Reborn in the end of the world, I scavenged in the empty city and bought for free

The news that the base's underground city would soon be opening up housing and purchasing qualifications was announced on the base's official forum on the morning of the fourth day of the Lunar New Year. It immediately caused a huge stir and even sparked heated discussions among people from all walks of life and base residents.

Gu Tongwan didn't expect the base to move so quickly. Even before the base was fully open to the public, it had already started selling the houses below?

"What on earth are the people at the base thinking? Are they too anxious? It's only been less than two weeks since it was opened to the public, and less than 50,000 people have gone down to the underground city. Now they are in a hurry to sell the houses. Are they worried that the houses in the underground city can't be sold?" Liao Yunyun sat cross-legged on the sofa. When she saw this message on the forum this morning, she started muttering to herself. She also sent messages to many acquaintances to ask about the latest internal news, but all she got were affirmative. The base will indeed move its administrative center underground in the future, and the underground will serve as the base's largest "absolute fortress."

"There's no need to rush. Last time I went there, I saw that many communities were about to be completed. In fact, the idea of ​​selling in advance is correct. According to the current speed of the base, the underground city may be fully open in the second half of the year." Although only a part of the area was visited last time, its buildings, administrative centers and even hospitals are still under construction. It only took three years to create an underground city space suitable for human habitation. Gu Tongwan could only sigh again at the progress and greatness of human technology.

Liao Yunyun took a bite of the apple and then said thoughtfully, "I did see some news about house-for-house exchanges. If our company also moves to the underground city, should I also exchange for a small house downstairs? But I heard that the house prices are very expensive. I don't think I can afford it."

"If it is possible to change, I think I should do it. Besides, five-year installments are offered now. If it really doesn't work, I can lend you part of it first." The purchase contract for the unfinished building that she had her eyes on has basically been finalized. Because it is an unfinished building, the price is not expensive. In addition, Yu Liang used his connections to make a personal guarantee with the transaction center, allowing her to pay off the loan directly within two years. Because she was not exchanging houses, she could not enjoy the five-year installment plan, but she was given an extra exception because of the help of an acquaintance.

"My small 30-square-meter house can only be traded for a 20-square-meter one. I've seen the houses that have been vacated underground. The smallest apartments in the community close to the central area are only 35-square-meter and 40-square-meter single apartments. I have to pay 15 to 20 square meters myself, which is nearly 15,000 points per square meter. But I'm in the company now and can apply for a 20% discount for government officials. Anyway, if you calculate it, it will take at least 180,000 points. It will take five years to pay off the house, and it will be 45,000 per year including interest. With my current salary, it's simply a dream. So I say that the only people who can afford it are businessmen, senior executives of the company, and those powerful people. Ordinary people like us can forget about it."

"Then why don't you try to help me run the store, and I will give you dividends every month." Gu Tongwan poured himself a cup of black tea. In this kind of weather, drinking a cup of mellow and rich black tea to warm the body is the most appropriate.

"Manage the shop? You want me to quit my job and work with you?" Liao Yunyun looked up in surprise. She was actually quite satisfied with her current job. Her monthly salary plus the year-end bonus gave her at least a thousand points. Plus, she could get some supplies during the holidays. There weren't many stable jobs with two days off a week. In fact, from an ordinary person's perspective, her job was equivalent to that of a civil servant, so she would be reluctant to give it up easily.

Seeing Liao Yunyun's surprised look, Gu Tongwan continued to drink his tea slowly. When Liao Yunyun was about to speak, he said, "You don't have to resign. Aren't you good at using computers? And I remember that when you opened a store before, you also used Taobao and Xixi. You should be familiar with running an online store, right?"

Liao Yunyun's mind was working quickly, and she guessed Gu Tongwan's intention at once. She became very excited and leaned forward. "Are you planning to open an online store? Are you not going to open a branch store?"

"We will probably open branches. By then, there will be one on the ground and one in the underground city. That will be enough for two stores. We can also sell some vegetables online. I saw that some online stores have started to be set up on the forum. Although the scale is not large, I feel that the Internet will definitely get better and better in the future. Maybe in the next two or three years, the scope of the Internet will be expanded to cities outside Jiangcheng.

"You can start running an online store right now. A shopping section has recently been opened on the forum. You can think of it as a simplified version of Taobao. Everything is sold there, but currently it only supports door-to-door pickup after purchase. I think we can start this way, and then cooperate with the logistics side when logistics gradually improves in the future."

"Then I'll leave this matter to you. As for the dividends, we'll take a commission, 70% of the online store's turnover." Gu Tongwan made a decision quickly.

Liao Yunyun blinked and said in surprise, "This is too much. I just contributed some manpower, 10% is enough for me to earn. I surf the Internet every night anyway, so it's just a side job. 30% is really too much."

"It's okay. Online operations are not easy either. We relied on you to help promote it in the early stages. And if the online sales exceed the offline sales, you will have made an indelible contribution. I think 30% is reasonable. Don't shirk your responsibility."

It was indeed not easy to run an online store before the end of the world. Although Liao Yunyun made it sound easy, it was very likely that she would spend the entire night taking orders and replying to messages from various customers.

"Okay, if you trust me with this matter, just leave it to me. I will start preparing for the preliminary work tonight." Liao Yunyun looked very motivated.

"You don't need to be so anxious. You can start preparing after the Lantern Festival. I haven't decided what products to put on the shelves yet. And I plan to get some products from the wanderer base outside the base. It all depends on the weather conditions."

"It's okay. I'll design the sections of the online store first. When the goods are put on the shelves, I can just set the prices and pictures. It will be much easier to deal with the early things now. But I may need to borrow your laptop."

Seeing Liao Yunyun's eagerness to try, Gu Tongwan couldn't persuade her, so he pointed to the notebook on the coffee table and said, "Then use this one. You can take it home and use it later. Don't you always complain that the notebook at home can cause irregular menstruation?"

"Then I won't be polite with you. After all, this is for work, so a laptop with good performance should be better." Liao Yunyun smiled, then sat on the sofa with the laptop in her arms and started typing.

Gu Tongwan sent Cai Min information about the cooperation. After all, if she wanted to expand her business in the future, she couldn't rely entirely on the goods in her own space. If she could cooperate with Cai Min, things would go much more smoothly in the future.

Wanderer Base Camp

Cai Min had just crawled out of the cellar outside the yard, holding two frozen cabbages in her arms.

She rubbed her stiff waist and looked up at the still gloomy weather. The few snowflakes falling from the sky touched her cheeks and she shivered immediately because of the cold.

Cai's mother shouted from inside the house through the window: "Xiao Min, did you get the cabbage?"

"Got it." Cai Min replied.

Cai's mother was knitting a sweater. The weather had been dozens of degrees below zero recently, and the winter clothes at home were not enough. In addition, there was no way to go out recently, so Cai's mother planned to knit a sweater for each family member. Adding one more piece of clothing would make them a little warmer.

"Come back as soon as you get it. It's so cold outside. Don't catch a cold and get sick." Cai's mother was worried that her daughter would stay outside for too long, so she kept muttering a few words to her.

Cai Min patted the dirt off her body, holding at least 15 kilograms of cabbage in one hand. This was the smallest cabbage. There were other large cabbages weighing 15 kilograms each in the cellar. These cabbages were purchased from Gu Tongwan last summer. At that time, she secretly left a lot of them in the cellar for her family. Thinking about it now, she is still glad of her idea. At least there are still more than 200 kilograms of cabbage and more than 100 kilograms of potatoes in the cellar, plus the pumpkins and winter melons planted in the fields when the extreme cold came, so at least their family is not short of food.

Cai's father was chopping firewood in the yard. All the firewood was bought from another place that specialized in selling wood. During the hottest period of summer, Cai's father bought several hundred kilograms of firewood at once in order to save money. At that time, his family members complained about him buying so much firewood at once. After all, there were gas stoves in the base camp at that time, and most families would choose gas stoves. Unless the family conditions did not allow it, they would walk several kilometers to the nearby small forest to chop firewood.

The Cai family has always used a gas stove, mainly because burning wood produces too much smoke and is labor-intensive, and the temperature is difficult to control. Therefore, only Cai's father likes to make a small charcoal stove in the yard. When he has nothing to do, he burns some firewood in it to make some noodles or rice porridge. Moreover, the cellar in the yard is very large, and the stored food cannot fill the entire cellar. Therefore, Cai's father simply dismantles all the food he bought and throws it in another corner. Not only that, during the hottest period of time, because the harvest in the fields was poor, Cai's father felt bored with nothing to do at home, so he stared at the scorching sun and ran to the nearby forest to pick up a lot of dry branches, which he transported back on a motorcycle every day. Occasionally, when Cai Min was not at home, he would ask his son-in-law to drive a van and follow him. In this way, the cellar was soon filled with the dry branches he brought back, and he even had a big fight with Cai's mother for this.

But after the extreme cold, the firewood from Cai's father came in handy, especially after the price of gas increased several times and charcoal was basically monopolized by some large suppliers. The firewood bought by Cai's father can be said to have made the Cai family's winter much better to a certain extent.

The firewood that Cai's father bought was all dry firewood, which could actually be burned directly, and the charcoal formed after burning could still be used. But the only downside was that the smoke was too heavy when burning the firewood at the beginning, so cooking could only be done in the yard.

"Dad, has the nearest firewood been burned halfway?" Cai Min saw Father Cai skillfully chopping off a large piece of wood with an axe. The pile of firewood scattered on the ground probably weighed about fifty or sixty kilograms.

Mr. Cai was only wearing a black sweater. Since he did physical work, he always had heat in his body, so he didn't feel too cold even without wearing an outer coat.

"Almost. The remaining firewood should be able to produce a few hundred kilograms of charcoal, which should be enough to last for another 20 days." Father Cai said thoughtfully with his eyes narrowed.

Cai Min knew that the family had been consuming a lot of charcoal during this period. After all, the heating stove had to keep burning charcoal to heat the house. Otherwise, once the temperature dropped, the temperature in the house would not be able to be maintained. If this continued for a long time, the family would suffer from various illnesses due to the low temperature.

"Just now I saw Sanyuan next door go out and said there was charcoal for sale at the village entrance, but the price was a bit high. He asked us if we wanted to buy some. I asked him to call me when he came back. If the price isn't too outrageous, we can stock up some more at home." said Cai's father.

"The price will definitely be high. Is there any need to think about it? There are no trees that can be cut down in the nearby forests. The only source of wood is the big forest in the north. However, that place is the habitat of various mutant beasts, and ordinary people can't get close to it. In addition, it is not easy to go out because of the weather. The last time charcoal was sold, it seemed that 81 kilograms were sold. Our family can't afford it at this price." Cai Min had thought about buying more charcoal to stockpile, but the fact is that the price of charcoal has been rising at this stage, so many households have strictly controlled the time of charcoal burning, such as adding only two hours at night, so that people can fall asleep, and then find a way to grit their teeth and endure after being woken up by the cold in the second half of the night.

Although the wanderer base camp has electricity, some well-off families in the base camp have begun to use various home appliances. Some people can afford to use air conditioners in winter, but in such weather, the heat from the air conditioners is simply not enough to withstand the cold. It is not as warm as a family gathering around a heating stove to warm themselves.

The father and daughter were still chatting when a voice interrupted their conversation.

"Uncle Cai, I just went to the village entrance to ask, and the price of charcoal is now 85 yuan per catty. This price is really too expensive, so I only bought five catties." The Sanyuan family is about thirty or forty meters away from the Cai family. Normally, the relationship between the two families is pretty good. During the Chinese New Year, the Sanyuan family gave some of their extra pancakes to the Cai family. Of course, the Cai family also reciprocated and could not take other people's things for free, so they also gave the Sanyuan family two large cabbages.

After hearing that the price of charcoal had risen again, Cai Min said to his father, "Look, our family really can't afford this charcoal. It used to be only 21 jin, but now it has more than quadrupled. I think we can sell it for more than 100 points per jin tomorrow."

"Xiao Min, your cell phone seemed to ring just now, come in and take a look." Seeing that her daughter had not returned to the room for a long time, Cai's mother raised her voice and shouted.