Chapter 33: 717 Catties

Before nightfall, Yi Zhe and the mercenaries finished their work. Despite the mercenaries having robust physiques—each one being one in ten thousand in the wasteland—mutant beasts became exceptionally active once night fell. Even the sensitivity of zombies increased significantly. Therefore, the mercenaries generally ceased attacking mutant beasts at night, opting instead to establish a defensive line.

Yi Zhe pushed Shi Yuebai and Shi Yaoyao back. Because Shi Yaoyao had scavenged a pile of inedible daily necessities, the two of them couldn't carry everything, especially with the baby, Shi Xiangrui, in tow. Chen Yong volunteered along with several other off-duty mercenaries to help Shi Yuebai transport the items back.

As night descended, Shi Yuebai handed the last bottle of disinfectant from Shi Yaoyao’s backpack to Yi Zhe.

"Where did you get so much disinfectant?" Yi Zhe asked, feeling curious.

Shi Yuebai bluffed, "I’m always picking up things others don’t want; sometimes I just get lucky."

Yi Zhe said nothing, accepting the third bottle of disinfectant. He placed a box of canned goods in front of Shi Yuebai. They were all expired, and most were dented and looked unappealing. Shi Yuebai took a glance; there were about fifteen or sixteen of them, and they were all cat food. However, cats before the wasteland had eaten better than the people in the wasteland did now.

Shi Yuebai looked up at Yi Zhe in surprise. He smiled at her and said, "You can't always find things you can’t eat. Yuebai, a person has to fill their stomach first."

These cans were what they had found that day. Mercenaries didn't actually lack food or drink, as they were always on the front lines. The areas they ventured into were inaccessible to ordinary survivors, so their chances of finding food were much higher. Yi Zhe had seen Shi Yuebai and Shi Yaoyao searching all day only to find a pile of useless items and no food. He simply couldn't stand it. If Shi Yuebai and Shi Yaoyao could go hungry, what about Shi Xiangrui? What about Mother Shi and the second sister-in-law? Yi Zhe couldn't just watch these relatives of Shi Yi starve to death.

Shi Yuebai looked down at the cat food in the box for a moment, then reached out and gripped Yi Zhe's shoulder, forcibly channeling a massive amount of fat-energy into his body.

After Yi Zhe had returned last time without eating for a whole day, he had felt something strange about his body. Today, he clearly felt a surge of heat flowing from the shoulder Shi Yuebai was gripping into his own body. Yi Zhe looked at Shi Yuebai in astonishment. Her oily face was covered in messy, dripping hair. She trembled with her plump hands.

"Brother Yi Zhe, thank you for always taking care of us."

Shi Yuebai let go. Just in that brief moment when she gripped his shoulder, she had pushed herself to the limit, channeling two pounds of fat-energy into him. Because she had used too much force and the fat-energy rushed through her meridians too quickly, she felt pain in every inch of her body. She waved her hand and, without waiting for a response, turned and entered the tarp shelter.

Having been away all day, the excess rubble in the shelter had been cleared away, making the space feel much larger. The area that had been paved with stone slabs was now much wider, even revealing several steps. Nong Yasi was busy clearing debris from the steps with Mother Shi. Seeing Shi Yuebai return, Nong Yasi waved at her.

The second sister-in-law felt her way forward and asked, "Yuebai, we dug up a swimming pool. Should we fill it in?"

Between the Shi family's shelter and the public restroom, there was exactly a swimming pool on the direct path, and about half of it had already been excavated. If it weren't filled in, Shi Yuebai’s flatbed cart still wouldn't be able to reach the restroom. Shi Yuebai rolled her cart forward and, upon seeing it, couldn't help but feel delighted. Although the pool hadn't been fully excavated, just by looking at it, it was clear that it was large enough to accommodate the entire Shi family at once.

"Keep digging," Shi Yuebai said, her eyes gleaming. She instructed the second sister-in-law and Nong Yasi, "Don't rest tonight; clear out all the rubble from the pool."

She held a long stick, poking the second sister-in-law's body with it. Each time she poked, Shi Yuebai would shed an ounce or two of fat. This fat would pass through the stick and into the second sister-in-law’s body. Of course, whenever the opportunity arose, Shi Yuebai would also poke Nong Yasi and Mother Shi as well.

The three of them had been exhausted and ravenous after moving stones all day. But as they grew hungrier, the hunger suddenly vanished. Consequently, they took turns resting for a while and then lit a lamp to start clearing the pool.

This pool was likely a facility from a water park on the shore before the bridge collapsed. They even found a pile of brand-new swimsuits in the ruins by the pool, as well as deflated swim rings and floating pool toys. Nong Yasi thought these things were useless and was about to collect them to throw away, but Shi Yuebai stopped her.

"Leave them by the pool. It’s very late now; you all should get some sleep."

The exhausted Shi women, no matter how much fat-energy they had, couldn't fight the fatigue in their muscles. This level of physical labor had long exceeded their bodily limits. As soon as Shi Yuebai spoke, the second sister-in-law, Mother Shi, Nong Yasi, and Shi Yaoyao all collapsed onto the large mattress. They didn't even have the strength to speak and fell fast asleep. They didn't notice that Shi Yuebai had slowly moved the flatbed cart to the edge of the pool by herself.

Because everything was done by manual labor, although the pool wasn't large, the women of the Shi family had only managed to clear about a tenth of it in a full day. Still, this capacity was enough for Shi Yuebai. She used a water-gathering spell to draw water into the depression, doing so for nearly three hours. The 1.8-meter-deep, 3-meter-wide depression in front of her was now filled with water. She joyfully dove in, her body acting like a massive, heavy stone filling the basin.

The water spilled over, flowing onto the nearby potato seedlings. Shi Yuebai sat comfortably in the depression, scrubbing the mud off her arms. She scooped up a handful of water and wiped her face. Before long, the water in the pool turned murky. With all the dirt on her, she estimated she would need several pool-fulls of water to get clean. She happily shoveled the stones around her and piled them along the edge of the pool so that the capacity could be a little larger. While shoveling, she continued to gather water.

Good heavens, Shi Yuebai had never felt that being able to take a comfortable bath was such a happy thing. In this wasteland, her happiness had become so easy to satisfy. The only downside was that she had spent the whole day scavenging under the sun, suffering radiation all day, and then went through all this trouble. Even after filling the pool, with all the additions and subtractions to her weight, she had only lost one pound. Shi Yuebai still weighed 717 pounds.