1363 Sense of Security
Xia He found it hard to describe what was making her feel so uncomfortable. She had a stuffy feeling in her chest, like there was a heavy stone pressing down on her heart, making it difficult for her to breathe.

“… I think I know what you mean,” Qiao Mei said after thinking for a moment.

In her previous relationship, Xia He had been humiliated and reprimanded by all those relatives in the Kong family and she had always silently endured it all. Back then, she had expected Kong Lu to stand by her side and protect her, but he had never done this all throughout. He even blamed her for being too weak.

Xia He had that same feeling again after what happened just now. She knew very well that this whole issue was caused by the Ye family and had nothing to do with Deng Fan. He had not done anything wrong.

However, at the end of the day, it was Qiao Mei who helped her to resolve the issue. Although Deng Fan had promised her that he would be able to settle it, she did not want to wait until he took action. Perhaps she and Qiao Mei were too impatient, or perhaps she should have taken into account the fact that Deng Fan did not have time as he was too busy taking care of the sick Jiang Shu. She did not know how she should feel about this entire matter.

“I… Am I wrong? I don’t know what I should do now. I just… I just don’t feel at ease,” Xia He leaned her head weakly against the window and looked at the sky.
“It’s probably the lack of a sense of security,” Qiao Mei said gently.

“Sense of security? What’s that?” Xia He looked at Qiao Mei in confusion. She had never heard of this term before, but yet it did not sound strange when Qiao Mei said it.

“It’s like when you’re in trouble, you know you can trust someone unconditionally. If you encounter any difficult matter, you know that the person will help you solve it. Even if he can’t, he will always be by your side and will never abandon you. That’s the gist of what it means,” Qiao Mei explained.

Every word that Qiao Mei said was like a sharp sword stabbing into Xia He’s heart. This was exactly how she felt, but she did not know how to address that feeling.

“I need to calm down and think things through. I think I’ll stay at your house for the time being. I need to chat with Grandpa Qiao and ask him for advice,” Xia He said.

“When did my grandfather become so capable? He even doess psychological counseling!” Qiao Mei said in surprise.

“There are many things you don’t know! Your grandfather is an open-minded person. I feel that I can work out many issues whenever I talk to him,” Xia He said.

Qiao Mei realized that Qiao Qiang seemed to treat her differently from how he treated other people. Every time she ran into trouble and went to look for him, he would unconditionally support her in all her decisions. No matter whether she was right or wrong, he would always firmly choose to be on her side. If she really could not resolve the issue, he would do everything he could to help her.

The first thing Qiao Mei did when she got home was to go to the study to see if the “play dead” bird was still alive. The moment Qiao Mei opened the door, she saw the pigeon drinking water in the cage. It seemed that it had completely come to terms with its situation and realized that it was useless to fight back.

“Little fellow, you have to listen to me from now on! If you listen to me obediently, I’ll give you a lot of delicious food. If you don’t listen to me, I’ll feed you to the big tabby cat from the old grandma’s house next door!” Qiao Mei said fiercely.

The pigeon nodded fearfully and then turned to face the wall, not wanting to look at Qiao Mei. This was no different from the concept of burying its head in the sand. As long as it did not see her, then it could pretend that it had never met her before.

Qiao Mei did not force the pigeon to do anything it did not like. Sooner or later, it would adapt to life here.

“You still don’t have a name yet. I’ll call you ‘Coocoo’. Anyway, you’re always cooing away,” Qiao Mei said with a smile.

The pigeon continued to face the wall motionlessly. Qiao Mei took it to mean that it was agreeable to the name and happily returned to the bedroom to sleep. She had been so busy recently that she did not have time to take care of Xia Fan and Xia Xing. Tonight, Qiao Mei carried the two of them until they gradually fell asleep.

The next morning, after Qiao Mei changed the children’s clothes and fed them powdered milk, she went to Li Gui’s house. Zhao Fei was coming by for a discussion on the direction of the business in the future.

As soon as Qiao Mei opened the back door, she saw Zhao Fei standing at Li Gui’s main door, not daring to go in. It was probably because Zhao Fei did not know how to face Li Gui after those things which the Zhao family did.