Joanne White hesitated for a mont, then unblocked Austin Hale from her contacts and gave him a call.
Austin answered almost imdiately. "Joanne! You finally decided to call . Do you have any idea how worried I’ve been? I’ve been going crazy! Where are you right now? When are you coming ho? Mom and I are both waiting for you!"
Joanne frowned, listening until Austin finished. Then, she spoke coldly, "Austin Hale, I’ve already told you we’re broken up. Stop harassing . I’ve already had the abortion. Go ho. I’m not there. If you keep this up, I’ll have my parents call the police."
"Had an abortion?" Austin staggered at her words, his mind going blank. He then roared, "Joanne White! How could you do that?!"
Joanne remained silent. Austin continued to yell, "Why?! How could you be so heartless?!"
Austin thought for a second, then demanded, "Joanne White, tell the truth. Are you seeing soone else?!"
Joanne cut him off coldly. "That’s none of your business. The school district apartnt is yours. My family doesn’t want the one million we paid for it, either. I’ll have soone assist you with the property transfer. Just stop harassing . There’s no future for us."
Austin shouted, "Don’t give that crap! How much is that apartnt even worth now? I put my entire life savings into buying that place, and it was all for you! You have to co back and marry ! Since you got rid of the baby, you have to give another one!"
Joanne felt her anger flare. She yelled back at Austin, "Give you another one? How am I supposed to do that? I wasn’t even allowed to use the air conditioning at your house! Your mom complained every ti I took a shower! While I was pregnant, your mom only fed plain boiled noodles! How am I supposed to have your child? Austin Hale, take a good look at yourself! Can you even afford to take to the hospital? Can you afford to raise a child once it’s born? Are you trying to get us both killed?!"
Listening to Joanne’s barrage of questions, Austin deflated like a popped balloon. He fell silent, his expression turning dazed.
Joanne could only hear suppressed sobs from the other end of the line. She sighed. "Austin, let’s just part on good terms. I really can’t go on living at your house. That baby would have only suffered if it had been born. Let’s just leave it at this. Don’t contact again."
Then, Joanne hung up the phone.
Austin listened to the dial tone, his mind a complete blank. For so reason, he suddenly thought of lody Sumrs. ’Did I choose the wrong path from the very beginning?’
He staggered away from the White Family’s residential complex. After pushing his car a short distance down the road, he sat down dejectedly on the curb, unsure of where to go or what to do.
*
Over the next few days, lody Sumrs received a steady stream of orders and custor reviews.
"User xxx: It was delivered by a drone! It startled ; I thought it was an airdropped bomb. Kidding aside, the quality of the fruit is amazing. The aroma is rich, it’s full of juice, and it’s so sweet. Much better than what the Rhodes Group provides. I’ll take 10 more orders."
"User xxx: This must be a free-range chicken. The at is excellent, so much better than the caged chickens from the factory farms. The soup I made with it was delicious. I’m buying 5 more."
"User xxx: This tomato is actually sweet. I haven’t had a tomato this sweet in a long ti. The indoor-grown varieties from other companies are just awful these days—completely tasteless and sour."
"User xxx: I bought these peaches for my employer’s family. The lady of the house loved them and told to only buy from this shop from now on. It’s a sha I didn’t get to try one, so I don’t know what they taste like."
"User xxx: This honey is incredible. I felt so much better after drinking it. Even my dizziness has improved. It’s truly amazing."
lody and Albus had been busy packing and shipping orders for days. The vegetables stocked in the warehouse were nearly sold out, and the fruit was in such high demand they couldn’t keep it in stock. As soon as she finished packing the latest orders, lody rolled up her sleeves and prepared to go into the woods to pick more fruit.
When she returned, Albus jumped excitedly in front of her and said:
[All the recent orders have been confird as received! So far, our total earnings have reached one million!]
Having earned her first million, lody happily picked Albus up and spun around in circles.
"Looks like the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t far off! At this rate, we’ll earn a hundred million in no ti!"
lody decided to diversify her product offerings. The fish in The Arcadian Stream had multiplied significantly. She noticed that other shops were selling fish at exorbitant prices. With the widespread drought and high temperatures, fish farming had beco incredibly difficult, making every fish on the dinner table an extre luxury.
She listed grass carp, black carp, common carp, and perch for sale. They were all large, plump, and lively, each priced at 10,000.
lody thought for a mont. Several of the Bama pig sows were pregnant. She selected two boars and sent them to the processing workshop.
She brought them to the professional processing machine. Slaughter, dehairing, bleeding, and butchering were all completed with the press of a button. Before long, the pig’s head, trotters, offal, and four sides of pork were delivered out separately.
lody listed the pig’s head, trotters, and offal, along with three of the sides of pork. She decided to take the last one ho to roast. She had been craving this Bama pork for a long ti.
After finishing her work, lody carried Albus and the pork out of the space. She quietly put the pork in the refrigerator to chill, planning to tell her family it was sothing that had been in the freezer.
Once everything was put away, lody chugged a large bottle of honeysuckle honey water. A cooling sensation washed over her, sweeping away her fatigue. Taking advantage of the refreshing feeling, she packed so peaches and plums into a cardboard box and headed out to Crystal Mart.
The sun was too harsh at this ti of day, so Crystal Mart was empty. The residents of the complex usually hid at ho during the day and only ca out to shop after sunset.
Only Crystal Lynch herself was in the store. When she saw lody arrive, she happily ca forward to greet her.
lody handed the box to Crystal, whispering, "I grew these at ho. They’re for you, Lynch, and Mr. Lynch."
Crystal’s eyes lit up. She gave lody a happy hug, then quickly hid the fruit.
"Where’s my mom?" lody asked.
Crystal sighed and replied, "Your mom and my dad are next door. There’s a problem with the product supply chain, so they’re discussing counterasures with the property managent staff."
lody was taken aback. "What happened?"
Crystal shook her head. "You might not know, but a lot of factories have stopped shipping goods. The governnt has been implenting price controls, capping how much the price of many food items can increase. But after hearing that, a lot of manufacturers just stopped selling altogether, telling us they’re out of stock. In reality, they’re just hoarding their inventory, waiting to see if they’ll get a chance to raise prices later."
lody looked around. Sure enough, many of the shelves were empty, especially in the rice, flour, grains, and oil section.
"When the residents saw they couldn’t buy rice and flour, they started to panic. There have been so thefts in the complex these past few days. So people on the lower floors had supplies stolen from their balconies. I also heard there was a break-in and robbery in Building 4," Crystal said in a low voice. "Luckily, the robber was inexperienced. The hoowner pinned him down and gave him a serious beating right after he got in the door."
"Property managent is worried this will cause a panic if it continues, so they’re trying to figure out a solution," Crystal said.
lody felt a headache coming on. "If they can’t restock, there’s definitely going to be trouble."
lody opened her residential complex’s group chat. As expected, it was already buzzing with discussion:
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