1016 No Longer Dominating
"Eldest brother, is there still no news of Xia Zhe recently?" Qiao Mei asked worriedly.
Xia Wen shook his head. He was not the only person who did not have any information at all. Many people also did not know where Xia Zhe had gone. It was probably something that was only made known to the top ranking officials. In addition, Xia Mao had also gone on a secret mission recently. It was said that the mission was very dangerous and that Xia Mao needed to be there to ensure that it was successfully completed.
No one in the family knew where Xia Mao had gone or when exactly he set off. Xu Lan was so anxious that she made a phone call to Xia Xiu, and Xia Xiu had to make use of her connections to ask around before she found out that Xia Mao had gone on a mission.
"Let's wait for a while. No news is always good news. Don't be too anxious. Xia Zhe is a very capable soldier and he will definitely be fine," Xia Wen consoled.
As it was getting late, Li Gui did not allow Xia Wen to go home on his own. On a snowy day, the roads were slippery and it also became very difficult to walk around at night. Li Gui also asked Xia Wen's driver to rest in the house for the night. The two men slept in the rooms which belonged to Zhang Wei and Zhang Chao while the two boys went to bunk with Qiao Qiang.
The next morning, Qiao Yu made her way out of Li Gui's house. She wanted to return to the room that was rented from the salvager and to move all her things out from there. Actually, nothing there belonged to her, but she had hidden a portion of the money and coupons which Su Liang had given her during this period of time. She had kept them as a backup plan in case of emergencies in the future, but she did not expect the situation to have turned out like this.
Old Madam Fan and Su Yang sat at the door of their house to have breakfast. Things were different for them at the moment. For some reason, the factory management had heard about Su Yang being sent to prison for a few days. In the past, they did not see it as a big deal even when Su Yang got into fights, but this time, he had violated a taboo and he ended up being fired from the factory.
Currently, the family's only source of income was Old Madam Fan's retirement pension. It was only about 20 dollars a month and was barely enough for the two of them to buy food. It was impossible for them to repay Su Li her money.
"Hey! You probably haven't heard! The Su family's fourth son is in jail! He's been sentenced to 20 years and he will be an old man when he's released! He's not married yet and doesn't have any children. There's probably no hope for him in the future." An elderly female neighbor walked in through the neighborhood's main door with a basket of vegetables.
The neighbors were so happy that the two brothers from the Su family had gotten into trouble. From now on, Old Madam Fan no longer had any say in this area.
Old Madam Fan could no longer be so dominating.
"What's the reason?" another neighbor asked curiously.
"What else can it be! He harmed a girl from another family again. This time, Su Liang bullied Su Yang's girlfriend. Everyone is talking about this! During the night, the girl was disheveled and crying as she ran towards the northern area. She said that she has a relative living there. Do you know who her relative is?" the elderly female neighbor asked curiously.
"The northern area is where all the courtyard houses with four sections are located. Some of the houses are even occupied by only one family! There's a young married woman who's quite a nice person. Her name is… Qiao Mei! That's right! She lives alone in a big courtyard house! I heard that she was from the countryside and married into a family in the capital. She's really lucky," the other neighbor said enviously.
"They both have the surname Qiao… Can it be that the young girl's relative is Qiao Mei! Oh my! Then Su Liang is in big trouble. That's a prominent family in the capital. No wonder he is given such a heavy sentence," the elderly female neighbor lamented.
Before Old Madam Fan could say anything, Su Yang could not hold back his anger anymore. He rushed to the door and shouted across the street, "All you gossipy people will die a horrible death one day! Why do you keep harping on about other people's family matters! As if there's nothing lousy happening in your own family!"
"You can't even take care of your own wife, yet you still have the cheek to shout at us! You're already a grown man and yet you can't do anything well! Your family dares to do shameful things and yet you don't allow people to talk about it!" The elderly neighbor straightened herself up angrily with her hands on her hips and jabbed at Su Yang's face as she scolded him.
The other neighbor hurriedly stopped her, worried that Su Yang would beat the two of them up and caused them to get sent to the hospital, like what he did to the other women. His family did not have any money left after paying the bail money. If they got into a clash with the Su family now, they would not be able to get any compensation from the Su family at all.
Old Madam Fan also called out to Su Yang to get back into the house. If one was not capable, one should not go around causing trouble. He could barely afford to survive at the moment, so what right did he have to quarrel with others?
