It was only at this moment that Xia Wen understood that Tan Jing only hated Qiao Mei. As long as something belonged to Qiao Mei, Tan Jing wanted to either destroy it or take it for herself. During this period of time, the Xia family's preferential treatment of Qiao Mei and their coldness towards Tan Jing had completely destroyed the front which Tan Jing had put up for so many years.

She had been the Xia family's only daughter-in-law for a long time. She thought that Xu Lan was just a cold person, but Qiao Mei's appearance made her aware of the truth. Xu Lan was just not satisfied with her.

"I've already spent the money. I don't think Qiao Mei will kick up a fuss with you about this bit of money," Tan Jing said.

"Isn't 3,000 dollars considered quite a big sum of money? We have to scrimp and save for more than a year to have 3,000 dollars! Are you brushing it aside so easily now?" Xia Wen said as he looked at Tan Jing disdainfully.

Tan Jing looked nonchalant. The current situation was already so bad that it made no real difference to her even if it got worse. She had already spent all the money. Even if he killed her, she would not be able to fork out the 3,000 dollars.

"She's so capable that she can easily make tens of thousands of dollars. A mere 3,000 dollars is nothing to her!" Tan Jing said.

"I'll return the 3,000 dollars to her. Every month, I'll give you 20 dollars for your living expenses and the rest of my salary will go to Qiao Mei to repay the debt," Xia Wen said sternly.

An amount of 20 dollars was more than enough for Tan Jing's monthly expenses. During this period of time, he would continue to stay at Xu Lan's house. He really could not live with Tan Jing anymore. He was unable to accept the person she had become.

He had no choice but to deal with it in this manner for the moment.

Life was peaceful and quiet for one week. Every day, other than helping Li Gui make some popcorn, Qiao Mei would potter around the courtyard. She was thinking about rearing some chickens and ducks in the corn courtyard house and feeding them with herbs.

Back in the village, if Qiao Zhuang's family had not poisoned her precious chickens and ducks, each one would be worth at least 60 dollars now! They would make very nutritious food!

There were still two months to go before spring, so she still had time to demarcate a piece of land and tidy it up to continue with her experiment.

"Elder sister, do you prefer to eat chicken or duck?" Qiao Mei asked curiously.

"Duck, of course! The roast duck in the capital is world-famous! The roast duck here is the most delicious in the entire country! You can't eat such greasy food now. After you give birth, I'll bring you out to try!" Xia He said agitatedly.

"Didn't eldest brother bring some roast duck that day? Are you talking about that restaurant?" Qiao Mei said.

"Yes, that restaurant. The food was already cold when eldest brother brought it over. You have to eat freshly made roast duck. That's when it's most fragrant!" Xia He said.

Since Xia He liked to eat roast duck, she decided that she would rear ducks for the first batch. The next time they went over to see Xia Fang, she would ask Uncle Liu Yang to take Xia He's pulse and check on the kind of herbs which Xia He needed to eat for her health. She would suit the remedy to the case!

Qiao Mei was so engrossed in her thoughts that she did not notice that there was someone knocking on the door. It was only when the people outside shouted loudly that she came back to her senses.

"Who is it? These people are as noisy as debt collectors." Qiao Mei reluctantly walked to the main door to open it.

As soon as she opened the door, two children rushed in from outside and almost knocked into her.

"Oh! So elder sister is at home! Why did you take so long to open the door?" Xiao Yu pouted and said aggrievedly.

Qiao Mei frowned slightly and looked unhappily at the Liang family members outside the door. From the looks of it, there was going to be another round of arguments today.

"Such rare guests. Why are you here today?" Qiao Mei asked curiously.

"What a thing to say. We're here to visit Father. We haven't had a chance to come for a visit after you bring your grandfather to the capital. We had gone to the train station to pick you up that day but we didn't manage to do so. So, we're here to pay a visit since we have some free time today," Liang Lan said with a smile.

Qiao Mei said disdainfully, "You people only have time to come and pay us a visit after we've been here for a month. You're really quite busy."

If it was only the Liang siblings who came to visit, Qiao Mei would not even speak to them and would just close the door and not let them in. However, they had brought the two kids and she did not want to let the kids bear the burden of the previous generation's grievances.

Qiao Mei did not say anything and just wordlessly brought them to the backyard. Looking at the renovated house, the Liang siblings were extremely envious. When they came to take a look previously, it definitely did not look as grand as it did now.

"Elder sister, you live in such a nice house! Can I come and live here with you!" Xiao Yu asked with a smile.

"No, this is my house. You should go back to your house," Qiao Mei said bluntly.