*Cough-cough~! Cough-cough-cough~!*

 

“Papa, you need to see a Doctor.”

 

“I’m fine. It’s just a cold. I’ll get over it soon. I’m not a weak Wordless peasant like those villagers.”

 

Aside from a mild cough, the handsome man didn’t seem to have any other visible symptoms. However, Jade saw a glimpse of the back of his left hand: ‘Legendary Sculptor V’.

 

“Papa! Your Rank dropped again!” The 10 year old girl shouted anxiously, “This isn’t ‘fine’, this is really bad! You need a Doctor!”

“Celadon, shall I make an appointment for the Doctor in Verdant Valley Town?”

 

“Don’t worry about it. I said I’m fine.”

 

Marble looked at her husband with a concerned expression, then walked forward and placed her hand on his forehead, “Your body temperature is abnormally high. You are acting irrationally. You require treatment that I cannot provide.”

 

“Shut up!” Celadon threw her across the room so hard that she splattered on the wall like white white clay.

“Mama~! No!”

 

“Shush! She’s fine. *Cough-cough~!* Give me a second and I’ll fix her…” He reached out and struggled a bit, then the splattered remnants of Marble’s body floated in mid-air. It took a few seconds before she was reformed, exactly the way she looked before. Even her green dress was included in the life-like ‘sculpture’. 

 

Finally, he snapped his right hand and the woman opened her eyes, blinked a few times and asked, “Am I alive again?”

 

“Mama! You’re okay!” Jade rushed over and tried to hug her mother, but the woman quickly avoided and squinted her bright green eyes.

 

“I am not your mother. I am Marble.”

 

“What? What are you talking about?”

 

“I am Marble. I am the Wife of Celadon. I am not allowed to interact familiarly with unknown humans.”

 

“She’s not unknown. She’s our daughter, Jade. Remember?” Celadon walked over and placed his thumb on her forehead. Then he casually popped off her skullcap. Looking down inside of her bright pink brain. He poked his other hand inside and fiddled around a bit. Then he turned to the horrified little girl and asked, “Jade, what are you waiting for? Hug your mother. I need to make sure her reactions are calibrated right.”

 

“Mama… Mama, do you know who I am?” Jade blinked her teary eyes and looked up at that confused face, “Mama, I’m Jade. I’m your daughter. You’re my mother. Okay?”

 

“I am Marble. I am the Wife of Celadon. You are my daughter, Jade. You are… Nine years, three months and thirteen days old. It is nine-thirty-seven PM and it is past your bedtime.”

 

“Yeah… Mama, it’s past my bedtime, I’m… I’m gonna go to bed now… I love you.”

 

“Do you require assistance? I can render you unconscious very efficiently and effectively.”

 

“No, I’m fine… I… I’m sorry.”

 

After Jade ran away crying, Celadon shook his head and coughed a few times. Then he put his wife’s skull-cap back on, fusing it perfectly in place. He looked over at the giant green serpentine dragon he was working on and grumbled, “What a disappointment.”

 

***

 

“Hmmm, almost there…”

 

Jade was wearing a green dress and balancing stones in the middle of the small stream not far from her house. She didn’t care that her clothes were wet. Because her entire focus was on making sure the smallest oblong stone was perfectly aligned with the other five bigger ones. Starting in the slowly moving water, it almost looked like magic when she finally completed her work.

 

“Here you go, perfect. Ehah-hah-ehah~!”

 

With a gleeful smile on her adorable face, she was admiring the artwork she created after an entire hour of painstaking effort. Then a rock skipped across the surface and smashed into the middle, destroying everything instantly. Accompanied by some loud, obnoxious high-pitched laughter.

 

“Nice shot! Hehehe~!”

 

“Hahaha~! Thanks, but I was aiming for her head! Hahah~!”

 

Jade frowned and looked over at the riverbank, where three tall girls were laughing and holding rocks in their hands. She quickly dove under the shallow water to avoid getting hit in the face, but as soon as she surfaced again, a sharp stone smacked into her left shoulder.

 

“Mmmn! Why are you doing this?!”

 

“Why not?!” The tallest and skinniest girl had green eyes, blonde hair and a lot of pimples on her face.

 

“This is assault! You’re committing a crime! Ah!” Jade screamed in pain as her forehead was cut open by a small rock, “How dare you?!”

 

“Hahaha~! What? You gonna cry, Bitch?”

 

“Why are you so mean?!” The little girl quickly swam to the shore and dodged a few more rocks, then she reached out and grabbed one of the girl’s dirty ankles.

 

“Ah! Let go!” The girl tried to use the other foot to kick her off, but that just made her lose her balance. Jade pulled hard and the girl fell down onto the gravelly sand, shouting from the pain.

 

“Die, little whore!” The other two girls grabbed Jade by the hair and yanked her out of the water. After getting her onto the land, the two of them started punching and kicking her in the face, shoulders, ribs and gut. The girl that fell was especially angry and stomped her face into the rocks really hard, tearing open a lot of flesh.

 

“Stop! Please! Waah~!”

 

She kicked out and tripped one of the girls, who fell on top of her body and took a few blows from her frenzied friends while screaming. Then Jade rolled over across the sand, got up and slammed a sharp fist-sized rock into the tallest girl’s mouth, knocking out a bunch of bloody, broken teeth!

 

“I’m… I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to…”

 

As she dropped the stone and was apologizing, the girl got up from behind and stabbed her in the waist with a small pocket knife! It hurt so much that even with the adrenaline, Jade was in shock and didn’t react when the toothless girl punched her in the face. She was stabbed a few more times, then punched and kicked on the ground as she lost consciousness.

 

In her hazy mind, she seemed to hear her father grumbling again.

 

“What a disappointment.”