1208 Thief
“Mei Mei isn’t up yet?” Xu Lan asked softly.

“Yes, do you want me to wake her up now?” Xia Zhe said.

“Don’t! How about this, I’ll get the chauffeur to send Uncle Qiao and your grandfather back to Qiao Mei’s place to stay for a while. Your grandfather says that he wants to stay with Uncle Qiao for a while more. Since the nanny is already here, she can also come along. Your second aunt-in-law and I will bring the two children and all this mess back to our house first. You just wait here for Qiao Mei to get up,” Xu Lan said.
This way, not only did it not disturb Qiao Mei’s sleep, but it also would not disrupt the two old men’s game of chess and chitchat. It would also allow the children to go home first to get familiarized with the new living environment. Moreover, it would also give Xia Zhe and Qiao Mei a lot of couple time!

This was the best arrangement!

It was only after everyone left that Qiao Mei gradually woke up. When she opened her eyes, the entire room was empty except for her bed.

“Did… a thief come in?” Qiao Mei asked as she blinked her big eyes.

“Do you think a thief will let you off? Are all those things more valuable than kidnapping you?” Xia Zhe said with a laugh.

“Oh no! Then Mother and Second Aunt-in-law must have seen me sleeping in! I hope they didn’t complain about me!” Qiao Mei asked as she looked at Xia Zhe nervously.

Given Liu Fen’s character, she would usually nag when she saw Qiao Mei sleeping in until late in the morning. How would she give up such a good opportunity now that Qiao Mei was getting discharged from the hospital today?

Qiao Mei had completely underestimated her current status in the Xia family. Even if she wanted to go home in the same car as Xia Jun, he would be more than willing to do so. Even if she asked the Xia family to buy her a big house, the Xia family would sell all their assets to do it for her.

Xia Zhe packed up the rest of the things and left the hospital with Qiao Mei, headed for Xu Lan’s place. Until Qiao Mei could cope with taking care of the two children alone, they would all stay at Xu Lan’s place.

Although Qiao Mei’s room had proper flooring and floor tiles, the courtyard was filled with limestone bricks. There was soil all around and it was not very clean. To prepare for Qiao Mei coming over to stay, Xu Lan had even specially hired people to wrap the railings on the second floor with yarn as well as to weave it into netting to cover the gaps in the middle. This was to prevent the children from climbing over and falling through the gaps.

As long as it was a hidden danger that Xu Lan could think of, she would do everything she could to address it. When one entered the Xia family residence now, one would feel that it looked like a kindergarten and no longer looked as grand as before.

“Wow, the yarn is even weaved into patterns! How long did it take to do this!” Qiao Mei looked up at the railings on the second floor in surprise.

“Not too long. I hired many master craftsmen, so everything was finished in a couple of days. Do you like it?” Xu Lan asked expectantly.

“I like it! Thank you for your hard work, Mother,” Qiao Mei said with a sweet smile as she held Xu Lan’s hands.

Xia He came speeding down the stairs and handed Qiao Mei two red boxes. She held back her joy and said, “Take a look and see if you like them. If you don’t, there’s nothing I can do. I can’t go back and exchange them anyway.”

When Qiao Mei opened the boxes, she saw a gold lock and a silver lock with the names of the two children engraved on them. The silver lock was for the boy while the gold lock was for the girl.

“Why do the two children get different items?” Qiao Mei asked curiously. She did not have any ill intent when saying that, she was just curious why they did not both get gold locks or silver locks.

“Our custom here is that boys can’t be brought up to be too pampered, so I just buy a simple silver lock for Xia Fan in order to make him work hard. As for the girl, we have to give her the best things. The gold lock is meant to represent that she will be able to live a worry-free life. I waited until the two children were named before I asked the master to make the locks for me. It’s not too late to give them to you now,” Xia He said.

“Thank you, elder sister~ I know you care for the children a lot!” Qiao Mei said sweetly.

“Eh~ Just behave normally. Don’t disgust me by behaving like this. I’m not used to it. It’s just two locks. It’s not a big deal,” Xia He said disdainfully.

Xia Wen still had work to do today and he could not come back for the family reunion, so he asked his secretary to send his gifts home first. It was similar to Xia He’s gifts. He gave two lockets, one gold and one silver, which were much smaller than the ones Xia He prepared. These were used to make anklets for children. It seemed that this was really the local custom for boys to receive silver locks and girls to receive gold locks. Even Xia Wen also prepared the gifts in the same way.