Chapter 168: The Weak Are All Weak—There’s No Difference

Xu Xuejiao returned with a numb expression, stepping through the Shi family’s walls.

These days, she could be considered Shi Yuebai’s right-hand woman in charge of personnel.

She’d even drafted a set of confidentiality rules.

There were only three rules:

**Rule 1:** Anyone who hasn’t moved into the second wall isn’t considered one of us.

**Rule 2:** You must never discuss anything about the inside of the second wall with outsiders.

**Rule 3:** Anyone who breaks Rule 2, no matter who they are, will be punished.

Xu Xuejiao, troubled, pulled the three rules she’d racked her brains to write out of her pocket and asked Shi Yuebai for her opinion.

“What do you think?”

Shi Yuebai was lying on her mattress, her breathing labored.

She struggled to lift her head and snatched the paper from Xu Xuejiao’s hand.

“Pen!”

Shi Yuebai took the pen Xu Xuejiao handed her and changed the word “punished” in Rule 3 to “eliminated.”

Anyone who leaks secrets about the second wall—eliminated, no exceptions.

Xu Xuejiao took back the paper and pen and sighed.

Shi Yuebai closed her eyes, forcing herself up from the mattress, and asked irritably,

“Anything else? Spit it out.”

Xu Xuejiao said numbly,

“Those old folks living in the middle of the riverbed were sent here by their sons from the big city.”

As for the reason—same as the twenty elders left behind in the team before.

Their sons simply didn’t want to care for their aging parents.

Out of filial duty, they couldn’t let their parents starve to death.

But they also couldn’t sell their own parents to cannibal gangs.

When they heard there was a group of elders under the bridge, the city sons sent their old folks over.

As for whether the bridge team leader would eat their parents, here’s what they’d heard:

The bridge leader actually had a stash of real food. If he wanted meat, he’d fatten up the old folks with that food, then slaughter them one by one.

So at least their parents could eat their fill every day before they died.

That was important.

It was a way for them to comfort themselves, to feel they’d found a good place for their parents.

“What a mess.”

Xu Xuejiao frowned. She wanted to curse those sons for being heartless.

But in the wasteland, people are forced into these choices.

There was never enough food, and now they had to spare some for the frail elderly.

Even if you worked yourself to the bone, food was only getting scarcer.

Shi Yuebai sat up on her mattress and said to Xu Xuejiao,

“Find something for them to do. Aren’t they living in the riverbed? Have them dig the river channel.”

Outside the second wall was the riverbed.

Shi Yuebai wanted to redirect the river, have it circle the second wall, and turn her base into a true island.

It was a massive project.

Xu Xuejiao’s jaw dropped in shock.

“Yuebai, this is no small task.”

With the workload as it was, everyone was already run ragged, barely able to catch their breath.

And now Shi Yuebai wanted to reroute a dried-up riverbed?

How could that be done anytime soon?

“Where there’s a will, there’s a way. How do you know it won’t work if you don’t try?”

Shi Yuebai waved her chubby hand and instructed Xu Xuejiao,

“Make those old folks disappear—make sure their sons never find them again.”

They’d been sent to her, after all.

Now they were her people.

How she arranged her people was none of those city sons’ business.

Xu Xuejiao nodded and went out at once. She first gathered the seven misfits from the team.

She had Cao Lingyun lead the way and snatch the pitiful old folks from the riverbed.

These days, Cao Lingyun’s seven misfits were no longer what they used to be.

They lived and ate inside the second wall, soaking up Shi Yuebai’s spiritual energy day and night.

Once skin and bones, they now had a thin layer of flesh, and a lot more strength.

They hoisted the old folks up and ran all the way to the area Shi Yuebai had marked out.

Cao Lingyun pulled out a knife and pointed at one of the elders.

“From today on, you’re digging the river for me.”

“No leaving. If you try to run, I’ll kill you!”

After his threat, Cao Lingyun tossed each of the eight elders a pack of instant noodles and a bottle of orange soda.

A while later, more misfits brought over hoes and ordered the trembling old folks to start digging.

Just like that, they’d been kidnapped—now part of the wasteland’s ever-growing ranks of the missing.

Meanwhile, half of the ten disabled children had already learned how to build walls.

Their movements were still slow, but progress on the second wall was finally on track.

Soon, the second wall reached the back of the Shi house.

There, a staircase led upward.

At the top was the pool and the public toilet.

Anyone needing the toilet could walk along the inside of the second wall to the stairs.

All they could see was the ditch and the “tong” frame wall on the other side.

As for what was inside the “tong” frame, no one could see.

The stairs did lead to the Shi family’s backyard, but a fence had been installed there.

It wasn’t very sturdy—who knew where it had been scavenged from.

But no one dared to touch it.

The disabled kids had nearly finished the second wall. The five who couldn’t learn to build were set to digging instead.

That seemed simpler, and three of them could use a hoe.

Xu Xuejiao assigned those kids to dig the river channel too.

The riverbed was so wide, there was no way to dig a full-sized moat and turn the Shi house into a true island—at least not yet.

They’d start with a narrow ditch, and once they had more manpower, widen and deepen it.

When everyone compared the three disabled kids to the eight newly kidnapped elders, the difference was obvious.

Everyone always thought they themselves were weak—so were their teammates.

After all, they were a team of the old, weak, sick, disabled, and pregnant—no match for outsiders.

But those three disabled kids, swinging their hoes, were stronger and faster than the eight new elders.

Who would have thought, not long ago, these kids were barely conscious, unable even to feed themselves.

Back then, Xu Xuejiao could only put food in a bowl and let them crawl over to eat.

But now, each of them could hold a bowl and eat with their hands.

Even the one with the paralyzed hand could move it much better now.

The change had crept up on them.

Nong Yasi watched the elders outside the second wall, digging the narrow ditch.

“They’re so weak—so many chronic illnesses, so feeble they couldn’t even crush an ant.”

Dajiao, after two days of teaching hoeing, led the last two disabled kids past Nong Yasi.

She overheard Nong Yasi and replied earnestly,

“Auntie says we’re still weak—no different from them.”

To Shi Yuebai, the weak are all weak. There’s no difference.

So tired."