Around noon, the twins were relatively calm. But in the evening, when Fang Zichen and Guaizai came home and touched Zhao Ger's belly, as soon as they said a few words, the two little guys would react strongly—as if they knew their father and big brother were back. They seemed to have ADHD (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder).
Sometimes Fang Zichen thought they might be staging a martial arts fight inside Zhao Ger's belly, or perhaps the two brothers were bickering and coming to blows. Sometimes, Zhao Ger's belly would visibly shift—one moment a tiny footprint poking out, the next a small fist about the size of a quail egg. It was almost like a scene from a horror movie.
Fang Zichen was almost afraid they would kick a hole right through Zhao Ger's belly. But when he called Physician Li to come take a look, he said everything was fine.
Zhao Ger said that when he was pregnant with Guaizai, Guaizai hadn't moved much either—probably because there was only one baby, with no one else fighting for space.
Fang Zichen sat up from Zhao Ger's belly and said, "Mm, I've been thinking about it."
He now had three hungry mouths to feed at home—and little Xiao Feng sort of counted as a fourth. The pressure was enormous.
He needed to earn more silver.
People outside were asking about bicycles constantly. Not just children—even adults found them appealing.
Just think about how many children there were in the capital. If every single one of them bought a bicycle, how much money would that bring in?
And if, like the chili sauce, the business did well, merchants might come to him to buy stock and sell it in neighboring towns.
Zhao Ger did some quick mental math and suddenly felt wide awake. Fang Zichen smiled when he saw Zhao Ger's eyes gleaming with excitement. He rubbed Zhao Ger's belly, leaned over, and kissed him on the forehead. His voice was low and seductive as he whispered in Zhao Ger's ear:
"We don't need to rush right now. Let's wait until after the babies are born to talk about it."
Zhao Ger looked down at his own belly with a silent sigh. He knew there wasn't much he could do in his current state. Even if he was impatient, he had to hold back.
And Fang Zichen had even less time. When he was on duty, he wasn't home. When he came back, all his attention was on Zhao Ger. He was extremely tense and anxious. He couldn't focus on anything else. Only once Zhao Ger delivered the babies safely would Fang Zichen finally be able to breathe easy and turn his mind to other things.
He held all the "technology" and "prototypes" in his own hands, so he wasn't afraid of anyone copying him. Even if someone managed to figure out the bike frame, they wouldn't be able to replicate the tires.
There was no need to rush.
Days slipped by one after another—before anyone knew it, another day was gone. And before anyone realized, autumn had arrived.
Early autumn wasn't any different from summer—it was still hot. The trees planted in the capital hardly lost any leaves. If Fang Zichen hadn't been counting the days and noticing the cucumbers in the garden turning yellow and withered, he wouldn't have known that autumn had come.
Just then, at the palace gates, another squad of imperial guards galloped past on horseback.
Fang Zichen wondered whose house they were going to raid this time.
Something had been happening in the capital lately.
In mid-autumn, the eighth lunar month, an urgent report arrived from Hezhou. It said that in the seventh month, a massive flash flood had struck Fang County, completely destroying nine villages. It had happened late at night. Heavy rain had fallen for three days straight before that, but nothing had gone wrong. The previous years had been the same, so no one had been too worried. Some thatched roofs had leaked, and those had been patched up a few days earlier. Everyone had gone to bed feeling safe.
But who could have guessed that deep that night, floodwaters would suddenly rush down from upstream? The nine villages were too close to the river, and in an instant, they were submerged. The next day, when the magistrate of Fang County led his troops to the scene, the villages were completely swallowed by the raging floodwaters. From a distance, all that could be seen were a few broken rooftops.
According to the tally, not counting the collapsed houses and the ruined crops, the death toll alone had reached over seven hundred. The official report euphemistically called them "missing." But no bodies had been found. The flood had carried debris and mud with tremendous force. Anyone caught in it would have been knocked senseless. Even the strongest swimmer would have been in grave danger. And most of the missing were the elderly, women, and children—which was practically the same as dead.
The prefect of Hezhou had tried to cover up the matter, but somehow the truth still reached the emperor.
Three years earlier, the Ministry of Revenue had allocated silver to Hezhou for flood control works. But officials and merchants had colluded, and the dam they'd built had lasted barely two years before being washed away.
After days of heavy rain, the flood had breached the dam and rushed downstream.
No one patrolled at night, so the water had reached the villagers' doorsteps while everyone was still asleep.
After reading the memorial, Xia Jinghong was so furious that steam practically rose from his head. He unleashed his anger right there in the court hall.
He wasn't a cruel or tyrannical ruler. The number of times he had lost his composure like this while on the throne could be counted on one hand. The last time he had been this angry was when Da Yuan had suddenly torn up their treaty, attacked the northwest, and burned down Da Xia's villages. And now this Hezhou business.
Nine villages—thousands of people, more than half of them dead. Several villages downstream along the river had also been devastated. Memorials flooded into the capital one after another—some begging forgiveness, some requesting silver from the court. Xia Jinghong was busy for a long time, finally ordering the Ministry of Revenue to allocate funds.
The magistrate of Fang County, the prefect of Hezhou, and all the officials and merchants involved in the dam's construction were to be escorted back to the capital in chains.
Normally, when an official committed a crime, the punishment was either execution of the entire household, exile, or demotion. For dereliction of duty, demoting the magistrate of Fang County and the prefect would have sufficed. But ordering them brought back to the capital in chains—that meant those two were in serious trouble.
The magistrate of Fang County had no allies at court, but the prefect of Hezhou did know a few people, and they belonged to the same faction. So someone immediately stepped forward to plead for leniency. Xia Jinghong waited for him to finish, then picked up the memorial on his desk and hurled it at the man's head.
The prefect's dereliction was one crime. Embezzling the court's silver and using shoddy materials, causing nearly a thousand deaths and the devastation of several counties, leaving the people homeless—that was the second crime. And after the disaster, he had threatened his subordinate officials to cover it all up—utterly lawless. Even one head wouldn't be enough to pay for his crimes. And this official still dared to plead for mercy?
The official's forehead was split open and bleeding. A few others had been about to add their pleas, but seeing Xia Jinghong's furious expression—which clearly said, "Go ahead, I'll hit you too"—they immediately fell silent.
But before the troops the court had dispatched to escort the prisoners back had even reached Hezhou, an urgent message arrived in the late eighth lunar month: the prefect had been beheaded.
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