Fang Zichen said seriously: "Next time, don't give the children sugar water."
Uncle Tang said: "Then isn't the white sugar I bought last time going to waste?"
"How could it go to waste? The children can't drink it, but I can! After the children go to sleep, secretly make me some." Fang Zichen looked left and right like a thief, making sure no one was around, then handed him a water skin: "Once it's made, pour it in here."
Uncle Tang: "…"
So he came prepared! The master had probably been eyeing his three catties of white sugar for a long time.
Since Gungun and Dandan came along, Uncle Tang naturally came too.
Along the way, common folk kept offering them things—nothing valuable, just things they grew themselves—and Fang Zichen accepted them all with a smile.
Shangyang was in the south, neighboring Hengyang. The group headed south. There was a lot of fruit in the south of Hezhou, and along the road they often saw pear trees growing wild on the mountains.
The pears that old man gave last time were quite tasty, and Zhao Ger seemed to like them.
When Fang Zichen saw them, he certainly wasn't going to let the opportunity pass. He told Zhao Ger to lead the group ahead, while he took two hemp sacks and led Guaizai and Liuliu into the mountains.
The pear trees were laden with fruit, but it was a bit high. Fang Zichen took two running steps and scrambled up in one go.
Guaizai's little face was flushed red: "Liuliu, isn't my father amazing at climbing trees?"
Liuliu looked up at Fang Zichen picking pears in the tree, his eyes full of admiration: "Yeah! Like a monkey. Uncle Fang is the best."
"Cool or not?"
"Cool."
The two little ones laid on the flattery thick.
Fang Zichen was pleased to hear it and tossed two down for them to eat. They were sweet, and the two little ones held them and ate with satisfied faces, then looked up and shouted:
"Father, there's one on your right, a big one—pick that one."
"Uncle Fang, there's one above your head too."
After picking for a while, the sack was more than half full. It was getting inconvenient to carry, so Fang Zichen came down from the tree. He was just thinking about how to knock down all the remaining pears when seven or eight men carrying hoes ran out from the grass.
"What kind of people are you? You dare come to our village to steal pears?"
Steal??
This was a gross injustice. He, Fang Zichen, had spent an entire summer vacation watching legal programs — he would never do anything sneaky.
Fang Zichen looked at them, then at the pear tree. Under the pear tree was a patch of weeds taller than a person. There was no way this looked like something people had deliberately planted.
"Aren't these wild?"
"They're wild, but this is our village's mountain. Put the pears down."
Some villages were like this—extremely xenophobic and territorial. Anything growing on their land was theirs. If people from other villages wanted to come to their mountain to gather firewood, that wasn't allowed either.
Those words made Fang Zichen want to laugh.
He was the boss of Hezhou. The entire public mountain of Hezhou was his. Right now, never mind picking a few pears—even if he wanted to pull the pear tree up by the roots and take it away, he could. And yet they dared to say "our village's mountain"? Hilarious.
Guaizai and Liuliu furrowed their brows, looking at those men.
Fang Zichen wasn't about to give them up. He had picked these himself with hard work.
The men could tell too. This season their area had plenty of pears, and they weren't worth much anyway. If someone took some, fine. But taking without asking was stealing. In broad daylight, daring to come here and steal—it was as if they weren't being taken seriously at all. If they didn't jump out today, people would think their village had no one and was easy to bully. Next time, thieves might come straight into the village.
The men gripped their hoes, about to make a move, when they saw the other party looking terrified, pointing behind them: "Holy crap, what is that?"
The men turned to look. Fang Zichen swung the hemp sack onto his shoulder: "Run, quick!"
Guaizai and Liuliu reacted, and seeing that Fang Zichen had already run ahead without any sense of honor, they quickly scrambled after him.
The men shouted, waving their hoes and chasing madly. In the past, given Fang Zichen's attire and appearance, these men definitely wouldn't have dared to provoke him. But now they weren't afraid at all.
Their prefect was just and incorruptible, enforcing the law impartially—he would never protect officials and merchants alike.
"Someone come! Thieves, thieves, come quick!"
"Chase them! Chase them!"
"Don't run!"
"Put the pears down!"
The men came pouring after Fang Zichen.
Fang Zichen was furious: "What thieves? These grew on the mountain by themselves. Don't talk nonsense. Otherwise I'll have you beaten with planks later."
When the men heard this, they thought, damn it, are thieves really this brazen these days?
One man picked up a rock and threw it at them, but missed. These three were like loaches, slippery as could be.
Fang Zichen ran and glanced back, furious: "Damn you, if you hit my son or me, I won't let this go."
"Who's afraid of you?"
"I'm the prefect!"
The men stopped and froze for a moment. Fang Zichen thought they believed him and stopped too. Most villagers were simple and honest. If they realized he was the prefect, once they reacted, they'd probably get very excited and volunteer to help him pick pears.
It was hard to refuse such enthusiasm. Fang Zichen was just about to pull out the other hemp sack when one of the men, chest heaving with rage, pointed at him and cursed: "You dare impersonate our prefect? Brothers, chop him!"
Fang Zichen: "…"
Rumor had it that the newly arrived prefect was handsome and elegant, tall, exceptionally good-looking. The man in front of them was also good-looking, but… what kind of person was the prefect?
He came from the capital and was a top scholar. How could he possibly climb trees? They had all just seen it—this man picking fruit in the tree, truly like a monkey back home, darting around as if walking on flat ground. Even those who grew up in their village couldn't climb trees that smoothly.
And everyone knew the prefect only had four children at home: one ger around ten, one young master Guaizai, and two other young masters who were still very small. Look at the two this man brought—one looked about eight, the other four or five. How could he possibly be the prefect?
Daring to impersonate their prefect—this was going too far.
The men seemed enraged and chased even more fiercely.
The wild grass was tall. Although Guaizai's legs were only as long as chopsticks, he ran faster than a dog. Being small, once he darted into the grass he vanished completely. If not for the grass moving, no one would know where he'd run. Fang Zichen was tall with long legs and ran like a tornado.
Liuliu couldn't keep up. He was falling behind, so Fang Zichen ran back, tucked him under his arm, and ran to the official road. Once there, Fang Zichen put him down, and the three climbed onto horseback. They squeezed their legs against the horses' bellies and quickly galloped away.
The men still wanted to chase, but how could two legs outrun four? They could only curse behind them. In no time, Fang Zichen had left them far behind.
Guaizai's little topknot had come loose from all the running and now looked messy, like a little vagrant's. There was sweat on his little nose. His heart was pounding, and his eyes were bright. He turned his head and saw no one behind them, then immediately burst out laughing.
Liuliu laughed along too.
"Liuliu, was that fun? Thrilling?"
Liuliu nodded vigorously. It really was both scary and exciting.
Following Uncle Fang and Guaizai is just too much fun.
Earlier, people had been practically forcing pears on them, and they couldn't refuse. Now, after picking a couple of wild fruits, they were treated as thieves. This was clearly his territory—how outrageous.
Fang Zichen ground his teeth the whole way.
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