1706 Do You Have a Brother

There was a pot of wildflowers in the west room. When Qiao Mei first came to this courtyard, she saw a few wildflowers in bloom near the door, so she repotted a few and put them in the house to add some vibrancy to the living area.

If she planted precious flowers and plants like camellias in this place, she did not know what others would say about her. The matter of the ginseng juice was already very high profile. In addition, the factory operations were in full swing recently, so Qiao Mei did not want to complicate matters and do anything to stand out.

However, Qiao Mei realized that the mountain behind her house was a very good place. When there was time, she could find a cave to use as her secret base to cultivate these plants.

She still had a luminous pearl back at home! She wondered how it was doing after soaking in the ginseng juice. When the time was right, she would go home and study it to see if it had any other abilities.

Qiao Mei observed Miao Le's every move through the wildflowers in the west room. As long as she did anything wrong, Qiao Mei would immediately be able to see it and catch her red-handed.

As usual, Miao Le ate the steamed egg and only fed Zhuang Zhuang the mushy vegetables. She knew that as long as he continued to be so thin and weak, Qiao Mei would always take them in.

She had heard that Qiao Mei even gave everyone in the vicinity some fabric yesterday! It was good fabric bought from the capital. Since those women chatted with Qiao Mei every day, Miao Le thought that if she stayed at Qiao Mei's side every day, she might be able to get some benefits as well. She could get some stuff for her dowry!

This was Miao Le's first time in the west room. Qiao Mei kept all the things that she did not usually use in the west room, as well as some gifts from her relatives and friends for her children. All the things were new and unused!

Zhuang Zhuang climbed into the pile of gifted toys and unboxed most of them to play with. Miao Le also secretly helped to open some of the gifts and the two of them had a lot of fun. If Qiao Mei were to ask Miao Le about it later, she already had an excuse ready. It was not uncommon for a child to be disruptive if one took an eye off the child for a moment. Qiao Mei could not possibly beat the two of them to death.

Qiao Mei did not really care. Those were things which Xia Fan and Xia Xing did not like. However, just because her children did not like those things did not mean that just anyone could play with them.

She made a note to remember this debt and to make Miao Le pay for it sooner or later. Within the next two days, she would make Miao Le pay the price for it.

"Hey~ Is anyone home? We're delivering piglets!" someone shouted from the door.

Qiao Mei rushed out of the backyard and said, "I'm here! I'll have to trouble you to help me put them in the pigsty in the backyard. I'm pregnant and it's not convenient for me to catch them. Just quote me a price for the service."

"There's no need to stand on such ceremony! You're considered our big client. It's just a matter of taking a few more steps! We'll do it for free! Tell me where you want them and my guys and I will bring them there for you," the shopkeeper said.

At the moment, the economy was not doing too well and most people had no money. Some people even had problems providing for their families. It was even more difficult for people running a business of buying and selling livestock. Fortunately, they still had a collaboration with the supply and marketing cooperative. However, they had heard that the supply and marketing cooperative was also going to raise their own livestock, so their lives were probably going to be even more difficult in the future.

"Thank you, Big Brother." Qiao Mei smiled as she stood at the side and looked at these young animals. In a few months, these animals would grow fat! Qiao Mei wanted to drool just thinking about it.

When Miao Le heard the commotion, she also came out to take a look. This was the first time she had seen so much livestock. Just feeding these livestock would require a lot of food. Qiao Mei's family must be very rich! Miao Le became even more curious about Qiao Mei and Xia Zhe.

"Sister-in-law, does Big Brother agree with you bringing back so much livestock?" Miao Le asked curiously.

"I have the final say in our family. He lets me do everything I want," Qiao Mei replied with a smile.

Miao Le remained silent. In this era, the heads of the families were usually the men and there were very few women in charge. The fact that Qiao Mei had such confidence proved that Xia Zhe doted on her very much.

Miao Le kept staring at Qiao Mei without saying anything. Qiao Mei could not help but say, "You… You want to say something?"

"Sister-in-law, does Big Brother have any other brothers at home?" Miao Le asked shyly.

Qiao Mei heaved a sigh of relief. She had thought that Miao Le had taken a fancy to Xia Zhe, but Miao Le was actually eyeing the other men in the Xia family. Miao Le could be considered a smart person, at least a little smarter than Qiao Yu in this aspect.

"He has an elder brother and an elder sister. There's no one else," Qiao Mei replied honestly.

One could find out these things with very minimal investigation. There was no need for Qiao Mei to lie to Miao Le.