Siheyuan: Fighting against Japanese Aggression in Beijing

The next day, Li Kangri and his sister pushed their bicycles out of the house. When passing by the central courtyard, he saw Sha Zhu staring at them from afar, and his eyes were sweeping over Qinghe intentionally or unintentionally.

Seeing this look, Li Kangri slowed down his pace a little, blocked Qinghe, and then ignored Sha Zhu and slowly walked towards the door.

After Li Kangri and his sister left, Sha Zhu did not take his gaze away and just stared blankly in the direction they left.

All of Sha Zhu's actions were seen exactly by Qin Huairu who was standing at the door of Jia's house. "Could this idiot be attracted to the girl from the Li family? This won't do. He is the guarantee of my family and cannot be seduced away by others." Qin Huairu thought.

Thinking of this, Qin Huairu immediately went out and ran straight to Sha Zhu. When she came to Sha Zhu, Qin Huairu smiled and asked, "Is Zhuzi feeling better? Are you still going to rest today?"

Seeing his sister Qin coming, Sha Zhu was just about to greet her warmly! Suddenly he remembered the reminder of the old deaf man, and now his heart was full of Qinghe's shadow, so he immediately changed his face and said, "Good morning, sister-in-law Jia, I still feel a little uncomfortable today, maybe it will take a few days! Go to work in a few days."

The call of "Sister-in-law of the Jia family" made Qin Huairu alert. She looked at Sha Zhu's face again and found that he no longer had the same enthusiasm as before. Qin Huairu was so anxious!

So she hurriedly said, "Zhu Zi, why are you calling me sister-in-law of the Jia family? I'm not used to calling you sister! I think it's better to call you sister Qin."

"Sister-in-law of the Jia family, the past is the past. It was okay to call you that when Brother Jia was still around. But now that Brother Jia is gone, I think it's a bit inappropriate to call you Sister Qin. It will be bad if it causes misunderstandings among others, don't you think?" Sha Zhu said.

"Ah! Is that so? Well, hey, who would care about this title! I'm really not used to you calling me sister-in-law all of a sudden. Are you going out today?" Qin Huairu changed the subject.

"I'm going to be out for a while. I promised the old lady yesterday that I would make him something delicious. Don't I have to go out and buy some meat?" Sha Zhu said truthfully.

When Qin Huairu heard that Sha Zhu was going to buy meat, her mind immediately became active, "Zhu Zi, can you share some of the dishes you cook later with me? Bang Geng hasn't eaten meat for a long time and has been asking for it several times in the past two days. Do you think it's okay?" Qin Huairu said pitifully.

"Ah! Well, sister-in-law Jia, didn't I donate money to your family a few days ago? Use the money to buy some for Banggeng. I'm short of money this month. After donating ten yuan to your family, I have less than twenty yuan left in my pocket, and I have to save some money for Yu Shui, so I can't buy too much meat. Just buy some for the old lady to satisfy her craving." Sha Zhu refused.

Hearing Sha Zhu say this, Qin Huairu was really anxious. In an instant, her eyes were filled with tears. She said with a pitiful look, "Zhu Zi, I still have a long time to go to work, and I have to plan to use that little money to support myself for a few months! How dare I buy meat? Please have pity on the child! Please, I won't eat your food for free. I will wash your clothes for you, okay? Zhu Zi..."

Looking at Qin Huairu's crying face and her slightly bulging belly, Sha Zhu suddenly began to daydream again.

"Zhu Zi, I beg you, okay?" Qin Huairu called out at the right time.

"Okay, but not too much. The old lady is a big taste bud." Sha Zhu said angrily.

"Hey, Zhuzi, I know you're the best. You're the best to me in the whole yard. Do you have any dirty clothes? I'll wash them for you right now!"

Having said that, without waiting for Sha Zhu's consent, Qin Huairu slipped into Sha Zhu's room and started looking for dirty clothes.

After getting the dirty clothes, Qin Huairu hugged them directly in her arms and said, "Zhu Zi, I'll wash them for you. Go buy some meat quickly!"

After saying that, he went home without looking back.

When they got home, Jia Zhang rolled her eyes and said, "Remember your identity. Don't go to bachelor's houses all the time. It will be bad for you if it gets out."

"Mom, what are you talking about! Zhuzi said he would buy meat for lunch, and Banggeng wanted to eat meat so much, so I went to ask for meat, didn't I?" Qin Huairu said dissatisfiedly.

"Meat? Really?" asked Jia Zhang.

Seeing Jia Zhang like this, Qin Huairu knew what she was thinking.

"Mom, Zhuzi said he could only give a little, and he has no money left. The old lady in the backyard bought it because she was greedy!"

"You old fool, you're so greedy. Half of your body is buried in the ground, but you're still trying to snatch meat from my grandson. You're so shameless. Don't bother with it. Wait until Sha Zhu finishes cooking and bring it all over. My grandson is at the age of growing up!" Jia Zhang said angrily.

"Mom, how is that possible? Zhuzi won't agree." Qin Huairu said unhappily.

"Haha, if you don't agree, don't think I don't know. That old bachelor Shazhu is like a lost soul when he sees you, so whatever you say is the truth." Jia Zhang said with contempt.

"Mom, you're talking nonsense again. Zhuzi is kind-hearted. Don't think too much. And I think he has fallen in love with the girl from the Li family in the backyard. You didn't see the way he looked at the girl in the morning. It was as if he wanted to stick his head on her face!" Qin Huairu said.

"What? No, how can Sha Zhu fall in love with someone else? We are still counting on him to bring us lunch boxes! What if he gets married? Will our family starve? No, absolutely not. You'd better use some tricks on me. Sha Zhu must not get married, do you understand?" Jia Zhang said anxiously.

In fact, when Jia Dongxu died, she had already set her sights on Sha Zhu. She had long known that Sha Zhu was infatuated with her daughter-in-law, but she also knew that Qin Huairu would never fall for Sha Zhu, so she didn't care much and just reminded him occasionally.

Now that she heard that Sha Zhu had fallen in love with someone else, she was really anxious! Where could she find such a good fool? She was counting on Sha Zhu to support her family!

"Mom, what you said, can I stop someone from liking someone? Who am I? His wife?" Qin Huairu said unhappily.

"I don't know what you're thinking. You don't want Shazhu to get married, do you? Okay, stop pretending. As long as you don't get married and you're doing your best for Dongxu, I don't care. But you can't just ignore Shazhu. My family is counting on him!" Jia Zhang softened her tone and said.

"Don't I care? I'm just washing his clothes. You're still being sarcastic about this. Do you think I want to wash them? It's all for this family!"

As she spoke, Qin Huairu actually shed sad tears.

"Hey, can I just admit my fault? Mom did this for this family, for Bang Geng, and for the children! I don't care about it anymore, okay? But remember, don't do anything to let my son down, otherwise you'll be in trouble." Jia Zhang reminded.

"I know, I will never let Dongxu down, he is always in my heart!" Qin Huairu said with tears.

……