1475 Buying Antiques
Qiao Mei received the down payments one after another. She looked at all the money and felt a little worried. Although she had space to keep the money in her courtyard house, there were too many people coming and going at her place every day. If He Ning saw this, it would also give him a reason to make a fuss.

In the end, Qiao Mei put all the money at Xu Lan’s house, which meant that Xia Mao and Xu Lan had to guard a pile of money at home every day. Even though the two of them had been through all kinds of experiences in life, they also could not help but feel a little afraid.

“Qiao Mei… are you sure you want to keep so much money at home?” Xia Mao asked as he pointed at the study.

“I’ll just leave it here for the time being. If we deposit everything into the bank, I’m worried that it will attract the attention of the higher-ups. There are still procedures at the bank that have yet to be approved,” Qiao Mei said resignedly.

“Sigh… Mei Mei, you don’t know this, but your father seems a little crazy these past few days. In the middle of the night, he keeps checking to see if the money is still there. Sometimes, he even sits down to count the money. I’m so worried that he’ll go mad,” Xu Lan pulled Qiao Mei aside and whispered.

After thinking about it, Qiao Mei felt that it was not a good idea to just leave it around like this. She should spend the money, but how was she supposed to spend 200,000 dollars? Furthermore, it was not only the 200,000 dollars in the house. Not long ago, He Ning also suddenly decided to return all the money he owed her.

Qiao Mei had tabulated that after excluding the coins in her collection, the remaining cash added up to a total of 1.1 million dollars!

“I should buy something and spend all this money!” Qiao Mei said.

“Are you thinking of buying a house again?” Xia Wen asked as he stared at Qiao Mei.

Qiao Mei scratched the back of her head in embarrassment and said, “Heh, I indeed want to buy a house.”

The amount of 1.1 million dollars was enough for her to buy an entire building, not just a house. They had never seen so much money in their lives and did not even know how to spend it.

Hearing that Qiao Mei wanted to buy a house again, everyone in the Xia family lowered their heads helplessly and sighed. This was the first time in Xia Mao’s life that he needed to be worried about having too much money. When he was young, his family had even been troubled for a few months because they did not have the money to pay his tuition fees!

“Actually, I want to buy some antiques, calligraphy and paintings, or things like porcelain and jade. The more the better,” Qiao Mei said.

“Why do you want to buy these things?” Xu Lan asked curiously.

“I feel that once the turbulent times are behind us and everyone starts to live and work in peace, people will work very hard to earn money. After that, they will start to have intellectual pursuits and these things will become more and more valuable,” Qiao Mei said earnestly.

Xia Mao had exactly the same thoughts as Qiao Mei. He definitely knew the benefits of such items. Otherwise, Wu Min would not have risked her life to hide so many things under the old residence back then. He had also hidden away a lot of things himself! He had never told anyone about this, not even Xu Lan.

“That’s a very good idea, but you have so much money that you can even afford to buy the entire antique market! If someone decides to investigate further, they will find out that it’s our family buying these things and you will still have to be screened,” Xu Lan said.

“That’s not difficult. Many of my friends like such items and they will usually go around to buy these things too. We can just pass them the money and ask them to buy the items for us,” Xia Mao said.

“Really! Father, can you really do it!” Qiao Mei said excitedly.

Xia Mao could clearly feel Qiao Mei’s eyes sparkling like two bright bulbs. He nodded confidently and said, “I can still get such a small thing done.”

“Then I’ll make a list later and the uncles can just buy the items on the list! If there’s anything nice, you can give it to the uncles as a thank-you gift from our family! Oh right… it’s best to buy antiques without an owner. Otherwise, it can be very troublesome in the future,” Qiao Mei said seriously.

It was very likely that antiques with living owners would find their way back to their owners in the future. In another few years, those antiques, calligraphy and paintings which were confiscated would be returned to the original owners. However, some people in the government would make use of their positions to sell those things before that happened. Once the truth was exposed, the items would have to be returned to the owners and the buyers would have to suffer a loss.

Xia Mao and Xia Wen looked at each other and smiled. Qiao Mei was not just a money-grubber, but a knowledgeable money-grubber. In order to protect her treasures, she had all kinds of ideas!

“Alright, don’t worry. Leave this matter to me. I have already asked Luo Yu to arrange for 10 people from the guard team to stay near your place to protect you,” Xia Mao said.