MLH | Chapter 9

Zhao ge’er was also a little dazed. Fang Zichen frowned, looking at the place on his chest that had been hit, and there were still some bits of dirt clinging there now. He seemed to be thinking about something, looking a little unhappy.

Zhao ge’er was uneasy, his heart lifting into his throat. He was just about to explain and say sorry, when Fang Zichen again did not play by the rules.

“You threw a stone at me from that far away. If I’d been standing right in front of you just now, would you have turned around and slapped me?”

Zhao ge’er secretly let out a breath of relief. “·····That wasn’t a stone.”

A stone could kill someone.

“You still say,” Fang Zichen brushed off the dirt, “your place doesn’t say that whatever-sang-gong is above heaven? How dare you still throw things at me! Absolutely lawless.”

After hitting him once, Zhao ge’er seemed to have gained some courage. Seeing that Fang Zichen did not seem angry either, he pointed at the culprit beneath Fang Zichen’s foot, the one that had still remained solid after hitting someone and falling to the ground, and argued, “It was it that hit you, not me.”

“Oh, oh oh oh!” Fang Zichen had not expected the obedient, compliant, timid Zhao ge’er from before to suddenly pull something like this. Like a lecher who had seen a beauty, he circled Zhao ge’er once, looking him over from top to bottom again and again. Zhao ge’er was stared at until his nerves went taut, his knuckles gripping the hoe so hard the tips of his fingers turned white.

Only when Zhao ge’er was almost unable to bear it did Fang Zichen speak. “You’re so good at shirking blame, you might as well just be called Lai ge’er, what are you still called Zhao ge’er for?”

“Who told you to talk nonsense.” Zhao ge’er said softly.

Fang Zichen was close enough to hear him. “Where did I talk nonsense?”

“You said, you said···” Zhao ge’er could not get it out.

He was too embarrassed to repeat it.

What little bird, what second one, that was not nonsense? And he was even indirectly saying that Zhao ge’er was perverted.

And now he was denying it.

“See, you can’t even say it yourself,” Fang Zichen said. “Next time you dare throw stones at·····”

“Not a stone.”

“I don’t care what kind of head it was, anyway, if you dare to hit me again next time, I’ll beat people. I’m warning you.” Fang Zichen tried to scare him, desperately trying to save face. “You were there the day I beat Ma Dazhuang and the others, too! I beat people, tsk, that’s something quite impressive.” He pinched Zhao ge’er’s thin arm, as if one light squeeze would snap it in two, and said, “Someone like you, if I threw one punch, I could knock down ten. I’m not exaggerating, and I’m not bragging.”

Zhao ge’er seemed to have really gotten the guts of a bear and the courage of a leopard. “But that day you told the village chief that you don’t hit women, and you don’t hit ge’er.”

So that was why you were so arrogant?

Fang Zichen choked for a moment, then said shamelessly, “Aiya, that’s why women and ge’er like you are simple. A man’s mouth is a lying ghost, whoever believes it is a fool with smoke coming out of his head.”

Zhao ge’er seemed to have an obstinate trust in him and did not believe his words, but he still asked, “Then would you really hit me?”

Fang Zichen could not be bothered to talk to him, and directly slapped his butt. With a crisp, loud smack, he said, “What are you standing there for? Ah Xi, if you don’t work now, see if I beat you to death or not.”

“If I didn’t give you a little lesson, you’d be going against heaven.”

Zhao ge’er: “·····”

Zhao ge’er’s face suddenly flushed red, as if smoke were about to rise from the top of his head. His whole body burned hot. He turned and hurried away from Fang Zichen, heading to the other side.

Fang Zichen only took it as him being scared, and felt secretly pleased in his heart.

Yesterday, Zhao ge’er had been so nervous just being with him. It had only been a day, and he was already daring to throw stones at him. In the future, would he go straight to stabbing him with a knife?

His Third Young Master Fang was not some soft persimmon.

The last time he saved Zhao ge’er and was inexplicably beaten by someone, he had wanted to hit back on the spot, but when he saw it was a woman, he had not made a move. Though he really did not lay hands on the old, weak, sick, or disabled, and did not hit women or ge’er, scaring them a couple of times was still something he could do.

He had come from modern times. Though he had not made any plans for the future, he would not restrain Zhao ge’er either, or make him circle around him and report everything. People were born free. It was not as if once one got married, one had to be imprisoned in that tiny patch of land. As a couple, one strong and the other obedient and gentle was the best choice. If both sides were strong, would that not mean a small argument every day, a big one every two days, and running to the hospital every few days?

Now that Zhao ge’er was showing signs of acting wild over his head and turning into a shrew, he could not indulge him. He had to nip it in the bud right away, or else if he could not beat him in the future, how would they live?

Fang Zichen picked up the sweet potatoes he had dug earlier and went over to Zhao ge’er’s side.

Little Cutie had already been tricked by him into sleeping under a tree.

Fang Zichen stood behind Zhao ge’er, looking at that section of neck, reddened from the sun and wet with sweat, and his steps involuntarily stopped.

Zhao ge’er was really a very thin, very small person. The clothes that had originally not fit him very well now hung loose on his body, and now that they were soaked with sweat they stuck to his slightly protruding spine. His upper body leaned forward, slightly bent, and with each movement the butterfly bones became more and more visible.

The day the Ma family made trouble at their door, the village chief had told him about Zhao ge’er’s situation.

Sold to the Ma family at seven, he had originally been given as a child husband to Ma Dazhuang’s second son. Ma Dazhuang’s second son was called Ma Tao, and he had been born stupid. They had originally planned to wait until Zhao ge’er grew up and marry him to take care of him, but then Ma Tao drowned at the age of ten.

At that time, the Ma family’s conditions were still acceptable, but they did not want to keep Zhao ge’er, this idle freeloader. They had originally wanted to sell him again, but Ma Wen said he liked Zhao ge’er, and no matter what he refused to let Ma Dazhuang and the others sell Zhao ge’er.

Ma Wen was Ma Dazhuang’s eldest son. From the way the two brothers’ names, and the village children’s names like Gouzi, Niudan, Dahu, and Erwa, were especially different, one could tell that Ma Dazhuang doted on his two sons extremely much. With Ma Wen blocking them, Ma Dazhuang had no choice but to let it go.

However, since ancient times the rich did not marry ge’er. The Ma family could not even be considered truly wealthy, yet they insisted on copying that set, and outside they all said Zhao ge’er was the younger one, Ma Wen’s concubine.

A poor family’s concubine was no different from a servant. The Ma family had vicious natures, and they used Zhao ge’er like he was livestock, either cursing him or beating him. The villagers all saw it, and even if they had no conscience and kept their eyes open, they still would not dare say the Ma family treated Zhao ge’er well.

When the village chief said it, he could not help sighing. He said Zhao ge’er could endure. If it had been anyone else, they would have probably jumped into the river long ago.

Indeed.

After being abused for as long as twelve years, anyone’s character would probably already have been twisted beyond repair. Enduring day after day of whippings and venomous scolding with no end in sight, who would want to live?

The village chief sighed over and over, and Fang Zichen had grown up in a honey jar. He could not imagine that kind of life. People who were abused for a long time were usually inferior and inward, afraid of people yet crazy, timid and cowardly. Some even became numb and foolish, but he felt that Zhao ge’er was tenacious, like a vine growing in a dark well. It did not fear the darkness. As long as there was a little light, it could climb toward the sun.

Zhao ge’er’s nature was still pretty good, otherwise he really feared that one day, because of a single sentence or a single thing, he would be given a knife in the middle of the night.

His gaze did not move. No matter how slow Zhao ge’er was, he still noticed it. He somehow felt a little panicked, and the hoe in his hand was not as smooth as before. After nearly hitting his own toe for the sixth time, he could not help turning back and asking, “W-what are you looking at me for?”

“Looking at how beautiful you are.” Fang Zichen said instinctively.

Zhao ge’er pressed his lips together, just about to say my face isn’t on my back, but Fang Zichen had already reacted, and his mouth started running again. “Which eye saw that I was looking at you?”

The train had gone off the tracks. “Your ass, ah?”

Zhao ge’er: “·····”

Was this really a young master raised in a wealthy family?

How could he be so full of filthy talk.

Even the village men probably could not compare.

·····

Zhao ge’er felt as if his ears had been狠狠 pricked once. Fang Zichen saw him suddenly fall silent and laughed.

Low, dull, and very nice to hear, with a touch of pleasure.

Zhao ge’er was just pure, it was only a line with a bit of color and a little obscenity, and look, this had already shocked him into silence.

Tsk·····

Around shichen, Auntie He finally came carrying a basket.

From far away she saw two people standing in her family’s field.

The one digging the ground was the Zhao ge’er she knew, while the other was wandering around in the field as if he were playing. That was the Fang Zichen who had come from overseas.

The matter of Fang Zichen and Zhao ge’er had been spreading in the village these past two days, boiling over and still not cooling down. The village chief, He Zhi, and Auntie He Ying were siblings, and the benefactor who had saved her old father was someone He Ying knew.

Even if one set all that aside, there was only one short-haired oddball like Fang Zichen in the village, and he was far too easy to recognize.

Auntie He smiled as she went over. “Young Fang, you came too! Aiya, you really know how to care about people.”

She had not had time to speak to Fang Zichen back then. She had only caught a distant glimpse of him before hurrying off to call the doctor for her father. She had not seen clearly then, only thought this boy was really tall. Now that she was looking at him up close, he was truly eye-catching.

Fang Zichen’s exposed neck and cheeks were fair and bright, his bridge of nose straight, sweat beading on the tip of his nose, his brows and eyes heroic. There was no doubt he had excellent features.

Goodness, it would be hard to find such a good-looking person within ten li or eight villages.

That skin, even her family’s He Xiaoyu, who lay in the house all day long, could not compare.

Fang Zichen tossed the sweet potatoes around and called out, “Auntie He.”

“Hey～” Auntie He beamed. Turning her head, she saw that the small basket left in the field already held half a basket of rotten sweet potatoes, and her smile suddenly froze on her face.

“···Zhao ge’er,” she subconsciously wanted to scold a couple of words, when she felt a line of sight slide over her body, gloomy and fierce, like a lion lying in ambush in the grass, staring at the prey’s neck···that was the gaze of death. She slowly raised her head and saw Fang Zichen looking at her without blinking.

“…Fang, Young Fang?”

Fang Zichen said nothing.

The atmosphere was a little heavy. Zhao ge’er dropped his hoe and came behind Fang Zichen, quietly tugging at his clothes.

“This was dug rotten by me by accident,” Fang Zichen pointed at the small basket, his expression changing back again, smiling cheerfully. “I hadn’t worked at home before, I’m not skilled, I really am sorry.”

Auntie He’s scalp was still prickling. Looking at Fang Zichen’s warm smile, she only felt that what had just happened was probably all an illusion. “No, no, it’s fine, it’s only a few sweet potatoes, it doesn’t matter.”

After a while, Auntie He’s husband and son also came. They brought carrying baskets, and after greeting Fang Zichen briefly, they picked up the sweet potatoes he had gathered into a pile earlier, put them into the baskets, and carried them back one by one.

After the people left, Zhao ge’er said softly, “Uncle He and Big Brother He seem to be a little afraid of you.”

Auntie He was digging on the other side, and her husband also had the surname He. Fang Zichen shrugged. “Aren’t you afraid of me too?”

“I, I am not.”

Fang Zichen never forgot about losing face, and he brought up the old matter again. “Oh! Right, you really aren’t, you even dared to throw stones at me.”

Zhao ge’er: “·····”

It clearly was not a stone!

“Father, dad,” Little Cutie rubbed his eyes as he walked over, his hair sticking up messily, his whole person seeming not to have woken up yet, walking unsteadily like he had drunk two jin of erguotou. Seeing Auntie He at the edge of the field, he also called out Grandma He.

Zhao ge’er crouched and asked, “Still sleepy?”

Little Cutie had never had the habit of taking a nap at noon. Zhao ge’er, after entering the Ma family, was almost always busy except for when it was too dark at night to work. Little Cutie was small, and when he went up the mountain to chop firewood he would get bitten all over by mosquitoes, and even when he was sunburned and uncomfortable all over in the fields, he never complained once, always following him.

At first he had not brought Little Cutie wherever he went. Before he was one year old, Little Cutie could not be apart from anyone, and he carried him every day. Later, when he got a bit bigger, he locked him in the woodshed. Once, when he was working in the fields, someone ran over to call him: “Zhao ge’er, you’re still working! Hurry back.”

“What happened?”

“Your son has been pressed into the water vat by Ma Dazhuang.”

Zhao ge’er’s brain exploded with a bang, and he ran home at full speed. The courtyard was full of people, and Little Cutie lay on the ground with a pale face, drenched wet.

Zhao ge’er’s legs went weak on the spot.

Fear, panic, dread···all the unpleasant emotions surged over him at that moment.

That feeling, Zhao ge’er did not want to experience again in his entire life.

The reason Ma Dazhuang would make a move against Little Cutie was actually very simple.

That day Zhao ge’er had forgotten to put in the door bolt. Little Cutie was thirsty and wanted to go into the kitchen to get water, but he was tiny and could not walk steadily, so he fell in the courtyard. He cracked his head open and the pain was really unbearable, so he cried twice. The weather was hot, and people’s tempers were easy to grow irritable too. Ma Dazhuang found him noisy, and knowing he wanted water, he grabbed his collar and lifted him into the kitchen, pressing him into the water vat. “You want to drink, I’ll let you drink.”

The commotion was too great. Aside from the Ma family, even the neighbors next door heard it. An old man really could not stand it and sent someone to call Zhao ge’er, then pushed Ma Dazhuang aside and pulled Little Cutie out of the water vat.

Zhao ge’er knew the Ma family was vicious, and Little Cutie was not even the Ma family’s blood. Since Ma Dazhuang could make a move against Little Cutie this time, he absolutely could do it next time too. Little Cutie could not possibly be that lucky every time.

After that incident, Zhao ge’er took Little Cutie with him wherever he went.

Little Cutie was sensible, and even at noon when it was hottest he would still follow him around working, rarely having any time to rest.

Counting it, this was still his first time taking a nap.

“My head feels dizzy.” Little Cutie said. “I even saw two dads.”

Zhao ge’er touched his forehead. He did not have a fever. After thinking about it, he said, “I’ll take you to wash your face. Once you’ve washed it, you’ll be fine.”

“Mm!”

Washing it really did make him better. Once Little Cutie was energetic, he ran all over the ground.

For a while he ran over to Auntie He’s side to pick up sweet potatoes, and when he saw Fang Zichen could not keep up, he ran back over and said he wanted to help Fang Zichen pick them up, as if he had taken some tremendously miraculous medicine, his energy so abundant that he could not stop for even a moment.

Auntie He smiled and praised him. “Our Little Cutie is really sensible!”

She used this to start a conversation, wanting Fang Zichen to respond so they could get familiar, but Fang Zichen actually did not pay her any mind.

That made no sense!

From what He Xi had said, Fang Zichen did not seem to dislike him, and treated Little Cutie quite well.

Fang Zichen was picking up sweet potatoes behind Zhao ge’er, chatting with him on and off.

“Did she also give you three wen before?” Fang Zichen lifted his chin toward Auntie He’s side and asked softly.

“Mm!” Zhao ge’er cooperated with him, his voice light. “People in the village aren’t rich. The work at home is all done by themselves. Auntie He has a good heart. Seeing that I’m pitiful, she wanted to help me. Otherwise, their family could do it themselves.”

Fang Zichen curled his lips.

Where was this a good heart, this was plainly a black heart.

Zhao ge’er had said that working here for a day, the less would get nineteen wen, with one meal included, and the more would get twenty-three wen.

If Auntie He really felt sorry for him and wanted to help him, giving ten wen or eight wen, Fang Zichen would not have said anything. But giving three wen, what was that?

An egg was already two wen.

This was not seeing that Zhao ge’er wanted to make money, and then using the name of pitying him to seize the opportunity to squeeze him dry?

The whole of Xiaohe Village was poor, and Auntie He’s family could count as “wealthy” within Xiaohe Village. If it was not the busy farming season, both her sons were carrying heavy loads at the dock in town. It was said they made twenty-five wen a day, and the family could eat enough at every meal.

Even so, did they still not want to pay even half the wages?

That black-hearted old woman.