Chapter 43: If You Have Nothing to Trade, I Can’t Give You Food

After getting out of the pool, Shi Yuebai changed into the roomy new clothes her mother had just sewn for her.

It was a new outfit made from two clean bedsheets stitched together into a tube shape.

Even so, to Shi Yuebai, it was already wonderful.

In this wasteland, finding clothes that fit her was nearly impossible.

Her old outfit, full of patches and holes, was long past wearing.

She was so disgusted by her old clothes that she didn’t even want to use them as rags.

The whole family happily took a thorough bath.

Even Shi Xiangrui was put on a floating cloud by Nong Yasi, dressed in a little mermaid swimsuit with a neck float, and set to swim in the pool.

Early the next morning, Shi Yuebai received a message from Yi Zhe:

[Yi Zhe: Have you all been scavenging properly these past few days?]

Shi Yuebai replied casually: [Yeah.]

[Yi Zhe: Have you found anything to eat?]

Shi Yuebai didn’t want to get into it. If she told him she hadn’t taken the Shi family out scavenging at all, Yi Zhe would just sigh and fuss at her.

So she lied: [We have. We’re eating well.]

Yi Zhe didn’t reply again.

Shi Yuebai breathed a sigh of relief. Looking at the crowded courtyard, she turned and instructed Nong Yasi to keep moving the stones behind the tarp today.

After digging a small pool on the path behind the Shi family’s tarp leading to the public restroom, the whole area was much more spacious.

The open space stretched out from under the bridge supports and went all the way up.

Luckily, the people who built the city before the apocalypse had considered the needs of people with disabilities.

They had installed ramps beside the steps.

That made it much easier for Nong Yasi and Second Sister-in-law Shi to haul stones with the construction cart.

The mechanical digging arm was a huge help in moving the stones.

Shi Yuebai planned things out: the rubble on the steps could wait; for now, just clear the stones from the ramp.

That way, the ramp would be ready for use, and they wouldn’t even need to pave it with cement.

“Shi Yuebai.”

A cautious voice sounded by the courtyard gate.

Shi Yuebai turned and saw Ah Hong, eyes red, her son on her back, hunched over timidly.

Shi Yuebai frowned at her round face, annoyed. “What do you want?”

“All my red bricks were stolen.”

Ah Hong looked like she was about to fall apart.

She’d run around all day yesterday, already starving, then had to sprint for her life.

When she got back to her tarp, she passed out from exhaustion.

When she woke up this morning, she found that all the red bricks by her tarp had been stolen.

Someone in the group had used her bricks to trade with Shi Yuebai for bread.

Ah Hong said humbly, “I don’t have anything left to trade.”

“Shi Yuebai, is there anything you need from me? I can give you anything.”

“I’m begging you, please…”

Even though the others said Shi Yuebai had run out of bread to trade, they’d managed to trick some bread out of the Shi family by pooling their junk and sharing it among the group.

But Shi Yuebai still had a box of potatoes and over a dozen cans of cat food.

Now everyone was thinking about how to get those things from her.

Ah Hong was desperate. The little bread she got yesterday had already been broken into tiny pieces and mixed with water to feed her son.

She herself hadn’t eaten a bite of bread or had a sip of water.

Shi Yuebai was irritated. “Can you stop begging all the time?”

“Is your dignity really that worthless?”

Shi Yuebai wasn’t some kind of sadist who enjoyed watching people grovel at her feet.

She said harshly, “If you have nothing to trade, I can’t give you food.”

“This isn’t a charity.”

With that, she pushed her flatbed cart and turned to leave.

Behind her, Ah Hong cried out,

“Then—then can I help you move stones? Please?”

“I still have strength, I’m strong.”

“I can do it, really, Shi Yuebai, please—no, just give me a chance! Let me prove I’m useful.”

Shi Yuebai stopped and looked back at Ah Hong.

Ah Hong straightened her knees, which had been about to bend.

Just as she thought Shi Yuebai was going to coldly refuse her, Shi Yuebai nodded.

“Do you know how to mix cement? Oh, doesn’t matter if you don’t, I don’t either.”

“I don’t need you to move bricks. I want you to build that wall.”

Last night, with so much stuff around, someone had tried to climb the wall into the Shi family’s yard to steal.

Shi Yuebai hadn’t even needed to do anything—the sight of her hair had scared the intruder off.

But the wall she’d built was basically a shoddy mess.

A casual push and it collapsed.

Honestly, Shi Yuebai was almost moved to tears by her own handiwork.

Now that Ah Hong had offered, Shi Yuebai didn’t have to fix the rubble wall herself.

Ah Hong nodded eagerly, set her skin-and-bones son down, rolled up her sleeves, and started mixing cement by the collapsed wall.

As she’d said, she still had some strength left.

Even after going so long without food, she could still wield a shovel.

She was more experienced than Shi Yuebai, able to sift out the tiniest stones from the rubble to mix with the cement.

Just as Ah Hong was about to mix the cement, she turned and saw a huge vat of clean water beside her.

Ah Hong: “…”

“Yuebai, this, this…”

So much clean water, and they were using it to mix cement?

Ah Hong felt faint.

Shi Yuebai snapped, “Don’t slack off, get to work, or I’ll dock your food.”

She was holding a book borrowed from Guai Guai, titled “The Overbearing CEO’s Delicate Darling.”

It was mildly interesting, but not much.

Ah Hong didn’t dare say another word and just worked as hard as she could.

After a while, she asked timidly,

“Miss Shi, can I give my son a little of this water?”

Shi Yuebai glanced over and called out, “Yaoyao, get some water for Ah Hong and her son.”

Yaoyao, who was practicing her handwriting, obediently stood up and ran into the tarp, coming back with two bottles of water.

“Here, this is clean.”

Yaoyao might be naive, but she treated her aunt’s words as law.

Auntie only let them drink the bottled water.

The pool water for bathing, the water by the clothes rack for washing faces, and the water by the cement for mixing cement—none of that was for drinking.

Auntie said it was dirty.

Ah Hong took the two bottles with trembling hands and carefully fed her son a sip.

“Mom…”

Her son opened his thin eyelids.

“Mom, you drink too.”

Yaoyao watched from the side, then looked back at Second Sister-in-law Shi and Shi Yuebai.

She brought a bottle of water over to them, “Mom, have some water.”

“Auntie, have some water.”

Hello? Is anyone there?"