MLH | Chapter 26
Ma Laosan pulled Madam Sun back a few steps, afraid that his eldest nephew would ask him what had happened.
Ma Dazhuang said nothing.
Madam Ma felt wronged in her heart, not understanding why her son was only pressing her for answers.
Her gaze darted away. “Y-yes, sold him.”
“Why?” Ma Wen demanded sharply. “When I left home back then, hadn’t you all agreed properly?”
Madam Ma said, “Son, you can’t blame us for this! You don’t know what that lowlife, that Zhao ge’er, did, he has no shame! Falling into the water and then hugging and kissing people, that wasn’t even all, he also······”
“Enough. I know exactly what kind of person Zhao ge’er is. I’m only asking you, why did you sell Zhao ge’er? You clearly knew I liked him.”
“This······” Her son had come back only to make a fuss over a shameless man, and Madam Ma felt miserable.
Ma Wen’s eyes were even red. “I’ve liked him since I was little, you all knew that. Why did you still do this? I didn’t even mind that he gave birth to that bastard, P乖仔. What did it matter if someone kissed him or hugged him?”
What a big melon.
The few madams still watching the show outside had their mouths hanging open.
This Ma Wen······ was a real man.
Ma Dazhuang could not stand the way he was crying, and scolded, “Enough, what kind of man cries like this, aren’t you ashamed? I just don’t understand what’s so good about that Zhao ge’er that makes you like this. Your mother and I worked so hard to raise you, what was it for? Was it so you could quarrel with us over a ge’er?” Seeing that Ma Wen’s expression was growing more and more unpleasant, he still felt sorry for his son in the end, and his tone softened a little. He walked over and patted his shoulder. “Fine, if you like ge’er, your father will go to town and buy you another one later.”
Ma Wen shook his head, and the tears he had held back for so long fell at that moment. “······I don’t want one, I only want Zhao ge’er.”
Ma Dazhuang and the others all froze, but he still forced the words out through clenched breath. “You, are you trying to anger us to death?”
Ma Wen said nothing, picked up his bundle, and went back to his room.
On the other side.
Watching Zhao ge’er head straight up the mountain, Liu Laizi chuckled as he chased after him, imagining countless scenes of messing around with him.
But just as he chased to the foot of the mountain, he saw Zhao ge’er carrying his son and coming down from the mountain with Liu Dazhi from the village.
Liu Dazhi had a shoulder pole in his left hand, and in his right he still held a shiny firewood knife worn bright from grinding.
He stopped in his tracks and immediately turned around.
“Where are you running!” Liu Dazhi shoved the firewood knife at Zhao ge’er and raised the shoulder pole to chase after him.
He was Zhou ge’er’s father-in-law. Liu Laizi had once blocked Zhou ge’er too, and now he wanted to lay hands on Zhao ge’er as well. With old and new grudges together, Liu Dazhi was furious.
He chased Liu Laizi for three li, and quite a few people saw it along the way.
These villagers were sometimes even more capable than detectives. With just a little asking around, and combining a series of statements like “I think I saw” and “it seemed like,” then letting their thoughts spread a little, the beginning and end of the “case” would be completely laid bare.
Just as Fang Zichen reached the village entrance carrying a basket, he was stopped by a madam who was going to the fields to shoo ducks.
“Hey, Xiao Fang, hurry back.”
Fang Zichen: “······”
Wasn’t I already heading back?
“Your family’s Zhao ge’er today got Liu Laizi to, to······” She stopped there, seeming to be thinking of a more fitting way to phrase it.
But she broke off here, and Fang Zichen was scared out of his wits.
He did not know who Liu Laizi was, but just hearing that name, he knew it was definitely not a good person.
He immediately broke into a run home.
Zhao ge’er was watering the vegetable patch in the courtyard. He was diligent, watering it every day, and the seedlings grew very fast, tender and crisp. In the morning, when he was cooking noodles, he had picked some to put in, and Fang Zichen seemed to like eating it.
There was still a bare patch beside it. Tomorrow he should hoe that too and plant a little more.
As he was thinking, Fang Zichen ran in from outside, panting.
He had good stamina, and could carry big sacks with a brisk stride, but at this moment he was sweating and his face was red.
Zhao ge’er hurriedly put down the water dipper and asked, “What’s wrong?”
Fang Zichen looked him over from head to toe, his tone not quite right, seeming to tremble. “You’re fine?”
“Ah?”
“Auntie just said you were by Liu Laizi······”
“Oh! You mean that,” Zhao ge’er explained. “We just ran into each other on the road today.”
He gave a rough account. When Fang Zichen heard that he had run up the mountain, the veins on his forehead throbbed, and he could not help interrupting.
“Are you water in the brain? You ran up the mountain. Were you worried that Liu Laizi would have trouble dragging you into the little woods, so you specially went to help him out?”
Zhao ge’er: “······”
“No, this morning Zhou ge’er said Uncle Liu was cutting reeds in the mountain. Our village only has good reeds there on the steep slope, I guessed Uncle Liu would probably be there.”
“What if he’d had a brain seizure and just happened not to go there to cut them?” Fang Zichen was so angry he knocked him on the head. “Why are you so stupid! Next time you run into this kind of situation, you should run toward a flat place where people might be. Originally, people might still not dare do anything, but if they see you running up the mountain, a rabbit falling into the trap, wouldn’t they immediately get ideas?”
Zhao ge’er also knew he had been a little too risky.
Aunt Liu had just come by to scold him too.
“When you see Liu Laizi, running is right, but why did you run up the mountain! The steep slope there is so remote. Zhou ge’er said your Uncle Liu went to cut reeds, and you could just be sure he definitely went to the steep slope? What if he had gone home early? What would you do then? You need to have some sense!”
Zhao ge’er fidgeted uneasily with his fingers, lowered his head, and said, “I’m sorry, I made you worry. I’ll pay attention next time.”
Fang Zichen sighed. Seeing that he was safe and sound, that panic in his heart had passed. No matter how much he said now, it was useless. As long as the person was fine, that was enough!
Zhao ge’er deliberately changed the subject. His gaze fell on the basket in his hands, and he asked, “Did you buy something?”
“Oh! It wasn’t me who bought it, it was citrus that Lao Wu sent.”
Fang Zichen had already told Zhao ge’er about what happened with Lao Wu before, so he knew there was such a person.
Fang Zichen took two, hung the basket on the fence, and handed one to Zhao ge’er.
He peeled it. When the child, who had been staring at him ever since he came back, saw this, he waved him over.
“Son, come here.”
P乖仔 toddled over, and again gave that milky little call, the kind that made all your worries disappear.
“Father～”
“Mm!”
Fang Zichen laughed.
Zhao ge’er peeled the orange. Seeing that he had had a stern face just a moment ago, but now was smiling brightly, he somehow felt that it was a little strange.
He broke off a segment, his eyes falling on that pair of father and son, the citrus in his hand just about to go into his mouth······
P乖仔 let out an “ah,” his brows scrunching into a little old man, his features all bunched together.
That expression delighted Fang Zichen to no end.
“Haha······ hahaha～”
Zhao ge’er silently wrapped the orange back up and put it back into the basket.
This citrus was so sour it could make your teeth fall out. Fang Zichen had eaten one on the road, and his front teeth were still soft until now.
In the end, P乖仔 still could not bear to part with it. He took two hurried bites and stretched out his neck to swallow it down.
He angrily punched Fang Zichen’s chest once, but the force was not great, just like a cat’s paw scratching.
“······Father is bad.”
“Father is not bad, the son doesn’t love him.” Fang Zichen pinched his little nose, then took something out of his pocket.
It was candied fruit preserves. As soon as he opened the oiled paper wrapping, a sweet smell drifted out.
Whether it was because he had been sour just now or because he was craving them, P乖仔’s saliva kept flowing.
Fang Zichen pinched up one. This thing was about the size of a cherry tomato. After being dried and soaked in syrup, it was wrinkled and sticky. He started doing something unkind, waving the candied fruit in front of P乖仔’s eyes over and over.
“Son, have you ever eaten candied fruit?”
P乖仔’s eyes followed his hand. “······No.”
“This candied fruit is delicious, sweet.”
Seeing that P乖仔’s saliva was about to drip out of his mouth, he asked, “Do you want to eat it?”
“I want to eat it.”
“Oh dear, but I’m a bad father. A bad father would not give candied fruit to little children. This is bad, this candied fruit is going to be wasted.”
Zhao ge’er standing to the side was almost rolling his eyes, and only P乖仔 fell for it. He tiptoed and wrapped his arms around Fang Zichen’s neck, planting a smack on his face. “Not wasted, not wasted, Father is good, Father is not bad.”
He was anxious, as if afraid that if he said it too late, Fang Zichen would throw the thing away.
Fang Zichen was almost laughing himself sick. He stuffed one into P乖仔’s mouth.
“Is it sweet?” he asked.
P乖仔’s mouth was stuffed so full he could not speak, so he could only nod. “Mm mm.”
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