The supermarket incident was just a small detour. After it was over, Sū Shū didn't dwell on it and bought whatever she needed. The trunk of the car was filled with her purchases, including items Xiǎo Ài picked out in addition to her own, and they were all taken home. After arriving home, she sorted all the items into different categories and then placed her laptop on the coffee table in the living room. With Xiǎo Ài engrossed in a game beside her, Sū Shū proceeded to place orders online one by one.
Among all the items, Xiǎo Ài's snacks appeared to be numerous, but in reality, they only accounted for a quarter of the total. Most of the items were food she had selected herself, particularly canned goods that were suitable for long-term storage and had long expiration dates. She carefully chose many varieties, taking one box of each.
As for the milk powder she wanted, when she initially considered buying it, she only thought about Xiǎo Ài's age. However, as she browsed, she saw other mothers also picking out various kinds of milk powder and infant foods. A thought struck her: these items would likely be very difficult to produce in the future, so it would be better to stock up a bit more. Perhaps they would be useful later on.
And so, she selected dozens of items, ranging from large to small, over fifty or sixty varieties. For each item, she took at most two boxes, almost one of each type.
On the online shopping pages, the goods were dazzling. For items that couldn't be found in local markets, Sū Shū directly placed orders for them by the carton. As for the items available in local markets, she made a separate list, planning to visit the farmer's market tomorrow.
Initially, she had intended to order everything online. But later, she realized that this was too risky. Suddenly accumulating such a large quantity of goods and leaving a record online – would it become trouble in the future? It was hard to say. Therefore, after much thought, it was safer to purchase directly from the farmer's market. Or, if she had enough time, she might even go to the countryside to procure them, though she wasn't sure if she'd be successful.
Sū Shū was methodical in her approach. She divided all the items into three categories: those she could purchase online, those available at the local market, and those she planned to go to the countryside to look for when she had time.
It took her an hour to place all the online orders for the first category; she just had to wait for delivery in a few days. The list for market purchases was also neatly handwritten, and she planned to go first thing tomorrow morning. As for the countryside procurement, she would put that aside for now.
Xiǎo Ài got tired of playing and climbed onto the sofa to sleep on her own.
Finished with her work, Sū Shū stretched. She glanced back at the sleeping Xiǎo Ài, her eyes filled with tenderness.
Even if the apocalypse arrived, she would strive to ensure Xiǎo Ài wouldn't suffer hardship with her.
Among the online orders, one-third consisted of various instant noodles, along with some military rations. She had researched reviews of military rations online and selected the three types with the highest ratings, ordering ten cases of each initially. As for instant noodles, her usual choices were braised beef, spicy mala, and three or four other flavors. She ordered ten cases of each of these. The remaining flavors amounted to about four or five cases.
This was the first batch of long-shelf-life items; she planned to purchase a large quantity through multiple small orders. She also procured hard-to-find seasonings, food items, and daily necessities online.
All the items were prepared with survival during the apocalypse in mind. During a period of frequent disasters and human-caused calamities, many things were crucial, such as consumables that couldn't be produced – the more she used, the less there would be. So, she would stock up on these.
For items that could be exchanged with others later on, she didn't prepare as much. She had checked her spatial storage. Besides the bedroom where she slept, the two adjacent storage rooms were each only about sixty square meters, not very large. She figured one would be for food, and the other for self-defense items and tools.
Hmm, what else should she procure?