Chapter 140 Purchasing Food
[Maybe it will be June next year.]
Tickets for each station on the train go on sale 24 hours in advance, and only tickets for trains departing within the next 24 hours are available. Therefore, those who want to stay on the train regularly will need to buy a ticket every 24 hours.
Fortunately, passengers who have already purchased tickets and want to extend their journey can give priority to existing carriages and seats, saving them the trouble of moving their luggage around.
The same thing happened that night.
In the evening, everyone came out to line up at the ticket office at the door, but what they didn't expect was that after the screen refreshed, they saw a different prompt. There was suddenly one more seat type option below the original two.
"Family suite?"
As the name suggests, they certainly know what it is, not to mention that after clicking on the specific option, there is a display of the interior environment of the suite.
The person at the front of the line took only a quick glance and impatiently swiped his card to book two suites. He then went back to the room he had stayed in before and packed his luggage with his family.
Seeing how enthusiastic the people in front were, and seeing on the screen that there were only eight family suites in total, the people behind rushed to buy tickets, and even those who didn't have much money bought one-station tickets to take a look first.
So, before anyone knew about it, all eight family suites had already sold out. Those who were quick had already grabbed their tickets and entered the new carriages.
Because it is a suite with many rooms and a large area, there are only two suites in one carriage.
Qi Zhenzhen, the fifth daughter of the Qi family, who was the first to book two rooms directly, had her eyes light up as soon as she opened the door of the suite.
The first thing that caught her eye was a roughly five-meter-long hallway. While not as spacious as her previous hotel stays, it had sofas, coffee tables, carpets, and even a separate water dispenser. There was even a TV-like display mounted on the wall. There was a door on each side of the hallway, presumably the suite's two bedrooms.
But what surprised Qi Zhenzhen the most was not the decoration of the living room, but the bathroom surrounded by frosted glass next to the living room. Qi Zhenzhen couldn't wait to push the door open and see, and was even more surprised when she found a bathtub inside.
Although their previous room was private, it was no more comfortable than a student dorm. Not only did they have to endure their roommate's grumbling at night, but the entire train car only had two shared bathrooms and toilets at either end. With nearly forty people per car, showering and toileting meant waiting in line, and if they took too long, someone outside would urge them to leave.
Now the suite has a private bathroom. Although I still have to share it with my family, it’s good that I don’t have to queue with so many people.
Qi Zhenzhen was looking at the bathroom with satisfaction when she suddenly heard her little sister scream in surprise.
She looked in the direction of the sound and saw that one of the doors at either end of the hall was open. The sound came from the room inside the door.
She walked in a step behind and saw her little sister rolling around on the big bed in the middle of the room.
"Sister, sister, look, what a soft bed!" Qi Baozhu stood up and shook it, causing the bed to bounce twice. "Finally, I don't have to worry about falling off the bed!"
When their family boarded the train, there were only three single rooms left, so in the end the whole family had to squeeze into these three rooms.
The comfortable and cheap lower bunks had to be reserved for the elders, so the younger generation had to sleep on the upper bunks. Qi Baozhu was used to sleeping in a large bed, and had fallen out of it many times recently due to her bad sleeping posture. The family had to buy several extra quilts to spread in the middle of the room.
Qi Zhenzhen also liked the big bed. She went to look at another room and found that this one was not only bigger, but also had a one-meter-wide children's bed next to it.
"Let the third and sixth child sleep in that room later, so that they won't keep snoring and disturbing others' sleep."
Qi Baozhu nodded, "Yes, that's right. It's just right for each of us to have a bed. It also saves Third Brother from constantly complaining about Sixth Brother's bad sleeping posture and kicking him when we sleep in the same bed."
…
While they were touring their new room, several other suites also welcomed their temporary owners.
Although Qian San arrived a little late, he was lucky enough to buy a ticket for the last room. He sat on the sofa, looking at the spacious hall, and his whole body became energetic.
Although this suite requires one hundred and fifty crystal cores for each stop, Qian Xing felt the soft sensation under his butt and felt that the money was well spent, especially when he found that the TV opposite the sofa could be turned on.
Most areas are still in chaos, but Internet communications in some places have not been disconnected. Although the various TV stations that used to broadcast a wide variety of content are no longer available, a new post-disaster emergency channel has been specially opened to broadcast the situation in various places and announce some deployments and arrangements to help people better understand the current situation.
Lin Anan asked the system to connect all the TVs on the train directly to the signal. She also connected the system to some video websites. Although most of the websites were now unmaintained and nearly paralyzed, there was still some content available.
Qian San fumbled around in the new suite for a while, first told his family the good news that there was a new room to move into, and then went to inform his good brother.
Although the tickets for such a nice suite are sold out now, there will definitely be opportunities to buy it later. He hopes that his good brother can also have one.
Jiang Qian didn't set a limit on the number of guests in the family suite this time. She knew that those who were willing to spend a fortune on a suite were definitely those who cared about the living experience. Even if there were no limit, they wouldn't bring too many people in.
Jiang Qian watched as the tickets for the new carriage were sold out within half an hour, and saw from the surveillance that all the new rooms were occupied. She also looked at the remaining magic crystals that were only half left after the new carriage was exchanged. She sighed and began to discuss the new news received today with the system.
Since handing over the arduous task of setting up the stations, in order to facilitate communication, Jiang Qian had the system leave a port in the ticket booths of each station that can directly communicate with the system, and this letter of intent for cooperation was entered by someone through this communication port at night.
Jiang Qian put on her glasses and read it word by word, only then did she realize that it was a contract for the purchase of supplies.
"Isn't there enough food now?"
Jiang Qian was very surprised and a little bit unbelievable.
Because, as far as she knew, the national grain reserves were enough to feed the entire nation for a long time. Not to mention, even without paying much attention, she'd heard about the identities of these newly arrived "wealthy" passengers during the trip. The rescue team supposedly had transferred a lot of supplies from warehouses around the country, so there should be more than enough. Why was there still a need to buy more?
I guess it's preparation for next year.
"Next year?" Jiang Qian was puzzled. "Although winter came early this year, the wheat has been planted and is growing well. Is it necessary to prepare so early?"
What if spring comes very late next year?
Jiang Qian was stunned, and suddenly she felt an uncontrollable panic in her heart, "How late is it?"
[Maybe it will be June next year.]
The system's baby voice became heavy.
[This is recorded in interstellar history. I don't know the exact time, but this long winter was also a very difficult time for the people at that time.]
"June?" Jiang Qian paused for a moment, then thought of something. "That's why the experts in the video looked so serious, right?"
[The prophecy I released previously contained content related to this, and it should have been noticed.]
Winter won't be over until June, so the crops planted this autumn will definitely not be harvested. No wonder the rescue team asked to buy food.
As a compatriot, Jiang Qian certainly hopes that the situation will be better in the future, and is willing to promote the business between the two sides. However, she still needs to discuss with the system whether this business can be done.
The food production in the interstellar space wasn't very high, so she didn't hold out much hope for the amount of food that could be traded. But...
"Five million kilograms, is that right?"
Jiang Qian opened her mouth wide and tried to negotiate with the system.
【……】
"Then... four million kilograms?" Jiang Qian gave a painful discount. Although four million kilograms sounded like a lot, even if each person consumed less than a pound of food per day, it was only the daily consumption of ten million people.
Even though their country has experienced so many hardships, because of its large population base, although many lives have been lost, the number of people who have successfully survived is definitely more than tens of millions.
[…I’ve told you before, StarCraft definitely can’t provide the supplies needed to transport tens of millions of people in one go. Not to mention that with so many passengers on the train every day, the demand on the dining cars and vending machines is already enormous!]
Hearing what the system said, Jiang Qian was at a loss. "Three million kilograms should be enough, right?"
She felt she couldn't lower her hand any lower. "Why don't you talk to the interstellar side and try to be flexible? We all share the same roots, so we should help each other. This winter has come early, and life is tough. Please help us get through it first. Then, when we can plant next spring, and with our love of farming in our genes, maybe there'll be enough food to export to the interstellar!"
[…Then I’ll report this and discuss it.]
"Okay, tell me now. Don't mention 3 million catties yet. Say 30 million catties first and see what they say..."
【……】
The system icon in her mind flashed twice before going completely dark. Jiang Qian couldn't sit still and paced back and forth in the lounge alone.
After she had turned around nearly ten thousand times, the system icon that had gone gray in her mind finally lit up again.
…
At this time, Jiang Qian was not the only one anxiously waiting for the reply.
Since the in-depth cooperation with the train, a special working group has been dispatched to the Jingmingshan area in the middle of the train route to facilitate the handling of train-related matters nearby.
And now, some members of this temporary working group are still in the office.
The younger team member seemed a little restless looking at the clock on the wall, while the older one looked more steady, but if you looked closely, you would find that he had been drinking cup of tea all night. However, the man sitting at the top, whose hair had turned completely silver but whose face did not look particularly old, did not make any extra movements all night and was just looking at the documents in his hands.
Outside the window, the guard on duty passed by again during patrol. The young man glanced at the clock on the wall and stood up suddenly.
"It's been six hours since I sent the message, why haven't you replied yet?"
"The letter of intent is so long, you must read it carefully. Don't be so anxious." The slightly older team member comforted him while pouring himself another cup of tea.
This plan of purchasing food from the train was decided after they thought about and discussed it for a long time.
Based on their recent contact and communication with the train, they guessed that the other side controlling the train might be a civilization similar to theirs but with higher technology.
They didn't know why this civilization had come, nor why they were collecting those highly infectious crystal cores, nor did they know why they were "helping" them. But for them now, this "help" was truly a timely help. They couldn't wait to exchange these harmful and useless things for something else.
The last time the research institute successfully developed bird repellents and various insect repellents based on the research data provided by the train, they conducted more detailed research and testing on these newly produced drugs.
Researchers at the institute discovered that these drugs are very targeted and suitable for their current period and are very suitable for use against alienated creatures that are currently aggressive.
At that time, the research institute immediately reported the discovery. When the report was placed on the table, everyone was not surprised, but scared to death.
【Author’s words】
The next chapter will be updated before the 30th of the month.
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