Apocalyptic Hoarding Diary

Xu Xiaoyan closed the back compartment and prepared to board the train.

But instead, she spotted three dark-skinned vendors approaching her under a crooked awning by the roadside, their cloudy eyes gleaming with shrewdness.

Where they had been standing, there were piles of watermelons and grapes, which looked surprisingly good—the watermelons were bright green and round, and the grapes were a deep, almost blackish purple, standing out conspicuously beside the dusty national highway.

"Hey girl, wanna buy some fruit?" A man with a gap-toothed grin was the first to rush over, his sweaty arm almost brushing against her backpack. "Local watermelons, so sweet they'll make your teeth ache!"

Two other vendors also gathered around, forming a semi-encirclement.

Xu Xiaoyan glanced at the reactions of the drivers around her; they all looked indifferent, probably thinking it was better to avoid trouble.

"How much?" she asked calmly.

The gap-toothed man rubbed his fingers together. "Watermelon is twenty, grapes are thirty, these are all fair prices!"

Xu Xiaoyan laughed in exasperation. These things that used to cost only two or three yuan had now increased tenfold.

She shook her head and was about to get into the car when the gap-toothed man suddenly grabbed the car door! A dark handprint was immediately imprinted on the car window.

"Don't rush off, young lady!" another bald vendor grinned.

"With the national highway so congested, it wouldn't be right not to buy some fruit. Take my advice, once you leave this village, there won't be any food for sale! Take this opportunity to buy some quickly."

The three exchanged glances and slowly tightened their encirclement. Xu Xiaoyan noticed that everyone in the surrounding cars was watching the commotion.

Some people even rolled down their car windows and whistled, and a man wearing a gold chain shouted, "Hey girl, need some money? I can lend you some!"

She realized she had a lot of fruit stored in her space, but buying some more wouldn't hurt, and she already had an idea in mind.

"It's not that I don't want to buy it," Xu Xiaoyan suddenly said, her expression turning troubled. "It's just that I really can't afford it..."

She deliberately gripped her backpack tightly. "If it were four yuan for watermelon and six yuan for grapes, that would be more like it."

The vendors immediately erupted in chaos. The man with the missing teeth started cursing and yelling, the bald man pretended to try to mediate, and the third, tall, thin man who had been silent all along suddenly pulled his companion aside and said, "Wait a minute."

The three retreated to a corner of the shed and whispered among themselves, occasionally turning their heads to look at her.

Xu Xiaoyan leaned against the car door, glancing at the watermelons out of the corner of her eye. Each one was plump, and the cut ends of the vines still had fresh juice on them, clearly indicating that they had just been picked from the field.

"We'll take it all at your price!" The tall, thin man turned and made the decision, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth. "But there are a total of six hundred pounds of watermelon and two hundred pounds of grapes here; you have to buy them all!"

Xu Xiaoyan's eyes widened. "Are you kidding me! How could I possibly eat that much?"

"No package deal, just the original price!" The gap-toothed man kicked the tire viciously.

After some "intense" bargaining, Xu Xiaoyan finally "reluctantly" nodded.

The vendors immediately beamed with joy and hurriedly began weighing the items. The bald vendor deliberately blocked the weight with his body while weighing, presumably having tampered with the weight.

"That'll be three thousand six!" The tall, thin man rubbed his fingers together to indicate that he was paying. Xu Xiaoyan took some more money under the cover of her backpack.

She slowly counted the banknotes, while the vendors' eyes gleamed as they stared at the bills. When the last banknote left their hands, the three of them burst into laughter.

The man with the gap-toothed tooth even winked smugly at his companion—his eyes clearly saying, "I've ripped off a sucker!"

Laughter erupted from the surrounding car, and the man with the gold chain slapped the steering wheel, shouting, "Hey girl! Take me with you next time you go shopping! Hahaha!"

The moment Xu Xiaoyan opened the trunk, she put the lunchbox back in its original place, making sure the act was convincing. It would be a big problem if someone found out the food was missing.

The vendors were handling the goods roughly. One watermelon accidentally broke open and exposed its bright red flesh. She suddenly squatted down and said, "This one that's broken has to be docked pay."

"Why should I!" The gap-toothed man's expression immediately changed.

"Either deduct my pay, or you can take me away now," Xu Xiaoyan insisted.

The vendors grumbled and returned fifty yuan. After the last basket of grapes was loaded onto the truck, she once again used the act of closing the door to store everything into her spatial storage.

Xu Xiaoyan slammed the back door shut, shutting out the vendors' smug smiles and the onlookers' stares.

However, the chatter of onlookers outside the car was like a swarm of sticky flies, seeping in through the cracks in the car windows.

"Tsk tsk, three thousand six hundred for so many watermelons and grapes! Are they even going to finish them all at once?" A middle-aged woman with curly hair munched on sunflower seeds, her voice shrill enough to pierce the air. "Has this girl lost her mind?"

The man next to her, wearing a tank top, chimed in, "Absolutely! That price could buy two cars normally! She's clearly a pampered girl who's never been ripped off!"

The man with the gold chain leaned out of the car window, his face gleaming with oil, and shouted, "Hey girl! Next time you spend money, just tell me, and I'll spend it for you! I guarantee it'll be more worthwhile than what you're doing! Hahahaha!"

Laughter spread like a tide, and many people took out their phones to secretly take pictures of Xu Xiaoyan through the car window, with flashes going off and off.

Xu Xiaoyan tightened her grip on the steering wheel slightly. She took a deep breath and realized that she really didn't need to put up with these idiots!

She shoved the car door open, her heels clicking as they hit the scorching asphalt, silencing all sound.

She glanced around, her gaze sweeping over the middle-aged woman eating sunflower seeds, then over the man in the tank top, and finally settling on the man with the gold chain.

"Brother," her voice was clear and bright, carrying a strange calmness:

"When those three men were surrounding me and trying to force me to buy something, why didn't you say a single word of justice?"

The man with the gold chain froze, the smile still lingering on his lips, making him look particularly comical.

Before he could answer, Xu Xiaoyan turned to the middle-aged woman who was eating sunflower seeds:

"And this lady, you were watching the commotion with such gusto, cracking sunflower seeds all over the floor, why didn't you think to come over and say 'that's enough'?"

The woman's hand trembled, spilling sunflower seeds all over herself, and she opened her mouth but couldn't speak.

"As for you," she said, looking at the man in the tank top, who instinctively took a half-step back.

"When they surrounded me just now, you were standing closest and recording the most. Are you planning to post it on WeChat Moments or upload it to a short video platform? Have you thought of a title yet? 'A Naïve Girl Gets Ripped Off in the Street'?"

"Now that I've paid them, they're all jumping out to act as life coaches?"

Xu Xiaoyan raised her voice slightly, her tone filled with undisguised sarcasm.

"If you're so kind, why didn't anyone stand up and say 'this price is outrageous'? Why didn't anyone call the police? Why didn't anyone even pretend to make a phone call to ask about the market price?"

Some people in the crowd lowered their heads, some looked away, and some quietly put away their phones.

After venting her frustration, Xu Xiaoyan got into the car, slammed the door, and ran away without listening to any of the idiots' arguments. She just wanted to infuriate them!

The man with the gold chain stared with his mouth agape, finally managing to utter, "...What's with all the arrogance!" But no one responded. In the distance, the three fruit vendors had vanished without a trace.