Chapter 36: Chapter 36: An Innocent Man Gets into Trouble Because of His Wealth

When Winnie Summers returned home that evening, she spoke with some lingering fear. "Two customers got into a fight at the supermarket today. They knocked over a shelf, and goods scattered all over the floor. It took several of us a long time to clean it up."

The family immediately pressed her for details.

Winnie Summers picked up the iced orange juice from the coffee table, took a sip, and explained, "It’s been too hot these last few days, and we’ve been constantly sold out of cold drinks. This morning, we got a new shipment in, and a few customers were already waiting at the door. But it turned out to be only ten boxes of ice cream bars. One customer wanted to buy all ten, but another one wouldn’t let him. They just started fighting right there. Maybe the heat is making everyone short-tempered. We couldn’t even pull them apart."

Melody Summers asked anxiously, "Mom, are you okay? You didn’t get hurt, did you?"

Winnie Summers shook her head. "I’m fine. Luckily, the Lynch father and son were both at the supermarket. They kicked the troublemakers out. Those two customers wanted to keep fighting outside. It almost got to the point of calling the police."

Melody Summers breathed a sigh of relief.

Something similar had happened a few days before. At the time, Melody had brought some vegetables from the Arcadian Space’s farmland to sell at Crystal Mart. They were snatched up in no time. No one complained about the price; they just silently grabbed what they could and paid.

But to her surprise, two old ladies had started fighting over the last head of Chinese cabbage.

"Are you insane? You’re going to fight me over a head of cabbage that costs 200? How much does your family even make in a month?" a well-dressed woman said.

"None of your business! My grandson specifically asked for cabbage dumplings, and I’ll get it for him no matter how expensive it is!" said a slightly older woman. Her clothes were rather plain—an old, cheap outfit that was starting to pill—but she was equally determined to get that cabbage.

’Vegetables were impossible to find in regular markets now. At a high-end supermarket, a cabbage like this would cost at least 600. For 200, she didn’t think it was expensive at all. Besides, as long as her precious grandson wanted something, she was willing to buy it for him!’

"My son hasn’t had vegetables in days either! Why don’t you just wait a few days for the vegetables in the fields to ripen? The price will definitely be cheaper then!" the well-dressed woman said as she tried to snatch it away.

"Who are you kidding?! Look at this weather! Does it look like anything can grow in a field? You think I’ve never farmed before, huh? Let me tell you, my whole family just moved here from the countryside! I’ve known how to farm since I was born, you think a city slicker like you can fool me?!"

She had farmed for decades in the countryside. The tornado a while back had destroyed her house there, forcing her to move in with her son at The Metropolis Residences. She knew very well that the current weather was extremely abnormal; there was probably going to be a major drought this year. She continued, "Since you put it that way, why don’t you wait for the vegetables in the fields to ripen before you buy them!"

"I have money, why should I wait?! Let go! Do you have any idea who my family is?!"

"I wouldn’t care if your family was the emperor himself! You’re not stopping me from buying this cabbage! Let go!"

The two argued relentlessly.

At the time, only Melody Summers and Crystal Lynch were in the supermarket. It took all their strength just to calm the two customers down.

Crystal Lynch took a knife, split the cabbage down the middle, and sold half to each of them.

Not long after they left, a few more customers came in.

They headed straight for the fresh produce section as soon as they entered the supermarket. Seeing it completely empty, one asked, "Are there no more vegetables?"

"There are no more," Crystal Lynch replied.

"We’re from the Garden Community next door. We came because a friend told us you still had cheap vegetables here," one of the middle-aged men asked. "Where do you source your vegetables from? Can you tell us?"

Faced with the man’s suspicious gaze, Melody Summers could only vaguely say that it was from their old inventory.

The group, only half-believing her, sized up Melody and Crystal for a few moments before leaving with looks of regret.

It was from that incident that Melody Summers realized she couldn’t sell vegetables at the supermarket anymore.

Right now, besides high-end supermarkets, there were almost no vegetables for sale. For Crystal Mart to be selling them was just too conspicuous.

She hadn’t expected another incident, this time over ice cream and cold drinks, to happen just a few days later.

Melody also knew that in another two months, prices would soar across the board, and the world would descend further into chaos. Right now, it was just customers bickering. Later, it would turn into zero-dollar shopping—outright robbery!

Just then, her grandmother chimed in from the side, "I heard that not only are cold drinks hard to buy, but vegetables are even harder. Some people are growing them at home to sell. We have so many vegetables in our garden, and those few fruit trees have started bearing fruit too. We can’t eat it all ourselves. It would be great if we could sell the extra for some money."

Having just learned this lesson the hard way, Melody Summers quickly advised against it. "Grandma, no. People outside are already fighting over vegetables. If we sell them, no one will buy them if we price them as high as the fancy supermarkets. But if we sell them cheaply and customers start fighting in the store, the situation could get out of control."

Miss Lowell also chimed in, "That’s right. Haven’t you heard the saying, ’An innocent man is found guilty for the treasure he carries’? It’s too dangerous to sell vegetables now. What if someone finds out the vegetables come from our home? We’ll be targeted, and that would be a huge problem. We’re all women and children here. We can’t defend ourselves against people with ulterior motives."

Her grandmother saw the logic in their words and nodded nervously. "I understand. I was being foolish. I won’t let anyone know we have vegetables."

*

The weather had been too hot these past few days, and Melody Summers was too lazy to go out. She spent her days in the space, picking vegetables and feeding the animals.

Then, she and Albus would worry together about the one hundred million.

The vegetables in the farmland had entered their peak harvest period, and she had to go in to pick a batch every day. The vegetables her grandmother and Miss Lowell planted in the yard were also ripening one after another. The Summers Family’s refrigerator was stuffed full of fresh produce.

Most people had no vegetables to eat, yet Melody Summers could only feed her family’s leftovers to the animals on the farm. The thought of it made her heart ache.

’How can I sell these vegetables safely?’

As Melody was fretting, her aunt, Grace Sutton, came home from work. It was her day off.

"I’m dying of heat, I’m dying of heat! It’s still coolest at our house," her aunt said, her face flushed and beaded with sweat.

Melody Summers quickly grabbed an ice cream bar from the freezer and handed it to her aunt.

"Gas prices have gone up so much. The drivers on the road can’t even bear to turn on the AC," her aunt complained as she unwrapped the ice cream bar.

Melody Summers frowned slightly. It seemed the comprehensive price hikes were slowly beginning. If nothing else, the current ice cream bars were all "ice cream assassins." Many people couldn’t accept the prices and had started making their own at home by freezing juice or yogurt in molds.

Meat prices had also risen considerably. Livestock farmers said they had to turn on the air conditioning early this year, which drove up costs. Recently, meat, eggs, and milk had all seen price increases of varying scales.

Grace Sutton finished the ice cream bar in a few bites and let out a contented sigh. "A few of my coworkers have lost power at home. They’re not even going home on their day off; they’re all staying at the factory. It’s a good thing our house has electricity."

Melody Summers did a quick mental calculation. It seemed that in her past life, rolling blackouts for residential buildings had started around the end of April. Because The Summers Family had previously installed solar panels, they had been running on solar power this whole time. Melody didn’t even know the power was out elsewhere; she had almost forgotten about the limited power supply.

Melody Summers quickly opened the community chat group for her residential complex. Sure enough, the property owners were in an uproar.