1589 Qiao Yu Is Missing
Xia Zhe scratched his head awkwardly. His eldest brother was indeed the most outstanding person he ever knew, excelling in everything he did. In fact, Xia Zhe admired Xia Wen very much. He would say that Xia Wen was his role model in life.

Back then, Xia Mao rarely had time to go home. Xia Zhe only heard of Xia Mao’s great achievements, but he had never seen the hard work that went behind it. Everything felt very far away and he only thought of Xia Mao as a hero.

Xia Wen, on the other hand, was always by his side. He could see all the hard work that Xia Wen put in. He always competed with Xia Wen, but yet he never managed to surpass Xia Wen.

“Eldest Brother is amazing in many ways. Anyway… I am not too far off from Eldest Brother!” Xia Zhe said.

“That’s right, you’re the eternal second place winner!” Xia Wen teased.

“I’ll surpass you one day!” Xia Zhe said.

After dinner, it was time to get down to business. Xia Wen had some bad news for the couple.

“Qiao Yu has gone missing and we still haven’t found her yet,” Xia Wen said with a cold expression.

The verdict of the case was out and Qiao Yu was sentenced to life imprisonment. The news was like a bolt from the blue for her. She was not even 20 years old and would now have to spend the rest of her life in prison.

Qiao Yu was supposed to be transferred from the detention center in the city to the prison in the mountain area. However, during the journey, a group of people intercepted the police vehicle and took all the prisoners with them. It was obvious that they had planned this for a long time and it was not something done on the spur of the moment or by accident.

Xia Mao and the team had already issued an arrest warrant, but there were no surveillance cameras in this era. Even camera photos were blurry. They could only depend on the public to spot the criminals somewhere. There was very little hope of finding her.

“Who are the other prisoners with her?” Qiao Mei asked.

“There are three men and one woman. They’re a team. Zou Ming told me that those people specialize in abducting women and children and they are particularly interested in young girls. That woman is an escape artist. It had taken the police a lot of effort to capture them in the first place,” Xia Wen said.

“I don’t know if it’s a blessing or a curse for Qiao Yu to have gone with them. Forget it, let’s not bother about this matter and just let the police look for her. Let’s not waste any more of our manpower and resources,” Qiao Mei said with a sigh.

“But that means we won’t be able to avenge Xia Fan?” Xia Wen said with a slight frown.

“Our real enemy is not Qiao Yu. She’s just their weapon. Now that Qiao Yu is an unregistered resident, she won’t have an easy time no matter where she goes. She has already suffered a lot. We just need to find the real mastermind behind the scenes,” Qiao Mei said.

“Alright, then I’ll go back and tell our parents that we’ll end this for now and discuss it later if necessary,” Xia Wen said.

After sending Xia Wen off, Qiao Mei and Xia Zhe stood at the doorway for a while. Qiao Mei looked at the empty courtyard and said, “Make me a swing when you’re free. The children and I want one!”

“Why don’t you just say that you want one? Why do you need to drag the children in?” Xia Zhe said as he looked at Qiao Mei dotingly.

“But it’s the children who want to sit on it! I want to plant a lot of flowers in the courtyard so that they can play at home!” Qiao Mei told Xia Zhe in detail about her future plans for the courtyard. Xia Zhe noted down everything she said.

His job here was not that busy and he had a lot of rest time. In the coming days, he wanted to spend more time taking care of Qiao Mei so that she would not feel down.

“Should we treat the neighbors to a meal? We haven’t officially met the neighbors since we moved here,” Qiao Mei said.

In Foshan Village, a new family would host a housewarming banquet. Everyone in the village would come to the newcomer’s house to have a night of fun. Every family would contribute some of their own vegetables and the atmosphere was very lively.

“Better not. If we only invite the neighbors from the single-story houses, the people from the apartment building will have issues with it. If we invite everyone, there will definitely be other people making an issue out of the gesture. When the others moved in, they did not hold any housewarming banquet, so let’s not do it. If you want one, then we’ll do it at home ourselves. Our family of four will celebrate together,” Xia Zhe said.

“True! It’s better to keep a low profile! Let’s have a good time by ourselves! Go and make more toys for the children! We don’t have enough teaching materials!” Qiao Mei said as she pouted.

The two of them began to draw sketches of educational toys for the children. They wanted to personally design and make the toys themselves. At this moment, Xia Zhe was so immersed in his role as a doting father that even Qiao Mei was caught up in it.