Chapter 163: A Day as Husband and Wife, a Hundred Days of Grace

Zhang Xueyao watched as Xu Xuejiao and You Zhizhen gradually walked away.

She remembered that back in the day, You Zhizhen hadn’t even been doing as well as she was.

Clenching her fists, Zhang Xueyao called out to Xu Xuejiao,

“Weren’t we supposed to share our contacts with men? How about we exchange business resources?”

Xu Xuejiao didn’t even bother to look back.

“No need. You guys aren’t good-looking enough—mercenaries won’t be interested.”

With that, she ignored Zhang Xueyao and the other two, leaving them fuming with frustration.

After turning past the second wall, Xu Xuejiao angrily dragged You Zhizhen over to Shi Yuebai.

Shi Yuebai was leaning against the wall of the Tongzikuang, about to teleport to the big city to see Ying Ruoying for today’s physical training.

After hearing Xu Xuejiao’s complaint, Shi Yuebai turned her gaze to You Zhizhen’s face.

You Zhizhen lowered her head, flustered and anxious.

“I’m sorry, I just wanted to prove that we don’t have to do things their way—we can live well on our own too.”

“You say that, but what good does it do you to let them find out my secret?”

Shi Yuebai’s question was sharp.

You Zhizhen immediately burst into tears of shame.

She’d acted rashly at the time and hadn’t thought it through. “I’m sorry.”

Shi Yuebai’s expression was a bit lazy.

“If I really get caught and dissected, saying sorry a million times won’t help.”

“We all know the importance of sticking together to survive or die, but when it comes to a moment when you can’t explain yourself, everyone forgets.”

She didn’t really care about starting over from scratch.

If her secret was exposed to the people in the big city, she could always just leave.

She could let go of everything and everyone here.

So for these old, weak, sick, and pregnant people—was it really worth it?

Tears streamed even harder down You Zhizhen’s face. She pressed her lips tightly together.

She didn’t say another word.

From this moment on, she’d be mute—she’d never speak again.

If she ever uttered another word, may lightning strike her!

Seeing her like this, Shi Yuebai felt a little irritated.

“Enough. Hopeless cases can’t be helped. Stay away from me.”

You Zhizhen ran off, crying silently, down into the ditch.

Xu Xuejiao, however, stood rooted to the spot, deep in thought.

Shi Yuebai asked impatiently, “Anything else? If you’ve got something to say, say it quickly.”

Xu Xuejiao said, “We still need to set up a confidentiality policy. Everyone here has to memorize it inside out.”

Shi Yuebai waved her hand. “Whatever. You done?”

With that, she went off to do her physical training.

Physical training was grueling.

Shi Yuebai was tough on others, but even tougher on herself.

Sometimes, even Ying Ruoying couldn’t bear to watch how hard she pushed herself.

Let alone the people in the Tongzikuang.

To avoid getting bogged down by their clingy emotions and slowing herself down, Shi Yuebai would teleport straight to the big city whenever she trained.

In the villa, Ying Ruoying was tallying up the day’s supplies.

Seeing Shi Yuebai appear in the living room, leaning against the wall, she hurried over, wanting to help her.

Shi Yuebai raised a hand to stop her.

So Ying Ruoying said, “That grandfather and grandson brought two more people today. They delivered a lot of supplies.”

“I did a quick count: 800 correction tapes, 300 packs of heated insoles, 1,034 charging cables, 4 desk lamps, and 36 thermos bottles…”

Shi Yuebai cut her off. “Write it all down on a slip of paper and put it on top of the supplies. Send everything to the basement.”

“I also had someone prepare 40 bags of ready-to-eat food for you. They’re all in the basement.”

The food was packed into large plastic bags by Captain Qiao, on Shi Yuebai’s orders.

Captain Qiao was now mainly responsible for handling these ready-to-eat foods.

Unknowingly, the points in Shi Yuebai’s account had reached a million again, all earned by Captain Qiao.

And the mercenary group still owed Shi Yuebai 800,000 points.

They ate a lot and used up a lot, and since they were busy hunting mutant beasts, they couldn’t always pay Shi Yuebai back with supplies or food in time.

So the points just kept accumulating as debt—the whole mercenary group was in the red.

But since there wasn’t much to spend points on anyway, Shi Yuebai didn’t rush them.

Let them owe.

If they couldn’t pay up, Shi Yuebai would just collect in “flesh” from each of them.

Ying Ruoying was getting faster and faster at collecting supplies.

Mainly because, at first, she didn’t know where to start.

Now, with the grandfather and grandson helping her gather supplies, she was getting bolder.

Consequently, more and more food was being traded out.

The ten big bags of food from before were soon gone.

Fortunately, Shi Yuebai had plenty of ready-to-eat food stored up.

Yi Zhe’s mercenary group would either not send any supplies, or they’d send a massive batch all at once.

As for the ready-to-eat food, the mercenaries treated it like garbage—just one pile could build a small hill in the Tongzikuang.

Shi Yuebai didn’t care, and had Xiao Jiao and Shi Yaoyao count everything.

Then they’d just dump all the ready-to-eat food straight into the ditch.

Now, if it weren’t for the white mist obscuring the view, you’d see that the ditch in front of the Tongzikuang was almost level with the ground.

Because it had been filled up with ready-to-eat food.

People could walk across without even needing a ladder.

And even so, the mercenary group still owed Shi Yuebai 800,000 points.

Because the ready-to-eat food was priced so cheaply here.

Ten points each, no matter what it was—biscuits or canned meat, all the same price.

Living supplies were the same—ten points a box.

If the mercenaries wanted to pay with supplies, fine. If not, Shi Yuebai didn’t push them.

But after tasting Shi Yuebai’s vegetables, not a single mercenary wanted to eat the ready-to-eat food anymore.

Once you’re used to eating fine food, you can’t go back to coarse fare.

Ying Ruoying acknowledged, and just then, there was a knock at the gate.

She turned, “That must be the grandfather and grandson here to sell supplies.”

Shi Yuebai didn’t have time to stop her before Ying Ruoying ran out.

As soon as she opened the gate, a large hand clamped over her face.

Xiao Lingye’s vicious voice rang out, “Bitch, it really is you!”

At first, he hadn’t believed that Ying Ruoying would show up in the big city.

After all, even he was finding it harder and harder to survive here.

Du Hanwen, that bastard, knowing Xiao Lingye wouldn’t let him go, had actually teamed up with Scarface.

Because Xiao Lingye had lost Scarface’s men, now every time Scarface saw him, he’d beat him up.

Lately, Xiao Lingye had been beaten black and blue.

It was only after his men reported that he learned Ying Ruoying had been spotted in the city.

He’d staked out the place for days before confirming she lived here.

Ying Ruoying was shoved to the ground by Xiao Lingye.

But instead of hitting her again, he crouched beside her and said in a gentle tone,

“We were husband and wife, even if just for a day, that’s a hundred days of affection. This place is big enough—I’ll be living here from now on.”

Let me give a simple example of how bad my cognitive bias is.

I used to think I was as beautiful as a fairy…"