Chapter 50: No One Deserves to Know He Exists

Shi Yaoyao actually had strength.

If Yi Zhe looked closely, he would notice a coin-sized golden Strength Talisman on the back of her neck.

It was put there by Shi Yuebai.

Made using Shi Yuebai’s soul power.

As long as Shi Yuebai kept channeling soul power into the talisman, it would continue to function.

And it would make Shi Yaoyao incredibly strong.

It was as if Shi Yaoyao had been fitted with a power device.

The soul power Shi Yuebai infused was like a battery.

With this setup, even though Shi Yaoyao was small, carrying twenty brooms was no problem.

But Yi Zhe and Chen Yong didn’t know this.

When Yi Zhe took the brooms from Shi Yaoyao’s shoulder, Chen Yong had no choice but to take the brooms from Shi Mother and Second Sister-in-law.

Shi Mother shook her head. “No, no, I’m listening to Yuebai.”

Her daughter told her to carry the brooms home, and she wouldn’t let anyone else touch them.

Chen Yong had no choice but to take Nong Yasi’s brooms instead.

In fact, Second Sister-in-law and Nong Yasi didn’t need Chen Yong’s help at all.

Actually, everyone in the Shi family had a Strength Talisman from Shi Yuebai.

All these talismans required Shi Yuebai’s soul power to work.

These coin-sized strength talismans only made the Shi family members relatively stronger—not to the point of moving mountains or filling seas.

So it didn’t look too out of place.

Shi Yuebai said nothing, simply activated the talisman and pushed the flatbed cart forward.

Yi Zhe took the thirty brooms from her shoulder.

He’d originally thought about hiring a mercenary to push Shi Yuebai’s cart.

But seeing how quickly she moved, Yi Zhe just smiled and strode after her.

They returned to the team under the bridge in silence.

Because the Shi family had gone with the mercenaries to the security line, they returned earlier than the others.

When they saw the Shi family’s stone wall, it was still daylight.

Ah Hong’s son was sitting near the sheet-draped doorway. From a distance, he raised his thin hand and waved at Shi Yuebai and the others.

He was getting stronger every day.

Who would have thought that just a few days ago, this twelve-year-old boy was nothing but skin and bones, on the verge of starving to death?

Now he could sit under the wall, smiling happily at them.

When Shi Yuebai’s group returned, Pang Ziyuan looked up and reported to her,

“My mom finished half the wall today. When my dad got back, she went home and told me to wait here for you.”

“Big Sister Yuebai, I did this.”

He proudly showed off his work to Shi Yuebai.

On Pang Ziyuan’s other arm was the digging mechanical arm he’d borrowed from Shi Yaoyao.

He couldn’t move much and didn’t have much strength.

But he’d spent the whole day using the mechanical arm to sort the pile of stones by the wall into three neat heaps: small, medium, and large.

The small stones were about the same size as the ones in Shi Yuebai’s courtyard.

The medium ones were each about the size of an adult’s palm—perfect for building the wall.

The rest were as big as stools.

At his young age, Pang Ziyuan had quickly figured out Shi Yuebai’s character.

Here, there was no room for sentiment—only those who could prove their value had a way to survive.

Pang Ziyuan pointed to a pile of dust on the ground.

That was what he’d made while crushing the stones.

“These can be mixed with cement. I’ll take care of it tomorrow.”

Shi Yuebai glanced at the three piles of stones and the thick layer of gravel on the ground.

She had to admit, Pang Ziyuan’s work was more productive than all of theirs put together.

Crushing stones into small pieces wasn’t hard.

The hard part was using the mechanical arm to make each piece about the same size.

That required precise control.

The three piles of stones—small, medium, and large—were arranged neatly.

Walls built with the medium stones and cement would be very even.

Even Yi Zhe couldn’t help but comment,

“This kid could pilot a mech one day.”

Ordinary mercenary teams didn’t have mechs—you needed real strength to build one.

Those things were great for fighting mutant beasts and zombies.

But the pilot needed precise control over both the machine and their own strength.

Yi Zhe had his own dream mech.

But he didn’t have the money or a mech pilot to train.

As he spoke, Yi Zhe crouched down, carefully examining the digging mechanical arm on Pang Ziyuan’s arm.

Pang Ziyuan looked up at Shi Yuebai, his eyes shining.

“Big Sister Yuebai, am I someone valuable to you?”

“Yes.”

Shi Yuebai nodded honestly.

“As long as you keep crushing stones for me, you’ll be able to live well.”

It seemed Pang Ziyuan was indeed quite valuable.

Originally, Shi Yuebai had thought that since the whole family had gone scavenging with Yi Zhe, there wouldn’t be enough sand and gravel for mixing cement at home.

She’d planned to have the family work overtime tonight to make more.

But Pang Ziyuan had finished all the work by himself.

Shi Yuebai even got three extra piles of stones in different sizes.

She had Shi Yaoyao go back to the tarp, bring out a heavy plastic bag, and hand it to Pang Ziyuan.

“Your and your mom’s wages.”

The plastic bag was black, so no one could see what was inside.

Pang Ziyuan peeked in excitedly: four potatoes and two bottles of water.

Yi Zhe and Chen Yong didn’t notice any of this.

They were squatting together, studying Pang Ziyuan’s mechanical arm.

Last time they came, they hadn’t noticed the Shi family had such a thing.

Now that Pang Ziyuan had shown it off, they were getting more and more interested.

Suddenly, Chen Yong looked up, eyes shining.

“Captain, this could be used against mutant beasts and zombies!”

This kind of mechanical arm, with its physical structure, could crush stones—why not the spines of mutant beasts or zombies?

If you had two of these, you could probably tear those creatures apart easily.

Yi Zhe turned to Shi Yuebai. “Yuebai, will you sell this?”

“I’ll use all the points in my account to buy it from you.”

“If that’s not enough, I’ll write you an IOU.”

Chen Yong quickly pulled out his communicator.

“How many points? If it’s not enough, I have more.”

Shi Yuebai waved her hand.

“No need for points. Just give me some food, and I’ll rent it to you.”

She’d traded food for this from the strange guy next door.

So it belonged to her.

Now she could rent it to Yi Zhe for some food—perfectly reasonable.

Next door, the strange man was hunched over a pile of parts.

He didn’t react at all to Shi Yuebai’s words.

He didn’t even want to stand up and say that the digging mechanical arm was his creation.

In this hopeless wasteland, no one deserved to know he existed.

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I really hate having keloid-prone skin.

The scar from my surgery at the start of the year has become so raised, it looks like a bug crawling on my body."