Xia Zhe got a huge shock when he heard what Qiao Mei said. She had actually brought such a valuable item all the way from the village. If she had run into criminals, she might even have lost her life.
Xia Zhe frowned as he looked at Qiao Mei and said, “I’ll settle this score with you when we go back. You brought along such a valuable thing without considering that there would be people who might covet it.”
Qiao Mei quietly stuck out her tongue at Xia Zhe and said playfully, “You think you have a score to settle with me. I still have scores to settle with you tonight. Sooner or later, you’ll have to give me a clear explanation about your romantic debts.”
“Sure, sure, sure. We’ll explain everything to each other then,” Xia Zhe said.
“This task is not an easy one. After all, such a valuable thing cannot be exchanged within a short period of time,” Zhou Sheng said after some thought.
“Then does Grandpa Zhou know who would want this thing?” Qiao Mei asked.
“The houses in this area all have good feng shui. There are very few people who want to sell their houses given that they are all used to living here. The old people here usually won’t want to sell,” Zhou Sheng said.
Everyone fell into deep thought. At this moment, Xia Fang said, “Perhaps we can ask the Cao family who lives in the back part of our house. If they’re willing, then the entire house will be ours.”
Zhou Sheng nodded and said, “That’s certainly worth a try.”
The whole house originally had four sections. The house that the Cao family lived in was the back part of the original house that was separated out and allocated to them. In actual fact, the Cao family had always been dissatisfied with the house they were living in now.
The front yard was located on the Xia family’s side, so they had the main entrance. The Cao family were allocated the two back sections of the house so they could only use the back door. The alley outside the back door was narrow. People could enter on foot but the alley could not accommodate cars.
The Cao family always felt that their house had bad feng shui. They thought that it was an inherent problem that came with the house and that it was inauspicious to have to use the back door.
The Cao family was also a military family. Old Master Cao and Xia Mao were of the same generation and they were in the same troop. Old Master Cao was at the peak of his career when he was allocated this house and his luck went downhill after that. The Cao family had always felt that it was the house which brought about the bout of bad luck.
The eldest son of the Cao family, Cao Da, was the only one in the family who had a source of income at the moment. Recently, there were also some signs of trouble and the entire family was very worried.
They heard that after Old Madam Xia passed away, she left her house to her grandson. This grandson had always been in the army and did not live here, so the wife of the Cao family’s eldest son came up with a selfish idea.
“Why don’t we discuss with the Xia family about swapping houses? In any case, people from the Xia family don’t live in the house. The army will eventually allocate a house to him too. Why don’t we ask the Xia family to swap houses with us and let us have the front yard?” said the Cao family’s eldest daughter-in-law.
It was not as if the rest of the Cao family did not have the same idea, but they did not dare to raise the issue in view of the Xia family’s standing in the community.
They wanted to sell their house and live elsewhere, but no one would be able to afford such a big place now even if they put it up for sale. Even if someone could afford it, who would dare to show off their wealth since it would be like courting death?
“When Old Madam Xia was still alive, we told her that we wanted to swap. In the end, we were scolded and chased back by Old Madam Xia. Now that you mention the topic of swapping again, I don’t know who you can talk to about this,” Cao Da said.
Cao Da had actually gone around asking for more information previously, but Xia Zhe’s troop was considered a classified unit and no details were allowed to be released. He asked around so many times that someone started to cast suspicions on Cao Da’s intentions and he almost got investigated. He did not dare to continue asking around after that.
They did not expect Xia Zhe to come uninvited, which saved them any further effort. They were caught by surprise by the arrival of Xia Fang and Xia Zhe.
“What are you here for?” Cao Da asked.
“We’re here to buy your house,” Xia Zhe said.
When the Cao family’s eldest daughter-in-law heard this, she looked at Xia Zhe and Xia Fang mockingly and said, “You really don’t visit unless you need something. There are so many of us living here. If you buy our house, then where do we go? We definitely can’t sell it, but if you want to swap houses with us, then it is something we can accept.”
“We’re indeed here to swap the house with something, but not with our house,” Xia Zhe said.
If he did not use his house to swap for their house, what else could he use? Could it be that Xia Zhe had another property elsewhere that he wanted to use to swap with them?
That should not be the case. Why would Xia Zhe want to do this?
Xia Zhe’s actions made the Cao family members very confused.