Reborn with Nothing but My Farm and Vengeance in the Apocalypse novel Chapter 54

Chapter 54: Chapter 54: Rationing

That evening, when they got home, Melody’s uncle, aunt, grandma, and Miss Lowell had also heard about the murder in Building 3.

"How terrifying. To think a young girl was driven to kill someone with a knife... What has this world come to," Grandma lamented, shaking her head.

"Unemployment is high, and everything’s so expensive. Who knows what the future holds," Miss Lowell added with a sigh.

"In that case, we have to be careful to hide our things from now on. We can’t let anyone know how many supplies we have," Melody’s aunt said nervously. With the Summers Family’s stockpile, not to mention the fresh fruits and vegetables in the yard, who wouldn’t be green with envy?

Her uncle scratched his head. "We’re in a luxury neighborhood, it should be fine, right? The rich people around here don’t seem to lack anything. I see supply trucks discreetly making deliveries every day."

His wife rolled her eyes at him. "Are you an idiot? We’re not like them. They have bodyguards!"

Her husband let out a hearty laugh and puffed out his chest. "Then I’ll be our family’s bodyguard! Starting tonight, I’ll sleep in the living room downstairs. I’d like to see anyone dare try to get in!"

The family laughed. "Enough about bodyguards," Grandma said. "Come and help me with the roast pork. I saw half a side of pork in the freezer today, so I decided to roast it. The pig may have been small, but the meat is excellent. The whole house smelled amazing while it was cooking."

Melody’s spirits lifted. "I’ll help! I’ll help! I’m the one who took that out of the freezer today. I can’t believe we’re already eating it tonight!"

The pork was roasted to a perfect golden-brown, with very little fat. The first bite was filled with a rich, savory flavor, completely free of the unpleasant gaminess that some pork has.

Melody cut off a tender piece and fed it to Albus. The white cat looked utterly content after finishing it.

The Summers Family ate with great relish, unable to stop praising the pork. Melody even started to regret selling the other three sides.

After dinner, Melody checked her phone. All three sides of pork had been purchased, and the offal had sold out as well.

On top of that, she had also sold dozens of fish and a good amount of produce in just the past half-day. Melody diligently packed everything, getting it ready to ship out first thing in the morning.

*

Early on the morning of the third day, a shipment of supplies arrived at Crystal Mart.

This delivery included food from various factory warehouses, along with national reserves of grain and meat.

The residents were buzzing with excitement at the news. Those who had been hesitant about stockpiling before now had no doubts. After the chaos of the past few days, they had finally grasped the reality of the situation: Stockpile! They had to stockpile!

Just as people were getting their money ready to hoard supplies, a new set of shopping rules was announced.

The government was now centrally managing all factory inventories. Supplies sent to residential complexes were rationed based on the number of residents.

Residents had to present their IDs to make a purchase. Each person was limited to a certain monetary value and quantity of goods per week, with the specific quota varying by product category. For example, if someone only bought staples like rice, flour, oil, and dried noodles, they were limited to a maximum of four kilograms per week.

As for prices, most goods had temporarily stabilized at around ten times their pre-disaster cost. Staples like rice and flour were about five times higher.

The announcement caused another uproar among the residents:

"4-2009 Nina: Why are they starting to ration now? Weren’t we told the reserves were plentiful?"

"2-1908 Coco: They’re probably thinking long-term. Who knows when this awful weather will end? The harvests were a total failure this year. Besides, if you’re not wasteful, the rationed amount is enough to get by."

"2-1408 Bella Grant: Ugh, whatever. I’m buying first, worrying later. We’re completely out of rice at my place. I had to trade milk with my neighbor for some rice just to cook yesterday’s dinner."

"4-1209 SlackingOff: Yeah, for real! They have meat from the reserves! That’s amazing! I’d almost forgotten what meat tastes like. I’m using my entire quota on meat!"

"4-2009 Nina: The quota for meat is too small. I’m just going to use all of mine on rice. As long as you have rice, you won’t starve."

"5-1107 Azure: You can’t spend your whole quota on just rice. You need to buy some canned goods or something to go with it. Everyone in my family has a big appetite. This quota is probably just enough to keep us from going hungry. Luckily, we still have some food stockpiled at home, so we’re not worried for now."

"4-605 Cozy: To the person above, don’t announce that you have supplies! Have you already forgotten about all the home-invasion robberies lately?"

"5-1107 Azure has retracted a message."

"..."

*

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABELVerify