"This is Eldest Brother's underling. Her name is Mo Zhu!" Xia He introduced Mo Zhu to Qiao Mei enthusiastically.
Xia Wen held his forehead and said, "What do you mean by my underling..."
She made it sound as if he was a gang leader. If he gave her another two days, she could even come up with a gang name for him! He should not even think about retraining her. Instead, he should send her back to elementary school to relearn her vocabulary!
Qiao Mei sized up Mo Zhu curiously. Mo Zhu looked like a plucky and assertive person, but yet she was gentle and warm. This was the first time Qiao Mei had met such a person.
"Hello, I'm their sister-in-law. You can call me Qiao Mei," Qiao Mei said as she looked at Mo Zhu kindly.
"This is my first time paying a visit to you but I came in a hurry and didn't bring anything with me. It's really rude of me. I'll definitely come back with generous gifts next week," Mo Zhu said with a red face. This was the first time she had behaved so improperly.
"It's fine, you don't have to stand on ceremony. I'm guessing that this elder sister of mine has brought you here by force. Come and visit me when you have time. I really like it when people come to my house. It's more lively with more people around," Qiao Mei said.
Xia He pursed her lips. Qiao Mei did not like crowds at all! It seemed that Mo Zhu was Qiao Mei's type. Otherwise, Qiao Mei would not have said such things.
Mo Zhu immediately saw something in the corner of Qiao Mei's house. Her eyes were drawn to a large water vat. This was the first time she had seen such an exquisite water vat!
"What's wrong with you?" Xia He asked curiously.
"It's nothing. I just saw something rare and couldn't help but take a few more looks," Mo Zhu said.
Xia He hurriedly ran to the water vat and examined it, but she could not see anything special about it. During winter, the most delicious pickled vegetables were those made in water vats like this one!
"I think... there's nothing special about it. It just looks prettier than the water vats at other people's houses," Xia He said as she frowned and looked at the water vat.
Mo Zhu smiled faintly and said, "This water vat is very old and the paintings on it are lifelike. It actually corresponds to the four directions of north, south, east and west. If I'm not wrong, these paintings are the four gentlemen of the flowers, namely plum blossom, orchid, bamboo and chrysanthemum. If you pick some lotus flowers during summer and grow them inside the vat, it will definitely look very nice."
"You have got a good eye. I've placed it there for almost half a year but no one has discovered its true value. If you hadn't come by today, I'm afraid this silly elder sister of mine would still think that it was a water vat meant for making pickled vegetables!" Qiao Mei said as she looked at Xia He resignedly.
Xia He had never paid attention to these things. As long as it was a usable item, it did not matter what era it was from. The most important thing was that it was useful!
Qiao Mei felt further admiration for Mo Zhu. After she invited everyone into the house, Mo Zhu looked at all the treasures inside. However, it was different from how Zhou Luo greedily stared at Qiao Mei's things. Mo Zhu was purely admiring these treasures.
"If you see anything you like, you can take a couple of items," Qiao Mei said generously.
"Oh! You never allow me to take anything. Why are you so generous with Mo Zhu?" Xia He pouted and pretended to be jealous.
"If you can recognize the things in my house, then I'll give them to you too. I can even give you the house!" Qiao Mei said.
Masterpieces must be placed in the hands of people who could appreciate them in order to bring out their greatest value. Otherwise, no matter how good a painting or calligraphy piece was, it would only be a piece of useless paper in the hands of people who did not understand it and they would not treat it with care.
"Forget it, forget it! It's not like you don't know me. Other than dancing, I'm not interested in anything else," Xia He said.
After Mo Zhu had her fill, she sat quietly on the stool beside Qiao Mei and tasted the tea carefully. Her posture and temperament belied a well brought up young lady from a wealthy family. It was definitely not something that could be faked.
Qiao Mei had previously sent Yao Nian to check on these things in the capital, but she had never heard of a prominent family with the surname Mo. Could it be that Yao Nian had missed out on it?
That was impossible. Yao Nian was definitely one of the best investigators in the country. There was no way he would have missed out on anything. There must have been a mistake somewhere.
"Sister Mo, where do you live?" Qiao Mei asked curiously.
"My family lives in the suburbs, behind those parks in the north. My father said that there is good feng shui there and he doesn't want to leave that area, so we have always been living there," Mo Zhu said.nove)lB(1n