1051 Stealing Money



Early the next morning, Xia Jun's long-time chauffeur came to look for Xia Wen with the money he had retrieved from Zhou Hua's younger brother. Xia Wen had specially taken the day off today to deal with this matter.

After the chauffeur entered the house, he opened the money bag in front of Tan Jing and Xia Wen. There was a total of 50,000 dollars. Tan Jing had never seen so much money in her life. If not for the fact that the chauffeur was around, she would have immediately pounced on the money bag.

"The entire sum is here. Zhou Hua's younger brother has informed me that there is 1,000 dollars missing. He couldn't help himself and had spent the money. Old Master Xia has already made up for the shortfall so there's exactly 50,000 dollars here," the chauffeur said earnestly.

Xia Wen nodded. Since Xia Jun had already counted the money, he would not need to do it again. He gave the chauffeur a few simple instructions and told him to go home and rest. After all, the chauffeur was the one investigating this matter in another city all this while and had also stayed up all night so that he could rush back.

After the chauffeur left, Tan Jing immediately leaped forward to take out all the money from the bag and started counting the notes.

"What are you doing?" Xia Wen asked with a frown.

"Erm… I'm helping you to count the money. What if that chauffeur had stolen some?" Tan Jing said awkwardly.

Xia Wen shook his head helplessly. He did not want to have any conflict with Tan Jing at the moment. So many things had happened in the past two days that he could barely breathe. There were things that he preferred not to deal with for now.

He walked into the bathroom to take a shower. It was very late when he came home last night and he had gone to bed without washing up properly. He could not go out looking so sloppy.

After getting his things ready and dressing up neatly, Xia Wen set off with the money bag. He had planned his journey such that he would arrive at Qiao Mei's house at lunchtime.

"Oh my, what brings our eldest brother here today?" Qiao Mei said with a smile as she sat in the long corridor at the courtyard.

"It's my appetite that has brought me here. I hope you don't mind adding an extra pair of chopsticks." Although Xia Wen spoke politely, his actions told a different story. He had already entered the house and taken off his coat.

He was banking on the fact that Qiao Mei definitely would not ask him to put back his coat and leave with all his things. That would be too inhumane of her.

"The food won't be ready for another half an hour. Come and sit here for a while," Qiao Mei said as she patted the chair beside her.

Xia Wen wanted to get the main issue out of the way first. He took the money bag, placed it on the table, unzipped it and took out all the money. However, the moment he emptied the bag, he realized that there was something wrong. One of the money bundles clearly held less notes than the rest.

Qiao Mei was not a person who paid attention to such things. She did not notice if there was too much or too little money. In fact, she did not even know what Xia Wen was doing.

"Where is the money from?" Qiao Mei asked curiously.

Coincidentally, Xia He just arrived at the main hall. As soon as she entered, she saw the table full of money and was so shocked that she hurriedly closed the main door, worried that the people outside could see it.

"Oh my goodness, what are you doing with so much money in broad daylight? Where did all this money come from? Is this money from legit sources?" Xia He asked fearfully.

"This is the 50,000 dollars which Third Aunt-in-law took from He Ning. Grandfather located the money yesterday, so I'm now here to repay the debt," Xia Wen said with a dark expression.

Xia He looked at the money on the table excitedly, picked up a bundle and said, "Did Third Aunt-in-law succumb to her conscience? But that's not possible. She's willing to give up anything for this money, so there's no way she'll take the initiative to hand it over. And to grandfather no less."

"Third Uncle and Third Aunt-in-law are getting a divorce. Anyway, it's a long story. The thing is that there's a new problem now." Xia Wen tapped the smaller bundle of money and said, "This bundle of money is lesser than the rest. Tan Jing must have taken some."

He realized that he had put too much trust in Tan Jing. He originally thought that Tan Jing was just curious about the money, but he did not expect her to be so covetous. This was something unforgivable.

"How can you be so sure that it's Eldest Sister-in-law? Have you counted the money personally?" Qiao Mei asked.

Xia Wen was stunned for a moment. Indeed, he did not check on the amount after receiving it, but that chauffeur had worked for the Xia family for more than 10 years. There was no way he would betray them. Furthermore, at that time, the chauffeur had even taken the initiative to report that Xia Jun had made up for the shortfall of the missing 1,000 dollars. If he was the one who stole the money, he would not be so stupid to do this.