Chapter 56: I’ll Trade My Life for Yours

Wei Lingxia had already found out everything she needed to know.

This morning, Pang Zhenggong had gone out scavenging with the survivors from the team under the bridge.

As long as the Chen family could take Ah Hong and Pang Ziyuan away, Pang Zhenggong would definitely leave the team under the bridge with them.

The team that Chen Huaihai had chosen to join would be very happy to have Pang Zhenggong.

Of course, they’d be even happier to have the Chen family and those women.

After all, in that team, the mortality rate for women was extremely high.

In the end, no woman ever left that team alive.

Ah Hong twisted her wrist, protesting, “Auntie, let go of me. I’m not leaving.”

But Wei Lingxia was strong.

Chen Huaihai, standing by, added, “We’re doing this for your own good. We’re your elders, we’d never hurt you.”

But what exactly were they doing now?

Shi Yuebai pulled out a baked potato and handed it to Guai Guai, who had just stepped out from under the tarp.

“Here, catch.”

The scruffy, bearded man caught the potato Shi Yuebai handed him.

He didn’t even bother peeling it—he just took a bite.

Like Shi Yuebai, he paid no attention to the scene of dragging and struggling happening ahead.

After eating Shi Yuebai’s potato, Guai Guai didn’t even need to be told—he knew he should give something in return.

He dragged out a large wheelchair from behind him.

The kind big enough for several adults to sit in at once.

He’d made it especially for Shi Yuebai.

Shi Yuebai’s eyes lit up at the sight of the wheelchair.

The flatbed cart she was using now wasn’t bad, either.

Guai Guai had added two extra-large swivel wheels to it, making it about the same height as the wheelchair.

But there was one problem: if Shi Yuebai wanted to move, she had to push the flatbed cart herself.

It was like rowing a boat.

As she got more used to her heavy body, she was able to move faster and faster on the cart.

But inevitably, she felt the cart didn’t quite keep up with her will.

And since both her hands were occupied pushing the cart, she couldn’t do anything else.

“This is a remote control,” Guai Guai rasped, pointing to several buttons on the wheelchair.

There were up, down, left, and right buttons. If you pressed two at once, the wheelchair could even move diagonally—northeast, southwest, southeast, northwest.

It could even recline flat on the spot.

With a wheelchair like this, Shi Yuebai wouldn’t even need a bed anymore.

Looking at the oversized, state-of-the-art wheelchair, Shi Yuebai was overjoyed.

She immediately told Shi Yaoyao, who had followed her, to go fetch thirty bottles of water for Guai Guai.

Every time the Shi family went out scavenging, they’d bring back loads of bottles and jars.

As long as the bottles were intact and could hold water, they’d treasure them, clean them, and stack them in a corner.

Once Shi Yuebai was done with her chores, she’d fill the clean bottles with water.

Whenever they needed some, Shi Yaoyao just had to grab one from the corner.

Shi Mother came bouncing over, holding a box in her arms.

Inside, plastic bags were folded neatly, filling the box.

“Yuebai, look how good I am at saving money,” she said.

“We’ll never have to buy plastic bags again.”

Shi Mother, still a little crazy, hadn’t fully grasped what it meant to live in this wasteland.

But over the past few days, she’d vaguely realized that life was getting tough.

So she’d become obsessed with collecting plastic bags.

There was a huge garbage dump near the Shi family’s place.

This was the “useless trash” Shi Yuebai had mentioned, not knowing what it could be used for.

Besides piles of rubble, there were scraps of paper and all sorts of broken things.

Shi Yuebai had told her mother to sweep around the house with a broom whenever she had nothing to do.

And somehow, from that mountain of garbage, Shi Mother could always find countless intact plastic bags.

She’d wash them clean with fresh water, dry them, then fold them neatly, roll them up, and collect them together.

Before she knew it, she’d gathered a whole box full.

Shi Yuebai had nothing to say about her mother’s little obsession.

Everyone had their quirks—Shi Yuebai had hers, too.

Besides, the plastic bags her mother collected weren’t entirely useless.

For example, right now, Shi Mother took a black plastic bag from the box and handed it to Shi Yaoyao.

“Use this to carry them.”

Shi Yaoyao bounced away, the black plastic bag in her hand billowing in the wind, rustling noisily.

From a distance, Wei Lingxia couldn’t hear what Shi Yuebai and Shi Yaoyao were saying.

She just watched Shi Yaoyao’s cheerful figure disappear behind the neatly stacked walls of the Shi family’s compound.

So hateful.

Why was it that, while everyone else was living in misery, anyone who joined the Shi family seemed to bounce as they walked?

Wei Lingxia tightened her grip, dragging Ah Hong harder toward the Chen family’s tarp.

Earlier that morning, Yi Zhe and the others who lived near the Shi family had gone to the perimeter.

Because things were tense at the perimeter, Yi Zhe hadn’t had time to ask Shi Yuebai to go scavenging with him.

So now, Wei Lingxia and Chen Huaihai felt they could do as they pleased.

Ah Hong struggled, but Chen Huaihai simply grabbed her other arm.

Together, he and Wei Lingxia dragged her away.

Shamelessly, Wei Lingxia coaxed her as she dragged her along.

“Just come with us for now. I’ll come back for your son in a minute.”

Seeing how uncooperative Ah Hong was, Wei Lingxia and Chen Huaihai exchanged a look.

As soon as they got Ah Hong into the Chen family’s tarp, they’d knock her out.

Pang Zhenggong was usually gone for a day or two when he went out scavenging.

Sometimes he’d be gone for ten days or half a month—that was normal.

He knew the team’s limitations. Sometimes, even when he went out with the group, he’d split off on his own, heading to the more deserted parts of the perimeter.

By the time Pang Zhenggong got back, his wife and son would have already been taken away by the Chen family to another team.

At that point, Pang Zhenggong would have no choice but to stay with the Chen family in the new team.

Sitting on a pile of rubble by the wall, Pang Ziyuan shouted anxiously,

“Mom! Mom! Where are you taking my mom?”

Ah Hong couldn’t break free, and was being dragged farther and farther away by Wei Lingxia and Chen Huaihai.

Just then, she spotted the friend who had spoken with Pang Zhenggong the night before.

She called out to him for help. “Help me! Please, help me!”

Wei Lingxia said,

“Ah Hong, why are you being so difficult? I’m your aunt. Would I ever hurt you?”

Pang Zhenggong’s friend just glanced at Wei Lingxia and Ah Hong.

He didn’t make a single move to intervene.

He even chatted with Chen Huaihai for a bit.

That’s right—the team Pang Zhenggong’s friend wanted to join, and the one Chen Huaihai wanted to join, were one and the same!

Ah Hong was helpless, her legs dragging on the ground. She turned back and shouted to Shi Yuebai,

“Help me! Help me! Yuebai, save me!”

“I—I’ll trade my life for yours!”

Heh heh, heh heh."