Chapter 123: I Gave Her a Name—Shi Fuze

The last two mercenaries to return were Xiao Qian and Xiao Sun.

Neither of them could clearly explain how they had survived.

Yi Zhe, Chen Yong, and the medic from their squad circled around the group several times, trying to figure it out.

Huo Chenggui hung his head in silence.

Finally, he looked up and said, “Forget it, let’s just go kill some mutant beasts.”

“If you can’t explain it, then don’t. What matters is you’re back, you’re back.”

With that, as if afraid his brothers would ask more questions, he turned and ran off.

Seeing Huo Chenggui like that, it seemed he was in a real hurry to get to the front lines and fight.

The three who’d been surrounded—Zhao, Qian, and Sun—hurried after Huo Chenggui.

The fighting at the front was indeed intense. Even though Yi Zhe tried to rotate the brothers off the line, no one could rest for long.

They barely had time to catch their breath before they had to go back.

Yi Zhe pressed his lips together and charged toward the front with his brothers.

No one asked again where Huo Chenggui and Zhao, Qian, Sun had gone, or how they’d made it back alive.

Meanwhile, at the Shi household, Shi Yuebai looked with satisfaction at a patch of ground that was now clear.

Ever since Huo Chenggui woke up and reacted with shock, Shi Yuebai had learned her lesson and assigned Xiao Jiao to keep a close eye on the three corpses lying on the ground.

If there was any sign of their eyelids twitching, Xiao Jiao would call Shi Yuebai right away.

Shi Yuebai would then teleport the three bodies back to the perimeter before they woke up.

Let them go kill mutant beasts.

Off you go!

With the four people who’d been taking up space in her yard now gone, Shi Yuebai had room again.

Happily, she grabbed a big burlap sack and went to find Xiao Lingye.

“Wait!”

Second Sister-in-law Shi called out to Shi Yuebai.

She couldn’t see, but she recognized the familiar rustle of the sack.

“Take this with you.”

Second Sister-in-law handed Shi Yuebai an even bigger sack.

It was even larger than the 1.5-meter sack Shi Yuebai was carrying.

Shi Yuebai took a deep breath. “Second Sister-in-law…”

“Go early, come back early,” Second Sister-in-law said. “We’re having mushroom stew today.”

The mushrooms were growing like crazy.

There were only two or three intact pieces of humus wood left, but the ones that had been scorched by flares had broken into chunks.

While no one was paying attention, those broken pieces of humus wood had quietly sprouted clusters of little mushrooms.

When they first popped up, the mushrooms were barely the size of a fingernail.

But after a few hours, they’d be as big as a palm.

If you left them for two days without picking, they’d grow as big as an adult’s hand.

Green onions had started sprouting too. In the blink of an eye, the patch that had been burned was lush and green again.

But the people living in the Tongzi Compound still hadn’t finished the supplies the Qiao and Pang families had scraped together from their secret stashes.

Shi Yuebai, carrying two big sacks and a plastic bag in her pocket, sat in Xiao Lingye’s supply tent.

As she packed food into the sacks, she did some mental calculations.

She hadn’t paid “wages” to Guai Guai, the Shi family, or the Pang family these past few days.

When she got back, she’d have Shi Yaoyao pick all the mushrooms and green onions.

She’d dig up some potatoes too, and pay everyone their wages for the past few days.

Shi Yuebai never delayed paying her farm workers.

Once she’d filled the two big sacks, she took out the plastic bag from her pocket.

She kept stuffing food into the plastic bag, and as she rummaged through a pile of expired goods, she found something odd.

A vacuum sealer.

Next to it was a cardboard box full of vacuum bags.

Shi Yuebai thought for a moment.

In the original owner’s memories, there’d never been any use for something like this.

What would a rich family need a vacuum sealer for, anyway?

Of course, Shi Yuebai didn’t need it either.

Her spiritual energy could keep produce fresh.

Maybe not forever, but until her spiritual energy ran out, the crops would stay fresh.

Still, Shi Yuebai teleported the thing back to the Shi house.

Then, following her usual routine, she tossed a fireball at the nearest tent.

She waited for Xiao Lingye’s people to rush off to put out the fire.

Then she tossed the bag of food into the big tent where the women lived.

No sooner had she thrown it in than the same woman as last time rushed out.

“Goddess, I knew you’d come.”

Ying Ruoying looked at Shi Yuebai with tearful eyes.

She was a little better off than last time—at least she was wearing a dirty camisole dress.

But the parts of her body that were exposed were still skin and bones, covered in bruises.

Even her face was swollen in places, with cuts and scrapes everywhere.

Shi Yuebai didn’t want to ask too many questions. She nodded and turned to leave.

“M-my daughter… is she okay?”

Ying Ruoying asked anxiously.

From the tent behind her came the women’s cheers.

Lately, Xiao Lingye had been in a particularly foul mood.

It seemed every time he sent people to snatch Xiao Jiao, they failed.

So he took it out on the women, forbidding anyone in the team from giving them food or water.

The women in the tent survived only on Shi Yuebai’s charity.

Shi Yuebai looked up at Ying Ruoying.

Ying Ruoying hurried to explain, “No, I didn’t mean anything by it, Goddess. I just want to know if she’s okay.”

“She’s fine,” Shi Yuebai replied, trying to remember what happened to the baby girl after she’d handed her to Ah Hong.

“She sleeps in the shopping cart with our little one. All she does is sleep.”

Shi Xiangrui was already four months old.

She slept a little less now, and wanted to go out in the shopping cart when she woke up.

Everyone was so busy coming and going, no one had time to look after her, so they just left her and the baby girl in the shopping cart.

The cart was kept in the Tongzi Compound.

People would stop by to play with them now and then.

It seemed everyone had tacitly agreed that Shi Xiangrui and Ying Ruoying’s daughter didn’t need formula.

No one knew how Shi Yuebai did it.

But Shi Xiangrui was chubby and fair, and Ying Ruoying’s daughter had gone from red and wrinkly to plump and smooth.

Both babies had round, rosy cheeks.

“Cannibal gangs love kids like that—they look delicious.”

Shi Yuebai spoke matter-of-factly, as if she didn’t notice the look of horror on Ying Ruoying’s face.

“G-goddess, you must be joking.”

Ying Ruoying swayed unsteadily, her battered body standing in front of Shi Yuebai.

She took a box from behind her.

“I begged Xiao Lingye to let me pick this up.”

The box was battered, but inside were two small plastic baby bottles.

And four spare nipples.

Ying Ruoying nervously handed the box to Shi Yuebai.

“Goddess, you have a baby too, right? Please, take these for your child.”

She didn’t say that she’d been utterly humiliated by Xiao Lingye just to get those bottles.

She’d knelt, she’d begged, she’d lost every shred of dignity.

Only then did Xiao Lingye, as if bestowing a favor, let her take the bottles and leave.

She’d meant to save them for her own daughter.

Shi Yuebai took the box, frowning.

“I gave her a name—Shi Fuze.”

“There happen to be two bottles here. They can share them, her and her sister.”

Today’s Friday. Heading out early to pick up Little Mie Mie from tutoring."