Apocalyptic Hoarding Diary

Chapter 495 Gathering Information

Xu Xiaoyan shifted her gaze from the entrance of the trading center and began searching among the shops on both sides of the street. Soon, a shop called "Alleyway Dessert" caught her attention.

The shop's door was open, and through the glass, one could clearly see the interior: an L-shaped glass counter with a light wood finish, and various desserts displayed under the glass cover, including bread, cake rolls, cookies, and several pineapple buns that looked fresh from the oven.

Behind the counter are shelves displaying various packaged snacks, some in transparent plastic bags, some in cardboard boxes, and some wrapped in cellophane.

In the corner were two small round tables and a few chairs. The round tables were made of wrought iron and painted white. A floral tablecloth was laid on the tabletop, and the chairs were covered with matching floral cushions.

It's still early, and the shop is very quiet.

A young woman wearing a white apron was standing behind the counter, head down, using a long bread knife to cut a large piece of freshly baked cake into evenly sized pieces.

Xu Xiaoyan pushed the door open and went inside. The wind chimes shook violently a few times when the door was pushed open.

The young woman looked up, her gaze shifting from the cake to the doorway. A polite smile curved her lips. "Good morning, just browsing."

Xu Xiaoyan nodded, her gaze falling on the desserts in the glass display case.

Several handwritten price tags were pasted below the glass cover. They were on white cardstock with black lettering, and the handwriting was neat and tidy, showing that they had been written with care.

Bread, five yuan each.

Cake roll, ten yuan a piece.

Cookies, eight yuan a bag.

Pineapple buns, seven yuan each.

She bent down, pretending to look at the plate of cookies under the glass dome, but in reality, her gaze lingered on the cookies for two seconds before she observed the young woman's profile through the reflection in the glass.

After watching for a while, she finally made up her mind, straightened up, and turned her gaze to the young woman.

"Um," she tilted her head slightly towards the trading center, pointing her chin in that direction, "is that trading center across the street always this crowded?"

The young woman paused in cutting the cake, looked up, then looked away, moved the bread knife away from the cake, and placed it on the cutting board.

She wiped her hands with her apron, then placed both hands on the counter and leaned forward slightly.

"It was the same when the previous groups of people first arrived," she said, her voice lower than before. "The lobby was so crowded you could barely move, and the queue stretched out onto the street. You couldn't see the end of the queue even after turning two corners. It got better after a few days. Once the business was done, fewer people came."

Xu Xiaoyan nodded, digesting the information for a moment, and then asked, "Why doesn't the government set up an online trading center? It would be more convenient for everyone, and we wouldn't have to queue in such long lines every day."

The young woman laughed. "Of course there are. Maybe those people are new here. At first, everyone goes to the service center, but once they figure it out, they'll know how to do it online."

Her eyes lit up instantly.

"Do you know the website address of the online trading center?" Her voice was a little more urgent than before. "To be honest, I just arrived. I connected to the internet on my phone yesterday, but I don't know where the website address of the online trading center is."

"Did you bring your phone?" the young woman asked.

Xu Xiaoyan quickly took out her phone from her backpack, pressed the power button, the screen turned on, and then swiped her thumb up from the bottom of the screen to unlock the phone.

After connecting to the internet, she opened a browser and handed her phone to the young woman.

The young woman took the phone, tapped the address bar on the screen with her index finger, and then typed in a line of pinyin letter by letter.

She typed "Qing City Public Resources Free Trading Platform" and read it aloud in pinyin. Perhaps afraid that Xu Xiaoyan wouldn't know what she was typing, she reminded her, "Just type this name."

Her finger tapped the "Go" button on the screen.

The screen spun a few times, and the loading circle slowly rotated in the center of the screen. Soon, the image on the screen changed, and at the top of the page was a dark blue title: "Qing City Public Resources Free Trading Platform".

But in the very center of the page are two square input boxes.

Above the first input box is a line of small, black, Song typeface font, several sizes smaller than the title: Account Name.

Above the second input box, there is a line of small print: Password.

To the right of the password input box is a small link that says "Forgot Password" in blue, with a horizontal line below it. The line darkens when you click on it.

Below the two input boxes is a large, blue, rounded button with the word "Login" written on it.

Username, password—Xu Xiaoyan stared at the two input boxes for a moment, stunned.

She looked up at the young woman. "What's the username? Password... I don't know."

The young woman turned her phone over so the screen was facing out, showing it to Xu Xiaoyan: "The account name is your online banking account number. The password is not preset; you set it yourself when you log in for the first time."

After you click "Log in", the system will prompt you "This account has not set a password. Please set a new password". Then, enter the password you want to set twice and click "Confirm". After that, you will use this password to log in.

She handed the phone back to Xu Xiaoyan.

"Thank you, miss," she said, her voice filled with unadorned gratitude.

The young woman waved her hand, picked up the bread knife from the cutting board again, lowered her head, and continued cutting the unfinished piece of cake.

Xu Xiaoyan stood there, looking down at her phone screen. Below the dark blue title, two white input boxes awaited her.

She took a deep breath, exited the browser, turned off her phone, put it back in the side pocket of her backpack, then pushed open the door and walked out of the store.

Xu Xiaoyan didn't go straight back to Building 612. Instead, she found a quiet corner, turned on her phone, and logged into the online trading platform.

The page loaded quickly, showing her 16-digit account number in the upper left corner, with a prompt next to it that she could enter a network name.

She chose the name "Canghai" for herself, but the system prompted that the username was already taken. Helpless, she entered "Canghai 612" again.

The account was approved very quickly.

She clicked into her account and found a new line showing her electronic bank card balance.

Upon closer inspection, it showed 5380 yuan, meaning that after the exchange rate, her account had that much money available for her to use.

This money was enough for her initial expenses, and Xu Xiaoyan nodded in satisfaction.