The community staff gave everyone one night to think it over and sort out any supplies they wanted to exchange. Whether they chose to trade or not, the residence permit still had to be activated, which meant the staff had to visit every household one by one. No one complained about the extra work.
This time, though, the visiting teams weren't small. Since they needed to explain how contribution points worked and assess the value of goods, transportation couldn't fall to one person alone. After a quick meeting, they settled on five people per team. Based on the number of community volunteers, over twenty teams were formed.
As expected, the staff started from the top floor and worked their way down. The first stop was Huang Jinghe's apartment.
Thanks to his parents' warning, Huang Jinghe was extremely cooperative. He had already stacked all his "junk" right by the front door. The moment the team walked in, they saw the pile. Without much fuss, Huang Jinghe said, "Besides this stuff, I also want to trade a few unused appliances. You can take those too, right?"
One of the staff replied, "Yes, of course. We'll start with these, then check the appliances after."
They didn't even need much time. As soon as they finished tallying the books, the contribution points had already exceeded 6,000. Huang Jinghe couldn't help interrupting. "All that? These are worth that much? I thought I'd be lucky to get a couple hundred."
One staff member explained, "The textbooks are the most valuable part. Not only are the sets complete, they're in almost-new condition. Each set can be worth a thousand contribution points. You've got five, so that's five thousand right there. The toys are valuable too. Give me a moment, I haven't finished adding everything up yet."
The staff didn't know why these items were worth so much either, but those were the rules they'd been given. They just followed instructions. When the final tally was done, the pile of "junk" earned Huang Jinghe a total of 16,738 contribution points. No one knew how much contribution points were worth in the long run, but just based on that number, it was clearly substantial.
"This is... way more than I expected," Huang Jinghe muttered, still a bit dazed. It turned out his things really were valuable.
The staff remembered he had more to exchange. Before he could fully process the result, one of them asked, "You said you had other things too. What else are you trading?"
Huang Jinghe pointed toward the kitchen."My mom told me to get rid of all this: the oven, steam cooker, dishwasher, stove, and cookware. I'm keeping the microwave and fridge. Also, the sofa, coffee table, dining table and chairs—those can go too. If possible, could you take the wine cabinet as well?"
The staff glanced around, then nodded. One of them couldn't help asking, "We'll take them, but... if we clear this all out, your home's going to be empty."
"My parents are both in the military. They told me to trade everything, so I'm just doing what they said. It does feel a little extreme though, doesn't it?"
The staff shook their head. "Not really. Since you're trading it all, we'll start calculating."
Huang Jinghe hesitated briefly, then gave a nod. "Alright. Take it all. Worst case, I'll just buy new stuff later."
As the staff tallied up the next round of items, others started moving the already-counted "junk" downstairs.
By the end, the combined value of all his furniture and appliances added nearly 40,000 contribution points. With his earlier total included, the staff member announced, "That brings you to 58,463 contribution points."
The next step was to activate the contribution point function on his residence permit. Once it was enabled, the staff transferred the full amount to the card. After everything was stored, they explained, "You'll use it just like we did at the convenience store. The seller enters the price, you scan your card. To check your balance, there will be an app coming out soon. It's all secure."
After that, the staff handed the residence permit back to Huang Jinghe. Once all the items had been carried downstairs, the team moved on.
Huang Jinghe had a lot of stuff, but Lan Jin's home was just as packed.
When the team arrived at her apartment and saw the supplies stacked in the second bedroom, someone couldn't help blurting out, "All of this... you're trading all of it?"
Lan Jin nodded. "Yes, I plan to trade everything."
She added gently, "These were all from my old apartment. I used to live in a three-bedroom place, but now it's just me and my child. We only need the living room and master bedroom. I didn't want to throw anything away or sell it for cheap before, but now that I've moved it here, it's taking up space. If I can clear it out this time, that'd be ideal."
The staff stepped inside for a closer look. "That's perfectly fine. We can take everything. And your furniture looks almost new, so the price will be better too."
Lan Jin nodded. "I bought them when I got married. But I divorced not even two years in. My child wasn't even at the playful stage yet back then, so everything stayed in good shape."
Near the furniture were two bags she had sorted yesterday. Lan Jin dragged them over. "These are all bottles and jars I don't use anymore. This other bag is full of my child's clothes—some are new, some are used. Will you take them?"
The staff checked briefly and said, "Yes, we accept both new and used items."
Lan Jin let out a small sigh of relief. "That's good. I didn't want to throw these away. My child grows so fast. Some of these were only worn once or twice. There are even some with the tags still on."
One of the staff opened the bag and began inspecting each piece. Items with tags were counted as new. Others were priced based on their condition. Then they moved on to the bottles and jars—ones without chips were priced higher, while damaged ones were valued a little less. Once both bags were recorded, it was time to assess the cabinets.
After carefully inspecting the furniture, one of the staff said, "These are all solid wood, right? Must have been expensive when you bought them."
Lan Jin replied honestly, "They weren't cheap. The wardrobe alone cost me eighteen thousand yuan when I bought it. The shoe cabinet was over eight thousand. The storage cabinet..."
That wardrobe, despite the price, was only about 1.2 meters wide. The shoe cabinet only held eight pairs. Clearly, they were flashy but not very practical. Still, they looked nice and had been well maintained. Plus, there were quite a few of them. That added up to a decent total.
Once the furniture was calculated, Lan Jin brought out a small jewelry box. "I've got some gold, platinum, and silver pieces. These are from before I got married. The styles are outdated now. Can you help me check how much these would be worth in contribution points? They've just been sitting in storage."