BXBX NOVEL Chapter 38: Splurging Hard
As Huaxia had strict regulations on gasoline management, if the people wanted to refuel, they could only drive to the station and fill up the whole tank instead of using containers to take the gasoline away. If they wanted to take away or purchase a large amount, they needed to go through relevant procedures.
Su Jin did not know about this in advance, and her plan to stockpile gasoline went down the drain after she heard about it from Lu Hao. It seemed that she could only wait until the apocalypse broke out and took advantage of the early chaos to store up some gas.
Therefore, Su Jin went shopping with her mother and Aunt Tianzhen the next day with Nie Qing and Lin Xiuyuan in tow. Aunt Yunxiang had to stay at home and receive incoming parcels, so she did not go with them.
Actually, Nie Qing had been unwilling to go out. He had only a few episodes left of Ashes of Love to finish.
There was only one big TV in Su Jin’s grandparents’ house, almost the whole family binge-watched the drama together with him in the living room, except that they did not sob as woefully as him.
When Su Jin and Lu Hao walked through the door, they were greeted with the sight of Li Xiuying and Nie Qing watching the show together. Each had a pack of tissues in front of them, and the trash can was already full of tissues…
It took the whole family great effort to explain to Nie Qing that the people on TV were not acting just for anyone but the entire country. If not, Nie Qing would probably pull another late-nighter binge-watching the drama.
Li Xiuying was also a TV fan, but she rarely watched youth idol dramas like this. However, she was also overwhelmed by emotion when watching this series. She was especially heartbroken for the handsome second male lead, so she wept together with Nie Qing.
Su Jin was fascinated by this sight. It seemed that she would have to download more dramas onto her computer and tablet whenever she had the time.
The few of them first visited the area’s largest supermarket. After entering the place, Su Jin pulled out a few shopping carts and distributed them to the group. They then started shopping with their respective carts, and even Nie Qing and Lin Xiuyuan had one each.
Considering Li Xiuying’s old age, Su Jin did not let her grandmother push the cart and walked with her instead.
“Lil Lin, can we just take all these things however we want without paying?” It was Nie Qing’s first time visiting the supermarket. Although he was unfamiliar with this shopping mode, he got used to it quickly after seeing everyone putting stuff into their carts naturally.
“That’s right, Uncle Nie. You take what you want and put it into your cart now, then you pay at the exit.” Lin Xiuyuan replied while chucking snacks into his cart. He felt like a tycoon right now, haha.
Lin Xiuyuan glanced at Su Jin’s cart. There was chocolate, ham sausages of different thicknesses, compressed biscuits, canned meat…
He then looked back at his own cart filled with vacuum-packed potato chips, shrimp crackers, puffed snacks… Was he a bit too extravagant? It was already inconvenient carrying such space-consuming items during an apocalypse, but he still bought them.
However, he was relieved to see Su Jin glance at his items without further comment. Never mind, he would hurry up and finish them within these few days, or else he would never be able to eat them anymore.
Lin Xiuyuan looked back only to become anxious when he realized that Uncle Nie was nowhere to be found. Su Jin had instructed him to look after Uncle Nie, and he could not lose him on his watch.
It was a working day, and there were very few people in the supermarket, so he managed to find Nie Qing quickly.
He watched Nie Qing putting his hand on the freezer full of ice cream and retracting it after a while, then putting it back and retracting it again…
Could it be that this Uncle Nie came from some remote rural village and had never watched TV or seen a freezer before? Lin Xiuyuan had unexpectedly hit the nail on the head again.
Seeing Lin Xiuyuan walk over, Nie Qing hurriedly grabbed him and asked, “Lil Lin, what kind of box is this, why is it so cold to the touch?”
…
Lin Tianhui and Lin Tianzhen followed Su Jin’s example and bought chocolate, biscuits, and ham. Actually, they had already purchased a lot of these in bulk and stored them in the warehouse. However, they still had some money left, and it would be a waste if they did not spend it.
As the women shopped, they arrived at the apparel section and started choosing clothes subconsciously.
Meanwhile, Lin Xiuyuan and Nie Qing held a paid ice cream each in their hands and stared at the five shopping carts in front of them as they licked their ice cream in silence.
Nie Qing asked, “What kind of delicacy is this? How is it so delicious?”
“Uncle Nie, where did you live before this? Haven’t you eaten ice cream before?” Lin Xiuyuan had no malicious intent, he was genuinely curious.
Nie Qing also knew that Lin Xiuyuan did not mean to scorn him, so he told him truthfully that he had been living in seclusion in the mountain.
Lin Xiuyuan was not too surprised. The people of their generation were better at receiving new information, and he would not bat an eyelid even in the face of a god, let alone a hermit.
As they chatted, the women finally came out, satisfied with their haul.
If not for Lu Hao calling and telling them that Grandpa had finished cooking, they would probably continue shopping for the rest of the afternoon.
Su Jin mainly bought long-sleeved clothes and trousers, especially wear-resistant jeans. She got some for almost everyone, even Nie Qing. She also purchased some seasonally discounted leather jackets, which she felt were stronger and might not tear easily when scratched by zombies.
Her mother, aunt, and grandmother did not buy cumbersome clothes either and mainly bought changeable underwear.
Besides getting clothes for themselves, the women also bought a sufficient amount for the men and children in the family.
Lu Hao did not come with them but stayed at Grandma’s house to help Lin Cheng and Mao Zhihang heighten the outer wall. They planned to move everyone into this house during the early apocalypse period as there were just enough rooms. For the sake of everyone’s safety, they decided to strengthen the house’s defense a bit more.
Su Jin had said that they should not only guard against zombies. Sometimes, humans were much more terrifying than zombies.
While the men busied themselves at home, Huang Yunxiang also bustled about receiving parcels. Su Jin and the others had written her name and this house’s address as their recipient. Huang Yunxiang felt that her hands were going jelly just from signing all the parcels.
The young couriers had come to know this family after the past few days of delivering parcels to them. They heard that this family was buying products in bulk online because they wanted to open a supermarket, so they were not too suspicious.
Huang Yunxiang used to love opening parcels, but now, as she looked at the mountain of packages flooding the living room, she felt that she would never want to open another parcel in her life…
She decided to wait until the afternoon and let Lin Cheng drag all the boxes to the warehouse.
Lin Yunguo had prepared two whole rice-cookers of braised rice and dishes enough to fill a table.
The rice was pearly white, and each grain was round and plump. Lin Yunguo had cooked a pot of braised pork leg by simmering the pork leg in a pressure cooker and then frying it with ginger, garlic, and chili, while the remaining broth was turned into pork leg soup. The pressure cooker had softened the pork leg to the point that it melted in the mouth, and Nie Qing savored it so much that he almost swallowed his tongue.
There were many other dishes, such as white boiled shrimp, steamed vermicelli with garlic, stir fry bamboo shoots with bacon, beef with parsley, braised fish, fried egg with chili, braised cabbage in broth…
The family ate very fast, and the dishes on the table were soon finished. Seeing how full everyone was, Su Jin thought to herself, ‘Thank goodness I’ve stocked enough food supplies. Otherwise, how’s this family of gluttons going to survive?’
When Su Jin heard that her Aunt Yunxiang and Uncle Cheng were going to the warehouse after lunch to put the parcels away, she decided to go with them to see how many supplies the family had stored there.
Nie Qing wanted to stay and continue binge-watching drama, and Li Xiuying also wanted to finish watching the last few episodes. In the end, only Su Jin, Lu Hao, Aunt Yunxiang, and Uncle Cheng went to the warehouse.
Lin Xiuyuan also took on a new task. Su Jin had given him the tablets in the house and asked him to download a few highly rated dramas and movies. After downloading them onto the tablets, he still had to do the same using the desktop computer.
She had already registered as a member of all video sites, but her membership was only for a month. Lin Xiuyuan could take his time downloading for the next few days. In the future, when the family gets bored inside or outside the dimension, they could kill time by watching movies.
Although Lin Xiuyuan loved handling stuff like this, it was still very time-consuming to download so many movies and dramas. Moreover, why did that lass Su Jin ask him to download them onto the desktop computer? How was the family going to survive the apocalypse carrying a desktop computer?