Chapter 72: Fun Plants for Children

After leaving the team under the collapsed bridge with his bundle on his back, Wu Haoran sneaked away, taking a long detour and struggling to climb up a pile of rubble.

He had actually been curious about the Shi family’s wall for a long time.

Not just him—many people in the group wanted to know how much food the mercenaries had given the Shi family.

But after scavenging outside, no one ever had the strength left to climb up that heap of ruins.

In fact, there wasn’t even a real path from under the bridge up to the bank.

What’s more, there were exposed steel bars everywhere—one careless step and you could easily impale yourself.

Besides, the Shi family was just a bunch of fools. No matter how much food they had, how much could it really be?

Lots of people had the idea and wanted to snoop around.

But Wu Haoran was the only one who actually did it.

He spent half the day, carrying all his belongings, picking his way through the area full of exposed rebar.

He saw a public toilet half-buried under a pile of rubble, and, below that, a collapsed bridge pier also buried in stones.

As for the Shi family, they were completely hidden behind all sorts of debris and rocks—he couldn’t see what they were doing inside the wall at all.

For a moment, Wu Haoran felt dizzy and faint from the sun’s radiation.

He cursed himself out loud.

He couldn’t understand what had possessed him to go through all this trouble to climb up to this godforsaken place.

“Those mercenaries are real bastards,” he swore, then started cursing Yi Zhe.

Weren’t they supposed to turn the Shi family’s place into a den of pleasure?

So why did they let them build a wall, and let that bunch of idiots hole up here like cockroaches?

Only an idiot like him would get into a fight, get injured, and still climb such a treacherous path.

He just couldn’t let it go—he wanted to discover something no one else had.

Wu Haoran, dizzy and lightheaded, plopped down on the ground.

But he quickly jumped back up.

There was nowhere to sit here—sharp rocks everywhere.

He’d jabbed himself right in the butt.

Shouldering his heavy pack, Wu Haoran stumbled his way back down.

Idiot, he thought, his IQ must have dropped to the same level as the Shi family by now.

Soon, everyone in the group knew that Wu Haoran had left the collapsed bridge.

He hadn’t taken his wife of over ten years with him.

Instead, he’d left with two women from the Chen family.

Rumor had it those two women had gone with Wu Haoran willingly.

Shi Yuebai listened to all this gossip, relayed by Second Sister-in-law Shi, with a blank expression.

Her attention was focused on the Shi family’s courtyard, inside the wall.

She’d known the moment Wu Haoran approached the public toilet.

But she hadn’t done anything to him.

Her puppets didn’t even come out to scare him.

Shi Yuebai was content to let him go, to spread word of the Shi family’s current sorry state.

Looking at the little courtyard, Shi Yuebai regretted planning it so small in the first place.

Ever since they’d set up an inflatable tent, the space inside the wall was definitely not enough.

Not to mention, the 300 boxes of disposable bowls and chopsticks had taken up every last bit of open ground inside the wall.

Shi Yuebai had no choice but to have Nong Yasi and Second Sister-in-law Shi take down the old tarp.

They used the tarp to cover the mountain of potatoes piled up on the purification array.

As for the potato field, Shi Yuebai hadn’t planned to do anything about it.

But Nong Yasi and Second Sister-in-law Shi both insisted that the potato patch was just too miraculous.

It needed to be covered up.

They busied themselves moving boxes, temporarily using the empty boxes from the disposable tableware as a screen.

Shi Yuebai watched them stacking up the boxes as a barrier and wanted to say something to stop them.

There was really no need to block off the potato patch so thoroughly.

All they needed was a screen between the potato patch and the courtyard, so people standing in the yard couldn’t see it at a glance.

There was a fog array around the public toilet.

As long as you stood by the toilet looking down, unless you were Shi Yuebai herself, you couldn’t see the potato patch below from any angle.

All you’d see was a mess of rubble and exposed rebar.

But seeing how hard Nong Yasi and Second Sister-in-law Shi were working, Shi Yuebai let them be.

Let them fuss over it.

“Yuebai, look!”

Ah Hong came in from outside the courtyard, her fair face flushed with excitement.

Pang Zhenggong followed, beaming, carrying a huge box on his shoulder.

The couple had brought Shi Yuebai a big box of DIY fun plants for children.

Pang Zhenggong set the box down, and Nong Yasi and Shi Yaoyao hurried over to take a look.

Shi Yuebai couldn’t help but crane her thick, almost unrecognizable neck in curiosity.

“I found this while scavenging,” Pang Zhenggong said, wiping sweat from his face.

He’d set up a new tent for his own family—not as nice as the inflatable one he’d given the Shi family, but sturdy and weatherproof.

These days, Pang Zhenggong had been scavenging with a few friends, leaving Ah Hong to build up the wall at home.

But luck hadn’t been on their side—they hadn’t found anything useful.

Just as Pang Zhenggong was about to head back, he’d dug up this box of children’s fun plants.

These fun plants for kids were packaged in fancy boxes.

Before the apocalypse, they were toys for children.

Maybe that’s why they’d survived the disaster.

For the first time, Shi Yuebai’s eyes showed a trace of a smile for Pang Zhenggong.

“Nice work.”

Pang Zhenggong was energized.

“The moment I saw this, I dug it up and brought it back. I figured it’d be useful for us.”

What he didn’t say was that his teammates had mocked him for insisting on digging up this box of “garbage” from the ruins.

But all his old friends had joined other teams.

They’d tried to persuade him to leave, but he’d refused.

So now, several of them had a bit of a grudge against him.

Ah Hong nodded vigorously beside him.

Pang Zhenggong probably had an inkling that the Shi family had water.

But no one had told him directly, and he hadn’t asked.

Ah Hong said, “I bought these fun plants for Ziyuan a few years ago—they really do grow!”

Just spray a little water and they’ll sprout.

Shi Yuebai watched as everyone took the fun plants out of the box.

Most of them were mushrooms.

Edible ones, ones that grew just by spraying water, all sorts of colors.

“Oyster mushrooms, golden mushrooms, pink mushrooms—Yuebai, there are over a dozen boxes of each!” Nong Yasi counted excitedly.

The whole big box was full of mushrooms.

But finding so many mushrooms was enough to get everyone excited.

Seeing everyone’s genuine joy, Pang Zhenggong felt more accomplished than if he’d dug up a box of moldy, expired food.

“There’s more in that area—I should be able to dig up quite a few more,” he said, though his smile faded a bit.

Still, since he refused to leave the bridge team, his old scavenging buddies probably wouldn’t team up with him again.

The weather was a bit chilly, but not too cold.

Perfect for sleeping."