Courtyard House: She got anxious when He Yushui wasn't licked.

Upon hearing this, Jia Zhangshi immediately transformed into a tickling warrior, brandishing her claws and swatting at He Yuzhu's face, yelling, "You idiot! You're up to no good! In this freezing weather, you actually used cold water on my grandson! You're not human!"

"Aunt Jia, you're wronging me! I also want to use hot water for the stalks! But where can I find hot water right now?" He Yuzhu was wronged. He also wanted hot water, but there was no such thing in the yard!

“I won’t listen! My precious grandson has a cold and fever, you have to pay for all the hospital treatment and injections.” Jia Zhangshi insisted.

"Fine, fine, I'll pay, I'll pay, okay?" He Yuzhu couldn't really hit Jia Zhangshi, so he had no choice but to back down and admit defeat.

Madam Jia touched Banggeng's face with a look of doting affection. In her eyes, Qin Huairu was not as close as Jia Banggeng. One was just a daughter-in-law, while the other was her own grandson.

"Mom, Grandma, you're back?" Jia Banggeng opened his eyes upon hearing the familiar voices.

"Banggeng, you're awake! How are you feeling?" Qin Huairu hurriedly asked her son.

"I'm hungry! I'm cold!" Jia Banggeng was extremely weak.

"Mom is holding you, you won't be cold." Qin Huairu wrapped Jia Banggeng in a blanket.

"Silly Zhu!" Madam Jia Zhang looked at Silly Zhu and ordered, "Didn't you hear my grandson saying he was hungry? What are you standing there for? Go and cook!"

"Sigh, sigh, sigh." Helpless, He Yuzhu could only go to the kitchen outside to cook.

He Yuzhu rarely cooks at home after going to work, and the kitchen is already out of food. He can only borrow some from each household, preferably some eggs, to help Jia Banggeng recover properly.

Chen Amao's family was even poorer than Qin Huairu's family, so this is just photoshopped!

Wang Jianjun's family isn't well-off either, so they definitely wouldn't have eggs. (This is also photoshopped!)

It's impossible for the Third Uncle's family!

It's impossible for my second uncle's family to be there either!

I might go to an old man's house, but I'd be too embarrassed to go.

After screening them one by one, He Yuzhu discovered that only Wang Lin might have extra eggs.

Between Yi Zhonghai and Wang Lin, He Yuzhu chose the latter, not because he looked down on Yi Zhonghai for not being able to afford eggs, but because he had a grudge against Wang Lin!

At this moment, Wang Lin cooked dumplings with pork and scallion filling. Now that he had no shortage of money or tickets, he could eat whatever he wanted without worrying about where his next meal would come from.

The dumplings are round and plump, and when you take a bite, the soup is sure to be delicious.

Wang Lin watched the two mythical beasts eating with great relish and was about to pick up his chopsticks when, before he could even take a bite of the dumplings, there was a knock at the door, followed by He Yuzhu's voice: "Wang Lin! Are you home? Can I borrow two eggs?"

Wang Baobao and Wang Beibei exchanged a glance, but neither of them dared to speak.

Outside, seeing that there was no response from inside, He Yuzhu raised his hand to continue knocking on the door.

"Crench!"

Wang Lin opened the door and snapped, "Idiot Zhu! What are you doing here instead of eating at home? Looking for a beating!"

He Yuzhu pointed at Wang Lin and said calmly, "Bang Geng has a cold and fever. He wants to eat eggs. As a member of the community, can you bear to see a sick child unable to get what he wants?"

Wang Lin laughed, and his next reply left He Yuzhu speechless. "That's great! That ingrate Bang Geng has finally gotten his comeuppance. He wants eggs? No way! He wants shit? There are plenty of those outhouses." With that, he closed the door, giving He Yuzhu no chance to argue.

Chapter 31 Qin Huairu: Silly Zhu, do you want a wife?

He Yuzhu was turned away at the door, so he stood outside and shouted to Wang Lin inside, "Wang Lin, you have no conscience!"

Wang Lin saw a basin of water, picked it up, opened the door, and splashed it out.

When He Yuzhu saw Wang Lin open the door, he thought Wang Lin had a change of heart, but instead, a basin of water was splashed on him.

If someone were to be doused with cold water in this weather, there would be a 90% chance of catching a cold. He Yuzhu immediately dodged to the side.

After splashing water, Wang Lin warned He Yuzhu, "Get out of here! If you're affecting my meal, I'll make sure none of you can eat tonight."

"Wang Lin, you think I'm afraid of you! I have something to do today, but I'll teach you a lesson next time."

He Yuzhu was not easily intimidated. He still wanted to cause trouble for Wang Lin, but after thinking about it, he decided to let Wang Lin off the hook for the time being and take care of Bang Geng first. In He Yuzhu's eyes, Bang Geng was already half his son.

After watching He Yuzhu slink away from the courtyard, Wang Lin muttered under his breath, "He really thinks he's something special, what a piece of trash."

In the room where the deaf old woman lived, she heard Sha Zhu's voice and wanted to get up, but her back hurt too much, so she had to lie down obediently. If she got up and saw that Sha Zhu, whom she had been longing for, had come to the backyard but had not brought her any food, would she be sad and upset?

Wang Lin returned to the house and called to the two mythical beasts, "Baby, Beibei, eat quickly. After you finish eating, your brother will cook more for you."

Wang Baobao nodded and ate the dumplings with gusto.

Wang Beibei scooped a few dumplings from her bowl and gave them to Wang Lin, saying, "Brother, have some dumplings."

Wang Lin looked at the dumplings his sister had lovingly prepared, picked one up and put it in his mouth. One word: delicious.

Wang Baobao followed suit and scooped two dumplings from her bowl for Wang Lin.

Wang Lin ate dumplings one after another, but it was a pity there was no garlic, so the flavor was only half there. If he had a bottle of Moutai with him, he would eat a dumpling, eat garlic, and then drink Moutai. He wouldn't trade it for a general's position.

He Yuzhu couldn't borrow any eggs, so he had to go back and knead the dough, planning to cook three bowls of noodles.

Back inside, He Yuzhu rummaged through the room and found only a flour sack, looking utterly bewildered! Where's my flour?

After thinking about it carefully, it seems that a while ago, this kid Banggeng kept coming over to get noodles, saying that he wanted his grandma to make dumplings for him!

There's no noodles, and we can't even eat noodles anymore.

Just as He Yuzhu was frowning, Yi Zhonghai came to He Yuzhu's house with a small bag of flour. He handed the flour to He Yuzhu and said, "I saw you come back empty-handed from the backyard. You must not have been able to borrow any food. Here's some flour for you to eat for a few meals."

"Uncle, your noodles came just in time." He Yuzhu was instantly moved and felt very grateful for Yi Zhonghai's selfless dedication as he accepted the noodles.

"Alright, let's cook. I'm going back now." Yi Zhonghai didn't linger; he delivered the noodles and turned back.

He Yuzhu also reminded him, "Grandpa, drive carefully."

Yi Zhonghai waved his hand with his back to He Yuzhu, indicating that there was no need to worry.

"Old man is still the best," He Yuzhu muttered, looking at the bag of flour in his hand.

Yi Zhonghai's timely act of providing timely assistance was very clever!

He already knew that He Yuzhu's family had no food, but when he sent noodles, he didn't say "give" but instead said "borrow." Although he didn't expect He Yuzhu to pay it back, "give" and "borrow" meant completely different things. He wanted He Yuzhu to owe him a favor, the kind that he could never repay, so that he could control his life.

He Yuzhu began kneading and proofing the dough, his movements were very skillful.

Jia Zhangshi and Qin Huairu were guarding the stick in He Yuzhu's room.

Almost an hour later, He Yuzhu finally brought in three large bowls of noodles.

Seeing that there were noodles to eat, Jia Zhangshi was the first to stop Sha Zhu and snatch a bowl of noodles.

When He Yuzhu saw that the note had been snatched, he wasn't angry. He simply reminded him, "There are no eggs. Just make do with this."

"Pah! This noodle tastes wrong!" Jia Zhangshi thought it was just that there was no egg in the bowl, but after taking a bite of the noodles, she realized that Sha Zhu meant that no eggs were added when the dough was fermented.

He Yuzhu placed two bowls of noodles on the table and said to Qin Huairu, "I've put the noodles on the table, you two should eat more."

Jia Zhangshi ate the noodles in big mouthfuls, as long as it wasn't corn porridge.

He Yuzhu went outside, looked at his small bowl of noodles, picked it up and finished it in two bites.

Yi Zhonghai gave out a lot of noodles, but Jia Zhangshi was also there, so there weren't enough noodles to go around.

Inside the house, Qin Huairu was feeding Banggeng noodles. As for Jia Zhangshi, she had already finished her own bowl and was now eating Qin Huairu's bowl, as if she were starving to death.

As soon as He Yuzhu finished his noodle soup and came in, he saw an empty bowl in front of Jia Zhangshi, while she was wolfing down a bowl of noodles. Needless to say, she had taken over Qin Huairu's bowl of noodles.

Are there really mothers-in-law like this in the world?

He Yuzhu didn't know about other places, but he knew that Jia Zhangshi in their compound was a strange mother-in-law.

He Yuzhu steeled himself and approached Qin Huairu, asking with concern, "Sister Qin, let me make you another bowl of noodles."

"No need, Sha Zhu, I have no appetite and I'm not hungry." Qin Huairu shook her head. The thought of owing He Yuzhu another eight hundred yuan made her restless and unable to eat or sleep. She was thinking about how to squeeze some money out of Wang Lin.

"Okay then." He Yuzhu breathed a sigh of relief.

"Shazhu! I want more." Banggeng finished a bowl of noodles, even drinking the soup clean, but he was still not full.

He Yuzhu took the bowl and stood there, starting to worry. There was no more flour at home, and he couldn't very well go to Yi Zhonghai's house to borrow grain again.

In this day and age, the saying "a half-grown boy can eat his father out of house and home" is not without merit.

Qin Huairu patted Banggeng on the back and said, "Banggeng, you're sick, just eat until you're half full."

Madam Jia swallowed the noodles and said unhappily, "Qin Huairu, what do you mean? My precious grandson isn't full, so you won't let him eat anymore?"

In Jia Zhangshi's view, as long as Sha Zhu eats and drinks his food and doesn't say a word, why should Qin Huairu care about him? Could it be that the two of you have already secretly started an affair?

Qin Huairu looked at her mother-in-law and said, too lazy to explain, "Noodles are a type of staple food, and they're bad for your stomach, so you should eat less of them."

Upon hearing this, Madam Jia Zhang echoed, "That's right, Banggeng's stomach isn't good, and noodles aren't easy to digest." Turning her head, she scolded He Yuzhu, "Silly Zhu! Are you doing this on purpose? You know my precious grandson has a bad stomach, yet you still feed him noodles? Are you trying to make him suffer?"

"Aunt Jia, you've misunderstood me. There's only some fine flour left at home. It's not my fault for cooking noodles for you. I don't believe it." He Yuzhu was now suffering in silence, unable to express his bitterness. His good intentions in cooking noodles had been twisted into malice?

"Hmph! I bet you wouldn't dare." Madam Jia mercifully let He Yuzhu off the hook. She was notorious for being unreasonable and argumentative when she was young, and although she was old now, it didn't mean that her skills had diminished.

He Yuzhu sat in front of the stove, propping his chin up and looking at Qin Huairu.

"Alright, I'm going back now. Take good care of my precious grandson." After eating and drinking her fill, Madam Jia planned to go back to lie down. She wasn't worried about He Yuzhu and Qin Huairu causing trouble, since Bang Geng was still here.

"Take your time." He Yuzhu saw Jia Zhangshi out of the house.

Jia Zhangshi swayed her plump waist as she returned home. She first lit three incense sticks for her deceased husband and son, muttered a few words in a mystical tone, and then crawled into bed.

Xiao Dang and Huaihua were already asleep. As soon as Jia Zhangshi crawled into bed, the two of them could only stay in one position while sleeping, and it was difficult for them to turn over.

After all, in those days, it was common for many people to sleep crammed together on a kang (a heated brick bed).

After Banggeng fell asleep again, He Yuzhu became bolder and went to sit next to Qin Huairu.

Qin Huairu sensed the atmosphere was somewhat ambiguous, so she got up and sat down in front of the stove, saying, "The stove is still the warmest."

He Yuzhu was about to say a few cheesy pickup lines to flirt with Qin Huairu when she had already run away.

"Silly Zhu! Do you want a wife?"

Qin Huairu thought for a moment and decided to introduce Sha Zhu to a potential partner, so that Sha Zhu could continue to support her family and it would be legitimate.

"Wife!" He Yuzhu ran over excitedly, nodding repeatedly, "Yes!"

"Alright, I'll go back to Qin Family Village first thing tomorrow morning and introduce my cousin to you." Qin Huairu made up her mind.

"Ah! Your cousin?" He Yuzhu thought Qin Huairu had figured things out and wanted to be with him, but it turned out Qin Huairu was going to introduce her cousin to him?

"Once our two families become related, won't you be even more supportive of our family?" Qin Huairu was already envisioning the future.

"That makes sense, but..." He Yuzhu's true love is Qin Huairu, and he has no interest in any other women.