Chapter 004: Hoarding Supplies (I)

The next day, before dawn, Zhou Yang woke up.

It was still too early to get up, and he wasn't hungry yet. So, after washing up, he curled back into his quilt and began thinking about renting a place and renovating it.

The safe base he had his eye on was the Baijishan Base, which had been established in his past life at the border of the neighboring Hui Province. It was backed by the Baiji Mountain range, providing a natural barrier. Moreover, the famous Thousand Island Lake and Xin'an River Reservoir were just over 30 kilometers away. Surrounded by mountains and water, it was easy to defend and hard to attack, making it the largest safe base in the southeast.

The resort area and villa district at the foot of the mountain were the central zones of this base.

He had lived in this base in his previous life as well, but unfortunately, he had no house, no supplies, and no Superpower, so he could only live in the outermost slums.

This time, he was determined to secure a house in the central area in advance and then carry out a comprehensive renovation. Not only did the doors and windows need reinforcing, but they also had to be explosion-proof. Sun protection, heat insulation, and soundproofing would definitely need to be redone as well. The Apocalypse didn't just bring riots and zombies; there were also natural disasters like cold snaps and heatwaves.

Although houses in the resort could be leased long-term, they couldn't be renovated and would later become the base government's office area, so they held no value for him. On the other hand, houses in the villa district could be modified if leased long-term. Ideally, it would be a "rough house" so the landlord wouldn't mind him decorating it.

However, he didn't plan on renting a villa; instead, he was eyeing the high-rise luxury flats within the area.

During the early floods, most of the houses in the villa district ended up soaked and moldy. After the Apocalypse, materials were scarce, so most couldn't be repaired and were barely habitable. The high-rise residential area was much better; except for the bottom few floors, the upper ones were largely unaffected.

He checked the rental information for that villa district online and actually found a high-rise unfinished luxury flat. It wasn't the single-unit-per-floor layout he preferred, but a slightly smaller 180-square-meter unit in a two-units-per-floor layout. Still, for a single person, it was definitely large enough. He just had to be careful since there might be a neighbor across the hall.

He looked around a bit more, but there really wasn't anything else he liked better. Without hesitation, Zhou Yang immediately placed a rental order online. The real estate agent called shortly after to confirm.

Zhou Yang made an appointment with the agent to view the house tomorrow; if everything was fine, he would sign the contract right away.

After hanging up, Zhou Yang searched for local renovation companies online and finally settled on one that was highly efficient and had a good reputation.

After noting down the company's number, Zhou Yang called them and booked an experienced designer. After arranging to meet at the house tomorrow, he went back online to look at various safe house construction guides from doomsday enthusiasts. He gradually finalized his renovation plan, the materials needed, and a rough price list.

By the time he finished, it was almost noon.

Zhou Yang rolled out of bed, stretched beside it, and walked toward the kitchen.

Having missed breakfast, he planned to combine the meals and cook something delicious to reward himself.

He even planned to make extra; besides his current meal, the rest would go into the space's cellar. He just needed to get some shelves for the cellar, or else things would be hard to organize.

"Hmm, I'll go check out the building materials market this afternoon."

He took a bag of black cod fillets from the refrigerator. After a quick wash and seasoning, he put them into the steamer and set it to the fish-steaming mode.

Then, he boiled a pot of water and blanched some pork belly cut into small pieces. Next, he heated oil in a wok, stir-fried the meat, and added soy sauce, yellow rock sugar, and honey. He tossed it until every piece of pork belly was coated in sauce, then added a little water and simmered it for ten minutes before taking it out.

Immediately after, he boiled another pot of water and washed the bean sprouts and green vegetables he bought yesterday. Once the water boiled, he added the noodles, cooked them until they were almost done, then drained and rinsed them with cold water. Next, he heated oil in the wok, cracked over a dozen eggs into it, and added a large handful of green vegetables and bean sprouts. Once they were cooked through, he added the noodles, stir-fried them a few more times, and finally added a bit of soy sauce and seasoning. A pot of delicious fried noodles was complete.

By the time the fried noodles were done, the steamed black cod fillets were also ready.

He kept a portion for himself and packed the rest into the remaining disposable containers he had at home before storing them in the space's cellar.

After eating, Zhou Yang went straight to the building materials market. He picked out dozens of tall commercial shelves and asked the shop owner to deliver them to the warehouse at 5 PM that afternoon.

After buying the shelves, he wandered around a bit more and bought many porcelain and ceramic jars with lids, intending to use them for storing lard once he rendered it later.

Seeing power strips, sockets, and heating equipment for sale, Zhou Yang bought some of those as well. He also purchased plenty of sealing strips, adhesives, hot glue guns, electric drills, various hardware items, and manual tool sets, just in case he might need them in the future.

After putting these miscellaneous items into the small building in his space, Zhou Yang went directly to the warehouse. The delivery time he had agreed upon with the wholesale market owners yesterday was approaching.

By the time Zhou Yang reached the warehouse, several trucks were already waiting. He had the workers unload the goods one by one and paid the remaining balance.

Once the workers left, Zhou Yang pulled the warehouse door shut and stored the large batch of supplies into his space.

It wasn't even 1 PM by the time he finished all this.

Since it was still early, Zhou Yang went to a car rental agency, rented a medium-sized truck, and drove toward the countryside.

After driving for over half an hour, he arrived at the nearest village.

Zhou Yang found a woman in her fifties and asked which households in the village had free-range poultry and livestock, saying he wanted to purchase a batch for someone.

The woman first asked about the purchase price. Zhou Yang quoted a price that was much cheaper than in the city but still quite high for the countryside.

The woman immediately slapped her thigh and said her family had some. She told Zhou Yang to follow her and set off for home on her electric scooter.

Zhou Yang immediately followed in his truck.

In just a few minutes, they arrived at her house.

The woman had a very large fenced yard, a full mu in size. According to her, they had intended to start a fish pond years ago, but when that didn't work out, they simply filled it in.

Now they grew fruit trees and raised poultry and livestock, usually selling local chickens, ducks, and eggs. Because their animals were well-raised—authentic free-range and fed only grains—many people from the city were regular customers.

Zhou Yang glanced at the poultry running all over the yard.

Not bad, the variety was quite complete. There were several breeds of ducks and geese, as well as quail and pigeons. Moreover, seeing that the feeders were filled with grains, they certainly weren't being fed commercial feed.

There was also a fairly large pigpen at the very back of the wall. Zhou Yang went inside to take a look; there were two litters of white pigs, one litter of black pigs, and an entire wall of twelve cages of meat rabbits.

This was a perfect one-stop shop.

Without hesitation, Zhou Yang stated he would buy them.

He wanted five of each type of poultry—four females and one male. White pork was more tender than black pork, but black pork was more fragrant, so Zhou Yang decided to get both. However, he wanted more white pigs, so he ordered four white piglets (three females, one male) and three black piglets (two females, one male). Since rabbits breed quickly, he didn't need many and only took three (two females, one male).

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