Chapter 88: Added Mushroom Soup Today

Big Jiao and Little Jiao rarely show any aggression.

Maybe after spending the past few days together in the same enclosure, they’ve gotten familiar with Pang Ziyuan and started to let their true natures show.

Commander Qiao frowned as he looked at his two daughters.

Then he glanced at Shi Yuebai.

Shi Yuebai didn’t say a word about what the girls did, so Commander Qiao kept quiet as well.

After a while, Shi Yaoyao joined the fray. Her temperament was even bolder than Big Jiao and Little Jiao’s.

Shi Yaoyao grabbed handfuls of small stones from the ground and started throwing them at that fool.

The fool was chased off.

The few oddballs left behind didn’t dare laugh anymore after seeing the fool run away.

Meanwhile, Shi Yaoyao and the Jiao sisters clapped and cheered together, as if they’d just won a great victory.

Expressionless, Shi Yuebai said to Commander Qiao,

“The printer stays. Yaoyao, go get the food.”

Shi Yaoyao bounced back inside the wall and brought out a plastic bag full of potatoes for Commander Qiao.

Each potato was tiny, about the size of a child’s fist.

There were exactly eight.

Commander Qiao and the seven oddballs could each have one potato.

But even this many potatoes was enough to make Commander Qiao’s eyes light up.

“Yuebai, there’s still a lot of white paper over there. Do you want it?”

Shi Yuebai replied, “Sure.”

Commander Qiao happily took the bag, handed out a potato to each person, and then led the seven oddballs off to haul more white paper.

Shi Yuebai left the printer behind and told Shi Yaoyao and Pang Ziyuan to take it apart.

“How are we supposed to use it without electricity?”

Nong Yasi came over to look at the printer.

It was a good piece of equipment, but at a time like this, what was the point of trading for something like that?

Shi Yuebai mused,

“Even just printing some information would be useful.”

For example, a menu.

Monday: breakfast on your own, boiled potato slices for lunch, boiled potato chunks for dinner.

Tuesday: boiled potato chunks for breakfast, boiled potato slices for lunch, dinner on your own.

Wednesday: boiled potato slices for breakfast, lunch on your own, boiled potato chunks for dinner.

Thursday…

You could print out the full week’s three meals and post them on the wall for everyone to see.

That way, everyone could look forward to each day’s breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

The menu could be more systematic and varied.

This task was handed over to Nong Yasi.

She would write the menu by hand, then use the printer’s copy function to duplicate it and post it on the wall.

As for powering the printer, there was no rush—Guai Guai had already fixed the solar panels on top of the public restroom.

They just needed to run the wiring down.

Nong Yasi: “…”

Guai Guai: “…”

Wasn’t this just something to do out of boredom?

But who would dare say that out loud?

Having just finished repairing the solar panels, Guai Guai scowled and, under Shi Yuebai’s orders, went back to his own walled yard.

His pile of junk parts was hidden behind the wall, so no one could see just how much scrap he’d hoarded.

He rummaged through the pile and found a few half-used solar panels.

After tinkering for a while, Guai Guai slanted the panels along the top of his wall.

The large printer was set up right beside his wall.

Shi Yuebai’s wild ideas might be impossibly difficult for others.

But for Guai Guai, they were just a matter of lifting a finger.

The only difference was whether he wanted to do it, and whether it was worth his effort.

If he didn’t get two potato meals a day from Shi Yuebai, he wouldn’t bother listening to her at all.

Late at night, Xu Xuejiao looked complicatedly at the potato Commander Qiao had brought home.

She couldn’t help but think of the menu posted on the Shi family’s wall above the ditch.

It made the Shi family’s place feel just like a workplace cafeteria.

But she couldn’t deny that the Shi family really seemed to have a lot of potatoes, enough to come up with something new every day for a whole week.

It might seem boring, but the Shi and Pang families spent the whole day discussing the menu.

“They actually have the mood to fuss over this?”

Xu Xuejiao had spent the whole day digging ditches and was so tired she didn’t want to move.

She turned and took out a piece of hard flatbread, breaking it into four pieces.

The biggest piece she gave to Commander Qiao.

She handed the next two smaller pieces to Big Jiao and Little Jiao.

The tiniest piece she kept for herself.

But Big Jiao and Little Jiao shook their heads and refused.

Big Jiao said, “Already ate, Aunt gave it to us.”

Little Jiao nodded, “Full, potato slices.”

They’d spent the whole day playing in the enclosure, and even helped Pang Ziyuan sort rocks by size.

When the Shi family had their meal, Shi Yaoyao brought each of them a big bowl of potato slices.

In the wasteland, most people’s stomachs had shrunk from hunger—they couldn’t eat much at all.

Those big bowls of boiled potato slices had stuffed the Jiao sisters full.

Xu Xuejiao put away her flatbread with mixed feelings.

She’d never felt so obviously excluded before.

She’d dug ditches all day, but whether it was her husband or her daughters, they all got something in return.

She got nothing.

Because Shi Yuebai had never agreed to take her in.

She dug her ditches, but she could just as well have not dug them.

Shi Yuebai didn’t care one bit.

That feeling was hard to bear.

Seeing Xu Xuejiao silent, Commander Qiao tried to comfort her,

“Tomorrow I’ll try to find more things to trade for a couple more potatoes, so you won’t have to worry.”

He shouldn’t have said anything—his words only made Xu Xuejiao feel even more conflicted.

If only she hadn’t complained to Shi Yuebai before, hadn’t let her dissatisfaction show.

She could have earned her own food today, instead of relying on her husband and daughters to squeeze out a share for her.

Big Jiao and Little Jiao could eat their fill at the Shi family.

Commander Qiao could also trade for food from Shi Yuebai.

The Qiao family, living outside the Shi family’s walls, weren’t beaten or humiliated.

That was a fact, better than any speculation or argument.

The next day, Commander Qiao took the seven oddballs out scavenging again.

Big Jiao, Little Jiao, Pang Ziyuan, and Shi Yaoyao woke up and immediately ran excitedly to the bulletin board to check today’s menu.

Pang Ziyuan taught Big Jiao and Shi Yaoyao to read,

“We’ve got mushroom soup added today.”

“Mushroom soup for breakfast, potato slices for lunch, potato chunks for dinner.”

As he spoke, Nong Yasi came out from inside the Shi family’s walls.

She was holding more than a dozen kids’ mushroom-growing kits in her arms.

“Hurry up and help.”

Big Jiao, Little Jiao, and Shi Yaoyao quickly ran over and each took a few mushroom kits from her.

Nong Yasi said, “That’s all the mushrooms we have. Take them to the potato field out back and water them every day according to the instructions.”

“There’s also a pile of mushrooms already grown in the yard—move them all to the potato field too. Pick a patch for soup, and let the rest keep growing.”

Those kids’ mushroom kits, placed inside and outside the Shi family’s spiritually rich walls, grew big and plump.

But they took up too much space.

The Shi family’s yard was already crowded, and with the mushrooms growing like crazy, there was hardly room to turn around.

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