Ch 30: My Multiverse Supermarket

The sudden appearance of the supermarket—and the membership card that was worth far more than the Orka she’d exchanged—felt like a ray of dawn breaking through the darkness, illuminating the hopeless depths of Lin Jianshan’s heart.

“I want to buy eggs,” Lin Jianshan said, handing her freshly issued membership card to Zhou Li.

“Take whatever you need,” Zhou Li told her. “Then check out at the self-service register.”

Lin Jianshan picked out a few eggs. Beside them was a clear white box, and she guessed it was meant for packing, so she carefully lifted one and gently placed the eggs inside.

Each box fit exactly eight eggs.

When she finished paying, Lin Jianshan murmured in awe, “This is incredible… Boss, did you deliberately design your supermarket to look like Blue Star’s 21st-century stores?”

Zhou Li: …

Instead, she asked, “So what kind of design wouldn’t look old-fashioned to you?”

Thinking Zhou Li was teasing her, Lin Jianshan hurried to explain, “I didn’t mean it looks outdated. I meant this style feels nostalgic.”

“You don’t look like someone who lived in the 21st century.”

“The orphanage—Tzu Chi House—used to look just like this,” Lin Jianshan replied.

The eggs she’d bought stirred in her a desire to share, and so she began to tell Zhou Li about the orphanage’s history.

Tzu Chi House had been built during the early immigration era.

Back then, when the first wave of Blue Star settlers came to mine orka, many of them married and had children here. Translated on Hololo novels. But accidents and illnesses were common, leaving many children without parents.

So the city government built an orphanage in each district to shelter them.

When the architects designed the buildings, they deliberately blended elements from various 21st-century styles of different Blue Star nations.

That aesthetic had endured for over a century.

Then, about ten years ago, a massive fire destroyed two-thirds of Tzu Chi House.

The government rebuilt it—but the original style was never fully restored.

Zhou Li understood why Lin Jianshan felt nostalgic.

It reminded her of the fire that had ravaged the Notre Dame Cathedral back on Blue Star—rebuilt, yes, but never quite the same.

Casually, Zhou Li asked, “Are you a staff member there?”

The faint smile on Lin Jianshan’s face dimmed.

“I grew up there,” she said.

“I see… Sorry.”

“But I suppose I am a staff member now,” Lin Jianshan continued.

After the disaster struck, Tzu Chi House was shut down. The city’s finances couldn’t sustain so many children, so the government told the orphanage to fend for itself.

The director reached out to the wealthy, persuading them to “adopt” the children by offering them jobs.

By law, the minimum working age was sixteen.

The director lowered it to twelve.

The rich told outsiders they were taking in children out of charity—but in truth, they were hiring them as domestic servants.

The wealthy preferred household robots, but robots weren’t as adaptable as humans.

Servants could survive on one meal a day, while a robot without its daily charge would simply stop working.

And with orka in short supply, malfunctioning machines were becoming common, so employing children was cheaper.

After sending the children away, the director dismissed the staff and closed the orphanage.

But the children’s lives in those households were far from good.

A year ago, an abuse scandal broke out in the Liberty District, where a rich family had mistreated “adopted” children.

The government launched a full investigation, uncovering years of similar cases.

The abusers were arrested, and the children were sent back to the orphanage.

The director was imprisoned.

With no funding or assets, the orphanage became an empty shell. No one wanted to take over.

By chance, the unemployed Lin Jianshan and Ting Linzhi returned to the orphanage.

Seeing that someone was at least caring for the rescued children, and with the world growing more unstable by the day, the city officials quietly chose to overlook the fact that the two women had occupied the building without permits.

Since then, Lin Jianshan and Ting Linzhi had scraped by—working odd jobs, collecting rations from City Hall—barely managing to keep everyone alive.

But as things worsened, even the shops that once hired day laborers vanished overnight.

And the government’s food relief grew scarcer by the week…

…

Zhou Li thought, No wonder she tried to pick the lock in the middle of the night. Life really left her no choice.

She asked, “Why did you decide to take over the orphanage?”

“Because Tzu Chi House is my home,” Lin Jianshan said. “I have nowhere else to go.”

“But those children aren’t your responsibility.”

Had anyone else said that, Lin Jianshan would have bristled at their tone.

But coming from the woman who had sold her eggs—the kindhearted store owner—it didn’t sound harsh at all.

“They’re my siblings,” she said quietly. “Zihua, Shuling, Xingji… We grew up together. I can’t just stand by and watch them starve.”

Zhou Li smiled faintly but said nothing.

Lin Jianshan started toward the door, but at the threshold, she hesitated.

Her gaze lingered on the shelves—so many things she could buy, yet she didn’t dare.

That remaining balance of a little over a hundred yuan wasn’t much. She had to choose carefully.

If she didn’t buy now, what if everything was gone next time?

Even though this wasn’t a wealthy district, the locals still had decent purchasing power.

Zhou Li suddenly said, “There’s a purchase limit—three items per person per day.”

Lin Jianshan blinked, startled, wondering if Zhou Li had some kind of mind-reading device.

She looked down at the eggs in her arms—technically more than three items—and then back up at Zhou Li.

“One box of eggs counts as a single item,” Zhou Li said.

“Thank you.”

Clutching the carton tightly, Lin Jianshan dashed off.

She had to hurry back and bring Ting Linzhi over before any of the nearby residents discovered this miraculous supermarket.

By the time Lin Jianshan returned to Tzu Chi House, Ting Linzhi and the half-grown children were already awake.

After going an entire day and night without food, the children could no longer hold back their tears when they heard there was nothing to eat.

But seeing the wound on Sister Linzhi’s head, they swallowed their cries.

Sister Linzhi was already struggling—they couldn’t add to her burden.

If there was anyone to blame, it was their own weakness. They hadn’t been strong enough to protect the food from those scavengers.

“Where’s Sister Jianshan?” one child asked.

Ting Linzhi tried to shake her head, but she was too weak.

Though her wound was bandaged and no longer bleeding, she wasn’t sure whether her brain had been affected—her head spun, her vision blurred, her stomach churned, and the room seemed to grow colder by the second.

“Sister Linzhi, what’s wrong?” the children cried as they noticed something was off.

“Her face is burning!”

“I’ll find medicine!”

“I’ll look for Sister Jianshan!”

The children divided up the tasks, running in all directions.

But before they could get far, Lin Jianshan appeared at the door.

“Sister Jianshan! Something’s wrong! Sister Linzhi is sick!”

Her face drained of color. She hurried back into the kitchen.

Ting Linzhi was lying on the floor, wrapped in several blankets. The fireplace beside her had already gone cold.

“What’s wrong?” Lin Jianshan asked anxiously.

“Probably an infection,” Ting Linzhi said weakly. “I just need some fever medicine.”

“You can’t just take random pills. You need a clinic.”

Ting Linzhi almost laughed.

A clinic? They didn’t even have money for food.

She had just turned eighteen—no longer eligible for free medical care. No doctor would treat her for free.

“There’s a way,” Lin Jianshan said suddenly, her mind racing.

Yes! She had an idea.

They didn’t have much money left, but they could still buy something from the supermarket and trade it at the clinic for treatment.

Before the disaster, no legitimate clinic would have accepted such barter.

But now… as long as what you offered was valuable, the doctors were willing to make private deals.

Lin Jianshan handed the box of eggs to a girl about thirteen or fourteen. “Zihua, boil these and share them with everyone.”

“Eggs!?”

The children’s eyes went wide. Their mouths watered as they stared at the box.

It had been so long since they’d last had eggs!

Once, the government’s relief food had included eggs and milk. Later, it was reduced to potatoes and corn porridge.

Now, it was just coarse rye bread—or rather, not even that anymore.

They missed the taste of eggs so much that a single one could fill them for half a day.

Ting Linzhi’s eyes widened. “Eggs? You didn’t—” steal from the supermarket, she almost said, but bit the words back so the children wouldn’t hear.

“I bought them,” Lin Jianshan said quickly. “I found three Orka coins behind the cabinet in the director’s office and exchanged them at the supermarket…”

Ting Linzhi frowned. “One and seven-tenths Orka bought that many eggs?”

“I know it sounds unbelievable, but the Orka seems really valuable there. If you don’t believe me, come with me—we’ll buy more things, and then I’ll take you to the clinic.”

After a moment’s hesitation, Ting Linzhi nodded.

She forced herself up, and with Lin Jianshan’s help, they left for the supermarket—leaving the children behind.

Lin Jianshan assigned chores before they left. “Zihua, cook and share the eggs. Xingji, gather more firewood. Shuling, clean the orphanage and look for any more Orka coins you can find.”

The mention of eggs brightened their spirits immediately. They obeyed without question.

By the time Lin Jianshan and Ting Linzhi reached the supermarket again, other residents had already discovered it.

The mysterious owner was explaining the same exchange system she had told Lin Jianshan before.

Then, as Zhou Li was distracted, one man tried to slip a stolen item out the door.

A sudden change occurred.

He was struck down by an invisible force—punished instantly.

The scene made Lin Jianshan think of an experiment she had once seen in an educational hologram: scientists on Blue Star had sealed test subjects in a clear chamber, then pumped the air out…

She didn’t know what the experiment was meant to prove, but the punishment here resembled it—except that there was no glass chamber in sight.

“Good thing you didn’t do anything foolish,” Ting Linzhi murmured.

Otherwise, she would have been the one punished.

Lin Jianshan shuddered. That could have been her.

But the more she saw, the more convinced she became—the supermarket owner must be from Blue Star.

Only Blue Star’s technology could build a three-story building overnight without anyone noticing.

The children she had asked earlier swore there had been nothing on that empty lot during the day.

That meant the supermarket had appeared after dark.

From dusk until their return, only four hours had passed.

*

Inside the supermarket.

The thief, clutching his arm where the invisible force had struck him, stormed out. “You assaulted me! I’ll report you! The guards will shut this place down!”

Zhou Li smiled lazily. “Go ahead. Use those dog eyes of yours and see whether my supermarket shuts down or not.”

Her calm, almost mocking tone crushed his bluster completely.

The onlookers who had witnessed everything murmured among themselves.

“The owner must have powerful connections.”

“Yeah—who else would dare open a supermarket these days?”

Author’s Note

Lin Jianshan: Boss, you really are from Blue Star, aren’t you!?

Zhou Li: Well… yes, actually—I am from Blue Star. (Earth, to be exact.)

☢️☢️☢️