Chapter 124: An Absurd Amount of Expired Food

Ying Ruoying stared blankly at Shi Yuebai, her eyes stinging with tears.

But before she could say anything, Xiao Lingye’s grumbling voice rang out.

Shi Yuebai turned away, skirting around the tent where the women were being held.

Ying Ruoying stood there in a daze, not moving until Xiao Lingye walked over.

“Bitch, just seeing you ruins my mood.”

He slapped Ying Ruoying hard across the face, knocking her to the ground.

He left, and Ying Ruoying slowly lifted her head, revealing the hatred in her eyes.

“Hey, do you want to kill him?”

She was speaking to Shi Yuebai, who was hiding behind her.

Shi Yuebai asked curiously, “Just you?”

“I’ve already given you all the food. You can run.”

Xiao Lingye’s group was downright hostile to women.

Ying Ruoying sat on the ground, her eyes frighteningly numb. “I’m not leaving. I want Xiao Lingye dead.”

“I want to grind his bones to dust, slice him apart piece by piece.”

Her hatred for Xiao Lingye was anything but ordinary.

In five years of the wasteland, women had become the most valuable commodity among the vulnerable.

Their very biology determined their value in the eyes of men.

Many women had resigned themselves to their fate.

If you refused to accept it in the wasteland, what could you do?

In terms of strength, they couldn’t compete with men. In terms of ruthlessness, they fell short as well.

After the apocalypse, many men had already started plotting and scheming, while women were still lost in childish fantasies.

They weren’t clear-headed, and by the time they woke up, their status was already set in stone.

They became playthings for the team.

Their weakness made it impossible to resist the collective will.

Later, when the men brought back food, they used it to control the women.

Taking whatever they wanted.

Eventually, the women gave up. The light faded from their eyes.

Even their hatred was gradually worn away.

Just surviving—living humbly—seemed like a luxury.

But Ying Ruoying was different. Her hatred remained as fierce as ever.

She wanted Xiao Lingye dead. That desire had never wavered.

“He used to be our family’s driver. Just a contract worker who did what he was paid to do.”

Ying Ruoying slowly lifted her head, gazing into the distance.

She turned her back to Shi Yuebai—only then did she feel she didn’t have to face her former pride.

Her story with Xiao Lingye was actually quite simple.

She was a rich heiress, outstanding in both character and academics, and beautiful to boot.

Her parents had poured everything into raising her.

She was elegant, intelligent, and talented.

If nothing had gone wrong, someone like Xiao Lingye would never have stood shoulder to shoulder with her.

He was just a driver—ordinary, unremarkable.

There was never any “heiress and poor boy” story between them.

Ying Ruoying never imagined anything could happen between her and Xiao Lingye. She’d always had a clear sense of her own position.

A single trip abroad to see a fashion show cost her more than Xiao Lingye made in several months.

Her family background was on par with the Shi family back then.

Her future would likely have been a marriage alliance with a man of similar status.

Love had nothing to do with it—interests came first.

But that was fine.

It was a thousand times better than now.

But then disaster struck, and the apocalypse came.

At first, Ying Ruoying’s family managed to cope, barely.

Xiao Lingye, with his strong physique, gradually became more valuable in the group’s struggle for survival.

Ying Ruoying’s parents came to rely on him.

But things slowly changed.

As the family driver, Xiao Lingye’s gaze toward Ying Ruoying grew bolder and more greedy.

To Ying Ruoying, it was disgusting.

“I don’t want to talk about this, but a lot of people say, with a disaster this big, why am I still clinging to my dreams of being an heiress?”

“They say I can’t face reality, that I’m fake, that I’m putting on a show.”

Ying Ruoying’s eyes were bloodshot as she turned to Shi Yuebai.

“But I was raised like a precious jewel by my parents, standing proudly at the top. Am I supposed to just give up and settle for being with a driver because the world ended?”

“I refuse. His strength doesn’t make it right.”

In the end, it was simple. Xiao Lingye broke into Ying Ruoying’s room and raped her.

Her parents tried to stop him, but Xiao Lingye’s gang of thugs beat them to death.

Ying Ruoying became their plaything.

The bitter irony was that just days earlier, her parents had trusted Xiao Lingye enough to give him the password to their underground storeroom.

He took over all the family’s supplies.

“That’s how Xiao Lingye’s team got their initial stash.”

Ying Ruoying crawled over to Shi Yuebai, hope shining in her eyes.

“Hey, I want to kill him. I know you want the supplies. Why don’t we work together?”

Shi Yuebai was easily convinced.

It wasn’t really about the supplies.

Shi Yuebai just wanted to kill Xiao Lingye, plain and simple.

Back at the Shi family’s storage, she found Guai Guai.

She asked Guai Guai to make a ring, with a gemstone that could be pried out to reveal a razor-sharp wire.

Guai Guai stared at Shi Yuebai for a moment.

“You’re going to kill someone?”

Shi Yuebai didn’t deny it. “Can you make it or not?”

What could Guai Guai say?

He put down the finished crossbow and carefully considered the design Shi Yuebai described.

It wasn’t hard to make, but the wire for killing would take a while to sharpen.

Good work takes time.

When Guai Guai finally looked up, wanting to discuss the ring’s style, Shi Yuebai was already gone.

Oh well, the style didn’t matter.

Shi Yuebai was busy making preparations. Every time she teleported, her energy surged.

She’d gotten used to it.

But she couldn’t teleport endlessly in a day.

Her body had its limits; her focus and control couldn’t keep up.

Her body couldn’t take it.

She could only teleport seven or eight times a day.

Each time, she could carry four two-meter-tall burlap sacks.

Shi Yuebai made several trips every day.

She packed up all the food Xiao Lingye had hoarded, sack by sack, and teleported it to Captain Qiao’s trench.

Every morning, Captain Qiao, together with Xu Xuejiao, Big Jiao, and Little Jiao, struggled to move the food blocking the entrance of their cave.

If they didn’t, they’d be trapped and suffocate.

Finally, Captain Qiao slapped his forehead and came up with a brilliant idea.

The plan was simple.

They’d dig a new hole and move the whole family in.

Problem solved, right?

So they got to work, moving all the food Shi Yuebai had teleported into their original pit.

The whole family helped, digging the pit deeper and wider.

Even so, there was still an absurd amount of expired food.

One pit wasn’t enough; much of it just piled up at the bottom.

Do I seem like I’m carrying a lot of bitterness and hatred? A friend I haven’t known for long said I always look unhappy."