Chapter 21: Buy, Buy, Buy

"Dad, go to the yard and dig up some soil, quickly. It's urgent."

At Yan Yu's command, Yan Er second immediately got to work.

One had to distinguish between what was urgent and what was not; there was no time to ask why at a moment like this.

The youth's complexion had improved slightly from before, but it was still somewhat grim as he said stiffly, "Everyone's time is precious. If a connection is inconvenient, just close the platform. The platform will naturally redistribute the users, so as not to waste anyone else's time."

Yan Yu maintained a good attitude, nodding repeatedly. "I understand, I'll be careful in the future."

"Big brother, what's the situation on your end? Can you tell us?"

"Transmigration category: Apocalypse, global biohazard," the youth replied succinctly.

Yan Yu asked in shock, "Is it like the kind with zombies?"

Oh my, there are too many movies and novels of this type.

Truly, truly, it's indescribably tragic!

The youth pursed his lips, nodded, and added, "Zombies, mutated beasts, and mutated plants."

"Eh? Does that kind of soil get contaminated? Is it impossible to plant anything?"

"Not necessarily." The youth glanced at the time and said, "The soil outside hides imperceptible insect eggs. High-quality seeds without mutated genes are extremely precious and cannot be risked easily. High-temperature sterilization cannot remove one hundred percent of the eggs, and strong pesticides would destroy the soil composition. Therefore, soil traded from the free market is safer; it can be verified by the platform, providing double insurance."

"So, even if the soil I trade over contains insect eggs, they will be killed, right?" Just like a cow, the platform did not allow the trade of living creatures.

"It is a mechanism to prevent invasive species." Though his expression was cold, the young man answered seriously: "Every connected world seems similar, but in reality, they are all different. From the macro universe, the size and structure of celestial bodies, and their orbital trajectories, to the direction of species evolution, technological levels, and civilizational cognition—even tiny changes will make the future more unpredictable.

The platform itself will not provide goods that exceed our civilization, but perhaps considering that the survival environment is truly harsh, since it cannot provide much beyond basic food and shelter, it simply opened a free trade channel.

It uses the law of equivalent exchange as a standard to balance transactions between users."

"The soil is here!"

Yan Er second walked in carrying a sack. Upon opening it, there was quite a lot—more than half a bag.

The youth's expression softened, his features becoming much gentler.

"Confirm it."

Yan Yu reached out and tapped. Two rows of neatly stacked toilet paper had lost their outer packaging but still maintained their upright stance.

Yan Er second casually picked one up, and it fell apart into a flurry of loose clumps.

Yan Er second: "..."

Li Xuemei suddenly cried out, "Xiao Yu, hurry! Rice, flour, seasonings, eggs, meat, and vegetables—buy them all, hurry!"

Yan Yu snapped to her senses. Oh my goodness!

She had been so focused on selling that she forgot to buy.

Seeing that the countdown had entered its final minute.

Yan Yu unleashed her typing speed of a thousand words per hour.

Tap, tap, tap!

Buy, buy, buy!

Food, food, food!

After sweeping through everything, she found that rice and flour were still available, so she kept tapping. She didn't know how many times she clicked, but the rice and flour were wiped out, and all the food on the shelves was gone just as the countdown hit ten seconds.

She asked urgently, "Mom, should we buy bamboo slips? It looks like there's enough left for bamboo slips."

Li Xuemei was also panicking, knowing time was almost up, and made a decisive call: "Buy them."

Yan Yu glanced at the time again. With three seconds left in the countdown, she clicked on the bamboo slips, and the final item landed.

Her tense nerves immediately relaxed, and she let out a long breath.

Just as she wanted to check her balance, the screen flashed and disappeared.

Yan Yu: "..."

It was just one glance away! Could she not even have that!

But she knew they had had a massive harvest this time.

Almost everything that seemed useful on the platform's shelves had been bought.

She tried hard to recall what her balance was before buying the bamboo slips.

Crap! Her head was buzzing; she only remembered it was in the several hundreds, but she had forgotten the exact number! Waaaah!

"Ah, what do I do? I forgot how much the balance is." Yan Yu tapped her own head, which felt like mush.

Yan Er second said, "If you forgot, you forgot. What's the big deal? Just check next time! Don't hit your head too hard; you're still young, your skull isn't sturdy yet."

Li Xuemei let out an "aiya": "It's a good thing we exchanged for that teapot and clay pot earlier. Look at this—otherwise, the soy sauce and vinegar would have gone to waste."

The father and daughter looked, and indeed.

The soy sauce had occupied the clay pot, and the vinegar could only indignantly enter the teapot. The teapot was too small to hold it all, so a portion had been split into the small basin previously used for the pig skin jelly.

They had all arranged themselves quite sensibly. Well done!

As for the various seasonings, just like the rice and flour, they sat in piles, not interfering with one another, each being beautiful in its own way. Very sensible!

"These..." Yan Yu pointed at them and asked, "How do we pack them? We don't have that many bags."

Li Xuemei was also stunned.

They had sold the sewing kits and fabric scraps; otherwise, they could have sewn a few bags.

Yan Er second said, "I'll go look in the kitchen again."

"Dad, don't bother. The kitchen only has a few bowls and basins, and we've used them all. It'll be hard to explain tomorrow. Oh, right, when we make the dough soup in the middle of the night, just say it's because the little sibling in Mom's belly is hungry, okay?"

Yan Er second laughed, "That's a good excuse."

Li Xuemei accepted this silently; what else could she do?

"With so many things, it's hard to explain to the family. Dad, we have to go out tomorrow. We'll leave early in the morning. This bright white rice and flour, and the milk powder—in this day and age, these are precious items. And those seasonings aren't cheap either. We have to come up with a source for them."

Yan Yu then looked at the frozen chunks of pork, chicken, and fish.

She touched them; they were ice-cold to the touch.

"We shouldn't have bought so much meat. Sigh! I was in too much of a rush just now. One would have been enough; we can't store it all, it'll go to waste." Li Xuemei sighed, blaming herself for her panic.

Yan Er second weighed it with his hand. "Once the ice is gone, it'll only be about a jin. With so many of us, it'll be eaten in a day."

"Dad, have you ever seen people selling chicken where they only sell the breast, or selling fish where they've already removed the bones and heads?" Yan Yu fretted over the chicken and fish.

"Hah! That's easy to handle. Just chop it all up together; who's going to be able to tell what meat is what? Dumplings are fine, buns are fine... I happened to send out some flour just now. I originally planned to steam mantou tomorrow, but how about this: tomorrow we'll make buns. I'll mince the filling a bit more finely, and I guarantee they'll only know how delicious it is." Yan Er second said with full confidence.

"It adds up to about three jin. That's too much!" Li Xuemei picked up a small cabbage that weighed about a jin. "We can't just make pure meat fillings. Add the vegetables, and you calculate how much that is."

Yan Yu thought seriously and reached a decision: "Dad, Mom, there will be many things in the future that we can't explain the origin of. Once or twice is fine, but if it happens too often, people will definitely get suspicious. We'd better just eat alone. It's not that we're stingy, it's just that the situation won't allow it!

Especially Big Uncle, the protagonist of this book! He becomes a high-ranking official later and even replaces the Emperor. Does he have average intelligence? The three of us together couldn't compare to him. We'll be lucky if we can hide these things and eat or use them secretly. If we rush to feed them, aren't we just handing them leverage over us..."

Finally, the first platform session ended.

Our Yu has decided to be stingy and eat alone o(*￣︶￣*)o

Beautiful! That's how we'll do it!

Collect, vote, comment, and keep reading~~

Don't forget, dear friends (°‵′)

(End of Chapter)