After returning home, Qiao Mei was so tired that she sat on the sofa and did not want to move.
After keeping her keys, Xia Fang said to Qiao Mei, “Mei Mei, there is an art to getting along with the neighbors. You don’t have to treat them well just because they have helped you. They really only just want to watch the fun. Besides, the neighbors only spoke up for you because Qian’e and her mother had offended them previously.”
“If you give them attention and agree to whatever they say now, then they will think that you’re easy to bully and come asking you for other things next time. Just remember their kindness and stand up for them when they need your help next time,” Xia Fang said as she sat down beside Qiao Mei.
“If you help them with everything now, they will feel like they are allowed to give you unsolicited advice on your family matters in the future,” Xia Fang exhorted Qiao Mei earnestly.
Qiao Mei nodded thoughtfully. She recalled that in her other life, there was a young couple who lived next door. The other neighbors wanted their help with everything and they found it hard to reject the requests because they wanted to be neighborly. After a while, the neighbors became even more demanding and started to ask them for more things.
There were many such neighbors around. She understood what Xia Fang meant and nodded.
“If you remember the auntie in floral clothes you saw yesterday, she likes to borrow things the most. She will borrow onions from you today, salt from you tomorrow, and two eggs from you the day after tomorrow. After that, she’ll borrow physical objects and then she won’t return them to you at all. How are you going to ask for them back since they’re all just really small things, that’s when it will become difficult to get your things back.”
“Ah! You mean such a person exists! How can she have the cheek to borrow something every day?” Qiao Mei asked in surprise.
“Not only that, she even laughed at others. That auntie even bragged often about how much money she had saved,” Xia Fang said.
“At first, her son and daughter-in-law felt embarrassed, but as time passed and they heard from the auntie how much money she had saved, they actually felt that it was quite a good deal and stopped being concerned about it.”
“There’s also the family downstairs. They often look for their neighbors to repair things that are broken at their house. That’s fine, but they don’t even bother to say thank you after that. Then they would complain that the repair work was not up to mark and that the people who helped out should not have bothered if they are not skillful. Yet, the next time the thing is broken, they still look to the same people for help.”
“There’s also the Zhang family from the unit next door. They have five boys and they can’t afford to feed them, so they let the children go around to other people’s houses to ask for food. Seeing that they’re just children, the neighbors are too embarrassed not to let them in. As time passes, these children will come on time at mealtimes. It is really unbearable.”
After saying all that, Xia Fang sighed and said, “Just you wait and see. After we give them the cake today, they’ll dare to come over for their meals tomorrow.”
Qiao Mei’s eyes widened in disbelief. There were really all kinds of people in the world.
“How old are these children?” Qiao Mei asked.
“The oldest is twelve years old and the youngest is four years old. They must be eating at someone’s house at this hour. The family doesn’t care about these children’s meals at all,” Xia Fang said.
When Qiao Mei heard this, she was so scared that she did not know what to do. She liked children and had four younger siblings at home, but she did not think that she could handle these children.
“I’m definitely going to go shopping and not stay at home tomorrow. I can’t let them grab hold of me,” Qiao Mei said fearfully.
Taking care of someone else’s children was a very difficult task. It was fine if the children were sensible and obedient, but if the children were unreasonable brats, the carer could not beat them nor scold them. Otherwise, it would become the carer’s fault.
That would really be very infuriating.
“Do you know the way? Will you get lost?” Xia Fang asked worriedly.
Qiao Mei took the paper and pen beside her and drew a map on it. She studied in the capital in her other life. Even though she had not been to all the areas and there might be some deviations in the map she drew, the general route should be correct.
“How did you know this?” Xia Fang looked at Qiao Mei’s map in surprise. The route she drew was quite accurate.
“Ah… I… I bought the newspaper. I saw it in the newspaper,” Qiao Mei said with a smile.
Xia Fang was a little surprised when she saw the words written on the hand drawn map. She remembered that the information she received previously stated that Qiao Mei had never gone to school and did not have much of an education.
However, looking at the handwriting on the paper, although the words were not very good-looking, they did have some character to them.
