1221 All the Relatives
Not long after, the Xia family heard from Xia Mao about what happened. He did not mercilessly send the Tan brothers to jail. Instead, he made Tan Hu and Tan Bao confess their crime and sign off on the statements.

With these two documents, the Xia family could now exert control over the Tan family. In the future, the Tan family would not dare to behave so arrogantly anymore and keep coming round to disturb the Xia family’s peace. It turned out to be a good ending in the end.

Xia Mao even specially approved a bonus sum for Xiao An and told him to bring all the guys who were on duty that night for drinks. It was a small gesture from the Xia family to express their gratitude.

After the Tan family was quelled, the Xia family was immediately busy with something else. It was almost time for the one-month-old celebration for Xia Fan and Xia Xing. All the Xia family’s relatives would be coming back and the entire house would be full of people!

Xu Lan and Liu Fen were busy with the shopping and marketing, so the children were fully left in Feng Hua’s care. The two children were quite obedient and sensible, so Feng Hua did not have to expend much effort on them. However, she still had to change and wash the children’s diapers every day, feed them powdered milk and handwash their clothes. All these minor tasks were enough to keep Feng Hua busy all day long.
With the help, Qiao Mei and Xia Zhe were able to focus on the matters relating to the events on the day of the one-month-old celebration. For the meal alone, there were 18 main dishes and two cold dishes to coordinate. They also had to go to the supply and marketing cooperative to pre-order items from the Xia family’s entitlement. If they went on the day itself, they would not be able to get everything they needed.

Most of the dishes could be ordered from the state-owned restaurant outside, but they still had to make a few dishes at home. Otherwise, it did not make sense at all. If all the dishes were ordered from the state-owned restaurant, then they might as well host the meal at the state-owned restaurant! It would be a waste of effort to ask the restaurant staff to send all the dishes to their house.

Soon, the day of the one-month-old celebration arrived. Qiao Mei chose to wear a dark blue A-line dress. The style was simple and elegant, but the phoenix embroidered on the hem looked very lifelike. It had taken Qiao Mei more than a month to make this dress, specially for the purpose of welcoming the esteemed guests!

Xu Lan also wore clothes which Qiao Mei had made for her. She wanted all the relatives to take a good look at how skilful Qiao Mei was, so that everyone knew she had such a good daughter-in-law!

Xia Yao and Xia Guang would not be coming back for the event. After all, the two of them had just taken their vacation leave. Unless the occasion involved their own grandchildren being born, the army would not grant them any additional leave.

In addition, Xia Guang was situated far away in the border province and the trip back was not an easy one. There was no need for him to take the trouble to travel to and forth.

However, their children would be coming back for the event. This would be Qiao Mei’s first time meeting these people!

Xia Yao and Liu Fen had a total of four children. Their two daughters were Xia Wan and Xia You. They had not been home for many years, not even to Liu Fen’s place. The only reason why they were coming back was to take a look at Xia Zhe’s wife. They wanted to see the legendary person who was able to drive Zhou Hua away from the family.

This time, Xia Yu had brought his wife, Yun Lan, with him. They had just gotten married but had not held their wedding ceremony yet. It was inconvenient to hold a banquet now as the weather was too cold. They intended to do it during springtime.

Xia Guang’s children were also coming. This time, Xia Xing would also be bringing his girlfriend, Shao Yin, to the Xia family residence. Even Zhou Hua had only met this girl a few times! Xia Guang had never met her before, so he did not know what Xia Xing was up to this time. Why was Xia Xing bringing this girl to such an important banquet at the Xia family residence?

Xia Guang’s other two sons, Xia Zhu and Xia Yan, were still in university. Everyone heard that they had made some achievements in scientific research and it appeared that their futures were going to be bright.

A large group of people flocked into the house. Qiao Mei stood uneasily at the door and listened as Xia Zhe introduced these relatives one by one. Qiao Mei tried her best to remember everyone’s names. Although her memory was not too bad, it was still a little difficult to remember the names of so many new faces. She could only try to identify these people through their clothes and any special features.

Back then, the relatives had all heard rumors that Qiao Mei was a fatty weighing more than 200 pounds and was also a dowdy village girl. However, after meeting her in person today, they found that she was completely different from what they had heard!

At a glance, she looked like a pampered young lady from a wealthy family. Looking at her temperament and poise, how could she be from the countryside? Could it be that Xia Zhe had remarried someone else within such a short period of time?

However, given the Xia family motto, Xia Zhe would not dare to do this. Could it be that someone had deliberately spread rumors within the Xia family? Everyone stood rooted to the spot and stared at Qiao Mei.