Apocalypse: I have a supermarket stocked with supplies

Chapter 81: Beef Jerky

“No need to buy it; we’ll look around our home when we get back. Maybe we’ll find a pot. If we can’t, then we’ll search the surrounding area,” he doubted that every household’s pots had been washed away.

They would pick up some good stuff while others hadn’t returned yet.

“Okay.”

They bought as many bags of rice as they could, and with not enough money left for another bag, Wang Xin let Ah Qian decide what to buy with what was left.

Ah Qian cheered but still honestly helped carry the rice downstairs.

In fact, with many hands on deck, they only bought three bags, and everyone wanted to carry them; if Ah Qian didn’t, someone else would have eagerly offered.

But Ah Qian saw it as an honor; he liked carrying the rice.

Wang Xin carried a bag, Ah Qian another, and Gou Dan the third. The three of them carried the rice with others walking beside them, some even reaching out to steady the load, careful not to let the precious rice fall to the ground.

They were all very cautious, protecting the rice as though guarding a rare treasure; to an outsider, it might have seemed like they were escorting something of immense value.

After bringing the rice downstairs, Ah Qian was ready to set it down; he still had ten yuan to spend.

Just as he was about to offload, a boy eagerly offered to take over. They were already at the checkout, waiting for Ah Qian to finish spending his ten yuan, and they could have put the rice on the ground by this point.

But not one of them was willing; they wanted to keep holding it. After all, this was food, the sustenance on which they survived.

How could they just put such an abundance of food on the ground?

Ah Qian handed over the rice he was carrying to the boy and went with a few friends to buy something else.

Ten yuan wasn’t much, not enough to buy a lot, but also not too little—it could buy food.

When Ah Qian arrived, he dreamed of eating instant noodles. This time they chose to buy rice instead of instant noodles, but now he was craving, so he headed straight for the instant noodles section as soon as he went inside.

He meticulously picked out a pack of spicy beef flavored ones.

Staring at the large chunks of meat on the noodle packaging, Ah Qian’s throat twitched; the meat looked scrumptious.

Still with seven yuan and fifty cents left, Ah Qian thought to buy something else.

The children following him were all giving him advice, talking over each other.

They wanted everything they saw and urged Ah Qian to buy it.

It wasn’t that Ah Qian didn’t want to buy, he simply had no money.

Like this tempting beef jerky, it cost fifty-eight yuan a pack.

He only had seven yuan and fifty cents, couldn’t afford it, simply couldn’t.

Ah Qian held it for a while, struggling with reluctance before finally putting it back.

Wuwuwu.

He really wanted to eat it.

“Ah Qian, look at all this candy!” they had found themselves in the candy section unknowingly.

All kinds of candies, and the sweet scent they emanated made it feel like just being there made everything taste sweet.

“Let’s buy candy,” Ah Qian looked at the candies, reminiscent of the sweetness he’d just tasted in his mouth and made up his mind— he would spend the remaining seven yuan and fifty cents on candy.

There were many kinds of candy, but they couldn’t just choose any; after all, Ah Qian only had seven yuan and fifty cents.

There were many candies they couldn’t afford.

After some searching, they found some within their budget, but Ah Qian realized the affordable candies were too few; there wouldn’t be enough to go around for everyone, even one piece each.

Ah Qian repeatedly picked them up and put them down.

Every kind was something he wanted to eat, but nothing he could afford.

After a long search, Ah Qian finally found some bulk candy being sold.

He looked at the price, and a smile appeared on his face; he had found it.

As he got closer, the sweetness of the candy grew even stronger.

The bulk candy sold here was indeed the cheapest among all the sweets available, emitting a scent of low-quality saccharin that could become nauseating if inhaled for too long.

But for Ah Qian and the others, who hadn’t tasted sweets in a very long time, it was a very sweet aroma.

There was a scale nearby, and instead of grabbing a handful at random, Ah Qian meticulously selected each piece one by one, ensuring all different flavors were represented.

He slowly chose one candy of each flavor to weigh.

Ah Qian took a long time to finally get the weight to seven yuan and fifty cents.

While he was selecting, the others were not idle either; they helped choose the candies with him.

Just thinking about eating these candies filled them with immense enthusiasm, all striving to pick the fullest, sweetest, and most beautiful pieces.

Ah Qian left clutching the bag tightly, too many candies to dare hold in his hands, opting instead to embrace them in his arms.

“I’ll give each of you two pieces later,” Ah Qian decided in his heart after calculating for a long time, resolving to divide two pieces per person.

Then, he secretly took five for himself.

Thinking about having five pieces made Ah Qian feel especially joyful.

“Thank you, Brother Ah Qian. You’re so kind. Whenever I get candies, I’ll share some with you.”

“Hehe,” Ah Qian listened to these words and felt a bit guilty as he thought about the five candies he had chosen for himself.

Ah Qian and the others were taking too much time picking candies, and Wang Xin along with Gou Dan had already been waiting outside for a while, but none of them felt impatient.

Xiao Cao had long since run over to Su Yinhe’s side, calling her “sister” this and “sister” that.

Her praise made Su Yinhe’s heart bloom like a flower, ready to give her a whole bag of candies.

“Sister, you’re so pretty, so white,” Xiao Cao admired as she looked at Su Yinhe’s clean and neat clothes.

They didn’t even have water to wash their faces, let alone bathe or wash clothes, so they all had a sour and smelly scent on them.

Looking at Su Yinhe and then at herself, Xiao Cao felt both inferior and envious.

She also wished to wear clean, pretty clothes.

Not the ragged clothes she was wearing.

“You are beautiful too,” Su Yinhe smiled warmly and complimented her in return.

Xiao Cao had attractive features; she was clearly a beauty in the making, just lacking the means to care for herself at the moment.

However, being an ordinary girl with no superpower, being too clean could be very dangerous for her.

Su Yinhe pulled out a cute bag printed with strawberries and tomatoes, filled it with a handful of candies, thought for a moment, and then added a handful of sunflower seeds, Oreo cookies, Pan Pan mini bread, little bags of beef jerky, strawberry-flavored chocolate, cheese sticks…

She did not stop until the bag was completely full.

“Here,” Su Yinhe put another little bag with a duck design around it outside the first one, fearing a single bag would tear.

“For me?” Xiao Cao pointed at herself, a bit incredulous.

All this for her?

But she…

She hadn’t approached her affectionately to get food.

She simply thought the sister smelled nice, soft and supple, fair and tender. She liked her very much and really wanted to talk to her.

She didn’t mean to expect any gifts from her.

“No, no, I can’t take this,” Xiao Cao’s face turned red, she hadn’t come to take advantage of the sister.

“Take it. It’s all expired. I don’t want to eat it for fear it will upset my stomach,” Su Yinhe looked disdainfully at the bag.

“If you don’t take it, I’ll end up throwing it in the trash can later anyway.”

“But…” Xiao Cao still felt hesitant to reach out.

In an apocalypse, who would care about expiry dates? As long as it was edible, that was enough. There were plenty of people willing to buy a bag of stuff like this with Crystal Core.