Chapter 36: Chapter 36

It had to be said, the things Guai Guai made—whether it was the flatbed cart that Shi Yuebai was using now, or that mechanical digging arm—were all pretty impressive.

Especially that mechanical digging arm, which could be worn directly on a person’s arm.

At the end was a mechanical claw, and compared to human fingers, it could grab more and heavier rocks.

Shi Yuebai strapped it onto Nong Yasi’s arm, and Nong Yasi’s speed at digging up rocks increased significantly.

Add in a construction site handcart, and what would have originally taken several people a few hours to move—all those broken stones—Nong Yasi finished in just one hour.

Shi Yuebai was quite pleased with the mechanical digging arm, so she had Shi Yaoyao bring over a small bag of potatoes and two bottles of purified water.

She then traded with Guai Guai for ten more mechanical digging arms.

These were things Guai Guai had whipped up on the spot.

He’d noticed that the Shi family had been using their bare hands to dig and move rocks these past couple of days, and their efficiency was terribly low.

So, on a whim, he invented this gadget.

Shi Yuebai found it useful, which made Guai Guai very happy.

He soaked himself in his tarp shelter, working nonstop to make more mechanical digging arms for Shi Yuebai.

He kept at it until every member of the Shi family had a pair of mechanical digging arms.

With just one day, they managed to dig out an entire swimming pool.

Everyone cheered and rushed into the pool.

Shi Yuebai sat at the edge of the pool, watching the Shi family splash around in the water.

She took out a swim ring and used the included pump to inflate it fully.

Shi Yuebai tossed the swim ring to Shi Yaoyao.

“Go have fun.”

Shi Yaoyao, wearing a little yellow duck swim ring, happily splashed about in the pool filled with purified water.

Seeing how much fun Shi Yaoyao was having, Nong Yasi took out some inflatable pool float clouds that had been piled up by the shore.

She inflated the clouds and set them on the water.

Upon seeing this, Shi Mother happily climbed onto one of the clouds.

“Yuebai, I’m going to fly!”

Shi Mother rolled around on the cloud, absolutely thrilled.

Everyone was washed clean and fresh by the pool full of purified water.

But to fill the whole pool, Shi Yuebai’s body weight had dropped to 716 jin.

With a faint smile on her face, she turned away.

Today, she had decided to let the old, weak, sick, and disabled members of the Shi family have a day off to play in the water, as a reward for their hard work.

Shi Yuebai pushed her flatbed cart and found a pair of scissors.

Looking at a full-length mirror they’d hauled back, she faced the mirror and, with a single snip, cut off the tangled hair on her head that hadn’t been combed in five years.

The grime in her hair was different from elsewhere—after five years without washing, it was all grease.

And it was all knotted up.

To fix her hair would take hours just to untangle it.

And the grease couldn’t be washed out with purified water; she’d need shampoo.

But as luck would have it, in all the supplies she and Shi Yaoyao had found these past few days, there wasn’t a single bottle of shampoo.

Not even a bar of soap.

Shi Yuebai was someone who hated hassle, so she cut her hair to shoulder length.

Then, turning around, she was just about to toss the big handful of cut hair into the fire to burn it when—

It was already quite dark outside, and Shi Yuebai’s hand paused.

Someone was sneaking around, trying to climb over the Shi family’s rubble wall.

Outside, a few people were whispering to each other in hushed tones.

“The Shi family’s old, weak, sick, and disabled have mercenaries backing them now. If that guy Yi Zhe from the mercenary corps finds out…”

Another person smacked his companion on the head.

“We’re not going into their tarp to do anything bad, we’re not killing or robbing anyone.”

“We just want to see what good stuff the Shi family got from the mercenaries.”

A couple of days ago, the Shi family had traded a bunch of little bread loaves for some useless things.

That had already caught everyone’s attention in the group.

People were all saying privately that the Shi family’s old, weak, sick, and disabled might be dumb, but their luck was off the charts.

They actually had mercenaries backing them.

Now the Shi family didn’t even need to go scavenging anymore. Couldn’t the whole Xiang City mercenary corps support a few old, weak, sick, and disabled?

For two days in a row, everyone watched as the Shi family kept moving rubble outside.

In the end, the rubble even formed a wall.

A lot of people in the group were curious—just how much good stuff had the mercenaries given the Shi family, that these old, weak, sick, and disabled could live so leisurely?

Inside the tarp, Shi Yuebai’s ears twitched as she listened expressionlessly.

She casually twisted the handful of hair into a little figure.

Then, with her chubby, short fingers, she pinched out a round golden talisman.

A drop of bright red blood welled up from Shi Yuebai’s fingertip and fell onto the golden talisman.

The talisman was instantly dyed gold and red, and in the dim light, the color looked almost eerie.

The gold-red talisman landed on the little figure made of hair in Shi Yuebai’s hand.

The little figure, made of black hair, seemed to come alive.

It flew out of the tarp and landed on the ground.

There, it transformed into a woman in a red traditional wedding dress.

Red tassels hung from her wedding robe, and her long, smooth black hair covered her entire face.

She looked downright creepy.

The ghostly bride lay on top of the rubble wall, silently and emotionlessly watching the men below as they prepared to climb up.

The man at the top looked up and came face to face with a head of long, straight black hair.

Through the strands of hair, he saw a deathly pale face and bright red lips.

Her eyes were even more terrifying—completely black pupils, no whites at all.

The red wedding dress sprawled over the rubble wall, bathed in moonlight.

“Ah! G-ghost…?”

The man below, staring at the ghostly woman’s face, felt his scalp tingle.

Who could tell him why, in the middle of the wasteland, there would be something like this?

Was it a mutant beast or a zombie?

Oh, mama.

The man in the lead didn’t bother climbing the wall anymore—he turned and ran.

The rest looked up one after another, and were so frightened by the ghost bride on the wall that their hair stood on end.

That fear seemed to be carved into their very bones.

Especially as the ghost bride on the wall slowly began to crawl down the rubble wall.

She stood up with a series of creepy, cracking movements.

The men outside the rubble wall had already run off in a panic.

But the ghost bride didn’t just disappear.

She twisted her head with a series of unsettling cracks, and began to walk step by step along the Shi family’s rubble wall.

She seemed to be searching for anyone else foolish enough to try sneaking into the Shi family’s tarp.

(716 jin now, come out and chat~)"