Sha Zhu had been volunteering at the shelter for over a week, and had been thinking about a beautiful wife for just as long. And sure enough, quite a few women had caught his eye.

But his current thought is that he's not in a hurry, he'll take it slow, and there will be better ones later. And the good-looking girls he's found earlier, Sha Zhu has secretly made a note of them, planning to go back to the earlier ones if there aren't any better ones later.

Sha Zhu has been away for so long, and the Jia family hasn't had a meal in just as long. Not to mention Jia Zhangshi and Bang Geng, even Qin Huairu is getting a little hungry.

But during this period, Sha Zhu always left early and returned late, and sometimes he simply stayed at the relief center. He couldn't talk things out in the canteen, and Qin Huairu could never stop him.

Around 10 p.m. that night, Qin Huairu, who was half asleep, was shaken awake by Jia Zhangshi.

"Get up quickly, Sha Zhu is back, his lights are on," said Jia Zhangshi.

Qin Huairu, who was still a bit grumpy when she woke up, suddenly became alert, put on her shoes, and was about to run outside.

"You should at least put on some clothes."

Seeing Qin Huairu wearing only a small garment, with nothing underneath, she felt a pang of unease and offered a gentle reminder. She thought back to her own days when she, Jia Zhangshi, also possessed such assets, and now they were practically reaching her navel.

Qin Huai hurriedly grabbed a piece of clothing and went out. Luckily, it was late at night and no one else could see what was happening, otherwise someone would definitely have a nosebleed.

"Zhu Zi, open the door, it's Sister Qin." Qin Huairu gently knocked on the door of Sha Zhu's room.

Sha Zhu was really tired when he got home. Even though his eyes were enjoying the good life these past few days, seeing pretty girls every day, his body was truly exhausted; there was so much work to do all day.

He finally finished work early today and was able to rest, but Qin Huairu knocked on the door. He was reluctant to open it, thinking that there were so many unmarried young women to choose from, why choose this one who had given birth to three children?

The young woman smells wonderful, but her shelf life is only about 10 years. After that, she'll probably end up like Jia Zhangshi.

But Qin Huai insisted on coming in to get to the bottom of things, and kept knocking. Sha Zhu had no choice but to get up and open the door.

"Sister Qin, you..." As soon as Sha Zhu opened the door, Qin Huai Ru slipped in. Then he saw the big white steamed bun swaying back and forth, and he couldn't say a word.

Having seen so much these past few days, Sha Zhu was already quite angry. When Qin Huai suddenly threw himself into his arms, the two of them tacitly turned off the lights.

"Phew, Sister Qin, what brings you here so late at night?" Sha Zhu asked, letting out a long sigh.

"You men are really something. What were you doing just now, and now you're asking me?" Qin Huai said coquettishly.

Regardless of what they were thinking, they were both physically very happy. An older unmarried man and a widow were a perfect match.

"Hehe, I'm asking about serious matters," Sha Zhu chuckled.

"What I'm saying is also important. By the way, what have you been doing at night lately? We haven't seen you around much. Banggeng and Xiaodang are really missing you," Qin Huairu said.

"Think about my lunchbox. I've been doing volunteer work these past few days, as required by the neighborhood committee, helping those who have fled famine to cook for them," Sha Zhu said, half-jokingly.

"Oh, so this is what you mean by preparing a feast. You're quite kind-hearted, that's great. But you should also take care of your health, maybe take a break every now and then," Qin Huairu said.

She didn't dare refuse when she heard it was arranged by the neighborhood committee, but she pretended to be concerned about her health, thinking that Sha Zhu would bring her a lunchbox when he came back.

After spending some more time together, Qin Huairu returned home.

"How are you?" Madam Jia was still awake.

"That's how it is, they're all women, you know." Qin Huairu seemed to still be savoring the moment.

"What nonsense are you talking about? I'm asking how Sha Zhu is doing, what he's been doing these past few days," Jia Zhangshi said disapprovingly, feeling that her daughter-in-law was becoming increasingly unreasonable.

"Ah, you mean this? It's nothing. Sha Zhu has been assigned by the neighborhood committee to cook for the refugees these past few days. He's exhausted and hasn't had much time to come back at night. He'll be fine in a while," Qin Huairu said.

Hearing that this was the reason for the problem with her family's boxed lunches, Jia Zhangshi breathed a sigh of relief and felt much more at ease. Once she relaxed, Jia Zhangshi began to have all sorts of wild thoughts.

"Huai Ru, you've been gone for an hour. Does Sha Zhu have that much time?" Jia Zhangshi asked in a low voice.

"Mom, why are you like this?" Qin Huairu didn't expect her mother-in-law, who was old but still had a young mind, to ask such an embarrassing question.

·············

On the weekend, Sha Zhu went out with Yi Zhonghai early in the morning. Only Jia Zhangshi in the compound saw the two of them. She didn't know what was going on, but she had a bad feeling about it.

"Huai Ru, I have a bad feeling about this. I just saw Yi Zhonghai and Sha Zhu sneaking out again, I wonder what they're doing." Jia Zhangshi voiced her doubts.

"How would I know? But don't worry about Sha Zhu, there won't be any problems," Qin Huai said confidently.

She was confident in her charm and had completely won over Sha Zhu, so she wasn't worried about him causing any problems. Besides, everything has its beginnings, and she was sure she could put out the fire before things escalated.

The weather was nice today. Qin Huairu tidied up and washed at home early in the morning, and then went to Sha Zhu's room to tidy up. She found nothing, which made her feel even more at ease.

While Xu Damao and Wang Minzhi took their son out for a walk, Qin Huairu was still washing and scrubbing by the pool in the courtyard. To be honest, when it comes to diligence, few people in the compound are as diligent as Qin Huairu, at least not as much as she spends by the pool.

When Xu Damao reached the front yard, his son didn't want to run outside anymore, because there were many children there that day. He couldn't walk by himself, but he really wanted to stay close to the older children, so Xu Damao let him be.

Wang Minzhi then went to chat with Yu Li.

"Minzhi, your son is so handsome, so chubby and fair-skinned," Yu Li said enviously.

"If you like it so much, why don't you have one?" Wang Minzhi asked.

“I want to have a baby, but I don’t know why, my belly just won’t cooperate. You know, my in-laws are urging me all the time, and now I’m afraid to talk to them,” Yu Li said.

They had been married for a long time, but they just couldn't get pregnant. In this day and age, people generally believe that infertility is a woman's problem, so the pressure wasn't put on Yan Jiecheng.

With a rare break, more and more people gathered in the front yard, chatting away. It was like a completely different world from the starving people outside.

"Silly Zhu, who is this girl to you?"

Just as everyone was getting ready to go home, someone saw Sha Zhu bring a very pretty girl with a good figure into the yard.