Chapter 108
The wax paper wrapping this candy was quite pretty, red with a pattern of light-colored little cat paws on it. It looked a bit like a lollipop.
The candy Fang Zichen bought before didn't have sticks. Guaizai had a sweet tooth, and those candies were quite large. Putting one in his mouth always filled it completely. He couldn't bear to finish it all at once, so he would suck on it, which made him drool constantly, leaving the clothes under his chin always wet and sticky.
Later, Fang Zichen switched to this kind with a wooden stick. When his mouth got sore from sucking it, he could take it out.
However, this kind of candy with pattern wax paper was expensive. One piece cost several copper coins and had to be bought from Gaopinzhai.
For village families, the most expensive snacks bought for children during holidays were usually malt sugar.
Malt sugar was cheap and came in small pieces without any wrapping.
It wasn't like the modern malt sugar. Modern sugar, even the cheap, rough, low-quality kind, was cloyingly sweet but still edible. But the malt sugar here had a bitter taste. Fang Zichen had tried one piece, the taste was like dissolving sugar in water and then adding salt – neither properly sweet nor salty, it was really hard to describe.
This malt sugar was usually sold by street vendors or could be found in grocery stores.
Places like Gaopinzhai, where a cheap piece of pastry cost ten to twenty copper coins, and more expensive ones cost over thirty or forty coins, specialized in 'high-end' goods. Unless it was for a major gift, most people generally didn't dare to go in.
Most adults didn't even know what was sold inside, let alone children who had never left the village.
The child handed the candy back to Guaizai and asked curiously, "What is this?"
"It's candy!" Guaizai said. "My father bought it for me!"
Fang Zichen was afraid his teeth would rot, so he only let Guaizai eat one piece per day.
That morning, when he carried him out, Zhao Ger had put two pieces in his pocket. One was specifically for Liuliu.
Guaizai had still been sleeping when Zhao Ger put the candy in his pocket, so Zhao Ger didn't have a chance to tell him about the second piece. However, he knew his son's character well. Despite Guaizai's powerful sweet tooth, Fang Zichen had set a strict rule: only one piece of candy per day. So, even if Guaizai craved it intensely and drooled at the sight of the extra candy, he would never break that rule and eat the second piece. Whenever Guaizai had something special, his first instinct was never to keep it for himself.
Zhao Ger and Fang Zichen always ranked first. If they weren't around, then the remaining piece would definitely be for Liuliu.
"I've never seen such pretty candy before," one child asked. "Is the taste good?"
He didn't necessarily want to eat it, he was just curious!
"It's good!" Guaizai said. He gave one piece to Liuliu, and peeled the wrapper off the other. He wanted to share it with his little friends, but the candy was round, hard, and couldn't be broken. His little brain thought for a moment, and his gaze landed on a rock.
He could smash it with the rock.
However, his strength was small, and he couldn't break it.
Liu Dali and the other children didn't know what he was trying to do. They just thought the outside of this candy wasn't edible, and they had to eat the inside, so they went over to help.
With one smash of the rock, the candy sank into the dirt and shattered into pieces, impossible to pick up.
Liu Dali was stunned. "... Guaizai, s-sorry!"
Guaizai, though small, had a big heart and was very magnanimous. Although he felt heartache and pity, he sniffled and forced himself to say, "It's okay."
The children formed a circle around the remains of the lollipop, as if holding a moment of silence.
Not just Guaizai, the other children also felt it was a shame. One little ger even started crying.
If it had broken into small pieces, even if they were dirty, it wouldn't have mattered, they could still have been picked up and eaten.
But now...
Liuliu unwrapped his candy and said, "There's still one left, let's eat it together!"
The eight children sat in a row on the ridge between the fields. The lollipop was placed in Guaizai's mouth for a lick, then passed to Liuliu, who licked it, then passed to a little ger. When it reached the last child, the lollipop was licked and passed back from that end.
The little kids happily enjoyed eating each other's saliva.
This candy was expensive, and there was a reason for it.
When the other children took their first lick, their eyes widened in surprise.
When Fang Zichen found them, these children were swinging their short little legs and bragging.
"My father is the best, he can embroider!" one child said.
Another said, "My father is even better. He can carry two bundles of firewood at once, so big and heavy that I can't even lift them."
"My father is great too! He can carve patterns, others don't know how."
"Your fathers are not as good as mine. My father isn't even afraid of poisonous snakes, he even dares to eat them."
"My father can build houses, big houses."
"My father can kill pigs."
Everyone was boasting. Guaizai, fired up, punched his little fist in the air.
"My father is the most amazing! He can eat poop while standing on his hands."
Fang Zichen: "..."
Fang Zichen just wanted to turn around and leave immediately.
One child scratched his head and asked, "What's 'poop'?"
"It's... mmmph..."
Fang Zichen couldn't listen anymore. He rushed over in a few steps and covered Guaizai's mouth.
This darn kid, what kind of talk is this!
Last time he was bragging to Zhao Ger, Zhao Ger asked if it was true. He said if he was bragging, he'd eat poop while standing on his hands. Then Guaizai asked him what 'poop' was, and he said it was shit.
He never thought Guaizai would still remember that throwaway joke.
But was that the only thing he was good at??
He had so many qualities he could have boasted about—his height, his handsome looks, his education. Any one of those would have effortlessly outshone the other children's claims. So why, of all things, did his son have to proclaim his unique talent was eating poop while standing on his hands?
These young children didn't understand it was a joke. If they went home and repeated it, their parents would inevitably get the wrong idea. What if the entire village started to believe that he, Fang Zichen, had a habit of eating shit?
He cultivated an image of a handsome, dashing, and refined young man. To have that meticulously maintained reputation shattered by a rumor of such a disgusting "hobby"...
Could he still go on living??
Would his hard-earned reputation survive?
This situation was a perfect, and truly devastating, example of getting his father into trouble.
So what if he dared to eat a poisonous snake? He'd eaten one before, hadn't he?
Carrying firewood? That was even easier. He could lift several hundred jin without any effort.
Back then, a weightlifting coach said he was a talent and asked him to join the sports world. He wasn't interested in that area, so he didn't agree.
Embroidery? Well, he could also...
Forget it, blindly trying to outdo each other is wrong.
Every father is the most outstanding in his own child's eyes.
Guaizai hadn't thought that much about it.
He felt that the things his little friends mentioned, his daddy could also do, and his father was much more capable than his daddy.
Things like carrying firewood or embroidery... he couldn't do them now, but he would learn when he grew up. But eating something while standing on his hands was impossible.
He had tried it, and he couldn't swallow.
Now, with Fang Zichen covering his mouth, he just thought he was playing with him and even laughed happily, swinging his short little legs even more vigorously.
When Fang Zichen let go, he immediately climbed up from the ridge, hugged Fang Zichen's leg, and scrambled up his body using all four limbs, like a little monkey.
"Father, you're back!"
If I didn't come back, would I let you ruin my reputation?
Fang Zichen looked at him, feeling utterly exasperated, and his hands felt a bit itchy.
But hitting a son is wrong.
Moreover, his son was so short and small, he couldn't bear to do it anyway.
Fang Zichen forced out a smile and asked, "Have you eaten yet?"
Guaizai shook his head: "Not yet, but Guaizai ate candy! Candy is good, right, Father?"
He held up the now significantly smaller, glistening candy that had been passed around and licked by every child in the group.
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