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nAlthough the current housing prices were extremely cheap compared to the future, many people still could not afford it. Everyone’s income now was also very low.

nIf the Cao family’s half of the courtyard house was to be bought with money, it would cost about 40,000 dollars. Even if Xia Wen’s family did not spend any money at all, they could only save a little more than 1,000 dollars a year. It would be hard for Xia Wen to have 40,000 dollars.

nPeople did not think of buying properties during this time. Their workplace units would allocate houses to them, so there was no hurry for them to buy their own house. It was good enough to have a place to stay and they did not worry about such property issues at all.

nDuring this time, people were not allowed to buy and sell privately-owned houses and only exchanges were allowed. Even if Xia Mao and Xu Lan wanted to buy a house using money, they would not be able to do it. The houses that the Xia family members had were all allocated by their workplace units.

n“My sister-in-law’s family always uses all kinds of reasons to ask my elder brother for money, so my elder brother doesn’t have a single cent to his name,” Xia Zhe said.

nQiao Mei looked at Xia Wen and did not know what she could do. It would be too sad if such a good brother still had to struggle financially.

nXia Zhe watched as Qiao Mei kept staring at Xia Wen. She was smiling and sighing and her expression kept changing. Xia Zhe felt very uncomfortable to see her doing that, even if the person she was looking at was his elder brother.

n“Tell me, why do you keep going to the well?” Xia Zhe pinched Qiao Mei’s face forcefully and turned her around to look at him.

nQiao Mei covered her face in pain and said reluctantly, “Green-eyed monster…”

n“What did you say?” Xia Zhe did not hear her clearly and leaned closer to look at Qiao Mei.

n“I said! You’re such a green-eyed monster! What’s wrong!” Qiao Mei shouted.

nIt was so loud that Xia Wen could hear it from the backyard. Professor Zhu thought that the two of them were having a quarrel and hurriedly asked Xia Wen, “Xiao Wen, could it be your brother and sister-in-law quarreling? Aren’t you going to check on them?”

nIn this era, it was common for men to hit women when they were drunk. There were many such incidents in the village that Qiao Mei came from, and it was common even in the capital. Professor Zhu was just worried that Xia Zhe did not know his own strength if he was that kind of person…

nXia Wen smiled and said, “Professor Zhu, don’t worry. My younger brother is not that kind of person. He dotes on his wife very much.”

nQiao Mei placed her hands on her hips and looked at Xia Zhe in exasperation. She widened her eyes and stared intently at him. She was just thinking about how to help elder brother become rich so that there would not be too much of a difference between the two brothers’ financial situations. Although Tan Jing looked timid on the surface, she was also a person who got jealous easily. She might not have been like this before, but she had become a sensitive person because of Third Aunt-in-law.

n“I’m wrong, I’m wrong. Don’t be angry, my little ancestor. I’m just…” Xia Zhe stammered, not knowing how to express that he was really jealous of his elder brother just now.

n“Yes, yes, yes. You’re just getting so jealous,” Qiao Mei said.

n“I just don’t want you to look at other men…” Xia Zhe said aggrievedly.

nQiao Mei turned her head to giggle. If there was no one nearby, Qiao Mei would have gone up to give Xia Zhe a kiss.

n“I won’t look anymore. I won’t ever look anymore,” Qiao Mei said as she looked at Xia Zhe.

nXia Zhe nodded and looked at the well. “Why do you keep going to the well?”

nQiao Mei said, “I wonder if Professor Zhu and his team know how to repair a well. I still want to use this well.”

nXia Zhe thought that they had already closed this issue, but he did not expect Qiao Mei to still be thinking about it.

n“I’m still worried. It’s just too dangerous,” Xia Zhe said with a frown.

nQiao Mei looked at the surrounding buildings and said, “Having a dry well is not good for feng shui as well. We can just get Professor Zhu to put a lid on it and lock it up when it’s not in use.”

nSeeing how persistent Qiao Mei was, Xia Zhe gave up on the idea of putting a stop to what she wanted to do. Anyway, Qiao Mei would become a military spouse in the future and she would not be staying in this house often. It would not be a problem to repair the well and fill it up again.

nJust as Xia Zhe was about to ask Professor Zhu if he knew how to repair a well, two people came to the door. It was a man and a woman in their thirties or forties and they had an air about them that suggested that they were from one of the wealthy families in the capital.

nXia Zhe did not know these two people, but Xia Wen did. Xia Wen quickly walked to the door and glanced at Qiao Mei when he walked past her.

nIt seemed that these two people were here for Qiao Mei.

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