89: Are you taking advantage of me?

Time passed by second by second. In room 402, Aunt Ma put down the rubber hammer she was using to smash floor tiles and rubbed her sore hands.

“It’s already been an hour. Why haven’t they come up from downstairs to find us yet?”

“The previous tenants couldn’t stand the noise for more than ten minutes and would come up to communicate and bring food.”

Aunt Ma had used this unethical method to trick several batches of tenants in room 302.

Coupled with Sister Kong, who often followed Aunt Ma downstairs to scrounge for food and drinks, no one was willing to move into the third floor.

Those who had lived there would move out after two days.

“That dead girl probably hasn’t come back to sleep. Let’s go to my place and bother the 303 downstairs.”

Sister Kong opened the door to go out and suddenly saw Jiang Fei waiting by the door.

The next second, Jiang Fei covered her mouth, pushed her back into the room, and knocked her out with a punch.

Aunt Ma was startled and instinctively tried to scream.

Bang—!

A brick hit her forehead, and Aunt Ma fell to the ground with a thud, instantly unconscious.

After confiscating the rubber hammers the two used to make noise, Jiang Fei closed the door to 402 and went home to rest.

Finally, it was quiet.

After a good night’s sleep, Jiang Fei woke up refreshed the next day, collected an hour’s worth of water in the morning, stored it in the water tank in the Supermarket warehouse, and took a serving of pork soup dumplings and milk for breakfast.

After eating and drinking her fill, Jiang Fei put on her down jacket and went out.

She had the business license for opening a small Supermarket, but she still needed a building.

Most of the empty shops in the Safety Shelter were still in the hands of their original owners; the officials were only responsible for repairs.

Empty shops with no one managing them belonged to the officials, but they were not for rent or sale.

If she wanted to buy a shop, she had to go to the Exchange to find an owner.

After browsing for a while, Jiang Fei found three owners selling shops. After viewing them one by one, she only liked one large flat-level shop.

It used to be a convenience store, but it was now abandoned.

The floor-to-ceiling windows on three sides had been broken by the flood, and the owner had sealed them with bricks and cement, converting them into two small windows for ventilation and light.

Inside, it was divided into a sales area, a lounge, a restroom, and a small warehouse.

The shop was located on West Street of the Safety Shelter.

West Street had many residential complexes and heavy foot traffic, with most official and private shops opening here.

“How much are you selling it for?”

The owner stroked the few remaining strands of thin hair on his head and made an exorbitant offer: “30 bags of instant noodles, 30 kilograms of coal, 30 liters of kerosene, plus a piece of jewelry, not silver or gold.”

Jiang Fei raised an eyebrow: “Are you taking me for a fool to rip off?”

She had already inquired about shop prices at the Exchange; generally, it was one kilogram of coal and three liters of kerosene.

The Safety Shelter did not lack water; coal and kerosene were the sought-after goods.

Lighting kerosene lamps, heating, boiling water, and cooking all depended on these two items.

Shops were not worth much at all.

Ordinary survivors’ supplies weren’t even enough for themselves; how could they have extra to open a shop?

Let alone someone buying one to live in.

Wasn’t the official free Common sleeping area not good enough?

“Two kilograms of coal, two liters of kerosene.”

Jiang Fei cut the price directly to the bottom, and the owner refused.

“You’re only giving me a little for such a big shop? Are you kidding?”

“At least 20 kilograms of coal and 10 liters of kerosene.”

As the owner, still unwilling to give up, tried to trick Jiang Fei out of her supplies, a familiar voice came from outside.

“This shop is good, I want to buy it too… Holy crap! Boss!”

Crippled Wang excitedly ran in, followed by A Meng.

“This is great, Boss! I couldn’t find you in the Safety Shelter and thought you were dead, and I cried several times!”

“Now I don’t have to fold gold ingots to burn for you!”

Jiang Fei: “…If you can’t speak properly, you can shut up.”

“You want to buy here?”

“No, no, no.” Crippled Wang explained:

“I’m friends with Old Qiao. I heard there was a fool desperately wanting to buy a house, so I came to act to help him raise the price.”

“Ahem, Boss, you’re not a fool, I am…”

Crippled Wang quickly changed the subject: “Old Qiao, this is Miss Jiang, whom I always mention to you. I’ll pay for her house-buying supplies, don’t rip me off.”

Old Qiao helplessly said: “You should have said you knew each other earlier. I wouldn’t have had to rack my brains haggling.”

“One kilogram of coal, one liter of kerosene, the house is sold to you. We’ll go to the Exchange to handle the paperwork now.”

Jiang Fei and Old Qiao went to the Exchange.

After receiving the transaction certificate, A Meng also brought the corresponding supplies.

Old Qiao gave the keys to Jiang Fei, took the supplies, and left.

He still had two shops and had to go back to continue selling them.

Noticing Scarface had come with A Meng, Jiang Fei brought up the matter of the Human Paradise small base.

“That girl should be your sister. She came to the Safety Shelter with us. You can go look for her.”

Tears of excitement welled up in Scarface’s eyes.

Without bothering to thank her, he rushed off in a hurry to take his subordinates to find his sister.

Crippled Wang and Jiang Fei returned to the shop, sighing: “It’s a small world. I didn’t expect you to meet Scarface’s sister.”

“Boss, what are you planning to do with the shop you bought?”

“If you don’t have a place to live, I can arrange something for you. I found some old acquaintances in the Safety Shelter who can get us through the back door into resettlement housing, which is warmer than here.”

“I want to open a small Supermarket.” Jiang Fei told Crippled Wang her plans.

“Mainly selling food, daily necessities, and occasionally some home-grown vegetables and scarce supplies, only accepting gold.”

Coal, gasoline, diesel, and so on were non-renewable resources, and she was reluctant to sell them.

The source of meat and seafood was difficult to explain, so she couldn’t take them out for now.

When the weather warmed up and the ice on the rivers melted, and the green shrimp reproduced, she would have a reason to sell shrimp.

Crippled Wang was very impressed.

As expected of a Boss, no matter where she went, she never forgot her hobbies!

“The idea of opening a small Supermarket and collecting gold is indeed viable.”

“The gold jewelry owned by ordinary survivors is not exquisitely crafted. The wealthy circles dislike it as vulgar and ugly, so they don’t buy it. The Safety Shelter uses points as currency, causing everyone’s gold to gather dust at home. Now that they can Exchange it for supplies, they’ll probably be overjoyed.”

Crippled Wang couldn’t help but complain: “I previously took jewelry to the wealthy circles to Exchange for gold bars, thinking of giving them to you as burial offerings, but what they sent back was all food and other supplies.”

“Only after inquiring did I learn that the gold bars in their hands were kept as heirlooms, reserved for emergencies, and absolutely impossible to trade with ordinary people.”

“The wealthy circles’ transactions don’t go through the Exchange. I have no evidence, and I can’t fight against them, so I could only swallow this bitter pill.”

Jiang Fei automatically ignored the words “burial offerings” and was a little disappointed.

She had wanted to Exchange jewelry for gold after opening the shop, but it seemed that wouldn’t be possible.

“By the way, Boss, if you sell daily necessities, do you have that kind of thing?” Crippled Wang hinted with a wink.

Seeing that Jiang Fei didn’t understand, Crippled Wang tactfully said: “Something to prevent overpopulation.”

Jiang Fei suddenly understood: “I have some. If you want some, I can give you a few boxes.”

She had taken a lot from the Tiger Suppression Gang.

As she spoke, Jiang Fei, under the cover of her jacket pocket, gave Crippled Wang 3 boxes.

Crippled Wang was dumbfounded: “You actually have so many?! And they’re brand new!”

“Boss, however many you have, I’ll buy them! 10 gold bars per box! I guarantee no credit!”

“To be honest with you, I’m currently a reseller, and what I lack most are contraceptives. Ordinary people need this, and the wealthy circles need it too. It’s no exaggeration to say it’s more sought after than kerosene and coal.”

People have desires, but with such a bad environment, no one wants to have children.

Jiang Fei saw a new door for collecting gold: “I still have quite a lot. I’ll go back and look today. You help me sell them, the supplies are yours, and the gold is mine.”

“Okay!” Crippled Wang readily agreed, saving him the trouble of painstakingly searching for gold!

“Do you need adult toys?”

Jiang Fei hesitated for a moment: “They are used ones. I found them outside before.”

She hadn’t thrown away those items in the Supermarket warehouse yet.

Crippled Wang’s gaze at Jiang Fei became strange.

Boss looking for adult toys… used ones… keeping them… the amount of information is too much, he needed a moment to process it.