1240 What Sort of Present to Give

“You have to control this money-grubbing wife of yours! If anything happens again, I’m not going to clean up your mess for you! When the time comes, you guys can deal with it yourselves!” Xia Wen said threateningly.

“Don’t say that, Eldest Brother. If you don’t care about us, then who else will? I won’t buy anymore! No more! I’ll listen to your advice,” Qiao Mei said with a grin.

What Xia Wen said was for their own good. If Qiao Mei was so poor now that she and Xia Zhe could only afford to live in a tiny house, perhaps the Zhou family would still give Qiao Mei some money out of pity for her! They would not be eyeing her assets covetously.

“If they come and act pitiful to you about being poor, don’t sing a different tune from me. I’ve already stated our family’s stand boldly and clearly just now. We won’t lend them anything no matter what, be it manpower, material items or financial resources. You can’t say yes to them no matter what they say,” Xia Wen said seriously.

“I promise to complete the mission! I definitely won’t embarrass you!” Qiao Mei saluted Xia Wen briskly. Her hand gesture was not up to standard at all and her posture was like that of a primary school student. Perhaps a primary school student might be able to salute better than Qiao Mei.

With a playful person like Qiao Mei around, their lives would only become more interesting in the future. Xu Lan hired two more helpers, Wan Wen and Xu Kang. Wan Wen was introduced by Xu Lan’s friend while Xu Kang was Xu Lan’s relative and a loyal and honest person.

She planned to let Xu Kang take care of Qiao Mei at the same monthly salary which Wei Hao used to get. The salary need not be a lot since Xu Kang was only expected to do the cleaning up in the house. It was still Feng Hua’s job to take care of Qiao Mei and everything else.

Most importantly, Xu Kang was a relative, so Xu Lan did not have to worry about the trivialities. Moreover, Xu Kang’s family was quite well-to-do. She was only working as a helper just to pass time and she was willing to take on this job.

No one knew what Xia He was busy with for the past two days, but she seemed uneasy every day. She kept opening her purse to count the money inside and she also kept staring at the television. She did not change the channels for an entire day and would just watch the programs from the start to the end. From time to time, she would flip the newspaper to read the latest news. In the past, Xia He had never cared about these things.

“What have you been so busy with recently? Why do you seem so uneasy every day?” Qiao Mei asked curiously.

“Qiao Mei… if you want to buy a gift for Xia Zhe, what will you choose?” Xia He asked shyly.

“What will I choose… I’ll probably buy shoes or a watch or a belt, something like that. I’ll probably look at such things. Besides, the two of us have already been married for a long time. We buy gifts more for practical reasons and less about being romantic,” Qiao Mei said.

Qiao Mei was not really a romantic person at heart. In Qiao Mei’s eyes, making clothes for Xia Zhe personally was probably the most romantic thing she could do. When she looked at Xia Zhe wearing her handmade clothes from head to toe, she would feel a great sense of accomplishment!

Xia He immediately looked worried. She did not have Qiao Mei’s handicraft skills and would fail at anything she tried to make. If she bought a belt, she wondered if she might be seen as being too ambiguous, like she was trying too hard.

“Why are you asking me this question?” Qiao Mei asked.

“Oh! It’s… it’s Deng Fan’s birthday soon. I don’t know what to get for him,” Xia He whispered.

“Aren’t both of you dancers? Just give him dance shoes!” Qiao Mei said.

Xia He immediately rejected the idea and said, “Absolutely not! For us, our dance shoes are custom-made according to the shape and size of our feet. We can’t give them as gifts too flippantly as it may cause injuries.”

This was the first time Qiao Mei had heard such a thing. After all, in her other life, she did not know much about dancing, so it was normal for her not to understand anything about it.

Qiao Mei felt unsure for a moment. It was easy to buy a gift for a girl. A beautiful dress could make a girl happy for a long time. Perhaps Xia Zhe would know what would be an appropriate gift for a boy.

“Qiao Mei, can you go shopping with me today?” Xia He asked as she looked at Qiao Mei expectantly.

Given that the families of the Xia family’s second and third sons were all gathered in the capital recently, everyone left the house early and returned late every day. Even though they lived in the capital, their house was located in the outskirts. They rarely traveled to the city center, so whenever they had a chance to do so, they would definitely take their time to walk around.