Chapter 10: Truly, Ugly People Cause More Trouble

“From now on, we will only eat food with low to moderate radiation levels.”

Shi Yuebai spoke decisively. Why had she become so extraordinarily obese? Just a little food intake could cause her to gain dozens, even hundreds of pounds more than an ordinary person. The culprit was consuming too much food contaminated by radiation.

Shi Yao Yao and Shi Er Sao were no different. One’s intellect was arrested at the mental age of a two-year-old, while the other was blind, unable to see anything at all. Both conditions resulted from excessive consumption of radiation-polluted food.

To restore their health and avoid further degeneration, the food they consumed had to be free from any radiation contamination.

Shi Yuebai took the two moderately irradiated potatoes from Shi Er Sao’s hands. “Take these two potatoes with you on the road,” she said. “Eat them if you and Yao Yao get hungry.” While holding the potatoes, she cast a purification spell, gradually cleansing the radiation from them. Even the solanine in the two sprouted potatoes was completely purified.

This was the advantage of the purification spell—it could remove anything harmful to the body.

Frowning, Shi Er Sao asked, “Yuebai, from what you say, does that mean you won’t eat them?”

Shi Yuebai did not answer. She struggled to support herself on her two arms, slowly moving onto a flat handcart. Hearing the noise, Shi Er Sao hurried over and bent down behind her. Passing her arms under Shi Yuebai’s armpits, she summoned all her strength to lift her.

But Shi Yuebai’s weight was tremendous, and Shi Er Sao barely had the strength. It was only with the help of two small strength-enhancing spells, converted from Shi Yuebai’s body fat energy and floating in her palms, that Shi Er Sao’s strength surged enough to hoist her onto the handcart.

Yet, Shi Yuebai’s enormous girth was like a massive, round balloon pressing down on the four large flesh masses on her legs. More than half of the fat and flesh slid off the edge of the cart, scraping the ground.

Shi Yuebai had to stretch out and scoop up the fallen fat, for if Shi Er Sao pushed the cart with her flesh dragging on the ground, she would soon be battered and bleeding profusely.

The small flat handcart was already barely enough to hold Yuebai. If they were to scavenge outside, both Shi Er Sao and Shi Yuebai would leave—there was no way to leave two-year-old Yao Yao behind.

Shi Er Sao had no choice but to carry Yao Yao on her back, letting the child’s thin legs dangle weakly at her sides. She borrowed a belt cut from a tire from a strange neighbor and firmly strapped Yao Yao onto her back.

Yao Yao was uncomfortable and about to scream when Shi Yuebai, sweat pouring down her face, dirty, smelly, and aching all over, snapped, “Quiet!”

Her disheveled hair partially covered her face, which shone with a layer of greasy black sweat.

“No one feels good in a time like this. Yao Yao, you have to endure it.”

Yao Yao listened to no one but her aunt. When her aunt told her to be quiet, she obediently lay still on her mother’s back.

Shi Er Sao was blind, frail and small, carrying a child on her back and pushing a heavily burdened handcart. The three of them moved with difficulty, circling a clearing again and again.

“Look at those idiots from the Shi family,” someone nearby jeered, watching and mocking the three weak and disabled members of the Shi family. “What are they doing? Playing crazy with a handcart on flat ground? Maybe all the men in their family died out, so these three lost their minds?”

“Hahaha, I think Shi Yuebai is just here to make a joke.”

Before the apocalypse, Shi Er Sao had been a celebrity, but now, pushing the cart with her disabled daughter on her back, she looked pitiful yet inspiring.

Shi Yuebai, however, was over seven hundred pounds, sitting on a flat cart, struggling to scoop up her fallen fat—both disgusting and laughable.

“What a ridiculous eyesore!” the onlookers sneered.

Shi Er Sao, pushing the cart with effort, stopped and cautiously faced the cart’s direction. “Yuebai…”

“Focus and keep practicing. Keep pushing!” Shi Yuebai, still holding the long stick Shi Er Sao used for discipline, swung it to clear larger stones from their path as Shi Er Sao pushed her forward.

This prevented them from tipping over and spared Shi Er Sao from undue exertion.

Shi Er Sao gritted her teeth. Usually, Shi Yuebai couldn’t tolerate such mockery. Before the end times, she had been a beautiful little princess, cherished by her family. To fall so far was unbearable, even without others’ scorn.

Hence, any insult about her figure would send Shi Yuebai into a rage.

“But, second sister-in-law,” Shi Yuebai said clumsily, waving the stick to push aside a large stone ahead, “words and mockery from others don’t physically harm us. Today, we practice how the three of us will scavenge outside and get familiar with this handcart. By tomorrow morning, we’ll be ready to hit the road.”

By then, Yao Yao had become accustomed to the tight bindings on her mother’s back. She reached out a small hand to wipe the sweat from her mother’s forehead.

Softly she said, “Mom, keep going. Auntie, keep going.”

Shi Er Sao’s throat suddenly tightened with emotion. Surprised, she glanced back at her daughter. Even with the mind of a two-year-old, her daughter could say such words?

Suddenly filled with renewed strength, Shi Er Sao let out a determined cry and pushed the handcart with all her might.

The Shi family’s clearing stretched out before them, and Shi Er Sao, carrying Yao Yao and pushing Shi Yuebai, circled again and again—from the fading daylight until darkness fell.

By the tarp near their camp, the strange neighbor who had been silently observing the three infirm Shi family members from the nearby junk pile finally crept out and quietly approached their handcart…