Chapter 160
Could it be... a whole chest of gold inside?!
It couldn't be!
Fang Zichen was so excited he couldn't stand it: "Zhao Ger, go get a towel."
Zhao Ger was puzzled: "Huh? What for?"
"To cover my eyes. Otherwise, when the golden light shines too brightly later, I'm afraid it'll blind me," Fang Zichen said.
Zhao Ger didn't even dare to dream such dreams in broad daylight. He wasn't as imaginative as Fang Zichen. While Fang Zichen was still shaking with uncontrollable excitement, he directly opened the chest.
Fang Zichen saw it clearly, caught completely off guard.
It certainly was eye-blinding.
Damn it!
A chest full of kidney tonics.
There were ox penises, tiger penises, soaked in two small jars with some unknown herbs. The liquid was pale yellow, like urine. As soon as the lid was lifted, a foul, fishy smell assaulted his nostrils.
Next to them were over ten packets of medicine, with usage and effects thoughtfully written on them.
'For impotence and kidney failure. Take three times a day after meals. Effective within half a month.'
At the very bottom lay a few books with titles such as Secrets of Strengthening Yang, How to Self-Regulate After Impotence, and More Than One Path for a Man to Take.
And he just packed roast duck for that old man earlier.
He should have packed a hammer for him instead.
Fang Zichen's regret was gut-wrenching.
Since ancient times, the common people do not fight with officials, and the poor do not contend with the rich.
The Jia family was powerful, their influence in Fu'an Town deep-rooted and complex, standing firm for a hundred years. They certainly had some capabilities, or perhaps connections behind them. Fang Zichen also knew his circumstances were different now, he was no longer the Third Young Master of the Fang family. It was best not to provoke the Jia family if possible.
But Fang Zichen felt deeply dissatisfied with simply letting Lianniang go unpunished. Lianniang had nearly caused him to have no heirs and end his family line. Even dismembering her into eight pieces would not have been enough to vent his hatred. He wanted to sue Lianniang, but he had no power or influence. Relying solely on his identity as a Tongsheng, Fang Zichen felt the situation was too uncertain. After thinking it over carefully, he wrote to Yang Mingyi, asking him to inform Old Master Wu.
If the status of a Tongsheng was insufficient, then he would add the weight of a Juren.
Old Master Wu had heard about that particular aphrodisiac years ago. It was notoriously potent! Most men who took it suffered from kidney failure and impotence, their manhood shriveling up. Although Fang Zichen had only taken it once, a large enough dose could still cause significant physical harm.
Being a scholar, Old Master Wu was not particularly well-versed in practical, worldly affairs. It was his fulang who took charge of preparing the gift.
He believed the worth of a gift lay not in its expense, but in whether it addressed the recipient's actual needs.
Upon hearing of Fang Zichen's misfortune, Old Master Wu's fulang sighed for a while, made some inquiries, then personally went out with servants, searched half of Yuanzhou, and spent a great deal of money to obtain this tiger penis.
Fang Zichen was not happy.
He wasn't impotent, just physically injured. If they had sent some bird's nest, white fungus, or ginseng, he might have been happier. Even if he couldn't eat it himself, Zhao Ger and his son could use the nourishment.
But what exactly was the meaning of sending this stuff?
Was it 'like cures like', or were they implying something about him?
Fang Zichen was so angry he nearly fell over backwards. Zhao Ger, however, covered his mouth and laughed softly.
"Hey, can you save some face for me?" Fang Zichen said gloomily. "Where am I supposed to put my dignity when you act like this?"
Zhao Ger smiled, his eyes crinkling: "Stick it on your butt!"
Fang Zichen: "..."
He lay down on the bed. Guaizai was already asleep. He poked his son's rosy, sleeping cheek, feeling utterly depressed.
Zhao Ger lay down on the inside and, deliberately changing the subject, told Fang Zichen about what Guaizai had said earlier.
"Do you think he likes Yi Ger?"
Every time Guaizai saw Yang Mingyi, he always loved to stick to him. Zhao Ger knew his own son, he rarely clung to people like this.
Before, he only clung to Zhao Ger. After Fang Zichen arrived, there was one more person to cling to. Now, there was one more again.
If Guaizai's attachment was simply due to Yang Mingyi being kind to him, that explanation didn't hold. After all, Zhou Ger and Aunt Liu also treated him quite well, yet Guaizai did not cling to them nearly as much.
Last time at the government office, after seeing Yang Mingyi, Guaizai held his hand on the way home and said he wanted to marry Yang Mingyi as his fulang when he grew up.
Zhao Ger pinched his little face and told him to stop talking nonsense.
Whether a dream could come true depended on whether Fang Zichen made something of himself.
If Fang Zichen became successful and passed the Xiucai and Juren examinations, then perhaps there would still be a slim possibility for his son to marry Yang Mingyi.
However, if Fang Zichen did not achieve any official rank, his son would remain a poor second-generation peasant, destined to be a farmer's husband.
Under those circumstances, wanting to marry Yang Mingyi would be nothing more than a fool's dream.
Fang Zichen propped himself up: "How can you think so far ahead? How old is our son? What does a three-year-old kid understand?"
His son's brain capacity right now wasn't even that of a pig's. If someone had tricked him a couple of times, he wouldn't have known east from west. How could he possibly have had those kinds of romantic thoughts?
If he really had, Fang Zichen would have been worried.
Although people in ancient times matured early, often starting to look for partners and matchmakers at fifteen or sixteen, they couldn't possibly mature this early.
There was no child mental health education in this place either. If his son had truly developed that quickly, Fang Zichen would not have known what to do.
Besides, he remembered the last time he heard Guaizai say he wanted to marry Liuliu and Liu Dali as well!
His reasoning was that if he married them, he could play with them every day.
Fang Zichen concluded that it was perfectly normal for children to like pretty things and want to be close to them. That was just a child's psychology.
Early the next morning, government soldiers arrived at Xiaohe Village. They informed Fang Zichen that Zhang Huaiwen had been arrested. However, because Fang Zichen's performance the previous day had been overly convincing, County Magistrate Jiang had postponed the court case. The magistrate did this as a considerate gesture, allowing Fang Zichen a full day to rest. The trial was rescheduled for the following day.
When Zhang Huaiwen was thrown into jail, he remained in a complete daze, unable to comprehend his situation.
Not just him, the entire Zhang household was similarly stunned and bewildered.
If the constables who made the arrest had been from their Heyang Town, the situation would have been understandable. The magistrate of Heyang Town wasn't on good terms with their Zhang family, so if Zhang Huaiwen committed a crime, he would have had no reason to show the Zhang family any favor.
However, Fu'an Town was completely different!
County Magistrate Jiang was their Zhang family's son-in-law. So why had he sent people to arrest his own brother-in-law now?
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