Courtyard House: Starting as an eighth-grade worker, with too many wives.

"Grandma! I want meat! Meat! Eat it now!" Bang Geng couldn't hear about meat, so he got even more upset and started kicking the stool, banging the bowl, and throwing chopsticks all over the floor. He was a typical spoiled brat throwing a tantrum.

Jia Zhangshi was so annoyed by the noise that her head throbbed. She had nowhere to vent her anger, so she suddenly turned her head and glared fiercely at Qin Huairu, who was eating silently.

"Look at you! What kind of mother are you? Your own son can't even get a bite of meat. What good are you? You useless thing!"

As she cursed, she reached out and snatched the half-eaten cornbread from Qin Huairu's hand, stuffed it into her mouth in a few quick movements, and gave a mumbled command.

"Take this bowl! Go to Li Jianguo and ask him for some meat! Can't you see how much your son is drooling? Don't you have any sense of propriety? Go!"

Qin Huairu's hands were suddenly empty. She paused, then her eyes reddened. Her mother-in-law wouldn't do such a shameful thing herself, but always forced her to.

"Mom..." she called softly, pleadingly, "We just had such a fight with them this morning, and now we're asking for food again, how could they... how could they possibly give it to us..."

"Whether he gives it or not is his business, whether you go or not is your business!" Jia Zhangshi gave her a disdainful look, as if she were looking at a pile of garbage. "He's a respectable engineer, what makes you think he can beat you out of here? Besides, he just extorted three hundred yuan from our family today! What's wrong with eating a couple of pieces of his meat? Shouldn't we eat it?"

The more she talked, the more reasonable she felt, and her voice became shrill.

"Hurry up and go! I don't believe Li Jianguo is really that stingy! If he dares not to give it to you, you make a scene in the yard! The bigger the scene, the better! I don't believe he's shameless enough to be drowned in spit!"

As she spoke, she reached out and shoved Qin Huairu out of the house.

The door slammed shut behind me.

Qin Huairu stood alone in the dimly lit courtyard, clutching an empty bowl in her hand. Tears of grievance finally streamed down her face. She bit her lip tightly, afraid to cry out loud.

The child wants to eat meat, shouldn't the incompetent father be the one to blame? Why is everything being blamed on her? What did she do to deserve this? Marrying that good-for-nothing Jia Dongxu is the worst luck imaginable.

Through her blurry, tear-filled eyes, she looked at the warm light shining from Li Jian's house in the backyard, listened to the bursts of laughter coming from inside, and smelled the aroma of meat that made her stomach churn. The feelings in her heart were so complex that she couldn't even describe them herself.

Both are men, but Li Jianguo is a young engineer, capable, wealthy, and a good cook. He's also very generous to the young people who helped him. Then look at my own husband… it's truly infuriating to compare people like that.

---

Just as Qin Huairu was standing in the courtyard wiping away her tears, the deaf old lady returned.

She was helped back by a kind young man who happened to be passing by, and she walked back unsteadily. The young man took her to the gate of the courtyard and then left. The deaf old woman, hunched over and leaning on her cane, slowly walked inside step by step, the wrinkles on her face appearing particularly somber in the dim light.

She had just stepped into the front yard when she was spotted by Uncle Yan Bugui, who was wandering around the yard.

"Oh, old lady, you're back?" Yan Bugui pushed up his glasses and went to greet her, his eyes filled with undisguised curiosity.

"Hmm." The deaf old lady snorted through her nose, said nothing more, and continued walking inside.

Everyone in the courtyard knew that she had been taken away by the police. Now that they saw her return unharmed, everyone was incredibly curious and wanted to know what had happened.

Hearing the commotion, an old man named Yi Zhonghai quickly ran out of the house.

"Grandma, are you alright? What did the police station say?" He leaned closer and asked cautiously.

The deaf old woman stopped, slowly turned her head, and glanced at him. Her gaze was so gloomy it sent chills down one's spine.

"What did you say?" She sneered, her voice hoarse and grating. "I'm an old lady on welfare, this isn't my business, and nobody can pin this on me! Report it to the police? Hmph, go ahead and report it! I'm an old woman, and I've come back safe and sound, haven't I?"

She cursed aloud, but the fire in her heart burned ever brighter. It was all that useless, idiotic Jia Zhangshi's fault! So vicious, and so incompetent! She'd been blind to have given her advice before! And that Li Jianguo! So young, yet so malicious, just like his short-lived parents—no good at all!

She continued walking in, cursing viciously in her mind. But as she cursed, she suddenly stopped.

A rich, irresistible aroma of meat wafted straight into her nose.

She instinctively took a deep breath, and her mouth began to water uncontrollably. She hadn't had any meat in a long time, and the aroma was an irresistible temptation for her.

"Who...who's cooking?" She turned her head and looked at Sha Zhu, who was following behind her.

"Silly Zhu," she asked, "the meat you made?"

She thought to herself, "The person in this courtyard who's willing to eat meat and cook it so deliciously must be Sha Zhu, that bachelor who only has one person to feed and no one else to worry about. I'll have him bring me a bowl later to satisfy my craving."

"It wasn't me!" Sha Zhu quickly waved his hand, looking a little embarrassed. "I just lost three hundred today, and I only have a dozen yuan left in my pocket. I'm waiting to get paid next month."

He was craving it too. He was a cook, and considered himself quite skilled, but smelling the aroma of Li Jianguo's cooking, he had to admit he couldn't replicate it. He was even a little relieved that Li Jianguo was an engineer; if he were also a cook, with that kind of skill, where would he, Sha Zhu, stand?

"Who made this?" The deaf old lady asked, her mouth watering.

"Li Jianguo made it." Sha Zhu gestured towards the backyard. "He was cleaning the house today and asked those young guys at the alley entrance to help. He'll cook a meal to treat them when he's done."

"What?" The deaf old woman was stunned, incredulous. "He did it?"

"That's right," Uncle Yan Bugui chimed in, adjusting his glasses. "We're practically drooling. This smells even better than anything made by the imperial chefs."

As soon as the words were spoken, everyone present swallowed hard.

The deaf old woman rolled her eyes, forced a stiff smile, and tapped her cane.

"Shazhu," she ordered, "Go. Go find Li Jianguo and get him some food. He's an engineer living in this compound, and he cooks something delicious, but he doesn't even offer any respect to the old folks and children here? Does he even want to live here properly? He has absolutely no sense of propriety, what a piece of trash!"

What she thought in her heart was one thing, and what she said was another. She wanted to take advantage of the situation while simultaneously standing on moral high ground to criticize the other party.

"Alright, Grandma, you can go now." Sha Zhu agreed readily, without feeling embarrassed at all.

In his view, they were all neighbors living in the same courtyard. If someone cooked something delicious, wouldn't it be only natural to share a bowl with the elderly and children in the courtyard and with the neighbors? He had always done it that way, so he naturally felt that Li Jianguo should do the same.

He strode towards the backyard, and as soon as he entered, he saw Qin Huairu standing alone at her door, clutching a bowl in her hand, seemingly lost in thought.

"Hey, sister-in-law?" He walked over. "What are you doing standing here all by yourself?"

Qin Huairu breathed a sigh of relief when she saw him, and an idea immediately formed in her mind. She wanted to eat the meat, or even just drink the broth. But she was too shy to ask for it. Sha Zhu was different; he was easy to fool, kind-hearted, and the best person to use.

"It's nothing..." She lowered her head, revealing a troubled and aggrieved expression, "It's just... the two kids... you know our family's situation, we only have cornbread and pickled vegetables for dinner, and Banggeng hasn't had a proper meal in a long time, he just can't stand the smell..."

As she spoke, her eyes reddened instantly, tears welled up in them, and her voice trembled with sobs.

"It's all my fault... I'm a useless mother, I can't even give my child a bite of meat... My mother-in-law was unhappy, so she... kicked me out..."