After washing up, the couple went to rest peacefully.
After lying down, Li Mai was lying flat on her back when she suddenly felt her stomach churning.
She gently placed her hand on her bulging belly, feeling the baby's movements.
Just as Zhou Quan was about to help her cover herself with the blanket, he saw a scene that surprised him, and his eyes widened in astonishment.
Li Mai gently placed his large hand on her belly to feel the baby's movements.
Zhou Quan felt the force under his palm, and his eyes gradually curved up. So cute.
Li Mai smiled as she looked at Zhou Quan's happy face. Thinking of his loneliness in his previous life, she sighed in her heart, "In this life, I will definitely give you a warm life."
She still remembered that scene: in the raging flames, even though he was roaring angrily, he didn't harm her, a child.
She knew he liked children, and she was curious whether he had never had offspring with a female or woman in all his years of life.
However, this problem is destined to be unsolvable. He doesn't want to recall his past life memories. All she knows about him is what she read in books, what he told her before, and what she briefly mentioned when she helped him seal his memories.
She didn't see him harm the child, nor did she see any female beasts or women around him.
Li Mai even admired her ancestors a little, wondering how they came up with the idea of creating a woman to borrow a seed from Luo Ying.
However, looking at their current situation, it has to be said that the ancestor's goal has been achieved, but the time and space have changed, and they can no longer see it.
Zhou Quan then helped the clan chief maintain order in the village for three more days.
At the same time, she arranged the work for Zhou Zhong and the others. Li Mai also distributed the books and materials she had prepared to Zhou Zhong and the others, so that they could work during the day and study at night.
Zhou Lin stayed in the village for the past few days to assemble the spinning machine and help Li Mai install it in the weaving workshop. After the contracted textile workers tested it and found no problems, he took Nan Su back to town to continue running his shop.
Zhou Tao and Zhou Heng also left with Zhou Lin first. They went back to town to open a shop. Li Mai and Zhou Quan ran the village's weaving workshops normally for a few days. After seeing that there were no problems, they returned to town at the end of October to continue opening their shops.
Zhuzhu also left the village with Zhou Quan and Li Mai.
Back in town, everyone got busy.
In early November, Yun Chang returned, along with Xu Changhuan, Old Yang, Chu Yan, and Zhong Hui, and even Xu Che and Cheng Jianghai.
They had been busy for a year, and when they learned that Yun Chang was going back to Qing Shi Town to get married, they shamelessly followed her.
The excuse they gave their families was that they were out having fun with Prince Yun and incidentally attending his wedding ceremony. Their families were naturally happy that their child could get along well with Prince Yun.
Yun Chang told Li Mai that the Xu family's matter had been resolved. The Emperor personally arranged for the Dali Temple to thoroughly investigate the case from that year. This time, the investigation was thorough, and it turned out that Yao had colluded with two other families and several officials in the court to use that incident to eliminate the Xu family.
After failing to obtain the Xu family's incense manual, they planned to completely eliminate the Xu family. If the Xu family were gone, they would no longer be able to make incense, so how could the Xu family surpass the three families?
The main reason why the Jiang family got involved and took action against the Xu clan chief was related to Jiang Wenhan's mother. Xu Changhuan's aunt, Bai, was indeed the daughter born to the Yao family patriarch by his mistress, and she took the mistress's surname, Bai.
The Jiang family and the Yao family secretly became related by marriage. In fact, it could be said that the Jiang family was caught in the feud between the Yao family and the Xu family. In the end, they sided with the Yao family, which is still very powerful, and abandoned the Xu family, which has declined.
This explains why the Jiang family stopped associating with Xu Xing's wife, Xu Jiangshi, after her death.
Jiang Wenhan's initial purpose in opening the incense shop and secretly associating with his cousins was indeed to help them. However, after the Yao family's instigation, he couldn't resist his mother's pleas to listen to his maternal grandfather and the Yao family head.
Jiang Wenhan is not a bad person at heart, but he couldn't resist the pleas of his family, which led him to this awkward situation.
He felt guilty towards his two cousins, whom his aunt had given birth to, and he also failed to help the Yao family handle things properly. This time, Li Mai and Zhou Quan rescued the head of the Xu family, and with Yun Chang's intervention, everything was now out in the open. At the same time, Bai's identity was also revealed to the public.
In fact, not long after giving birth to her, Bai's mother married a widower with a child in Xiangzhou City. The two formed a family, and Bai's mother gave birth to a son with him, who was the father of Mr. Yang, the painter in Qingshi Town.
It's true that Ms. Bai is Mr. Yang's aunt, but Ms. Bai and Mr. Yang's father are half-siblings and have different surnames.
After hearing this, Li Mai felt it was so melodramatic. She then realized that she had overlooked something. Right, when she first saw Jiang Wenhan at Mr. Yang's house, Jiang Wenhan said that Mr. Yang was his cousin.
She hadn't thought of that. However, Mr. Yang didn't live with his family in Xiangzhou. Instead, he lived alone in Qingshi Town and only had some contact with Jiang Wenhan. He spent the rest of his time at home in his calligraphy and painting studio. It seemed that he hadn't been involved in their affairs.
Of course, as a result of this incident, the Yao family and the other two prominent families in the incense trade were also punished by the emperor, who confiscated all their property. Of those who committed the evil deeds back then, only the old patriarch of the Yao family was still alive. He was seventy-seven years old this year and was sentenced to immediate execution.
His son, who was also Jiang Wenhan's uncle and plotted to eliminate the Xu family, was sentenced to ten years in prison.
The heads of the other two families were also sentenced to ten years in prison for their involvement in the plot to eliminate the enemy completely; it was Jiang Wenhan who implicated them.
At the same time, the emperor also decreed that no one from their three families for five generations was allowed to participate in the imperial examinations, pursue an official career, or join the army.
They can resume their businesses and start over, and the imperial court will no longer interfere. However, they are warned not to harbor any more malicious intentions. Furthermore, all three families will be subject to the supervision of the Beijing Chamber of Commerce in their future business dealings.
The punishments imposed on the three families were of no use to the Xu family, but they were a fatal blow to the other three families. All the wealth they had accumulated over the years was gone, their silver and jewelry were confiscated, leaving them only with their immovable mansions and shops, their people, and their connections.
In other words, five generations of these three families were destined to be ordinary people, merchants, or farmers; they could not achieve anything, nor could they study or participate in the imperial examinations.
Even the few people in the three families who currently hold official positions have been stripped of their posts and sent home.
The Emperor expressed deep sympathy for the Xu family's current situation, but the dead cannot be brought back. He lifted all the bans on the Xu family and allowed them to continue running their incense shop. He also issued a proclamation to the whole country, stating that the Xu family had been wronged back then.
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