MLH | Chapter 21

Fang Zichen came out of the Ma family’s courtyard and found several people hanging around outside.

The commotion just now had been small, and the Ma family did not live in a secluded place, so quite a few people had probably heard it.

He even saw a man still holding a bowl and shoveling rice, clearly having rushed over from the dinner table.

He was eating melon very diligently.

“Fang kid.” Someone greeted him.

Fang Zichen smiled faintly, nodded at them, and became once again that same gentle, refined person with a scholarly air.

He was indeed good at beating people, but in a sense, he also maintained his outward manners quite well.

Although Fang Zichen had lived in Xiahe Village for nearly a month, he went to town every day, and he was not familiar with the few aunts and uncles, so after exchanging greetings they did not know what else to say. Fang Zichen used going home for dinner as an excuse and left.

“This kid is impressive!” one man said, looking at his back, his tone full of feeling.

Once the main person had left, the few of them started gossiping.

“Yeah, impressive. I just leaned over the wall to look, and good lord, with one swing of his stick the Ma family’s table cracked open.”

“How much strength would that take! If I remember right, that Ma family table was bought from Old Feng’s place, wasn’t it! That table was made of hard material!”

“Why did Fang kid come to the Ma family to make trouble today?” someone who was out of the loop asked.

“You don’t know yet? I heard Wang Da-mei say that family went back on their word and wanted to take Zhao ge’er back to make him work like an ox and a horse for them!”

“Bah, a family of mud-legged peasants, and they still want to copy the town’s master and madam act of having people serve them. They should look and see whether they have that kind of fate.” This person’s tone was sour, and anyone hearing it would know he was not standing up for Zhao ge’er, he was just jealous.

Fang Zichen heard a bit of it from far away, curled his lips, and walked home.

Zhao ge’er was sitting by the courtyard gate, constantly looking up and down the road.

Guai Zai was lying on his lap, playing with his own fingers.

It was already dark, and Zhao ge’er had not seen him come back for a long time, so he came to the gate to wait. If Fang Zichen had not warned him last time, and if he had not seen Liu Laizi and the others sneaking around, he would have already gone to the village entrance to squat for him by now.

“Father······” Guai Zai suddenly called out. He got up from Zhao ge’er’s lap, opened his arms, and ran straight out the gate.

Zhao ge’er stood up, and Fang Zichen’s tall figure appeared at the entrance.

“Oh my, you little brat.” Fang Zichen did not even hold Guai Zai properly when he picked him up. Like he was carrying a sack, he tucked Guai Zai under his armpit.

Guai Zai was full of excitement, looking up at him. “Father doesn’t come home, wait for father.”

The noodles had already been kneaded, and all that was left was to put them into the pot when he came back.

Zhao ge’er added fire under the stove, and after a short while the kitchen began to brighten.

After he finished cooking the noodles, Fang Zichen handed him the sale contract.

Zhao ge’er wiped the water off his hands and took it, but did not open it. He looked at Fang Zichen in confusion.

Fang Zichen smiled at him, signaling for him to look for himself.

The paper was slightly yellowed, folded neatly, but it should have been from some years ago, with the corners gnawed away a little by insects.

As if suddenly realizing something, Zhao ge’er’s hand began to tremble.

“This is?”

Fang Zichen looked at him. “Your sale contract.” As soon as the words fell, he saw Zhao ge’er freeze for a moment, then his eyes began to turn red. He stood there without moving, gripping the sale contract in his hand, so hard that the tips of his fingers turned white.

He had clearly never gone through something like this, but the instant he saw tears fall from Zhao ge’er’s eyes, Fang Zichen somehow understood that feeling.

Hatred and helplessness.

This sheet of paper looked light, as if it would tear to pieces with one rip, but it was like a chain weighing a thousand catties, wrapped around Zhao ge’er’s neck, imprisoning him in the Ma family.

He could not escape, because no matter where he ran, as long as this chain existed for a day, he would not have freedom for a day.

For more than ten years, all the suffering he had endured had been because of it.

How could he not hate it!

“Zhao ge’er?” Fang Zichen called softly, lifting his chin toward Guai Zai’s side.

Guai Zai stood by the table, his chin just reaching the edge. Seen from the other side, only a little head was visible.

That table was bought by Zhao ge’er from a carpenter in the village, because it had been made badly, it was very cheap.

Only after bringing it home did Zhao ge’er realize that the table was too high, and Guai Zai was young and short, so every meal he could only stand to eat.

Fang Zichen had even laughed at him before, saying that when people stood upright, their intestines would get pulled, and when eating they could then eat two more bites.

Guai Zai had tears pooled in his eyes, and even though he was holding chopsticks he did not eat the noodles. He looked at Zhao ge’er timidly, his little mouth puckered, looking like he was about to cry.

“Don’t cry, if you cry then Guai Zai will cry too.” Fang Zichen said.

Zhao ge’er took a deep breath, wiped his face, and after the heat in his eyes faded did he walk over to Guai Zai and sit down beside him. He stroked his little face, then lowered his head to kiss the top of his hair, and said, “Be good, Daddy is fine, the noodles will get soggy, hurry and eat!”

Guai Zai nuzzled against his palm and said in a babyish voice, “Daddy eats too,” and after that he looked at Fang Zichen again. Seeing that the man was still standing by the stove, he pattered over and took his hand. “Father eats too～”

Zhao ge’er thought that the sale contract had been “bought” back by Fang Zichen for three taels of silver, so of course it should be kept by him, but when he handed the sale contract to Fang Zichen at night before sleep, Fang Zichen did not take it. “You keep it. When I’ve earned enough money, I’ll go to the yamen to handle the household registration and paperwork and clear it at the same time.”

This harmful thing was vexing to keep around.

Zhao ge’er did not speak, and only after a long while did he say softly, “Alright.”

The dock had been very busy these past few days, as if it was rushing to unload cargo. At noon there was one hour of rest, and the ship steward said that whoever wanted to keep working could get two bundles for one wen within that hour.

The temptation was a bit too great.

Under heavy rewards there would always be brave men, and almost everyone chose to keep working, with Fang Zichen being the only one who was “delicate.”

After all, the noon sun was really hot, and Fang Zichen was a little envious, but after thinking it over, he still decided that his life came first.

For a rich second-generation like him to lower his head and diligently carry sacks to earn money was already quite a remarkable improvement. As long as he kept his life, why would he ever have to worry about not making money in the future.

After lunch, he again went as usual to chat with the ship steward’s relative.

They talked for half the afternoon before he learned that the reason the ship steward was so anxious to unload cargo was because an official ship was coming.

The dock was only that big, so merchant ships naturally had to give way to official ships.

And this official ship was not carrying some official cargo. What it carried on this trip were disabled soldiers withdrawn from the borderlands.

Twenty years ago there had been no such policy.

Back then, if someone was disabled at the border and could not fight, they would write a retirement letter, and if their service had not yet expired they would pay some silver and return on their own.

Because transportation was inconvenient, most disabled soldiers did not die on the battlefield, but instead died on the road home.

Nowadays the emperor was benevolent, lamenting that their hometowns were far from the border, over mountains and waters, truly inconvenient. At any rate, they were heroes who had defended the country, so he ordered the border officials to properly arrange the return of those disabled soldiers to their hometowns. After receiving the order, the local officials thought it over and let the official ship escort them back.

Travel by water was always faster.

“This war has been fought for six years, and who knows when it will end.” The relative shook his head and sighed. “There was a man in my village who came back from the border. When he first returned, he was so thin I almost couldn’t recognize him,”

“He lost one leg,” the relative put his hand at his knee. “It was broken from here, they said it was chopped by the barbarians’ big blade, cut cleanly in two on the spot.”

“But him surviving counted as good luck. Back then a total of twenty men went from the village, and only he came back.”

Fang Zichen did not speak.

Actually, this was a very normal thing.

When there were no people at the border, they would urgently conscript soldiers, and most of those conscripted were poor people who could not afford to pay silver.

They spent most of their lives in the village, honest farm laborers with limited horizons, who did not know how to wield spears or sticks. The moment they reached the border, before they even had time to receive proper training, they were dragged onto the battlefield. With armies of tens of thousands, and the enemy swinging big blades, just looking at them made their legs go weak.

These people were completely just sent to fill numbers and give the enemy heads.

Of course many of them died.

Fang Zichen came from a peaceful era, and in ordinary times he had not even seen blood. Although he was bold enough and good at fighting people, he simply could not imagine that if one day he really stood on a battlefield, in the midst of rising wolf smoke and drifting dust, facing the enemy’s blades and horse hooves, whether he would perform better than those people.

It probably would not be possible.

Fighting and brawling were child’s play.

Actually chopping people down and severing heads was a matter of life and death.

He probably would go weak in the legs too.

“I heard,” the relative looked around, and seeing that everyone was busy and no one was paying attention here, he leaned over and lowered his voice to Fang Zichen, “that next year they might conscript soldiers again.”

Fang Zichen could not help but have his eyelid jump, and he also lowered his voice. “Impossible, right? Didn’t they just conscript people this year?”

“I’m not too clear on that,” the relative said with a somewhat grave expression. “Last time the employer came over and drank tea here with me, he accidentally let it slip. I heard a bit of it and only then knew.”

Fang Zichen could not even swallow the water in his bowl, so he put the bowl down and asked, “Is this news reliable?”

One conscription a year, was the one in the capital afraid that the common people would not rebel?

“It should be reliable,” the relative said. “The employer knows some people in the capital, and they heard that the court did have such a plan. We’re far from the capital here, so some news is not very up to date. I’m just reminding you, don’t spread this outside.”

Fang Zichen nodded. “I know.”

The whole afternoon Fang Zichen was somewhat absent-minded. Several people who usually chatted with him and were fairly close asked him what was wrong when they saw him looking listless.

Fang Zichen shook his head. “Maybe I got sun-dazed, I feel a bit tired.”

“You’re tired, but you still carry fewer sacks!” one man said. “You’re impressive too, you’ve carried for almost a month before saying you’re tired. When work ends later, buy something good to eat and make up for it.”

Fang Zichen’s eyes lit up, and he looked up at him.

After work ended, Fang Zichen really went to stroll around.

At this hour many stalls had already packed up, and one pork stall was still open, with two palm-sized pieces of pork head meat on the cutting board.

When the老板 saw Fang Zichen, he called out, “Young man, want to buy? I’ll give it to you at eight wen a jin.”

Pork was not cheap. Better cuts cost twelve or thirteen wen a jin, and pork head meat was cheaper, but even so it usually sold for nine wen a jin.

Fang Zichen touched his pouch. “I’ll take it if it’s six wen.”

The老板 hesitated a little. “All of it?”

“Mm!”

“Fine, then six wen a jin for you.”

Anyway, it would not be fresh by tomorrow.

Looking at those two pieces of meat, Fang Zichen was delighted, and even his mood improved.