Dimensional Supermarket - Chapter 123

“They’re seriously rich.” Sarah looks at the boxes laid out in the courtyard and inhales sharply in disbelief.

Even she reacts like that, so Wu Yan and the others are no better off.

The employees of the supermarket have seen many good things. Not only have they encountered rare treasures in previous planes, even the goods in the supermarket are impressive. Yet, they’ve never seen so much at once. It’s easy to imagine how much wealth noble families possess.

They have hundreds of years of accumulated wealth—gold, silver, and fortunes passed down through generations.

The largest item among the gifts is a huge piece of jade. It stands like a wall, polished to a smooth sheen. Probably due to the limited polishing technology, the jade wall appears to be covered with a layer of white mist. The patterns on it resemble mountains—natural, unpretentious, and breathtakingly beautiful.

The smallest item is a jade cicada. Although it has been artificially carved, its craftsmanship is far ahead of its time. Aside from its color, it is nearly indistinguishable from a real cicada. The delicate lines of the wings are expertly etched, making it feel as if it might flap its wings at any moment when held in the palm.

“They’ve really emptied their coffers, haven’t they.” Sarah takes a bracelet from one of the boxes. Its material is unknown—it feels as warm as jade, but is not jade. There are wood grains visible on its surface.

The yard is filled with gifts, but they keep coming. Countless servants from noble families wait at the gate of Ye Zhou’s house, lining up to present their offerings.

Even though Ye Zhou isn’t visible, the noble families seem oblivious. They are intent on using gifts and wealth to make inroads with Ye Zhou.

The less Ye Zhou responds, the more they seem determined to shower him with gifts.

“What do they want? Are they trying to win the boss over with gifts?” Chen Shu, eating ice cream, crouches down and rummages through a box in front of her. She glances up at Zou Ming, who is standing nearby. “Isn’t our boss just a nominal prime minister? Even if he accepts their gifts and agrees to something, they probably won’t believe him,” Chen Shu says, having finished the chocolate shell of her ice cream and reluctantly eating the cream inside.

Zou Ming crosses his arms, his expression unchanged. “What he means is that these gifts can be accepted, but people don’t need to be let in.”

Chen Shu knows exactly who Zou Ming is referring to.

“You don’t really call him ‘boss’ that much,” Chen Shu says, standing up and walking over to Zou Ming. She gives his shoulder a pat and speaks in a low voice just loud enough for the two of them to hear, “Don’t make it too obvious.”

Zou Ming: “…”

No, the problem is that he hasn’t been obvious enough—so much so that Ye Zhou thinks he’s homophobic.

But he can’t say this to Chen Shu, so he remains silent, practicing silent Zen.

Meanwhile, Ye Zhou is in the supermarket, staring at the computer screen.

The turnover has reached a figure that will allow him to leave this plane.

And the system has unlocked new content.

Ye Zhou looks at the unlocked content, feeling a rare sense of excitement.

[To be unlocked: Small hotel (20 standard rooms, 10 double bed rooms)]

Ye Zhou sits up straighter, cursor hovering over the text, searching for any hidden instructions.

He clicks through the pages, flipping them over and over, but finds no further details.

Could this be… the employee dormitory provided by the system?

Would they no longer have to stay in tents when they travel to remote and uninhabited places?

The system’s tents are excellent, with electricity and all, but tents are still tents. The difference between them and actual houses is considerable.

Though he doesn’t know how small the hotel is or how big the rooms will be, Ye Zhou isn’t greedy—just having it is enough.

Maybe it can be upgraded later?

As for the hotel… thirty rooms will be enough for the supermarket staff. Opening a business with it doesn’t make sense. Besides, he has no plans to expand the supermarket.

This is a rare piece of good news.

A smile tugs at Ye Zhou’s lips as he can’t wait to share it with the others.

But most of the employees are busy with the gifts at the house. Thinking of this, Ye Zhou feels a headache coming on. He wants to hand the gifts over to Chen Hou. After all, he’s a businessman. Business only happens when there’s a buyer—accepting gifts directly is a different matter.

If all Ye Zhou wants is money, he wouldn’t have bothered to open a supermarket.

Although his family isn’t particularly wealthy, his parents can easily fund a factory and provide him with connections if he wants. With their help, he can make far more money by opening a factory than by running a supermarket.

His family already owns a food brand and processes goods for internet celebrity brands. While the prices aren’t high, the profit margin is significant due to large-scale sales.

However, since he was young, his parents liked to play the “we’re poor” card, and Ye Zhou grew up thinking that way.

Back then, he sincerely believed his family was poor. On weekends, he goes out with classmates from similarly “poor” families to pick up discarded water bottles and sell them. Sometimes he even waits by the community garbage bins to gather cardboard boxes to sell.

When he learns the truth—that his family is quite well-off—Ye Zhou can’t even remember how he feels at the time.

His parents laugh at him for being so naive. If they had no money, how could they afford a bike worth over ten thousand yuan?

At the time, Ye Zhou had no idea how much the bike actually cost. He thinks it’s a knock-off his father bought without realizing the difference between a genuine and a fake product. He figures his father must’ve just seen a lot of people with it and decided to get the same one for him.

Looking back, Ye Zhou feels as though he isn’t their biological son.

Perhaps because he never thinks of himself as a wealthy child, Ye Zhou never considers relying on his parents.

He wants to open a supermarket, run a business, and interact with people—not for the money, but for something else.

Maybe it’s for his ideal?

Ye Zhou chuckles at himself.

While other people dream of being scientists or pilots, his dream is to open a supermarket. It’s hard for anyone to believe he isn’t motivated by money.

Ye Zhou walks out of the lounge. Now, only he and a few female employees remain in the supermarket.

He isn’t worried about safety. Besides the supermarket’s defense system, he and the employees are armed.

Now, everyone in the store can use a gun, and none of them are afraid to shoot.

Maybe it’s because they’ve all lived through times of chaos. They’ve seen too many dead bodies and don’t have the same hesitations as civilians in times of peace.

For them, shooting those who might endanger their lives isn’t a choice—it’s a necessity.

The employees are organizing stock. Merchants are all trying to leave Linzi as quickly as possible. They’ve sensed the storm brewing in Chen State.

The merchants don’t care about Chen State’s future—they only care about conducting business peacefully.

If Chen truly falls into chaos, they’ll return, but at that point, they’ll likely be selling weapons.

Only one merchant decides to stay: Wei Shang.

What Zhao Xue says to him remains a mystery, but seeing the turmoil in Chen State, Wei Shang, who comes for profit, chooses not to leave. In fact, he seems even more loyal to Chen State now.

It seems that Zhao Xue has promised him something.

Although Zhao Xue now lives in the house Ye Zhou buys for him, Ye Zhou has already introduced him to Chen Hou.

However, Chen Hou believes that giving Zhao Xue an official title might not be the best idea. It’s better to grant him access to the Chen Palace. While he won’t have an official position, he’ll hold the power of one.

Zhao Xue has no foundation in Chen State. Even if he becomes an influential official, he’ll still rely on Chen Hou, so there’s no concern about hidden motives.

Ye Zhou knows what Chen Hou wants to do—he aims to throw Chen State into chaos and eliminate its internal problems while Lu and Zhao are still preoccupied with each other.

It’s not that Ye Zhou doesn’t want to use the noble families. It’s that he wants them to work for the State of Chen, not for their own families.

The noble families aren’t stupid. If foreign enemies attack, they’ll unite temporarily to resist. But sometimes, the biggest threat isn’t external pressure—it’s internal conspiracies.

The noble families only care about increasing their power, becoming so influential that no one can challenge them—even the ruler of Chen.

It isn’t exactly short-sighted. After all, the “cake” is only so big, and if one eats it, there’ll be no cake left for others.

To them, the fall of Chen State is a distant thought.

These people have no sense of crisis. As long as things are stable now, they believe stability will last forever.

Ye Zhou doesn’t know if they’re naïve or just trapped by their era.

After all, while the states are constantly at war, not a single one has been destroyed, nor has any dared to destroy another.

From that perspective, these inter-state wars seem like minor skirmishes—and they’ve gone on for a hundred years.

The people have grown used to it. They don’t think Chen State will ever fall. In their view, if any state dares to destroy another, the rest will unite against them. No state dares defy all the others.

They’ve never experienced unification, so they can’t even imagine that one day, this vast land with so many states might become one. Without seeing it, they can’t conceive it.

Thinking about it, Ye Zhou understands why the noble families don’t care about Chen State’s current situation. They’re like frogs in warm water, living at such a slow pace for hundreds of years. They’re numb to the reality around them, unaware that they’re almost cooked.

“Take a break,” Ye Zhou says to the employees who are still working. “I’ll get you some ice cream.”

Feng Ling stands up and smiles at Ye Zhou. “Boss, I want an old-style popsicle!”

The other employees don’t dare to ask for anything. They even look at Feng Ling, thinking she isn’t being respectful to the “immortal.”

Some employees even whisper to Feng Ling after Ye Zhou leaves, “Miss Feng, I shouldn’t say this, but you aren’t being respectful enough to the Lord immortal. Lord immortal is kind and approachable, but that’s his generosity, not something we should…”

She doesn’t finish, but Feng Ling understands.

She doesn’t want to argue.

To her, Ye Zhou is her boss, a good person who has never shown anger. He’s generous with his salary, and if someone wants to return to their original plane, all they have to do is ask, and he’ll send them back.

But to the people of the Daliang Dynasty, Ye Zhou is a god. He saves them when they’re in the most desperate, dangerous times. He gives them food, jobs, and a safe place to live. He’s both their boss and their patron saint.

As time passes, they are no longer as fanatical as they were at first, but their feelings haven’t changed. They see Ye Zhou as their pillar. As long as he’s there, they don’t have to worry. They have enough food and clothing, and even enjoy comforts ordinary people can’t imagine.

All they have to do is work, and they consider that a small price to pay. Even if the work is a bit hard, they’re happy to do it as long as they have hands and feet to help.

There are even some elderly people in the supermarket, but they work just as hard as the younger staff. They appreciate the good days, having suffered in the past.

People who have suffered know that such days are a luxury, things many others can only dream of.

Though they call Ye Zhou “the old man,” Feng Ling doesn’t laugh. She respectfully says to the older woman who scolds her, “I was wrong.”

Upon hearing her admit the mistake, the elder nods, “You’re young. You don’t know how hard life is elsewhere. If you don’t respect the immortal, if you don’t appreciate what you have, you’ll be struck by lightning!”

Others agree: “Back in our time, people would fight tooth and nail for jobs like this—just to get enough to eat!”

“And now we can read! I can write my own name and my husband’s!”

“The children are doing well, learning to read and write. When we were in Daliang, how could we even dream of that?”

“A landlord in my village sent his son to school and even to the imperial exam. He almost sells all his land, except for the ancestral plot, which he’s afraid to part with. But in the end, the child doesn’t pass. He barely becomes a scholar. When we flee, that same child is almost twenty and has no money to marry.”

“Supporting a scholar at home could bankrupt a family.”

The elderly employees often share stories from the past. Feng Ling listens quietly. She herself has endured hardship, and sometimes, she wonders if the memories from the Luoyang base are just a dream.

The hunger and constant fear feel like a previous life.

Strangely, the more bizarre the events at the supermarket are, the more normal they seem.

Everyone has grown used to life in the store. If they have to return to their old lives, that would feel more out of place.

“But here,” one says, “I heard ordinary landlords can’t even afford to send their kids to school. If you couldn’t find a teacher, the noble clans wouldn’t take you in, so you couldn’t even start learning.”

“Yes, yes, I heard from the aunts living nearby that their children couldn’t find a teacher, and the noble families wouldn’t accept them. They couldn’t get an education. Honestly, Daliang Dynasty wasn’t great, but it was better than here.”

“You didn’t see it, but not far from here, a widow and her little daughter were barely surviving,” an employee, known for gathering information, shares with the others, “I felt bad for her and gave her some food. Later, when we start selling grain, she brings out all her valuables that she doesn’t need.” The woman looks proud. “Now her daughter’s put on weight and looks much healthier. She’s smart too—keeps half the grain for herself and sends the rest out with her servant to sell in distant places. She even buys some land outside the city. Even if we leave someday, she won’t lack anything.”

“She’s educated!” the employee adds with admiration, “No wonder she’s so smart—her brain works quickly.”

“If it were us, we would’ve kept all the grain for ourselves.”

Ye Zhou returns with a box of ice cream and sees the employees deep in conversation. Not wanting to interrupt, he quietly places the ice cream on the chair next to him. He uses the intercom to ask Feng Ling to distribute the ice cream to the employees.

Ye Zhou has never been an employee, but he understands that when employees are chatting, they don’t want the boss to overhear. He always tries to be considerate of this.