Chapter 49: Over a Hundred Brooms

Human body fat is also a form of energy.

The potential of chubby people is actually limitless—those who managed to survive the apocalypse and make it into the wasteland era were, for the most part, people who used to have some meat on their bones.

Take Ah Hong’s son, for example.

According to Ah Hong, her son used to be very fat, a chubby kid since he was little.

He was always teased by people around him and by his classmates at school, who called him “little fatty.”

It was only after there was nothing to eat or drink that her son gradually slimmed down.

But among the kids his age, the skinniest one had already starved to death.

As for the rest, who knows if they’re still alive.

“Brother Yizhe, you’re really a good person. If my big brother were still here, he’d definitely be grateful to you.”

Shi Yuebai was making small talk, just to pump a bit more fat-energy into Yizhe’s body.

Yizhe tilted his head, glancing at Shi Yuebai’s hand that had been resting on his shoulder the whole time.

Maybe Shi Yuebai herself hadn’t noticed.

Her hand was burning hot.

Almost hotter than the sun.

Yizhe pressed his lips together, watching Shi Yuebai calmly and without giving anything away.

She kept jumping from one topic to another.

This chubby girl wasn’t much of a talker, but she was really trying her best to keep the conversation going.

After about ten minutes, Shi Yuebai finally withdrew her hand, satisfied.

She’d managed to transfer fat-energy into Yizhe even faster this time.

Of course, the bigger reason was that Yizhe’s physical condition was excellent, his meridians completely unobstructed.

It was much easier to infuse him with fat-energy than with anyone else.

So, in one go, Shi Yuebai pumped 15 jin (about 16.5 pounds) of fat-energy into Yizhe.

For a normal person, suddenly gaining 15 jin in a single day would be unbearable.

But Yizhe was different.

He didn’t seem the least bit uncomfortable.

He just kept watching Shi Yuebai with those dark eyes, scrutinizing her.

Shi Yuebai grinned.

All things considered, even though she’d been roasting under the sun, her weight had stayed the same.

“Brother Yizhe, you go do your thing. I’m going to find a shady spot to hide for a bit.”

Shi Yuebai turned around, pushing her flatbed cart, and slowly made her way through the sprawling ruins.

She now weighed 714 jin (about 787 pounds).

As she walked, Shi Yuebai burned through her body’s fat-energy, converting it into spiritual power, then into soul power, to fuel her Strength Spell.

If there was any obstacle ahead, she just moved it out of the way with her bare hands.

Whether it was reinforced concrete or foam boxes.

In the middle of the vast ruins, Shi Yuebai dug herself a hole with sheer force, finding a shady, sheltered spot to rest.

Her weight gain started to slow down.

The rebound wasn’t as dramatic as before.

But due to the radiation, her weight still bounced back by about 10 jin.

Panting, Shi Yuebai looked down at her hands, now bloody and raw.

She’d forgotten to bring the digging mechanical arms that Weirdy had made for her.

Digging through trash with bare hands—flesh and bone just couldn’t take that kind of abuse.

Shi Yuebai sighed.

This body was just too weak.

In her previous life, she could jump and run and mess around without ever getting out of breath or breaking a sweat.

Now, after just a bit of walking and some heavy lifting, she was panting like a dog.

After a second of self-pity, Shi Yuebai pulled herself together. She gathered her soul power, and a small, round healing talisman floated up in her palm.

In the dim light of the pit, the golden healing talisman glowed with white light.

The light slowly drifted down onto Shi Yuebai’s bloody hands.

The wounds began to heal, little by little.

Gaining soul power was much more troublesome than simply outputting fat-energy.

Directly infusing others with fat-energy was simple and crude.

But converting fat-energy into soul power took Shi Yuebai three times as long.

In her current state, even sitting still, her weight kept creeping upward.

If she wanted to speed up the conversion, the only way was to endure three times the pain.

She was never one to sit still. While accelerating the conversion of soul power and using it to sustain the healing talisman, Shi Yuebai also challenged herself—she kept using the Strength Spell to dig through the trash pit with her bare hands.

Great. Shi Yuebai thought this pain was even worse than being in the eighteenth level of hell.

It felt like someone was rolling a spiked rolling pin from the top of her head all the way down to her feet.

And not just once, but over and over again.

Gritting her teeth, she yanked out a sheet of metal and tossed it behind her.

Her face, which had been scrubbed clean, was now covered in a thin layer of black oil.

Shi Yuebai wiped her face with a hand that had been cut by glass.

Now her face was smeared with both blood and greasy black grime.

Her hair, freshly washed just last night, was now tangled and clumped together.

Greasy.

And she was giving off a powerful stench of sweat.

The clothes she’d just made from new bedsheets were now soaked with a layer of black oil from the inside.

It stuck to the inner lining.

She didn’t care at all, just kept digging with single-minded focus.

As she dug, Shi Yuebai unearthed over a hundred brooms.

Brand new ones, big and small, all kinds.

Curious, she grabbed one and gave it a casual sweep—the pit instantly filled with swirling dust.

Shi Yuebai covered her nose and sneezed, and a brush fell from above, bonking her on the head.

“Yuebai, what are you doing here?”

Outside the pit, Nong Yasi’s voice rang out.

She bent over a little, having followed the trail in, looking around the pit in amazement.

“I can’t believe there’s a place like this here.”

“Yuebai, why are there so many brooms here?”

Shi Yuebai rubbed the spot on her head where the brush had hit her.

She turned and said to Nong Yasi,

“They’re all new. This must have been a broom factory before.”

“Go call Second Sister-in-law and Yaoyao over. Let’s pick out a few to take back—we’ll definitely need them.”

Under the bridge, there was mostly rubble.

Aside from that, there was all sorts of unidentifiable trash.

Bent, broken, rusted, useless scraps of paper—you name it.

It was about time to clean up all this garbage.

Shi Yuebai gathered the Shi family and had each person carry 20 brooms back from the pit.

It was getting dark when Yizhe and Chen Yong came looking for them, ready to take the Shi family home.

They saw the Shi family, all covered in dust, hair wild, sweating buckets, lugging big bags and little bundles.

And all of it was basically useless junk.

Each person had a long pole slung over their shoulder, with at least 20 brooms tied to it.

Shi Yuebai was even more over the top—her pole had at least 30 brooms tied to it.

Brooms!???

Chen Yong felt a headache coming on.

“Captain…”

He looked at Yizhe.

With the Shi family like this, could they really be brought along?

Wouldn’t this group of old, weak, sick, and disabled people just become a burden to their captain?

Chen Yong understood that Yizhe and Shi Yi were close brothers.

Rumor had it that before Shi Yi lost his mind, he’d even saved Yizhe’s life.

But the Shi family was just too much of a load.

Yizhe’s mouth twitched.

He reached for the little belly that had suddenly appeared today.

His once rock-hard abs seemed to have been covered by a layer of soft fat.

“Let’s go.”

Yizhe stepped forward and took the broom-laden pole from Shi Yaoyao’s shoulder.

“We’ll talk when we get back.”

Everyone’s probably off to work or school by now, right?"