1576 Reunion
“I’m sorry…” Xia Zhe hugged Qiao Mei and apologized again.

“Enough… I’m not even blaming you for this matter. Why do you need to apologize to me so many times?” Qiao Mei said with a smile.

“I just feel like I owe you too much,” Xia Zhe lamented.

A relationship was a partnership, with both parties needing to put in the efforts and not being too picky about the returns. There was no such thing as one person owing the other more.

Qiao Mei pouted and said, “If you continue to say such things, I’m going to get angry! If I keep crying and Grandfather gets wind of it, you’re going to get a beating! Everyone in the family will reprimand you then!”

“Then I won’t say anything else. I’ll listen to you!” Xia Zhe said gently.

It was strange but Qiao Mei felt much better after Xia Zhe returned. The two children also drank more milk than before. Xia Fan and Xia Xing wanted Xia Zhe to carry them whenever they saw him and even wanted to climb out of their room to play with him!

“Ah~ ah~” Xia Fan reached out and waved his little hands at Xia Zhe. He laughed so happily that saliva dripped from the corner of his mouth.

“Xia Fan is a little heavier compared to the last time I was home,” Xia Zhe said as he observed carefully.

Now that the two children were getting bigger, their features had also become much clearer. Xia Xing looked very much like Qiao Mei, while Xia Fan looked exactly like Xia Zhe when he was young. It was as if they were carved from the same mold.

This was also the first time Xia Zhe felt that life was very blissful and beautiful. It even felt a little unreal, as if everything was just a dream.

“What nicknames should we give the two children?” Qiao Mei asked.

They had tried to give the children nicknames previously, but they both felt that the names suggested by the other person were not nice. In the end, they did not reach a conclusion. Fan Fan and Xing Xing did not sound very nice either. It was still better to give each of them an interesting nickname.

“What about Rocky and Pretty!” Xia Zhe said as he looked at Qiao Mei excitedly.

The corners of Qiao Mei’s mouth twitched slightly. How could she have forgotten the names Xia Zhe came up with when he wrote back to her from the army? She definitely could not let Xia Zhe come up with the nicknames. Otherwise, her children would be mocked by their peers for the rest of their lives!

“Let me do it…” Qiao Mei pondered hard and finally said, “Xia Fan will be called Tuan Tuan, and Xia Xing will be called Yuan Yuan. The new baby will be Fu Fu!”

Xia Zhe felt that these were not nicknames for children, but sounded more like names for giant pandas!

Seeing that Xia Zhe did not voice his agreement for a long time, Qiao Mei asked unhappily, “Don’t you like these names?”

“It’s not that. These names are the best! Let’s call them that from now on!” Xia Zhe said.

Qiao Mei carefully placed Xia Fan on the floor in the distance and the boy crawled quickly towards Xia Zhe. Xia Xing, who was in the cradle, also seemed anxious to play with her father.

As the family was enjoying the harmonious moment, Xia Xing suddenly sat on the floor and shouted, “Pow!”

Qiao Mei and Xia Zhe looked at Xia Xing in shock. What did Xia Xing just say? Was it one-off?

Seeing that his parents were motionless, Xia Xing picked up the toy on the floor and shook it before shouting, “Pow! Pow!”

“Are you trying to say the word play?” Qiao Mei said to Xia Xing, articulating clearly.

Xia Xing nodded excitedly and cried out “pow pow” a few more times, each time louder than the last, making Xia Zhe and Qiao Mei laugh loudly as well. Xia Fan then clapped his hands and laughed along.

“He’s only a few months old and he can already speak so loudly!” Xia Zhe said in surprise.

Qiao Mei did not expect it either. Most children would speak around the age of one and a half to two years old. At around one year old, they could only babble vague-sounding words.

Xia Fan and Xia Xing were only six months old, but they were already able to make such clear sounds. In addition, they could understand what the adults were saying. As long as they were taught well in the future, they would definitely be fast learners!

After a few more days, there was finally some progress on Xia Xiu’s end. The couple refused to say much and the stories they told were full of loopholes. Xia Xiu could only investigate each clue one by one and was finally able to take down their den. However, this was only a small part of the true picture. The mastermind was still a mystery. However, that was all they could for now.

Qiao Yu did not succeed in abducting the child so it was not possible to convict her of any serious crime. However, she had tried to harm a child of the Xia family and this alone was enough for her to die 800 times over.