Chapter 128:
There was just about a month left until the end of summer.
Li Sanmao and the others were in jail, but she and Miaomiao still had to live.
The next day, it was time to go to Yumian Tower.
The sky outside hadn’t brightened yet, but Luo Zhi’er got up and started preparing to go to town.
She got up and fried a few egg pancakes, boiled some white rice porridge, and had some with Miaomiao first.
She had originally planned to go straight to town to eat, but since the mother and daughter had to walk, it would be very tiring, so she still made some food to fill their stomachs.
After eating, she changed into clean clothing.
Looking at these things on the ground, she found a wheelbarrow that she hadn’t used for a long time, put the wooden bucket and bamboo basket on it, and tied them with hemp rope.
She then carried another bamboo basket on her back, and inside the bamboo basket was the termite mushroom oil jar.
She took out the gold bowl hidden at home, along with the banknotes and such, and hurriedly brought them all to town.
She put a sun hat on Miaomiao and changed her into comfortable cloth shoes. “Let’s go, Miaomiao.”
She bent down to push, dug it out—this really required technology.
Almost tipped over!
“Mom, Miaomiao will push with you.”
“Good!”
The mother and daughter stumbled along and got onto the avenue.
At this time, the sky hadn’t brightened yet, the moon was high in the sky, and there was almost no one on the road.
This was the reason Luo Zhi’er got up early. The two headed north, and halfway there, Zhao Maogen’s ox cart caught up.
There were quite a few people on the cart, including Zhao Er’s Wife, Li Daniu’s Mother, Zheng Da Niang, and others.
Some looked wooden and were dozing off!
Zheng Da Niang and the others were taking turns boasting in a roundabout way about how promising their children were, boasting about their clothing cloth, and some even said which daughter bought the silver bracelet.
Li Daniu’s Mother said nothing. She had pulled some green vegetables from the field early in the morning and planned to take them to town to sell!
Looking at her patched clothes and empty wrists, she felt heartbroken.
As they were talking, they saw a familiar fat figure ahead, limping along while pushing a wheelbarrow.
Miaomiao was also pushing the cart with effort. When passing them, she stretched her head out long.
On her wheelbarrow were two wooden buckets, a smaller bamboo basket. The wooden buckets had lids, the bamboo basket was covered with a cloth piece—nothing could be seen, and the one on her back was the same.
Zhao Maogen nodded to her but said nothing, just continued driving the ox cart.
“Oh! San Mao’s Wife, how come it’s just you mother and daughter?”
“You guys are night owls, right? The sky hasn’t brightened yet, and you’ve already gotten this far?”
Zhao Er’s Wife tilted her neck and shouted loudly.
“Hehe, Aunt Huaihua, you’re also going to town for market day?”
“Yeah!”
“What’s all this on your cart? Looks like so much—surely not all for selling?”
“Heavens, how much silver would that sell for!”
A glint flashed in Li Daniu’s Mother’s eyes.
As soon as she spoke, the ox cart sped away and turned a corner, going far off!
Zhao Er’s Wife secretly cursed this Zhao Maogen—why drive so fast?
She hadn’t yet found out exactly what Luo Zhi’er was pushing!
Luo Zhi’er sighed—carts were indeed fast.
Looking at the blisters on her hands, if she had a mule cart, that would be good too. She would just need to hold the mule’s rope and let Miaomiao sit in the cart, without having to work so hard.
After a while, she also got the hang of pushing it. She let Miaomiao sit on the wheelbarrow and pushed her along.
Although she was strong, no one could keep pushing like that for several hours.
Miaomiao sang little tunes on the wheelbarrow, and they walked for nearly two hours.
They finally arrived in town. She first went to Yumian Tower, delivered the goods, and took Miaomiao to the money house.
Inside, she opened a savings account and a storage account in her name.
She kept the loose silver she needed for use and deposited the banknotes, land deed, and gold bowl.
Keeping them at home always made her uneasy, especially after that incident last time when Zhou Shi pried open her small wooden box while she was out, leaving her with lingering resentment.
The person handling deposits saw a rural fat woman depositing so many banknotes, plus a gold bowl, and found it a bit strange.
But, as the saying goes, the money house had its rules—customer matters were confidential, and they just did their jobs.
After depositing, it was still early, so Luo Zhi’er took Miaomiao to the place where she bought books last time and bought a few enlightenment books and a calligraphy copybook.
Miaomiao suddenly had an idea and said she wanted to draw a specimen book about insects.
Luo Zhi’er thought it was a good idea—the little one wanted to sketch the world of insects.
So she spent six coins more to buy a drawing book.
Of course she knew her little child was just excited for the moment and had a wild idea, but she absolutely supported it.
She thought letting her draw in her free time was great—it would train observation skills, cultivate sentiment, and she could practice calligraphy with the copybook.
On the way, passing Xi Shui Street, she saw “Chen Ji”—the gate was tightly closed, still sealed up!
Today she finally got the news that Chen Ji had been confiscated of property!
Because they sold fake goods, everyone was deeply wary of counterfeit name-brand cloth.
Nearby cloth shops’ business wasn’t great either, with few people buying.
But for rural people, cloth was fine as long as the price was cheap.
For well-off families and wealthy households, quality still mattered.
Therefore, the major cloth sellers in town and shops targeting commoners were still bustling.
While buying undergarments for Miaomiao, Luo Zhi’er casually asked a clothing merchant about Li Lei.
They all looked wary and advised her not to inquire—the government officials would decide.
But she still got some information from a gossipy merchant.
He analyzed that if they still couldn’t catch Li Lei in this case, Chen Ji’s head would inevitably face jail time.
However, if they could pay enough silver, they might reduce or avoid the prison sentence—it depended on whether Chen Ji had the capital and was willing to pay silver to settle.
“But wasn’t the property confiscated?”
The man gave her a look,
“You’re really dense. Fine, I’ll tell you a bit—confiscation is just the public part. Which merchant doesn’t stash some things privately?”
As for Li Lei’s close relatives implicated in this, if Chen Ji’s head got desperate, it would be a dog-eat-dog mess.
“If they’re unwilling to pay silver and handle it poorly, they’ll probably all end up jailed for life!
Suddenly, the wife of Old Wang next door came over and chimed in:
“Then the Old Li Family just needs to scrape together the silver!”
The man said quietly,
“Hehe, easier said than done. Chen Ji has been doing business for decades and insists they can’t come up with it.”
“And the Old Li Family are said to be dirt-poor lifelong rural people. Even if they emptied all their belongings, could it cover even a fraction of the losses?”
“Sigh, does that mean serving a life sentence?”
“Raising a child to this point—what a failure, you know, sigh.”
“Not necessarily. Hehe, what if Li Lei has a change of heart and comes back? Then they’d be free!”
“I think it’s unlikely!”
Li Lei hadn’t appeared on this street since that day.
This was pretty much as she expected—if they could catch Li Lei, maybe Li Sanmao could get out earlier!
Wait for him to come back on his own?
He was probably still waiting for the whole family to take the blame for him!
Unless the family became prosperous!
Jiangnan’s Hong Futai?
If she wanted Li Sanmao out, it seemed she still had to beg them to show mercy!
Luo Zhi’er pondered ways to rescue Li Sanmao all the way and unknowingly arrived at the seed shop.
Remembering her land at Ma Huang Gou, she lifted her foot and went in to take a look.
