Chapter 6: Chapter 6 Be a Hamster
Two hours later.
Jiang Yan and Du Ziteng met up again in front of the largest but most remotely located warehouse.
"Sister Yan, this warehouse should best meet your requirements. When your family's courier company was still operating, this was one of the transit warehouses, so the surrounding transport facilities are very convenient, and it's well sealed. However, the only shortcoming is that there are surveillance cameras inside. If needed to be removed, we might have to compensate the other party."
After finishing, Du Ziteng opened the warehouse door and added, "There are also a bunch of shelves stored here, which seem to belong to a major supermarket that closed down and temporarily stored them here while looking for a buyer. But the other party can move these out and make space for you within a day."
Jiang Yan glanced inside and felt a surge of joy.
This is exactly what I needed!
The warehouse was indeed large, and everything from unloading platforms was all set.
All the large orders she purchased over the next few days could be delivered here.
As for the shelves inside, Jiang Yan scanned them; they were all of the best quality with particularly thick steel plates and looked almost brand new.
They would fit perfectly in the Space.
Plus, being second-hand, the price should be quite reasonable.
"Did you say they want to sell these shelves?"
"Yes, Sister Yan." Du Ziteng nodded somewhat confusedly.
Jiang Yan smiled and waved a big hand, "I'll take them all!"
"Sister Yan, are you sure?" Du Ziteng paused for a second, then couldn't help asking, "Are you buying so many to open a supermarket?"
Jiang Yan nodded.
Du Ziteng: "..."
He was a bit puzzled. A billionaire who could afford to lounge and go the influencer route, why would she suddenly be interested in starting a supermarket—a tough and low-profit business?
However, probing further would just show his ignorance.
Du Ziteng scratched his head and continued to lead Jiang Yan to another nearby warehouse that had a much better environment and many external water faucets.
On the way there, Jiang Yan had planned that after the apocalypse arrived, food and water would be the core essentials to prepare for.
Apart from various natural disasters leading to a scarcity of resources, one other factor was the radioactive water discharged by Japan.
Although this contaminated water wouldn't spread globally immediately, the more than 60 types of radioactive nuclides it contains couldn't be dealt with by existing technology—parts of these residual nuclides would evaporate into the atmosphere with the seawater, and spread across the globe with the rain.
Not to mention after the disaster strikes, heavy rain, floods, and sea water backflow, among other issues, would rapidly compound this deadly pollution.
Just in terms of hoarding water, she specifically researched online that a person in a lifetime would consume about 50-100 tons of drinking water, and household water including laundry, cooking, watering plants, bathing, and flushing toilets would need 7000-10000 tons.
However, her current stockpile couldn't be at a one-to-one ratio.
After all, she had encountered miracles like controlling the Cannibal Flower and being reborn; perhaps she could scale up her plans and borrow another five hundred years from heaven.
Particularly in the later stages of the apocalypse, paper money and gold would have lost their original value.
By then, anything could happen, so having extra supplies might come in handy.
As for how much to buy, the more, the merrier, since she had both money and Space.
She had figured that 1000 tons of water would need a hundred trucks to transport, and delivering them openly to her villa was obviously impractical.
She planned to directly negotiate with mineral water manufacturers for large-scale purchases and have them delivered to the warehouse, then collect them all into the Space.
If she feared the manufacturer might not cope with such a large quantity in the short term, she decided to buy a bit from several well-known brands.
For household water, naturally, she couldn't use mineral water instead.
Rich as she was, she wasn't that lavish; at most, she'd buy a water purification system to use alongside it.
On Taobao, there was a food-grade PE water storage tank that could hold 30 tons of water, and she planned to order 1000 of these.
These tanks could hold a lot, were of good quality, acid-resistant, alkali-resistant, sun-resistant, and convenient for extracting water through their valves, but they were not cheap, each costing at least 20,000 yuan.
The moment she ordered the water tanks on her mobile phone, 20 million yuan was effortlessly spent.
These water tanks, once filled with tap water, would be stored in the Space.
She estimated that a faucet, even if left open day and night, would only yield 30 tons of water, so the scenes in some novels where the protagonist frantically collects water at home were somewhat unrealistic.
Her own efforts were undoubtedly modest; she planned to have Du Ziteng help her find some temporary workers.
Once the water tanks arrived, these workers would be responsible for collecting water at the warehouse.
Once the tanks were full, she would then collect them all into the Space.
In fact, Jiang Yan was also considering whether to hire a professional team to help her procure supplies, as her individual capability was too limited.
She remembered that at her parents' company, when there was occasional bulk purchasing, they would entrust professional tendering companies for the job.
These companies would unify inquiries and price comparisons for certain materials, eventually selecting the most suitable supplier—not only gaining a price advantage but also supervising the process and ensuring quality.
As Mother Jiang used to say: Professional people do professional jobs.
However, given the type and quantity of materials Jiang Yan now aimed to buy, she would likely need to set up a trade company related to supermarkets before hiring a tendering company.
Registering the company would be easy, and some accreditation could probably be deferred.
But given her current high-profile status, even a casual public action could bring unpredictable discourse and influence.
Of course, she could also have an agent represent her while she controlled things from behind the scenes.
However, at the moment, she was surrounded by many people, but none could be trusted wholly as an agent.
After considering for a moment, Jiang Yan decided to do it herself.
She would liaise directly with those major manufacturers; based on long-term cooperation, at least for the next three months, they wouldn't easily reveal her.
As for her massive purchases, she wasn't worried about attracting government attention.
Private liaisons with government officials were much preferable to being scrutinized online by hundreds of thousands or millions.
After all, what many keyboard warriors excel at is speculating and exaggerating.
Furthermore, she still had ample time; being a bit tired was worth it—quietly being a hoarding hamster wasn't so bad.
*
Finally, after viewing several preferred warehouses, it was nearing evening.
Du Ziteng was quite efficient in handling matters, and thanks to Jiang Yan being generous with money, all warehouses could be signed for lease and cleared for keys the next day.
Jiang Yan didn't rent for long.
Depending on her plans, the lease of each warehouse varied, the longest being two months.