Chapter 99: Better to Make Peace Than Enmity

But soon, darkness once again engulfed Second Sister-in-law Shi’s vision.

No matter how much she blinked or shook her head,

She could no longer see even a sliver of light.

Second Sister-in-law Shi was plunged into a state of panic.

At this moment, Shi Yaoyao had already picked up the brick in her hand.

Blood was still dripping from the brick.

Her small body was hunched over, enduring the pain from being kicked, as she took step after step toward Liang Yimo and Song Yucheng.

Liang Yimo cursed loudly,

“A bunch of idiots! Are you all fucking crazy?”

Shi Yuebai sneered,

“Isn’t that just how people are? They can’t accept being taken down by those they once looked down on.”

She wasn’t angry at all—let him curse, let him rage, it was like a breeze passing over a hill.

At this point, Ah Hong stepped out, expressionless.

“Yuebai, let them go.”

Xu Xuejiao climbed out of the ditch, holding a hoe.

The white mist in the ditch was growing thicker and deeper.

She and Dajiao had been digging in the ditch, and visibility was only about a meter around them.

When she heard the commotion above, it took Xu Xuejiao a while to find the direction of the rope ladder and climb up.

She looked at Ah Hong in shock. “Let them go?”

Shi Yuebai would never agree to that.

Given Shi Yuebai’s personality, she believed in rooting out evil completely, leaving no chance for future trouble.

But Shi Yuebai deliberately contradicted Xu Xuejiao,

“Fine, let them go.”

Xu Xuejiao stared at Shi Yuebai in disbelief.

Liang Yimo glared viciously, sweeping his gaze over the Shi family.

He helped the bleeding, head-injured Song Yucheng up, and turned to leave.

They left the same way they had come, exiting the compound.

Shi Yuebai pointed at the path they took and said coldly,

“Mrs. Qiao, whether your two daughters can be absolutely safe depends on whether the trench you’ve dug can truly cut us off from the outside world.”

After all, Shi Yuebai could protect herself.

Whether others could or not had nothing to do with her.

Xu Xuejiao thoughtfully examined the corner where the trench met the wall, spotting a small gap.

She hurriedly shouldered her hoe and turned around, completely severing the spot where someone could squeeze through.

But that wasn’t enough—within a few hours, Xu Xuejiao climbed up again and found Shi Yuebai, gesturing,

“We need to set a trap there, with spikes everywhere.”

“The kind where anyone who falls in dies.”

Shi Yuebai’s people wouldn’t use such a hidden corner anyway.

In fact, now Shi Yuebai’s people didn’t need to go out at all.

They had water, food, and a public toilet—no need to leave.

As for the trench, none of Shi Yuebai’s people knew how deep the Qiao family had dug it.

The bottom was filled with white mist, which would rise a little every so often.

To the naked eye, the trench seemed only about a meter deep.

But the deaths of Uncle Chen and the others had shown everyone that this trench was anything but simple.

Shi Yuebai nodded and called over Pang Ziyuan, pointing at Xu Xuejiao,

“Do as she says.”

Pang Ziyuan paused, then nodded, finally giving Xu Xuejiao his first smile,

“Aunt Xu, what do you want to do? I’ll help.”

Xu Xuejiao breathed a sigh of relief and gestured at Pang Ziyuan.

She needed some kind of stone shards—triangular, with very sharp points.

Pang Ziyuan said, “Why don’t we just stick steel bars into the bottom of the trench?”

He pointed at the junkyard behind the Shi house.

“There are lots of steel bars there.”

Xu Xuejiao’s eyes lit up. She wanted steel bars—lots and lots of them.

“And do we have cement? I’ll go collect the steel bars and stick them all along the bottom of the trench, then fix them in place with cement.”

Ah Hong stepped out. “Yes, go ahead.”

Watching Xu Xuejiao leave so enthusiastically, who would have thought that this woman used to be so prickly, even daring to talk back to Shi Yuebai?

Right behind Ah Hong, Pang Zhenggong, weighing 250 pounds, shuffled out awkwardly.

When Ah Hong and Pang Ziyuan were about to beat up Song Yucheng and Liang Yimo, Pang Zhenggong had already woken up.

The decision to let Song Yucheng and Liang Yimo go was also made at Pang Zhenggong’s suggestion.

He waddled over to Shi Yuebai, his belly sticking out.

His clothes were bursting at the seams from his size.

Especially his pants—the thighs had split open.

No, his whole outfit was splitting at the seams.

Pang Zhenggong’s expression was complicated, on the verge of tears. He’d been trying to adjust for hours, but couldn’t.

How did he end up like this?

“Yuebai, I want to take back everything that belongs to me.”

Pang Zhenggong’s voice was hoarse.

Ah Hong and Pang Ziyuan hurried over to support the 250-pound Pang Zhenggong.

For the ten thousandth time, Ah Hong comforted both Pang Zhenggong and herself,

“It’s good you woke up. Don’t think too much for now.”

It was really hard to describe—every day, Ah Hong would check on Pang Zhenggong lying on the ground.

And every day, Pang Zhenggong would visibly gain another layer of fat.

At first, it wasn’t obvious.

But how long had it been? Shi Xiangrui was only three months old.

And Pang Zhenggong had already ballooned to 250 pounds.

Shi Yuebai looked at Pang Zhenggong with righteous seriousness,

“What are you planning to do?”

There was no way Pang Zhenggong’s weight gain had anything to do with her.

Trust her!

Panting, Pang Zhenggong sat down on the ground, still not used to all this fat.

He looked toward the other side of the trench,

“They’ll be back.”

He knew the people in the search and rescue team.

With their professional skills, they must have already noticed something was off about the Shi family.

In the wasteland, for a group like Shi Yuebai’s to be making such a fuss and not have a single casualty—

That meant they had a solid food supply.

Pang Zhenggong’s gaze was chilling as he sat cross-legged in silence.

Shi Yuebai rubbed her nose, not asking any further.

Sure enough, the very next day, after Xu Xuejiao had found a pile of steel bars and brought them down to the trench,

Liang Yimo came again.

He paced back and forth along the trench, his eyes flickering, but didn’t approach.

After a while, another member of the search and rescue team dragged over an aerial ladder.

Shi Yuebai sat inside the compound, watching the high-quality ladder.

It looked like it could extend over a hundred meters.

“You guys actually have something like that in your team?”

Shi Yuebai asked Pang Zhenggong, who was hiding behind the bedsheet-draped gate of the Shi family wall.

Pang Zhenggong snorted,

“What don’t we have? That’s basic rescue equipment.”

For their team, they’d done everything—mountains, seas, earthquakes, fires, even war zones.

A mere aerial ladder was nothing.

Soon, Liang Yimo brought another team member across the trench.

“Shi Yuebai?”

He stood before Shi Yuebai. This time, there was no longer any trace of contempt in his manner.

But the disdain in his eyes was still there, just better hidden.

“In the wasteland, it’s better to make peace than enemies. We’re here today to clear up some misunderstandings.”

Liang Yimo nodded at the man behind him.

The man took out a backpack and pulled out two kids’ plant-growing kits—scallions.

“Ah Hong is our sister-in-law. She misunderstood us. We really didn’t know about what happened to Ah Zheng.”

Man, what a pain. After I got the cost breakdown, I went to the building materials market and shopped around.

Turns out, just asking around could save me tens of thousands."