My Courtyard Shelter

Chapter 8: Tobacco, Alcohol, Sugar, and Tea

Starting on June 15, Xu Dong began receiving various packages one after another; on busy days, he’d get over a hundred parcels, and soon there was barely any room left to walk in the courtyard. Sorting through all these packages left Xu Dong so exhausted he could barely stand up straight. On June 18, the vacuum sealer he’d ordered arrived. Since not all vendors were able to provide vacuum packaging, Xu Dong decided to buy one himself. If you want something done right, do it yourself. It wasn’t until June 25 that Xu Dong finished sealing all the merchandise, moved it to the warehouse, and organized it by category. The next day, Xu Dong returned to Luyang once more to spend three days with his family, then headed north for the fourth time. This time, Xu Dong planned to stay longer, using the excuse that business volume in the capital had skyrocketed and the Company needed him to help set up a branch office; this “business trip” would last at least one or two months. Neither Yang Lina nor Xu’s mother suspected anything, because during this period, Xu Dong had brought home 180,000 yuan in sales commissions alone. With such high commissions, frequent business trips were only to be expected. On the last day of June, Xu Dong placed another large order with his supplier, this time focusing primarily on four major categories: tobacco, alcohol, candy, and tea. Xu Dong was a smoker himself, though after those ten years in his previous life, he had long since kicked the habit. However, cigarettes have a relatively long shelf life—up to four or five years—making them a sought-after item for gift-giving and building connections, as well as a popular commodity on the black market. Therefore, he placed an order for 50 cases outright. This single item alone cost over 3 million yuan. Next came alcohol, which has an even longer shelf life; many spirits have virtually no expiration date. The longer they age, the more aromatic they become. Xu Dong ordered a batch of several major domestic brands of strong baijiu, ranging from high-end to mid-range, including Moutai. In total, he ordered nearly 3,500 cases, spending over 8 million yuan. In addition, Xu Dong ordered 100 cases of various wines, all suitable for long-term storage, selecting major international brands, which cost over 100,000 yuan. Next came tea. Xu Dong usually only drank green tea and wasn’t very familiar with other types of tea. After some discussion and price comparisons, he ultimately ordered only 1,000 kilograms of tea bricks, consisting mainly of Pu’er tea and standard tea bricks. These tea bricks generally have a shelf life of over ten years; they are easy to store, age well, and offer excellent value for money. Finally, the biggest item in this purchase—sugar! The more severe the famine, the more people crave two things: fat and sugar. Sugar provides about 70 percent of the energy the human body needs, and it is also an essential substance for building tissue and protecting liver function. In the future, grain will be under comprehensive state control; Xu Dong has no way of getting involved. Small-scale transactions are manageable, but anything on a larger scale will certainly be investigated—the risk is simply too great. As for fat—that is, meat and cooking oil—shelf life is a major drawback, so Xu Dong has no plans to get involved in that market either. Sugar, on the other hand, not only has an extremely long shelf life but is also subject to relatively lax state regulation, which gave Xu Dong room to get involved. In the future, sugar will be on par with grain—a hard currency that can be converted into cash at any time, yet for a long time, it will be in high demand but scarce in supply. Therefore, Xu Dong planned to stockpile a batch of white sugar as a stabilizing anchor for his warehouse, to prepare for any crises that might erupt. However, the volume of this purchase was simply too large. Xu Dong had to contact several suppliers just to reach the required 1,000 metric tons, with a total value of approximately 7. 2 million yuan. A week later, the entire order of tobacco, alcohol, tea, and sugar arrived, once again filling the courtyard to capacity; Xu Dong even had to rent a temporary warehouse. This time, it took Xu Dong over a month to organize everything properly. By this point, the entire warehouse on the second basement level was completely full, and even the warehouse on the first basement level had only about half its space remaining. Faced with this scene, Xu Dong couldn’t help but break into a dreamy smile. As the saying goes: “With grain in hand, there’s no need to worry.” So far, Xu Dong had purchased items suitable for long-term storage, and he had completed more than half of his stockpiling task; the volume of future purchases wouldn’t be nearly as large. On August 8, Xu Dong made a bulk purchase of household appliances, including televisions, refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners, soy milk makers, juicers, electric shavers, and kitchen and bathroom appliances—buying more than a dozen of each item as spares. Xu Dong remembered that in his previous life, after the Great Catastrophe, these household appliances were extremely hard to come by and exorbitantly priced, so it was better to stockpile a batch now to avoid trouble later. In addition, Xu Dong stockpiled several hundred electronic devices—such as computers, cell phones, game consoles, radios, and tablets—even taking his grandchildren’s needs into account. On top of that, Xu Dong also purchased household-sized rice mills and flour mills, which would be needed for processing rice and wheat. He even managed to find a set of tofu-making equipment; the seller included a complete set of video tutorials, claiming that anyone could learn how to make tofu just by watching them. On August 10, two new vehicles suddenly appeared in the Siheyuan: one was a 10-seat Mercedes-Benz luxury minivan—after all, with such a large family, only a 10-seater could accommodate everyone. The other was a small van equipped with refrigeration and freezing capabilities, primarily used for transporting goods, as it was convenient for loading and unloading. Both vehicles were gasoline-powered, and the total cost came to 7. 3 million yuan. Why choose gas-powered vehicles? First, electric vehicle technology was still immature at the time; the batteries had to be replaced every few years, which was extremely inconvenient. Second, the future supply of fuel will be more reliable than that of electricity. Take Luyang from a past life as an example: to ensure grain production, power outages were enforced almost daily. And let’s not forget that a major flare from the Sun could cause a global blackout—in such a scenario, gas-powered vehicles would be more reliable. On August 12, Xu Dong locked the gate of his Siheyuan courtyard and prepared to drive to an orchard on the outskirts of Yanjing. The purpose of his trip was not to buy fruit, but to procure a batch of ripe, high-purity honey. This type of honey has a very high sugar content, and bacteria cannot survive in such a high-sugar environment. Archaeologists once unearthed 3,300-year-old honey inside the Egyptian pyramids, and it hadn’t spoiled at all. Upon arriving at his destination, Xu Dong made a phone call and quickly located the orchard owner, whom he had met online previously. “You must be Mr. Xu Dong, right?” the orchard owner greeted him. “Yes, yes, that’s me,” Xu Dong nodded. “You must be Mr. Hu, right? It’s a pleasure to meet you!” Mr. Hu didn’t waste any time. “Let’s go. I’ll show you the honey.” After winding their way through the orchard, the two arrived at its center, where seven or eight beehives were set up, with small groups of bees coming and going. “Mr. Hu, what kind of bees do you keep here?” Xu Dong asked curiously. “Italian bees.” “How’s their honey production?” “Their honey production is pretty good, and they’re also excellent at producing royal jelly. Would you like to get some?” Mr. Hu seized the opportunity to make a sales pitch. Xu Dong shook his head: “I don’t need any right now. We’ll talk about it next time!” He’d looked up some information before coming—royal jelly has a very short shelf life and isn’t worth stocking up on. “Oh, all right. Then let’s start harvesting the honey now!” At 5:00 p. m. , Xu Dong left with a dozen or so bottles of freshly harvested honey. The honey was definitely the real thing—he’d watched it being extracted with his own eyes—though he wasn’t sure if it was mature honey. However, Mr. Hu had solemnly guaranteed that his honey was of excellent quality and could definitely be stored for several years.