Qiao Meili didn’t think she could wait any longer. As the saying goes, the longer you wait, the more trouble you might cause. Hesitation could lead to even more disaster.
“If you can’t make a decision, I’ll help you,”
Mr. Qiao really couldn’t bring himself to do it. He couldn’t bear to part with anything he saw, and everything he saw broke his heart. When he heard his daughter say that, he finally made up his mind.
“Come on then, out of sight, out of mind. I’ll just pretend I don’t know anything.”
After saying that, he actually opened the door and let Qiao Meili in, while he put his hands behind his back and went to sit in the main room.
Seeing that her husband was not taking any responsibility, Qiao’s mother, who was overwhelmed by a pile of clothes, simply gave up and ignored the situation as well.
“You can take care of mine too.”
Qiao Meili couldn’t have been happier. It was only after she went inside that she realized there was a hidden door in her parents’ room, leading to a small storeroom. The room wasn’t big, but it contained a lot of treasures.
Various calligraphy and paintings, vases and antiques, as well as pearls, jade, gold and silver ingots, may not be priceless, but they are certainly worth a lot of money.
Once she was sure no one was paying attention, Qiao Meili used her mind to throw all the valuable and rare items into her spatial storage.
The remaining batch of smaller, less valuable items, along with some silver ingots and copper coins, remained untouched.
It’s to prevent someone from searching your house in the future; it wouldn’t make sense if they couldn’t find anything.
As long as the main part is safe, that’s fine; don’t be greedy and want everything.
After finishing these tasks, she stuffed the stones she had previously put into her spatial storage into the leather trunk and camphor wood chest, filling five large chests.
“Brother, I’m almost done here, how about you?”
She can let her parents into their room first, but she still has to consider her brother and sister-in-law’s feelings.
Qiao Yingyong hung his head, his displeasure written all over his face, and together with Bai Xiaohe, carried two suitcases out.
Since the Qiao family hadn’t split up, most of the valuables were held by Qiao’s parents. Qiao Yingyong’s share consisted of his savings and gifts from his parents when he got married.
“All the valuables are here,”
“Are you sure?” Qiao Meili stared into their eyes.
A short while later, Qiao Yingyong went back into the house and brought out a small leather suitcase.
Qiao Meili accepted everything without question, and then said to Bai Xiaohe, “Did you get rid of all your jewelry too?”
Bai Xiaohe nodded dejectedly.
Qiao Meili asked her to organize all the cheongsams and long gowns.
As for the rest, she didn’t pry further. She said the same thing: it was already good enough to keep most of it; one shouldn’t be too greedy.
“Okay, help me push that cart out of the house and pile all the things on it. I’m going to hide some things later, so you guys don’t need to go.”
Qiao Yingyong was worried about his younger sister. “It’s so dark outside, are you sure you can manage on your own?”
Qiao Meili immediately started lying through her teeth, “That’s exactly what we need – fewer people. Too many people will make too much noise and expose us. Besides, I lived with Xiao Heng for over a year and learned a lot of skills. Also, if something happens to me, I can ask Xiao Heng to bail me out. What if something happens to you? A family can’t be without a man, can it?”
“Then you must be careful,” Qiao Yingyong thought about it and realized that made sense. “If, I mean, you are discovered, you should drop your things and run away.”
Her own brother…
I never expected someone to say something like that.
She thought that in her brother’s eyes, this money was more important than her sister’s life.
It seems she misunderstood.
Qiao Meili reached out and patted her brother on the shoulder, “Don’t worry, I know what I’m doing.”
They piled several boxes onto a cart and then covered them with a cloth.
Qiao Meili pushed the cart with difficulty into the darkness. When the Qiao family chose this courtyard, it was located at the back of the village, because the first thing to go north was the back mountain.
There was hardly anyone on the back mountain at this time. Even if there were, Qiao Meili wasn’t afraid, because as soon as she stepped out the door, she moved all the valuables in the box into her spatial storage. Now the box was full of stones.
Arriving at a valley-like place, Qiao Meili, seeing that the location was about right, emptied all the stones and threw the suitcase into her spatial storage.
They pushed the cart back the way they came.
The forest was quiet; apart from the birds perched on the branches, no one knew what had happened that night.
On the Qiao family’s side, all the adults were waiting to see Qiao Meili return. The cart was empty except for a piece of cloth, and they all felt bad, sighing one after another.
I wonder if all these treasures are well hidden.
No matter how they asked, Qiao Meili refused to say anything more.
“Take out all those long gowns, cheongsams, and silk fabrics and burn them.”
“Are we really going to burn them?” Mrs. Qiao was still reluctant; she loved those cheongsams so much.
Bai Xiaohe felt the same way; she thought it was one thing to not keep the jewelry, but she also couldn’t wear the clothes.
Qiao Meili remained silent, staring intently at the two of them.
Although Qiao Meili is a beautiful but useless person, her family is really afraid of her when she is unreasonable and makes a fuss.
Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been so angry that she jumped into the river.
Therefore, under her gaze, Qiao’s mother and Bai Xiaohe quickly gave in and went into the house to bring out a large pile of clothes.
Qiao Meili took the clothes outside and set them all on fire.
Qiao’s mother and Bai Xiaohe immediately turned their faces away, not wanting to look.
“Go back and find the brigade leader’s wife and ask her to help make some ordinary clothes. Remember, our family must keep a low profile.”
Suddenly, Qiao’s mother said, “Have you forgotten? The brigade leader used to have his wife make clothes for our family, but we all thought they were ugly and the material was too rough, so nobody wore them and they were all piled up in the storage room.”
This shows that the brigade leader really went to great lengths for their family.
Unfortunately, they didn’t appreciate it.
If Qiao Meili put herself in the captain’s shoes, she probably also felt like she wanted to explode.
“I’ll go find a few clothes I can wear, wash them now, and they should be dry by noon tomorrow.” She was in a hurry to leave and didn’t have time to wait any longer.
“I’ll help you,” Bai Xiaohe said.
Qiao Meili didn’t refuse; having someone help would make things faster.
The two women worked together to find a large bag of clothes in the storage room. The clothes were all brand new and had never been worn since they were made. They had just been piled up for a while, so they had a bit of a smell, but they weren’t very dirty and were easy to wash.
Qiao Meili and Bai Xiaohe worked together and quickly washed all the clothes, then hung them on the clothesline in the backyard.
“Meili, do you think our family can get through this safely?” These actions at home made Bai Xiaohe feel panicked.
Qiao Meili looked at her beautiful sister-in-law, not wanting to say anything dirty that would offend her ears. “As long as we all work together as a family, this will pass.”
For some reason, seeing her sister-in-law’s solemn expression, Bai Xiaohe’s anxiety seemed to lessen.
Qiao Meili smiled reassuringly at her, “Don’t worry, my dad and my brother are here for you if anything happens at home. If you encounter anything you don’t understand, just go to the brigade leader or his wife. They are reliable.”
Bai Xiaohe nodded: “Okay, I’ve got it.”
Qiao Meili was exhausted after doing so much that day and night.
After finishing with the clothes, she went back to her room to rest, only to realize she hadn’t showered when she lay down on the bed.
After sweating so much and rolling around in the river, Qiao Meili couldn’t accept her dirty, sour, and smelly appearance.
So I got up again, took a shower, changed into clean pajamas, and then sat down at the dressing table to examine myself closely.
As her name suggests, the original owner of this body was truly beautiful.
She had an oval face, skin as smooth as cream, eyebrows like distant mountains, and eyes that were slightly upturned at the corners, as if they held a pool of spring water. Her eyes were full of coquettishness and coquettishness. Her nose was straight and upturned, and her lips were light and moist, inviting people to taste them.
She was a great beauty in modern times, but she lacked the charm that the original owner possessed.
This reminded her of her first meeting with Xiao Heng. When the man saw her, he was clearly stunned for a moment. Their marriage was partly due to the original owner’s beauty.
After all, everyone has a love for beauty.
Now, Qiao Meili only hopes that Xiao Heng still has some lingering affection for her beauty. Otherwise, she really doesn’t know how Xiao Heng can accept her after the original owner did so many things.
Time flies. Qiao Meili felt like she had just fallen asleep when she heard a rooster crowing in the distance.
Generally speaking, not long after the rooster crows, people in the village start to get up one after another.
But this generally doesn’t include the Qiao family, because no one in the Qiao family works in the fields; everyone needs to sleep in before getting up.
Qiao Meili’s bones ached, so she simply pulled the blanket over her face and went back to sleep.
This nap turned out to be a disaster. It turned out that Qian Jinghong had already completed the formalities and even bought the train tickets, and specially delivered them over, but no one answered the door after knocking for a long time.
He was so angry he kicked the door, yelling, “Is anyone still breathing? Open the door—”
Qiao Meili lived in the east room, which was closer to the courtyard gate. She was so startled by the shout that she jumped out of bed.
Who’s being so inconsiderate as to disturb her peace…?
After taking a closer look at her surroundings, Qiao Meili immediately chickened out. She quickly put on her clothes and went out to open the door while agreeing to the outside.
Qian Jinghong’s face was so sour it was unbearable to look at. “You all made it so easy yesterday, are you trying to fool me? Don’t you even know what time it is!”
The sun was high overhead; even if it wasn’t noon, it was at least past ten o’clock.
Qiao Meili also felt guilty and quickly explained, “I was following your instructions. I was dealing with some things that were inconvenient to keep last night, so I stayed up late and went to bed late, which is why I woke up late this morning.”
Qian Jinghong was skeptical. “You’re not lying to me?”