MLH | Chapter 31
Seeing him come in, Zhao ge’er sat by the stove and asked, “Did Guai Zai fall asleep?”
“Mm!” Fang Zichen was a little absent-minded.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, I was just thinking about how I’m going to teach that Ma Xiaoshun a lesson, and vent my son’s anger for him!” Fang Zichen said hatefully.
“It’s Ma Xiaoshun,” Zhao ge’er corrected him.
Fang Zichen tsked. “Who cares what he’s called, Xiaoshun or Xiaoshun, if he bullies my son, then he’s called a bastard.”
“Forget about this. It’s between the kids, you can’t just go to Ma Xiaoshun’s door and beat him up like you did Liu Laizi!” Zhao ge’er said.
“What do you take me for!” Fang Zichen said. “I’m a civilized person, I have heart, I have conscience, I never lay hands on the old, the weak, women, or children.” Zhao ge’er seemed a little unconvinced, looking at him with skeptical eyes. Thinking about it, he really had been fighting quite frequently lately, so he explained, “The Ma family deserves a beating, that Liu Laizi guy… I feel like he also deserved a beating.”
Zhao ge’er lowered his head and said softly, “Today when I went out, I heard a few Aunties saying you went too far.”
Fang Zichen’s brows knit together. “How was that too far?”
“They said Liu Laizi hadn’t really done anything to me, but you beat him so badly,” Zhao ge’er said.
Fang Zichen was almost angry enough to laugh.
“Oh! So you mean he has to do something to you before I can beat him, is that it? He had those thoughts about you, and I didn’t go and deal with him. What if one day I’m not around, and you’re careless for a moment and he succeeds? If you lose your chastity, will the people in the village care whether you were innocent or not? Like last time when you fell into the water, you clearly were… cough, you were kissed by me while you weren’t clear-headed, but look at them, they don’t care right or wrong and just clamored to put you in a pig cage. Liu Laizi is a man, at most he gets beaten a few times, in the end, when it all adds up, men are the ones who come out ahead. I was just preventing trouble before it happened, he doesn’t deserve to have been beaten?”
“Then do you regret marrying me?” Zhao ge’er suddenly asked.
Fang Zichen’s face reddened all at once. “Why are you suddenly asking that!”
Zhao ge’er looked at him.
The face of the person in front of him was strikingly handsome and unrestrained, the youthful air still hadn’t faded away, he usually smiled very brightly, looking like a warm man, but when he fought, he had a very roguish kind of badness.
Zhao ge’er said, “I just want to know.”
Fang Zichen’s gaze was a little evasive.
They had only known each other for a little over a month, but Zhao ge’er was thoughtful and considerate, obedient and gentle to the point that it was hard to resist, like a spider that had woven its web. Whoever got close would be stuck so tightly they couldn’t get away.
His eyes were big, he looked well-behaved and cute, and right now he was blushing while looking at him… Fang Zichen really couldn’t take it!
Fang Zichen swallowed, then shook his head. “I don’t regret it.”
“Then…”
“Ah, stop asking,” Fang Zichen said, springing to his feet, his ears red, “I’m already calling you my husband, what the hell would I regret,”
When Zhao ge’er saw him leave behind the sentence “I’m going to look at our son,” and hurried out, he couldn’t help but laugh softly.
Fang Zichen went back to the room and took a look. Guai Zai was still asleep, a little sweat had broken out on his forehead. He gently wiped it away. Guai Zai’s mouth moved, and with his eyes half-closed, still groggy, he knew it was him, and immediately called out, “Father~”
Fang Zichen really couldn’t resist kissing his little face once. “Sleep a little longer!”
He found the pouch in the room, took out twenty wen, and went to the village head’s house. He deliberately took a detour, and that road passed by the Ma family’s door. Ma Erzhu knew his own son had beaten Guai Zai, and he was so frightened he was about to pee himself. He hid Ma Xiaoshun at home and squatted by the door to keep watch.
When he saw Fang Zichen coming from far away, he panicked and ran into the courtyard, slamming the door shut.
“Darling,” Li shi’s legs were trembling. “Fang Zichen came?”
Ma Erzhu nodded. “Mm!”
Ma Laosan glared at them. “I already told you last time, don’t go provoking him, don’t go provoking him, if your Xiaoshun is tired of living, don’t drag us into it!”
“Third Brother, you can’t say that!” Ma Erzhu was a little displeased. “My Xiaoshun is so little, what could he possibly understand!”
“Anyway, I’m not getting involved,” Ma Laosan hid in the room. “If your Xiaoshun caused the trouble, then if he wants to beat you, let him beat you. Just don’t drag us into it.”
Ma Erzhu looked at Ma Dazhuang, and Ma Dazhuang said nothing, apparently defaulting to that view as well.
“Big Brother,” he grew anxious. “My Xiaoshun even calls you uncle! You can’t just stand by and watch me die.”
“Help? How do I help? Wasn’t he taught a lesson enough last time?” Ma Dazhuang frowned, came to the door and looked through the crack, and just then Fang Zichen happened to walk past the door. As if sensing something, he paused, turned around, and facing the courtyard gate, gave a half-smile that was not quite a smile and made a throat-slitting gesture.
Ma Dazhuang’s hair was about to stand on end, and he didn’t even dare breathe.
“Dad?” Ma Wen called out.
“Go, go back to the room.” He grabbed Ma Wen and hurried back inside.
Fang Zichen did not kick the door open and go in. It looked like he had just been passing by.
The Ma family held their breath and waited for a long while, and only when they saw him wander around and leave did they dare breathe out.
Fang Zichen went to the village head’s house and bought ten eggs, and on the way he also stopped by to see the old man, chatting with him for a while before heading back.
Guai Zai was already awake. At this moment he was in the kitchen. Hearing movement outside, he pattered out.
Fang Zichen’s calf was hugged full.
“Father, where did you go?”
“To buy you eggs,” Fang Zichen said, shaking the basket in his hand, then crouched down and asked, “Does your hand still hurt?”
It was definitely hurting.
Guai Zai raised his hand and held it to his mouth. “Father, blow on it, if you blow on it it won’t hurt anymore.”
“Alright, Father will give you a puff of immortal breath.”
That night, after hearing what he said, Zhao ge’er specially cooked egg custard for Guai Zai. This thing was not considered rare in the village, you couldn’t eat it often, but if a family had children, they would still steam a bowl for the child every ten days or half a month. Guai Zai smelled the fragrance, stretched his neck out from Fang Zichen’s arms, and asked Zhao ge’er,
“Daddy, fragrant. What is it?”
Zhao ge’er replied, “It’s egg custard.”
“I know,” Guai Zai said. “I saw Ma Xiaoshun eat it before, it was so fragrant!”
Fang Zichen pinched his little face. “Then have you eaten it before?”
Guai Zai’s little face became forlorn, and he shook his head. “No, they didn’t give me any, and they didn’t give Daddy any.”
Fang Zichen kissed him once. “My pitiful son, then from now on Father will work hard to earn money and buy you lots and lots of eggs to eat, okay?”
“Okay,” Guai Zai smiled again, rubbed against his neck, and said clingily, “Cook it fragrant, Father eats, Daddy eats too, Guai Zai eats too.”
Fang Zichen’s paternal love overflowed. He held Guai Zai the whole night, fed him egg custard, and even personally stepped in to wash his feet, a top-tier good dad in every way.
All night long Zhao ge’er heard them saying “Father is the best,” “Father is the greatest,” “baby,” “my good one,” back and forth, saying it over and over, sticky and mushy until midnight, and he was getting a little unable to listen anymore.
Right before sleeping, Fang Zichen patted Guai Zai’s chest and promised, “Sleep. When you wake up tomorrow, Father will take you to get even.”
Guai Zai obediently nodded, holding one of his fingers with his left hand and Zhao ge’er with his right, and fell asleep.
Fang Zichen stared at him for a while, then suddenly said, “Zhao ge’er, he doesn’t really look like you!”
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