Chapter 20: Continue Stockpiling in the Prefectural City
After the leader finished speaking, the other four henchmen brandished their hard fists and muscular bodies at Lu Xuan, their threat obvious.
"Kid, if you know what's good for you, hand over the money now or you'll suffer some physical pain."
Lu Xuan chuckled lightly, "It's not certain who will suffer."
A dozen or so breaths later.
The five arrogant thugs lay on the ground, bruised and battered, groaning in pain.
Lu Xuan held several money bags in his hand, poured out the loose silver and copper coins inside, and counted them. The five of them together didn't even have two taels of silver. He immediately clicked his tongue in disdain, "So poor."
The viewers in the live stream couldn't help but burst out laughing; the streamer was really hitting them where it hurt!
They looked at the pitiful robber with pity, tsk tsk, he was robbed in return and then looked down upon for being poor, how pathetic.
No, that's not quite right.
Think back to how the wolves in the mountains died. Actually, the streamer had already shown mercy; he only punched them, causing minor injuries that will heal in a few days.
If the streamer were to unleash a mutated vampire vine to deal with these people, I can't even imagine how spectacular the scene would be.
Lu Xuan pocketed the silver, casually tossed the money bag on the ground, turned and left the alley, continuing his shopping as if nothing had happened.
Next, he visited the vinegar workshop, soy sauce workshop, and soybean paste workshop, and bought fifty vats of vinegar, soy sauce, broad bean paste, and soybean paste, each with a capacity of 100 jin, for a total of 100 taels.
Then I went to buy salt.
Because of the developed overseas trade and the relatively mature technology in sea salt production, the current dynasty did not impose too many restrictions on salt, and the price was not ridiculously high. Fine salt cost fifty coins, while coarse salt only cost twenty coins.
Lu Xuan bought 1,000 jin each.
People lack energy without salt. While salt prices are generally stable, during years of famine, even towns may struggle to maintain stability. In addition to food, buying salt can become a major problem, so stockpiling more salt is definitely a good idea.
However, ordering two thousand catties of salt at once was still too eye-catching, so Lu Xuan made a special trip to several stores to gather the required amount.
Nevertheless, it still attracted strange looks from the shopkeepers.
With salt in hand, sugar is of course indispensable.
The sugar-making technology of this era was relatively advanced, but the price of sugar was still not low, costing one hundred coins per pound.
Since sugar is a kind of hard currency in a sense, Lu Xuan also bought a lot, a total of 1,000 catties of white sugar, brown sugar and rock sugar.
Having bought most of the staple foods, salt, sugar, and sauces, Lu Xuan began to visit various butcher shops in the city to buy meat.
There are many wild game in the mountains, but they don't taste as good as domestic poultry and livestock, especially domestic pork, which is an essential commodity.
Ancient pigs were not as robust as modern ones; on average, a pig weighed only about 100 kilograms, far smaller than wild boars.
Lu Xuan inquired about the prices and found that a domesticated pig, including skin and bones, cost three ounces. He ordered three hundred pigs in one go, practically buying up all the pigs that the pig farmers cooperating with the butcher shops in the city could deliver in a short period of time.
In addition, they also ordered a thousand free-range chickens.
There is no shortage of pheasants in the mountains, but both domestic chickens and wild chickens have their own unique flavors, and neither can be dispensed with.
Live animals cannot be stored in the space, so these pigs and chickens need to be slaughtered and sent over.
Because of the large quantity, the delivery time has been extended to the evening of the day after tomorrow.
When buying pork, the butcher noticed Lu Xuan's large purchase and specifically asked him if he wanted mutton.
To be honest, Lu Xuan's feelings about mutton were so-so. He would only eat mutton skewers or well-made roasted lamb chops at most, but other members of the Lu family might not dislike it.
"Let's get a hundred." On average over five years, that's about two a month, not a lot, but enough.
If that's not enough, they can also hunt and catch wild sheep to eat after entering the mountains.
The pork, mutton, and chicken together cost a total of 1,400 taels, which was much more expensive than grain.
After buying the mutton, Lu Xuan suddenly realized that the main reason he was not fond of mutton was because it was more gamey than pork, and when it comes to removing the gamey smell... alcohol is naturally indispensable!
The system store does offer alcohol for unlocking, but it's for disinfection only and has a very high alcohol content, making it unsuitable for consumption.
So he went to the winery again.
Lu Xuan didn't plan to sell expensive items like Zhuangyuanhong or extremely rare wines; he mainly bought the most common yellow wine, rice wine, and spirits.
Wine was also sold by the vat, with each vat containing 100 liters and costing between 30 and 50 wen. Lu Xuan bought 50 vats, spending a total of 200 taels.
While Lu Xuan was busy spending money everywhere to make purchases, the sky gradually darkened, and the day passed just like that.
There are still many things I wanted to buy that I haven't had time to buy yet, so I'll have to continue tomorrow.
Back at the inn, Lu Xuan, as usual, asked the waiter to prepare hot water so he could take a bath first.
After a busy day, if you were to ask Lu Xuan if he was tired... the answer would naturally be no.
The physical condition of people with superpowers is much stronger than that of ordinary people. The reason why they found an inn to rest early yesterday was ultimately because of the hardships of traveling.
We've been driving around the city all day. The roads in the city are much better than the official roads outside the city, so there's not much of a hassle.
Furthermore, the process of spending money to purchase items is quite enjoyable in itself.
When the modern world enters the apocalypse, because the apocalypse comes so suddenly, no one has time to make any preparations.
Lu Xuan, a rich second-generation heir, had an inexhaustible amount of savings in his bank account, which turned into worthless paper in the blink of an eye. He had no opportunity to hoard supplies, which made him extremely regretful whenever he thought about it for many years afterward.
This reckless and frantic stockpiling has, in a way, made up for his regrets. Lu Xuan felt extremely satisfied and didn't feel tired at all.
Lu Xuan calculated his total expenses for the day.
The most expensive items were grain and meat, followed by sugar. The rest of the miscellaneous items added up to less than three thousand taels in total.
This way of displaying flowers really surprised the viewers in the live stream.
[This streamer is spending money way too much!!! Seriously, way too much money!]
I thought making millions a day was already amazing, but I never imagined he'd spend almost half of it in the blink of an eye!
Although there weren't any intense battles in today's live stream, I inexplicably couldn't stop watching.
[I can't stop eating! +1. It made me want to stock up, so I couldn't resist ordering a lot of nutritional supplements from Xingwang Mall. Enough to last me for several years.]
[Although it cost money, the streamer bought a ton of food! And it was all natural food! Tens of thousands of kilograms, which translates to far more than a few million star coins. The streamer made a killing!]
The key point is that even if you wanted to buy it, you couldn't, but the streamer can buy as much as she wants as long as she has money. I'm so envious.
[For a moment, I didn't know whether to feel sorry for the streamer's money or be envious of the food they were eating.]
I know the streamer is buying necessities, essential supplies for a disaster, and I understand that, but I still can't help but say, the streamer is such a spendthrift!
Who can argue with that!
Lu Xuan raised his eyebrows.
Wasteful? That's nothing.
He had anticipated that today's purchases would account for the largest portion of his shopping expenses, but in the end, he hadn't even spent half of what he earned from selling medicine.
This cost much less than expected.
If we keep spending at this pace, we might still have a lot of money left over.
During times of famine, silver is just as useless as money in modern times; you can't buy food even if you have money.
If he does have any money left over, he'll find a way to spend it all.
Perhaps the people of StarCraft really do have a hoarding mentality, because even though today's live stream had absolutely no combat-related content, the live stream was surprisingly popular.
Online, the number of followers and the number of gifts received have both increased significantly.
After exchanging all the gifts for points, Lu Xuan glanced at today's daily discounted items, but still refrained from buying anything.
It wasn't that he was being frugal; he simply wanted to accumulate more points before spending them all at once.
On the morning of the third day, Lu Xuan had a simple breakfast and then went to the temporarily rented courtyard to receive the first batch of supplies that had been delivered.
The first thing delivered was grain.
It was said that the grain would be delivered before noon, but in order to get the final payment as soon as possible, the people from the grain shop and Lu Xuan arrived at the courtyard almost one after the other.
Perhaps due to concerns about making mistakes in large transactions, and because the final payment was too large, the grain shop manager personally made a trip.
Lu Xuan stood to the side, counting the number of grains while occasionally checking whether the rice in the bags was of inferior quality.
Only after confirming that there were no problems did I settle the final payment with the shopkeeper.
As the shopkeeper counted the silver notes in his hand, he casually asked, "Speaking of which, young master, are you buying so much grain for business purposes?"
Lu Xuan glanced at him as if he were looking at a fool.
Why would he go to a retail store like a grain shop instead of a wholesaler to do business? Is he out of his mind?
The shopkeeper wasn't actually unaware of this principle, which is why he was even more curious about the reason behind it.
He couldn't help but speculate, wondering if Lu Xuan was sent by a rival to cause trouble.
Even with discounts, the retail price won't be much cheaper. Why spend a lot of money to give them a profit?
Moreover, more than 30,000 jin of grain is no small amount. With only two months left until the new grain harvest, if so much grain cannot be sold in the short term, it will be stuck in our hands.
He racked his brains but couldn't figure out what was going on, so he finally couldn't help but ask.
Lu Xuan was not oblivious to the shopkeeper's probing.
He first asked the shopkeeper if the amount of the silver notes was correct, and after receiving an affirmative answer, he casually said, "I bought so much grain naturally to prepare for the natural disasters that are about to come."
The shopkeeper, who had just tucked the silver notes away, thought: "...?"
The shopkeeper stared blankly and said, "Natural disaster? What natural disaster? Isn't this year's harvest quite good?"
Lu Xuan: "Just because things were good before doesn't mean they'll be good in the future."
Shopkeeper: "..." That seems to make some sense.
Even if there is a natural disaster, who would hoard tens of thousands of kilograms of grain?
Even a family of more than ten people couldn't finish all that food.
The shopkeeper increasingly felt that Lu Xuan was deliberately teasing him to avoid revealing his true purpose.
He chuckled and said, "Young master, you are quite the joker."
Well, he's already made the money, so why should he care what other people use the grain for?
Even if it ends up being a complete disaster, it has nothing to do with him.
After confirming that the payment and goods were settled without any disputes, the shopkeeper left with the people unloading the goods, and the first batch of meat was delivered.
A note from the author:
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Regarding the prices mentioned during the procurement, I did not refer to any specific dynasty; it was a comprehensive consideration that I set myself. There shouldn't be any particularly outrageous prices, but I would still advise against being too particular about them.
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