Dimensional Supermarket - Chapter 34

“What did the Lord Immortal tell you?” Gao Sheng sees his younger cousin coming out from the supermarket entrance and eagerly rushes over to meet him, itching to step inside and witness this new world for himself.

The glass door at the supermarket entrance already has him marveling.

Gao Sheng has seen colored glaze before, but colored glaze is never completely transparent—let alone this nearly transparent “glass.” Cao’er’s mother also tells him this is tempered glass. Not only can it withstand fists, but even if you chop it with a knife or an axe, it only cracks instead of breaking.

Gao Sheng has always considered himself well-informed, but he never expects to see immortal artifacts in this remote, uninhabited place.

“The Lord Immortal said…” Lin You’s eyes are red and swollen, yet the corners of his mouth won’t stop rising. He speaks incoherently, “The Lord Immortal… not only exchanged grain! He also gave me grain seeds and ordered the refugees to cultivate and recover. Ten shi!” Lin You suddenly shouts. “Ten shi per mu!”

Gao Sheng is stunned as well. Though he’s never worked in the fields, he’s studied agriculture in school. It’s a matter of national economy and people’s livelihood. If any place reports a yield of more than three shi per mu in a year, local officials rush to report it to the emperor as an achievement. But ten shi? Even in the most absurd dreams of agricultural officials, such a yield is unimaginable.

Not just Gao Sheng— even the guards surrounding the carriage look at Lin You.

Lin You no longer notices anyone’s gaze. He continues, “It’s immortal grain! It must be!”

Gao Sheng shudders, his eyes lighting up. “Hurry up and let them move the things in!” he urges.

Lin You snaps back to reality and turns to the guards. “Go ahead and move the things in.”

The guards hesitate. None of them dares to go in first.

Seeing that no one moves, Lin You picks up a box himself and trudges toward the supermarket.

He doesn’t look back, but he’s sure they’ll follow.

Even Gao Sheng personally carries a box in.

Once the guards see the two young masters go inside, they gather their courage and begin carrying the wooden boxes in, one by one.

The boxes are made of solid wood—there’s no synthetic wood in this era—and they’re not only large but also heavy. Even an empty box requires an adult man to move it.

When filled with items, sometimes even two strong men can’t carry one.

It takes nearly two hours to move everything.

This time, they use both a horse-drawn carriage and a bullock cart.

Though bullocks aren’t as fast as horses, they carry heavier loads and cost less. Horses are hard to obtain—if a governor wants horses, he has to arrange for someone to vouch for the seller and rely on favors before he can make a purchase.

“What are these things?” Sarah squats beside one of the wooden boxes, peering inside with curiosity. She looks up at Lin You, her red eyes wide and unwavering.

She appears very young, and even though she looks like a foreigner, she doesn’t seem threatening.

Lin You smiles at Sarah’s question, looking at her as though she’s just an ordinary girl. “Mortal things shouldn’t be valued by immortals, so I didn’t bring gold, silver, calligraphy, or paintings.”

Sarah is a little confused. “You didn’t bring gold, silver, or calligraphy? Then what did you bring?”

And somehow you avoided bringing the most valuable things of this era?

Lin You doesn’t keep her in suspense. “They’re all beautiful jades, gems, and agates. These things are born and raised by nature, nurtured for thousands of years.”

In his view, items born and raised by nature are more favored by immortals than those created by mortals. After all, immortals themselves live in the green mountains and clear waters of the past.

Sarah isn’t interested in jade—she knows nothing about jade culture—but she is very interested in gems. She immediately opens a wooden box filled with polished gems, under Lin You’s guidance.

But there aren’t any large gems inside.

It’s hard to get big natural gems.

And gems aren’t highly valued in this era—without cutting technology, even if polished, they still appear somewhat dull.

So compared to gray gems, people still prefer jade.

“Hetian jade is hard to come by…” Lin You says awkwardly. His own jade pendants are only low-grade Hetian jade. The best quality ones are either in the hands of dignitaries or in the palace. “There’s a new kind of jade, but its color is too bright… I’m not sure if the Lord Immortal will like it.”

Sarah opens the box containing the “new jade.” When she does, it reveals a collection of jade plaques carved into gods’ figures, as well as many jade bracelets and beads.

Sarah recognizes it instantly. “It’s jadeite.”

Lin You blinks. “What a great name! The new jade doesn’t have a name yet!”

Lin You is still nervous when he comes—these new jades are just filling in the numbers. After being mined, they aren’t liked by scholars or doctors because of their intense colors, so they never become a trend. Except for a few who like novelty, most people won’t buy them.

If the color of the jade is light, it doesn’t have the warmth and elegance of Hetian jade. If it’s too intense, it looks garish and lacks beauty. To most people, jade is a beautiful stone—but new jade is considered even less beautiful than gold or silver.

However, it’s available in large quantities.

Because no one buys it, it’s cheap. Lin You buys a lot of it and has craftsmen carve and polish it.

After polishing, it looks quite good, and some pieces are even remarkably clear.

It’s just a pity that it has color. Otherwise, it could be considered beautiful.

Lin You explains, trying to reassure her. “Although these new jades aren’t appreciated by the world, maybe they’ll be liked by immortals?”

Sarah replies simply, “I don’t like them either.”

Lin You: “…”

Sarah doesn’t even like the gems Lin You brings. She likes shiny gems, not these dull “little stones.”

Lin You, who’s been nervous all this time, now feels like crying.

But then he says, “I also brought moonstone!”

Sarah responds flatly, “…That thing’s available in the supermarket, on the shelf over there.”

She points to the children’s toy section. “This thing doesn’t even shine as well as a candle. What use is it?”

Lin You mutters dejectedly, “What use is it…”

Moonstones are rare! That’s the point!

Nobody buys them for utility.

He wipes his face and sighs. “At this point, I can only hope the immortal takes a liking to these things.”

Ye Zhou also receives the samples Cao’er’s mother sends. He looks at the table filled with various gems and jade, nearly gasping in disbelief—he doesn’t know the market value of gems, but he certainly knows jade!

His mother loves jade bracelets, and because of her, Ye Zhou has learned to appreciate jade’s beauty.

The better the jade, the lighter the color. But Ye Zhou spots several pieces among these “samples” with rich color and excellent quality. In modern times, such pieces would be worth millions—possibly tens of millions.

Jade collectors are mostly wealthy or noble, because jade is extremely expensive. If ordinary people buy it, it can’t even be called “collecting.”

Jade lovers pursue quality, and it’s common for their pieces to cost millions of yuan.

Ye Zhou remembers how his mother once fought with his father to buy a violet glass jade bracelet. In the end, his father gives in, and his mother spends more than five million on it.

Three years later, she sells it for more than eight million.

Since then, his father never dares ask her to stop buying jade again.

Ye Zhou picks the jade plaque he considers the best quality and walks to the cashier, scanning it with hope.

“Jadeite Pendant ×1”
“Revenue: 500”

Ye Zhou: “?”
Ye Zhou: “???”

Are you kidding me? Such high-quality jade is worth only 500?
Did you forget to add four zeroes?

“You give such a low price?” Ye Zhou rushes back to the break room, locks the door, and shouts at the computer, “If you’d told me this price earlier, I wouldn’t have scanned it! Spit it out!”

The computer remains silent.

Ye Zhou knows there’s no point getting angry or reasoning with it.

He’s baffled, then looks at Sarah, who is playing a game on her tablet.

Sarah notices Ye Zhou’s gaze and glances back at him. She bites the chili-flavored lollipop in her mouth, swallows, and then says, “The system exchanges based on the jade’s purchasing power here. Since you took the best piece, it’s worth only 500. Ordinary ones go for around 200, and the lower-quality ones are only a few yuan, maybe a couple dozen.”

Ye Zhou stares at the table full of jade. “…These things have no purchasing power here?”

Sarah nods. “He said no one likes them, and they’re newly mined. They don’t even have names.”

Ye Zhou: “…”

I’m so disappointed…

Ye Zhou sighs at the jade-filled table. It seems it’s impossible to exchange them for money here.

The only way to make money is by going to a plane before jade exists.

Anyway, he’s never going to “sell it cheaply” to the system!

Besides, even if he does, these jades wouldn’t fetch much altogether.

By the way… Lin You really manages to avoid bringing all the valuable things.

Did he do that on purpose?

Ye Zhou glances at the gems again. These gray stones probably aren’t worth much either.

So… did Lin You not bring anything valuable besides these?

Sarah suddenly says, “I think the boxes he put these things in are pretty good. Solid wood, good quality, with delicate carvings. They’re probably considered quite nice on this plane, right? Each one is worth a few thousand yuan?”

Ye Zhou is shocked. “He’s not going to take the wooden boxes back, is he?”

Sarah shakes her head. “I’m not sure. He also brought a small box of Hetian jade. I’ve seen it—the quality is average, but it’s still worth quite a lot here. In total, it’s worth hundreds of thousands, maybe over a million.”

Ye Zhou sighs in relief. “At least there’s money in the account now. If I didn’t prepare, how could I go to other planes?”

But it’s still not enough to buy a machine gun.

He can buy two grenades.

The weapons in the system are ridiculously expensive!

Ye Zhou sighs again. “Why didn’t they send me a few sets of his clothes, shoes, and crowns? Oh, did he bring the belt he left behind last time? If not… are his undergarments worth money? He wears linen shorts outside. He must be wearing something good underneath, right?”