Qiao Mei could not stop smiling when she thought of all these. It seemed that Xia Zhe would have a hard time in the future!
Qiao Mei had observed Xu Lan carefully. Although she looked cold and heartless and did not like Qiao Mei, she maintained her decorum and did not make things difficult for Qiao Mei.
Perhaps it was because Qiao Mei had been hiding away in the courtyard house and did not have much chance to interact with Xu Lan, or perhaps Xu Lan could tell that Xia Zhe cared a lot about Qiao Mei and did not dare to do anything to her, or perhaps Xu Lan just did not know what it meant to put someone in a difficult position.
Qiao Mei realized that although Xu Lan was arrogant, she was very simple-minded. In addition, Qiao Mei did not know what it was like for a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law to have a conflict, nor did she try to pick a fight, so they did not quarrel.
During the few times they met, Xu Lan mostly ignored Qiao Mei and chose to sit quietly at the side to do her own things.
This trick might work on a daughter-in-law like Tan Jing, but it was useless on someone like Qiao Mei.
“Alright, it’s not right for us to hide here. What if Second Aunt-in-law makes things difficult for elder sister again? Let’s go into the house.” Qiao Mei pulled Xia Zhe back into the house.
After exchanging a few pleasantries, everyone returned to their rooms.
Early the next morning, Qiao Mei and Xia Zhe left the house to supervise the work at the courtyard house. As soon as they entered, they saw Xia Wen looking at the ground around him with a frown.
“Elder brother, what’s wrong?” Xia Zhe asked.
“Look, all these spots showed signs of being touched. You’re not bad, kid. You hid it quite well and no one discovered anything,” Xia Wen sighed as he looked at the freshly filled pits in the ground.
Xia Zhe did not say anything, but he also found it strange. Even though he had hidden everything away, it had been so many days and there were so many people involved, but nothing had been dug up yet.
Were they not diligent enough, or did he hide it too well?
Xia Wen glanced at Qiao Mei, who was beside Xia Zhe, and said, “Leave this place to me. You can show my sister-in-law around town. You haven’t been to any fun places yet, right?”
Qiao Mei smiled and said, “Aunt brought me out before.”
Qiao Mei looked at Xia Zhe and thought for a moment before saying, “I want to go to the nursery and buy some fruit tree saplings and vegetable seedlings for the backyard.”
These were things that Xia Wen and Xia Zhe did not know how to do. Qiao Mei could only rely on herself to choose these things.
Xia Zhe thought for a moment and said, “I’ll bring you there in a while.”
He turned around and said to Xia Wen, “I beat up Kong Lu.”
Before Xia Wen left yesterday, he already knew that Xia Zhe would not be able to resist the urge to beat the man up.
“Did you hit his face?” Xia Wen asked casually.
They were indeed biological brothers given that they even think the same way.
“No,” Xia Zhe said.
“Then all good. So what does Xiao He want to do now? Does she want to go back with him?” Xia Wen asked.
Xia Zhe shook his head and said, “She wants a divorce now.”
Xia Wen was shocked. He had thought that they only needed to teach Kong Lu a lesson so that he would be more mindful in the future and not let Xia He suffer anymore. He did not expect them to have already reached the point of getting a divorce.
“Tell elder brother about elder sister’s life these past few years. Elder sister has told Qiao Mei everything,” Xia Zhe said as he looked at Qiao Mei.
This was something that he had found to be strange as well. Qiao Mei had clearly just married into the family, but his elder sister seemed to hit it off with Qiao Mei immediately. She did not say much to her own brothers but went to confide in Qiao Mei instead.
Xia He had indeed told Qiao Mei some stories about the Kong family, but not everything.
“That Kong Lu really doesn’t treat elder sister well at all!”
“Elder sister not only has to buy things for her own household with Kong Lu, but she also needs to buy things for Kong Lu’s brothers. Just sewing machines, television sets and refrigerators, she already had to buy three or four each!”
“Sometimes, the Kong brothers’ neighbors will ask them for things. If they can’t fulfill the requests, they will ask elder sister to do it!”
“And…”
Qiao Mei exaggerated a lot of things, making the two brothers so angry that the veins on their foreheads bulged out. They got so worked up that they wanted to beat Kong Lu up again to vent their anger.
When Xia He first mentioned all these things she was going through, Second Aunt-in-law had said that everyone lived like this and even wondered out loud why Xia He was so melodramatic and delicate. None of them took time out to ask her about her hardships.
