Chapter 19: Trading Bread for Diapers

Second Sister-in-law Shi was reluctant to sell off all seven hundred of their precious little loaves of bread.

But she couldn’t win against Shi Yuebai.

Shi Yuebai was decisive—her word was law, and she wouldn’t tolerate anyone arguing with her.

So, the next day, Second Sister-in-law Shi had no choice but to set up a stall on the empty ground in front of the Shi family’s tarp shelter.

“One loaf of bread costs 100 points?”

Some survivors gathered around, watching as Shi Yuebai wrote on the ground.

“At that price? Who’s going to buy it?”

“We thought you sickly Shi family folks were going to eat your mattresses or something.”

Most people were just there to watch the spectacle.

To them, 100 points was an astronomical price.

If they had the ability to earn that many points, why would they still be living outside the city?

Anyone with real skills lived inside the big city.

“Come on, Shi Yuebai, your bread is way overpriced.”

A few people who were actually interested tried to haggle.

“If you set the price at one or two points, we might help your business out.”

Shi Yuebai sat on a flatbed cart, sneering as she wrote with a thin stick:

[No bargaining!]

As she finished the last character, she flicked the stick upward.

With a sharp “crack,” she struck the hand of someone in the crowd.

A survivor, who had been reaching out to steal a loaf or two in the chaos, clutched his bleeding hand and screamed in pain.

“Ahhh!”

The surrounding survivors immediately started blaming Shi Yuebai.

“We’re all part of the same group! How can you just hit someone?”

“Yeah, we’re all on the same team—so why are you stealing?”

Shi Yuebai rolled her eyes, waving the stick around, her words dripping with sarcasm.

Her attitude and temper made people want to give her a beating.

But then they remembered that the Shi family had a good relationship with Yi Zhe, the leader of the mercenary group.

So they had to swallow their anger.

Second Sister-in-law Shi was uneasy. She quietly moved behind Shi Yuebai and whispered,

“Yuebai, maybe we shouldn’t make enemies everywhere…”

“What’s there to be afraid of? If one comes, I’ll kill one. If two come, I’ll kill them both!”

Shi Yuebai had already fallen to this point—she didn’t go looking for trouble, but she wasn’t afraid of it either.

She was just selling bread at her own doorstep. Buy if you want, don’t if you don’t. She wasn’t bothering anyone.

How was that making enemies?

Shi Yuebai’s domineering words really gave off the vibe of someone with nothing left to lose.

The Shi family was already in dire straits—if worst came to worst, she’d just go down fighting.

Some of the survivors who’d been tempted to snatch the bread started to back off.

Then, one of the survivors, thinking a bit more cleverly, smiled and took out a pack of baby diapers.

Her eyes were full of calculation, as if she was trying to trick a fool.

“Yuebai, Auntie noticed your mother’s about to give birth. Don’t you guys love picking up junk… I mean, those pre-apocalypse bottles and jars?”

“How about I trade you this pack of diapers for a loaf of bread?”

She held out an unopened pack of baby diapers—thirty pieces in all.

Shi Yuebai took it, checked the expiration date on the package—it was two years past.

But it was still sealed, so it could still be used.

Shi Yuebai nodded, and the woman happily took away a loaf of bread, smaller than the palm of her hand.

“So she’s a fool after all.”

Someone in the crowd suddenly understood.

They’d just seen Shi Yuebai writing, hitting people with a stick, and thought she was shrewd and tough.

But here she was, trading edible bread for baby diapers.

Even an idiot knew you shouldn’t have kids in the wasteland.

Who’d have thought that Shi’s mother, at her age, was still pregnant…

Shi’s father must still be quite vigorous.

Well, pregnant or not, babies were still born in the wasteland.

It’s just that wasteland children weren’t as precious as those born before the apocalypse.

Most of them ran around naked, pooping and peeing wherever.

They grew up wild, with no one really caring for them.

Trading bread for baby diapers—unheard of in the wasteland, and unlikely to be imitated.

Wasn’t Shi Yuebai afraid her mother would give birth to another little fool?

But whatever—if Shi Yuebai wanted to be stupid, let her.

Immediately, others got ideas and ran back to their own tents to fetch odds and ends.

These were things you couldn’t eat or drink, just little conveniences for daily life—basically useless in the wasteland.

No one counted them as real goods.

Survivors earned points to buy food, water, or high-tech gear and weapons.

But Shi Yuebai had a thing about cleanliness.

If someone tried to trade opened or used items—like underwear or bras that had been worn a few times and not washed—she wouldn’t take them.

Trying to trade those for bread? Dream on!

Second Sister-in-law Shi stood anxiously behind Shi Yuebai, carefully trying to persuade her,

“Don’t… don’t trade them all away… Save some for us to eat.”

Yi Zhe had given them good stuff, knowing that except for Second Sister-in-law Shi, the other women in the Shi family couldn’t move around much.

So he’d given them food that would last.

Shi Yuebai didn’t listen at all. She clumsily turned around and stuffed a big, unopened pack of sanitary pads into Second Sister-in-law Shi’s hands.

“Here, you’ll need these. Keep them safe.”

She pointed out a spot.

There stood a brand-new pearwood carved cabinet.

Some survivor had brought it here like it was trash, trading it for a loaf of bread.

“Move that cabinet into our tent.”

“Put all the stuff you’ll need for your period in there.”

Shi Yaoyao was still too young to need pads.

Shi Yuebai, having grown so overweight, had hormone problems and had already gone through early menopause.

As for Shi’s mother, her period had long since stopped.

But for some reason—maybe radiation—she was pregnant at her age.

So, in the end, only Second Sister-in-law Shi needed sanitary pads.

“And the diapers for when the baby comes—Second Sister-in-law, you take those too.”

Just then, the family who’d traded diapers for bread came back, the whole clan in tow.

Maybe they’d found an old diaper factory in the ruins.

They disappeared for a while, then came back, grinning, with a hundred packs of diapers.

N, M, L, S sizes… even adult sizes—every kind, all unopened.

Looked like they’d been sitting in a warehouse for years."