Yao Chunnuan entered the cell, chose a relatively clean place, took some straw and spread it on the ground, then sat down.
She leaned against the wall with her knees slightly bent, looking at the mice that dared to jump around openly in broad daylight, and sighed softly. She never thought that in the end she could not escape the fate of dancing with the little cuties in the prison.
The women of the Wang family looked at each other in bewilderment. In view of her heroic demeanor when she angrily confronted Wei Qiuyu in court just now, she was no longer as timid as she was before in the Wang family. No one dared to provoke her, and even the two girls of the Wang family were held in their mother's arms.
Then again, it was unclear how to define her relationship with Wang Lang. If there was a connection, she had been so decisive when she unilaterally announced her divorce from Wang Lang. If there was no connection, she was pregnant with Wang Lang's child, and she had been implicated and exiled. The Wang family's indifference and indifference didn't seem good either, and it was truly difficult.
The Han family's struggles differed from those of the Wang family's women. Seeing Yao Chunnuan enter the prison in clean clothes, they felt an inexplicable sense of comfort. So what if they had escaped earlier? In the end, wasn't it all in vain? Hope, disappointment, and despair alternately tormented her, tormenting her. No matter how she thought about it, she felt Yao Chunnuan was even worse off than they were. In comparison, their suffering seemed less agonizing.
On the contrary, Yao Chunnuan was in a very bad mood. Even though she had cheated the Han family, it did not make her feel better. Because even after cheating them, her own situation did not get better.
Comparing the two, we can see that people’s joys and sorrows are not the same.
Yao Chunnuan closed her eyes and began to review everything that had happened.
This disaster had been planted from the very beginning. She had taken it for granted before, thinking that simply following the plot would allow her to avoid being implicated by the Wang family.
Yes, after she came here, could she make the embryo in the original owner's belly disappear instantly, or prevent the Wang family from being framed, or make Wei Qiuyu shut up? Since she couldn't do any of these, this disaster was inevitable.
Ancient criminal law implemented a system of collective responsibility, and it was also a patriarchal society. The honor and disgrace of women depended on men. Since there was a saying that men could enfeoff their wives and children, there was a possibility that disaster would affect their wives, children, and even their entire clan.
She was the unlucky person who brought disaster to her wife and children. She had indeed finally gotten rid of the identity of Wang Lang's wife, but unfortunately she was not able to conceive and became pregnant with someone else's child. Now it was difficult for her to distance herself from the matter.
Even if she was willing to tarnish her own reputation, ruin the Yao family, and bear the stigma of adultery with a man outside her, in order to deny that the child in her belly was Wang Lang's and break away from her relationship with the Wang family, she would not necessarily succeed. It should be said that there was a great possibility of failure.
Because she was too weak, and the Yao family was too weak. The weak were like fish on someone else's chopping block. A simple statement from the other party, "It's better to kill the innocent than to let the guilty go," was enough to make all her sacrifices come to nothing.
Precisely because she understood this, she didn't do it. She couldn't let the Yao family become a laughing stock; it was pointless. Cutting losses in time and preserving strength was more difficult than going all-in after a gamble, and it required even more restraint. She couldn't act willfully and drag the Yao family down with her. This was the only thing she could do for them at this moment.
Now that the verdict has been announced, they will probably set off soon. It is already the end of July, and it will take two or three months to travel. By the time they reach Yichun, it will probably be close to winter.
Fourteen hundred kilometers, in modern times, is a two-hour flight, a five-hour train ride, a day's drive, or even two days and two nights on a green-skinned train. But in ancient times, using a No. 11 bicycle, traveling day and night, would probably take two or three months.
In the next two or three months, she will not be able to eat, drink or sleep well. She will just walk and walk every day, moving her legs mechanically like a walking corpse.
It would be good if she could reach Yichun safely, but I'm afraid she won't be able to hold on halfway, then it would be all over.
I don’t know if it’s because you dream what you think about during the day, but Yao Chunnuan felt her body become extremely heavy. Every step she took was exhausting. Then she accidentally fell to the ground, and her slightly bulging belly hit a sharp stone on the ground, and then a stream of bright red blood flowed out from under her body.
Yao Chunnuan shuddered and her eyes suddenly opened. Could it be that she had fallen asleep while thinking?
Thinking of the dream just now, her eyes turned red. She raised her head and looked straight at the women of the Han family next to her.
After the Han family reported her, their reward was to transfer their exile from Fengqing to Yichun, right? Not bad, if she died on the road, she'd have someone to take with her. If she did die, Wei Qiuyu would have died with her too. It wouldn't be the first time, after all. They were inseparable, like a permanent partner on the road to the underworld.
Her gaze was as if real. Wei Qiuyu seemed to sense something and looked towards her. When she saw her red eyes, she was shocked.
Yao Chunnuan gave her a malicious smile, and Wei Qiuyu was so scared that she quickly retracted her head.
Coward! How could such a coward be so careless as to provoke me again and again?
I don't know how much time passed, but it was almost nightfall, as the lights in the prison dimmed. The jailers brought in the prisoners' dinner. The women of the Wang family were given half a bucket of porridge so thin you couldn't even see the rice grains, and half a bucket of dark, sticky steamed bread with vegetables stuck to it. Even this was a rare clean meal.
Yao Chunnuan was well prepared. When the jailer put down the barrel, she was the first to grab the spoon in the barrel.
Zhang, the concubine's daughter-in-law, who was a step behind, curled her lips and said, "Don't you see how old and young are here? You don't even know how to give way! You really come from a poor family, you have no upbringing, you don't even know how to respect the old and love the young."
Yao Chunnuan, who had grabbed the spoon with her own strength, turned a deaf ear to it. "You still care about this in prison? You deserve to starve!"
As soon as I touched the steamed cornbread, the unconcealable musty smell of stale grain hit me in the face.
Yao Chunnuan put down the steamed bun, then used a big spoon to dig at the bottom of the wooden barrel and filled herself with a large bowl of porridge so large that you could see the rice grains. Seeing that Zhang was still urging for more, she took the initiative to fill her stomach and said, "Look, the smallest one in the prison is here." After that, she slowly returned to where she had been sitting with the porridge.
Zhang choked, and seeing that Yao Chunnuan no longer paid attention to her, she could only swallow her anger and go to scoop up the porridge.
Yao Chunnuan was about to drink from the porridge when she brought it close to her nose. The free prison food was truly unpalatable. It was watery, and it was fine, but why did it even have a sour taste? A closer sniff revealed a faint, sour aroma.
Forget it, there will probably be many days like this in the future, I have to adapt to it, I can't starve to death, right?
Thinking of this, Yao Chunnuan laughed at herself. Her life was getting worse day by day. Then she opened her mouth and took a big sip of porridge. She didn't dare to chew it at all, just swallowing it directly, fearing that if she took longer, the taste would be even stronger.
Yao Chunnuan didn't dare to eat steamed corn bread. It wasn't because she was being pretentious, but the porridge would at most give her diarrhea. But this steamed corn bread was probably made with moldy old grains mixed with green vegetables. Who knew how moldy it was? She was afraid of being poisoned.
After a bowl of porridge, she was only about three-fourths full at best. She looked at the wooden barrel again and saw that the porridge inside was really just water, without a single drop of essence left. She could only put the bowl down in frustration.
She sat down again and touched her belly. She didn't know if it was because of her pregnancy, but she found herself inexplicably craving meat. She wanted it very, very much, the kind that made her heart ache.
Just then, the little cuties came out again.
Looking at the little cutie weighing only three or four taels, Yao Chunnuan's eyes were dim. It was not impossible for her to braise the little cutie or grill the little cutie.
Yao Chunnuan didn't realize that she had unknowingly spoken out her true feelings.
Mrs. Wang was shocked. "You can't eat mice or anything like that!"
Yao Chunnuan curled her lips. "In ancient times, there were no pesticides other than arsenic. These rats were pure, natural, and pollution-free. Why couldn't we eat them?" she remembered eating rat meat as a child in her rural hometown. It was the 1990s, when pesticides weren't as common, so rats were still edible. After killing them, they'd be rubbed with salt, dried in a well-ventilated place, and then stir-fried with ginger. It was delicious.
Later, the jailer brought Yao Chunnuan a thin coat, which attracted envious glances from the other women. They would never have even glanced at this coat before, but now, if they could wear one, it would be a perfect fit.
Yao Chunnuan thanked the jailer politely. She could guess with her knees that it was her family who used their connections to send her in.
The jacket was specially made long, reaching down to the hips, and the dark-colored garment was lined with a layer of cotton. It was a bit warm to wear during the day at this time of year, but at night, in this cold cell, it was a hundred times better than the quilt that had become lumpy and had been used by countless prisoners.
There were also three Hu pancakes wrapped in oil paper in the jacket, which were still warm to the touch.
The aroma of food drew the women's gazes to the pancakes in her hands. Some of them swallowed their saliva uncontrollably. How long had it been since they had eaten normal food? The last time they had eaten was the sesame pancakes Yao Chunnuan had brought when she visited them in prison. After Yao Chunnuan left, the Han family's children cried, and with the adults' pleading, the Wang family even gave them two pancakes.
"Second sister-in-law, can you..." Zhang was the first to speak.
Yao Chunnuan said coldly, "No!"
Zhang was unwilling to give up. "Second sister-in-law, can you give the child some? She is still a child and can't eat much. We adults don't care, but the child can't starve."
"I have a smaller baby in my belly, what do you say?" Yao Chunnuan was unmoved and refused bluntly. She didn't owe the Wang family anything.
Besides, hadn't she just eaten prison food? Don't think she didn't hear her daughter crying and being picky about food.
Speaking of being spoiled, she believed that her life in the future was no worse than that of the Wang family. Even she had to eat free food, so why couldn't children eat it?
Of course, if you have the ability, you can make sure your children have good food and drink and satisfy all their needs. But if you don't have the ability, just let your children face reality and don't let them develop unrealistic ideas.
Yao Chunnuan brought up the baby in her belly, leaving Zhang speechless. Yao Chunnuan's point was, she was feeding two people, how could they dare to snatch food from her?
The Han family saw this scene and felt that Yao Chunnuan was cold-hearted. However, since the Wang family couldn't get food from her, they had no chance of getting food either. So, they started to coax the children and beat the children.
The two families finally quieted down. Yao Chunnuan broke the Hu pancake into two halves. She only ate half of it, chewing it slowly, trying to let the food stay in her mouth a little longer to increase the saltiness and satisfaction in her stomach.
She put the rest away. It wasn't that she wasn't hungry, or that she couldn't finish it, but she didn't know what tomorrow would bring. Living in exile was harsh, and she didn't expect Wang Lang to take care of her. Of course, she didn't dare put her hopes of survival on others. She could only conserve some resources to prepare for the coming days.
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