Chapter 94: Yes, Still 701 Jin

Because of the 100 books, Shi Yuebai gave Captain Qiao 80 jin of mushrooms and 8 bottles of water.

Each bottle held 1 liter.

Captain Qiao didn’t share those mushrooms and water with the seven oddballs.

Instead, he had Xu Xuejiao stop digging the trench and start a fire at the bottom.

She cooked a big pot of mushroom soup for the seven oddballs.

She used plenty of ingredients, and the seven oddballs ate happily, each one satisfied.

Shi Yuebai watched but said nothing.

If she didn’t give the mushrooms to Captain Qiao, they would just keep growing. As the spirit-gathering array improved, the mushrooms and potatoes would grow faster and faster.

But putting 80 jin of mushrooms in Captain Qiao’s hands meant letting him decide how to distribute them.

The bottom of the trench was bustling. Someone noticed that the deepest part of the trench had already been dug to two meters.

While drinking mushroom soup, Cao Lingyun asked,

“Captain, why did you all move down here?”

“It’s all white and misty down here, really damp.”

He squatted on a layer of white mist, looking at Captain Qiao with his slow-witted eyes.

Captain Qiao was squatting too.

Early that morning, the white mist above the trench kept drifting down.

It had already covered the whole trench in a thin layer of white smoke, about one millimeter thick.

It didn’t look much different from ordinary fog.

Captain Qiao frowned and said,

“Right now, our group is basically finished. It’s safer to live in the trench.”

He gestured, “This trench will be five meters deep and five meters wide. By then, the rope ladder over there will be removed.”

He pointed to the rope ladder hanging on the edge of the trench.

Actually, even now, it was already pretty hard to get from the other side of the trench into Shi Yuebai’s “Tong” enclosure.

People on the other side either had to go all the way around the trench to find a flat spot to enter, or jump down two meters into the trench and then find the rope ladder to climb into the enclosure.

The seven oddballs had all jumped down to get in.

If they wanted to get back up, they’d have to find a shallower spot and climb out.

Of course, given their brains and physical strength, they might not even be able to climb up.

In fact, before they jumped down, they hadn’t even thought about how they’d get back up.

???

“When we dig a bit deeper, we’ll lay two planks across as a bridge.”

Captain Qiao had seen the blueprint drawn by Guai Guai.

The bridge wouldn’t be fixed, but a suspension bridge.

Shi Yuebai wanted to turn her sleeping area into an island.

And this was exactly what Captain Qiao and Xu Xuejiao supported.

An island was good.

With an island, Da Jiao and Xiao Jiao would be even safer.

Xu Xuejiao nodded, constantly adding mushrooms to the oddballs’ disposable plastic bowls.

“Sis-in-law, that’s enough, I’m stuffed.”

“Eat a bit more, you’ll need the energy for scavenging later.”

Xu Xuejiao and many people in the trench probably never dreamed that one day, faced with food, they’d say things like “That’s enough,” or “I’m stuffed.”

Everyone in the trench fell silent.

After a while, Cao Lingyun asked in his simple way,

“Captain, what do we do after this meal?”

Captain Qiao lowered his head and said nothing.

After this meal, of course there’d be another.

Their stomachs had shrunk from hunger, so just a bit of mushroom had filled them up.

There were still dozens of jin of mushrooms in the Qiao family’s pit, which needed to be eaten soon or they’d rot.

It wasn’t that Captain Qiao didn’t want to share more mushrooms today.

It was just that Yuebai had given them too much.

He was worried the men would talk and not keep the secret.

So he gathered them together, away from the team’s burdens, and let them eat their fill.

Captain Qiao said, “After you’re done eating, go scavenge. Find more stuff, and I’ll take it to the big city to trade for food.”

Everyone nodded.

Cao Lingyun leaned over to Xu Xuejiao and said,

“Sis-in-law, there’s only a few men left in our group now. The rest have left or run off, leaving a bunch of widows and orphans.”

“All the useful women have run off too.”

“Zhang Xueyao and Wei Lingxia are gone as well.”

He paid attention to the widows and orphans, so he knew what the burdens were up to.

Xu Xuejiao had previously told Cao Lingyun to keep an eye on Zhang Xueyao and Wei Lingxia.

A cold glint flashed in Xu Xuejiao’s eyes, and she quietly gave Cao Lingyun a few more mushrooms.

She asked in a low voice, “Is Zhang Xueyao dead?”

Cao Lingyun shook his head. “Don’t know, maybe someone picked her up.”

In times like these, as long as a woman is healthy, someone will take her in.

That’s how Nong Yasi was picked up by Chen Huaihai and brought to the team under the bridge.

For personal safety, a woman alone in the wasteland has no luck or protection.

There were still plenty of widows and orphans in the team under the bridge.

But they were all useless.

Even their bodies weren’t wanted by others.

Leaving them to Captain Qiao was just their relatives’ way of not wanting to kill them themselves.

They were just leaving them to starve.

Xu Xuejiao nodded and told Cao Lingyun to find out where Zhang Xueyao and Wei Lingxia had gone.

Cao Lingyun stuffed the little bag of mushrooms into his shirt and ran off happily.

After Captain Qiao took the seven “calabash boys” scavenging, Xu Xuejiao started cleaning up the bottom of the trench.

Every now and then, she looked up and saw Shi Yuebai sitting above the trench.

Xu Xuejiao asked, “Yuebai, what should we do with all this disposable trash?”

The bottom of the pit was full of disposable bowls and chopsticks.

Shi Yuebai lowered her eyes, looking as serene as a Buddha in a temple.

She gazed at the world with a blank expression.

There was something divine about her.

Xu Xuejiao was stunned for a moment, feeling a sudden, inexplicable sense of reverence.

Shi Yuebai spoke, “Burn it next time you make a fire.”

That’s what the Shi family did now.

They used the disposable bowls and chopsticks Captain Qiao had found last time.

With so many people eating together, every meal left a pile of plastic trash.

If you just threw it around, it would mess up the hard-won clean environment.

So when they cooked the next meal, they’d just burn the plastic trash.

Any leftover food would be thrown into the public toilet above.

Then, through the city’s drainage system, it would be flushed to some unknown place.

After speaking, Shi Yuebai maneuvered her wheelchair over to the side to draw another small spirit-gathering array.

Shi’s second sister-in-law came over, pointed to a gap by the wall, and said,

“If you need to get rid of excess food, go through that gap. It leads straight to the public toilet.”

It wasn’t really a path, just wide enough for one person.

But it led straight from the trench to the public toilet.

It was a bit far, and you couldn’t see what was behind the Shi family’s wall.

Xu Xuejiao thanked her.

Actually, there wasn’t a drop of mushroom soup left from the pot she’d made.

The seven “calabash boys” were stuffed, but each one had licked their bowl clean.

But Shi’s second sister-in-law had shown Xu Xuejiao the way to the public toilet, and Xu Xuejiao was still happy.

From now on, she and the Qiao family wouldn’t have to bury their waste at the bottom of the trench.

Sure enough, following an esper made life so much better.

Shi Yuebai looked at Xu Xuejiao with a blank expression. For such a small thing, she was as happy as if she’d taken a stimulant.

She even dug harder with her hoe.

Shi Yuebai ignored her, focusing on pouring spiritual energy into the small spirit-gathering arrays she’d drawn.

Yesterday, she’d drawn five small spirit-gathering arrays along the trench.

She’d done everything she needed to do.

Even Pang Zhenggong had been stuffed into a fat ball by her.

But she was still stuck at 702 jin.

So today, Shi Yuebai drew another fifteen small spirit-gathering arrays in one go.

The little arrays were packed densely along the trench.

Normal people couldn’t see them with the naked eye.

But if someone’s intelligence dropped below a certain level, they could see them.

So if some fool or child says they can see ghosts or monsters, you should believe them.

Because it’s true.

Shi Yuebai poured spiritual energy into the arrays, one after another, until her weight dropped to 701 jin.

Yes, still 701 jin.

She kept pouring in spiritual energy.

Below, Xu Xuejiao and Da Jiao were digging at opposite ends of the trench.

By evening, Da Jiao was called up for dinner by Shi Yaoyao.

Xu Xuejiao also stopped working, getting ready to make some mushroom soup.

She stepped into the thick white mist and slipped.

“Ouch!”

Xu Xuejiao stared at her feet—no, at the bottom of the trench.

It was covered in a flat layer of white mist.

But the thing was, the bottom of the trench wasn’t actually flat.

After all, it was just Xu Xuejiao and Da Jiao digging by hand.

They’d dig a bit here, a bit there.

Sometimes, the mother and daughter would even dig their own pit deeper.

Now the white mist had leveled everything.

Xu Xuejiao had no idea where the holes or high spots were.

She looked up at the trench, near the Shi family’s wall, where white mist kept pouring down.

It looked like a thin waterfall.

The white smoke lingered for a long time, so as it kept falling, it turned the trench bottom into what it was now.

It was easy to imagine that if the mist kept coming, it would eventually fill the whole trench.

Xu Xuejiao scratched her head. She didn’t dare mention this to Shi Yuebai.

She was afraid Shi Yuebai would say she was ungrateful and troublesome.

Xu Xuejiao could only climb out of the pit and carefully make her way back to her family’s hole.

Not far from the team under the bridge—

Uncle Chen grabbed Wei Lingxia by the collar and slapped her hard.

“You can’t even handle a simple job. What’s the point of bringing Zhang Xueyao here?”

Sitting behind Uncle Chen was the captain of the neighboring muscle team.

Song Yucheng stood on the other side, watching coldly with the search and rescue squad as Wei Lingxia got slapped.

A group of men stared at Wei Lingxia and Zhang Xueyao like wolves.

Wei Lingxia was so scared she cried, but didn’t dare fight back.

“We—we did our best, Uncle. The Qiao family is very cautious, and they have help.”

Zhang Xueyao had woken up by now, sobbing and gesturing that there was a crazy woman in red in the Qiao family.

She’d been strangled unconscious by that crazy woman in red.

The muscle captain held a glass of red wine, sipping and looking at Zhang Xueyao with disgust.

“Chen family, I already have enough women here. I told you, don’t send me these ugly ones!”

Back when Chen Huaihai was alive, he’d said the Qiao family had two virgins.

Now, the Chen family still couldn’t get them.

So the muscle captain could only blame Uncle Chen.

“The people in the big city said Da Jiao and Xiao Jiao can be traded for twenty city residence permits.”

The muscle captain stood up and grabbed Zhang Xueyao’s jaw.

“Chen family, do you think this woman is worth twenty city residence permits?”

There was no need to explain what being able to live in the city meant.

Once inside, you’d never have to fear mutant beasts or zombies breaking into the safe zone.

You wouldn’t have to help the mercenaries patrol, either.

What’s more, the city’s contact promised the muscle team twenty residence permits, all at once.

Da Jiao and Xiao Jiao were really valuable.

But what was Zhang Xueyao worth?

Just a widow, and only passably good-looking.

A dime a dozen in the wasteland.

The muscle captain tossed Zhang Xueyao aside, bored.

“Song Yucheng, let your squad have her.”

Recently, Song Yucheng’s search and rescue squad had found a lot of food for the muscle team.

This was a little reward for them.

Song Yucheng looked complicated as he watched the trembling Zhang Xueyao on the ground.

Several squad members stepped forward and dragged Zhang Xueyao away.

No one was really interested.

But in this environment, if the muscle team didn’t do something to Zhang Xueyao, they’d seem out of place.

Song Yucheng felt irritated.

Anyone who had once been full of sunshine inside was now covered in dark clouds.

It had been a long time since anyone had seen anything good or uplifting.

Everyone was sliding deeper into the abyss, faster and faster.

Less and less like humans.

More like beasts!

Zhang Xueyao’s screams echoed,

“Wei Lingxia, this isn’t what you promised me! Ahhhh, it’s not the same!”

Wei Lingxia had said the neighboring team was bigger, stronger, and much better than the team under the bridge.

So the neighboring team could eat their fill, and women could live well.

If Zhang Xueyao just stuck with Wei Lingxia, maybe she could find a man to rely on.

There might be a price to pay.

But in the wasteland, women changed men often, hoping to find a long-term meal ticket.

Wasn’t that normal?

That’s why Zhang Xueyao stopped wavering and followed Wei Lingxia all the way.

But now, Zhang Xueyao felt she’d have been better off staying with the team under the bridge.

She might have gone hungry, but she could still scam a bite to eat from Shi Yuebai with some trash.

Now she had nothing to eat and had to suffer physical pain.

It really hurt!

Uncle Chen beat the helpless Wei Lingxia until her face was swollen.

He turned to the muscle captain and said,

“Da Jiao and Xiao Jiao are sleeping in the trench. Why don’t we just grab them tonight?”

The muscle captain nodded. “Good.”

“Don’t hurt those two girls. The higher-ups want them intact.”

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