vstars Chapter 502 Receiving Goods at Dawn
Chapter 502 Receiving Goods at Dawn
Early the next morning.
Three knocks on the door, not loud, but rhythmic.
Xu Xiaoyan suddenly opened her eyes in the darkness. Her pupils couldn't capture any light the moment her eyelids opened. The room was still dark, and not a sliver of moonlight could get through the small, dusty window in the attic.
She reached for her phone, and the screen lit up, displaying the time: 4:47 AM.
It's 4:50 in three minutes, the delivery guy is really punctual.
Three more knocks, slightly more urgent than before, probably because they hadn't heard any movement after a while and assumed no one was inside the shop.
"Coming!" Xu Xiaoyan shouted out the window, quickly crawling out of bed. Her feet touched the cold cement floor, making her toes twitch.
She found the bottom of the stairs and went downstairs.
The stairs creaked and groaned under her feet the whole way, but she didn't care at all. After all, at this hour, those making breakfast should all be up.
She opened the combination lock on the roller shutter door, pressed the buttons a few times, and the latch clicked open.
She pushed the roller shutter up a little, only to waist height, then bent down and crawled out.
Standing outside the door was a middle-aged man in blue overalls, of medium build, wearing a gray baseball cap with the brim pulled low, covering most of his forehead and eyes.
Only the lower half of his face could be seen; his lips were somewhat chapped, and the stubble on his chin was not cleanly shaved, with a few white hairs.
She was carrying three plastic bags, each a different color: one white and two transparent.
The words "Qing City Trading Center Distribution" were embroidered on the left chest of the blue overalls. The font was small but clear, and it was the kind of neat, machine-embroidered Song typeface.
The cuffs of the work clothes were worn, and loose threads were sticking out from the seams, indicating that they had probably been worn for a long time.
Behind him was an electric tricycle with the same words printed on it as on his work clothes. Most of the goods waiting to be transported in the vehicle had already been unloaded.
"Ms. Xu?" the man asked, his voice hoarse and tired, likely due to chronic sleep deprivation.
"It's me," Xu Xiaoyan nodded.
The man placed the three bags on the ground by the door, then took a printed receipt out of his pocket and handed it to her.
The receipt is made of thermal paper, narrow and long, with slightly curled corners. The text on it is black and printed very clearly.
"Please check: 3 jin of rice, 3 jin of flour, 5 jin of fresh fish, 5 jin of vegetables, 100 disposable bamboo tableware, and a cash register (free)."
He didn't look at the receipt when he said those numbers, probably because he had already gone over the delivery information for this order in his mind many times.
Xu Xiaoyan took the receipt and quickly glanced at it.
Three jin of rice, three jin of flour, five jin of fresh fish, five jin of vegetables, and one hundred pieces of tableware—exactly the items she ordered on the website.
A cash register? Xu Xiaoyan looked up at the row of cash registers with a puzzled expression.
The middle-aged man explained, "For newly opened stores, the official website will provide a free cash register on the first day of ordering."
She nodded, squatted down, and opened the three bags to check.
The white bag contained a cash register and two bags of rice and noodles, packaged in a resealable plastic bag.
There were three crucian carp in the transparent bag, each about the size of a palm.
The third bag contained a bundle of garlic scapes, neatly stacked. She pinched the root, and it made a crisp "crack" sound, indicating that it was very juicy.
"No problem," she said.
"Okay, then please sign here." The man handed over a pen.
Xu Xiaoyan squatted at the door, placed the receipt on her knees, and wrote her name in the signature column of the receipt.
After she finished writing, she handed the receipt back.
The man took the receipt, glanced at it, folded it, and stuffed it into the breast pocket of his work clothes.
"I'm leaving," he said, turning around to get on his electric tricycle. With a turn of the handlebars, he disappeared silently into the night.
The tricycle's tires made almost no sound on the road, and it eventually turned into the direction of the trading center, disappearing from sight even with its taillights.
Xu Xiaoyan carried the three bags of supplies into the store, then stood up, grabbed the handle of the roller shutter door, and pulled it down, closing the door quickly.
She relocked the combination lock and put the three bags directly into her spatial storage.
After doing all that, she yawned, went upstairs to the bathroom, took out her toothbrush, towel, and basin, and began brushing her teeth and washing her face.
After washing up, she took out two steaming hot cabbage and pork buns from her spatial storage. She took a bite, and the crispness of the cabbage and the savory aroma of the pork filling burst in her mouth.
The broth seeped into the inner layer of the dough, turning it a light brown color. When you bite into it, the broth will squeeze out from the dough fibers.
She chewed slowly, finishing the first bite one by one, and quickly picked up the second one.
After eating two steamed buns, my stomach felt full, and I felt warm all over from the inside out.
After eating and drinking her fill, Xu Xiaoyan took off her coat and crawled back into bed.
She turned over, facing the wall, and closed her eyes.
When I woke up again, my phone screen showed: 11:47.
Xu Xiaoyan stretched, pulled her arm out from under the blanket, raised it above her head, spread her fingers, and made a slight cracking sound from her knuckles.
She peered out the window; the layer of ash on the glass was even more noticeable in the sunlight, but she could still see what was outside.
Qing City is completely different during the day and at night; the alley downstairs becomes incredibly lively.
The noodle shop owner had already set up the pot for cooking noodles at the door. The water in the pot was boiling, and white steam was rising from the pot.
The grocery store was also open, as several boxes of drinks and snacks were displayed at the entrance.
The proprietress was sitting on a small stool shelling edamame, her fingers flying quickly as she squeezed the beans out of the pods, the beans falling into the enamel basin at her feet with a series of "tap-tap" sounds.
Her apron was covered in bits of edamame pods, and her fingernails were stained green by the pods.
Faint broadcasts came from the direction of the trading center in the distance. The content was not clear, but a woman's voice could be heard announcing the day's fish prices.
Xu Xiaoyan changed into clean clothes and went downstairs. The clothes were light gray cotton T-shirts, the fabric was soft and didn't feel stiff against her skin like the windbreaker.
"Crucian carp...garlic sprouts..." she muttered the two names, and suddenly an idea came to her mind.
Her space contained sausages, the kind with a white casing and where you could see the alternating layers of fat and lean meat when you cut them open.
She obtained those sausages by trading them for instant noodles when she passed by a small base.
The savory aroma of sausage and the sweetness of garlic shoots, enhanced by a few dried chilies, paired with a bowl of steaming white rice, make for a delicious stir-fried sausage with garlic shoots.
"This is what we'll have for lunch today," Xu Xiaoyan said with a long-lost joy in her voice.