Chapter 153: At Least They’re Still of Some Use
Out in the fields, Zhang Jianguo muttered a few words to himself and then continued burying his head in work, spreading fertilizer. He had no intention of pulling Li Cuihua and Wu Laogen out of the pit — he wasn’t about to subject himself to that torture.
Ugh, the stench was unbearable — truly a sin!
The overwhelming stink filled the air, and Zhang Jianguo held his breath, set down the ladle of manure, plucked a few blades of grass from the edge of the field, and stuffed them into his nostrils before sighing with relief. “There, now I can’t smell anything.”
The others in the field pretended not to see the two people stuck in the pit either. After everything that had happened lately, no one had any sympathy for that family.
Aunt Liu gave the two struggling figures in the pit a cold snort and turned back to her work.
“Of all the people to provoke, they had to go after those two educated youths. That girl Xiyue beat two pigs to death with her bare hands. That whole family is full of idiots.”
Another Auntie Wang spat in the direction of the manure pit.
“Isn’t that the truth? Those two were walking along peacefully, and Li Cuihua insisted on cursing and hitting them. She thought two young girls would be easy to bully. Serves her right — don’t bother pulling her out. Let her wash her brain with pig manure.”
This was the same woman who’d argued with Li Cuihua that morning because Li Cuihua had slapped her nephew across the face. She hadn’t forgotten it.
And the group of children from that morning? Their relatives made up nearly the entire work team.
Quite a few of the workers here had kids among that group, so when they saw this scene, they could only cheer. As for pulling them out — that was absolutely out of the question.
The biggest reason? The stench was too much. Just looking at them made it impossible to reach a helping hand.
One man, a relative of Wu Laogen, reluctantly walked over — only because of the family connection. Otherwise, it would have been too embarrassing not to.
“Laogen, I’m here to hel—”
He got close enough to see only a shapeless mess smeared in filth. He couldn’t even tell who was who, and there was no way to grab them. And once the pig manure was stirred up, the stench was enough to make his eyes water.
The words that had been forming on his lips were swallowed back down. He turned on his heel and walked away, calling out loudly as he went, “Laogen! Where are you? I’m here to save you! Where are you? Make a sound!”
Inside the pit, Wu Laogen weakly raised his hand and let out a muffled groan, hoping to signal his location.
But the sound only grew fainter as the footsteps retreated.
“Laogen, where are you? Huh, strange. Must’ve been my imagination. I should get back to work.”
In the pit, the two were furious.
Above them, Ning Xiyue and Chen Yechu still stood watching, not leaving yet.
Chen Yechu sneered. “Looks like the Wu family doesn’t have much character. Not a single person’s come to help them — even their relatives despise them.”
“Serves them right.”
This was exactly what Ning Xiyue expected — the family had ruined whatever goodwill the team members once had for them.
“Let’s wait a little longer. Their pain should be easing up soon.”
She wanted to watch them crawl out of the manure pit in disgrace.
Sure enough, less than a minute later, when no one came to pull them out, Wu Laogen, despairing, felt the pain in his body start to subside. He shoved Li Cuihua — who was half-lying on top of him — aside and slowly climbed out of the pit on his own.
Li Cuihua, abandoned, tried to open her mouth to curse, but the moment she did, manure poured in. She had no choice but to shut up and slowly haul herself up as well.
The grudge-holding Ning Xiyue switched into mockery mode.
“Well, well, what’s this? What kind of creatures crawl out of a manure pit? Oh, wait, what lives in manure? Maggots, of course! What a sight — I’ve never seen maggots this big before!”
Chen Yechu played along, pulling out a handkerchief and dramatically covering her nose, disgust written all over her face.
“Ew, such gross maggots. Other maggots are pale and clean, but these two are utterly revolting. The ugliest of the maggot world!”
Aunt Wang, still bitter about the slap to her nephew, chimed in with a laugh.
“Haha! You two probably don’t know this, but this pit is full of the nastiest, smelliest, biggest maggots. They feel safest when they wrap themselves completely in pig manure!”
“These two maggots are so heavy they almost blew the whole pit apart — disgusting!”
Zhang Jianguo, still working with his manure ladle, laughed loudly.
“Exactly! They’ve gotten so fat from eating crap, they’ve probably hogged the whole pit for themselves. The other maggots are starving now. These two are the most hated, most disgusting maggots in the entire pit! Hahaha!”
“Hahaha!”
“Hahahahaha!”
Their words set off waves of laughter among the other workers. The laughter grew louder and louder, with people even chiming in with more jokes, sending everyone into hysterics.
The two being mocked couldn’t talk back — the manure on them was the first thing stopping them, and the pain was the second. They couldn’t even flee this socially fatal scene. They could only keep crawling forward slowly, inch by inch, like real maggots.
Shame and anger churned in their hearts, but there was nothing they could do.
Seeing this, Ning Xiyue lost interest. Those two were pitiful enough — boring, even. She turned and walked away.
[Ding! Congratulations, Host. Mission ‘Humiliate the Scum Duo’ complete. Reward: Brick upgraded. Reward: 1 unit of spatial material.]
[Ding! The upgraded brick now comes with an invisible, infinitely long retrieval rope. No matter where you throw it, the host can recall it with one click. While watching a show, it can transform into a small stool and automatically simulate different seat comfort levels, allowing the host to sit on the brick in extreme comfort.]
[Ding! Space upgrade material progress: 9/10. Only one unit left. Keep it up, Host!]
Hearing the system notification put Ning Xiyue in a great mood. Her weapon had been upgraded, she was just one step away from upgrading her storage space, and this whole incident had brightened her day.
She patted the newly upgraded brick and silently thanked Wu Laogen and Li Cuihua for the good news they’d brought her.
At least they were still of some use.
Chen Yechu, seeing Ning Xiyue fondly stroking the brick, lovingly patted her own and tucked it into the specially-made pouch for it.
“Xiyue, this brick is just too useful. No wonder you love using it. Carrying one around really does make you feel safe. From now on, the brick is my favorite weapon.”
Chen Yechu had been thoroughly converted. The brick had saved her several times — it was more reliable than any man. The brick was powerful. The brick was yyds (forever the best).
“Carrying it with you is a good idea — no need to fear bullies.” Ning Xiyue watched her caress the pouch like a treasure and added, “But remember to control your strength. As long as you master that, the brick is truly unbeatable.”
The brick was a divine weapon — but used poorly, it could kill someone.
There were plenty of stories in the modern world of people getting their skulls cracked open by bricks.
“Don’t worry, I know. When I swing, I always aim for places that hurt but won’t cause real harm.”
Chen Yechu had used it twice and watched Ning Xiyue use it several times, so she had some experience. She’d even ordered a diagram of human nerve points online to study how to hit someone painfully but harmlessly.
Ning Xiyue nodded. She wasn’t worried about Chen Yechu — with her protagonist halo, nothing would go wrong. What worried her was the unlucky people they might hit.
When she swung, there’d be no problem. But when someone else did, there might be trouble. She’d been thinking about that when she attacked earlier.
Some people are so unlucky they choke on water.
With all her buffs stacked, Ning Xiyue wasn’t worried about herself — she could control her brick with perfect precision.
At the clinic, Chen Yechu picked up some medicine, brewed it in the clinic’s pot, and carried it over to Old Master Chen.
Ning Xiyue stayed behind, carrying on with her daily work there.
Thanks to the sight of Wu Laogen and Li Cuihua slinking home covered in manure, the villagers had new gossip to chew on.
That afternoon, Ning Xiyue didn’t have to go anywhere — the aunties came to the clinic themselves to give her live updates on what the two had been up to since then.
