Chapter 44: Chapter 44: Acquiring a Store
 

After Su Jin and Lu Hao moved here, Mr. Su, Mrs. Su, and their aunt and uncle’s families successively relocated as well.

Li Xiuying and Lin Yunguo were overjoyed, bustling with activity in the house every day, which made the elderly couple very happy.

Aside from the elders, Mao Qiqi was also thrilled. She loved being with her family, and although she used to visit her grandma’s often, it was different now. She could stay here every night, and Lin Tianzhen and Mao Zhihang had even arranged for her to have a long vacation so she could often play flying chess with her family.

The neighbors in the nearby alleys knew a bit about the moving situation. However, they were also aware that the Lin family loved to stir things up, gathering daily either for meals or to travel together— always a large group wherever they went.

While they were envious, not every family was like the Lin family.

Moreover, the Lin family seemed to be on some sort of spree, fortifying and raising the yard walls significantly, topped with cement and large iron nails. These days, who still breaks in to rob?

Su Xiangmei knew about this too. Since her fallout with this family last time, she dared not come over anymore.

That day, Lin Xiuyuan was hauling a bunch of parcels, preparing to transfer them to the storage when he saw a woman sneakily crouching near the warehouse, seemingly trying to peek through the gap beneath the rolling door.

“Who are you, sneaking around under our house? What are you looking at?” Lin Xiuyuan shouted as he ran over.

Su Xiangmei was terrified, inherently guilty as a thief. She took the opportunity when no one was around to check what this family had stored inside, but before she could see clearly, she was caught red-handed.

Seeing that it was Lin Xiuyuan approaching, she was less afraid— after all, she and this family had already fallen out.

“Oh, it’s you, kid. I dropped something into this door gap and came looking for it. What’s wrong with that?” Su Xiangmei blurted out a lie.

“Who drops something into someone else’s door? I think you just wanted to steal!” Lin Xiuyuan was furious. The stuff in this warehouse had been painstakingly gathered by his family, whether Su Xiangmei was curious or had other intentions, he wouldn’t allow it.

“You! Who wants your crappy stuff anyway, it’s just some bags of food inside, I see what you can make out of it!”

Su Xiangmei said as she ran back. She realized Lin Xiuyuan was very angry, and as a passionately upset teenager, what if he hit her in a fit of rage? It’s just a storage house, what’s so special about it?

After she had gone far, Lin Xiuyuan finally opened the warehouse door and put the stuff inside. He looked into the warehouse, where the originally empty large rooms were now packed by his family layer by layer. Even the second floor was stuffed without a sliver of space left, and he wondered how Su Jin managed to do it.

During dinner, he mentioned this incident to his family. Everyone was upset after hearing about it; the warehouse was supposed to protect their lives, and they didn’t know what Su Xiangmei was up to now.

Su Xiangzhe was so angry he couldn’t even eat. He took out his phone to call this “wonderful” sister to see what she was plotting.

Su Jin took the phone from him, not allowing Su Xiangzhe to make the call.

“Don’t worry, the warehouse is huge, and there’s so much stuff inside, she won’t dare to touch it anytime soon. Leave this matter to me and Lu Hao, let’s eat!” Su Jin comforted everyone. It seemed that emptying the warehouse needed to be scheduled soon.

Lu Guanhai sighed, not daring to breach the subject that Space could store things. Xiao Jin had said that she would tell everyone when the time was right, so he had no choice but to take a bite of food to stop his mouth, worried that one day he might accidentally spill the beans and ruin his son and daughter-in-law’s plan.

“Xiao Hao, I hear you’re going to work tomorrow?” Lin Yunguo asked. He actually wanted Lu Hao to quit his job like Su Jin, but Lu Hao seemed not to be considering it.

“Yes, Grandpa, I have some brothers in my team, I’m going to check on them,”

Lu Hao spoke while eating. If possible, he wanted to bring those brothers along; they had shared life and death troubles, and he couldn’t bear to watch them sacrifice.

Su Jin also agreed. She had met the people in Lu Hao’s team and thought they were quite decent. Moreover, having survived the Apocalypse, she was well aware that having a few more young and strong people in a team was a good thing rather than a bad one.

During this time, everyone in the family had also enhanced their physique a lot. Su Jin had contributed all the chicken and duck eggs from her Space, insisting everyone eat at least one egg per day to boost their protein intake, including milk and lean meat, which were essential for strengthening their immune system.

Zombies were a type of virus that invaded the human body, and those who awakened Special Abilities or had not been infected were generally people with strong immunity. The elderly and children with weak immune defense were almost all infected.

Even Nie Qing felt he had gained some weight recently. The clothes Su Jin had bought him from the street stalls at the beginning were now tight.

Previously, he had hardly exercised due to his binge-watching habits. He decided to join the family in their exercise regime from tomorrow.

After dinner, the family sat together and went through their finances. Each of them still had some money left unspent. Previously, they always felt money was tight, but now they felt they had money with nowhere to spend it.

After some calculations, including the money from selling several houses and their savings, along with what Su Jin had left, they still had seven million unspent!

Were they this wealthy originally?

They were really local tycoons!

But then, it made sense, considering it also included the four million that Guo Yang had initially given. However, spending all seven million was not easy, and there was only a week left according to Su Jin’s calculations.

“Xiao Jin, why don’t we just buy some stores outright?” Mao Zhihang suddenly suggested.

If they bought things, it would take both time and space. Their storage was already overflowing, and even the yard was filled with goods. But if they bought a few stores outright, it would be much quicker. Even if it cost a bit more, they wouldn’t have to worry about storage space for their goods.

Su Jin’s eyes lit up. That was a great idea!

Lin Tianhui, Lin Tianzhen, and Huang Yunxiang all agreed eagerly. They didn’t want to shop anymore; they were sick of it after this past half-month.

The rest also agreed, thinking it was an excellent plan. Everyone praised Mao Zhihang.

Mao Zhihang had been a businessman and had made a fortune with Lin Tianzhen when he was young, then they had leased out their store. Over the years, they had made small investments, so he was more experienced in this area than the others. However, he felt somewhat embarrassed by everyone’s compliments.

“Uncle-in-law, do you have any stores in mind that are currently up for transfer?” Su Jin asked.

“I know of a few, but they are quite small. Even if we bought them all, it might not use up the seven million,” replied Mao Zhihang.

Mao Zhihang knew a few small business owners, but they weren’t big deals, so they still needed to find more stores.

“Then let’s split up and start tomorrow. Let’s look for stores that are interested in transferring, observe the amount of stock they have, as our target is the goods inside the stores, not the stores themselves. The more inventory, the better. Once we settle on a few, we can decide together which ones to buy. How does that sound?”

After Su Jin finished, everyone nodded continuously. Lin Tianhui elbowed Su Xiangzhe next to her and whispered, “Hey, have you noticed our daughter is starting to show more leadership?” She used to be too lazy to come up with ideas.”

“You overthink things. Xiao Jin has always been a smart kid; you just didn’t notice,” proud of his daughter, Su Xiangzhe said.

The decision to acquire the stores was easily settled. However, since Lu Hao had to work tomorrow, Su Jin decided to act together with Mao Zhihang and the others.