In the end, Li Dong placed an order with Boss Jin, the owner of the canned fruit factory, for fifty tons of assorted fruit cans, covering dozens of varieties listed above.
The intent order exceeded thousands of tons.
This had Boss Jin grinning from ear to ear.
Li Dong had encountered quite a few factory owners like this, eager to supply goods to his doorstep.
Thanks to his supermarket, Li Dong was acquainted with many people in the supply chain, including the contact details of some supply chain company owners and group bosses.
After all, who wouldn't covet a large, comprehensive supermarket in a high-end residential area?
The domestic supply chain was too saturated. To outcompete rivals, suppliers fought tooth and nail just to secure a sliver of market share.
Currently, most of the inventory and supply chains for Skyhua Supermarket were personally vetted and selected by Li Dong.
This was, after all, a large-scale, high-end comprehensive supermarket serving tens of thousands of people, with daily revenues nearing a million yuan. Monthly profits easily reached several million, and annual profits exceeded half a billion. How could he afford to be careless?
If quality standards weren't met and the reputation suffered, bankruptcy wouldn't be far behind.
Did people think the money Li Dong spent on chasing women grew on trees?
Without some capability, he wouldn't even be able to maintain the family business built by the previous generation—let alone have the luxury to chase women.
Of course, part of the fifty tons of fruit cans he ordered would also be stocked on Skyhua Supermarket's shelves for customers to purchase.
This was just a trial. If the response was positive, a larger order would follow.
After all, the apocalypse hadn't arrived yet, and he had plenty of suppliers to choose from.
Skyhua Supermarket also dealt in rice, flour, cooking oil, salt, seafood, and fresh beef, lamb, and pork.
Being a comprehensive supermarket, how could its offerings not be all-encompassing?
Naturally, the prices were slightly higher compared to other supermarkets or street vendors.
Though the prices were a bit steep, the quality was absolutely guaranteed—far superior to most products on the market.
Skyhua Supermarket also had partnerships with high-quality farms.
All the food products sourced were natural and free from pollution, with no pesticide or chemical fertilizer residues—such as organic and inorganic vegetables.
As for the price? Easily double that of similar products.
Good things were never cheap.
With a domestic market of 1.7 billion people, the daily consumption of resources was staggering.
As long as the food didn't kill anyone, it was already considered decent—never mind whether it still had pesticide residues. At worst, people could just wash it a few more times.
An official from a statistical department under the Grand Xia's State Council once stated that from morning to night, in just one day, the nation's populace consumed 850,000 tons of grain, 280,000 tons of meat, 120,000 tons of oil, and 2.33 million tons of vegetables. Only by preparing these quantities every morning could the basic livelihood of the people be ensured—this was the bottom line.
No other figures were as critical as these.
And this was just for a single day. Every year, Grand Xia had to import massive amounts of food—such as rice, soybeans, wheat, and corn—amounting to tens or even hundreds of millions of tons.
What was all this imported grain used for?
A small portion went into staple foods, while another small portion was processed into various finished products for export to earn foreign currency.
The majority, however, was used as animal feed. Without feed, how would the chickens, ducks, geese, pigs, cows, and sheep in farms grow meat?
How would the people have meat to eat?
Don't think that processing feed and grain products is simple. A large portion of countries on Blue Star lack the capability to process feed or produce beautifully packaged goods like bread.
Not every nation possesses a complete industrial system like Great Xia.
Even the Far Star Union and the Polar Bear Federation don't have industrial systems as advanced and comprehensive as Great Xia's.
Some of their high-end industrial chains are distributed across the globe.
Of course, most of these high-end chains are located in their satellite states.
"Yuanzhou, what time will you be home this afternoon? I'll ask Aunt Liu to prepare lunch for you in advance."
Li Dong opened the door of his Maybach, settled into the driver's seat, turned on the air conditioning, and then called Li Tiang.
"No need. We'll arrive at Pengcheng South Station around 3:30 p.m., and by the time we get home, it'll be pretty late. Tell Aunt Liu not to bother making lunch for the two of us."
"Should I come pick you up?"
"No, we'll transfer at Pengcheng South Station and probably won't get home until around 5 p.m."
"Alright."
"..."
After a brief chat lasting a few minutes, beads of sweat had already formed on Li Dong's forehead despite sitting in the air-conditioned car.
It was worth noting that Li Dong's physical constitution made him nearly impervious to extreme heat or cold. His body was several times stronger than an average person's—his single-arm strength exceeded 3,000 kilograms, and his neural reflexes were over a dozen times faster than normal.
If even he felt stifled and sweaty, the outside heat must have been absurdly intense.
"It's definitely not just the 40°C the weather forecast claimed—it's at least 45°C. No wonder some people online joke that their lives are saved by air conditioning."
Before this, Li Dong had never paid much attention to extreme heat, but now he was starting to understand.
His extraordinary physique had dulled his sensitivity to both cold and scorching temperatures, but it had also brought him countless joys.
At the very least, when it came to card games, Li Dong had never lost.
"Since Yuanzhou is coming back today, I can ask him what this so-called 'real apocalypse' is all about. If it turns out to be nonsense, I'll drag him to a psychiatrist myself."
Li Dong started the engine, lost in thought as he slowly pulled out.
On the way, he stopped by the local seafood market, found a familiar vendor, and bought over 10,000 yuan worth of premium, fresh, and lively seafood to take home.
In addition, he purchased several dozen pounds of high-quality beef and lamb. Given his current physical condition, Li Dong needed to consume large amounts of high-energy food—and these meats were perfect for supplying that energy.
By the time he got home, it was almost 11 a.m.
Li Dong handed the seafood and meat to Aunt Liu for preparation, then lounged on the sofa, legs crossed, scrolling through videos.
On the country's top short-video platform, most of the clips he came across featured beautiful young women—likely due to his browsing preferences.
Occasionally, he'd stumble upon breaking news or trending topics.
For example: reports of brutal murders, scandals involving celebrities cheating, heatstroke deaths amid the scorching temperatures with public warnings to stay hydrated, or stories of good Samaritans stepping in to help.
Or anglers fishing up human remains—though sometimes, they might reel in an intact body.
Or yet another country descending into civil war.
In short, under the blockade of various information cocoons and the influence of fragmented entertainment short videos, the general public does not perceive this heatwave as particularly terrifying.
Most people are too busy running around just to make ends meet.
Even if someone told them the apocalypse was coming one day, how much would it really concern them?
At worst, they'd eat and drink well before peacefully meeting their end.
In fact, current human technology is entirely capable of countering this heatwave—as long as temperatures don't rise above 60 or 70 degrees Celsius.
Li Dong even came across videos and travel guides of wealthy middle-class individuals vacationing in Antarctica to escape the heat.
This wasn't a bad option, really.
The Southern Hemisphere remained unaffected by the heatwave for now. Although the Antarctic glaciers were melting, the rate was much slower compared to the Arctic.
Or perhaps there was hardly any change at all.
Temperatures still hovered at dozens of degrees below zero. Watching videos of snow-covered landscapes and blizzards outside was unimaginable for those in the Northern Hemisphere.
At noon, after finishing the lunch prepared by Aunt Liu, Li Dong returned to his room for a short nap. Around 12:30, he set off for Lianhai Petroleum & Shipbuilding Company.
Since the company was located in Pengcheng, he had to make the trip there.
Fortunately, Pengcheng wasn't far from Dongjiang—just an hour's drive at most.
The afternoon proceeded smoothly, just as Li Dong had planned.
He had secured the 200,000 tons of oil, but the problem was transporting it. The oil was still stored in the seller's tanks, incurring hefty monthly rental fees.
Li Dong also needed a batch of storage tanks—ones that were both numerous and sufficiently large.
Oil was known as the "blood of industry," while coal was its "food." Oil wasn't just fuel; it was liquid black gold.
Without oil, gathering it post-apocalypse would be incredibly difficult.