"I'd advise you not to interfere in my issues with Qiao Mei. You should go home," He Ning said fiercely in the gentlest of tone.
Qiao Mei gave Auntie Dong a look. Auntie Dong was still worried, but in order to save her own life, she still left Li Gui's house with Auntie Wang.
"It must be really hard on you to find your way to my house," Qiao Mei said.
He Ning did not say anything. Instead, he looked at Qiao Mei's stomach and laughed self-deprecatingly. He understood that He Mei did not make the decision on her own regarding the matter this time, but that it was Qiao Mei plotting against him.
Qiao Mei touched her stomach nervously. She had let down her guard after returning recently and did not expect He Ning to come looking for her personally.
"I originally came to offer my condolences, but I didn't expect my visit to be unnecessary," He Ning said with a smile.
Now that he had already seen her, there was no need to hide anything. He Mei had already received the punishment she deserved. At most, they could just recall He Mei back.
"Since you've already seen it, then you can leave now," Qiao Mei said, deciding to stand her ground and go all out.
"I think there's a misunderstanding. I'm not here to talk to you about this. He Mei can't win you and she only has herself to blame for what happened to her. I am here to visit you, and your grandfather as well. The things in that luggage bag are all gifts from me to him. He can take it as a token of appreciation from a junior," He Ning said nicely.
Huo Gao opened the luggage. It was filled with interesting items from overseas, such as binoculars and magnifying glasses among others. Qiao Qiang had been interested in such things when he was in the army, so He Ning definitely knew how to tailor the solution to the problem.
He Ning's intent could not be more obvious. If Qiao Mei accepted his gift, surely she would ask him to stay for a meal? Otherwise, it would be very rude of her.
He Ning was going to be disappointed. Qiao Mei was really that "rude".
"Then I'll accept the gift. Mr. He, is there anything else? If there's nothing else, you can go back now. Don't you have enough things to do in the capital?" Qiao Mei said.
The corners of He Ning's mouth twitched twice. This was really an unexpected ending.
Huo Gao watched happily from the side. He had thought that He Ning's shamelessness was most invincible, but now it seemed that Qiao Mei was still one up on him. It appeared that one could only defeat the enemy by using the enemy's method.
"You… you're not asking me to stay for dinner?" He Ning said.
"Dinner? When? Our family doesn't eat dinner," Qiao Mei said innocently.
He Ning said good-naturedly, "Then can I stay here for the night? I can eat in the morning."
"Everyone in my family doesn't eat. They don't eat rice or noodles or drink water. Why don't you go back to the capital to eat," Qiao Mei said.
Seeing that Qiao Mei was determined to chase him away, He Ning asked Huo Gao to take out the small box from his bag. It contained all the coins which were ever circulated in the market, from ancient times to the present. He had collected one piece each of all the denominations, and this was only a portion of what he had.
When he went to buy the ginseng the last time, he had realized that Qiao Mei was very interested in these sorts of things. He originally thought that Qiao Mei was deliberately playing a trick on him, but after he sent someone to ask around, he found out that she really liked the stuff and even spent a few thousand dollars to rent a safe in the bank to store the money he gave her.
"I hear that you like these, so I gathered everything for you to look at. I'm not sure if there's anything you like among them. It took me a long time to find everything. This is only a portion. The rest are all in the capital. If you like them, I'll give them to you," He Ning said.
Li Gui looked at He Ning warily from the side. Xia Zhe was not around at the moment and this man was trying so hard to please Qiao Mei. It was obvious that he had ulterior motives.
Qiao Mei flipped through the money booklet in her hand briefly. She liked all of them, as they would be worth a lot of money in the future and some of them would even be worth as much as a house. However, she was not interested.
Who knew what He Ning was up to! What if he intended to harm her!
There were antique coins inside. If He Ning went to report her, the loss would outweigh the gains. Besides, it was not difficult for her to collect these things herself.
It was just tedious and needed a lot of time and effort. It was not as if the Xia family could not do it, so there was no need to take the He family's things for free.
"I don't really like these. Mr. He, you should take them back," Qiao Mei said as she returned the booklet to He Ning.
"What a pity…" He Ning hugged the booklet and muttered to himself.