Ch 46: My Multiverse Supermarket

Modern Main Plane

Not long after Zhou Li returned to the Earth plane, she heard the familiar sound of roosters crowing.

After a full day of work and now back in the peace of home, a wave of drowsiness washed over her. She lay down and fell asleep almost instantly.

She slept until after nine in the morning.

Still yawning when she woke, she heard a noisy commotion downstairs. Without even bothering with breakfast, she quickly washed up, changed clothes, and went down.

In front of her shop, a few half-grown kids were crowding around the vending machines.

If she hadn’t recognized them as village kids, Zhou Li might have thought she was still in the interstellar plane, next to the Tzu Chi House.

“It’s almost ten. Shouldn’t you be at school?” Zhou Li asked.

“It’s Saturday,” one of them replied.

Zhou Li smacked her forehead.

That was one of the downsides of plane travel.

With different time flows, her sense of time had become fuzzy. She could barely remember what month it was, let alone what day of the week.

“Why haven’t you opened the shop yet?” one kid asked.

“Because it’s Saturday,” Zhou Li said. “I slept in.”

The kids giggled. “You’re so lazy, the sun’s already shining on your butt.”

These little troublemakers were all being raised by grandparents and had gotten familiar with Zhou Li from coming to buy snacks, so they spoke without restraint.

Zhou Li didn’t take offense. “Have you finished your homework yet? If not, you’re even lazier than I am.”

The kids, struck in their weak spot, quickly changed the subject and pointed at the vending machines. “Are these things broken? We can’t buy anything.”

“They broke right after leaving the other world?” Zhou Li muttered.

The system explained, “The vending machines’ payment and authentication systems haven’t been switched over to this plane yet.”

The first time the vending machines were used, they had been configured for members of the supermarket in the other world.

Since the village kids didn’t have membership cards, they couldn’t buy anything.

Zhou Li said, “So I have to switch it manually?”

“The rules of one plane don’t automatically apply to another. For example, the payment system: the other plane only accepts supermarket balance or points, but this one can unlock cash, QR code, or membership payments.”

“Let me try,” Zhou Li said eagerly. “Teach me how to change it.”

Tying her hair into a bun with the elastic from her wrist, she got to work adjusting the vending machine’s settings for the Earth plane.

“First, remove the three-item purchase limit. Then unlock cash and QR code payments. Since there are no members here, hide the membership option. The mini program’s already ready and synced with the system, so enable online preorders…”

Once done, Zhou Li said to the kids, “Try it now.”

They crowded around the screen. “Where’s the spicy sticks?”

“You can use voice search,” Zhou Li told them.

“Whoa!” they shouted, as if discovering a new world.

“I want spicy sticks!”
“I want cola!”
“You can’t—Mom said no cola. Get coconut juice!”

The vending machine dispensed the first kid’s order: spicy sticks.

There weren’t many brands in stock, and none were famous. The taste was mediocre—but they were cheap.

The boy picked a pack he liked, spread out his paper money, and fed it into the slot.

A few seconds later, the dispenser popped open—a transparent compartment revealing his spicy sticks inside.

“My turn!” another kid shouted, squeezing forward.

“There’s another machine beside it. Go use that one,” Zhou Li said.

Seeing that her help was no longer needed, she turned to go make breakfast.

But as she turned, she noticed Mu Kun standing silently nearby, arms crossed, staring at the vending machine.

Zhou Li jumped. “Auntie Mu! When did you get here?”

“When you were fiddling with that machine,” Mu Kun replied. She stepped forward, tapped the machine, and asked, “How much did this cost? It’s so narrow—where’s all the stuff stored?”

“It’s a new model. Two of them cost a hundred thousand,” Zhou Li said, silently adding hundred thousand Orka.

Mu Kun gasped. “Why’d you buy something like this?”

Zhou Li had her excuse ready. “There’ve been too many online orders lately, and I’m too busy packing and delivering. With these, I don’t have to stand at the counter all day.”

“You young folks really are clever,” Mu Kun said approvingly, not missing the chance to take a jab. “Your mother should’ve handed the business to you long ago.”

Zhou Li wisely said nothing.

Noticing the noise from Mu Kun’s snail noodle shop, she asked casually, “Auntie Mu, are you doing renovations?”

“Just rearranging the kitchen,” Mu Kun said. “Cooking noodles and making breakfast need different setups. By the way, didn’t you say you’d help me sell breakfast items? The shop’s not finished, but I’ve already got the ingredients. We can start tomorrow morning.”

“Perfect timing,” Zhou Li said. “Since the vending machines freed up space, I’ll order a heated food display case right away.”

“Hold up,” Mu Kun said quickly. “No need to buy new. I know someone in the restaurant business whose place just went under—he’s selling off secondhand equipment: display cases, chillers, even soup warmers for hot pot. Want to come take a look?”

“Sure!” Zhou Li said.

“I’ll call him and tell him to hold them for us.”

Since the vending machines could handle sales even with the store closed, Zhou Li ate breakfast, then went with Mu Kun to the city to look at used equipment.

Her friend had run a fast-food shop—breakfast in the morning, rice dishes at lunch and dinner.

Later, he added a hotpot counter to make more money. Business was decent, but the rent kept rising, and all his profits went to the landlord.

Now he’d decided to close the shop and return to his hometown to sell cold dishes.

He said, “A double-stack, twelve-tier warmer—brand new ones cost ten thousand. Since you’re Mu Kun’s friend, I’ll give it to you for eight thousand.”

Zhou Li glanced at Mu Kun.

She, running a breakfast shop herself, would definitely know the real price.

“You’re calling it eighty-percent new just to be polite,” Mu Kun said bluntly. “And you still want eight thousand?”

Zhou Li thought, So direct—how does she even have friends?

But to her surprise, the man only gave an awkward laugh. “All right, six thousand eight.”

“Three thousand,” Mu Kun countered.

“Five thousand.”

Back and forth they went—no warmth, no friendship, only the fierce rhythm of bargaining.

In the end, Mu Kun got the warmer for thirty-five hundred.

The rest of the equipment was also bought at about forty percent of the original price.

As they left, Mu Kun explained, “Commercial appliances take heavy use, so secondhand ones can’t be priced too high—usually thirty to fifty percent of new.”

Zhou Li nodded, feeling she’d learned something new.

“Auntie Mu, I still need to stop by the wholesale market. You go on ahead.”

“Okay. Be careful out there.”

*

That night, Zhou Li had to travel to the ancient plane again, so she couldn’t wait for online orders. It was faster to buy wholesale in person.

Besides, constantly ordering from the same supplier might raise suspicion—and tempt them to jack up prices. Smaller factories couldn’t even produce as much as she needed.

So she was here to expand her procurement channels.

Though she lacked experience buying used equipment, she was a pro at bulk purchasing.

When her mother, Zhou Hao, used to visit the markets, she would sometimes take Zhou Li along.

Now Zhou Li compared vendors, bargained fiercely using the tricks she’d just learned from Mu Kun, and managed to buy a good stock of grains, oils, dry goods, and textiles.

Remembering that the refugees in the ancient plane were rebuilding houses, she went to a construction market to buy dozens of buckets of waterproofing, anti-corrosion, and anti-moisture paint, plus some color steel roofing sheets for her rented warehouse.

She also ordered several dozen new storage racks.

Once the roof was finished, she could start moving her inventory inside.

…

By the time she got home, the sky was growing dark.

The vending machines at the shop had become the villagers’ new attraction—whether they needed anything or not, everyone wanted to give them a try.

“Little Pear,” Aunt Rong asked, “does this machine have a name?”

“Huh? It’s just called a vending machine,” Zhou Li replied.

“No, I mean, it’s so smart—it’s got AI, right? Doesn’t it have a name? Like ‘Little Something’? Give it one! Then when we buy things, we can just call out to it.”

Zhou Li was about to say it didn’t have that function, but then asked the system, “Hey, does this machine have artificial intelligence?”

“With me here, who needs AI?” the system replied.

Zhou Li said to Aunt Rong, “Just call it ‘System.’”

“‘System’? That’s ugly. ‘Little Sys’ sounds better.”

Zhou Li burst out laughing.

Then, suddenly, a calm female electronic voice spoke from the vending machine: “Hello, customer. I am AI assistant Xiao Wan. What would you like to purchase?”

Aunt Rong turned to Zhou Li. “See? You don’t even know your own equipment. It’s clearly called Xiao Wan.”

Zhou Li: …

Xiao Wan? What the heck?

The system said smugly, “My full name is Ten Thousand Worlds Trading System.”

Aunt Rong cleared her throat and called out, “Xiao Wan, I want to buy a bottle of soy sauce.”

“Certainly,” the machine replied. “The supermarket carries the following soy sauce brands. Please select one, or say the name directly for faster results.”

Aunt Rong named a brand, scanned the code, and within seconds the soy sauce dropped into the slot.

“Quite convenient,” she said.

Seeing her demonstration, the other villagers eagerly followed suit.

Soon, a chorus of “Xiao Wan!” filled the air around the vending machines.

☢️☢️☢️