lody Sumrs walked into Crystal Mart and saw a young woman sitting by the cash register, scrolling through her phone. It was a familiar face. Surprised, she called out, "Crystal!"
Crystal Lynch, who was looking down at her phone, glanced up at the sound of her na. She looked just as surprised. "lody?"
Crystal Lynch had been lody Sumrs’s college roommate. But back then, lody was always busy with various part-ti jobs and rarely joined in on dorm get-togethers. Her relationship with her roommates wasn’t very close, and she lost contact with them after graduation.
However, Crystal and lody had gotten along reasonably well. Crystal had a cheerful, straightforward personality and often stood in line with lody to get food at the cafeteria.
Delighted, Crystal ran over and hugged lody. "lody, what are you doing here? I rember you went back to your hotown after graduation."
"I sold the place back ho. I just moved here to The tropolis Residences a few days ago," lody replied with a smile.
"Really? What a coincidence! So we live in the sa community!"
The two held hands and caught up. lody asked, "Are you trying to sell this supermarket?"
Hearing her ntion it, Crystal said with so frustration, "Yeah. The foot traffic here is low, so the store is always empty. My dad got tricked into buying the apartnt and the comrcial space here. He was told they were going to develop a new city district in this area."
"Did you see the Garden Community in front of The tropolis Residences? Late last year, it was zoned for a top-tier school. It’s just two streets away from us. Because of that, a lot of hoowners in The tropolis Residences sold their places here to buy or just rent in the Garden Community. The bottom line is, fewer and fewer people are living around here."
"Right now, the supermarket’s daily revenue is pretty low. We’ve tried running sales promotions. We get a lot of people during the sales, but afterward, it’s even emptier than before. For a while now, the store has been operating at a loss, and it’s only staying afloat because my brother subsidizes it with the money he makes as a truck driver."
"I feel bad letting my brother keep covering for . My family talked it over a couple of days ago, and we decided to sell the supermarket. I’ll just go find a job sowhere. That way, my dad can go back to driving trucks with my brother. We’re planning to rent a place downtown, list our apartnt here for sale in a couple of days, and sell the supermarket for a low price."
Crystal sighed as she spoke. "To be honest, I really like this supermarket. It’s my first real venture after graduation. If it weren’t constantly losing money, I really wouldn’t want to sell it."
’No wonder I never saw Crystal here in my past life,’ lody thought. ’They must have moved away before the tornado hit.’
After the extre heat began, prices skyrocketed. Later, this supermarket beca the community’s supply distribution center, working with the property managent office to receive and hand out governnt disaster relief supplies. Eventually, these people were even recruited directly into the reconstruction departnt to participate in the national post-disaster rebuilding effort.
In her past life, the new owner who took over the supermarket beca a mber of the reconstruction departnt and was involved in rebuilding all of Anworth. He beca quite a prominent figure. Robert Lancaster even considered introducing his son, Silas, to the owner’s daughter.
This ti around, lody didn’t want to let that opportunity go to soone else.
Having made up her mind, lody said to Crystal, "Crystal, I want to invest in the supermarket. I’ll put up the money so your brother doesn’t have to subsidize you anymore. Figure out how much you need, and let’s run it together."
Crystal was taken aback. "Did you not hear a word I just said? lody, this place is a money pit! Why would you want to jump into it? Did you see the ’Pri Location for Sale’ sign I put up and actually believe it? That’s just for show. This location is anything but pri."
"Crystal, I’m serious," lody said, her expression earnest. "Talk to your father and ask when he’ll be ho. Let’s have our families sit down and discuss this together."
"But... why?" Crystal was still confused. "lody, is this so kind of charity project? Are you playing angel investor and picking as your pet project?"
lody didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. "I have my own plans. Don’t worry. It just so happens that you don’t want the supermarket to close, and my money can help you keep it open. Isn’t that a win-win?"
Seeing Crystal still hesitating, lody urged her to call her family right away.
lody arranged with Crystal’s father for their families to et and talk that evening. She stayed and chatted with Crystal for a little while longer before leaving.
*
When lody Sumrs got ho, she saw Colin Sumrs and Winnie Sumrs busy in the yard.
Winnie Sumrs had already put the fish and shrimp fry into the pond and was now helping Colin Sumrs plant the fruit tree saplings.
After they finished, lody called them over and told them about her plan to invest in the supermarket.
"If she said the supermarket doesn’t get much foot traffic, what if we take it over and can’t sell anything?" Colin Sumrs asked, sounding worried.
"Don’t worry, Uncle. Have you forgotten what I said about the abnormal weather? Everyone will need to start stockpiling supplies soon."
lody thought for a mont before adding, "If it really doesn’t work out, you can just treat this money as a loan. If we don’t make a profit, I’ll pay you back with interest."
"What are you talking about, child? Do you think your uncle is that kind of person?" Colin Sumrs said. "I need to call your aunt and ask her first."
Colin Sumrs went to make the call, but Winnie Sumrs didn’t hesitate. She took out her bank card and gave it to lody. "This was supposed to be for your dowry, but I’m giving it all to you now. You have full authority over how to use it."
Holding the card, lody said to Winnie, "Don’t worry, Mom. Investing this money in the supermarket is a sure bet."
There was another reason lody hadn’t ntioned. By becoming part-owners of the supermarket, her uncle, aunt, and mother would have sothing to do after the apocalypse began. Otherwise, with their strong work ethic, lody worried they would get sick from sheer idleness.
A mont later, Colin Sumrs ca back from his call. He nodded at lody and said, "Your uncle is investing too. Your aunt agreed."
*
That evening, Grace Sutton ca ho as well. Leaving her grandmother and Miss Lowell to look after the house, lody took the other three out. They t Crystal Lynch’s family at a private kitchen-style restaurant in the community.
Crystal Lynch’s father, Finn Lynch, was a middle-aged man who had been widowed early in life. He had single-handedly supported his son, Shawn Lynch, and daughter, Crystal Lynch, through college by working as a long-haul truck driver.
Driving a truck was exhausting, and as Finn Lynch had gotten older in recent years, he found the strain of long-haul trips was becoming too much for him. That was why he had bought the comrcial storefront and started running the supermarket with his daughter.
He never expected the supermarket’s business to be so bleak. Since he wasn’t old enough to collect a pension yet, he had no choice but to plan on going back to trucking.
After the two families exchanged pleasantries, Finn Lynch got straight to the point. "I can’t hide this from you. The supermarket’s daily revenue is very low right now. If you really invest, you might never make your money back."
"Don’t worry, sir, we’re well aware," lody said. "The supermarket isn’t small, but the selection of goods is a bit limited. Because of the low revenue, you had to reduce the variety of products, which created a vicious cycle."
"After we invest, we can diversify the inventory. Maybe that will be enough to turn things around."
lody could only make up a vague justification. She couldn’t just tell the Lynchs that extre temperatures were coming, prices would soar, factories would shut down, and it would beco a seller’s market where goods would be easy to sell.
Besides, the community’s occupancy rate was only temporarily low. Looking at the near future alone, after the coming tornado, many hoowners would move here from the disaster-stricken areas.
After so discussion, seeing that the Sumrs family was resolute, Mr. Lynch didn’t try to persuade them any further.
The two families signed the investnt agreent right then and there. Colin Sumrs and Winnie Sumrs each contributed 300,000 yuan, for a total of 600,000 yuan, to invest in the supermarket. They agreed on the equity distribution and decided to run the business together.
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