Chapter 180: I’m Willing to Dig, I’ll Never Run Again

That very night, both pregnant women went into labor.

Nong Yasi had been prepared for this. She brought out the simple medical and birthing tools she’d managed to collect.

Some instruments were missing, so Nong Yasi had to make do with household substitutes.

For example, she hadn’t found any proper surgical scissors yet, so she just used regular household scissors.

As for disinfectant—

All the disinfectant Shi Yuebai’s family had collected last time had been given to the mercenary group.

So Nong Yasi could only use water conjured by Shi Yuebai as a substitute.

Honestly, in these wastelands, to tell the truth—

Shi Yuebai’s water was probably more effective than any disinfectant.

That’s how blindly Nong Yasi worshipped Shi Yuebai.

The two pregnant women were moved into a tent.

Cries of pain echoed out as the cold wind howled outside.

Cao Lingyun shouted, “Move aside! All of you, make way!”

He was carrying a basin of boiling water, bustling around to assist Nong Yasi.

He volunteered for this.

After all, he was the security team captain—a leader, even if only a small one.

Yuebai had chosen him for this position. Otherwise, why would she have overlooked everyone else?

Out of the seven misfits, only Cao Lingyun had been promoted.

That was because Yuebai valued him.

So how could Cao Lingyun not do his best?

He wished he could go out fighting with Yuebai every day, blade in hand. After all, he couldn’t die here—at worst, he’d take a few cuts and get used to the pain.

But since there was no fighting to be done now, Cao Lingyun put his energy elsewhere.

He hurried around, boiling water, fetching towels, handing Nong Yasi medical tools—he did it all.

Xu Xuejiao, Ah Hong, and Second Sister Shi rushed over as well.

Everyone was bundled up in warm down jackets.

These had been collected earlier but never used.

But tonight was especially cold, so everyone dug out their down jackets.

Ah Hong stamped her feet outside the pregnant women’s tent and said,

“It’s freezing! Do you think it’ll snow tonight?”

Snow in the wasteland? No one had ever seen that.

Second Sister Shi stood silently, her eyes unfocused, holding a crossbow.

She still hadn’t fully absorbed the effects of the Chizhi medicine, so she was seeing seven or eight of everyone.

But Second Sister Shi was calm now; she no longer relied on what she saw.

She couldn’t tell what was real and what wasn’t.

So her brain gradually separated what her eyes saw from what her ears heard.

Second Sister Shi listened carefully. Besides the wind and the cries of labor, she could hear the sounds of Luo Yupeng, Zhuang Ziqian, and other men moving around in the cold.

They were already trying to escape in the chaos.

Second Sister Shi closed her eyes and asked Shi Yuebai, who was limping over with a staff,

“Yuebai, should I kill them?”

Shi Yuebai stopped and nodded. “Kill them.”

She didn’t feel any pity. Whether in the wasteland or among the Wu tribe, human life was cheap.

She’d made it clear: anyone who tried to run would die. She couldn’t go back on her word.

Second Sister Shi raised her crossbow.

Luo Yupeng and Zhuang Ziqian, leading twenty others, had already slipped several meters away in the dark.

They didn’t believe the chains on their feet would trigger any alarms.

See? They were running, and nothing had happened—no sound at all.

As he ran, Luo Yupeng started to feel cold.

He hunched over, hugging himself.

“Damn this weather! How long has it been since we’ve seen the sun?!”

They weren’t important enough to get thick clothes from Shi Yuebai.

But those who helped dig the canal had all received warm clothes in batches.

The precious down jackets were reserved for women.

Everyone else got a military greatcoat.

The thick kind that kept your hands and feet warm as soon as you put it on.

Before, Luo Yupeng and Zhuang Ziqian had never cared about these supplies.

To them, supplies were just junk.

But in this hellish weather, they really wished they had a greatcoat.

The men running behind them were shivering from the cold.

They’d chosen to escape in the dead of night, around 1 a.m.

It was much colder than during the day.

There had been 25 captives in total; two of them refused to run.

No one knew what those two were thinking, but they didn’t go with the group.

The cold wind kept blowing.

Of the 23 who ran, someone finally stopped and said,

“Shouldn’t we go back and grab a few greatcoats before we run? It’s too cold.”

Someone else said, “We’re not far from the big city. Let’s go back and tell Scarface, have him bring people to rob them.”

“Bullshit. You think there’ll be any greatcoats left for us if Scarface comes?”

Scarface had over 800 men.

And that number was still growing.

The harder life got for survivors, the more they clung to groups.

But Shi Yuebai only had a handful of greatcoats here.

Even if they stole them all, it wouldn’t be enough.

Besides, once they got back to the city, it’s not like they couldn’t find a greatcoat there.

The weather wouldn’t stay this cold forever. With the wasteland’s unpredictable climate, for all they knew, it could be scorching hot by morning.

Everyone thought so, so no one went back for a coat.

Just then, Luo Yupeng, at the front, opened his mouth to say something—

A crossbow bolt shot through the back of his head, the bloody tip emerging from his open mouth, dripping with blood and brain matter.

He was dead beyond dead.

Zhuang Ziqian, beside him, hadn’t reacted yet. He nudged Luo Yupeng, who’d stopped in his tracks.

“Come on, what are you waiting for?”

Before he finished speaking, a second bolt pierced his skull.

Both men collapsed to the ground.

The 21 men behind them froze—some still hadn’t processed what happened, while others immediately bolted.

“We’ve been found! Shit, Shi Yuebai really is killing us!”

How could there be such a ruthless fatty in this world?

It’s not like they’d killed Shi Yuebai’s whole family—why did she have to wipe them all out?

A third bolt flew out, and the man running ahead dropped dead.

The escapees scattered like startled birds, some thinking the darkness would let them slip away unnoticed.

But then, their shackles started blaring in the silent night:

“On the boundless horizon is my love, at the foot of the endless green hills the flowers are blooming—”

Someone stared at the shackles blaring this ridiculous song and cursed,

“Wasn’t this supposed to be an alarm? Why the hell is it singing?!”

The song was so loud and dramatic, even they thought it was kind of badass.

Amid the singing, bolts kept flying, and men kept falling.

A few men at the back, before their shackles started singing, just dropped to the ground, hands over their heads,

“Don’t kill me! Please! I’ll go back!!”

Some even threw up their hands and ran back,

“I’ll dig! I’m willing to dig! I’ll never run again, just let me go ahhhhh!”

Of the 23 who tried to escape, 13 came back on their own.

Maybe it was just too cold—when I woke up in the morning, I had a bit of a migraine."