1084 Owe Debts Everywhere
“Is that so? I think your father’s health is still quite good. Not long ago, he went to one of the state-owned restaurants for a meal but made the reservation under the Xia family. The manager of the restaurant called our house. Otherwise, I wouldn’t even know that the Xia family owes money outside!” Xu Lan said angrily.
This was the first time Xu Lan had encountered something so crass. The Tan family usually did not dare to make use of the Xia family’s name so blatantly. However, that day, Tan Bo had invited many of his old friends to the capital and they all knew that Tan Bo had a capable son-in-law. They decided to trick Tan Bo into going to the restaurant and it was too late by the time Tan Bo realized it.
After Tan Bo drank too much, he spoke without thinking and generously offered to pay for everything. However, he did not have any money at all. Not only that, he would not be able to pay for the entire meal even if he asked the Tan family members to pool together all their money.
By right, the state-owned restaurant did not allow credit payment. Even if the restaurant operator himself came for a meal, he had to pay cash too.
However, during that point in time, the Xia family was in the limelight because of the so-called “divine medicine”. If anyone could get the chance to help the Xia family in any way, they would definitely grab it with both hands and try their best to curry favor with the Xia family. They would definitely try their best to do whatever they could. It was an opportunity that no one else had!
After running a business in the capital for many years, the restaurant operator had his own connections. When he received confirmation that Tan Bo was indeed the Xia family’s in-law, he hurriedly sent over another bottle of good wine. After that, when Tan Bo asked to pay on credit, he decided to settle the bill first, just so that he could get the Xia family’s phone number and be able to contact them in the future.
“My… my father might have left the wrong phone number! He couldn’t have done it on purpose! After all, he was drunk at that time and not in the right frame of mind, so it’s possible that he made a mistake!” Tan Jing explained in a state of panic.
Xu Lan had already guessed that Tan Jing would quibble about it, so she took out three or four receipts with thumbprints on them. These were proof of the debts that Tan Bo had racked up over the past week in the name of the Xia family. Xu Lan had kept the receipts after she made payment.
“Look at all these and then explain to me why your father ran up so many debts out there but left behind the Xia family’s phone number. These are only from the stores which proactively came to settle the bills. We don’t even know how many more stores there are!” Xu Lan smacked the table and yelled angrily.
These receipts added up to more than 80 dollars, which was already one and a half months’ worth of salary for an ordinary family. If this continued, it would cost the Xia family more than 400 dollars a month! Even if the Xia family was rich, they would not be able to handle such excessive expenses!
Xia Wen could not find a way to defend Tan Jing. The Tan family had already become a sore point for the Xia family. Every family would have a few poor relatives and it was not a big deal. Everyone just hoped that their poor relatives were not unreasonable people who went around causing trouble everywhere. Otherwise, no matter how rich one was, one would not be able to reverse the damages done!
There were truly very few families who could tolerate the Tan family’s despicable behavior. It was already nice enough for the Xia family to have tolerated it until now.
“It’s useless even if you don’t speak up. We have to clear up this matter today. This is only the first thing I want to talk to you about today. Don’t think that your Tan family can do things in secret. Is it your intention to adopt a child from the extended Tan family? That child is coming to the capital soon, right?” Xu Lan looked at Xia Wen after saying that.
Xia Wen’s face was filled with shock. He did not know about this at all. Although Tan Jing had mentioned the matter of adoption to him some time ago, he had told her that now was not the right time. He was not ready to bring up a child yet and there were still many things for him to handle in the Xia family. Also, Xia Mao had not fully recovered yet, so he had tons of things to do.
He barely even had time to take a breather at night and get some sleep. There was no way that he would have time to take care of a child.
“I… I…” Tan Jing stammered, unable to speak properly.
“Xiao Wen, what do you think about this matter?” Xia Mao asked suddenly from where he was seated.
Xia Wen did not know what to do either. The Xia family had already suffered a lot at the hands of the Tan family and he still had not come up with a good solution yet. The Tan family was not afraid of falling out with them at all. They were people who had nothing to begin with, so it was useless even if the Xia family went to reason with them.
He would have to let Xia Mao and Xu Lan decide on this matter because no matter what he did, he would get into trouble. He would either break his parents’ hearts or damage his relationship with Tan Jing.