6 Fruits and Fresh Meat
Additionally, the batch of seeds Iris ordered also arrived.
She’d purchased common crop seeds and seedling trees—nearly all vegetable seeds could be planted directly, while crops like sweet potatoes required seedlings.
Seeds were extremely affordable, especially sweet potato seedlings. After placing a large order with the biggest seed store, the owner promptly gave her a few extra seedlings as a gift.
For fruit trees, mature seedlings—preferably older ones—were the best choice.
Raising fruit trees from scratch was time-consuming and labor-intensive, with a long wait for the first harvest.
Buying 10-year-old seedlings was not only convenient but also cheap; a top-quality 10-year-old apple seedling cost just 70 to 80 dollars.
Iris bought a large batch of 10-year-old fruit seedlings in one go: apple, fig, jujube, pear, mulberry, cherry, orange, plum, apricot, walnut, chestnut, hazelnut, peach, pomegranate, persimmon, and more—three seedlings of each type.
This ensured survival while guaranteeing a steady supply of fresh fruit year-round as different trees bore fruit in different seasons.
In total, she bought over a hundred seedlings for just over 6 thousand dollars.
They would take up less than half an acre of land—a vacant area to the right of the bomb shelter.
To the left, she’d built first-rate plastic greenhouses and trellises, where she’d sown various vegetable seeds: lettuce, cucumber, eggplant, carrot, tomato, cabbage, green onion, kale, green beans, and more.
While using vegetable seedlings would have been more convenient, Iris chose to start from seeds—seed-grown vegetables only yielded one crop, and she wouldn’t have well-cultivated seedlings the next year.
For crops like potatoes, tubers were used for planting instead.
Fortunately, her soil was super high-quality fertile land; once the seeds were sown, they would grow vigorously with minimal effort on her part.
In just ten days, the bomb shelter had undergone a dramatic transformation, looking brand new inside and out.
As time passed, only three days remained until the apocalypse.
After planting the last seedling tree, Iris began to think about what else she might need.
For her self-sufficient hermit life here, raising some chickens, ducks, and fish would be perfect.
Even with an endless supply of pre-cooked meal kits, nothing tasted as good as fresh food.
Having eaten meal kits every day for the past few days, she’d already started to feel something was missing.
Raising her own poultry and fish would let her enjoy fresh meat whenever she wanted.
With this thought, Iris immediately drove to the farmers’ market.
As usual, she left Summer at the warehouse to keep an eye on things in case any supplies were delivered while she was gone.
It had been several days since Iris last entered the city, and she immediately noticed a tense atmosphere.
Everyone was wearing masks; their faces etched with anxiety.
“Young lady, hurry up and decide what you want. I want to pack up and go home early after selling these,” the vendor at a live chicken and duck stall said.
Iris looked at the over a dozen chickens and ducks in front of her—a mix of males and females, all healthy and well-fed.
“Give me a discount, and I’ll buy all of them,” she said.
The vendor’s eyes lit up. “You’ll take everything?”
“Yes.” Iris nodded.
“Then I’ll charge you 10 dollars a pound for all! Normally, my chickens sell for 15 dollars a pound and ducks for 11 dollars a pound,” the vendor offered eagerly.
“Deal,” Iris agreed.
There were 26 chickens and ducks in total, averaging 6 to 7 pounds each. Iris paid just over 1900 dollars.
She asked the vendor to deliver them to her warehouse, then continued shopping for other supplies.
As she wandered further into the market, she spotted numerous fresh fish.
An idea struck her. With a water source at the bomb shelter, she could dig a small pond.
She bought over 30 fish from the seafood stall, including carp, crucian carp, bighead carp, grass carp, and over 40 pounds of fresh shrimp.
Shrimp was one of her favorites; she loved dishes like garlic butter shrimp, lemon pepper shrimp, and shrimp scampi.
Iris paid a little extra to have the vendor include large plastic tanks and oxygen pumps, giving him the warehouse address for delivery.
The fish and shrimp cost over 3000 dollars.
She kept shopping.
Live pigs and cattle were hard to come by, but with her super warehouse and spatial storage, this wasn’t a problem.
Iris ordered 1000 pounds of pork and 500 pounds of beef from a meat stall. Given the large quantity, Iris paid a little extra to expedite the order, and the owner agreed to source the meat directly from the slaughterhouse and deliver it to her warehouse the same day.
Meat was more expensive; this order cost her over 40 thousand dollars, leaving her with just over 1.6 million dollars.
Iris wandered around the market for a while, hoping to buy more fresh produce, but found that many vendors had already packed up and left.
As she was about to leave, she noticed a vendor in the corner packing up. Surprisingly, he was selling live young goats.
Iris immediately decided to buy them, purchasing the last two young goats for 1500 dollars.
The vendor explained he’d raised them for goat milk but was selling them due to poor business.
“Young lady, hurry home after buying your things. There’s a flu outbreak these days; stay indoors as much as possible,” the vendor said after taking the money.
Iris nodded in response.
She was well aware of the flu, which was why she always wore a professional medical mask when going out.
Little did others know, the flu wasn’t the source of the zombie virus—it merely weakened people’s immune systems.
When the zombie virus struck, those with low immunity were immediately infected, leading everyone to mistakenly blame the flu.
It had taken Iris ten years of surviving in the apocalypse to figure this out, though she never learned the true origin of the zombie virus.
Some people had claimed back then that the zombie virus was a divine hunting game, as it had also brought unexpected changes to humanity.
With less than three days left until the apocalypse, she planned to stay indoors and not go out again.
Before heading back, however, she wanted to spend all her remaining money. There was no point in leaving it unused anyway.
Finding a secluded spot with no people or surveillance, Iris stored the two young goats in her spatial storage, then drove back to the warehouse to pick up Summer.
On the way, she passed a farm supply store and went in to buy a full set of common farming tools, plus 20 shovels.
Many people didn’t realize that shovels were top-tier melee weapons in a crisis.
During wartime, ordinary people often used shovels as weapons when no other tools were available; in rural fights, grabbing a shovel meant things were serious.
Even modern military entrenching tools were upgraded versions of basic shovels.
Especially in the apocalypse, melee weapons were more reliable than firearms.
Stockpiling a bunch of shovels would give her ample weapons for the early stages.
Iris also bought several baseball bats—another weapon with considerable striking power.
Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.
