Chapter 6
After the performance ended, Jiang Qingyu was still left wanting more.
But after he finished watching the final show, it suddenly started raining outside. And it was not the kind of fine drizzle either. If he still rode his bike back, he would probably turn into a drowned rat by the time he returned.
Jiang Qingyu did not hesitate and directly called a car back. He did not know whether it was his imagination, but after watching several hours of performances back-to-back, when he came out again, he kept feeling that the temperature outside had dropped sharply.
When he had gone out, he had been wearing a hooded long-sleeved sweatshirt, which had originally been just right. But just now, he felt unbearably cold. The wind kept whistling into his clothes, even cutting into the gaps of his bones.
So after reaching his destination, he hugged himself and sprinted all the way. That short stretch of road turned into something like a sprint race as he lowered his head and charged toward the RV.
The RV was like a tiny safe harbor. The warm-toned lights were bright, and the temperature was just right. Meimei jumped down from the bed, wanting to rub against his trouser legs, but Jiang Qingyu dodged her. After sprinting all the way just now, he was inevitably splattered with some mud.
Jiang Qingyu squatted down and patted Meimei’s head, then went to change his clothes and take a shower first.
Outside the RV, the rain pattered softly. Inside the bathroom, the water streamed down with a rushing sound.
He took a wonderfully hot shower, driving away the chill from his bones, then changed into soft and comfortable pajamas. As soon as he returned to the living room, he realized that the rain outside had grown even heavier. He could not help leaning beside the booth seat and pulling open the privacy curtain to look outside.
Raindrops crashed down with crackling sounds, splashing countless droplets onto the road. Several new RVs had arrived at the RV campsite, all some distance away from Jiang Qingyu.
From afar, he saw a few young people had set up an outdoor canopy beside their vehicle and were having an open-air barbecue. They were chatting and laughing, lively and cheerful. This sudden rainstorm had instead become a natural mood-setter.
Jiang Qingyu lowered the privacy curtain, carried Meimei to the bed, and went over. At the rear of the RV, beside the big bed, there was another window. However, it was usually covered by a curtain. He preferred looking at the night sky through the skylight above his head.
The sound of rain became natural white noise. Jiang Qingyu pulled the curtain open a little and lay on his stomach on the bed, watching those young people laugh and fool around. A trace of envy inevitably appeared in his eyes.
How nice it would be if someone were here with him right now, lying here and watching other people have fun together.
Wait.
If someone were here with him, wouldn’t it be even better for the two of them to lie together and listen to the rain? Why would he need to envy other people at all?
Mist condensed on the glass window. When the system upgraded the RV, it had said that this kind of window was not only resistant to smashing and violent destruction, it could even stop bullets. The whole vehicle body had been reinforced.
Water streamed down, cutting countless broken lines across the window. The silhouettes of those young people gradually became blurry.
Jiang Qingyu pulled the curtain shut, lay back down again, and stared at the skylight above his head as raindrops kept falling.
Meimei lay beside him with all four paws facing the sky, her tail swishing back and forth. Under Jiang Qingyu’s unconscious stroking, she kneaded the air with her paws.
In such stormy weather, the comfortable RV gave him an immense sense of security. Only, for the moment, he was not sleepy yet, so he needed to find something to do.
Of course, in this kind of environment, no matter what he did, it would feel very comfortable.
Jiang Qingyu only thought for a few seconds before opening the online shopping app without hesitation.
Speaking of which, when he rode his bicycle out today, he had suddenly remembered that if it was convenient, he should also buy something like a small electric scooter or motorcycle. What if it came in handy?
During this period, he had searched online quite a few times for things like top luxury RVs. Many of those luxury RVs that looked like buses had space to store a car or motorcycle.
If, as the system said, the RV would continue upgrading later, then even if he bought a vehicle, there would be room to store it—although he could also just put it directly into the space.
When he occasionally went out to buy something, or went somewhere the RV could not conveniently drive into, riding an electric scooter would be so convenient.
He would go to an offline store tomorrow and pick one up.
As he thought this, he bought all the viewing equipment like a projector TV. He also bought an air purifier, a toaster, an oven, a humidifier, and other things all at once. Things had to be added little by little, after all!
But shopping was very easy to get addicted to. If one was not careful, one would buy fiercely, passionately, and recklessly. He had originally only wanted to buy some appliances and items, but when he accidentally saw clothes and toys for cats, he could not hold back and bought several more.
After buying those, he saw canned cat food, cat treats, and fish oil. Thinking that he should buy Meimei some nutritional supplements to eat, he did research while purchasing frantically, switching back and forth between several apps. He was so busy that he did not even notice when those young people returned to their vehicle.
Seeing that he had bought enough things for Meimei, he suddenly thought of something and abruptly sat up from the bed.
Ah! He had not bought cat litter yet!
Fortunately, this was not a big problem.
Buying too much at once online was inconvenient for shipping, but he could go buy it offline.
Jiang Qingyu had originally planned to drive out today to haul goods anyway. It was not only those noodle dishes and pastries. He had also placed orders with several bun shops. He did not care what flavors they were—meat buns, vegetable buns, preserved mustard greens with vermicelli, crayfish, Orleans-style buns—as long as the owner could make them, he wanted them.
There were also some coarse-grain steamed buns, corn, soy milk, and tea eggs. He would first buy enough to cover several days’ worth of turnover for the shops.
They were all handmade buns, made personally by the shop owners and their wives. Jiang Qingyu had inspected them and confirmed that the fillings were fresh and clean, not pre-made semi-finished products bought online. Their reputations were also very good, so only then did he pay and place the orders.
After picking up the goods, he would conveniently go buy cat litter. He knew that some warehouse-style supermarkets sold cat litter, and the quality was quite good. As long as he paid, even if he cleared out all their cat litter stock, no one would say anything.
He could also take the opportunity to expand his stock of daily necessities, buying things like tissues, toothpaste, laundry detergent, and the like. These were all indispensable in everyday life.
Jiang Qingyu actually quite liked buying these things. Looking at them stacked together neatly and orderly always gave rise to a strange sense of satisfaction in his heart.
All these supplies would be useful to him in the future. With so much stock in his space, it was clearly enough for him to use until the end of time.
As long as human society did not collapse in a single day, he would still have the chance to continue expanding his stockpile, letting his sense of security fill up continuously like a balloon.
He very “domineeringly” went straight to the counter staff and asked how much cat litter they had in stock. Under the other person’s somewhat suspicious gaze, he said, “I’ll take all of it.”
At the same time, he could not help screaming in his heart: This line he had only ever seen in TV dramas before had now actually been used by him in real life!
The staff member asked cautiously, “All of it?”
“Mm.” Jiang Qingyu pretended to be calm. “I drove here. It’ll fit.”
The staff member whispered, “But… there’s a lot.”
Jiang Qingyu said, “It’s fine. If one trip isn’t enough, I can make two trips.”
The staff member said, “Two trips… might not be enough either.”
Jiang Qingyu: “…”
This was a large warehouse-style supermarket. If they did not have a lot of goods, how could they do business? Moreover, they had just restocked a few days ago, and now the warehouse was piled full. Never mind whether his vehicle could haul it all away—even the price was… not a small figure.
If this had been when the system had first found him, Jiang Qingyu might still have needed to stockpile frantically to exchange for points, calculating how much money he could take out.
But after the crazy purchasing he had done over the past while, Jiang Qingyu was now full of confidence. He calmly said to the other party, “It’s fine. I can make several trips. Make the invoice. Where do I pay?”
The staff member muttered inwardly, but still made the invoice for him and had Jiang Qingyu pay. The other party scanned the code with a completely relaxed expression, tapped the screen a few times, and the screen displayed that the payment was complete. The receipt slowly and unhurriedly slid out of the machine.
? He really bought that much?
The screen showed that this cat litter was now out of stock. Jiang Qingyu calmly asked him, “Where do I pick up the goods? Can they be delivered to the parking lot?”
The staff member stared blankly. “…Yes.”
Jiang Qingyu nodded. “You said earlier that you had just restocked a few days ago. Then can I buy some other things too?”
What a joke. They were open for business. What did he mean, could he or could he not? As long as the customer paid, home delivery was only right.
The staff member had already witnessed Jiang Qingyu’s “generosity.” What else was there to refuse? Besides, they had monthly sales targets too, and those were linked to performance bonuses. He immediately became enthusiastic and introduced things to him one by one.
He wanted to buy tissues, right? There were many categories for that. The market was full of fancy options now: different layers, water-dissolvable ones, scented ones. Why not buy some of each to try?
Since he was already buying tissues, did he want wet wipes? Since he had bought laundry detergent, shouldn’t he get some laundry pods and fabric softener too? Shampoo, body wash, and toothpaste were necessities as well, right? Since he was already here, and already buying, was he really short of just this little bit?
One had to admit, the other party’s sales skills were truly impressive. Jiang Qingyu had originally come with a list, but after the other person’s round of introductions, he actually added quite a lot to the original order and swiped another large sum of money.
Seeing this, the other party became even more enthusiastic. He took out a walkie-talkie and called others over to help move the goods, absolutely refusing to let Jiang Qingyu do it himself.
Jiang Qingyu smugly thought: This was all his “territory.”
Although the quantity did not match his original estimate, having more of these things was never a bad thing. In any case, they would be used eventually.
After finishing with the goods here, he drove to pick up the items he had originally ordered from various noodle shops and bun shops. Along the way, he bought a roujiamo in one of the shops to eat.
He did not really like fatty meat, so he bought an all-lean one. The meat juices soaked into the flatbread, softening the inside. The meat fibers came apart strand by strand, with thin strips of green pepper as garnish. One bite filled his mouth with meaty fragrance and a faint spiciness. The bun had been soaked through with meat juices, yet still retained some chewiness. The more he ate, the more addictive it became.
Seeing that he was eating happily, the owner was very proud. “Well? My skills aren’t bad, right?”
Jiang Qingyu nodded repeatedly, his cheeks puffed full. He did not have time to answer, so he first gave the owner a thumbs-up while nodding in affirmation.
This roujiamo was truly beyond reproach. It was super fragrant.
After finally swallowing that big mouthful and freeing his mouth to speak, he said, “Can I place an order for this roujiamo? I want two hundred. No, five hundred.”
The owner: “…………”
And so, another new order was born. The owner was half delighted and half worried: this was clearly a money-making matter, so why did it feel so exhausting?
Jiang Qingyu did not know what he was thinking. In any case, he paid the money, agreed on a time, and would just drive over to haul them away when the time came. After eating and drinking his fill, he continued on to pick up goods.
Jiang Qingyu had a very fruitful harvest today. Not only had his stock of daily necessities increased wildly, but he had also stockpiled enough noodles, buns, and other foods to eat every day for years. His points soared rapidly, and he was about to level up.
He wondered if autonomous driving could refresh again this time.
Cheerfully, he unpacked the packages that had arrived today. Jiang Qingyu had purchased a batch of electronic products. Whether it was a laptop, an action camera, or a game console, all of them were the latest models with the highest configurations currently available on the market.
After the system said the RV would upgrade again in the future, Jiang Qingyu had started thinking about making himself a game room in the vehicle.
Just thinking about eating dinner at night, holding the cat while playing games in the room, with the indoor ambient lighting just right, a thick carpet at his feet, and Meimei rolling around on it, sleeping with all four paws facing the sky…
If he faced the window, and it happened to be raining or snowing outside, while he played games and occasionally went to the kitchen to grab some snacks to eat, there was no need to mention how happy that would be.
Wait.
Snacks?
Jiang Qingyu perked up again.
He looked at the electronic product packaging spread all over the floor that he had not yet had time to clean up, and muttered to himself, “Snacks really should be bought too.”
He could choose not to eat them, but when he wanted to eat them, he could not be without them.
