Chapter 40: If I Can’t Have It, Neither Can You

The people from that group barged in, shouting as they pulled back the makeshift curtain made from a bedsheet.

From their angle, they couldn’t see that outside the Shi family’s tarp, there was also a clothes rack hung with clean towels.

Shi Yaoyao had been sitting at her study desk, writing.

Worried, she looked up, pencil in hand, and started chewing on the end of it.

Her anxiety made her head start to wobble again.

Shi Yuebai noticed and placed her palm firmly on top of Shi Yaoyao’s head, pouring a large dose of soul power into the acupoint at the crown of her head.

“What are you panicking for? Don’t you still have me?”

Soul power didn’t have much effect on people in the wasteland.

But it could calm the mind, steady the spirit, and prevent wild thoughts.

Antidepressants and anti-anxiety meds could have a similar effect.

So whenever the Shi family members were panicked, sleepless in the middle of the night, or jolted awake by nightmares, Shi Yuebai would infuse them with some soul power.

That way, they’d sleep a bit better.

And wouldn’t keep her up all night.

Shi Yaoyao quickly calmed down—no more screaming or head-wobbling. In a small voice, she asked,

“Auntie, what do we do now?”

Shi Yuebai told her to keep working on her homework, then pushed her cart over to the gate in the wall.

Looking out, she saw a few shifty-looking men from the group.

But most of those who’d come this time were women.

Their men had all gone out scavenging.

“I never said I wouldn’t share food with everyone,” Shi Yuebai said.

She waved for Nong Yasi to bring out the hundreds of potatoes, a case of powdered milk, a dozen or so cans of cat food, and several hundred small loaves of bread from under the tarp.

The women’s eyes lit up at the sight.

Chen Huaihai’s legitimate wife, with her sharp, mean face, couldn’t wait—she stepped right onto the patterned stones.

A gust of wind blew, lifting a mass of black hair draped over the wall.

Wei Lingxia suddenly felt the world spin.

She looked up and saw a pale face right in front of her.

Long black hair floated in front of her, and blood-red lips seemed about to kiss her own.

A red wedding dress fluttered.

She shrieked and stumbled back a step.

Her mind cleared instantly.

Wei Lingxia looked around. Her face, dirty and blackened, made it impossible to see her expression.

“What was that? What did I just see?”

The others were baffled. “What do you mean, what?”

Wei Lingxia stared blankly for a while, searching everywhere, but saw no sign of the woman in the red wedding dress with long hair.

“There’s something here, I know there is!”

She kept looking around, refusing to believe it was nothing.

A woman beside her, impatient, shoved her.

“Don’t start acting crazy. We’re here for business.”

Reminded of their purpose, the group of women demanding food snapped back to attention.

After all, the food their men brought home was getting scarcer.

And water prices kept rising.

If they didn’t want to die of thirst, they had to rack their brains to find food.

So they stopped caring about whatever Wei Lingxia was going on about.

Their anger refocused on Shi Yuebai.

As the women continued to shout, demanding Shi Yuebai share her food, Shi Yuebai pulled out a thick wooden stick from behind her.

She blew on one end, and it burst into flame.

She held the torch over the pile of bread.

“What are you doing? Do you know what you’re about to do?” someone shouted.

Among the women, the few shifty men pushed forward anxiously.

The one in front, just like Wei Lingxia, stepped onto the patterned stones.

But he didn’t move forward—he just froze.

The man behind him shoved him, yelling,

“What’s wrong with you? Move!”

Suddenly, the man in front screamed, stumbled back, and waved his arms frantically.

But nobody paid him any mind.

Everyone’s attention was on the torch in Shi Yuebai’s hand.

They were terrified she’d actually burn all those loaves of bread.

“Take one more step and see what happens!” Shi Yuebai’s face was full of malice.

“If I can’t have it, none of you can!”

She’d never claimed to be a good person.

Back in the witch tribe, Shi Yuebai’s motto was always: carve your own path, and leave others with none.

Here in the wasteland, life was a daily struggle. She hoarded what little she could, like a hamster, just trying to make things a bit easier for herself.

Every day, stuck in this huge, unwieldy body, barely able to walk, she felt like a useless lump.

She’d been bottling up her anger for a long time.

Now these people wanted to mess with her?

Fine—then nobody gets to have it easy!

As she watched the group’s faces twist with both pain and fury, yelling at her and accusing her of wasting precious food, Shi Yuebai felt a strange delight.

She lowered the torch, and the cardboard box began to catch fire.

The crowd at the gate gasped in horror.

Several people couldn’t help but lunge forward, trying to snatch the food from under her torch.

But as soon as they took a step, they froze in place.

Then, terrified, they backed away, craning their necks to look for something—or someone—around them.

Once Shi Yuebai had had her fun, she lifted the torch again.

A wicked grin spread across her chubby, round face.

“Relax, I was just messing with you.”

“If you want food, it’s simple. Before, I traded bread for supplies with you, and you were all pretty happy about it, weren’t you?”

“As long as you have something I want, you can trade for it.”

“Follow my rules, and everyone gets by. If you don’t—then that’s the end of it.”

She pressed the torch down again.

The crowd at the gate cried out in alarm.

A woman shouted, “What do you want?”

“I—I have some bricks at home. Do you want them?”

She was desperate. Back in her tent, her starving child was barely clinging to life.

Thinking of her son, she couldn’t even cry anymore.

Just one bite of food would keep her son alive for another day.

But Shi Yuebai could burn a whole box of bread without batting an eye.

The woman was truly at her wits’ end.

Shi Yuebai raised the torch and tilted her chin at the woman.

“Bricks? Proper, neatly stacked bricks?”

“Sure. Bring them over. One hundred bricks for one loaf of bread.”

The woman stared at Shi Yuebai in disbelief. After a few seconds, she snapped out of it, turned barefoot, and ran home.

Wei Lingxia, now recovered from her fright, remembered why she’d come.

She reached out to stop the woman. “Ahong, where are you going?”

“Get out of my way!”

Ahong shoved Wei Lingxia aside.

She was in a hurry to fetch bricks—her son’s life depended on it.

[Recommendation for my best friend’s book: “Strange Invasion: Isn’t It Fair for Me to Strike Back?”

Yep, that’s my bestie Huahua.

We’re super close, hehe.]"