Chapter 459: The husband who stayed out all night had a child outside.

If thousands of years of feudal society almost indiscriminately blocked every woman's opportunity to make free choices, then New China has given every woman the possibility of free choices indiscriminately.

It is said to be a possibility rather than an opportunity because of the inertia of society. It is impossible to completely eliminate the remnants of feudalism in just a few decades. But at the very least, the country has always emphasized gender equality and freedom of marriage in terms of system and law.

Women also have the right to go out to study and work. This is the freest era for women in China.

Therefore, as long as a woman can refuse her family's unreasonable demands and break free from the mental shackles of male chauvinism, she can completely run towards freedom.

Unfortunately, there are still people who voluntarily give up their freedom, are swept away by fame and fortune, and are held hostage by desires, willing to become vassals of men.

For example, Zhou Xiaoxiao.

She knew before marriage that Lu Yihong was not a good person, but she still chose to marry this man and became pregnant with his child.

Judging from her depressed eyes and gloomy face, her married life must not be very happy.

However, Yao Zhizhi has learned to respect the fate of others. For this stubborn and unyielding person, the only thing Yao Zhizhi can do is not to add insult to injury. That's all.

She ignored Zhou Xiaoxiao's embarrassed look, calmly helped Zhou Xiaoxiao into the car, and helped Zhou Xiaoxiao grab a good seat. Then she walked straight to the only remaining empty seat in the last row. After sitting down, she took out a foreign magazine from her cross-body canvas bag and started reading.

Unlike her concentration, Zhou Xiaoxiao, who was sitting in the middle row, glanced at the back row from time to time, with a contradictory feeling of wanting to find someone to vent to but being too embarrassed to speak.

When Yao Zhizhi got off the bus, Zhou Xiaoxiao stood up subconsciously even though she hadn't reached her stop yet. However, there were many people getting off at this stop, so she hesitated for a moment and finally sat down. She could only watch Yao Zhizhi get on another bus.

Zhou Xiaoxiao sighed silently, touched her bulging belly, and felt extremely worried, but she could only grit her teeth and swallow her anger.

Yao Zhizhi soon arrived at the women's prison, and she was still received by Lu Qiuhua. This older sister is still unmarried, but she followed her family's advice and went to the welfare home to adopt a baby girl.

However, she did not give birth to the child herself and did not have much maternal love for the child. After all, this was just a compromise she had to make because she did not want the older generation to worry too much.

So her pace of life remains the same as before, busy at work and meeting friends after get off work.

As for whether the friend she met was a man or a woman, or what his or her name was, Yao Zhizhi never asked.

In fact, there is no need to ask. After all, the system is an active spectator. If Lu Qiuhua really has some unspeakable secrets, the system will make a fuss.

The system is currently very quiet, so it seems that there is nothing serious.

Yao Zhizhi said goodbye after finishing the interview with the female prisoner. This time she met a woman who committed intentional homicide. She was originally a chef in a state-owned restaurant and had two sons and two daughters with a man. Later, she found out that her husband was a drug dealer. She was afraid of implicating her children, so she coaxed the man into joining the drug trafficking organization. Within two years, she had successfully infiltrated the drug dealers and was responsible for cooking at a celebration banquet within the gang.

And then...

After killing these people, she voluntarily surrendered herself. Currently, there is a lot of controversy in the judicial system about this case. One side insists on maintaining procedural justice and will never allow lynching. In addition, this woman caused the deaths of many people and actually joined a drug trafficking gang, so this side insists on sentencing her to death.

On the other hand, the woman was forced to join the criminal gang because her children's safety was threatened, and that her dismantling of the drug trafficking ring was a significant meritorious service. Therefore, they believe she should be given a lighter sentence, at most a suspended death sentence, which generally does not result in death. As long as the woman behaves well in the future, her sentence can be commuted. Of course, there are even more supportive people who believe she has protected thousands of families at risk from the scourge of drugs and should be acquitted, with a sentence of two to three years at most.

Judging from the current situation, the former's voice is louder, and the woman will most likely be sentenced to death. She herself is quite open-minded, as long as her child is fine. However, Lu Qiuhua feels sorry for her, so she invited Yao Zhizhi to come and see if she can fight for a glimmer of hope for this woman by speaking out through the media.

After Yao Zhizhi left, she immediately started running around. She wrote five special reports herself and also invited Tian Cuiwen to write two commentary articles.

This busy schedule lasted for more than a month. When the second trial was held, Yao Zhizhi even took a day off and went to the trial site.

Fortunately, speaking out was useful, and the woman eventually got a not-too-bad result—a suspended death sentence with a two-year reprieve.

Yao Zhizhi breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that all the running around for more than a month was worth it.

In fact, both the pros and cons in this matter are correct. One wants to uphold procedural justice, the other wants to pay attention to the warmth of justice, one embodies the spirit of rule of law in a society ruled by law, and the other embodies the humanistic care of socialism.

In short, the debate surrounding this matter will continue, but no matter what, at least Yao Zhizhi used her pen to save a woman who did not want to kill anyone on her own initiative in order to eliminate harm for the people. It was worth it.

When she came back from visiting the woman in prison, she met Zhou Xiaoxiao again when changing trains.

Unlike more than a month ago, Zhou Xiaoxiao had already given birth at this time, holding a tightly wrapped baby in her arms, and there was no one around her.

Yao Zhizhi was still the same as usual. She helped Zhou Xiaoxiao and helped her grab a seat. Then she stood at the back door, waiting to get off the bus. After all, the seats were full.

Zhou Xiaoxiao kept looking back at her, but she ignored him. When she got off the bus, Zhou Xiaoxiao followed her unwaveringly even though the bus had not reached its stop yet.

Yao Zhizhi had just taken a few steps when she was stopped.

Zhou Xiaoxiao's voice was filled with obvious grievance and reluctance. She asked, "Old classmate, do you have time to do me a favor?"

Yao Zhizhi turned around, squinted her eyes and looked at the woman without saying a word.

Zhou Xiaoxiao could see Yao Zhizhi's disgust, but she felt that she had been forced to this point today - by public opinion, by her family, and by the unfaithful Lu Yihong.

So she is not wrong, it is the world that is wrong.

When she thought of this, her tears fell uncontrollably.

Unfortunately, Yao Zhizhi didn't believe in the tears of such people. Her expression was obviously cold and distant, and she didn't believe that Zhou Xiaoxiao couldn't see it.

But Zhou Xiaoxiao felt really aggrieved. She could only put on a smile and say, "I know you're busy. I just... I just can't find anyone to help me. I..."

Yao Zhizhi was too lazy to talk nonsense and turned away. What the hell was this? He was wasting time without getting into the details. It was so boring.

Zhou Xiaoxiao was now anxious, and hurriedly chased after the car with her child in her arms. Fortunately, the red light helped her, and she finally caught up with the car.

She stood beside Yao Zhizhi, panting heavily, and asked, "I don't have anything else to say, but I just remembered that your family seemed to have hired a nanny before. Can you recommend a reliable nanny for me? I'm really overwhelmed taking care of the children by myself and I can't take care of it."

Yao Zhizhi said coldly: "Sorry, I don't know him."

Just as the red light came on, Yao Zhizhi quickly crossed the road and went home.

Zhou Xiaoxiao stood across the street, tears streaming down her face. In the end, she couldn't find anyone to sympathize with her, so she could only sob and hold her child as she went to the bus stop.

This time I was lucky and met a kind aunt. Seeing that she was holding a child, she gave her seat and chatted with her warmly.

Zhou Xiaoxiao was like a drowning person grabbing a life-saving straw, and began to complain to the aunt.

In short, her in-laws despised her for giving birth to a daughter, and they didn't even come to see her, let alone come to take care of her during the confinement period. In the end, she paid her sister-in-law from her natal family to come and take care of her for a month, and after she was out of the confinement period, her sister-in-law went back.

Now she is raising the child alone, but her husband is not at home and has a raised child outside. The child is pregnant. She is almost being driven to death by this family.

By the end of her story, almost the entire carriage had fallen silent, listening to her crying alone.

The kind-hearted aunt helped to scold Zhou Xiaoxiao's husband a few words, which made Zhou Xiaoxiao feel happy and all the grievances that had been accumulating for many days were swept away.

But the aunt then advised: "Girl, where does your husband work? If all else fails, go to his workplace and make a scene. When he gets scared, he'll naturally behave himself."

Zhou Xiaoxiao was upset, but everyone in the car was waiting for the next move, so she lied: "What unit does he have? He's an educated youth who came back from the countryside two years ago. He still doesn't have a job. My parents-in-law support him."

"There's nothing we can do, my girl. Since your husband has no income, won't you have to rely on your parents-in-law to pay for raising the child? In my opinion, you might as well be cruel and hand the child to your mother-in-law and go out to work. When you have money and are more independent, your in-laws won't dare to look down on you." The aunt said nice things, but unfortunately she didn't know that the young woman in front of her was lying.

Fortunately, the young woman's acting was quite realistic, and Zhou Xiaoxiao actually agreed seriously: "Or maybe it's said that old ginger is still spicy. Auntie, you are really smart. Tomorrow I will leave the child to my mother-in-law and go to work to earn money."

The kind aunt breathed a sigh of relief: "That's right. We women can never be without a source of income. Otherwise, we will just be at the mercy of others. Good girl, stop crying, pack up, and find a job. By the way, my girl, do you have any skills? A diploma is fine. I'll see if I can find you one."

Zhou Xiaoxiao was dumbfounded. One lie required countless lies to cover it up.

But she had no ability to hand the child over to her mother-in-law. After all, her mother-in-law didn't live with her, and she couldn't even enter her mother-in-law's house.

She could only continue to lie: "Thank you for your kindness, but unfortunately I have no education and no skills. I will go back to my parents' home and learn tailoring from my sister-in-law's mother for two years."

Two years? After two years, the mistress's child will be quite old, right? The kind-hearted aunt decided to help her to the end. After thinking about it, she comforted him, "It's not that troublesome. As long as you really want to work, I can introduce you to a job with a low threshold. The salary may not be too high at the beginning, but everything has its pros and cons. The job is relatively leisurely, and you can go to see the child after work every day. This way, you can have a job first, so that your in-laws won't dare to look down on you anymore. After you accumulate work experience, it won't be too late to find a better one. What do you think?"

Zhou Xiaoxiao was completely dumbfounded. This aunt was so annoying. Why was she so nice to a stranger like her when they were not even related to her?

She didn't know how to cover up her lie, so she just said, "That's fine, but my parents-in-law both work in government offices, and I'm afraid they wouldn't appreciate my little money."

My aunt suddenly fell silent. This wasn't right. Would my parents-in-law, who worked in government offices, let their son marry a woman who had no education, no skills, and no job?

This young woman was probably lying to her.

The aunt didn't have the heart to expose Zhou Xiaoxiao. After all, it was not easy for a woman to raise a child alone. Add to that the fact that her husband cheated on her and didn't come home at night, and it was really pitiful.

But then the aunt thought, could it be that even the story about the man cheating was made up by this young woman?

Maybe they just want to play the victim and enjoy the feeling of being cared for?

The aunt suddenly felt a little nauseous. The vehicle happened to stop at a station, so she got off the bus before reaching her stop.

When she got home, she told her daughter about what happened in the car. Her daughter sneered and said, "Mom, you just don't listen to my advice and like to be a pushover. This woman must be lying. Don't pay any attention to her."

The kind-hearted aunt was still a little resentful, but fortunately her daughter was promising and she knew how to feel sorry for her, so she coaxed her into peace with just a few words.

A few days later, the kind aunt met the young woman holding the child on the bus again. She still gave up her seat, but this time, she walked directly to the back door and waited to get off the bus.

Zhou Xiaoxiao, who was sitting in the front row, couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. Fortunately, this aunt didn't chat with her, otherwise she really didn't know how to cover up the lie.

Fortunately, it is already the end of the year, and today is the first class reunion for my college classmates after graduation. Those who stayed in the capital will go.

She can vent to her classmates later.