Qin Shilei thought for a moment. He first rode Xiaoqiang to the Fujian Granary, and had the queen ant lead its tens of millions of subordinates to migrate to this valley.
After working until late at night, Qin Shilei finally got the queen ant to lead the ant colony into the small space.
He then moved the light gate a kilometer towards the city, to the rooftop of a tall building, and re-entered the small space.
He was surprised to find that the queen ant had led the ant colony to destroy two to three hundred square meters of bamboo forest, and there was a tendency to continue gnawing on the bamboo for storage as food.
"Queen, stop it." Qin Shilei kicked the queen ant hard and shouted, "From now on, you can only eat fallen leaves on the ground. You are not allowed to destroy my bamboo forest."
He was troubled by the ants' food.
He didn't know if the fallen leaves here could sustain tens of millions of ants.
He warned the queen ant again not to turn this small space into a barren land, and then exited the small space.
The next day.
When Qin Shilei arrived at the banquet hall of the restaurant, two to three hundred people were already seated.
He also saw two familiar faces, Xie Xingjian and Xia Yunyan.
Not only did representatives from major powers attend, but even small forces with dozens or hundreds of people rushed over upon hearing the news.
Qin Shilei walked to the podium, waved his hand, and released a small pile of golden rice.
He got straight to the point and said, "I have food, and I am now selling it at fifty percent of the market price, in exchange for crystal cores only."
People are iron, food is steel. Without eating for a day, they feel dizzy.
The attendees were either genuinely short of food, wanted to stock up more, or some even wanted to resell it for a profit.
"Boss, we have so many people, is your food enough?" someone asked.
"As much as you want, we have it," Qin Shilei replied indifferently.
"Boss, this is just paddy rice. The rice milling machines can't be used now. How can we eat it when we take it back? Can you make it cheaper?" someone tried to bargain down the price.
"Take it or leave it, this is the price," Qin Shilei replied impolitely.
Not to mention that there are various ways to mill paddy rice into regular rice, even without them, those who are starving would eat the husks.
"Boss, business isn't done like this. How can you not let people bargain? Don't you agree?" someone tried to incite others to collectively suppress the price.
"Yes, yes, yes. We still have some food. If it's just paddy rice, I'll have to consider whether to buy it or not."
"If there's only this little discount, I'm not planning to buy it either."
"We are buying in bulk, and it's still this expensive, it's not very worthwhile."
A chorus of agreement rose from below.
Qin Shilei scanned the crowd and said coldly, "Those who are not buying can leave now."
His voice was not loud, but it echoed throughout the banquet hall, drowning out the voices of the crowd.
The scene suddenly fell silent. Just as someone was about to incite the crowd to resist again, Xie Xingjian suddenly stood up:
"Brother Qin, it is a great pleasure to meet you again. I have been troubled by food issues, and I didn't expect you to solve this big problem for me. I want twenty-five tons."
Xie Xingjian cupped his fists and greeted Qin Shilei, then promptly placed the first order.
The Flying Star Association he founded has over three thousand official members, and with their families, it amounts to six to seven thousand people.
Although the Flying Star Association is not weak, the amount of food consumed daily is considerable. Furthermore, with the bridge destroyed and no way to search for supplies on the other side of the river, food supplies are becoming tight.
"Qin... Brother Qin, I also want twenty-five tons."
Xia Yunyan also stood up. She initially wanted to call him by name but felt it was too distant, so she shyly called him Brother Qin.
The Cloud Smoke Pavilion she founded also has over two thousand members, and the situation is similar to Xie Xingjian's.
After Xie Xingjian and Xia Yunyan spoke, discussions erupted again from below.
"A shill, this must be a shill."
"One ton costs a hundred crystal cores, and twenty-five tons at a go is two thousand five hundred crystal cores. If they had that many crystal cores, they would have upgraded long ago. What else could it be but a shill?"
"I can't believe there are still shills in the apocalypse. Society is too complicated."
"Don't talk nonsense. That man is Xie Xingjian, one of the four top experts in Nanzhuang City. The woman is called Xia Yunyan, and I heard she's also an expert at the Black Iron level. Who has the face to invite them to be shills?"
"Is that true? Who exactly is this Boss Qin, to have two experts call him brother?"
Suddenly, the crowd, filled with confusion and curiosity, began to observe Qin Shilei above again.
Through this sale of grain, Qin Shilei's name entered the radar of most of the forces in Nanzhuang City for the first time.
With leaders emerging, the crowd below no longer hesitated and began to state the amount of food they needed.
"Brother Qin, where is your food?" Xie Xingjian was somewhat anxious to complete the transaction and then go out of the city to kill zombies.
"Do you have a truck? I'll put the food directly on your truck," Qin Shilei also wanted to complete the transaction as quickly as possible.
Xie Xingjian glanced at the ring in Qin Shilei's hand with curiosity, then turned and led Qin Shilei out of the restaurant.
Because they were buying food, everyone had brought trucks.
Qin Shilei jumped onto a truck, mentally estimating the volume of fifteen tons of grain. He then took out a ruler to measure, and with a wave of his hand, half a truckload of paddy rice appeared on the truck.
"Weighing it would be too troublesome. This is definitely more than fifteen tons. Is this acceptable?"
Xie Xingjian smiled and said, "Of course. Then I'll take advantage of you."
"Crisp and straightforward. Let's chat again sometime." Qin Shilei jumped off the truck and then went to Xia Yunyan's truck, repeating the process and giving her fifteen tons of food.
Money in hand, goods delivered.
Qin Shilei continuously moved between the trucks.
Watching Qin Shilei continuously produce food from his spatial ring, some people revealed greedy eyes.
If there weren't so many people present, someone might have taken the risk to rob him directly.
Busy selling goods, Qin Shilei didn't notice those who had designs on his Qiankun Ring. He continued to jump onto another truck.
He casually released over three tons of food.
"Boss Qin, is this really the full weight? Can you give a little more?" a slightly short and stout middle-aged man said with a smile.
Qin Shilei smiled and glanced at him, then turned and shouted to Zhang Cheng outside, "Uncle, come and weigh it. If it's short, tell me to add more."
The middle-aged man's expression changed, and he quickly said, "I think it should be enough. Let's not trouble you with weighing."
He used to be a rice shop owner and knew approximately how much three tons of grain was. Qin Shilei's delivery was definitely more than less.
He had only said that out of habit, wanting to gain a little more advantage.
Hearing Qin Shilei's intention to weigh, he became a little anxious.
Qin Shilei said calmly, "It's better to weigh it, so you don't think I'm shortchanging you."
Zhang Cheng, along with more than a dozen members of the Rocky team, brought several scales, quickly unloaded the grain from the truck, weighed it, and then loaded it onto another truck.
The final weighing showed an excess of nearly four hundred catties of grain.
The middle-aged man watched with a pained expression as Qin Shilei put the excess grain back into his ring.
Qin Shilei used his ring to rearrange things and then put the grain from another truck back onto the middle-aged man's vehicle.
"Pay the money. It will be 300 crystal cores."
The middle-aged man, with a dark expression, handed the crystal cores to Qin Shilei and then quickly climbed onto the truck and left.
"Truly insatiable, you got burned."
"Boss Qin, I trust you. Just give what you think is right."
"Boss Qin, I trust you too. No need to trouble you with weighing."
The remaining buyers all expressed their trust in Qin Shilei to give them the correct amount.
Qin Shilei, however, was contemplating whether he should get a weighbridge, so that no one would fear being taken advantage of.
But this would require finding a weighbridge, installing it, and finally finding a generator to power it.
A bunch of troublesome matters, and the thought of the generator's rumbling sound gave him a headache.