Chapter 133: These People Will Never Understand What Shi Yuebai Has Given Them

Fortunately, Shi Yuebai didn’t set a rule that Commander Qiao had to spend all 890,000 points at once.

She just told Commander Qiao to buy as he saw fit.

He just needed to report back to her afterward.

So Commander Qiao made another trip to the big city.

Not long after, he suddenly sent a message back:

[Yuebai, I ran into Xiao Lingye’s people in the city. I asked around a bit.]

[I heard that Xiao Lingye’s team is in chaos lately. After Du Hanwen left, a few more squad leaders took their teams and left too.]

That’s how it is—many hands make light work, and nowhere is that more obvious than in Xiao Lingye’s team.

The reason he was able to grow so powerful was because so many people joined him.

And the reason people put up with Xiao Lingye’s bad temper was because he had plenty of food.

With more people joining, there were enough hands to scavenge, which meant more food.

But what Shi Yuebai gave Xiao Lingye was a blow at the very foundation.

Commander Qiao’s message made Shi Yuebai think of Ying Ruoying.

[I heard a lot of women have run away from Xiao Lingye’s team.]

In the big city, Commander Qiao was crouched in a corner, rubbing his forehead.

The man across from him kept winking as he spoke.

Clearly, he was hinting that the women who escaped from Xiao Lingye’s team would probably turn up at the Bridge Team.

Not for any other reason, but because the Bridge Team was the only group outside the city that still accepted the old, weak, sick, and disabled.

Because Commander Qiao was never very assertive.

His old approach was to never turn anyone away, and not to worry about them once they joined.

Now, with those women wanting to settle in the Bridge Team, he didn’t really have the ability to stop them.

But if Shi Yuebai wanted to refuse them, Commander Qiao could kick them out.

Shi Yuebai didn’t reply.

A while later, Second Sister-in-law Shi came over, frowning. “Yuebai, four women just showed up.”

“If they’re here, they’re here. Ignore them.”

Ahong and Nong Yasi worked quickly, and Guai Guai had already fixed a level for them.

The two of them had blocked off part of the canal outside the same-character frame with a wall.

Now, survivors in the team could only see half the canal from a distance.

And even that half was blocked by piles of messy stones.

This was the Shi family’s second wall, on the outer perimeter.

Below the second wall was the riverbed.

All the team’s burdens lived on the riverbed.

Among the four women who’d run to the Bridge Team was Zhang Xueyao.

She knew her way around and quickly found her old tarp.

This kind of tarp was already considered the bare minimum for teams outside the city.

Stronger teams used tents.

For example, in Xiao Lingye’s team, every family had a tent.

The three women trailing behind Zhang Xueyao had also lived in the Bridge Team before.

But they’d left even earlier than Zhang Xueyao.

Their old tents were long gone.

They followed Zhang Xueyao.

Zhang Xueyao snapped impatiently, “What’s your problem? I’m just going home. You’re following me—do you expect me to feed you?”

In Xiao Lingye’s team, women were never treated as people.

But at least there was food.

Now that there wasn’t, women mattered even less.

Many said that if Xiao Lingye couldn’t find more food, they’d start eating the women.

That’s when Zhang Xueyao decided to run back.

And lately, several of Xiao Lingye’s team elders had been mysteriously beheaded.

Everyone in the team was on edge.

Zhang Xueyao figured she’d done enough just bringing those three women back with her.

And they still wanted her to give them a place to stay?

No way.

“Why aren’t there any adult men in this team?” one of the women asked, looking around with matted hair and ragged clothes.

The other two shook their heads weakly.

In the end, the three women Zhang Xueyao drove away could only find a random tarp-covered spot on the trash-strewn riverbed.

Zhang Xueyao settled in and started wandering around the team, feet splayed.

She was checking out what had changed since she left.

Sure enough, all the adult men were gone.

Only a bunch of old folks and disabled kids were left.

But what was different was that, in their eyes, Zhang Xueyao no longer saw numbness—she saw wariness.

“What are you looking at?” Zhang Xueyao barked at an old man.

She headed toward the Shi family’s place.

But after a few steps, a man threw a rock at her. “Don’t come any closer. Don’t!”

Zhang Xueyao was about to get angry—these old geezers!

But then she saw ten old folks standing in her way.

These were the ones who hadn’t gone with Pang Zhenggong to haul rocks from the garbage hill behind the Shi family that day.

Pang Zhenggong thought they were too old and needed proper rest.

So he’d put the twenty elders and two pregnant women in the team on a schedule.

Work one day, rest one day.

When scavenging, they scavenged hard; when resting, they rested well.

But any elder who volunteered to work extra days could get an extra day’s worth of communal meals.

So unless an elder had worked so many days in a row that their old bones just couldn’t take it, most of them were eager to go out every day to scavenge and haul rocks.

Shi Yuebai hadn’t specifically told anyone to keep an eye on the elders left behind.

They’d taken it upon themselves to band together and stop Zhang Xueyao from approaching the Shi family.

Don’t be fooled by their age—these folks had lived long enough to see through life.

No newcomers were allowed near the Shi family.

And someone like Zhang Xueyao, who’d always been at odds with the Shi family and had even rallied the women to ostracize them, was even less welcome.

Zhang Xueyao tried to intimidate the elders.

But these old folks, who were well-fed and climbed over rocks every day, were much stronger than a woman like Zhang Xueyao, who just lay around waiting to be fed.

Rocks rained down on Zhang Xueyao like hail.

She didn’t even get a good look at what was behind the Shi family’s wall before she was driven off.

The remaining elders discussed it and decided to move their tarps closer to the Shi family’s place.

They even thoughtfully moved the disabled kids under the second wall as well.

Using themselves, they completely blocked outsiders’ view.

That evening, Xu Xuejiao came up from the canal to cook the communal meal.

She didn’t say anything when she saw what had happened.

But Shi Yaoyao crossed the canal to pass on Shi Yuebai’s message.

Anyone in the team who’d moved under the second wall could now enter it.

From now on, Xu Xuejiao would cook for them inside the second wall.

These people would never understand what Shi Yuebai had given them.

Entering the second wall

meant they could now absorb the spiritual energy flowing out of the canal.

I feel like it’s going to snow in Changsha."