Lan Jin said calmly, "I bought all these for Qiao Qiao. There's just too many, she can't play with them all, so I put some out to sell."
With that, the matter was settled. Whether they kept running the night market or not, the toys would eventually run out.
After a brief chat with Captain Zhang, they watched him leave.
Lao Gao frowned at his back. "Captain Zhang won't get suspicious, right? It's just a few toys, and there aren't even that many. There's no way he'd link this to the supermarket, right?"
"Who knows. Once these toys are gone, that's it. Didn't we say we'd sell bicycles before? Let's put out a few bikes next time."
Lao Gao's mouth twitched. "But doesn't that make us look even more like we raided a supermarket?"
Lan Jin shook her head. "Not really. Bikes are out in the open. We'll sell a few and see how it goes. It's not like we have to keep the night market running forever."
Then Lao Gao said, "If it really doesn't work, we can just sell in the black market. Captain Zhang won't follow us there."
Lan Jin thought about it, and the idea sounded reasonable. "But if we do that, then we should sell things we've never sold before. People in this base live pretty well, so there should be a good market in the black market."
The more she considered it, the more sense it made. She had way too many supplies in her space, and selling off a portion wouldn't affect their survival. On top of that, they could use the contribution points to buy weapons. Why not?
Lan Jin couldn't sit still anymore. "Why don't we see what we don't need but can sell? Anything we can earn is worth it. When we get back tonight, we'll sort it out. Tomorrow you and Xiao Huang can ask around."
"Alright."
…
Back home, they stepped into the space again. Lao Gao stared at the piles of supplies, uneasy. He asked, "Sister Lan, what exactly should we sell? Food's out of the question, but everything else… it all feels like we could sell it, yet also like we shouldn't."
The problem was, they had no idea if some of these things could ever be produced again. If they sold them and it turned out those items were gone for good, they'd regret it.
Lan Jin, however, had no such hesitation. She pointed at a corner stacked with cosmetics. "These. Lipsticks and such. People here still wear makeup. That means there's a market. If there's demand, there'll be buyers."
Lao Gao froze, dumbfounded. "What? Sister Lan, it's the apocalypse. Who the hell would want makeup?"
"Just try. I've got plenty of skincare too, nothing fancy, all from the supermarket. I'll keep the good stuff for me and Ling Jiang, but the cheaper ones can all be sold."
There were dozens of boxes, way too much for them to use up. Selling some wouldn't hurt.
Huang Jinghe chuckled. "Let's ask around first. If Sister Lan's right, then we've got loads of stuff from the supermarket we can throw on the market."
Of course, that only worked if they could actually sell it.
Lao Gao sighed. "Fine. I'll check tomorrow."
…
The next day.
After watering the vegetables in the planting zone, the group split up.
Lan Jin and Ling Jiang stayed to watch the shop. Lao Gao and Huang Jinghe went to ask around about the black market.
Lao Gao had his ways. After asking just two people, he'd already made contact with someone from the black market. And that someone was none other than Da Fei's crew, the same people they'd traded with back in Capital City.
Both sides recognized each other immediately.
Da Fei remembered them clearly. That batch of condoms had made him a huge profit.
And Lao Gao remembered them too, mostly because he'd traded away an invitation letter and a pile of condoms, only for them to go completely unused. He still felt the sting.
But now, it was like meeting old friends after years apart.
"Da Fei! No wonder you looked familiar, turns out it's you!"
Da Fei grinned in surprise. "Well I'll be, it's you guys! When'd you get here? Must've been a while, right?"
"Not really," Lao Gao said quickly. "We only got here a few days ago. Just wanted to trade some supplies. Didn't expect to run into an old friend."
After the greetings, they got down to business.
Lao Gao asked, "Are you guys still taking everything these days?"
"Everything. If the base already has it, the price is lower. If it doesn't, the price goes up. Just tell me what you've got, I'll give you a fair deal."
Lao Gao glanced at Huang Jinghe, then leaned in. "To tell the truth, we've got some cosmetics and skincare. Sure, the base has some, but not as much variety as ours. So… what do you think?"
Da Fei blinked. "Cosmetics and skincare? Seriously?"
"Yeah," Lao Gao said. "When we went scavenging, we found a few livestream companies. Some sold food, some had piles of this stuff. Food we ate, but makeup and skincare? No way we'd finish it all."
Da Fei narrowed his eyes. "Were those used or new?"
"All brand new. If the seals were broken, we left them. Still ended up with a ton of unopened boxes."
The moment he heard there were several boxes, Da Fei's pulse jumped. Still, he forced himself to act calm so he could press the price down. "You bring samples?"
They had, though only because Lan Jin insisted. Lao Gao pulled out a box with a skincare set and a few sealed lipsticks.
Da Fei inspected them carefully, then asked, "All your stock is like this?"
Lao Gao nodded. "Yeah. We've got singles, all sealed too."
Da Fei's eyes gleamed. He couldn't let them walk away now. "These skincare products aren't cheap here, and they're often out of stock. How about this, we go by the bottle. Eighteen contribution points each. Lipsticks, ten each."
As for smaller items, they'd settle between five to ten points apiece.