MLH | Chapter 3

In the morning, Fang Zichen was woken by a series of pounding knocks on the door.

There was someone outside, the voices were noisy, there were probably many people.

He reacted a little and knew what was going on. The Ma family, the ones who wanted to skin him alive, had come.

But could the Ma family really have this many people?

It was chattering outside, lively and loud, at least twenty or thirty people.

“Fuck your mother, you dog bastard, are you opening the door or not?” someone shouted and cursed, then the door was kicked, making a thudding sound.

Fang Zichen frowned and went to open the door.

As soon as the door opened, the Ma family surrounded the entrance, not leaving even a crack, as if afraid Fang Zichen would run.

“You are that…”

“You’re the bastard who insulted Zhao ge’er?”

Madam Ma ignored the smile fading on Fang Zichen’s face. She craned her head to look into the house, empty and bare, with only a wooden plank bed, not even a broken-legged stool.

And this young man only had his face to look at, but his hair was a little messy, and the clothes on his body… seemed to be the eldest son of the village chief’s clothes?

This man was too poor.

Could they squeeze out some silver from him?

“What do you want?” Fang Zichen asked.

Madam Ma pointed at Zhao ge’er: “Do you still know Zhao ge’er?”

Fang Zichen followed the direction of her finger. Zhao ge’er was still wearing the same clothes from yesterday when he fell into the water, wrinkled and crumpled.

Zhao ge’er subconsciously looked up, just in time to meet Fang Zichen’s eyes.

His pupils shrank violently, his face shocked. He subconsciously took a step toward Fang Zichen, his lips moved, as if he wanted to say something, but when he saw Fang Zichen looking at him expressionlessly, his face unfamiliar, he lowered his head again.

“I am Zhao ge’er’s mother-in-law, that’s his grandfather, those are his father-in-law and second and third uncles,” Madam Ma pointed out the people for Fang Zichen to recognize, then said, “Yesterday, did you insult my Zhao ge’er?”

Fang Zichen: “You misunderstood, I…”

“What misunderstanding?” Madam Ma’s voice rose: “So many people saw it by the river last night, and you still want to wriggle out of it?”

“I didn’t!” Fang Zichen said.

“Then did you hold Zhao ge’er, did you kiss him, did you touch his body?”

Fang Zichen was honest: “Yes, but I…”

“It’s good that you admit it,” Madam Ma said. “You tell me what should be done!”

Fang Zichen only felt his forehead aching again and again, maybe because he hadn’t slept well last night, maybe because he was being worn down by Madam Ma’s aggressive stance.

“Auntie, I admit I kissed him and held him, but I did it to save him, not to take advantage of him.”

“You say it wasn’t, so it wasn’t?” Zhao ge’er’s father-in-law, Ma Dazhuang, pushed Fang Zichen’s shoulder: “Boy, you dare to do it and not own up to it? Taking advantage of someone is taking advantage of them, why say it so nicely.”

“Exactly,” Ma Erzhu said. “Talking about saving him, who doesn’t know what happens when someone falls in the water? If they’re rescued in time, they won’t die. Zhao ge’er just went under for a moment, if you hadn’t kissed him, would he not have woken up on his own? What nonsense about saving people.”

It was true that not everyone who fell into the water would die, but Zhao ge’er had clearly already lost consciousness at the time.

Fang Zichen’s face turned red with anger at this crooked reasoning: “Then what do you want?”

“My Ma family does not want a husband who has lost his chastity.”

Fang Zichen glanced at the old man Ma who had spoken, then asked with a half-smile, “And then?”

“You marry him.” Old Master Ma said.

Fang Zichen: “····”

Last night he had just been thinking he was at a loss.

And then… the two sides had reversed, huh.

But now he didn’t want to marry a wife either… he was still at a loss.

“Are you kidding me!”

Old Master Ma: “What, young man, you don’t want to marry?”

“My attitude isn’t obvious enough?” Fang Zichen replied.

“This is not up to you.”

Fang Zichen had run out of patience. He looked at Zhao ge’er, hoping he would stand up and help clear things up.

Zhao ge’er seemed to have accepted his fate, not struggling, not speaking, head lowered, not seeing Fang Zichen’s gaze.

Fang Zichen couldn’t make out his expression, but he unexpectedly noticed that behind Zhao ge’er there was still a child hiding, reaching up only to the height of his knees. The child’s eyes were big and round, black and bright, his nose looked very much like Zhao ge’er’s, small and high, his features quite nice, but he looked like a refugee, a huge head on a tiny body.

The child seemed very curious, peeking out from behind Zhao ge’er’s legs and looking timidly at Fang Zichen. Fang Zichen looked back, and he shot back into hiding.

Like he had seen a ghost.

Fang Zichen didn’t have time to deal with him either. The Ma family was still shouting.

He spoke kindly and politely, but they seemed not to appreciate it.

To deal with shameless people who liked to bully others, reasoning actually was useless. Only by being even more shameless and even more overbearing than the other side could you hold them down.

Madam Ma blocked Fang Zichen at the door: “Are you marrying him or not?”

Fang Zichen said nothing, his gaze not shifting at all. Madam Ma was made numb by that half-smiling, half-not expression of his, not knowing what Fang Zichen meant, whether he agreed or not.

Neither side spoke, and the atmosphere was a little strange.

In the end, Madam Ma was used to being domineering, and thinking that Fang Zichen was only one person while her family had brought the old and the young, what was there to fear?

So she said, “Since you took advantage of Zhao ge’er, today you have to marry him whether you want to or not.”

Fang Zichen asked without much feeling, “What can you do if I don’t marry? Beat me?”

“I’ll come to your house every day and make trouble. If you don’t want to live in Xiaohe Village, then try it.”

What a big tone!

Fang Zichen was almost amused in anger. Madam Ma’s sharp and mean expression made him even more irritated, especially since she kept pointing at his nose while talking.

He walked closer by two steps, raised his hand, and pointed his right hand at his left hand as he said to Madam Ma, “Do you see this palm of mine? It’s big and strong. One slap and I can slap your face crooked. Do you want to try it?”

“You… you still hit women? Are you even a man?” Madam Ma unconsciously backed up a few steps.

“I don’t hit women,” Fang Zichen said. “But I hit shrews.” He did not seem to be joking. Madam Ma felt that if she dared to open her mouth again, that slap would definitely come over without any politeness.

“You’ve gone too far!”

Old Master Ma’s cane knocked on the ground with thudding sounds. He was used to having total authority at home and issuing orders. Holding the cane was like holding imperial power. Fang Zichen was not scared of him. He glanced up and down at him, then let his gaze fall on the cane.

“Boy, don’t get too arrogant, this Xiaohe Village…”

Before he even finished speaking, everyone saw Fang Zichen take two steps forward, snatch the Ma family’s old master’s cane with lightning speed, then use both hands with force. The fine, glossy cane was split into two halves, the corpse and head separated.

Fang Zichen, with a cold face, directly threw the two pieces of wood provocatively at the old man’s feet.

That cane was not too thick, only about the size of a child’s arm, but the material was no simple thing. Ma Dazhuang had specially gone into the mountains to find it. This kind of wood was very hard, and it had been polished very smoothly. No one expected that Fang Zichen, who looked as if he had only lightly broken it, would snap it in two.

Old Master Ma was slapped hard in the face by this. He was so angry he was shaking: “You brat are arrogant. Offend our Ma family, and I’ll make sure you can’t live in the village later.”

“Are you threatening me?”

Fang Zichen’s eyes hooked slightly, and there was a touch of ruthlessness in his gaze.

An eighteen-year-old youth was at the age of being arrogant, rebellious, and impossible to talk to.

He was not afraid at all. “I’ve grown this old and no one has ever dared speak to me like that before. You’re the first. You probably don’t know what kind of person I used to be. When I was thirteen, I dared to carry a broadsword onto other people’s turf to hack people. You bunch of losers wouldn’t be enough for me to beat if you all came together, and you still dare threaten me?” He raised his index finger and pointed around at the crowd. “All of you get lost, or I’ll beat you to death.”

His momentum was extremely strong. Madam Ma subconsciously turned her head to look at her old man.

“You dare?” Old Master Ma said.

“Will you get lost or not?”

Fang Zichen’s face was icy as he walked straight toward him. Ma Dazhuang blocked his father and reached out to stop Fang Zichen: “What do you want to do?”

Fang Zichen directly showed what he wanted to do with action. He put one hand on Ma Dazhuang’s shoulder and threw a fist with the other at his stomach.

The movement was swift, just an instant.

“Ah…!!”

Hearing Ma Dazhuang’s scream, Zhao ge’er suddenly lifted his head, his expression shocked.

For a moment, the surroundings fell silent.

Then people gradually reacted.

“···Fuck, this…”

The villagers watching the excitement outside the courtyard were all stunned. No one had expected that Fang Zichen, who looked so fair, polite, and proper, would hit someone as soon as he said he would, simply more fierce than a brute.

That punch carried a huge amount of force. Ma Dazhuang clutched his stomach and bent over, lying on the ground and groaning for a long time without being able to get up.

“Husband,” Madam Ma was about to help him up, but Ma Dazhuang was in so much pain that cold sweat poured down his face: “D-don’t… touch me.”

“Bastard, you dare hit my eldest brother.” Ma Erzhu and Ma Laosan looked at each other and rushed toward Fang Zichen together.

If they didn’t deal with Fang Zichen today, how would their Ma family stand in Xiaohe Village in the future.

The villagers were afraid of them. Aside from not wanting to provoke them because they were overbearing and unreasonable, there was another reason, and that was fear that if a real conflict broke out, they would be beaten to death by the Ma family’s three brothers.

Those three brothers were all burly and stout, with fierce tempers, all of them not easy to deal with.

The two brothers surrounded Fang Zichen. Someone was truly afraid they would make a life-and-death mess and said to the person beside them, “They’re fighting, what do we do? Why hasn’t the village chief come yet.”

“The village chief isn’t on four legs, how could he get here that fast.”

“Should we go stop…”

Before the rest of the words were finished, Ma Erzhu threw a punch straight at Fang Zichen’s face. The fist came wrapped in wind and smashed in his direction. Fang Zichen tilted his head slightly to dodge and at the same time caught Ma Erzhu’s wrist, then turned and kicked sharply, directly sweeping at Ma Laosan, who had ambushed him from behind.

That kick swept across his face. Ma Laosan only felt a buzzing in his ears, then the world spun and he fell straight to the ground.

“You bastard…”

Ma Erzhu twisted his wrist but could not break free. Fang Zichen’s strength was frighteningly great.

Seeing his eldest brother and third brother fall one after another, he was furious to death and cursed while struggling, “Bastard thing, let go…”

Fang Zichen gripped Ma Erzhu’s wrist and twisted hard. With a crack, it broke.

“Keep your fucking mouth clean. Bastard? Who the fuck is the bastard?”

The three Ma wives stared blankly, forgetting even to light up their usual skill of rolling on the ground and making a scene.

This outsider was so vicious when he fought, he might really hit women too.

Ma Erzhu clutched his wrist and howled. Fang Zichen kicked his shoulder and sent him flying, then walked up to the trembling Old Master Ma, grabbed his collar and lifted him up. Under the other man’s disbelieving expression, he said in a tone cold enough to cut, “I told you to get lost and you didn’t get lost, and you had to drag your sons to my door to act tough. Are you sick of living?”

“What are you doing, what are you doing, Fang Zichen, what nonsense are you causing?” The village chief finally arrived again, delayed as always.

He pushed through the crowd and walked inside. Seeing the Ma family’s three brothers lying on the ground, none of them able to stand, and Fang Zichen seeming as if he still wanted to make a move against Old Master Ma, he was almost mad with anger.

Suppressing his temper, he said to Fang Zichen, “Put him down quickly, are you still planning to lay hands on an old man?”

“Why not?” Fang Zichen still did not let go. A full body of hostility pressed toward Old Master Ma as he said, “The top is kind, the bottom is filial. The top is unkind, the bottom is unfilial. For someone who does not respect his age, even if I make a move, what about it?”

Those words made sense.

The village chief really could not refute it: “But laying hands on an old man is always not good. Let go quickly.”

Fang Zichen said, “I never said I was going to beat him.” He let go and stepped back a few paces.

Old Master Ma’s legs went weak, and he staggered a few steps before being steadied by his daughters-in-law.

Fang Zichen pursed his lips.

He was only scaring people. It was not like he was really that heartless, punching an old man in the face.

“Look at what you’ve done, tell me now, what are we supposed to do?” the village chief asked.

“What to do?” Fang Zichen found it a little funny. He lowered his eyes and said, “Isn’t it a very simple matter? You tell them to get lost, and this is solved.”

His gaze held not a trace of warmth, cold enough to seep into people, and his lean frame at this moment also carried great pressure.

The village chief looked at him and somehow felt that he was a little different today.

After his father got a bit better, he told him about what had happened on the mountain. Fang Zichen had once said that he ate meat every meal, and if there wasn’t meat, the plain rice wasn’t tasty.

What kind of family could eat meat every meal these days?

Even families in town could not be so extravagant as to eat meat every meal.

Looking again at the night when Fang Zichen sent the old man home, at the dinner table he had not even recognized coarse rice, and he did not know how to do any work at all, carrying a scholarly air all over. He was probably from a rich family.

Then that made sense.

The temper of a young master from a rich family really was not very good. With the Ma family’s father and sons being that kind of manner, if they had not enraged him enough to make him kill, that already counted as the other side being kind.

After thinking it through, the village chief sighed and said to the Ma family, “Did you hear that? Are you leaving, or do you still want to keep making trouble?”

Did they even need to ask? Their main force had already been beaten down.

Of course they had to go back.

They couldn’t get any advantage facing Fang Zichen.

Madam Ma pointed at Zhao ge’er, her voice weak as she asked.

“We’re not making trouble anymore, then that slut… Zhao ge’er? What about Zhao ge’er? Anyway, our family will definitely not want a son-husband like that who doesn’t keep to female propriety anymore.”