Because of its elevated location, this area shouldn't have been submerged for long. The water flowed downstream, so the items in these shops are mostly intact, especially those on the second floor. They were largely unaffected by the flood.
This gave the two of them an opportunity. Regardless of whether they were useful or not, they stuffed the items into the space, but they didn't take everything. They only took about a third of each item.
Jian Ning was thinking that many more people would be coming to the base later, and they would definitely need to come to this building materials market to find supplies. She wanted to leave some for them.
Besides, her current place isn't that big, and all that she's collected is enough to renovate fifty or sixty villas. She simply can't use it all.
After looting the area, Jian Anping drove directly to the brick kiln the tall, thin man had mentioned. The sign was indeed quite large, with the four characters "Fumin Brick Kiln" prominently displayed.
When I drove in, there were still people in the yard, so it wasn't appropriate to just take advantage of them.
Jian Ning opened the car door and got out.
"Brother, is this brick kiln yours?"
"Yes, is there something you need?" The man who spoke looked distressed, his hair a mess, and it was hard to tell how long it had been since he'd had a haircut.
It was filled with an atmosphere of decadence.
"Well, I'd like to buy some bricks to build a wall. How much are your bricks?" Jian Ning asked with a smile.
"What's the use of money now? There's nowhere to spend it. If you can give me a bag of rice and a barrel of oil, there's a brick kiln over there. You can go and get them yourselves. How much can this truck hold? Fill it up."
“I can’t bear to use this car to haul bricks, brother. Don’t you have a tractor or anything like that?” Jian Ning asked.
"Can you drive? We don't have a tractor, only that pickup truck, and both are out of gas. If you can start it, feel free to use it, just bring it back to me when you're done."
The man seemed to have lost interest in all of that; now all he cared about was food. As long as there was food, he would take all these things without a problem, since they weren't meant to be eaten or drunk.
"Okay, I can give you food, but I don't have rice. I do have oil, but I'll have to bring it tomorrow. How about some compressed biscuits, luncheon meat, and canned fish for today?"
Jian Ning wouldn't give him whatever he wanted. This is the apocalypse, and rice is a precious commodity. More than a year has passed, and I doubt that most people have much food left in their homes.
What I'm taking out now can all be stored for a long time and won't arouse suspicion from others.
"Sure, how many do you have?"
The middle-aged man had only asked tentatively, because he could tell the two were from out of town. They had never seen such a nice off-road vehicle in their small county.
Jian Ning told him to wait a moment, then went back to her car and got five packs of compressed biscuits, two cans of fish, three cans of luncheon meat, and a small bag of vacuum-packed roasted peanuts.
He put it in his clothes and brought it back to the man.
"That's all the stuff I have in the truck right now. Tomorrow I can bring you a five-liter bucket of cooking oil and ten pounds of flour. How about I just haul five truckloads of bricks from you?"
"Yes!" The man's eyes lit up at the sight of food; they had been without food for two days. His grandson was crying from hunger, and he had no other choice.
I thought I'd come to the brick kiln to see if I could find anything to eat.
Only five packets of instant noodles were found in the former workers' dormitory.
That's all.
Just when I was having a headache, these two outsiders actually wanted to buy bricks.
He certainly couldn't let such a good opportunity to get something for nothing slip by. Besides, he wasn't exactly the owner of the brick factory.
He's just a deputy factory manager, in charge of sales. But here, nobody checks who he is; he just sells.
He took the food Jian Ning handed him and waved his hand dismissively: "Let's make this clear first, you can haul bricks, but I'm not responsible for helping you load them onto the truck. Figure it out yourselves."
"Okay, let's go check what's wrong with the car and see if it can be repaired!"
Jane actually knows a bit about car repair. She went over and checked it out. There was nothing seriously wrong; it was just out of gas.
So he found a hose in the car, used a large beverage bottle to siphon two large bottles of gasoline from the SUV, and added them to the pickup truck's fuel tank.
He got in the car, started the engine, and saw that it actually worked. Listening to the roar of the pickup truck, Jian Anping actually found it quite pleasant.
He leaned out of the car window and gestured to Jian Ning to follow him, then drove the pickup truck toward the brick kiln.
Jian Ning also got in the car and followed in her SUV. The middle-aged man, having received the food, had no interest in how many bricks they were going to haul. These things weren't edible anyway; it was more important to get home quickly and feed his grandson.
Little did he know that his carelessness today would lead to immense regret later, as these bricks would become highly sought-after items in a few days. Many people would bring food to exchange for them, all to improve the safety of their homes.
Upon arriving at the brick kiln, Jian Anping got out of the car first and started loading bricks onto it.
While working, he shouted, "Xiao Ning, I can do it myself, you don't need to help."
"Brother, no need to go to so much trouble, just watch me," Jian Ning simply waved his hand, and many of the red bricks that were placed in front of Jian Anping suddenly disappeared into thin air, probably because Jian Ning had put them into his spatial storage.
Immediately afterward, Jian Ning waved her hand again, and the pickup truck was instantly filled with bricks. Jian Anping was quite surprised to learn that storage capacity could be used in this way.
"Let's haul this load first, and then we'll collect more of the rest."
Jian Ning wasn't worried about having too many supplies; she never knew when she might need them. She figured if she got more today, she wouldn't have to search for them later if she needed to build a house.
Jian Anping's storage bag was already full, so he could only watch as Jian Ning kept putting the bricks into her storage space.
"That's about enough. Let's go. Come back tomorrow and return the car to him."
Jian Ning hadn't even considered this beat-up pickup truck. Besides, without fuel, the truck was completely useless.
When I drove back, I was surprised to find that the robbers were gone, and the ditch they had dug had been filled in and compacted with soil. That tall, thin guy was actually quite receptive to advice.
Heeding advice to eat well—Jian Ning doesn't know if he'll actually get enough to eat, but given his pragmatism, he should be able to survive quite a long time in the apocalypse.
After arriving at the base, their paperwork was checked, and they were allowed to pass smoothly.
When we got home, we unloaded the bricks and took out quite a few from Jian Ning's space, placing them in the yard.
We have to make a show of it. The large group of people migrating should arrive in a couple of days. Before they do, we should try to fence off the yard. That should save us a lot of trouble.
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