A week before Lunar New Year's Eve, the verdicts for Liu Lili's mother and brother were handed down. Liu's mother was found guilty of severely injuring and maiming her own granddaughter, a particularly heinous act, and was sentenced to 20 years in prison, to be served immediately.
Liu Lili's brother kidnapped his niece and illegally profited a huge sum of 2,000 yuan. The circumstances were serious, and he was sentenced to 30 years in prison, to be executed immediately.
As for the other two accomplices who helped kidnap Yan Bao'er, they were both sentenced to ten years in prison, to be served immediately.
The two accomplices looked at Liu Lili's brother with fierce eyes. It's likely that in the future, Liu Lili's brother will definitely experience what it's like to be abused.
It is despicable that the maternal grandmother and maternal uncle, who are the direct relatives of the victim, could kidnap their own daughter's daughter and maim her. Some onlookers even felt that the sentence was too lenient.
When the news reached Liu Lili's ears, she didn't know whether she should cry or laugh; her feelings were incredibly complicated.
Liu's mother is almost fifty years old. By the time she is able to leave the house, she will be in her seventies. It is unknown who will be able to support her then. It is obviously impossible for her to rely on Liu Lili.
The police also sent word that Liu's mother wanted to see Liu Lili one last time, and specifically pointed out that this might be the last time the mother and daughter would see each other.
Liu Lili refused without hesitation. As a daughter, she had repaid everything she was owed, including her wages after she started working, her dowry when she got married, and the gifts her mother gave her when she came to visit for the autumn harvest.
Even with such filial piety towards her mother, she didn't receive the maternal love and filial piety she imagined. Instead, her daughter was kidnapped, and the mother was forced to pay off her brother's gambling debts. The mother even brutally beat her daughter to a pulp. What a deep grudge this must have been.
Although that's what she thought, Liu Lili was also suffering greatly. She lay on the bed listlessly, silently licking her wounds.
During this time, Yan Bao'er stayed with Nan Nan, and Xin Nan also went back and forth between the two places. Seeing Liu Lili's condition, Xin Nan didn't know how to comfort her.
Asking him to let Liu's mother and her brother go was absolutely impossible, but facing his increasingly thin wife, Xinan also felt indescribable sadness. However, thinking of Yan Bao'er, Xinan straightened his back.
"Southwest, I actually wanted to go help out at Nannan's place too. With so many people coming to eat New Year's Eve dinner, we definitely won't have enough manpower, but I'm afraid." Liu Lili had gradually adjusted and finally focused her attention on what she should be doing.
Southwest nodded, took a small scarf from her pocket, and placed it in Liu Lili's hand: "This is from Nannan. In case Bao'er is scared, you can wrap it around yourself."
Liu Lili nodded gratefully and looked at Xinan, saying, "Xinan, I'm so glad I married you, otherwise I definitely wouldn't be able to live my life."
Southwest smiled. Even if Liu Lili had a thousand faults, her feelings for Yan Bao'er and him were genuine. For that reason alone, he had to be a good husband and a good father.
He patted Liu Lili's hand reassuringly and said, "Don't think too much. I'm going to the factory. It's almost Chinese New Year, and there are still many things waiting for me to arrange. You get some rest. I'm leaving now."
Liu Lili nodded. She also had to get busy. She needed to wash the quilts, wipe the windows, mop the floor, and buy some New Year's goods.
When people get busy, they forget everything else, and Liu Lili's mood gradually improved.
The Yan and Ye families were equally busy, especially Yan Xiaonan, who had to spend a lot of money every year at the end of the year. This essential event brought her both pain and joy.
Looking at the expenditure budgets and amounts submitted by various departments, Yan Xiaonan felt her heart was about to shatter into pieces, but then looking at the numbers on the balance sheet, her heart was inexplicably healed.
Holding her personal Parker pen, she kept signing her name. Department heads took the signed forms and rushed to the finance department, so the finance department had a huge workload these past few days.
Ye Chenming and Ye Huili have also started to rarely come home. As the main leaders of their respective research institutions, they face even greater pressure and have to deal with more difficult matters.
Similarly, Yan Aidang, Yan Dongnan, Yan Beinan, and Tiege all face the same problem. Liujin has even stopped making phone calls; he'd rather take a quick nap than make a phone call.
Compared to the busy group, Cuihua, Yan Xiaoqiang, Xue Ying, and Fubao seemed much calmer. With the help of the guards, they brought back large quantities of meat and vegetables from the market every day.
Even before the Lunar New Year, the three kitchens in the eight-courtyard house were already in operation. The wisps of smoke rising every day carried an enticing aroma, making the guards on duty inside and outside the gate suffer greatly.
Fortunately, the ordeal only lasted while they were on duty. After they were relieved of their duties, they were still fortunate enough to be able to enjoy those delicious foods.
Grandma Yan finally waited for Yan Xiaonan to come home and grabbed her arm: "Nannan, tomorrow is New Year's Eve. You are supposed to be married into the Ye family, but Grandma wants you to kneel with me to pay respects to the ancestors of the Yan family this year, is that alright?"
Yan Xiaonan understood what Grandma Yan meant. In Grandma Yan's heart, she was like a goddess descended to earth. How glorious it would be for the Yan family to have a goddess to worship!
I helped Grandma Yan onto the electric scooter and drove it to the entrance of a place that looked like an ancestral hall. Grandma Yan looked at the solemn and ancient building and was speechless.
It turns out that Yan Xiaonan and Ye Chenming had been discussing this problem for several months. Yan Xiaonan is a core figure in the Yan family, but for the Ye family, she is more of a matriarch.
So the two of them discussed with Ye Ren that on New Year's Eve this year, the ancestral tablets of the Yan family and the Ye family would be placed together, and the descendants of the Yan family and the Ye family would worship them generation after generation.
Ye Ren wholeheartedly agreed. Compared to the Yan family, the Ye family was indeed small in number. Even with the addition of the three little ones, the number of people was only about the size of a round table. But if the Yan family were included, the number would be quite impressive. He believed that the Ye family's ancestors would have hoped to see the family prosper like this.
For this ceremony, Ye Ren specially invited a famous feng shui master from Hong Kong Island to arrange the layout of the eight-courtyard house. He also built a bungalow far from the master bedroom and decorated it like an ancestral hall to house the ancestral tablets.
Ye Ren looked at the plaque on the ancestral hall, tears welling up in his eyes. He seemed to see his grandfather, leading his father and himself as a child, stepping over the high threshold of the ancestral hall and kneeling to worship their ancestors.
Now, in this capital city, in this eight-courtyard siheyuan, he has finally achieved it. The Ye Family Ancestral Hall and the Yan Family Ancestral Hall, two plaques side by side, hang high above the ancestral hall.
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