RIACMET chapter 90

 

When Jiang Nian suggested buying a house, everyone immediately raised their hands in support.

“Wow! That’s amazing!”

“I’m in!”

“Great idea!”

“Absolutely for it!”

“Brother Nian is awesome!”

“Godfather is so wise!”

“…”

Buying a place to live together had always been their goal. They just hadn’t dared to plan for it before because their lives hadn’t been stable enough. Now that things were finally settling down, it had to be put on the agenda.

For a long-term living arrangement, it’s best to find reliable partners with whom you can weather the ups and downs. Living together would be much more convenient.

As it happened, the inner area of Nancheng Base, which accommodated groups of superpowered people like them, bordered a planned residential zone in the central district. A collective, courtyard-style villa complex was almost complete, and it looked perfect.

These collective villas were large compounds divided into smaller courtyards within the same outer walls and gates. Each courtyard contained a separate suite.

Each courtyard also had its own small garden, and these gardens were arranged around a central shared yard. That was basically the layout.

Depending on the size of the unit, each complex could house between 10 and 30 people.

This way, the team could live together happily without getting in each other’s way.

Though not quite in the center district, all housing in the inner zone was managed by professional property services and was very secure.

The security guards at the entrances were fully armed, and patrol teams regularly did rounds.

Additionally, only a wall separated the central zone from the inner zone, and there was a back gate that led directly into it. As long as you had the proper access card, you could come and go easily.

In every respect, it was exactly what they needed.

While the team was patrolling the base, Liao Yu went off to gather more details. The property was similar to pre-apocalypse real estate—you could even pay in installments.

The unit suitable for their team had five small courtyards, enough space for up to ten people to live comfortably. The purchase price was two million points, payable in five interest-free installments.

In other words, with a down payment of 400,000 points, they could move in right away. Currently, however, they were short about 100,000 points.

Most of those funds had come as a reward for monitoring Xiaoya, and everyone was confident they could earn the rest quickly now that things were stable.

With that, the plan to buy the house was happily settled.

…

While the team was on break and not out on missions, Jiang Nian’s grocery store officially opened.

He’d also notified the Li family contacts, as well as Zhou Li, Yang Kai, and Jiang Wenwen.

They all came, except for Jiang Wenwen, who said she was busy but would visit another day.

Jiang Nian politely told her she could come by whenever she was free and didn’t ask any more questions.

He maintained a friendly attitude toward her. After all, she didn’t get along with Xia Weiwei well, and an enemy of an enemy is a potential ally.

After the world ended, most human relationships had grown cold. If Xia Weiwei’s attempts to win Jiang Wenwen over from S Base failed, cooperation was still possible.

What Jiang Nian needed to do now was stay calm, act ignorant, and quietly observe how Jiang Wenwen would play her cards.

Once the store had its lively opening, it settled into a regular schedule of 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Like all the other shops on the base’s commercial street, it was basically a post-apocalyptic flea market. Everyone sold whatever they had on hand, and whatever was there today might be gone tomorrow.

Although more and more people were arriving at the base, very few could earn many points immediately upon arrival.

This also meant that fewer shops were opening up and the street vendor economy was underdeveloped. There were even fewer places with as much inventory as Jiang Nian’s store.

Business was great from day one. He couldn’t tally all the costs in detail, but the first day brought in 500 points in revenue:

$430 on the second day, $700 on the third, $880 on the fourth, and so on. The numbers steadily increased.

As more people arrived, business only improved.

At the same time, Jiang Nian made good use of the team’s supernatural resources.

For example, when Cheng Jing and Liao Yu were available, he offered paid services such as battery recharging, cold water, and ice.

As he’d expected, the herbal iced tea, sugar water, and saline water—each priced at five points per cup—sold extremely well. After all, most of the population were ordinary people.

Bottled drinks and similar treats were mostly bought by those with abilities.

Jiang Nian wasn’t socially anxious, but he was too lazy to haggle with people. So, each day, he inventoried the shelves and clearly marked the prices of everything sold.

That alone cut down the number of hagglers dramatically. The occasional shopper who still tried was just an opportunity to chat and practice conversation.

Relaxed and satisfied, he lounged in his recliner with his headphones on, playing games and keeping an eye on the shop while the fan blew cool air. He felt like his little dream of a pleasant apocalypse had really come true.

…

Aside from everything going smoothly in the store, Jiang Nian’s vegetable seedlings were finally ready to be moved into pots.

Even though there weren’t many, he felt a huge sense of accomplishment.

Most importantly, the purified soil could be reused again and again because its purification energy never expired.

The next day, after confirming there were no problems with the test crops, Jiang Nian gathered everyone together and took out a handful of radish seeds. He sprinkled them into a planter box mixed with fertilizer and asked Sister Qian to use her powers to speed up their growth.

Although she had already mastered controlling her abilities, Huang Qian was still a bit nervous and excited about growing vegetables. She took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.

“Okay, I’ll start!”

With that, she placed her hands on the edge of the planter. Concentrating, she sent her power flowing through the soil.

Under everyone’s watchful eyes, an invisible surge of plant energy spread, prompting the radish seeds to sprout and grow rapidly.

It looked just like a time-lapse video. In only about ten minutes, the seeds had grown into plump white radishes, each as thick as an adult’s wrist.

Since the soil had been fertilized, the radishes looked and grew normally.

Zhao Lei pulled them up, washed them off, and passed them around so everyone could taste them raw.

They were crisp and juicy but had a very mild flavor—almost bland without dipping sauce.

Since the radishes were a success, Huang Qian went on to try growing tomatoes, peppers, and other vegetables, including watermelons. She didn’t stop until she was completely worn out.

By the end, everyone was stunned by the pile of fruits and vegetables stacked in the living room.

Apart from a slightly different taste compared to naturally grown produce, everything looked fine.

This was the trade-off for using supernatural growth promoters. However, in a world where fresh vitamins were scarce, having them at all was amazing.

Even if the taste wasn’t quite the same, the nutritional content remained unchanged—good enough.

They put together a vegetarian feast with the fresh harvest. For Jiang Nian, the pure satisfaction was more important than the flavor.

Since there was more food than they could eat, everyone agreed to pack some up and give it as gifts to their friends.

Those who received the surprise packages of vegetables were startled but didn’t say anything more.

Even Li Sheng, Zhou Li, and Yang Kai only offered polite thanks and didn’t ask any questions.

They were thoughtful and tactful people. Building relationships like this requires a careful balance on both sides.

Though everyone was naturally curious about how Jiang Nian and his team had purified the soil to grow so much produce, now wasn’t the time to bring it up.

Later, Jiang Nian prepared two more planter boxes. He kept most of them for regular planting, but he set these two aside specifically for Sister Qian to grow fast crops with her powers.

He would have liked to plant more, but there wasn’t enough room on the balcony to install additional solar panels and generators to power everything.

So, he could only take it slow and wait until they moved operations to the farm.