Chapter 93: She Gave Them 80 Jin of Mushrooms

Xu Xuejiao stood outside the Shi family’s compound wall.

Shi Yuebai didn’t come out, nor did she respond.

Everyone around her followed Shi Yuebai’s lead.

But Xu Xuejiao didn’t feel embarrassed.

If Shi Yuebai really was an ability user, her temper was nothing out of the ordinary for ordinary people.

Ability users were people regular folks could hardly ever come into contact with.

At least, after surviving the apocalypse and five years on the wasteland, Xu Xuejiao had never seen one.

For a patch of wasteland to have the protection of an ability user was an incredible stroke of luck.

Xu Xuejiao stood there for a while longer, then told Dajiao and Xiaojiao to get back to their work.

Xiaojiao was behind the Shi family’s wall, helping Ah Hong move rubble.

She couldn’t speak in full sentences. Though she hadn’t been mutated by radiation into a “big head,” her intelligence was even lower than Shi Yaoyao’s.

Her cognitive ability was about that of a one- or two-year-old child.

At best, she could only recognize people.

Shi Yuebai had assigned her to Second Sister-in-law Shi, to act as her eyes.

As for Shi Yaoyao, besides having to practice writing, reading, and doing math every day, she also had to dig up potatoes, plant potatoes, and pick mushrooms.

Shi Yaoyao could do so many things now.

She was no longer that deformed, mentally challenged child who could do nothing but scream and couldn’t even walk.

Dajiao, meanwhile, had been sent to dig ditches.

Shi Yuebai planned to seal off the Tongzi Frame as soon as possible.

Otherwise, if someone like Wei Lingxia or Zhang Xueyao showed up again, Shi Yuebai would be driven crazy.

Xu Xuejiao was still standing outside the Shi family’s wall.

Second Sister-in-law Shi listened to Shi Yaoyao reciting in the courtyard—something like, “Heaven and earth are above and below, sun and moon shine through the ages.” She recited so fluently, and her speech was clear.

These improvements weren’t obvious day to day, but thinking back to two months ago, Shi Yaoyao’s progress was astonishing.

Second Sister-in-law Shi wore a happy smile.

She groped her way out from inside the wall and said to Xu Xuejiao standing outside,

“Yuebai won’t pay you any mind, so don’t block the way here.”

Some opportunities, once missed, are gone for good.

Shi Yuebai never said Xu Xuejiao had done anything wrong—protecting her daughter in the wasteland was only natural.

But there were thousands upon thousands like Xu Xuejiao.

If Shi Yuebai so much as waved her hand and casually revealed a bit of her “abilities,” there would be plenty of people eager to serve her.

Why should she take in Xu Xuejiao?

Aside from digging, what could Xu Xuejiao offer Shi Yuebai?

She didn’t provide emotional value, nor did she have any remarkable skills.

If you can’t grab the first slice of cake Shi Yuebai offers, then don’t expect to eat at all.

Xu Xuejiao swayed a little, bowed to Shi Yuebai once more, said nothing this time, and turned to leave, climbing down into the ditch.

The ditch still needed to be dug.

Even though Shi Yuebai had excluded her from the Shi family’s compound, Xu Xuejiao was still alive.

Her two daughters now had hope and a future.

Xu Xuejiao was determined to do whatever it took to stay in that ditch.

That night, when Captain Qiao returned, Xu Xuejiao told him about going to apologize to Shi Yuebai.

Captain Qiao was silent for a while, then said,

“Actually, this is for the best. We can stay in this ditch, and Yuebai hasn’t driven us away.”

“We’re already better off than most.”

It’s important to know contentment.

Xu Xuejiao nodded and looked back at her two daughters.

Both girls were clean and sleeping sweetly in their sleeping bags.

What more could she ask for? Xu Xuejiao was already satisfied.

Captain Qiao had gone scavenging that day and brought back dozens of brand-new sleeping bags.

He kept four for himself and gave the rest to Shi Yuebai in exchange for some mushrooms and water.

All the mushrooms and water were divided among the seven “misfits.”

Captain Qiao poked at the fire at the mouth of their pit and said to his wife,

“The more Yuebai gives us, the more we need to protect her.”

Xu Xuejiao nodded, curled up in her warm sleeping bag, and slept better than she had since the apocalypse began.

Inside the Shi family’s courtyard, Shi Yuebai didn’t care what Xu Xuejiao thought.

She was only looking at Pang Zhenggong, who was lying on the ground and about to start sprouting grass.

Shi Yuebai pondered.

Early the next morning, Ah Hong came in to fetch tools to build the water reservoir.

As she walked in and out, she couldn’t help glancing at Pang Zhenggong lying on the ground.

The Tongzi Frame’s wall was finished, and the cement-mixing site had been moved to the back.

These days, Ah Hong had been using bricks from the visitor center to build a reservoir directly behind the public toilets.

As she passed Pang Zhenggong, Shi Yuebai called out to her,

“Give your husband something to drink today. He can eat now.”

These days, Pang Zhenggong hadn’t been able to eat anything. Even when fed mushroom soup, he couldn’t swallow.

To maintain his body’s energy needs, Shi Yuebai had been injecting several jin of fat energy into him every day.

Yes, Shi Yuebai was saving him, not just taking the chance to lose weight!

So, even though Pang Zhenggong had been lying motionless and barely breathing, he hadn’t lost weight.

In fact, he’d gained over forty jin.

Ah Hong stared at Pang Zhenggong’s bulging belly on the ground.

Where was her skinny, bony husband?

The man lying there now was so stuffed into his clothes they were about to burst, with a roll of fat squeezed out between his shirt and pants.

Who was this?!

Ah Hong looked at Shi Yuebai in alarm.

“Why is Ah Zheng swollen? Is he dying?”

She’d heard that some people swell up before they die.

Nong Yasi hurried over and pressed Pang Zhenggong’s cheek, shaking her head,

“It’s not swelling. Your husband is just plain fat.”

Nong Yasi didn’t even know how to explain this medically.

Given how badly Pang Zhenggong was injured, the fact that he’d survived being left on the ground was already miraculous.

Now, he hadn’t eaten a thing, yet he’d gotten this fat.

Ah Hong, Pang Ziyuan, and the others all stared at Shi Yuebai.

Shi Yuebai pretended not to notice their suspicious looks.

She left a healing spell above Pang Zhenggong and turned to leave the Shi family’s compound.

It looked like Pang Zhenggong couldn’t handle any more fat.

Other people also got a few jin of fat energy from her every day, but they worked hard, so it wasn’t as obvious.

Pang Zhenggong just lay there, unable to burn any fat.

Naturally, the fat energy piled up.

Not Shi Yuebai’s fault.

But she knew she couldn’t keep “tormenting” Pang Zhenggong this way.

She needed a new approach.

She looked around.

Inside and outside the Shi family’s yard were two different worlds.

Now, the courtyard was thick with spiritual energy, so dense it formed a white mist that could block some of the sun’s radiation.

Shi Yuebai had only discovered this recently.

Outside the compound wall, it was empty and exposed.

Everything inside the Tongzi Frame was in plain view.

Without the white mist as a barrier, anyone passing by could see right in.

That white mist was the spiritual energy condensed into a visible form.

Even if it only blocked a little radiation, it helped.

But Shi Yuebai could only channel her spiritual energy into her formations.

Every day, she was desperately trying to lose weight, desperately channeling spiritual energy into her formations, and desperately stuffing fat energy into those around her.

But because of the radiation, the fat energy she expended and the fat she gained were in balance.

So Shi Yuebai decided to draw a giant spirit-gathering formation inside and outside the Shi family’s property.

She wanted to create a sky-covering effect to block the omnipresent radiation around her.

At least then, when she woke up the next morning, she wouldn’t be horrified to find her weight had shot up to 800 jin.

Shi Yuebai believed that only by stopping her body’s fat from expanding could she hope to lose weight.

No sooner thought than done, Shi Yuebai found a long stick and infused it with soul power.

She began drawing a spirit-gathering formation on the open ground.

The Wu clan’s spirit-gathering formations could gather the world’s spiritual energy, helping Wu clan members quickly absorb it and convert it into soul power.

For example, in battle, a Wu clan member standing on a perfect spirit-gathering formation was like standing in a blue pool.

If their soul power ran out, they could absorb more from the formation on the spot.

But there was no spiritual energy in the wasteland.

So Shi Yuebai needed to draw a massive formation to create a sky-covering effect to resist the radiation.

This formation would require her to keep channeling spiritual energy into it, using her own fat as fuel.

She’d keep going until the spiritual energy was thick enough to form a mist.

This wasn’t hard for Shi Yuebai, whose weight had stabilized at 702 jin.

Every day, her weight kept ballooning.

Every day, she racked her brains to burn off her fat.

As long as she drew a giant spirit-gathering formation and kept channeling spiritual energy into it, she could gradually get her weight under control.

Shi Yaoyao came over, curious,

“Auntie, what are you drawing?”

Shi Yuebai didn’t even look up,

“Something that’ll keep us warm in winter and cool in summer.”

This formation didn’t do anything else—no special functions.

Its only use was to store spiritual energy.

If Shi Yuebai’s body kept expanding from the wasteland’s radiation, she might never need this formation.

But the spiritual energy in the formation could nourish flowers and plants, and benefit the people around Shi Yuebai.

At most, it would make the plants fresher, more fragrant, and the crops tastier.

It could also make people’s skin better, eyes brighter, minds clearer, and spirits higher.

Being warm in winter and cool in summer was just a minor benefit of spiritual energy.

Nothing more.

That’s why, since ancient times, places like this were simply called: “places with spiritual energy.”

Shi Yaoyao watched for a while, saw her aunt’s long stick tracing on the ground, leaving golden-red lines behind.

She didn’t understand, so after a bit, she ran off.

Shi Yuebai was just drawing a formation to lose weight.

A large spirit-gathering formation couldn’t be finished in a day.

Shi Yuebai drew several smaller ones, each nested within the larger one.

These small formations were lined up along the ditch.

It took her the whole day to finish.

As she drew, she channeled spiritual energy into the formations.

In places where normal people couldn’t see, the little formations glowed, storing up her spiritual energy.

Xu Xuejiao, in the ditch, looked up and saw Shi Yuebai in her wheelchair, holding a long stick.

She had no idea what Shi Yuebai was drawing on the ground, but she’d been at it all day.

She didn’t dare ask.

That evening, when Captain Qiao returned,

He asked as soon as he climbed down into the ditch,

“Why’s there so much smoke? Did you light a fire down here?”

Xu Xuejiao shook her head, puzzled. The two of them searched the ditch for a while.

They finally realized the white smoke was drifting down from above.

The smoke hung in the air, and if you blew on it, it would drift away like invisible threads.

Xu Xuejiao remembered Shi Yuebai had been drawing on the ground above the ditch all day.

She gave up trying to figure out what the smoke was.

“What good stuff did you find today?” Xu Xuejiao asked Captain Qiao.

At the mention of this, Captain Qiao looked helpless.

He dragged a big plastic bag into the pit and set it down.

“I went out with the group and found 100 books. I wanted to ask if Yuebai wanted them.”

“Yuebai probably doesn’t want them, right? What use are books?” Xu Xuejiao asked.

Captain Qiao agreed.

There was no more room inside the Shi family’s walls—so many supplies had been piled up in the Pang family’s yard.

He’d heard the garbage mountain out back was being cleared to store even more supplies.

With so much stuff, what did Shi Yuebai want with books?

“We didn’t find much good today. Yuebai’s more interested in living supplies.”

Captain Qiao thought for a moment.

“I guess we’ll just burn these books for firewood.”

They were all dense academic books—Quantum Field Theory, Das Kapital, Critique of Pure Reason…

Captain Qiao and Xu Xuejiao hadn’t read that kind of book in years, and they couldn’t get into them now.

Just then, Shi Yaoyao leaned over the ditch and called down,

“Uncle Qiao, Auntie says to bring all the books over.”

Xu Xuejiao looked at Captain Qiao in surprise.

Could Shi Yuebai hear everything they said?

Captain Qiao just patted her shoulder as if it were nothing.

He dragged the heavy bag up out of the ditch.

Soon after, he came back down with another heavy bag.

Xu Xuejiao asked, “Why’d you bring the books back?”

“Well, Yuebai…” Captain Qiao didn’t know how to explain.

He hurriedly pulled Xu Xuejiao into the pit, his face exaggerated,

“I gave the books to Yuebai, and she gave me 80 jin of mushrooms.”

Xu Xuejiao could hardly believe her ears.

“How much?”

Captain Qiao gestured, then simply opened the big bag in his hand.

He let Xu Xuejiao see for herself.

Xu Xuejiao was so shocked she stood frozen.

Come to think of it, Captain Qiao hadn’t been inside the Shi family’s walls for a long time, so he had no idea what it was like in there.

Every time Xiaojiao came back, she’d gesture about how many mushrooms there were…

But neither Captain Qiao nor Xu Xuejiao had paid much attention.

These days, just having a meal or two of mushroom and potato stew was already a blessing.

They thought their lives were already very good.

Who would have thought that just 100 books could be exchanged for a huge bag of mushrooms?

Both Captain Qiao and Xu Xuejiao were stunned.

Shi Yuebai had given them 80 jin of mushrooms as if they were nothing.

Every single mushroom was fresh and plump.

Even just a couple of jin could fetch a great price in a big city.

Let alone 80 jin, just handed over like that.

My god. Suddenly, Xu Xuejiao and Captain Qiao felt like they were sitting on a mountain of treasure.

(Two chapters combined into one today. Let’s try to boost the average subscriptions in these last two days!)"