848 Whose Birthday Is It
The next day, everyone still went over to Li Gui’s house for a meal. However, Li Gui did not have to cook this time round. Xia He and Qiao Mei went to the state-owned restaurant located outside the alley early in the day to order a whole table of dishes and arranged for the food to be delivered.
It was too difficult for the two of them to carry so many things, so they might as well spend an extra two dollars and have the restaurant send it over.
Not everyone could enjoy such treatment. There were guidelines to follow when ordering food at a state-owned restaurant. People who could order food at these restaurants were either rich or from prominent families. There were rules on the types of fish, meat and vegetables that one could order. The private rooms were also not places that ordinary people could go to.
This meal might help to settle everyone’s nerves after the traumatic event yesterday.
“Xiao Wei, Xiao Qin! Go and wake the other two!” Qiao Mei shouted as she entered the courtyard.
Zhang Miao had recovered quite well during this period of time. In the afternoon, Qiao Qiang would always bring Zhang Chao and Zhang Miao along when he went for his walk. The two children could now run and jump, but Zhang Miao still limped a little when she ran. After all, she had to lie down for such a long time and was still not used to running all of a sudden.
After coming to the capital, Zhang Chao’s personality gradually became more cheerful and he could talk and laugh with everyone. Although he was still a little afraid to see strangers, there were already a lot of improvements.
“These two children still like to laze in bed as usual,” Xia He said with a laugh.
Zhang Wei and Xia He cleaned the table and set up the cutlery. Soon, the people from the state-owned restaurant delivered the food. The 12 dishes filled the table to the brim. Anyone who did not know better would think that they were celebrating the new year!
Zhang Miao came out of the room in a hurry and almost fell down when she walked out.
“Slow down, slow down! This child is really…” Li Gui smiled helplessly.
“Wow! There’s so much delicious food! Is it someone’s birthday today?” Zhang Miao said happily.
Qiao Mei sat on the stool and said, “Your elder sister Xia He paid for everything today. You have to thank her properly.”
Zhang Miao walked up to Xia He obediently and held her hands together as she said, “Best wishes! Happy birthday to elder sister Xia He! I hope you’ll be as beautiful every day in the future as you are now~”
Xia He laughed out loud when she heard what Zhang Miao said. This was the first time she had seen such a sweet-talking child! She liked it very much!
“You’re such a sweet-talker, but it’s not my birthday today. I just feel like eating this today,” Xia He said with a smile.
“Can you eat it whenever you feel like it! Then if I want to eat it in the future, can I eat it too!” Zhang Miao asked curiously.
Qiao Mei called Zhang Miao to her side and said, “Aren’t you all earning money with mom now? All of you have money that you earned yourself.”
“Yes,” Zhang Miao replied.
“So as long as you have enough money to buy what you like, you can just buy it. If you don’t have enough money, you can save up for it. If you like something and you think it’s a necessity which you need every day, then you can come back and look for elder sister. Elder sister will help you think of a way,” Qiao Mei said.
Zhang Miao nodded, not fully understanding what she heard. There were indeed things that she liked and things that she did not like, but when she was in the Zhang family in the past, they would scold her for that.
They would say that she was daydreaming and that everything good had to be given to Zhang Qian and Zhang Cong first. The girls could not monopolize anything, nor could they have anything they liked. Otherwise, they would get beaten up.
Things were so much better now! She could buy whatever she liked!
“Alright! I understand!” Zhang Miao said happily.
The family gathered together and ate happily. After the meal, Qiao Mei found a reason for Qiao Qiang to bring the four children out to play. The rest of them wanted to discuss something at home and she also did not want Qiao Qiang to worry about what happened yesterday.
As she watched Qiao Qiang leave, Qiao Mei suddenly had the urge to buy two walnut palm massagers for Qiao Qiang to play with. Qiao Qiang did not want to have pets. Grandpa Zhou from next door mentioned that he wanted to give Qiao Qiang one of his pet birds. Qiao Qiang was so scared by the idea that he did not go to look for Grandpa Zhou for two days.
He was a careless man and could not take good care of these little animals. Every time, he would use this as an excuse to reject the idea of having pets. However, he had raised Qiao Mei on his own and she was brought up so well and beautiful.
Actually, this old man was just afraid of trouble!
It was best to just buy two walnut palm massagers for him to play with. Not only could it relieve his boredom, but they looked nice as well. It was like killing two birds with one stone.
After clearing up, Xia He told Li Gui about what happened to Qiao Mei at the new house yesterday. She did not go into too much detail, worried that Li Gui would be afraid.
