Chapter 53

Ronin got out of the car and almost forgot the tray of eggs. He walked a few steps, then turned back to get them.

Even if they were just eggs, they were a gift from a customer. The boss needed to know.

Sophia's small villa already had the electrical and water systems installed. The tiles were finished, the lights were up, and the elevator was installed and powered.

The weather in the south was humid, and this year it had been especially rainy. To fight the dampness, Sophia had tiles placed all over the walls.

She didn't like false ceilings. They made the rooms feel cramped because the ceiling height became too low.

Now all that was left was to furnish the house.

Sophia came to check the layout and the finished work, thinking about what furniture would look good and fit well.

While she was walking around, Ronin came upstairs.

"Boss, the potato deal is done. There's another batch coming later."

As he spoke, he walked toward Sophia.

When he got closer, he handed her the tray of eggs. "These were a gift from the potato seller. He said they're from his own chickens. Taste good."

Sophia took the eggs, looked them over, and said, "There's too many for just me. Take half home with you."

Ronin didn't refuse. His parents also liked free-range eggs.

Then they talked about the potato purchase.

After listening to Ronin's report, Sophia nodded. "Then let's switch it up. One week rice and flour, the next week potatoes, sweet potatoes, taro, and so on. Buy them in rotation."

With the boss's approval, Ronin felt at ease.

The next day, he got a call from Mr. Rao and went to pick up the goods.

When he arrived, he saw the warehouse was empty. Both the first and second floors had nothing. The third-floor door had always been locked.

He walked around, and just then, the delivery truck arrived.

He guided the truck to the unloading area and pulled over two forklifts.

Mr. Rao came with the truck driver. He hadn't expected that the buyer's side had only Ronin there, so he helped unload and move the goods inside.

It took half a day to unload seventy-six thousand pounds of potatoes and line them up in a corner of the first-floor warehouse.

That morning, Sophia had gone into the city to look at furniture. The bed she bought last time for the guest room was of good quality and comfortable.

So she returned to the same store.

Now that she had money, she didn't even look at prices in the furniture market. She tested everything herself and placed orders if it felt right.

She chose beds, wardrobes, and dressing tables for the bedrooms, a sofa and shelves for the living room.

The kitchen and dining area were open plan, so she got a dining table too.

Next to the furniture market was an appliance store.

She looked around, but nothing really satisfied her, so she headed back first.

That afternoon, a batch of frozen seafood was expected to arrive. Sophia went straight to the factory.

There, she ran into Ronin, who had just finished receiving the potatoes.

"Boss, what are you doing here?"

Ronin had already told her yesterday that he would come to receive the goods, so usually, there was no need for both of them to be there. The other person could do something else.

Sophia said, "I was checking furniture in the city and came by on the way. Since there's another delivery coming this afternoon, I'll take over for now."

Ronin understood.

"The truck just left. Do you need me to stay and help with the afternoon delivery?"

He asked just in case.

Sophia shook her head.

"How was the furniture shopping today?"

Ronin asked casually.

Sophia suddenly remembered and said, "It's already settled. By the way, if you're at the construction site this afternoon, help me receive the goods."

The furniture Sophia bought would arrive that afternoon.

After giving the instructions, Ronin agreed and went back to have lunch.

Sophia closed the door and went alone to the third floor to drag down the pig trough.

Just as she pulled it to the large potato patch on the first floor, she received a letter from General Yves.

In it, he first described his shock and then said, "I will definitely make good use of this map. The land of the Western Continent must never be invaded."

"But for now, Zhao Kingdom will rest for a while. We have decided to start by developing the unclaimed land on the Western Continent to improve the people's lives first."

General Yves also included the plan he and the generals had discussed for Sophia to see.

Since they were thousands of years behind in development, maybe they could get better advice.

Sophia read carefully. Since they wanted to cultivate wasteland—

Hey! Excavators are perfect tools for land clearing!

If they were going to war, she couldn't offer cold weapons, but for land development, China was the ancestor!

Excavators and chainsaws, let's get them ready!

Nowadays cutting trees carelessly might be illegal, but in ancient times it wasn't. To use the wasteland, they first had to clear plants and big stones from the original vegetation.

Excavators can easily break down stones and clear trees and rocks.

Thinking this, Sophia immediately wrote back to General Yves.

"I have a machine that can help you cultivate wasteland. Once I buy them, I will send them to you."

General Yves felt excited when he saw Sophia's reply, knowing the tools she could provide would be far more useful than they imagined.

Also, since he knew Sophia lived in the future world, anything she gave them surely wasn't easy to get.

He quickly wrote back, "Are the gold, silver, and jewels I sent last time enough? Which items help you the most? I will collect more and send them to you."

"Enough for now, but it will still take time to spend," Sophia replied briefly.

"I will start preparing," she added.

Then Sophia went online to check. She found excavators were divided into crawler excavators and wheeled excavators, each with advantages.

"Then I'll get five of each!"

Sophia wanted to be thorough, choosing medium and large sizes. Each excavator costs over a million, but luckily she didn't keep all her money in the bank and had cash on hand.

After deciding what she wanted, she contacted Ronin and assigned him the task.

Ten excavators was a huge purchase.

Ronin thought hard but still couldn't figure out what business his boss was really in. Buying water tank trucks before, now excavators — was this going into real estate?

He didn't dare ask and quickly confirmed, "Okay, received!"

General Yves left the land development preparations to General Ulric.

Although they had the map, they still needed to scout the area.

General Ulric led a team of nearly one hundred, bringing food, hay, and water.

They used potatoes and sweet potatoes Sophia had sent before, twenty jin per person, plus compressed biscuits, five per person, and 1.25L bottles of mineral water.

They also had horses for transportation.

Everyone was surprised by the amount of food they received.

Usually, they only got enough for a few days and had to forage for birds or fruit outside.

The team set out to explore the nearby terrain with all these supplies.