Chapter 52: The First Million

Joanne White hesitated for a moment, then unblocked Austin Hale from her contacts and gave him a call.

Austin answered almost immediately. "Joanne! You finally decided to call me. Do you have any idea how worried I’ve been? I’ve been going crazy! Where are you right now? When are you coming home? Mom and I are both waiting for you!"

Joanne frowned, listening until Austin finished. Then, she spoke coldly, "Austin Hale, I’ve already told you we’re broken up. Stop harassing me. I’ve already had the abortion. Go home. I’m not there. If you keep this up, I’ll have my parents call the police."

"Had an abortion?" Austin staggered at her words, his mind going blank. He then roared, "Joanne White! How could you do that?!"

Joanne remained silent. Austin continued to yell, "Why?! How could you be so heartless?!"

Austin thought for a second, then demanded, "Joanne White, tell me the truth. Are you seeing someone else?!"

Joanne cut him off coldly. "That’s none of your business. The school district apartment is yours. My family doesn’t want the one million we paid for it, either. I’ll have someone assist you with the property transfer. Just stop harassing me. There’s no future for us."

Austin shouted, "Don’t give me that crap! How much is that apartment even worth now? I put my entire life savings into buying that place, and it was all for you! You have to come back and marry me! Since you got rid of the baby, you have to give me another one!"

Joanne felt her anger flare. She yelled back at Austin, "Give you another one? How am I supposed to do that? I wasn’t even allowed to use the air conditioning at your house! Your mom complained every time I took a shower! While I was pregnant, your mom only fed me plain boiled noodles! How am I supposed to have your child? Austin Hale, take a good look at yourself! Can you even afford to take me to the hospital? Can you afford to raise a child once it’s born? Are you trying to get us both killed?!"

Listening to Joanne’s barrage of questions, Austin deflated like a popped balloon. He fell silent, his expression turning dazed.

Joanne could only hear suppressed sobs from the other end of the line. She sighed. "Austin, let’s just part on good terms. I really can’t go on living at your house. That baby would have only suffered if it had been born. Let’s just leave it at this. Don’t contact me again."

Then, Joanne hung up the phone.

Austin listened to the dial tone, his mind a complete blank. For some reason, he suddenly thought of Melody Summers. ’Did I choose the wrong path from the very beginning?’

He staggered away from the White Family’s residential complex. After pushing his car a short distance down the road, he sat down dejectedly on the curb, unsure of where to go or what to do.

*

Over the next few days, Melody Summers received a steady stream of orders and customer reviews.

"User xxx: It was delivered by a drone! It startled me; I thought it was an airdropped bomb. Kidding aside, the quality of the fruit is amazing. The aroma is rich, it’s full of juice, and it’s so sweet. Much better than what the Rhodes Group provides. I’ll take 10 more orders."

"User xxx: This must be a free-range chicken. The meat is excellent, so much better than the caged chickens from the factory farms. The soup I made with it was delicious. I’m buying 5 more."

"User xxx: This tomato is actually sweet. I haven’t had a tomato this sweet in a long time. The indoor-grown varieties from other companies are just awful these days—completely tasteless and sour."

"User xxx: I bought these peaches for my employer’s family. The lady of the house loved them and told me to only buy from this shop from now on. It’s a shame I didn’t get to try one, so I don’t know what they taste like."

"User xxx: This honey is incredible. I felt so much better after drinking it. Even my dizziness has improved. It’s truly amazing."

Melody and Albus had been busy packing and shipping orders for days. The vegetables stocked in the warehouse were nearly sold out, and the fruit was in such high demand they couldn’t keep it in stock. As soon as she finished packing the latest orders, Melody rolled up her sleeves and prepared to go into the woods to pick more fruit.

When she returned, Albus jumped excitedly in front of her and said:

[All the recent orders have been confirmed as received! So far, our total earnings have reached one million!]

Having earned her first million, Melody happily picked Albus up and spun around in circles.

"Looks like the light at the end of the tunnel isn’t far off! At this rate, we’ll earn a hundred million in no time!"

Melody decided to diversify her product offerings. The fish in The Arcadian Stream had multiplied significantly. She noticed that other shops were selling fish at exorbitant prices. With the widespread drought and high temperatures, fish farming had become incredibly difficult, making every fish on the dinner table an extreme luxury.

She listed grass carp, black carp, common carp, and perch for sale. They were all large, plump, and lively, each priced at 10,000.

Melody thought for a moment. Several of the Bama pig sows were pregnant. She selected two boars and sent them to the processing workshop.

She brought them to the professional processing machine. Slaughter, dehairing, bleeding, and butchering were all completed with the press of a button. Before long, the pig’s head, trotters, offal, and four sides of pork were delivered out separately.

Melody listed the pig’s head, trotters, and offal, along with three of the sides of pork. She decided to take the last one home to roast. She had been craving this Bama pork for a long time.

After finishing her work, Melody carried Albus and the pork out of the space. She quietly put the pork in the refrigerator to chill, planning to tell her family it was something that had been in the freezer.

Once everything was put away, Melody chugged a large bottle of honeysuckle honey water. A cooling sensation washed over her, sweeping away her fatigue. Taking advantage of the refreshing feeling, she packed some peaches and plums into a cardboard box and headed out to Crystal Mart.

The sun was too harsh at this time of day, so Crystal Mart was empty. The residents of the complex usually hid at home during the day and only came out to shop after sunset.

Only Crystal Lynch herself was in the store. When she saw Melody arrive, she happily came forward to greet her.

Melody handed the box to Crystal, whispering, "I grew these at home. They’re for you, Lynch, and Mr. Lynch."

Crystal’s eyes lit up. She gave Melody a happy hug, then quickly hid the fruit.

"Where’s my mom?" Melody asked.

Crystal sighed and replied, "Your mom and my dad are next door. There’s a problem with the product supply chain, so they’re discussing countermeasures with the property management staff."

Melody was taken aback. "What happened?"

Crystal shook her head. "You might not know, but a lot of factories have stopped shipping goods. The government has been implementing price controls, capping how much the price of many food items can increase. But after hearing that, a lot of manufacturers just stopped selling altogether, telling us they’re out of stock. In reality, they’re just hoarding their inventory, waiting to see if they’ll get a chance to raise prices later."

Melody looked around. Sure enough, many of the shelves were empty, especially in the rice, flour, grains, and oil section.

"When the residents saw they couldn’t buy rice and flour, they started to panic. There have been some thefts in the complex these past few days. Some people on the lower floors had supplies stolen from their balconies. I also heard there was a break-in and robbery in Building 4," Crystal said in a low voice. "Luckily, the robber was inexperienced. The homeowner pinned him down and gave him a serious beating right after he got in the door."

"Property management is worried this will cause a panic if it continues, so they’re trying to figure out a solution," Crystal said.

Melody felt a headache coming on. "If they can’t restock, there’s definitely going to be trouble."

Melody opened her residential complex’s group chat. As expected, it was already buzzing with discussion: