The transfer procedures for the RV and sports car were quickly completed, while Jiang Yan also finished processing the paperwork for the small truck.
She had also arranged for a thorough cleaning and disinfection of both the driver's cabin and cargo compartment.
Dressed in her usual casual sportswear, with a wig, cap, and face mask, Jiang Yan drove the small truck straight to the city's largest wholesale market.
The wholesale market was located quite far from the urban area, and with all the delays from handling the car sale procedures, it was already past 10 a.m. by the time she arrived.
Jiang Yan had researched online and found that this was the best place to buy staple foods like rice, flour, oil, and other basics—prices were relatively affordable, and more importantly, the quality and supply were reliable.
Her appointment with Du Ziteng to view properties was in the afternoon, so she planned to tackle the bulk of her stockpiling—grains, oils, rice, and flour—this morning.
This was Jiang Yan's first time at the wholesale market.
Though it was already late in the morning, the place was bustling with people.
Jiang Yan spent an hour walking through the entire market, roughly inquiring about prices to get a general sense of the staple food market before finally stepping into the largest grain and oil wholesale store in the market.
Several employees were attending to customers inside the shop, and their eyes immediately grew wary when they saw her—masked, capped, and carrying a backpack.
The shop owner, however, was sharper. She instantly recognized that this fully disguised girl in trendy sportswear was someone with serious spending power.
Putting down the tablet she'd been using to watch dramas, the owner stood up and greeted Jiang Yan warmly:
"Miss, what would you like to buy?"
Jiang Yan glanced at the other customers and lowered her voice: "Owner, I want everything in your store."
Owner: "??!!!"
What, everything?!
Did I hear that right?!
I must have gotten up too fast—my ears must be playing tricks on me...
The owner, accustomed to big deals and major clients, smiled brightly and asked again:
"Miss, how much did you say you wanted to buy?"
Jiang Yan replied calmly, "Owner, I'm buying everything. Additionally, for the top-quality Wuchang rice, Thai jasmine rice, Zhefang tribute rice, and Daohuaxiang—how much inventory do you have of each? I need at least 6,000 kilograms of each. As for the rest—flour, beans, organic camellia oil, the best-quality peanut oil and rapeseed oil—I'll take 5,000 kilograms of each. For the rest that I can't name, 3,000 kilograms each."
There was no imported olive oil sold here, so she planned to buy that directly overseas later.
Jiang Yan had researched last night: estimating a person's lifespan at 100 years, they would consume roughly 10,000 kilograms of rice, 1,000 kilograms of cooking oil, 2,000 kilograms of sugar, and 200 kilograms of salt in their lifetime.
Personally, she didn't eat much staple food and generally consumed less oil, sugar, and salt, but she'd still need at least half that amount.
Moreover, the time flow in her dimension's [Storage Area] was frozen, so she didn't have to worry about rice going stale or cooking oil spoiling from buying too much.
As for salt—after Japan's nuclear wastewater discharge, sea salt had become a food safety concern.
This shop sold rock salt, so she planned to stock up heavily on that too.
With money and a dimension at her disposal, she could afford to indulge a little.
The black soil in the dimension could be cultivated, but she didn't hold much hope for her current planting abilities.
Growing simple vegetables, fruits, and ornamental plants would be manageable, but for crops like rice and wheat, she could experiment with a plant or two at most—large-scale cultivation was out of the question.
Aside from rice, the store also sold high-gluten flour, low-gluten flour, yeast powder, black rice, purple rice, millet, glutinous rice, quinoa, sesame seeds, barley, red beans, soybeans, mung beans, peanuts, and more.
As a southerner, her daily diet leaned more toward rice, but she wasn't picky about noodles or legumes either—she planned to buy them all.
Among noodle dishes, she particularly liked fine egg noodles and intended to stock up on those as well.
Another corner of the store sold brown sugar, red sugar, white sugar, rock sugar, and honey.
Further along were salt, soy sauce, sesame oil, and various other seasonings.
She usually controlled her sugar intake and rarely indulged, but when the extreme cold arrived later, sugar would be a valuable commodity.
Since she was originally stockpiling supplies for the apocalypse, she certainly couldn't skimp on purchases.
Being able to get most of what she needed in one store saved her the trouble of running around.
"Buy everything... 8,000 kilograms???" The shop owner was stunned for a second, but her merchant's sharp instincts and professional habits made her mouth react faster than her brain:
"Miss, I'll check the exact inventory in the ledger in a moment. If we don't have enough here, I can arrange for more stock. But are you sure you want to buy everything? For an order like this, the deposit alone could be in the millions. After all, the highest-quality Wuchang rice isn't cheap."
Before the shop owner finished speaking, Jiang Yan had already pulled out her bank card:
"Calculate the total for both the deposit and full payment. You can charge the deposit first. As for delivery, I'll give you a few warehouse addresses later—just contact me before your people make the deliveries."
The shop owner glanced at the black card in her hand, eyes widening in shock for a second. After quickly scanning the other customers in the store, she cautiously pointed to a tea table at the back and said in a measured tone:
"Miss, why don't you come inside and have some tea while we talk? There are a few details I need to confirm with you. After all, this is a massive order, and I wouldn't want to make any mistakes that might inconvenience you."
As someone who had run a successful business for years, her cautious approach had played a big role in her longevity.
She appreciated big clients like Jiang Yan, but she was also wary—what if buying so much on short notice was a cover for something else?
After all, the government had been cracking down on hoarding and price manipulation.
Additionally, the quantities Jiang Yan needed would require restocking, and commodity prices were tied to futures markets.
If anything went wrong in the process, she could end up stuck with goods purchased at peak prices.
Jiang Yan glanced inside and nodded in agreement.
The shop owner was straightforward and sharp, so they quickly settled the details.
She explained to Jiang Yan that because of the sheer volume of goods, she could only accept a non-refundable deposit, not a refundable one.
Though the two terms sounded identical, their meanings were different—one was refundable if the order was canceled, while the other wasn't.
Jiang Yan understood perfectly.
Additionally, the shop owner mentioned there was a major issue—white sugar was a strategic resource, and as for salt, she had bought too much to sell all at once to Jiang Yan.
If she insisted on purchasing such a large quantity, they might need to charge extra to cover the costs of securing channels and connections.
This, of course, was no problem for Jiang Yan.
After all, any problem that could be solved with money wasn't really a major problem.
(End of Chapter)