Chapter 26: There’s a Pot Here

Nong Yasi stared at Shi Yuebai, almost dumbfounded.

“I thought…”

“Thought what?”

Shi Yuebai frowned, looking at Nong Yasi with confusion.

What is she talking about?

Nong Yasi quickly shook her head. “No, it’s nothing.”

She let out a silent sigh of relief, then turned to the box of bread and counted out fifty small rolls.

When she turned back around, Shi Yuebai was already directing Shi Yaoyao.

She had Shi Yaoyao lay out the small stones she’d scavenged, making a path all the way to the edge of the Shi family’s tarp shelter.

Daylight fell on the newly-laid stones, pressing their black, shiny surfaces into the ground and giving off a muted gleam.

Holding her armful of bread, Nong Yasi suddenly realized that the stones formed a mysterious and intricate pattern.

“Yuebai, what are these?”

She thought the pattern actually looked pretty nice.

Shi Yuebai’s tone was flat. “It’s decoration.”

It sounded like she found it boring.

Nong Yasi didn’t dare ask further. She hugged her pile of bread and watched as the group of survivors began to gather around.

There was a hungry light in all their eyes.

Especially when they saw the bread in Nong Yasi’s arms—one by one, they could barely contain themselves.

Shi Yaoyao ignored what others might be thinking and simply followed her aunt’s instructions, laying out the stones she’d collected over the past few days.

Shi Yuebai sat on the flatbed cart, directing Shi Yaoyao until all the stones were laid out.

“Go do your homework.”

“Write the character ‘天’ ninety times, and then write ‘地’ a hundred times.”

Shi Yaoyao obediently stood up.

The nearby survivors gasped in surprise.

“That cripple actually stood up?”

“Did I hear that right? Shi Yuebai is making that idiot write?”

“Can she even hold a pen? She probably can’t even grip one.”

Second Sister-in-law Shi groped her way out from under the tarp.

Perhaps out of a mother’s instinct, she angrily retorted, “Who says Yaoyao can’t write? Don’t talk nonsense.”

Everyone burst out laughing.

Everyone knew the Shi family’s situation.

Shi Yaoyao was mentally challenged; apart from screaming, what else could she do?

Second Sister-in-law Shi opened her mouth to explain.

Shi Yuebai raised her hand to stop her. “No need, Second Sister-in-law. Yaoyao just needs to work hard.”

There was no need to prove anything to anyone.

She just had to quietly work hard.

One day, Shi Yaoyao’s transformation would astonish all those who looked down on her.

Shi Yuebai’s gaze was calm, her whole demeanor steady and unhurried.

Nong Yasi couldn’t help but look at Shi Yuebai again, deeply.

This girl’s way of thinking was already far beyond most people in the wasteland.

Even though she was so fat, her personality had a kind of charisma that made people want to follow her.

Once again, Nong Yasi was sure she’d made the right choice—she hadn’t picked the wrong person to follow.

“Dr. Nong, stay in the tarp today. Trade bread for supplies and look after Xiangrui and my mother.”

“And check Yaoyao’s homework. If she doesn’t write a character well, make her write it a hundred more times.”

Shi Yuebai handed Nong Yasi the chain that locked up her mother. Today, she was only taking Second Sister-in-law out to scavenge.

Having just joined this group of the old, weak, sick, and disabled, Nong Yasi suddenly felt she’d been entrusted with a huge responsibility.

She asked in disbelief, “You trust me that much?”

Shi Yuebai patted Shi Xiangrui’s little head, infusing fat energy into his tiny body.

She said, “See the stone pattern on the ground?”

“You can’t step outside that boundary, and those people can’t come in.”

Of course, Shi Yuebai didn’t really trust Nong Yasi. In this world, no one was worthy of her trust.

She had drawn a line—her own prison. The other survivors couldn’t come in, and Nong Yasi couldn’t get out.

Second Sister-in-law had two bottles of water in her backpack. She was pushing Shi Yuebai, ready to leave.

Nong Yasi quickly asked, “Are there any requirements for the supplies we trade for?”

“For example, is there anything we should focus on? Besides clean clothes, these fifty rolls should be able to get us more.”

Shi Yuebai, sitting on the flatbed cart, didn’t even turn her head. She just waved her hand.

“The rest is up to you.”

On the bumpy road, Second Sister-in-law asked worriedly, “Now that we’re out scavenging, will the others try to steal the bread from Dr. Nong?”

Over the past few days, Shi Yuebai had shown just how tough and ruthless she could be.

Second Sister-in-law had suffered plenty from Shi Yuebai’s harshness before.

But when that harshness was directed at outsiders, it became a powerful deterrent.

“That’s nothing to worry about,” Shi Yuebai replied casually, turning over rocks ahead with her long stick.

“But we do need to get back early today. Xiangrui can’t hold on much longer—at most two hours… four hours. I have to get back by then.”

She was afraid that if she got back too late, Xiangrui would starve to death.

Second Sister-in-law was also worried about Xiangrui. She could tell that Dr. Nong didn’t have much hope for him.

The child probably wouldn’t last much longer.

Maybe it was better for him to go early.

Better than struggling on in this cruel wasteland, only to be disappointed by it all.

The two of them scavenged as they went, but didn’t get far.

Without Yaoyao needing to use the bathroom all the time, and without Shi’s mother running off, they moved much faster.

Second Sister-in-law had basically given up on finding food or water.

Because there simply wasn’t any.

And even if they did find some, it wouldn’t make Shi Yuebai particularly happy.

Shi Yuebai was more interested in finding household items.

Like various bottles, jars, and basins…

“Yuebai, there’s a pot here.”

Second Sister-in-law lifted a big stone and found a frying pan underneath.

Shi Yuebai’s eyes lit up. “Great! Tonight we can fry some potato slices.”

Even though Shi Yuebai and her people could survive indefinitely on her fat energy without eating or drinking, sometimes you just had to satisfy your cravings.

She and Second Sister-in-law dragged back a big haul of bottles, jars, plastic and metal basins, and the frying pan in a scavenged sack, returning to the Shi family’s tarp.

They saw several people passed out at the edge of the stone pattern.

Nong Yasi was waiting at the entrance, holding the wailing Shi Xiangrui.

Shi Xiangrui had been crying for over an hour, his voice growing louder and louder.

He was clearly starving.

When she saw Shi Yuebai and Second Sister-in-law return, Nong Yasi hurried over with Xiangrui in her arms.

But as soon as she reached the edge of the stone pattern, she slammed into an invisible barrier.

Nong Yasi was pushed back several steps by an unseen force.

She didn’t think too much about it, just anxiously shouted,

“Did you find any formula?”

“This child’s cries suddenly sound so much stronger—she’s healthy, she can make it!”

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