Chapter 41: Her Heart Is Hard as Iron—A Business Deal, Nothing More

Wei Lingxia never expected that Ah Hong—the very person who’d agreed to help her force all the food out of the Shi family’s tent—would be the first to turn traitor.

She ran a few steps after Ah Hong, calling out,

“Come back, Ah Hong! Hurry, come back! As long as we get the Shi family’s food, your son will be saved!”

Everyone was supposed to stand together and demand the Shi family share their food.

As long as those idiots from the Shi family wanted to survive in this group, they’d have to hand over their supplies.

Don’t be fooled by Shi Yuebai waving that torch around—she was just putting on a show.

Shi Yuebai would never actually burn the food.

But Ah Hong ran like the wind, darting straight back to her own tent, completely ignoring Wei Lingxia’s shouts.

Wei Lingxia could only run a few steps before she had to stop—her ribs had only just been broken by Chen Huaihai a few days ago, all because she hadn’t listened to him properly.

But it wasn’t her fault—half a month ago, Chen Huaihai had hit her on the head, and her hearing had never recovered.

It wasn’t that she was deliberately disobedient.

Wei Lingxia, sweating and clutching her ribs, sat down to rest on a pile of rubble.

After a moment, she turned to look at the Shi family’s tent.

Gritting her teeth, she got up and went to stir up the others again.

If she couldn’t force the Shi family to hand over their food today, she’d be in for another beating from Chen Huaihai.

Behind Ah Hong’s tent was a pile of red bricks—probably left over from before the wasteland, when someone had planned to build shops by the embankment.

Of course, anything edible from those shops had long since been looted.

Ah Hong found a woven bamboo basket, tied a hemp rope to it, and started piling red bricks inside. She slung the rope over her shoulder and, straining with all her might, dragged the bricks toward the Shi family’s tent.

A crowd was still gathered at the Shi family’s door.

Some of them were clearly not in their right minds, wanting to rush into the Shi family’s stone-patterned barricade, only to be scared off for some reason.

All they could do was stand at the entrance and hurl verbal abuse at Shi Yuebai.

But Shi Yuebai didn’t care. She’d grown up being cursed at—malice and insults meant nothing to her.

“Move! Get out of the way!”

Ah Hong, drenched in sweat, dragged her basket of bricks forward.

Shi Yuebai raised an eyebrow—Ah Hong became the only woman allowed past the barricade.

“Here are your bricks!”

Ah Hong collapsed to the ground, looking up at Shi Yuebai with desperate hope.

Shi Yuebai was unmoved. “Not enough. Still short of a hundred.”

Ah Hong scrambled to her feet. “I—I can bring more! I have plenty of bricks at home!”

Shi Yuebai curled her lip, looking like an old-time miser.

“Pile the bricks over there. Go on.”

Ah Hong did as she was told, dragging her empty basket home.

Her son, lying on the ground, was nothing but skin and bones.

His head looked huge, as if his neck could barely support it.

“Mama…”

He called out weakly as Ah Hong rushed to him, tears streaming down her face. She knelt beside him and kissed his forehead.

“Be good, sweetheart. Mama’s going to get you something to eat. Hang in there.”

Her son blinked obediently, too weak to cry or fuss.

Ah Hong hurried to the pile of bricks, frantically loading them into her basket.

The hemp rope bit into her shoulder as she shouted, “Ah!”

A small, frail woman, dragging a heavy load, step by agonizing step, back toward the Shi family’s tent.

After several trips, the rope had worn her shoulder raw and bloody.

Those watching—including Wei Lingxia—wanted to say something, but in the end, no one knew what to say.

“How many more?”

Ah Hong dumped another load of bricks onto the ground, her shoulder slick with blood, and collapsed weakly in front of Shi Yuebai.

“One short.”

Shi Yuebai’s eyes were clear and steady as she looked at Ah Hong.

Someone outside the barricade shouted, “Just one short? Can’t you let it go?”

“Just give her the bread! Her son’s about to die!”

“Her boy’s on his last breath—just give it to her already!”

Shi Yuebai, holding her staff, looked at Ah Hong.

“Are you going to waste more time here, or are you going to fetch that last brick?”

It was as if Ah Hong suddenly came back to life—she jumped up and ran home.

When she returned, her son was on her back, and she clutched the final brick in her arms.

“Shi Yuebai, please, give me food. Please…”

Ah Hong’s tears had long since dried up. Exhausted, she sat on the ground with her son.

The onlookers pointed at Shi Yuebai, cursing her to high heaven.

“How can you be like this? Don’t you have a heart?”

“Everyone has parents—why are you so much more ruthless than the rest of us?”

“Be a human being, will you?”

Everyone thought Shi Yuebai was just toying with Ah Hong.

If she really had a heart, she would have given Ah Hong a piece of bread long ago.

But Shi Yuebai was too stingy to spare the food, and just wanted to make Ah Hong run back and forth for her own amusement.

Watching Ah Hong run around like a fool, who knew how Shi Yuebai was laughing inside?

That fat woman was really something else.

Shi Yuebai lifted her eyelids and swept her gaze over the crowd at the door.

“Sorry, but I never claimed to be human.”

She signaled to Shi Yaoyao, who brought out a bottle of water and handed Ah Hong a piece of bread.

“Here’s your bread.”

Shi Yuebai’s face was expressionless—she didn’t even look at Ah Hong’s stunned, petrified face.

Shi Yaoyao squatted beside Ah Hong, asking curiously,

“Auntie, isn’t your son starving? Why are you just sitting there?”

Why was Ah Hong still in a daze?

Ah Hong snapped out of it and looked at the small bottle of clear water in her hand.

She didn’t even need a radiation detector—just seeing how crystal-clear the water was, she knew how precious it must be.

“It’s… it’s too much,” Ah Hong croaked. Wasn’t the deal a hundred bricks for a piece of bread?

So why, besides the bread, was she getting water—something thousands of times more valuable?

Shi Yuebai replied, “Just eating bread will make your mouth dry, won’t it?”

She figured Ah Hong’s son had been hungry for so long, he probably couldn’t even produce saliva anymore.

If he tried to eat bread, he’d probably choke to death.

After all the effort Ah Hong had put in, even injuring her shoulder, wouldn’t it all be for nothing?

Shi Yuebai might be heartless, but if Ah Hong paid the price, she deserved her due.

Ah Hong’s lips trembled as she looked at Shi Yuebai’s mountainous figure.

She kowtowed, touching her forehead to the ground in sincere gratitude.

Shi Yuebai turned her head, pushing her cart aside to avoid her.

Don’t try that with her—her heart was hard as iron. This was a business deal, fair and square.

She wouldn’t accept such a big gesture of thanks.

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