Chapter 67: Everyone Was Dog-Tired

The purification array worked slowly.

It couldn’t instantly reduce the radiation in food to 0%. Instead, it purified the food bit by bit.

Aside from consuming a lot of Shi Yuebai’s soul power, it was at least less of a hassle for her.

The purification spell was a bit faster, but Shi Yuebai didn’t have the time or energy to purify each potato as soon as Shi Yaoyao dug one up.

So, the longer the potatoes sat on the purification array, the lower their radiation levels became.

Following Shi Yuebai’s instructions, Nong Yasi managed to find a few potatoes from the bottom that had 0% radiation.

She washed the potatoes with water.

Shi Yuebai reminded her from the side, “Peel them.”

Nong Yasi’s hand paused for a moment, but she still did as Shi Yuebai said.

On the wasteland, anything edible was usually eaten as-is.

Nong Yasi had seen it many times—Ah Hong and Guai Guai would eat potatoes with the skin on, dirt and all.

So Shi Yuebai’s request was already considered wasteful.

But it didn’t matter—they really did have a lot of potatoes at home.

Shi Yuebai went to check on Shi Xiangrui.

Shi Xiangrui was lying on a mattress inside the tarp.

She was already a month old, no longer just eating and sleeping all day like a newborn.

When she saw Shi Yuebai approach, the little one waved her hands and kicked her chubby legs, her big dark eyes fixed on Shi Yuebai.

For a moment, Shi Yuebai felt like getting a cat teaser to play with the child.

She stared expressionlessly at Shi Xiangrui.

Suddenly, Shi Xiangrui burst out giggling.

Shi Yuebai couldn’t help but curl her lips and said coldly,

“What are you laughing at, huh?”

“Don’t think you can get out of working just by acting cute.”

Second Sister-in-law, sitting nearby, couldn’t help but laugh when she heard this.

Yuebai…

Their Yuebai was truly someone who made everyone feel safe.

Second Sister-in-law thought of how, after her husband died, Yuebai had taken on the responsibility of the whole family by herself.

Her heart ached at the memory.

Tears stung her eyes and fell again.

She hurriedly fumbled for some clean water to wash her eyes.

When she opened them, she saw a hazy white light.

In that white light, there seemed to be a few blurry figures moving around.

Second Sister-in-law blinked hard, but the white light didn’t disappear.

“Yuebai!”

Second Sister-in-law cried out in alarm.

Panic rose in her—had her brain disease gotten so bad?

Was she seeing heaven?

Shi Yuebai quickly spun her wheelchair over to Second Sister-in-law’s side.

She reached out to steady the swaying woman.

“What’s wrong?”

Second Sister-in-law started crying again.

She was dying, but her daughter was still so young, and Shi Xiangrui hadn’t grown up yet.

Those people would come and call them a family of idiots again—who would shoot them dead?

In the whole Shi family, she was the only one with good hearing.

The wasteland was already hopeless enough, but the thought of dying and leaving so many things unfinished made her even more reluctant to go.

She cried even harder, tears streaming down her face.

The blackish-yellow tears stained her once-fair, pretty face.

The tears not only stung her eyes, but also caused a rash on her cheeks.

Shi Yuebai quickly had Shi Yaoyao bring clean water to wash Second Sister-in-law’s eyes and face over and over.

“Yuebai, I saw heaven.”

Second Sister-in-law sat in front of Shi Yuebai’s wheelchair, eyes dull, letting Shi Yaoyao rinse her eyes with a ladle.

She gripped Shi Yuebai’s hand tightly, sobbing,

“What should I do? I can’t let go of you all.”

“Don’t talk nonsense.”

Shi Yuebai scolded her,

“There’s no such thing as heaven. Be realistic—there’s only hell in this world, and we’re living in it right now.”

Her words were always sharp.

Living on the wasteland was no different from living in hell.

“You’ve been drinking too much water lately. That’s why you have so many tears.”

Shi Yuebai was impatient with Second Sister-in-law’s sentimentality.

Second Sister-in-law didn’t dare cry anymore, afraid Shi Yuebai would yell at her.

When darkness slowly returned to her vision, she choked out,

“Yuebai, I couldn’t find any oil.”

Without oil, they couldn’t fry the potatoes.

Shi Yuebai said indifferently, “It’s fine. Just fry them without oil.”

Seeing Second Sister-in-law calm down, Nong Yasi relaxed too and quickly sliced up several large potatoes.

Shi Yuebai had Nong Yasi build a stove out of stones outside the tarp, then called over Ah Hong and Pang Ziyuan.

She also called over Guai Guai, who had come by.

A group of people gathered around the stone stove to fry a pot of potato slices without oil.

To keep them from sticking, Nong Yasi put a bit of water at the bottom of the pot.

In the end, the fried potato slices turned into boiled potato slices.

Everyone still enjoyed them.

Compared to just steaming potatoes, gathering together to boil potato slices had its own special flavor.

After eating the potato slices, everyone even got some of the broth.

Once they were done eating and drinking, they went back to building the wall under cover of night.

The Shi family’s activities were being watched in secret.

Someone in the nearby group saw all this and couldn’t help but whisper mockingly,

“Do those idiots think they have tons of food or something?”

“Do they think building that wall will get them more food?”

“Tch, they’re just a bunch of freeloaders living off mercenaries. The women of the Shi family have it easy—just spread their legs and the mercenaries bring food right over.”

A few days ago, some people had seen Yi Zhe and a few mercenaries deliver several big boxes to the Shi family’s compound.

Someone overheard them say it was ‘rent’ or something.

Zhang Xueyao sneered, “Maybe those Shi women are being kept by the mercenary group long-term.”

“Tsk tsk, the Shi family is building a brothel, huh.”

“Even Ah Hong has sunk this low. Does her husband know?”

The women who were close to Wei Lingxia and Zhang Xueyao made the nastiest speculations about the Shi and Pang families.

Hungry, filthy, and with tangled hair, they all watched the Shi family, waiting for them to make fools of themselves.

Using their own logic, they found what seemed like the most reasonable explanation for the Shi family’s actions.

No one from the Shi family came out to refute them. In the middle of the night, everyone was dog-tired.

They’d eaten their fill and had energy to work, but Shi Yuebai had assigned so many tasks.

They didn’t finish until midnight.

Shi Yaoyao handed Ah Hong a plastic bag.

Inside were four potatoes, each the size of an adult’s fist, and two bottles of water.

Ah Hong immediately looked at Shi Yuebai.

“Yuebai, isn’t this too much? I—I already ate potato slices with you all today.”

Not only had she eaten potato slices, she’d also had potato soup.

Ah Hong had always thought that if she ate at the Shi family’s place, she wouldn’t get paid.

Today I went to the wholesale market—there was so much to buy!"