Chapter 21: Shi Yuebai Threatens Someone Like a Seasoned Expert

The Second Sister-in-law did not yet understand what was happening, but she caught the scent of amniotic fluid. Blind as she was, and despite knowing that this day would arrive sooner or later, she still asked Shi Yuebai in a flustered, bewildered tone:

"Yuebai, what should we do? Mom is going into labor."

"Lay her down."

Although Shi Yuebai was panicking internally, she maintained a calm and formidable exterior. She did not forget to reassure Shi Yaoyao, "It’s okay, Grandma is just about to have a baby. Can you help?"

Shi Yaoyao nodded immediately, a rare glimmer of understanding appearing on her usually dull, large face. Shi Yuebai stroked Shi Yaoyao’s head, channeling a bit of fat-energy into the acupoint on her crown—the same way she usually nourished her.

"Yaoyao, go make the fire bigger, can you do that? Just like Mom usually does."

There was always a fire pit inside the tarpaulin tent. When the weather was hot, they covered it with ash; when it was cold, they would rake the ash away and toss in scraps of paper or flammable waste. On the other side of the Shi family's tent, there was also a pile of charcoal left behind by the men of the family. Plenty of mutated wood could also be scavenged from the ruins.

Shi Yaoyao slid off her writing chair and quickly shuffled toward the pile of charcoal and mutated branches. Seeing Shi Yaoyao’s powerful arms, Shi Yuebai thought to herself that once this was over, she would have Guai Guai build a flatbed cart for her.

With the Second Sister-in-law’s encouragement and assistance, Mother Shi was pushed onto the mattress. The amniotic fluid instantly soaked into the cotton padding. Mother Shi was complaining incessantly, "I don't want to lie down, stop pushing me, ah, ah, ah!"

Shi Yaoyao, while operating her flatbed cart, shuffled over to the pile where they kept the small loaves of bread. She grabbed one and dashed out of the tent.

"My mom is giving birth, who knows how to deliver a baby? If my mom and the baby are safe, I’ll give you a loaf of bread!"

The offer quickly spread through the entire team. A sallow, emaciated woman with a deep red ligature mark around her neck emerged. She was nearly naked, disheveled, and scrambled forward.

"I... I can do it."

She was terribly thin and covered in wounds; one could tell at a glance what she had been through. Shi Yuebai stared expressionlessly at the woman’s cramped, tortured fingers.

"Are you sure? You don't look like you can."

Shi Yuebai lacked sympathy; in her past life, back in the Witch Tribe, she had often bullied her own kin. Mostly because those people were just too pathetic... Therefore, she would not entrust the lives of her mother and the baby to this woman simply because she looked miserable.

The woman’s eyes burned with a desperate hunger for survival.

"I am a top graduate from medical school. I completed a one-year rotation in obstetrics before the apocalypse. I can do everything—set bones, treat wounds, handle coughs and colds, perform surgery, and stitch wounds. I can do it all."

Shi Yuebai looked up just as a man from the Chen family approached. He raised his foot, intending to kick the woman.

"You bitch! We kept you in our tent, and you dare to run off?"

Chen Huaihai was the father of the eldest and second Chen brothers. He looked to be in his fifties, a brutish, hulking man, and the force behind his kick was clearly not small. Shi Yuebai lifted the long staff she was holding and lashed it against Chen Huaihai’s calf.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

Chen Huaihai did not yet know that his two sons were dead. People in these wastelands came and went, often getting delayed somewhere. He assumed the eldest and second brothers hadn’t returned these past few days because they were off with women from another group.

Shi Yuebai tossed the bread she was holding at the woman. "Go in. Do what you have to do."

The woman picked up the bread, scrambled off the ground, and entered the Shi family’s tent. Chen Huaihai tried to chase after her to drag her out and beat her, but Shi Yuebai blocked his path with her staff.

A cold, icy glint crossed her plump face. "Anyone who dares to disturb my mother while she gives birth today, I will kill. Don't believe me? Go ahead and try."

For some reason, even though she was just a mountain of flesh, looking quite comical as she sat on her flatbed cart, she exuded an aura of "one man stands in the pass, ten thousand cannot enter."

Chen Huaihai retreated two steps in a rage, pointing at Shi Yuebai. "Don't think that just because you have mercenaries backing the Shi family, you can do whatever you want! That woman is someone I picked up yesterday; I want her back, and she’s coming back. Does that have anything to do with you?"

He completely disregarded the fact that Mother Shi was in the middle of labor. In this wasteland, a moment of carelessness could mean the death of both mother and child. Chen Huaihai simply hated seeing a woman he had claimed escape their family’s tent. He hadn't had enough of her yet; he had been saving her for his sons' return.

Shi Yuebai sneered, her attitude carrying the overbearing, possessive air of a domineering executive. "Well, from now on, she’s mine."

"On what grounds?"

"You found her, I snatched her. That fits the wasteland rules perfectly." Shi Yuebai tapped the staff against her palm, rhythmically. "Either you kill me, or you give me your person. It’s that simple."

Chen Huaihai threw a punch at Shi Yuebai. "I think you’re asking for a beating!"

With just his brute strength? Shi Yuebai didn't panic; she swung her staff, directly shattering the bones in Chen Huaihai’s hand.

"Ahhhhh! Shi Yuebai, you damn monster! I’m going to find someone to kill you!"

A scream pierced the air as Chen Huaihai rolled on the ground in agony, clutching his broken hand. But the other men of the Chen family had not returned. People in the wasteland didn't like to stick their necks out for other people's business, and besides, the force behind Shi Yuebai’s strike had been so strong it cut through the air. Just the sound of it made one wince. The men of the Shi family were all strong; maybe Shi Yuebai had inherited that strength...

Only Chen Huaihai remained on the ground, howling. A moment later, Mother Shi’s cries of pain drifted from behind the tent.

"Yuebai, Yuebai, it hurts so much! Why hasn't your father come back yet? Yuebai..."

The cries of pain were constant. Shi Yuebai picked at her ear, feeling as though she were living in a world filled with nothing but suffering. She tilted her head and shouted toward the tent, "Mom, save your strength for the delivery!"

Stuck outside and unable to get in, she could only play with her staff, occasionally lashing out at the wailing Chen Huaihai on the ground. "Keep screaming. Why did you stop?"

Shi Yuebai enjoyed watching people who dared to be angry but didn't dare to speak. "Even if you scream until your throat bleeds, no one is going to come help you."

The woman ran out in a hurry, wrapped in a piece of cloth she had scrounged from the tent, as her original clothes had been stripped away by Chen Huaihai. Seeing Chen Huaihai lying there, half-dead from Shi Yuebai’s beating, the woman gave Shi Yuebai a long, deep look.

"Your mother is losing strength. She doesn't know what she’s doing; she doesn't know how to push."

Shi Yuebai raised her eyebrows theatrically. "You’re telling me this, but what am I supposed to do?" She couldn't very well push for her mother. "You find a way. As long as my family’s children have a bite to eat, you will definitely have your share. Otherwise, I’m throwing you back to the Chen family."

Shi Yuebai was well-versed in the art of intimidation.