Chapter 25: There Is a Pot Here

Nong Yasi stared at Shi Yuebai, nearly dumbfounded.

“I thought…”

“Thought what?” Shi Yuebai asked, frowning in confusion.

What was she talking about?

Nong Yasi immediately shook her head. “No, it’s nothing.”

She secretly breathed a sigh of relief, then turned to the box of bread and counted out fifty small rolls.

When she turned back, Shi Yuebai was already directing Yaoyao.

She had Yaoyao lay out the little stones she had scavenged, spreading them all the way to the outside of the Shi family’s tarp shelter.

Daylight fell upon the stones that had been laid out and pressed into the hard ground.

The small black stones gleamed dully.

Holding a pile of bread, Nong Yasi suddenly realized that the stones seemed to form some mysterious and complicated pattern.

“Yuebai, what is this?”

She thought the pattern looked rather attractive.

Shi Yuebai replied blandly, “Decoration.”

It made the place look terribly dull.

Nong Yasi did not dare ask anything else. Cradling the bread in her arms, she watched as the group’s survivors gradually gathered around.

Their eyes gleamed with longing.

Especially when they saw the small rolls in Nong Yasi’s arms, each of them could barely contain themselves.

Yaoyao paid no attention to what the others were thinking. She simply followed her aunt’s instructions and continued spreading the stones she had collected over the past few days.

Shi Yuebai sat on the flatbed handcart, directing Yaoyao until every last stone in the girl’s hands had been laid out.

“Go do your homework.”

“Write the character ‘heaven’ ninety times, then write the character ‘earth’ one hundred times.”

Yaoyao obediently rose to her feet.

The onlookers nearby broke into cries of astonishment.

“That idiot actually stood up?”

“Did I hear that correctly? Shi Yuebai is telling that imbecile to write?”

“Can she even write? She probably can’t hold a pen.”

Second Sister-in-law Shi felt her way out from inside the tarp, one hand raised before her.

Perhaps because she was a mother, she angrily retorted to the survivors, “Who says Yaoyao can’t write? Don’t you dare talk nonsense.”

Everyone burst into laughter.

They all knew what the Shi family was like.

Yaoyao was mentally disabled. Apart from screaming, what else could she possibly do?

Second Sister-in-law Shi opened her mouth to explain.

Shi Yuebai raised a hand to stop her.

“There’s no need to say anything, Second Sister-in-law. Yaoyao only needs to work hard.”

She did not need to prove herself to anyone.

She simply had to work hard in silence.

One day, the changes in Yaoyao would astonish everyone who had looked down on her.

Shi Yuebai’s gaze was utterly calm. She was neither proud nor impatient.

Nong Yasi could not help taking another long look at her.

The girl’s level of understanding had already surpassed that of most people in the wasteland.

Even though she was so fat, she possessed a force of character that made people submit to her.

Once again, Nong Yasi felt certain that she had made the right choice. She had not followed the wrong person.

“Doctor Long, stay in the tarp shelter today. Exchange the bread for supplies, and take care of Xiangrui and my mother.”

“Also, you’ll need to check Yaoyao’s homework. If she writes even one character poorly, make her write it another hundred times.”

Shi Yuebai handed Nong Yasi the chain that restrained Mother Shi. Today, she was taking only Second Sister-in-law Shi out to scavenge.

Nong Yasi had only just joined this group of old, weak, sick, and disabled members of the Shi family, yet she suddenly felt that she had been entrusted with an enormous responsibility.

Somewhat incredulously, she asked, “You trust me this much?”

Shi Yuebai stroked little Xiangrui’s head, channeling fat energy into his tiny body.

“See the decorations laid out with stones on the ground?”

“You cannot leave the area enclosed by them, and those people cannot enter it either.”

Of course Shi Yuebai did not truly trust Nong Yasi just like that. In this world, no one was worthy of Shi Yuebai’s trust.

She had drawn a boundary around the shelter. The survivors from the group could not enter.

And Nong Yasi could not leave.

Second Sister-in-law Shi had two bottles of water in her backpack. She was pushing Shi Yuebai away when Nong Yasi hurriedly called after them.

“Are there any requirements for the supplies I exchange for the bread?”

“For example, should I focus on any particular kind? Apart from clean clothes, surely these fifty small rolls can be traded for quite a lot more.”

Shi Yuebai, seated on the flatbed handcart, waved without turning her head.

“Decide for yourself.”

As they jolted along the uneven road, Second Sister-in-law Shi asked anxiously, “Now that we’re out scavenging, do you think the people in the group will try to steal the bread from Doctor Nong?”

Over the past few days, Shi Yuebai had thoroughly displayed the harsh and domineering side of her nature.

At first, Second Sister-in-law Shi had suffered terribly under that harshness.

But when it was directed at outsiders, it served as an excellent deterrent.

“That’s nothing to worry about.”

Shi Yuebai answered carelessly, constantly using the long stick in her hand to turn over the broken stones ahead.

“But we have to return early today. Xiangrui won’t last much longer—two hours at most… four hours. I have to get back within four hours.”

She was afraid that if they returned too late, Xiangrui would starve to death.

Second Sister-in-law Shi was worried about Xiangrui as well. She could tell that Doctor Nong did not think highly of the child’s chances.

The child would probably leave this world very soon.

Perhaps leaving early would be for the best.

It would spare Xiangrui the disappointment of struggling to survive, only to witness this merciless wasteland.

The two of them scavenged along the way, though they did not go very far.

Without Yaoyao needing to stop every so often to use the bathroom, and without Mother Shi wandering off in all directions, their scavenging was much faster.

Second Sister-in-law Shi had essentially given up searching for anything edible or drinkable.

There was simply nothing to be found.

And even when they did find something, it rarely pleased Shi Yuebai.

Shi Yuebai preferred looking for household necessities.

Bottles, jars, basins, and things of that sort…

“Yuebai, there’s a pot here.”

Second Sister-in-law Shi turned over a large stone and found a flat-bottomed pan beneath it.

Shi Yuebai looked over happily.

“Wonderful. We can fry some potato slices for dinner tonight.”

Although Shi Yuebai and the people around her could use her fat energy to survive indefinitely without eating or drinking, sometimes even the desires of the palate deserved a little satisfaction.

Using scavenged burlap sacks, she and Second Sister-in-law Shi dragged a large pile of bottles, jars, plastic basins, metal basins, and the like back to the Shi family’s tarp shelter, carrying the flat-bottomed pan with them.

At the edge of the stone pattern, several people lay unconscious.

Nong Yasi stood waiting at the entrance of the tarp shelter, completely unaware of what had happened, holding Xiangrui, who was wailing loudly.

Xiangrui had been crying for more than an hour, and his cries were growing louder and louder.

He appeared to be desperately hungry.

When she saw Shi Yuebai and Second Sister-in-law Shi return, Nong Yasi hurried toward them with Xiangrui in her arms.

But the moment she reached the edge of the pattern on the ground, she collided with a transparent barrier.

An invisible force shoved Nong Yasi several steps backward.

Without giving it much thought, she cried out anxiously, “Did you find any formula?”

“The child’s crying suddenly sounds much stronger. She’s healthy. She can survive properly.”