Chapter 39: The Supermarket’s Grand Opening is Livelier Than the County Lantern Festival

Chapter 39: Chapter 39: The Supermarket’s Grand Opening is Livelier Than the County Lantern Festival

While the staff butchered the pork, Yun Zhen and Li Mei took a stroll around the supermarket.

The supermarket covered a vast area and was stocked with a dazzling array of goods. Yun Zhen was overwhelmed; two eyes simply weren’t enough to take it all in. Because of the grand opening promotions and the evening rush hour, the aisles were incredibly crowded, making it easy to bump into people while walking.

She remembered her father mentioning that their county town held lantern festivals during holidays. People from neighboring villages and towns would flock there, leaving the entire county bustling and packed for the night. She had never seen a lantern festival herself, but she was certain that no matter how lively it got, it couldn’t possibly compare to this place.

The square panels overhead emitted a light brighter and purer than the moon, illuminating every single corner—something lantern fire could never achieve. The crowds boiled with noise and excitement, and the goods on display exceeded everything sold on an entire street in her county town.

Her horizons had been broadened yet again!

As she learned more about this world, she felt increasingly grateful to the heavens. If not for divine blessing, she would never have witnessed such sights. The villagers back home couldn’t imagine a light more dazzling than the moon, even if they racked their brains. They would never believe that someone would generously give away gold and over a hundred pounds of pork as grand opening prizes, or that draft cattle—whose slaughter and sale were strictly forbidden by the government—were openly sold at stalls. Yun Zhen was terrified that this was all just a beautiful dream!

"Yun Zhen!" Li Mei’s voice pulled her back to reality. "While the supermarket has discounts, I’m going to buy some beef and mutton for hot pot. Help me watch Lele for a bit and don’t let her run off. I’ll be right back."

She squeezed into the crowd, rummaging through the meat stall.

Yun Zhen gently took Lele’s hand. "Okay, take your time choosing. I’ll watch her. Lele is so well-behaved, she definitely won’t run off."

When Li Mei returned with her purchases, she said, "Little girls your age usually love snacks. Why don’t you buy some while they’re on sale?"

Yun Zhen knew that "snacks" meant little treats to munch on. But how could she bear to buy treats? Her money had far more important uses.

She politely declined, "No, thank you. Just buy what you need. I’ll buy something if I see anything I really want."

Li Mei nodded and walked through the entire supermarket twice more. Yun Zhen followed behind her, holding little Lele’s hand.

The supermarket was simply too massive. Yun Zhen felt like they had been walking for an hour.

Li Mei was carrying bags of all sizes. "If I hadn’t taken a shortcut to take you home, I wouldn’t have even known there was a new supermarket opening in the city with such great discounts. What makes me happiest is that I got a soy milk maker worth hundreds for just ten yuan!

"Yun Zhen, with your luck, you’d definitely make money buying lottery tickets!"

It was Yun Zhen’s first time hearing the term. "What’s a lottery ticket?" She wondered if it was like the lucky draw.

Li Mei explained, "It’s a game of luck, pretty much like the lucky draw we did today. The difference is that they don’t give out prizes like pork or soy milk makers. They just give you straight cash!

"I always see posts online about so-and-so winning millions or tens of millions in grand prizes," she sighed in amazement. "I think you have that kind of luck. You might just win!"

Suddenly, she paused. She had almost set a bad example for a kid! Li Mei wanted to slap her own mouth. Changing her tune, she quickly added, "But don’t you go buying lottery tickets. Most of them are just scams to take your money, and the odds of winning are one in ten million."

The chances of losing everything to the lottery were small but not impossible. The internet was full of stories about people getting addicted and blowing millions of their life savings in half a year, only to win back a few hundred yuan. Yun Zhen already had a hard enough life; Li Mei didn’t want to lead her astray.

Hearing that it was a scam, Yun Zhen’s initial temptation instantly cooled. "I won’t buy lottery tickets."

Li Mei smiled in satisfaction. "Have you figured out what to do with all that pork?" she asked.

Yun Zhen had been thinking about it while wandering around the supermarket. She hadn’t returned home yet, and the villagers were probably getting anxious. She needed to head back to the village first. As for the pork, she had come up with a different plan.

Originally, she wanted to sell it for money. Even though the staff said the price of pork had dropped significantly, for Yun Zhen, every pound sold meant more money earned. At seventeen or eighteen yuan a pound, that was enough to buy seventeen or eighteen pounds of refined white rice to make porridge for the villagers.

But it was getting late. No one would likely buy pork in the dead of night. After all, people in this world lacked neither food nor drink. Furthermore, the weather here was getting hotter by the day; two hundred pounds of pork would rot if left out for a few nights.

Another issue was that she didn’t have one of those small slabs everyone else carried. She had observed for a long time before realizing that most people here didn’t pay with physical money. Instead, they tapped their small slabs against a piece of cardboard. Without either a slab or the cardboard, collecting money would be inconvenient. Besides, during the lucky draw, the staff had already mentioned that pork was hard to sell here. Moreover, she had never done business before. It would be a disaster if she got scammed.

After mulling it over, Yun Zhen had finally thought of a safe solution. She would give some of the pork to the kind-hearted people who had helped her. The rest she would take back to the village. With over a hundred people in her village, there would be enough for everyone to enjoy a hearty meal of braised pork. The leftovers could be buried in the snow as emergency rations, and the bones could be boiled for soup. It would be enough to feed the whole village for a month.

That was her true plan, but she obviously couldn’t tell Li Mei the truth.

So she said, "I’ll go back and ask the agency staff to see if they can help me sell it."

Yun Zhen knew that Sister Lin and Brother Zhao were both extremely busy people and wouldn’t have time to help her sell pork. She didn’t want to trouble them. But this excuse worked perfectly to convince Li Mei.

Li Mei bought it without a doubt. "That’s for the best. I was worried a little girl like you would get tricked by someone with bad intentions."

When they returned to the prize area, the staff had already butchered and bagged the pork.

"That’s so much meat!"

Several large white bags sat on the ground, each stuffed to the brim. Yun Zhen was astounded.

A staff member approached them. "Miss, the pork has been butchered and packed for you. The pure meat and bones are separated. There’s over a hundred and fifty pounds of meat, with about forty to fifty pounds per bag, filling three bags. The bones weigh over forty pounds and are packed into two bags."

Yun Zhen pursed her lips, her heart racing with excitement. If her father and Uncle Village Chief saw all this meat, they would definitely jump for joy. "Thank you for your hard work," she told the staff.

The staff loaded the meat into the cargo bed of Li Mei’s electric tricycle.

Li Mei’s face was rosy, looking as if she were bathed in a spring breeze. It was her first time winning a prize today, and a third prize at that! Even though Yun Zhen had drawn it for her, the prize was hers. She tucked Lele into her arms. "Sit tight, we’re taking Auntie Yun Zhen home first."

"Okay," Lele yawned and rubbed her eyes, her head nodding. She was incredibly sleepy.

Yun Zhen couldn’t bring herself to tell Li Mei to go home first; she wouldn’t be able to carry all this pork by herself.

When they arrived at the residential complex, Li Mei parked the electric tricycle downstairs.

"With just the two of us, we won’t have the strength to carry all this meat upstairs," Li Mei suggested. "Why don’t you call the agency staff to help you carry it, or just have them take it away to sell?"

With Li Mei’s help, Yun Zhen HUFFED AND PUFFED as she hauled the bags of meat off the tricycle.

"Okay, I’ll contact them in a bit," she agreed.

Once Li Mei left, she planned to haul them upstairs one by one.

"Wait a second."

Li Mei noticed there was still one bag of meat left in the cargo bed. Yun Zhen had been caught red-handed.

Li Mei looked exasperated. "You should sell this meat for money. I already told you my family doesn’t eat much pork."

Yun Zhen had intentionally left the meat behind. She stubbornly insisted, "If you can’t finish it, you can give it away to others."

Looking into Yun Zhen’s large, watery eyes, Li Mei couldn’t bear to refuse her. "It looks like you won’t take no for an answer. Tell you what, I’ll just take one pig’s trotter."