Xu Lan walked behind Xia Fang and reached out to put her hand on Xia Fang’s shoulder as if she was grumbling. “Regarding this matter, you’re not the only one. Your eldest brother and I had wanted to go and stay in that house for a couple of days as we thought that it’s not good for the house to remain empty. We thought we could bring some warmth to the house with some human activity, but Xiao Fang came up with all sorts of reasons to stop us from going there.”
Xia Fang smiled and took a sip of liquor. She did not want to get involved in this matter and only wanted to watch her Third Sister-in-law and Eldest Sister-in-law fight it out.
“It’s not that I don’t want to allow Eldest Sister-in-law to live there. It’s just that it was my mother’s last wish to leave the house to Xia Zhe. Even if my father’s here, he will agree that it’s a fact that no one can change,” Xia Fang said.
Zhou Hua glared at Xia Fang. The old lady was already dead. How could her words be equivalent to an imperial edict? Xia Fang was just trying to play the fool. It was not as if a dead person could know who eventually ended up with the house.
“Let’s not talk about who she intended the house for. If Xia Zhe has the keys to the house, then it belongs to him now. In that case, he can give it to whoever he wants. Whatever his grandmother said belongs in the past. If this house must always belong to him, then what will happen if Xia Zhe dies one day? Who will get this house? The government?” Zhou Hua tried to reason with Xu Lan.
Qiao Mei was furious when she heard this. This woman had just cursed Xia Zhe to die quickly!
Qiao Mei was about to refute Zhou Hua when Xia Zhe calmed her down. Xia Zhe turned to Zhou Hua and said, “Third Aunt-in-law also said that the house is mine now, so I have the final say. As for whether I die or not, you can talk about it after I die. Qiao Mei and I are living in that house now. The backyard part that the Cao family used to occupy was bought by Qiao Mei’s grandfather. It has nothing to do with our Xia family whether he lives there or not. Even if he wants to leave it empty, it is entirely up to him.”
At this moment, Zhou Hua looked at Qiao Mei. Since Xia Zhe put it across like that, it would be possible for them to live in the part of the house that the Cao family returned as long as Qiao Mei agreed to it.
Qiao Mei knew what Zhou Hua was planning and rejected her directly, saying, “Third Aunt-in-law, my grandfather has the final say in that part of the house, not me. I still have four siblings at home, as well as my mother and grandfather. If my grandfather is kind enough to bring the entire big family over, it’s also not something I can control. What I say doesn’t count. How about you go and ask my grandfather?”
Qiao Mei looked at Zhou Hua with a wide grin. Zhou Hua was so angry that she did not know what to say. How was she supposed to ask Qiao Mei’s grandfather? Was she supposed to go to the countryside to look for him?
Furthermore, her own nephew did not allow her to stay in his house, so why would Qiao Mei’s grandfather help her? It would be embarrassing for her to go asking him for a house when they were not even remotely related.
“Young girl, I really don’t expect you to have such a sharp tongue!!” Zhou Hua said as she glared at Qiao Mei.
“I think my daughter-in-law is very demure. Why would you say that she has a sharp tongue? I think she’s too kind-hearted. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be getting bullied,” Xu Lan said to Zhou Hua.
Although she did not like Qiao Mei, she could not let others say bad things about her daughter-in-law. As Qiao Mei’s mother-in-law, she had not made any remark on this matter, so it was out of line for anyone else to say anything. She thought that Zhou Hua was being too disrespectful to her.
“Mother, we’re going home. Otherwise, it will be too inconvenient when it gets late,” Xia Zhe informed Xu Lan as he prepared to leave with Qiao Mei.
“I’ll walk with you. Your sister-in-law and I are going back too.” Xia Wen took his jacket and followed them with Tan Jing.
“Mother, we’re leaving too. We’ll come back another day.” Tan Jing bowed gently and followed Xia Wen.
In the blink of an eye, everyone left. Xu Lan sat down for a rest in the chair that Xia Zhe just vacated.
“Eldest Sister-in-law, we just want to stay at Xia Zhe’s house for a couple of days as a temporary measure. We don’t mean to stay there forever. It’s all a misunderstanding, Eldest Sister-in-law,” Zhou Hua said.
“If you need a place to stay for a couple of days, you can just find a guest house. Or could it be that Third Brother has been short of money recently? If that’s the case, you should have said so earlier. I’ll get Xia Mao to send some money to your Xia Guang. Then when he comes back, he’ll have a place to stay. What do you think?” Xu Lan said with a smile.
Zhou Hua knew that it was an insinuation that she was poor and had no money! She felt angry and aggrieved. Her intention was to move into the old house, but she did not expect to be scolded by everyone in the eldest brother’s family. What right did they have to treat her like this!
