.
Bamboo rats didn't need bamboo. They were omnivores and could eat anything from leaves to watermelon rinds. Still, Jing Shu planned to plant the bamboo in her Rubik's Cube Space and around the villa courtyard. Pandas loved bamboo, after all. Who knew, maybe she'd raise a panda one day.
She was chuckling to herself when Tang Tuoguan tapped her shoulder. He handed her items from the Big Data Mall, pointed at a machine, and said, "This thing's been listed forever. Based on how you acted just now, I figured you might need it."