Disaster Apocalypse: Farming, Family, and My Hidden Secret Space
Chapter 168. Hoard, hoard, hoard

Chapter 168: 168. Hoard, hoard, hoard

Even so, it still took almost an extra hour longer than usual to reach the county town.

Fortunately, the town gates stayed open longer due to the long summer days, and Hua Chengtian and his daughter luckily managed to enter with the last group of people just as night fell.

They habitually went to their usual inn, where the shopkeeper, upon seeing this familiar father and daughter, couldn’t help but twitch his mouth a few times, skillfully opened a medium-sized room without asking.

"Hello, Uncle Shopkeeper," said Hua Jin with a radiant smile. Facing such an infectious smile, the shopkeeper couldn’t help but smile back. As long as she didn’t ask him to buy ox tendons, the shopkeeper quite liked this mature and endearing girl.

Hua Chengtian swiftly paid the deposit, then ordered food and took his daughter back to their room to eat.

After dinner, he had the staff clean up, and exhausted from the day, they washed up and went to sleep.

Early the next morning, Hua Jin emerged from her space, greeted Uncle Shopkeeper, and had breakfast with her father before setting out with the ox cart for a whole day.

Throughout the day, the father and daughter visited every grain shop on the main street.

The primary staples like white flour, rice, millet, brown flour, and broken brown rice were bought in the largest quantities. They purchased fifty stones from each shop, spending 180 silver coins in the process, followed by black flour, soybeans, mung beans, and various other grains, buying ten stones each, costing several dozen more silver coins.

They found a secluded forest spot to prevent vendors from delivering goods there, a location that took considerable time to find.

They certainly didn’t miss out on other foods. Just the roasted chickens amounted to 200 a day, costing 30 silver coins, with the roasted chicken shopkeeper so pleased he half-closed the shop to cater exclusively for them.

There was also pork and mutton, which, although pricier than in the town, were in large quantities. The pair essentially cleared out the whole street of pork and mutton shops, not even sparing pork lard, organ meats, or big bones.

They bought over 5,000 catties of pork, over 2,000 catties of mutton, costing nearly 200 silver coins, with more ordered for the next day, leaving some to be decided later.

They completely bought out the chickens, ducks, and geese from an old chicken seller, discovering a farm that specializes in raising these birds, so they drove the cart straight to the farm.

They ordered 500 of each, and the farm’s owner was delighted to have such a big customer, spending a bit more money to have them all slaughtered, costing 55 silver coins, paid a deposit and set a time to pick them up later.

There were various snacks: buns, meat pies, dumplings, wontons; they almost cleared all of the existing stock on the main street, spending another few dozen silver coins.

Then, they went to their pre-arranged location to wait for the shops to deliver goods.

The whole morning was spent buying, and the afternoon receiving goods, thankfully in a relatively cool wooded area, they persevered until the last grain shop delivered, by then, half the afternoon had passed. Having collected the grains, they immediately went to a poultry farm to transport the slaughtered birds in several trips.

Facing skepticism about their speed, Hua Chengtian’s consistent excuse was having external helpers.

They settled the remaining payment and rushed back to the main street to collect 200 roasted chickens, with the sun already setting.

They strolled through the street, buying more snacks, and even cleared out a braised meat shop.

Returning to the inn as darkness approached, they greeted the shopkeeper and headed directly to their room to eat.

After a brief rest, Hua Chengtian started tallying the accounts.

While buying was a pleasure, Hua Chengtian now somewhat understood why his daughter loved shopping; only the accounting made him feel the pinch.

In just one day, they spent nearly 700 silver coins, consuming nearly a third of the amount he had brought. It was indeed like spending money like water.

Hua Jin stayed silent during the accounting, amused by her father’s mixed expression of happiness and heartache.

After a moment of reflection, Hua Chengtian urged his daughter to wash up and rest in her space, as they needed to continue the next day.

The next day, they also awoke early and left the inn promptly.

They cleared someone’s stock of buns while also filling their stomachs, collected the previously ordered pork and mutton, and went on to various general, dry goods, and ironware shops.

They bought a lot of daily necessities, just the coarse salt from several stores totaled tens of thousands of catties. Various spices, sauces, and chili were purchased by the jar and vat. Conservatively, this would suffice for decades.

Especially chili; Hua Jin cleared out the entire stock of more than 2,000 catties of dried goods from a general store, and various dried goods were bought in thousands of pounds quantities.

Even various sizes of jars, vats, big pots, small pots, and farming tools were purchased in dozens of sets.

They didn’t forget the important water bags and waterproof oilcloths, completely buying out a shop’s stock, and were lucky to find tents from beyond the Great Wall in a larger store.

All of them were leather, both large and small, ten in total, making the innkeeper couldn’t stop smiling. Such a large customer not only bought so many other things but also cleared the tents that had barely sold in the past few years. The delighted innkeeper voluntarily offered a 10% discount, hoping they would take the remaining few at an even lower price.

Hua Chengtian wasn’t interested, but after his daughter tugged at him, he realized that a few more wouldn’t hurt, so he took them all.

As long as it wasn’t related to food and daily necessities, other prices weren’t much different from in the town, sometimes even cheaper because of the large quantities they purchased, the shopkeepers automatically lowered the prices, equivalent to wholesale prices.

This was understandable; after all, the town’s population was limited, and the flow of people was just those few. Shopkeepers couldn’t afford to stock in large on account of costs. Therefore, prices naturally couldn’t be too low.

They also took all the charcoal from stock; gathered from so many stores, it was a considerable amount, enough to last for years.

These seemingly inconspicuous items added hundreds more silver coins to the bill, but with yesterday’s groundwork, Hua Chengtian was much calmer today.

The volume was too large, so they arranged delivery locations with all the shopkeepers, and the father and daughter busily traveled to other streets, setting more grain, both coarse and fine, for dozens of stones more, costing a few hundred silver coins more.

Seeing grindstones and rice scoops, Hua Chengtian proactively requested ten, adding it to the set they had at home, ample for use.

After ordering 300 roasted chickens, purchasing over half the assorted snacks on the street, the father and daughter went to the delivery site to wait.

They busied for several more hours until nightfall when they returned to the inn, having spent nearly a thousand silver coins that day.

Then the third day continued the pattern.

Their day consisted of buying various grains, coarse and fine, collecting pork and mutton, and stocking up on some salt, sugar, and other seasonings, then heading straight to the pharmacy, which was their primary focus today.

They spent most of the day visiting almost all pharmacies, gathering medicines for colds, diarrhea, coughing, external and internal injuries, lung and heart ailments, and various supplements. Not just those, they also gathered various insect repellents and pestilence preventatives, both pre-made and raw, with nearly a hundred units of each medicine from every pharmacy, also hundreds of bottles of finished products.