Like Shi Qing had said, the house belonged to Principal Meng. He merely allowed them to stay for the time being. He would take it back sooner or later.
However, Nan Nan had just graduated from Ping Cheng High School. Principal Meng would not take back the house right away as it might invite criticisms.
Although he would not take back the house right now, he would still do so a few years later.
Even if Principal Meng did not take back the house, he could not stay in the house forever.
Qiao Dongliang would not be so shameless to keep on staying at the house.
These few days, Qiao Dongliang had been thinking that once Qiao Nan and Zhai Sheng collected the marriage certificate and held the wedding banquet, he could finally set his heart at rest.
As for his elder daughter who refused to listen to him, it was impossible for her to leave Chen Jun. The only thing that he could do for her was to help her mend her relationship with the younger daughter.
With the younger daughter and his son-in-law around, no matter how cunning Chen Jun was, he would not dare to ill-treat the elder daughter.
Qiao Dongliang felt that his last task as a father was to help the two sisters mend their relationship.
Now that Shi Qing brought up the issue of the house, it dawned on Qiao Dongliang that without the younger daughter, finding a place to stay would be a problem!
After Nan Nan was married to Zhai Sheng, she would definitely stay at the Zhai family’s residence whenever she had her study break.
What about him? Where could he stay?
Should he rent another house?
“Uncle Qiao, there’s no hurry. Qiao Nan and I are this year’s top students in the college entrance examination. The hype is still not over. It should not be a problem if you stay at this house for one more year. However, we should not take advantage of Principal Meng, who is being nice to us. We still have to know our limits so as not to annoy other people. What do you think?”
After finding out that Ding Jiayi and Qiao Zijin stayed in Qiao Nan’s room for the night, Shi Qing felt disgusted and found it unacceptable, let alone Qiao Nan.
Qiao Dongliang turned green. He was embarrassed that he was being lectured by his junior. “You are right. I have not considered this. I have taken things for granted.”
How could he forget that Principal Meng disliked Old Ding?
If Principal Meng talked to him about this, he would be too shameless to face him.
The house did not belong to him and he did not have the final say. Qiao Dongliang looked depressed and gloomy.
Yesterday, he felt that he was quite successful in life.
His younger daughter had yet to graduate from university, but she had found a good man and was about to get married.
Once his two daughters made up with each other, he would have fulfilled his responsibility to his elder daughter as well. From then on, he would be able to live the life that he wanted and he would not have so much to worry about.
Not many people would be able to accomplish what he had done at his age.
Just when he was rejoicing over his success, Qiao Dongliang realized that he was already in his forties, yet he did not have a place of his own. He was so embarrassed that he felt like dying.
“You’re right. Principal Meng might be nice to us, but I can’t…” He was taking advantage of Principal Meng and occupying the place that he lent them. He was being shameless. “After the Lunar New Year, I will look for a suitable house and find a time to move out.”
Since the house did not belong to him, he would have to move out sooner or later.
Now that they had brought up this topic, Qiao Dongliang had no wish to stay for another year. He decided to look for another place and move out as soon as possible.
Since Qiao Nan had yet to marry Zhai Sheng, he did not allow her to spend the Zhai family’s money.
But once they had collected the marriage certificate and held the wedding banquet, Qiao Dongliang would not stop the Zhai family from paying for Qiao Nan’s school fees or living expenses, and neither would he stop Qiao Nan from taking the money from them.
Now that he no longer needed to support Qiao Nan through college, given his pay, he would be able to find another house and support himself.
“Uncle Qiao, it’s good that you already have plans.” There was a bright and innocent smile on Shi Qing’s face.
She was not being harsh or blunt to Uncle Qiao. In fact, he was being too muddleheaded.
She was worried that if she did make things clear, Uncle Qiao would continue to stay in the house. In the future, Ding Jiayi and Qiao Zijin would not only be staying for one night, but they might stay for a few more nights or a long term.
Shi Qing had not been to the Qiao family’s residence in the quad, but she could tell that the living conditions were not as good as the house here.
There was a color television, a refrigerator, as well as a telephone in this house.
She heard that the Zhu family had paid quite a lot to install the phone.
To put it bluntly, Uncle Qiao only needed to pay the electricity bills for the house.
In the Qiao family’s residence in the quad, there was only a small television. She could not remember if there was a refrigerator. But it was likely that there was no refrigerator. As for the telephone, even if they had one, they would not use it to make outgoing calls. They would most likely only use the phone to answer incoming calls.
One could save a lot of money staying at this house. Furthermore, it had all the furniture that was needed. Everyone would find it comfortable staying there.
Since Uncle Qiao liked staying here, Ding Jiayi and Qiao Zijin would prefer this place as well.
Shi Qing believed now that they had stayed here for a night, they would definitely want to stay here for a few more nights or even a long term.
It would be better to take preventive measures. One could not blame her for thinking the worst of others.
“Yes, yes.” Qiao Dongliang was already thoroughly embarrassed by Qiao Zijin’s behavior this morning. Shi Qing’s reminder dealt a harsh blow to him further. Qiao Dongliang was still reeling from the shock. “Let me think about it. I will give it a good thought.”
Qiao Dongliang scanned around the house that he had been staying in for more than three years. “The furniture…”
“I remembered that the Zhu family gave them to Qiao Nan.” Shi Qing interrupted.
“…Yes.”
“What should we do with the phone? I heard that the Zhu family has topped up a lot of money for the phone. It has been more than three years. Has the money been used up? Did the Zhu family continue to top up money for the phone? Uncle Qiao, should you look into it?” If the house had to be returned, what did Uncle Qiao intend to do with all the appliances that other people gave to Qiao Nan?
“There seems to be quite a lot to settle. Let’s wait until Lunar New Year is over before we do anything about it.” Qiao Dongliang had a headache.
Back at the Qiao family’s residence in the quad, even though Qiao Dongliang had some savings, it did not cross his mind to buy all these appliances. Now that he needed to decide where the appliances should go, he felt helpless. He did not know what he should do next.
These appliances were given to Nan Nan. After he moved out of the house, it would not be suitable to leave them behind.
It would not be suitable for Nan Nan to bring them to the Zhai family’s residence either as they did not lack all these appliances.
Besides, no young lady would bring used dowry with her when she was getting married.
D-dowry!
Qiao Dongliang just realized that Nan Nan was about to be married to Zhai Sheng and he had yet to prepare any dowry for her. The Zhai family did not bring this up as well!
This was the first time that Qiao Dongliang was going to marry off his daughter. He had zero experience in this.
