Chapter 35: Drinking Southern Rice Wine, Beating Up Friends and Family

"0.1 subway coins per bullet? 200 bullets would be 20 subway coins. That's still a bit high."

Zhao Kuo didn't know the other party's cost price, so he could only furrow his brows and carefully consider his options.

The question was whether he should push harder, but Ji Bochang had previously mentioned that he could supply bullets in the long term. As a stable supplier, doing a one-time deal clearly wasn't a wise move.

However, 0.1 subway coins definitely wasn't the cost price.

So Zhao Kuo simply said, "Brother, let's not beat around the bush. 200 rounds of light machine gun bullets for 12 subway coins, take it or leave it. I'm not just doing this one deal. Think about it carefully."

Ji Bochang quickly did the math. The cost price for 200 bullets was actually only 6.7 subway coins. Selling them for 12 subway coins would still leave him with a profit. If it was a long-term need… it wasn't entirely out of the question.

Although it was much lower than what he had initially imagined, seeing the fire in the furnace about to go out, Ji Bochang felt like crying.

Ji Bochang: "Sigh… to be honest, boss, selling 200 bullets for 12 subway coins is already a loss. If it weren't for… sigh, fine, big shot, just take care of me in the future."

In Ji Bochang's eyes, since Zhao Kuo could afford a light machine gun, he must be a big shot.

If he could befriend such a player, even if the other party just spilled a bit of soup, it would be enough for him. Even if he couldn't get any soup, it didn't matter. Being able to sell off his stockpile of bullets was good enough.

Seeing the other party agree, Zhao Kuo smiled slightly.

It seemed his price was still a bit high, but that was fine. It met his psychological expectation, but he still had to say some polite words.

Zhao Kuo: "No problem, fate makes us friends. I'll buy 600 rounds for 36 subway coins. Money on delivery."

36 subway coins! He finally had subway coins to buy other resources! Looking at the initiated transaction, Ji Bochang was practically moved to tears.

Zhao Kuo was also very satisfied. 600 rounds of bullets could sustain the light machine gun for three uses, a full minute.

With that many bullets raining down, Zhao Kuo could hardly imagine any carbon-based lifeform surviving unscathed. Anything would be turned into a sieve.

After closing the chat system, Zhao Kuo let out a sigh of relief.

"You're smiling. Did you just scam someone again?" Tang Yingying asked.

Zhao Kuo chuckled: "Next time, I'll let you handle the trades. After all, I've been scammed by you before… By the way, has your relative left yet?"

Tang Yingying looked wary: "You… what do you want?"

Zhao Kuo rolled his eyes: "I don't know who said they were cold last night and insisted on crawling into my arms. Don't worry, I'm not interested in you. I just made a batch of toilet paper. If you don't want it, I'll sell it all."

After the first station, the price of toilet paper had dropped quite a bit, but there was still some profit to be made.

No harm in earning a bit more.

"Tch, am I really that ugly?" Tang Yingying puffed out her chest, showcasing her assets.

Even Zhao Kuo had to admit, she did have quite the advantage. Running around like that, it was hard not to notice.

"Ahem." Zhao Kuo quickly coughed twice to dispel such inappropriate thoughts and asked, "Didn't we just get some yeast and sorghum seeds earlier?"

Tang Yingying: "Yeah, what about it? Are you going to brew alcohol? You know how to do that?"

"Your brother knows a lot. Sorghum seeds can probably be planted in the fairy garden, so we can't use them for brewing. Rice, on the other hand, might work. Didn't your family used to brew rice wine?" Zhao Kuo asked.

Tang Yingying shook her head: "Never heard of it. Where I'm from, it's all white wine with clams."

Her words carried a thick accent.

"Shandong, huh? No wonder you can drink so much…" Zhao Kuo muttered. Back in the presidential suite, he had witnessed Tang Yingying's drinking prowess firsthand. She could go toe-to-toe with Gu Shan, drinking straight from the crate. If she hadn't been so bold as to take on two people at once, she might have been the last one standing.

Now that he knew she was from Shandong, it wasn't surprising.

Zhao Kuo smiled: "Then there's no comparison. The rice wine we have here doesn't have any alcohol content."

"Tch, that probably doesn't taste good. No alcohol content? What's the point?" Tang Yingying pouted as usual.

Zhao Kuo continued to smile, a hint of mischief in his eyes: "It's fine. Give it a try. You might end up liking it."

With that, he started preparing the rice wine. It was both simple and complicated.

The best rice wine is made with glutinous rice, but they didn't have that right now. Using regular rice would result in a slightly inferior taste, but it was still passable.

Zhao Kuo first steamed the rice, then soaked it.

Tang Yingying watched from the side, her curiosity piqued. As a bit of a wine enthusiast, Zhao Kuo's words had successfully sparked her interest.

Unfortunately, alcohol was considered food and couldn't be taken out of the station. Otherwise, Tang Yingying would have definitely hauled a few crates onto the train—no, an entire cart!

"Wine is the essence of grain. The more you drink, the younger you feel!"

The steamed rice needed to soak for at least one night before it could be used, so Zhao Kuo didn't stay up to watch it. He went to bed early.

With the air conditioning, the small room was quite warm, though occasional cold air seeped through the wooden gaps. Perhaps tomorrow he should buy some sheepskins to fill in the gaps and make it even cozier.

The night was unusually quiet, with only the sound of the subway running. There were no unexpected incidents.

Or maybe there were, but they were kept at bay by the fire source. That was unknown.

When he woke up, it was already past six in the morning. Tang Yingying was still asleep.

Usually, Tang Yingying woke up earlier than him to make breakfast and prepare lunch.

Although this routine had only lasted for two days, Zhao Kuo felt a strange sense of peace.

Forget it, let her sleep. Zhao Kuo decided to make breakfast himself.

He took out the buns Tang Yingying had prepared earlier, placed them in the steamer, and then went to the trading platform to buy two bags of soy milk. They weren't expensive, 0.2 subway coins per bag. He wondered who had been lucky enough to draw soybean seeds.

Just as the buns were steaming, Tang Yingying woke up, rubbing her sleepy eyes.

"You're awake. Go brush your teeth and get ready for breakfast," Zhao Kuo said, flipping the rice as he spoke.

With their current supply of clean water, brushing teeth and washing faces weren't a problem. Perhaps by tomorrow night, they could enjoy the luxury of showering on the subway.

"Okay~" Tang Yingying obediently picked up a wooden stick to clean her teeth and asked, "What are you doing?"

"Adding yeast. After that, we just wait for it to ferment. In one or two days, we'll have rice wine. I calculated that one pack of yeast can make about 5 liters of rice wine. Not bad at all."

Zhao Kuo smiled. To be honest, he was quite happy about being able to drink rice wine.

"Drinking southern rice wine, beating up friends and family."

Once it was done, he could send some to Gu Shan and Luo Ping'an as well.

Speak of the devil, just as he was pouring in the yeast, Gu Shan's private message arrived.