Chapter 42: Starting Today, I’m Going to Be a Clean Fatty!

A-Hong stood with her back to the crowd.

While no one was looking, Shi Yaoyao secretly handed her a bottle of water.

All anyone could see was that Shi Yaoyao genuinely gave A-Hong a piece of bread.

After a while, A-Hong’s son, cradled in her arms, took a deep breath.

He opened his eyes weakly. “Mom…”

Just as he was about to say he wanted more water, A-Hong quickly covered his mouth.

The water and bread hadn’t come easily to her, and she knew that if anyone found out she had a bottle of clear water on her, there was no way she’d make it safely back to her own tarp shelter today.

A-Hong hoisted her son onto her back.

“She really gave her bread, huh.”

The crowd started whispering, their eyes drifting toward A-Hong’s pockets.

People who have been starving for a long time can’t eat too much at once. They have to take it slow, bit by bit.

So A-Hong only let her son take a single bite of bread before putting away the rest.

In the crowd, a few shifty-eyed men exchanged glances.

A-Hong’s man had gone out scavenging. If they robbed A-Hong of her bread now…

Just as they were hatching their plan, A-Hong, carrying her son, stopped in her tracks.

She looked hopefully at Shi Yuebai, whose face was cold and indifferent.

“Is there anything else you want? Whatever you want me to do, I’ll do it.”

Shi Yuebai’s gaze fell on a pile of red bricks.

“One hundred bricks for a piece of bread. Bring as many red bricks as you have.”

As soon as she said this, a spark lit up in A-Hong’s eyes.

She nodded eagerly, then hurried off with her son and an empty basket.

The rest of the crowd started murmuring, “Is it really that simple?”

“There are red bricks everywhere. If we bring some over, can we get bread too?”

Shi Yuebai looked at them. “Don’t you have anything else to trade?”

Previously, Shi Yuebai had traded bread for baby diapers, adult incontinence pads, disinfectant, and new clothes—even cement.

She always used food to exchange for things others thought were useless junk.

In fact, if you wanted to deal with Shi Yuebai and get food from her, there was no need to go to such lengths or risk a fight.

After all, Shi Yuebai was a fool.

Just trade some junk for her food.

The survivors, who had been itching to cause trouble under Wei Lingxia and those men’s instigation, started to rack their brains.

They began to think about what they could use to trade with Shi Yuebai for food.

Someone brought out a box of sterile medical bandages. “Shi Yuebai, will you trade for these?”

“Yes!”

Shi Yuebai was generous, exchanging a small piece of bread for ten boxes of sterile medical bandages.

The whole group was in an uproar.

Gradually, everyone started to figure out Shi Yuebai’s logic.

As long as it was new, in large quantities, and basically useless junk, you could trade it with Shi Yuebai.

Someone lugged over a huge box of underwear.

“All brand new, Shi Yuebai. Look, there are adult and children’s sizes.”

“All kinds, too—lace, boxers, briefs, thongs… There must be at least a thousand pairs in here.”

“I won’t haggle with you. Let’s just call it a thousand pairs.”

“I’ll just trade for ten small pieces of bread. That’s fair, right?”

The man spoke gruffly, clearly trying to make things difficult for Shi Yuebai.

He wanted to see if she’d really trade food for such a huge pile of useless, brand-new underwear.

Shi Yuebai glanced at the box full of underwear.

“Deal.”

That one word came calmly from her lips.

Shi Yaoyao handed over ten small pieces of bread to the man.

He was stunned for a moment, then grabbed the bread and left.

There weren’t that many small pieces of bread to begin with. Some people traded for a bit, others for a bit more.

Soon, the pile of bread in front of Shi Yuebai was almost gone.

The large courtyard the Shi family had fenced off with rubble, once spacious, was now filling up with all sorts of odds and ends.

The survivors watched as the pile of bread disappeared before their eyes—there wasn’t a single piece left.

Their urge to stir up trouble gradually faded away.

Nong Yasi looked at the courtyard full of red bricks and frowned at Shi Yuebai.

“Most of the people today brought red bricks.”

“Are all the red bricks from A-Hong’s house being piled up here?”

At first, everyone held back and didn’t touch A-Hong’s bricks.

But later, when A-Hong went to deliver bricks to Shi Yuebai, someone snuck into her house and stole a hundred bricks.

They brought them to Shi Yuebai, who barely glanced at them before trading a piece of bread.

Encouraged, the survivors who had nothing else to trade all went to haul bricks from A-Hong’s house.

Nong Yasi kept muttering,

“And that person who brought cement the other day, today they brought another three hundred bags…”

The hundred bags of cement already in the yard hadn’t even been used up yet.

Who knew when they’d ever get through the new three hundred bags?

Besides the cement, the family who had traded diapers for bread before brought over another thousand packs of diapers.

They really did think Shi Yuebai was a fool.

Nong Yasi was a little angry.

But Shi Yuebai didn’t seem to mind.

She rummaged through a big pile of handmade soap and picked out a bar of honey-scented essential oil soap.

Shi Yuebai’s eyes sparkled with delight.

“We can wash our hair today!”

In Shi Yuebai’s memory, essential oil soap could be used to wash your hair.

At least, that’s what some brands advertised.

Shi Yaoyao was happy to see her aunt so pleased, and clapped her hands in excitement.

Shi Yuebai told Shi Yaoyao to take a few bars of the essential oil soap back to their tent.

“Finally got rid of all those useless little breads.”

“Let’s celebrate today and take a nice, fragrant bath.”

Seeing Shi Yuebai and Shi Yaoyao so happy, Nong Yasi didn’t know whether she should laugh along with them.

Other people had schemed and fought desperately just to get a single piece of bread.

But to Shi Yuebai, it was just useless junk.

But then Nong Yasi remembered—Shi Yuebai was a water-type ability user.

With her powers, what wouldn’t she be able to get in the future?

Nong Yasi felt at ease.

She happily picked up Shi Xiangrui from the baby cradle.

Inside the tent, Shi Yaoyao and Shi Yuebai couldn’t wait to get into the pool.

Shi Yaoyao took the essential oil soap and scrubbed Shi Yuebai’s greasy hair, working up a lather.

Shi Yuebai felt wonderful—the itch on her scalp was instantly soothed.

One by one, the Shi family members got into the pool, each holding a bar of essential oil soap.

A thin layer of bubbles floated on the clear water, but because the water was so clean, the bubbles quickly disappeared.

Shi Yuebai said happily, “Starting today, I’m going to be a clean fatty!”"