Chapter 31: Buying a Used Car

The System upgraded just like that, as if it waved its sleeves and didn’t take away a single Finger Sweet Potato. Liu Heming was left with a lot of work to do. Now his bedroom floor was densely covered with them.

Liu Heming was a slightly neurotic person. If it were someone else, they might have just packed them up and been done with it. But not him. He insisted on counting exactly how many Finger Sweet Potatoes there were.

He squatted on the floor and separated them for a long time, grouping them into small piles of fifty. When he finished counting the last pile, wow, there were 1,999 of them. Including the one he had just eaten, that made exactly 2,000, which meant each Finger Sweet Potato weighed about 50 grams.

This surprised him a bit, because he had thought each Finger Sweet Potato was only around 30 grams. He didn’t expect them to be so heavy. Moreover, products from the System were indeed special—they were all exactly the same size. He just didn’t know what the harvest would be like when he planted them later.

He took these Finger Sweet Potatoes to another room and spread them out flat. Without caring that it was already a bit late, he went outside and gathered some loose soil to cover them with.

This was to help the sweet potatoes sprout. Once they germinated, if he was lucky, he could plant even more. He didn’t worry about what made these Finger Sweet Potatoes special anymore; for now, he chose to trust that crazy System.

However, he set aside 49 of them for his daughter to try. When he ate one earlier, the taste was pretty good.

He didn’t know if he was too excited today, but after returning to his room, he tossed and turned and couldn’t fall asleep. Just as he was about to doze off, he heard a roar outside, along with the howling of wolves.

It startled him. He had thought there were fewer wolves today, but it seemed they had wandered back. He looked outside, but it was pitch black, and he couldn’t see anything. Luckily, he had gotten somewhat used to the environment here, and he was just a bit excited earlier. He had worked hard today and was quite tired. This time, he didn’t continue tossing and turning in bed; he lay down and fell asleep.

“Dexter, Dexter, it’s time to get up. Didn’t you say you were going to buy a car today?” It felt like he had just fallen asleep when Liu Heming heard George’s voice in his ear.

“You’re already here,” Liu Heming said, a bit embarrassed, as he noticed the sun was already high outside.

“Haha, we were a bit tired yesterday, but Megan and I are used to that kind of work. You, on the other hand, need to put in more effort,” George said with a laugh.

Liu Heming didn’t explain himself. He quickly got up, washed his face hastily, grabbed a piece of Bread, and started munching on it as he followed George outside.

George shook his head helplessly. Just yesterday, he had told Liu Heming to take good care of himself, but today he was back to his old ways.

“Dexter, what kind of car are you planning to buy?” George asked as they drove to the used car dealership.

“I’ll get a Pickup Truck. It can carry things. It doesn’t need to be too fancy—just something I can manage. The cheaper, the better,” Liu Heming replied without hesitation.

“That’s the right choice. For people like us, a Pickup Truck is the best option,” George said with a smile.

“Exactly. Although it’s not as comfortable, we often need to carry stuff, and the spacious cargo bed is a huge help,” Liu Heming said.

When he used to watch TV, he saw that almost every farmer in the rural United States had a Pickup Truck. Back then, he didn’t really understand why, since farming here was mostly mechanized and wouldn’t require one.

But now he got it. Even with mechanized farming, you still need to transport smaller items. Plus, some of the roads in the countryside here are dirt roads, and Pickup Trucks handle those pretty well.

They went to Walker Town again. You had to admit, the development here was quite good. It had everything you’d expect in a community, and Liu Heming even felt it was more bustling than the town where he used to live.

“Brown, help me recommend a Pickup Truck. Even though you’ve moved away from Xiangshui Town, you can’t charge me too much,” George said directly to the car dealership Boss as soon as they arrived.

“George, how could I overcharge you? Isn’t this car working well for you?” Brown asked, glancing out the window.

“This time, it’s not for me. It’s for him, Texas, the fifteenth resident of our Xiangshui Town,” George said, putting an arm around Liu Heming’s shoulders as he introduced him.

“Hello, Mr. Brown. My budget is limited, so please recommend something practical for me,” Liu Heming said with a smile.

“Alright, I have an ’04 F-150 here. Our dealership has done a thorough inspection, and the condition is very good. I’ll let you have it for three thousand US Dollars. I’m not making any profit on this,” Brown said, shaking Liu Heming’s hand.

Liu Heming was shocked. Back in his home country, the F-150 was considered a luxury vehicle. Even an older model like this shouldn’t be so cheap, right?

When he followed Brown outside to see the truck, he was even more surprised. The price tag on it said four thousand five hundred US Dollars. The condition was just as Brown had described—it looked about sixty to seventy percent new.

“The previous owner took very good care of this truck. It’s only been driven less than seventy thousand miles. The only thing is, it was in an accident once, but the frame wasn’t damaged. I really didn’t make any money on this sale,” Brown explained.

George, standing nearby, nodded to indicate that Brown’s price was fair.

“OK, I’ll take it,” Liu Heming said decisively.

When they went back inside to complete the paperwork, he realized he had gotten a small deal, not a huge one.

The showroom also had some new Pickup Trucks, mostly priced around twenty thousand US Dollars, with the slightly more expensive ones still under thirty thousand.

Even the most expensive one, when converted to Chinese Yuan, wasn’t that much. Liu Heming felt a bit frustrated. He had always heard that cars were cheap in the United States, and they really were dirt cheap. Thinking about the price of an F-150 back home, it was almost double or even more.

He envied those new trucks, but with no money in his pocket, he felt uneasy. He could only admire them from afar. For now, he was perfectly satisfied with his used F-150.

As for the fact that it had been in an accident, he didn’t mind at all. It was pretty normal here in the United States. Even though the country was spacious and sparsely populated, there were plenty of wild animals. It was common for small animals that didn’t follow traffic rules to dart across the road.

After finishing the paperwork, he got into the truck and stepped on the gas a few times. The engine roared, and George, standing nearby, nodded with satisfaction.

“Brown, thank you. When my Ranch has a good harvest, I’ll come back to you for my next car,” Liu Heming said, leaning out the window.

“I wish you a great harvest this year. George, the same to you,” Brown said, looking at both of them.

“Alright, Dexter, don’t drive too fast on the way back. I’m afraid I won’t be able to keep up,” George said, patting Liu Heming on the shoulder.

This truck was really great. Brown had been very considerate.