After the meeting ended, Xia Wen returned to his dormitory to pack his things. Some time ago, his superiors had approved his application for a house. Xia Wen had specially chosen a place that was very close to Qiao Mei's house. He heard from his superior that the house had three bedrooms and a living room. It was very spacious and the layout was basically similar to Xia Fang's house.
This house was not given to him for free. He had to fork out 40% of his monthly salary to cover the cost of this house for five years. After five years, this house would completely belong to him.
He could also choose to pay a lump sum of 3,000 dollars and the house would immediately belong to him. The total amount would work out to be around the same no matter which payment option he chose.
Now that his workplace unit had allocated a house to him, he could not continue staying at the dormitory. Xia Wen wanted to do some renovations to the house before moving in. In that case, he would have to make do by staying at Xu Lan's place for the time being.
The most important thing now was to knock off and visit the two babies. He had not been to Qiao Mei's place for a long time.
"Director Xia, someone wanted to barge in to see you just now, but was stopped by the security officers. Be careful when you get off work later," Xia Wen's secretary said.
Xia Wen was stunned for a moment. Some time ago, he had taken Qiao Mei's advice and instructed his secretary not to let anyone come in to look for him. He did not expect Qiao Mei to be right about this.
"Alright, you should go back earlier too," Xia Wen said in a kind manner.
The people who worked under Xia Wen all felt very blessed. They all liked Xia Wen's personality very much. Working until Xia Wen meant receiving difficult assignments at times, but no matter how tough the assignments were, they would try their best to do their work well. This just proved to show how charismatic Xia Wen was.
On the other hand, Xia Xing was a complete mess. Every day, he was either being scolded or about to be scolded. He did not do a single thing that earned him praises or commendations. In fact, he could not even complete the most basic tasks.
Xia Wen asked the Xia family's chauffeur to drive into the office compound to pick him up and send him home. There were packages of all sizes on the floor around him. Some packages were beautifully wrapped, while others were cloth bags which obviously contained clothing items.
When they arrived at Qiao Mei's house, the chauffeur and Xia Wen walked in with all these things. During this period of time, Qiao Mei had bought the house next door to use as a garage. Qian'e felt that it was such a pity to do that. It was such a waste to tear down such a nice house and build a garage in its place!
Qiao Mei did not think that it was a big deal. Although the siheyuan courtyard houses would become very valuable in a few decades' time, they would have been in disrepair for a long time by then and people would not be able to live in this alley anymore. There was still a long way to go before the relocation exercise. It would be better to just buy all the houses and renovate them nicely so as to ensure that they could live comfortably here.
If they ever became affected by the relocation exercise, they would receive a lot of money as compensation. No matter what, they would not suffer any losses.
There was nothing anyone could do about it. She was rich! And willful!
It was not a problem for her to buy all the siheyuan courtyard houses in this area if she wanted.
"Eldest Brother! How is it that you can find time to come here! I thought you had forgotten about the children!" Xia He leaned against the door frame and teased him.
"Nonsense! Even if I forget everything, I won't forget Xia Fan and Xia Xing! I've gone on a business trip recently and it's been so busy at work since I came back. I don't have any time to rest at all and I don't even have much time to sleep. Don't tease me anymore. Just let me in to take a look at the children!" Xia Wen walked into the room after saying that.
Xia Fan was still sleeping soundly on the cot, but Xia Xing widened her eyes and looked at Xia Wen excitedly. She kept babbling non-stop and moving non-stop.
"Qiao Mei! Come and look at Xia Xing! She keeps crying when I hug her. But when Eldest Brother comes in, she's all smiles. If she can speak, she will definitely call Eldest Brother by his name!" Xia He said, feeling jealous.
Perhaps Xia He just did not have much luck with children. She was not popular with the children from all the different families. When she was young, she did not have many friends who wanted to play with her. It was only after she grew up that she had a better relationship with other people of her age.
In the past, Wu Min was worried about this matter for a long time. How could a child not have any playmate? However, when she saw that Xia He was very happy being alone, she did not dwell on this matter anymore.
"Then you should buy more toys for my two darlings. This way, they might remember you too," Qiao Mei said slyly.
"It's not that I don't have money to buy toys, but look at the amount of things Eldest Brother bought! If I buy more, your house won't be able to fit all of them!" Xia He said as she pointed at Xia Wen's bags.