After avenging himself, Guaizai ate a chicken and said he wanted to go back.
Old General Qin coaxed him, asking him to stay a few more days.
Guaizai's hands paused while packing his bundle. "Why?"
Old General Qin made an excuse. "Grandpa hasn't recovered yet. Won't you stay and protect Grandpa?"
Guaizai's face scrunched up with difficulty.
Old General Qin sighed. "Grandpa is old. What will I do without someone to protect me? Sigh, maybe next time I go into battle I'll get stabbed again."
Guaizai scratched his head again. "But Grandpa Qin Yi and the others are here!"
Old General Qin said, "But Grandpa feels Guaizai is the most reliable. I don't know why, but with you around, I feel especially at ease."
Hearing this, Guaizai immediately puffed out his chest. "Guaizai is a tough, iron-blooded man. Guaizai gives people a sense of security. Since that's the case, Guaizai will stay a few more days!"
Old General Qin laughed, thinking how easy the child was to coax.
Qin Hengyi made a round through the wounded soldiers' camp and couldn't help but see Tang Daniang and the others in a new light.
But still...
"After all, it's a shocking and unconventional move," Old General Qin said. "This matter cannot be rushed."
Qin Hengyi pondered for a moment. "I understand."
Reform and change always require bloodshed and sacrifice.
This kind of thing really couldn't be rushed. The idea that women and gers should stay home supporting their husbands and raising children, and shouldn't appear in public—this thinking had been passed down for generations. It was good to break it, but also hard to break.
Guaizai stayed. During this time, there were several more battles with the Chao Kingdom. Guaizai was marked by the Chao army. Sometimes several people would gang up on him at once. Now it was Guaizai's turn to be beaten until he howled, his face swollen from punches. Old General Qin knew he could handle it, though he might suffer some, so he didn't step in to rescue him.
No beating, no growth.
And if everything always went too smoothly, the child might never understand the cruelty of the battlefield—becoming self-satisfied, arrogant, and unwilling to work hard.
In the third battle, one of Guaizai's teeth was knocked out. His mouth was full of blood. As they withdrew, he wiped his tears and pointed at Jiang Zhanying, shouting threats: "You hit Guaizai! Waaah, Guaizai is going back to tell Father. Father will lead troops to flatten your Chao Kingdom. Just you wait, you're done for!"
Guaizai had never tattled before, but now that he'd been bullied, he missed Fang Zichen.
If his father were here, his tooth wouldn't have fallen out.
Jiang Zhanying: "..."
Jiang Zhanying didn't take it seriously, treating it as a joke.
But Guaizai's face was swollen from being hit, and when he returned to Hezhou, he really did take that tooth to report to Fang Zichen.
Fang Zichen had never so much as laid a finger on him — he treasured the boy to his core. The Chao Kingdom was now on Fang Zichen's blacklist.
Later, Fang Zichen flattened Da Liang and Northern Qi, attacking the Chao Kingdom from the north. The Chao Kingdom had originally planned to attack Da Xia from two sides together with Da Liang, but instead found themselves caught in a pincer attack from Da Xia's northwest army and the Qin family army.
More than half of the Chao Kingdom's capital was bombed by Fang Zichen. He refused to accept their surrender and said outright that he wanted one of Jiang Zhanying's teeth—otherwise he'd blow up the entire Chao capital. It was only when Jiang Zhanying was pinned down and had a tooth ripped out with pliers that he realized he'd messed with the wrong person.
Guaizai brought that bloody tooth back.
He was at the age where he was losing his baby teeth anyway, but this particular tooth hadn't been loose at all. The one next to his front tooth had been very loose, though — before they left, Meng Ruqing had pried his mouth open and pulled it out himself.
Zhao Ger had heard the village elders say that when a child is losing teeth, you shouldn't wait for them to fall out on their own. If a tooth is loose, you should pull it — if you leave it, the new tooth won't have room to grow and will grow in crooked.
Guaizai's two front teeth had fallen out on their own, but the two bottom ones — Zhao Ger had pulled them himself, using all his strength and twisting three times to the left and three times to the right. When he pulled them, Guaizai was in terrible pain, held down firmly by Fang Zichen. Fang Zichen coaxed him, saying handsome guys have a tougher road. If they didn't pull it, he might end up with buck teeth. Guaizai gritted his teeth and endured it, letting Zhao Ger twist and pull them out.
The two of them knew nothing. How their own teeth had fallen out, Zhao Ger had forgotten—after all, back then his mind was full of going home and doing chores. Who would remember?
Fang Zichen had always had his teeth pulled by doctors. He'd never wiggled one loose himself. His mother would just tell him to open his mouth, wiggle it twice, say whether it was ready, and take him to the hospital. If she said it wasn't ready, he'd just go off and do his own thing. So now neither of them had any experience at all!
The moment Guaizai's tooth got even a little loose, they wanted to yank it out. Uncle Tang saw Guaizai crying in pain and his heart ached. Out of sight, out of mind — he took Gungun and Dandan and fled to the village chief's house. The chief's wife saw he looked distracted and asked what was wrong.
He said Guaizai was getting a tooth pulled and was crying from the pain. He couldn't bear to watch.
"What's the big deal?" The village chief's wife said with a smile. "When it's really loose, it comes out easily and doesn't hurt much. The young master probably just isn't good with pain."
Uncle Tang was stunned. What did she mean, when it's really loose it comes out easily? After asking a few more questions, he rushed home—but it was too late. By the time he got there, Guaizai's tooth had already been pulled.
Uncle Tang told Fang Zichen and Zhao Ger about this. Neither of them dared look at Guaizai for a whole day.
They felt incredibly guilty.
Fang Zichen peeked through the window at Guaizai huffing and puffing as he scrubbed clothes in the yard, and thought that raising kids really wasn't easy.
Because of their inexperience, the child had suffered.
The tooth that was knocked out—Guaizai had also had Meng Ruqing wiggle it before, asking if it was loose, if it could be pulled. Meng Ruqing said it wasn't loose, couldn't be pulled. But now, in just nine days, it had been knocked out.
If a front tooth falls out, it won't grow back. Luckily this one was still a baby tooth, so it was okay. But with a tooth missing, he couldn't be a handsome guy anymore.
Guaizai was still shaken. When he got back, he ran straight into the tent and started packing his little bundle again, saying he wanted to go back.
Old General Qin saw his mouth all swollen and felt both heartache and amusement.
He'd brought him along to get him used to the battlefield so he wouldn't be scared in the future. But Guaizai had exceeded his expectations—he wasn't scared at all. Every time they retreated, he'd run off to help Tang Daniang and the others take care of the wounded soldiers. He never made a fuss about going back. Now... he'd probably really been hurt.
Old General Qin also knew the child would have to go back eventually. Earlier, Meng Ruqing had sent word that Fang Zichen had sent people over, urging the three little ones to return.
War is like an arrow loosed from a bow — once fired, there's no turning back, no end until death.
Once two kingdoms go to war, it takes at least a year or two, three or four years, even a decade or more to end.
If the two armies are evenly matched, it could drag on even longer.
Old General Qin was very reluctant to let him go, his heart feeling heavy and stifled, but he also knew that keeping the child there forever was simply not a solution.
He could only hold Guaizai and kiss him over and over, until the boy's face was swollen and his eyes brimmed with tears.
In the end, it was still Qin Hengyi who rescued him from the clutches of doom.
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