83 A peculiar child (1/2)

Ren Xiaosu looked at the disintegrated packs of cigarettes and felt a pain in his heart. Based on the selling price of 20 yuan per cigarette at Wang Fugui's store, how much would the cigarettes in this shop be worth?

Moreover, Ren Xiaosu had estimated there to be at least five tobacco and liquor stores on this street.

Ren Xiaosu converted the prices and felt that humans from before The Cataclysm were really rich.

In his haste, Ren Xiaosu did not realize that tobacco was actually not a scarce commodity before The Cataclysm. He turned around and looked at the bottles of liquor that were placed on the shelves against the wall. As they were not sealed in plastic packaging, the liquor was gone. All the bottles here were empty.

It seemed that some of the liquor bottles had been scattered onto the ground and were in pieces, probably due to earthquakes, while some were still standing on the shelves. But when Ren Xiaosu opened one of the bottles, he found that the liquor in it had disappeared.

He wondered how long it had been since The Cataclysm happened. The liquor in the bottle had completely vaporized.

Ren Xiaosu grumbled, ”Didn't the wineries in the past know how to seal bottles better?!”

He refused to believe this as he took another well-preserved bottle and shook it. However, the liquor in the bottle was also gone without an exception.

In fact, this kind of liquor needed to be processed with a specialized technology if it were to be preserved, such as sealing the bottle with wax. Otherwise, it wouldn't be uncommon for only half a bottle of liquor to be left after 50 years of storage.

These days, the most expensive things in town were cigarettes, liquor, and medicine. Especially alcohol, which was banned. The townspeople were even more attracted to it. The more something was prohibited, the more valuable it became.

When Ren Xiaosu saw these shops initially, he thought that he had found a huge treasure trove. But now, he realized that his thoughts were pure fantasy.

The Cataclysm was like a gigantic sword that cut between the old and new civilizations. Ren Xiaosu thought that if both the tobacco and liquor products he found were already like this, there would be even less of a need to mention the medicine.

Earlier, he was thinking of checking out a pharmacy if he saw one. But now, it seemed like there was no need for that anymore.

Ren Xiaosu started thinking seriously as he walked out onto the street. Was there anything that did not have a shelf life? Or rather, something that could last for over a hundred years?

He suddenly saw the name of a shop next to him called ”Family Planning & Healthcare,” but he did not go in. After all, in his opinion, it should just be a shop selling healthcare products. But what healthcare products could be kept that long?

He felt reassured when he saw that the Qing Consortium's people had not shifted their attention over to his side yet. Ren Xiaosu could still hear gunshots coming from the outer perimeter. He wondered if that Experimental was really that powerful.

But all of a sudden, he thought of something. 'Aren't metals able to last hundreds of years without decomposing?'

Ren Xiaosu whipped his head around. He had heard from Wang Fugui before that there were jewelry shops inside the stronghold. In that case, there must also be jewelry shops in a city as large as this!

Ren Xiaosu, a little downtrodden before this, had his morale lifted again!

Gold was still a hard currency even in these times. Ren Xiaosu had asked Zhang Jinglin why gold was still needed as a hard currency after the Qing Consortium's bank had issued its own currency.

Zhang Jinglin smiled and answered, ”Because it's not only the Qing Consortium that has issued their own currency. Perhaps that currency is usable within the Qing Consortium's territories, but it'll be useless once you go to another stronghold that's not controlled by them. At that time, there's a need for something that can be conveniently measured and valued to replace your paper money.”

In fact, the corporations used currency as a method to control the various strongholds. They allowed people to get used to the convenience of using paper money, but they had the final say in how much currency was issued.

This was the real lifeline of the economy and one of the fundamentals of a corporation.