"How is that possible? If someone respects me a foot, I respect them a yard. If someone offends me, I will definitely beat them until even their own mother doesn't recognize them. There's no reason only they can call us wild seeds and we can't call them that. How are they nobler than us?" Fang Zichen tried hard to suppress his anger. "Daring to call my, Fang Zichen's, son a wild seed—not blowing up their ancestral graves is already letting them off lightly. Just cursing back, what's the big deal?"
The longer they lived together, the more he cared about Zhao Ger and Guaizai, the less he could stand to hear others say even half a bad word about them.
But everyone has their own mouth to speak with. No one is perfect, so no matter what you do, people will talk.
He couldn’t control that. As long as he didn’t hear it, they could all go about their lives peacefully. But this He Huihui—she had dared to speak such heart-stabbing words right to his son’s face. He was absolutely not going to let her get away with it.
"Husband," Zhao Ger's tone was hesitant and uncertain, "Actually..."
A sudden knock sounded at the door.
Fang Zichen stood up. "What did you just say?"
The courage mustered from his entire body seemed to dissipate with one breath.
Zhao Ger shook his head slightly."It's nothing."
Another knock came from outside, sounding quite urgent.
In the village, doors were usually not closed during regular meals. The courtyard gate was mostly just pulled to. Usually, no one came to their home, so Fang Zichen had closed it earlier.
Zhao Ger said, "Go open the door quickly."
It was bitterly cold outside. Fang Zichen put Guaizai down, stuffed a mouthful of duck intestines into his own mouth, and then dashed outside.
Outside the door was a woman, dressed thickly, the fabric of her clothes looking quite new. Fang Zichen did not recognize her.
"Hello, can I help you?"
The woman seemed rather nervous, stammering for quite a while. A mother mosquito’s buzz was louder than her voice. Fang Zichen couldn’t make out what she was saying.
Since she was a woman, he couldn’t lean in closer to hear her. He had no choice but to call Zhao Ger outside.
Fang Zichen was like a man-eating tiger. Once he left, the woman relaxed.
Zhao Ger glanced at the sky, slightly puzzled. "Sister Meng, coming over so late, is something the matter?"
"It's nothing much," Meng-shi said, rubbing her hands. "I just wanted to ask you, have you seen Xiao Feng these past few days?"
Previously, when Zhao Ger sold blood sausages, knowing Xiao Feng's nature, he coaxed Xiao Feng into pushing the millstone for him, using that as an excuse to give some food to Xiao Feng. Later, when he stopped making blood sausages, he didn't see Xiao Feng much. Sometimes, if he wanted to send some food to him, he had to go up the mountain to find him.
Recently, it had been cold, and he was also busy, so he hadn't seen Xiao Feng much.
"Has Xiao Feng gone missing?"
"Yes!" Seeing Zhao Ger shake his head, Meng-shi's eyelids reddened.
"Where in the world could this child have run off to?" She slapped her own thigh in frustration. "I've looked everywhere I can think of in the village, but I just can't find him anywhere."
Xiao Feng was the child she had brought with her when she remarried. Liu Gouzi never treated him well. Xiao Feng himself also rarely lingered around the village. Because of his timid nature and hia stutter, he had no real playmates. Most of the time, he kept to himself. If anyone in the village could be said to know him at all, it was only Zhao Ger and Guaizai.
Meng-shi had searched for quite a while in the late afternoon but hadn't found him. Remembering that last year Guaizai had come to their home looking for Xiao Feng—though later her husband had chased him out with a broom. She also remembered that Xiao Feng had spoken of Zhao Ger to her once before. That was what had finally brought her to their door.
Zhao Ger frowned. "When did he go missing?"
Meng-shi thought about it. "Probably two days... no, it should be three days by now."
Fang Zichen, leaning in the kitchen doorway while eating, immediately felt like rolling his eyes upon hearing this.
Her own child, and she doesn't even know when he went missing? Is this woman careless or what!
If it were his son, even half an hour missing would make him faint. Three days was unthinkable.
Zhao Ger's expression tightened. "Have you checked the mountain?"
Meng-shi shook her head."No."
The mountain was dangerous in winter. How could she dare go alone?
Seeing her look, Zhao Ger understood. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed someone approaching down the path.
It was Liu Gouzi.
"You useless woman! Not home washing our son's feet on a night like this, but out here wandering around? Looking for a beating?"
He shot a sidelong glance at Zhao Ger. If it were anyone else talking to Meng-shi this long, he'd have cursed them out without a second thought. But, wary of Fang Zichen, he didn't dare. He just yanked Meng-shi's arm and dragged her away.
Zhao Ger listened to the stream of curses fading into the distance. He closed the gate, went back into the kitchen, and saw Fang Zichen and Guaizai sitting by the stove, warming themselves. After a moment's thought, his unease remained. He called out to Fang Zichen.
"What did you just say?" Fang Zichen wondered if he'd heard wrong. "You want to go up the mountain now, in the dark? Are you trying to find ghosts?"
Besides, it was cold. He wasn't willing to go!
"Xiao Feng is missing. I think he might be on the mountain," Zhao Ger said, his worry evident. "I'm afraid something's happened. Before, when Liu Gouzi beat him, he'd hide in the hills, but he never stayed away for several days straight. And in deep winter, if he's not coming back, what is he eating? It's too dangerous up there. I have a bad feeling."
Meng-shi had remarried into Liu Gouzi's family several years ago, at the beginning of the year. By the end of that year, she had borne a son for Liu Gouzi.
Liu Gouzi specifically did castration and butchering jobs for pigs. He hadn't been able to find a wife easily. Already in his thirties, he'd been introduced to the widow Meng through a matchmaker.
Having a son so late in life, he doted on the boy obsessively. The child was plump and fair-skinned from his indulgence. Last year, when Liu Gouzi went to a neighboring village for a pig-castrating job, Xiao Feng was left to mind his little brother. He wasn't careful enough, and the toddler fell in the courtyard, scraping the skin off his palm. When Liu Gouzi returned, he gave Xiao Feng a vicious beating. The boy's face was bruised and swollen for three whole days before it started to heal.
The man had no restraint when he hit. Zhao Ger feared he might have beaten Xiao Feng into a truly dire state this time.
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