Sky Curtain: Taking Little Rhinoceros to wash his feet! Li Er breaks down!

The massive, silver-gray building, like a steel behemoth, lies dormant in the northern suburbs of Jiangcheng.

The six giant blue letters of "Sam's Club" are embedded in the dome, reflecting a cold, industrial sheen in the sunlight. Hundreds of cars weave through the parking lot like worker ants, while a constant stream of people push giant shopping carts.

Lin Yu pushed open the car door and picked up Xiao Sizi with one arm. Su Tiantian stepped forward to swipe her card, and "whoosh—" the automatic sensor door slid to the sides.

A gust of wind, carrying the aroma of baked butter, the sweet and pungent smell of chilled meat, and an intensely cold draft, suddenly rushed out.

Little Sizi subconsciously sniffed, and then her big eyes suddenly froze.

What appeared before her was a vast ocean made of steel and materials.

Twelve-meter-high heavy-duty shelving rises from the ground, stretching to the horizon like a steel forest. Tons of cardboard boxes, food containers, and plastic buckets are precisely stacked by forklifts, reaching almost to the ceiling. Tens of thousands of industrial LED cold light tubes illuminate this 30,000-square-meter column-free space, leaving no shadows.

A holographic view of the sky descends simultaneously.

Above the vast sky, the gazes of the ancients, following Lin Yu's first-person perspective, crashed into this ultimate granary of modern civilization.

The Qin Dynasty, Xianyang Palace.

"Clatter." Ying Zheng's wolf-hair brush fell to the ground, ink splattering onto the bamboo slips, but he was completely unaware.

Those domineering eyes were fixed on the endless sea of ​​shelves in the sky.

"This is... a granary?"

The First Emperor's voice was unusually hoarse. The Ao Granary of Qin was hailed as the largest in the land, storing a million shi of grain—the very foundation of his power to conquer the six states. But compared to the building before him, that Ao Granary seemed like a mere haystack of a country bumpkin!

Li Si knelt on the ground, his neck arched back so high it almost broke, his voice trembling like a leaf: "Your Majesty... this is not a granary. Cloth, utensils, food, fruits and vegetables... later generations have actually gathered everything in the world by the ton into one room!"

Lin Yu pulled out a half-ton all-steel flatbed shopping cart, put Xiao Sizi into the child seat, and fastened the seat belt with a "click".

The little girl sat high up, like a little general inspecting her territory. Her two chubby little hands clung tightly to the edge of the car, her head turning left and right like a rattle-drum, her eyes simply not enough to see everything.

"Big brother! Is that shelf full of food? There's so much! It's taller than the pillars in the Taiji Hall!"

Move the shopping cart to the fresh produce section.

Inside the refrigerated display case, imported Chilean cherries were neatly arranged from grade J to 3J. Each cherry was thicker than a small rhinoceros's thumb, and a layer of cold mist clung to their purplish-red skin. Next to them, New Zealand kiwis, Australian navel oranges, and Thai mangosteens were piled high. The labels were densely printed with the country of origin, sugar content, and harvest date.

"Big brother, I've had these purple fruits before!" Little Sizi exclaimed, pointing at the cherries.

Without saying a word, Lin Yu picked up a whole box of 5J grade cherries with one hand, weighing five pounds, priced at 480 yuan, and put it directly into his shopping cart.

Then, he patted the pile of golden durians next to him, and picked out a cracked Musang King and threw it in.

Su Tiantian pushed up her black-rimmed glasses, glancing at the price tag out of the corner of her eye. As a former pampered young lady who had no concept of money, she now dutifully twitched her lips to maintain her working-class persona: "Boss, you haven't even pushed the second row of this car yet, and half a month's salary is gone."

Above the sky, the barrage of comments was already overwhelming.

[Emperor Liu Che of the Han Dynasty: I recognize those purplish-red fruits! Later generations buy such rare fruits by the box?! In my Han Dynasty, even kings and nobles rarely buy them by the pound!]

[Qin Shi Huang: What kind of city-breaking weapon was that yellow ball covered in sharp spikes? Even the outer shells of later food are so ferocious!]

The shopping cart rolled across the smooth floor and entered the chilled meat aisle.

Inside a 100-meter-long refrigerated display case, Australian grain-fed Wagyu beef was laid out according to grades M5 to M9. The marble-like snowflake-like texture gleamed with the unique warmth of fat under the cool light.

In the Ming Dynasty era, Zhu Yuanzhang stared at the precisely cut beef, his Adam's apple bobbing with difficulty.

After he became emperor, the beef in the imperial kitchen was also served by the ounce. The Ming Dynasty law stipulated: anyone who privately slaughters a draft ox shall be punished with one hundred strokes of the cane! Yet, in the imperial palace, beef was piled up by the ton, a quantity that even slaughtering all the draft oxen in the land could not produce. He gripped the armrest of the dragon throne tightly, his knuckles turning white.

A Swiss roll pyramid in the baking section, a wine wall in the beverage section, and tissues stacked to the ceiling in the daily necessities section...

Little Sizi completely let loose, pointing wildly with her little hands: "That soft, big cake! And that red and spicy one—Sweetie's favorite!"

Without batting an eye, Su Tiantian loaded a whole box of Weilong gluten into the car.

After turning the corner, we arrived at the tasting area.

Inside the oven, a whole golden-brown roast chicken was sizzling with oil. A staff member cut off a crispy piece of chicken leg meat, put it in a paper cup, and handed it over.

Lin Yu used a toothpick to pick it up and fed it to the little ox's mouth.

"Click."

The crispy skin shatters, and the scalding hot meat juices, mixed with rosemary, explode on the tongue.

Little Sizi chewed twice, then froze. The next second, she turned her head sharply, her big eyes wide open: "Big brother! This sparrow is a million times tastier than the roast goose from the imperial kitchen!"

"It's free," Lin Yu said calmly.

"What does 'free' mean?"

"It's free, eat as much as you want."

Little Sizi opened his mouth wide, looked at the meat in his hand, and then at the endless stream of roasted chickens being served from the stall. His royal worldview was being devastated.

At the next stall, M7 Wagyu beef was pan-fried to medium-rare, the aroma of freshly ground black pepper sauce filling the air. Little Sizi ate a slice, then leaned back comfortably in her chair, cupping her face and letting out a satisfied "Mmm—!" "It melts in my mouth! Big brother, is this meat made of clouds?!"

The sky has gone completely mad.

[Emperor Liu Che of the Han Dynasty: Free?! Such exquisite roasted meat, given away to passersby for free?! The annual tribute of the Han Dynasty probably wouldn't even be enough to cover the cost of this one stall!]

[Qin Emperor Ying Zheng: Free tasting... What confidence this has! Are later merchants really not afraid of the people bankrupting the national treasury?!]

However, in the Ming Dynasty era.

The Fengtian Hall was deathly silent.

Zhu Yuanzhang didn't look at the roast chicken, nor at the Wagyu beef. His gaze was fixed, as if nailed to a corner of the scene on the sky, an extremely inconspicuous area.

There, piled up hundreds of 25-kilogram bags of Wuchang rice from Northeast China.

The off-white woven bag was bulging, and the dazzlingly white polished rice was clearly visible through the transparent window. Next to it was a six-layer stack of premium-grade wheat flour.

Zhu Yuanzhang slowly stood up.

He stepped down from the dragon throne and walked step by step to the area directly beneath the sky. He looked up, staring intently at the white rice grains.

He knows rice all too well.

But for the first twenty-five years of his life, rice was earned with his life. Fengyang suffered a severe drought, and locusts swarmed everywhere. His parents starved to death, and his elder brother starved to death. He ate tree bark, swallowed clay, his stomach filled with mud, and vomited black blood.

After he seized power, his first imperial edict was to encourage agriculture. Yet, even so, when famine struck the north, starvation still littered the fields.

Meanwhile, in the shops of later generations, that life-saving refined white rice was piled up like roadside weeds, extremely cheap and readily available.

The Hongwu Emperor's lips trembled violently.

He clenched his fists so tightly that his nails dug deep into his palms. His eyes were bloodshot, and his teeth were grinding together.

"Clatter".

A single, turbid tear fell heavily onto the golden bricks of the Fengtian Hall.

Then, the second drop, the third drop.

This ruthless emperor, who was decisive in killing and slaughtered meritorious officials without batting an eye, now stood in the center of the empty hall, looking up at the sky, tears streaming down his face.

He sent a message using his mind.

There was no dazzling golden light, no domineering imperial aura. It was merely a line of crooked, illegible text, seemingly stained with blood and tears:

[Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming Dynasty emperor: If the people of our Great Ming Dynasty could eat a bowl of white rice like this... even if I were to die right now... I could close my eyes in peace...]

The sky fell into a deathly silence.

A ten-second pause exists across a parallel universe spanning five thousand years of Chinese history.

The Qin, Han, Tang dynasties... all the ancients of time fell silent. Because every dynasty was once shrouded in the shadow of famine; every emperor knew all too well the immense weight of the word "food".

Ten seconds later, the comments started scrolling again. Gone were the previous jokes and insults; only four weighty, uniform words remained:

Emperor Taizong of Tang (Li Shimin): For posterity…thankfully.

[Emperor Liu Che of the Han Dynasty: For posterity... it's a blessing.]

[Qin Shi Huang, Ying Zheng: For posterity… thankfully.]

In Lin Yu's mind, the system notification sound was no longer urgent, but instead turned into a deep and steady rumble like a great bell.

[Ding! Detected an extreme sense of empathy and awe for civilization that transcends time and space, reminiscent of emperors throughout history.]

[Emotional Value Boost: +1000000!]

[Current cumulative sentiment value has surpassed the two million mark!]

Lin Yu pushed the shopping cart without looking back at the comments, and handed a box of strawberry milk to Xiao Sizi, who was still smacking her lips.

As Su Tiantian walked behind, the screen of her phone in her pocket suddenly lit up.

A new message notification appeared in the dim light.

Caller ID: [Father]

Su Tiantian stared at those two words for a full three seconds, her eyes instantly turning cold. Without hesitation, she swiped her thumb across the red reject button.

She turned off the screen, quickened her pace to catch up with Lin Yu, and put on that carefree working-class smile again.

But the hand that was tucked back into his pocket was trembling slightly.