Chapter 36: Buying Vehicles
There were still around thirteen days left before the sudden incident that caused the end of the world in his previous life. After helping Nie Qing to settle down, Su Jin and Lu Hao found a channel to purchase an armored car. Of course, they have not informed their families about this at that point because they were planning to find an opportunity to place the car into the dimension after getting their hands on it.
Lu Hao was the one who found out where to purchase the armored car. Su Jin tagged along to take a look at the merchandise. Lu Hao had mentioned to this friend before that he needed to modify some areas on the car atop its foundation to make it more solid.
As such, Su Jin fell in love with the car at first sight. It was so cool!
The color of the car was matte black. Even the windows were black from the outside. As one was not able to see what the car looked like inside, it seemed like the car windows were one with the entire car.
The chassis of the car was quite high, making it convenient to drive on rural mountain roads and not having it stuck nor damaged.
The top of the car included a foldable roof rack where one could place things or even support a rooftop tent. There were even a few high beams installed on top of the windshield.
“How does it look, Captain Lu? Our T-Rex ain’t too bad, right?” A muscled man with a towel hung around his neck walked out from behind the car. It was clear that he was extremely proud of this car. Black motor oil was smeared on his sweaty face.
“Not bad, not bad at all, Banzi. Your technique is getting better every day,” Lu Hao was very happy with the car.
“Hey! That’s sister-in-law, right? Captain Lu, you sure are a lucky man,” the muscled man called Banzi looked at Su Jin and greeted her happily. He had wanted to shake Su Jin’s hand, but after noticing that both his hands were stained in black, he pulled his hand back awkwardly.
Su Jin did not mind at all. She greeted him politely and fussed over the car happily. A delighted Banzi opened the door to the driver’s seat and allowed both of them to try their hands behind the wheel.
Lu Hao drove a lap with the car. The engine was powerful and the noise was kept at a minimum. The wheels were wide, which was why the car was quite stable. He could not feel any bump at all when he drove over the road’s blockade.
Su Jin tried driving a lap too. This car was awesome. She was willing to buy every single stock of available cars like this.
“I say, Captain Lu, I thought this was for the police force but you wanted it for yourself. What’s going on? Are you taking a road trip with sister-in-law?” Banzi spoke his mind. His real name was Ban Xiaobo, but he thought it sounded too paltry and got everyone to call him Old Ban. For some reason, he began to be known as Banzi as time went by.
“Banzi, I have a use for this car. How many of these can you modify? I want all of them,” Lu Hao said decisively.
“What? Captain Lu, are you kidding me? Are you trying to declare yourself king or something?”
“I’m buying on behalf of others. Just let me know how many of these you’ve got.”
Lu Hao did not mind him being imaginative or blabbing about this. From his understanding of Ban Xiaobo, he would never let a business opportunity slip away.
Just as he expected, Banzi was excited about this. He made a call to confirm some details and immediately gave Lu Hao an answer. “Captain Lu, I’ve just confirmed this with the warehouse. We still have three cars just like this in the car yard. Tell me how many do you want?”
“I want all of them. When are you able to give me the goods?” Lu Hao answered without hesitation.
“Do you want it to be modified like this, or you don’t need it modified?”
“Modified,” Lu Hao replied after pondering for a while. Since there was still a few days left, it would be best to let him modify the rest of the cars.
“No problem, Captain Lu. Three days, just give us three days. Cash upon delivery,” Banzi laughed voraciously.
“Stop talking so goddamned like a drug dealer,” Lu Hao laughed out of exasperation. What did he mean by taking cash upon delivery? It sounded like they were in a film about cops and gangsters.
“Hahahaha, Captain Lu, I’m just joking. Don’t take it to heart.”
They paid him a portion of the money in advance. Banzi’s hands were trembling while holding onto the Point of Sales machine. It was not that he had never seen a huge deal before, but this was the first time a mechanic like him had made such a deal.
Lu Hao knew Ban Xiaobo through a mission while chasing down a criminal. Lu Hao’s car was the only police vehicle left as the other vehicles from his team had lost track of the criminal. Despite that, Lu Hao did not give up because he was determined to apprehend that man. However, his car broke down halfway, and coincidentally, Ban Xiaobo was passing by on his mountain bike and had helped fix Lu Hao’s car with a few tinkers. Lu Hao had gotten his phone number and left in a hurry.
After that, Lu Hao had thanked Ban Xiaobo. It was because of Ban Xiaobo’s help that Lu Hao successfully caught and arrested the criminal and the both of them became friends over this.
Su Jin thought Ban Xiaobo to be quite a warm-hearted person after listening to how Lu Hao and Ban Xiaobo met. However, she did not think too much about this as they needed to purchase a minibus next.
The minibus they bought was second-hand. It was discontinued due to the development of urban and rural areas. In these few years, the government had upgraded the public buses in the urban and rural areas with bus coin machines. As such, the minibusses that had been managed privately were subsequently phased out.
Even though it was discontinued, the minibus was still considered quite new given that it was only almost two years old.
Su Jin generously purchased four at one go because it was sold cheap at only 50 thousand Yuan per vehicle.
These discontinued buses were sold as scrap to purchasing depots by its owners. The few bus owners were happy that it could still fetch such a good price. When the government upgraded the other buses with coin machines, they had considered the bus owners’ circumstances and offered them some compensation. Hence, it was a delightful bonus to be able to sell the old buses.
“Lu Hao, we’re about to finish spending all our money. We need to keep some to pay your friend,” Su Jin said. She was referring to Ban Xiaobo’s armored cars.
“Have you forgotten? We still have money from selling the house. We’ll be receiving it in a couple of days,” Lu Hao reminded her.
“That’s right. We’ll be able to purchase more supplies.” Su Jin’s mood lightened up once more.
The agent had sold off their house, but only the deposit had been paid. Both parties had yet to sign the contract for full payment.
Si Jin had decided for the agent, Old Jiang, to be fully in charge of signing the contract. The buyers of their house were a newly-wed couple. Even if they were not planning to purchase Lu Hao’s house, they would still consider purchasing other properties. Su Jin was well aware of this, which was why she was not willing to communicate too much with the buyers.
The agent, Old Jiang, was happy about this. He would be able to earn an agent’s commission and get a bonus for this month. It was more than enough for him.
That night, Su Jin curled up comfortably on the sofa at home while browsing through her phone. As for what she was doing on the phone, it was of course shopping, shopping, shopping.
She had achieved VIP member status on all online shopping platforms. Despite having to pay for being a VIP member, the prices were much more worth it when buying in bulk. Customer service was also excellent for VIP members. She had a personal customer service personnel attending to her who could resolve all her questions quickly.
Su Jin was enjoying the shopping immensely when a notification from Tieba popped up.
‘Shock. Only one survivor out of 5 companions climbing up Mount M. The other 4 were bitten to death by wild beasts?!’
Su Jin felt alarmed reading it. She quickly clicked on the Tieba notification.
It was about the group consisting of Big Beard, Big Brother Chen, Shorty, and the rest. The message was not presented as a piece of news, rather the owner of the Tieba had published the information of the entire group.
The more Su Jin read as she scrolled down, the more convinced she was that all five of these travel companions had encountered zombies, which ended up with only 1 survivor and 4 deaths. It seemed like the end of the world did not happen suddenly, but had already begun quietly.
Su Jin shared the Tieba message notification with Lu Hao and the family group. The family group chat immediately exploded!
Lin Xiuyuan: [Has, has it started?!]
Lin Tianhui: [My dear daughter, could this be what you were talking about?]
Su Xiangzhe: [It’s very likely so. Looks like we have to quicken our plans.]
Lin Cheng: [I plan to solidify our garden walls and windows tomorrow.]
Mao Zhihang: [I support this 100 times. I’ll help out too.]
Lin Tianzhen: [Big Sis, where should we make our purchase tomorrow?]
Lin Tianhui: [We’ll raid all the major shopping malls and supermarkets in H City tomorrow!]
Lin Tianzhen: [Let’s raid them together!!!]
Li Xiuying: [Bring me along. I’d like to go too.]
Su Xiangzhe: [You supergirls go on, I’ll work at home with Lin Cheng and the rest.]
Lin Tianhui: [Okay, honey~]
Huang Yunxiang: [I won’t be able to join you, big sisters. I need to sign for a package at home. Sob sob.]
Lin Yunguo: [Why not let me stay at home too and cook for all of you?]
Lu Hao: [Grandpa, I’ll be buying supplies with Lil Jin tomorrow. We’ll head straight home to eat after that.]
Lin Yunguo: [Lil Hao, do you have anything you’d like to eat?]
Lu Hao: [Anything that Su Jin likes will do.]
Lin Xiuyuan: [Tsk tsk, aren’t you tired of pampering your wife, big man?]
Su Jin nearly choked on a piece of apple. What did he mean by ‘tired of pampering your wife, big man?’. Lin Xiuyuan was always spouting nonsense like this.