Chapter 191 Release
With Liu Huazhi, Liu Erleng, and the others receiving their due punishment, Grandpa Sheng and the others were finally relieved and no longer worried that Liu Erleng and the others would seek revenge.
Even if Liu Erleng is released, it will be ten years from now, and it's uncertain whether he can survive in the mine until his release.
Upon receiving this good news, Xu Cuilian and others specially brought several pounds of meat to offer their congratulations.
Zhang Zhaodi, supporting her slightly aching lower back, carefully leaned against a thick cushion, her expression somewhat complicated:
When the news of Liu Huazhi's imprisonment reached the village, Peng Chunlan cursed her every day at home, and the whole family avoided people when they went out.
The atmosphere in Huai Shu Village is quite good. At most, the villagers will bicker a few times or secretly steal a few vegetables from other people's fields. There has never been a prisoner who has to go to jail.
Willow branches can be considered to have set a precedent.
Lately, when villagers go out and say they are from Huai Shu Village, people look at them strangely and ask if someone from the village has been imprisoned.
The villagers felt that Liu Huazhi had ruined the village's reputation and believed that Peng Chunlan had failed to raise her daughter properly, so they suggested to the village chief that Peng Chunlan and her family be driven out of the village.
However, the village chief did not agree.
"The village chief said that everyone should take responsibility for their own actions. The one who made the mistake was Liu Huazhi. Even the government did not investigate the Liu family for failing to properly educate their daughter, so he, as the village chief, had no right to drive them away."
They also said that no one can guarantee that their own descendants will not make mistakes, and if the Liu family is driven away, will everyone have to follow this method from now on?
No one could guarantee anything, so the villagers stopped mentioning driving the Liu family away. They treated them like they were invisible, and no one spoke to them.
Sheng An nodded: "The village chief's decision is correct. As long as the Liu family doesn't cause trouble in the village, they can still live there."
Zhang Zhaodi lowered her head and touched her belly, her eyes full of love: "I will teach my child well in the future, and make sure he is a person with a righteous heart, and does not go astray."
Liu Huazhi grew crooked from the root; her childhood behavior was disliked, and girls her age in the village didn't like to play with her.
Before she got married, she was involved in a secret affair.
The fact that she associated with bandits like Liu Erleng shows that she is not a good person.
An An narrowly escaped death last time; if she had been even slightly less lucky, she might not have made it back.
Thinking about the consequences, Zhang Zhaodi felt no sympathy for Liu Huazhi at all; the five-year labor sentence was entirely her own fault.
Looking at her best friend's belly, Sheng An gently reminded her, "Your belly is getting bigger every day, so you have to be extra careful. The weather is getting colder and colder, so don't go out when it's raining, snowing, or freezing."
A happy smile spread across Zhang Zhaodi's face, radiating a unique maternal tenderness.
“Yes, Da Kui won’t let me go to the workshop anymore. He goes to the workshop every day to get bamboo strips for me. I’ve been working at home until the baby is born.”
Sheng An asked with concern, "Now that your aunt's sausage workshop is up and running, won't the noise from having so many people at home affect your pregnancy?"
Zhang Zhaodi smiled and said, "Mother rented a small courtyard nearby and is making sausages there with people. She has hired several more people than last year, saying she will give the baby in her belly a generous amount of lucky money for the New Year."
Sheng An couldn't help but laugh, "This child is lucky to receive New Year's money even before being born."
Which mother doesn't hope her child will be blessed? Hearing this, Zhang Zhaodi's smile softened even more: "Who says otherwise? My mother said that being born into my womb is like falling into a honey pot."
The Zhang family's pork business has been stable year-round. Before Xu Cuilian's sausage business even started, restaurants of all sizes and familiar households in the city had already placed orders for a thousand catties of goods in advance.
This year's sausage business will yield a profit of at least a hundred taels.
Needless to say, Zhang Zhaodi's bamboo weaving was in high demand in Qingzhou and gradually opened up markets in Jinling, Pingzhou and other places. In the past six months, she has earned more than 400 taels of silver by selling bamboo weaving.
Four hundred taels was the limit of Zhang Zhaodi's energy and time, not the limit of the value of bamboo weaving.
The Zhang family's future will only get better and better, from having enough to eat and wear to becoming a wealthy family. Zhang Zhaodi's unborn child is born at a good time and is destined to live a life of luxury.
In the evening, Xu Jinnian returned from Master Jiang's house, looking rather unwell, and hesitated to speak when facing Sheng An.
Sheng An was speechless: "Get to the point, why are you being so long-winded?"
Xu Jinnian rubbed her head: "I was afraid that telling you would affect your appetite, so I hesitated about whether to tell you after we finish eating."
Sheng An's heart sank, and the smile on his face gradually disappeared: "Liu Erleng escaped from prison?"
Aside from this, she couldn't think of anything else that could affect her appetite.
Xu Jinnian put his arm around his wife's waist and kissed the corner of her lips reassuringly: "It's not Liu Erleng, it's Liu Huazhi. She was diagnosed with pregnancy this afternoon, and the government will release her to go home by the day after tomorrow at the latest."
Sheng An frowned: "Pregnant? Are you sure you're really pregnant?"
Xu Jinnian nodded: "This afternoon, I personally found a doctor to go to the prison to take her pulse, and it was confirmed that she is more than a month pregnant."
Sheng An rubbed his temples in frustration, a sense of powerlessness rising within him.
According to the laws of the Great Wei Dynasty, pregnant criminals were not exempt from their crimes, but they would continue to serve their sentences in prison only after the child in their womb was born and weaned.
As expected of a reborn woman, she is indeed quite lucky.
Sensing Sheng An's unusual mood, Xu Jinnian's expression was dark and unreadable: "This child will be her death warrant."
He had barely finished speaking when he received an elbow to the stomach: "What nonsense are you talking about!"
Sheng An glared at the man, annoyed, and then pinched his waist, still feeling unsatisfied: "She's pregnant after all, and the little life inside her is so innocent!"
Even if Liu Huazhi's crime was heinous, she didn't want the couple to have the blood of a fetus on their hands.
Thinking of this, Sheng An's gaze towards men changed.
This guy's dark side really makes him seem like a crazy, perverted lunatic.
Xu Jinnian disliked that look very much, so he raised his hand to cover her eyes, his tone filled with grievance: "I am not an animal, how could I lay a hand on an unborn child?"
Realizing he had misunderstood, Sheng An looked embarrassed and pulled his hand away, asking, "Are you saying Xu Huaining would resort to underhanded tactics?"
Xu Jinnian sarcastically remarked, "He wouldn't allow his child to have a criminal mother."
Xu Huaining is extremely greedy. Liu Huazhi's crime has already affected his future. If they have another child, his path to the imperial examinations will come to an end.
Sheng An was silent for a moment, then slowly said, "Then wish her good luck."
She wouldn't lay a hand on the pregnant Liu Huazhi, nor would she warn Liu Huazhi to be wary of her husband.
Whether Liu Huazhi can save her child depends on her luck.
As Xu Jinnian expected, on the afternoon of the third day, Liu Huazhi, who had been locked up in jail for half a month, was released.
Stepping out of the dark cell and into the bright sunlight, Liu Huazhi's eyes were momentarily unaccustomed to the sight, and she instinctively raised her hand to shield them.
Only after her eyes slowly adjusted did she open them and look around, but she did not see the person she was looking for.
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