517 Finding Out the Details

“We’re leaving! Mei Mei, quickly go home! It’s cold outside, don’t freeze!” Auntie Wang waved her hand and walked home with Auntie Dong.

The courtyard was in a mess. The remaining food and the crockery would have to be cleaned up tomorrow. It was dark now and nothing could be seen clearly.

Li Gui walked to Qiao Mei’s side to help her back into the house, but Qiao Mei dodged her unnoticeably. After going into the room to take a look at Xia Zhe’s condition, she walked to the other room and gathered all the children.

“How much money did you save over the past few months?” Qiao Mei asked.

Zhang Wei was older and could count faster than his younger siblings. Moreover, he was usually the one who distributed the money to his younger siblings after making the sales, so he roughly knew how much money his younger siblings had.

“I had about 20 dollars. Second brother had about 15 dollars. Third sister is more frugal so she had 40 dollars. Youngest sister likes to eat, so she only had about 10 dollars,” Zhang Wei said.

The children did not know the exact amount of money in their hands and only had a rough idea. Qiao Mei did some mental calculations and noted that Zhang Qian had taken about 100 dollars from the children. It appeared that they had plundered a lot of things from the house during this period of time.

“Did you give the money to your father willingly?” Qiao Mei asked.

The children all shook their heads. Zhang Miao said angrily, “It was all snatched by Zhang Cong! I don’t want to give it to him at all! It’s been a long time since I ate the candy sold by the old grandpa from the convenience store! I don’t even have money to buy a replacement for my broken red hair tie!”

“If they took away so much money from all of you, then there’s no need to talk about the savings at home. The amount they took would only be more and not less,” Qiao Mei said seriously.

“There’s nothing to eat at home now. We have to rely on grandfather to survive,” Zhang Wei said as he lowered his head.

He knew very well that grandfather Qiao Qiang was not related to them by blood. Grandfather only helped them because of his elder sister. If not for his elder sister, none of them would be able to survive. He knew that he was grateful to Qiao Qiang and Qiao Mei.

Zhang Wei was a child who cared about his reputation. If not for his father always coming to snatch things from them, they would not have troubled grandfather time and time again.

“Then what do you think about mom getting a divorce?” Qiao Mei asked solemnly.

The children looked at one another and refused to speak up. They knew what a divorce meant.

“If mom and dad get a divorce, does that mean we won’t have a home anymore?” Zhang Miao blinked her big eyes and asked innocently.

“Even if they get a divorce, Miao Miao still has a home. It’s not like mom doesn’t want you anymore. There’s still elder sister and grandfather. What are you afraid of?” Qiao Mei smiled and patted Zhang Miao’s head.

Children were the most innocent and also the easiest to get hurt.

Qiao Mei deeply understood how painful it was for them not to have their parents around when they were young. However, she also knew that if things did not come to an end now, the days ahead would be even more difficult.

“Elder sister… I don’t really want my parents to get a divorce,” Zhang Wei said hesitantly.

Zhang Wei’s attitude gave Qiao Mei a surprise. She had thought that Zhang Wei would be the most reasonable one among the children, and she did not expect him to choose to reject the idea.

“Why? Can you tell me?” Qiao Mei asked patiently.

“When I was in school in the city, my classmates all said that we are children without parents. They all bullied me and younger brother…” Zhang Wei said as he lowered his head.

Zhang Qin and Zhang Miao previously did not go to school or interact with the outside world. They did not know what could happen in school and how they could get bullied outside.

When Zhang Wei and Zhang Chao were still studying in the school in the city, their classmates all bullied them and said that their mother was a jinx and they were also small jinxes. Whoever played with them would get implicated and become unlucky!

Although the children in the countryside were envious that they had come from the city, if word got out that their parents had divorced, everyone would look down on them and their good friends would also ignore them.

Qiao Mei was about to persuade Zhang Wei when Li Gui walked into the house after cleaning up the stove. When she saw the children gathered around and talking, she thought that they were sharing some secrets.

“What are you siblings talking about?” Li Gui asked with a smile.

Qiao Mei looked at Li Gui carefully. After two months, she looked much more haggard. Her weak body could not handle so much farm work at all and she had given all the food at home to the children. She probably had not eaten her fill for a long time.