First Meeting the Train Safe House
Bai Jie's tone carried the practicality that stocking up never hurts. Her family did the same every year, especially this year.
"I'll add a few more Daily Necessities based on your guide. You should too—whether or not the doomsday comes, things will be used sooner or later, and you have to eat. Stock up more, just in case."
Lin Mo agreed: "Okay. The weather forecast says heavy snow tomorrow in the north. Will I be able to go out normally?"
"We're used to snow in winter. The government spreads de-icing agents and sends snowplows promptly. Tomorrow's heavy snow is fine; the blizzard is over in Mohe, far from us."
Bai Jie's voice carried the familiarity of a Northeasterner with winter, and she didn't forget to give Lin Mo advice: "If you want to stock up in S City, you need to go to the agricultural wholesale market—fresh and cheap. The veggie apps sell cat-food-sized portions."
Dingdong sold vegetables by 500g. In the Northeast, buying ten cabbages easily weighed 100 jin.
Lin Mo, who had planned to buy from Dingdong and Hema, said softly, "I've never been to an agricultural wholesale market. There are two small markets near my home."
Bai Jie urged: "Go to the market quickly. My parents told me to remind you to prepare too. They've been watching doomsday theories on Douyin all morning. My dad just bought four or five tons of coal for the countryside house, saying if any disaster strikes, they'll hide in the village."
Lin Mo said: "Then you'd better buy a solar generator. If the power goes out in the countryside, repairmen won't be able to get there in heavy snow, right?"
Bai Jie hesitated: "A solar generator? That seems a bit extreme..."
This wasn't Winter Nesting; it was disaster avoidance.
Bai's father, eavesdropping nearby, slapped his thigh: "Right, why did I forget that! Lin Mo is really smart!"
Bai Jie: ...
Well, her dad had completely bought into it. At least the old man had enough pension to mess around; if it gave him peace of mind, that was fine, otherwise he'd be nagging at home about "the city will be the first to suffer in the apocalypse."
Then came the sound of rummaging. Bai Jie laughed and explained to Lin Mo: "My dad is taking notes on his little notebook. He says he'll go buy a solar generator and solar water heater later."
Lin Mo couldn't help but curve her lips.
Bai Jie said: "Honestly, small markets aren't great either. You really need to go to the agricultural wholesale market."
Lin Mo said: "But you need a car for that. I only have a small cart. I'll just check out the market first."
Bai Jie teased: "Remember during the pandemic, you stocked up at the market and ended up with almost nothing? You said you'd stock up, but you only bought enough vegetables for less than a week. Forget?"
Lin Mo held her forehead: "I didn't have much experience buying at the market back then. Let's not mention my embarrassing history..."
Back then, the vegetables and ribs ran out, and she had to eat porridge for weeks until group buying saved her.
But there was no choice. As someone raised under the red flag, studying and working in S City, Lin Mo had always believed in S City's coordination capabilities.
Lin Mo promised confidently: "This time I'll stock up on more fresh vegetables and buy some seeds to grow bean sprouts and vegetables at home." They chatted for a while longer, confirming that each had enough supplies and didn't need to worry too much, then hung up.
At that moment, in a remote courtyard in Bai Jie's city, a round-faced girl named Liu Yuanyuan had just settled accounts with a coal merchant. She had ordered three tons of coal lumps and four tons of coal sludge, costing only nine thousand yuan.
The merchant, following her instructions, unloaded the entire truckload of coal into the center of the courtyard, forming a small black hill.
Just then, her old father returned from the market in his car. The car was loaded with ten pairs of live chickens, ten pairs of live ducks, three hundred jin of fresh cabbages, and one hundred jin of green-skinned white radishes—the truck bed was almost overflowing.
Seeing the merchant drive away, the father immediately shouted to his daughter: "Girl, hurry up and move all this into that train to free up the yard. I'll make another trip to the market!"
"Dad, keep your voice down!" Liu Yuanyuan quickly raised her hand to shush him.
The neighbor next door had already noticed the commotion in the yard and teased through the fence: "Old Liu, why are you Winter Nesting so late this year! The weather is already freezing; you can't even dry radish strips now!"
Old Liu scratched his head and laughed: "Ah, I didn't stock up enough before, and we're short on coal! Besides, the weather's been weird. My friends on Kuaishou all say we should stock up more, for safety's sake!"
"Then hurry up! We also stocked up two extra vats of winter vegetables and two big bags of rice this year. Where's the wife? Why didn't she go to the market with you?"
"You know, village cadres are in another meeting. Tonight they'll go door to door to notify villagers to prepare for the temperature drop, and also check if anyone is in need to report up."
"So she's doing good deeds again. Will you two have time to cook today? We made over two hundred three-delicacy dumplings yesterday. I'll bring you fifty later!" the neighbor called out warmly.
"Thank you so much, sister! I'll buy some freshly fried dough sticks and fried cakes at the market and bring you some too!" Old Liu said as he climbed into the driver's seat.
"Dad, don't forget Zhao's Lamb Shaomai! I love those!" Liu Yuanyuan quickly added.
Old Father stepped on the accelerator, stuck his head out the window, and muttered: "Don't worry, don't worry! I'll stock up four or five hundred for you." He looked up at the dark clouds pressing down from the horizon, his tone turning pragmatic: "It'll definitely snow tomorrow, and then it'll be hard to leave the village."
He counted on his fingers: he'd buy two hundred jin of ribs later to make pickled cabbage and vermicelli stew for his girl. He'd also get seventy or eighty jin of sesame peanut brittle, a sack of peanuts, a sack of five-spice sunflower seeds, and two sacks of sugar oranges—the train could fit it all! He patted his old car: "Come on, you've got to carry more!"
Liu Yuanyuan watched her father's car drive away in a cloud of dust. She didn't rush to move the coal pile in the yard—it was too conspicuous. She'd wait until late at night when no one was around to store it in the train.
She drove the chickens and ducks into the west wing, laid a thick layer of dry hay in the corner, and added two handfuls of old cotton batting, creating a warm corner to protect the animals. Then she opened the WeChat group "Doomsday Survival Squad" and shared her stockpiling tips.
Looking closely, her name in the group chat was actually "Train Conductor—Yuanyuan."
On the other side, after hanging up, Lin Mo decided to go out to buy groceries. Checking the logistics progress on both platforms, the delivery riders were still far away and wouldn't arrive anytime soon.
She dug out her folding cart from the corner of the yard, which she had used for camping before.
The cart was very light but had a 120L capacity and could bear 300 jin. It also came with a plastic cover; if tightly closed, no one could see what was inside.
Lin Mo wasted no time. After confirming the cart worked, she shouldered her 16-inch daily commute backpack, put on a knitted hat, covered the lower half of her face with a mask, grabbed her keys, and quickly walked into the cold wind.
The wind carried fine chills into her collar as Lin Mo stepped on fallen leaves. The "crunch crunch" sound filled her mind with a mental list of supplies, causing her to take a wrong turn at a familiar intersection. She didn't snap out of it until she saw an unfamiliar convenience store sign.
"Went the wrong way." She backtracked, the cart's wheels grinding over piles of fallen leaves with a dull "squeak," all the way to the market entrance.
There was a meat stall at the market entrance. Lin Mo had been there twice before and knew their cured meat was good.
Parking her cart next to the stall counter, Lin Mo kept her voice lower than usual: "Hello, I'd like 30 jin of cured sausages and 30 jin of cured pork belly."
"Oh! That's a lot!" The female boss's gold earrings swung in a beautiful arc: "Young lady, visiting relatives? Or stocking up for New Year's early?"