344 Adding Insult to Injury

"That's right, that's right. Xiao Zhe is right. There are so many students and experts here. In addition, we would need to get a master artist to come and do the painting. All these would incur a fair amount of charges. Even if we can find a master artist, the end result won't be the same as before. What a pity, what a pity!" Xia Wen said and sighed.

She did not expect that there would be someone even more ruthless than her. What they had said about the works of a master artist were all nonsense. Which master artist would come to such a place to paint! Which master artist would paint on the ceiling! It was at most a master craftsman who had painted it.

Qiao Mei looked at the two brothers telling lies with a straight face and tried hard to hold back her laughter. Professor Zhu was so nervous that beads of sweat kept flowing down his face.

Qiao Mei took Professor Zhu to the side to drink some tea. She would leave the negotiation to the Xia brothers.

The Cao family members stomped their feet in anger when they heard the quote.

Old Master Cao pointed his finger at Xia Zhe's nose and scolded, "Little brat, you're taking advantage of the situation!"

"This is called adding insult to injury," Xia Zhe said as he looked at him indifferently.

The Cao family members were speechless.

"I still have experts over there. If you don't trust my experts, you can also invite those two experts from Section Chief Chu's team over here to find out how this house collapsed." Xia Zhe had no expression when he looked at the men from the Cao family.

The Cao family members immediately cowered. It was fine to talk about some things in private, but it would be hard to explain themselves if the truth was exposed. The He family could suppress all the rumors now, but if Xia Zhe blew up the whole matter, He Ning would not care about them anymore.

"My house was originally fine but it collapsed because of you. Shouldn't you reinstate it back to its original state?" Xia Zhe said as he looked at the Cao family members.

"We'll repair it, but 20,000 dollars is too much. How about we find someone to repair it for you," Cao Da looked at Xia Zhe and said hesitantly.

"I don't trust you to fix it for me. What if the house collapses again after a few days?" Xia Zhe said.

"Just 2,000 dollars. We don't have any more than that," said the Cao family's eldest daughter-in-law fiercely.

"I'd say 2,500 dollars. There are so many workers to be paid. The amount of 2,500 dollars is non-negotiable. Send the money to us tomorrow morning. Otherwise, let's talk about how my house collapsed." After saying that, Xia Zhe returned to the front yard with Xia Wen.

The Cao family members were stunned on the spot. They wondered where they could get 2,500 dollars when they did not even have 500 dollars now.

"The Xia family is really too much! Isn't he afraid that we'll tell everyone about this?" The Cao family's eldest daughter-in-law gritted her teeth as she looked at Xia Zhe's back.

"So what if you tell everyone? The Xia family's house has already been checked and there's nothing there at all. Even if you tell everyone, you'll just be telling people that the Cao family is cowardly and doesn't dare to retaliate when we're bullied," Old Master Cao said sulkily.

Back then, they had occupied this side of the house because they wanted to take the Xia family down a notch. After being so tyrannical for so many years, they had caused the Xia family's house to collapse before they left. The Xia family would definitely not waste the chance to be able to take revenge.

This was all just retribution. It was really an eye for an eye.

"Then we'll sue the Xia family! We'll say that they're extorting money!" shouted the Cao family's second son.

Old Master Cao kicked his second son on the leg and said, "Little brat, speak louder so that Xia Zhe can hear you! He hasn't gone far yet! If you really sue him, he will definitely spend all his money on repairing the house. At that time, even 2,500 dollars won't be enough. He will continue to ask you for money until the house is repaired."

The old man had enough experience to know how things could turn out. After all, he did not live his long life in vain.

The Cao family's second son calmed down and looked at the old man with a long face. "I only have 300 dollars left. Even if we ask eldest brother's family and third brother's family to chip in, I don't think we can come up with 2,500 dollars."

When the house collapsed, the Cao family's savings were all destroyed as well. The money they had now was what they carried with them when they escaped or borrowed from their relatives later. They did not have a lot of money left.

When Xia Zhe and Xia Wen returned in high spirits, Qiao Mei knew that they must have quoted a sky-high price.

"How much did you agree to in the end?" Qiao Mei asked with a smile.

"We asked them to pay 2,500 dollars by tomorrow," Xia Wen said with a smile.