novelhk Chapter 148 Orders
Chapter 148 Orders
With a crisp "click," the new lock turned, and she slipped into the house, quickly locking the door from the inside. The room was pitch black, with only the faint, dark red glow of the embers in the stove casting blurry outlines of the furniture.
She groped her way to the back of the door, and by the dim light, found the electricity meter box and carefully inserted the brand-new electricity card into the slot.
A soft electronic beep sounded, followed by the old LED ceiling light on the roof flashing twice, steadily emitting a bright, even somewhat dazzling, white light that instantly dispelled the darkness in the room.
Finally, we have electricity.
The light brought a greater sense of security, but it also immediately exposed a problem—the thin, semi-transparent curtains on the windows revealed almost everything inside the room, especially if she were to retrieve something from her spatial storage…
Xu Xiaoyan frowned. It seemed that in addition to buying coal tomorrow, she would also need to get some thick, opaque blackout cloth. She made a mental note of it.
She found two large, dark-colored, thick wool scarves in the room, along with a few thumbtacks. Under the light, she deftly nailed the scarves layer by layer to the inner frame of the window, ensuring that there were no gaps for light to leak through. After doing all this, the room was finally transformed into a private space isolated from the outside world.
After heating the kang (heated brick bed) until it was warm, she took out a thick blanket and a fluffy down quilt and carefully spread them on the kang. With the kang, the cold nights would no longer be unbearable.
After finishing all that, she felt her stomach was empty and waves of hunger washed over her. She took out the vinegar chicken boxed lunch from her storage space and slowly enjoyed it. The vinegar chicken still tasted delicious. With one bite, the tangy sauce exploded in her mouth, relieving the fatigue and tension of the past few days.
After finishing her meal and quickly washing up, Xu Xiaoyan snuggled into the warm bed heated by the kang (heated brick bed). Thinking of Xie Yingtang and Wang Xiao, who had gone to the city earlier, she picked up her newly bought phone and opened the communication interface again.
On the screen, there was still only her lonely greeting message, which remained unread. The two of them probably hadn't accumulated enough points to buy the equipment, or they were busy looking for a place to stay. Xu Xiaoyan sighed silently.
With nothing else to do, she simply opened the official app of the base called "Linchuan Trading Forum" to browse around. But what she found opened the door to a whole new world for her, and she couldn't stop looking.
The app's functionality was far more powerful than she had imagined. It was not just an information bulletin board, but more like a highly integrated online survival community. It had various functional modules embedded in it, and it synchronized the prices and task information of all physical trading centers in real time. What was even more attractive was that there was an extremely active "free trading area" filled with privately posted buy and sell posts.
She browsed with great interest: some people were selling their own cabbages and radishes, so fresh and appealing to look at; others were selling their own chickens and ducks, which looked quite healthy; some were offering various handicraft services, from mending clothes to repairing tools; and still others were posting invitations to form teams to search for supplies...
Suddenly, a post caught her eye: "[Professional team, undertaking custom installation of all kinds of stainless steel sheds and guardrails, sturdy and durable, fair prices!]"
Upon seeing the words "steel shed," Xu Xiaoyan's heart skipped a beat. She immediately took out a flashlight and a measuring tape from her spatial storage, and tiptoed to the backyard. By the light of the flashlight, she carefully measured the length, width, and height of the backyard, as well as the height of the fence, and meticulously recorded every measurement.
Back inside the warm house, she immediately opened the chat interface of the user who posted the steel shed information, sent them the exact dimensions she had just measured, and then asked, "Hello, I want to build a completely enclosed stainless steel shed in my backyard, covering the entire backyard. How many points do I need?"
The other party replied quickly, seemingly always online: "Completely enclosed? That means a roof plus four-sided enclosure, which requires a lot of materials and labor. For your size, it would cost at least 15 points."
15 points! That's almost equivalent to her monthly rent. Xu Xiaoyan only hesitated for a moment before agreeing.
"Sure, could you arrange for someone to come and install it tomorrow morning?" she replied.
"No problem! We'll process your first order! We'll be there promptly at 8 AM tomorrow!"
Having received a positive response, Xu Xiaoyan no longer hesitated and immediately prepaid 15 points to her platform account through the APP's escrow transaction function. Only when she saw the system prompt "Waiting for seller confirmation to start service" did her tense nerves finally relax a bit.
There were two main reasons why she was in such a hurry to place the order. Firstly, the weather was visibly getting colder and she had to prepare to stock up on heating supplies as soon as possible. Secondly, her backyard was completely open, and the residents of the two-story house next door could see everything in her backyard just by standing at their second-floor windows, leaving her with no privacy or security whatsoever.
Once the stainless steel shed is built, the situation will be different. She requested that the entire backyard be enclosed to create a private space that cannot be seen from the outside. Then, she can safely pile up the coal she has purchased inside, even if it becomes a small mountain, without worrying about being seen by outsiders and thus avoiding unnecessary trouble or even danger.
Having solved the problem of privacy in the backyard, Xu Xiaoyan's thoughts immediately returned to stockpiling coal for heating. She picked up her phone again and entered the "Linchuan Trading Forum." Since this app was so convenient, why not check out the coal market now? She typed "coal" into the search bar at the top.
The page refreshed, and dozens of related sales and purchase posts immediately popped up. She clicked on several sales posts, and the sellers' prices were quite uniform, basically all priced at around 1 point for 1 ton of coal. On the other hand, looking at the purchase posts, the buyers' expected prices were much lower, generally hoping to buy 1.5 tons of coal with 1 point.
"Heh..." Xu Xiaoyan chuckled softly. This was all too obvious; it was a typical psychological game between the buyer and seller. The seller wanted to maintain a high price, while the buyer hoped to exchange their limited points for more coal. The 0.5-ton difference between them became an insurmountable chasm, causing the transaction to be delayed.
"It seems this can't be rushed," Xu Xiaoyan thought for a moment. She did need coal, but not in a hurry, because the construction of her stainless steel shed would take several days.
Even if she manages to buy coal in the next few days, piling it up in the open yard will surely attract attention. Rather than haggling with sellers who are sticking to their prices, she might as well wait passively for other sellers to make a move.