Chapter 3: 3. Heaven's Punishment
He pulled the crystal using the entire weight of his body but it still didn't budge. He took a step back to reevaluate the situation, but his foot landed on something and he ended up losing his balance and falling on his butt right on top of it.
"Ow!"
He picked up the object as he sighed in relief. Thankfully, he landed on it in an okay position so his butt was saved. Otherwise that could've been dangerous.
It looked to be a stone in the shape of a skull. It was composed of a conglomerate of black and gray stones and looked pretty lumpy and ugly overall. However, despite its ugliness, Mao Yin's eyes shone in excitement because the eye sockets contained some of the purple crystal that he so longed to obtain.
He grinned happily at this sudden stroke of good fortune. Could the heavens have finally decided to show him some fortune?
Mao Yin was so happy, he couldn't stop grinning for most of the walk back home. It was only when he was halfway home that he remembered to hide his newfound treasure in his robes. He anxiously looked around.
Hopefully no one noticed, he prayed as he walked home with brisk steps.
From afar, a group of children stopped their game of ball to watch Mao Yin go by. They began to whisper amongst themselves.
"Look, it's Mao Yin again."
"Why does he even leave his house? Doesn't he know that no one likes him?"
"My momma said that he was a bad kid so the heavens punished him by taking his parents away. Bad kids will always be punished."
"I wonder what he did to make the heaven's so angry."
"Maybe he was the one who killed his parents!"
They broke out in giggles.
"Hey," the chubbiest kid nudged the others. "Did you see him hide something in his robes?"
"I did! I saw it glitter. Maybe he found some kind of treasure?"
"He did come from outside of the village…"
The kids continued to converse amongst themselves in hushed tones.
That night, Mao Yin fell asleep easily with a smile on his face as he hugged the lumpy skull to his chest. Soon, however, the smile left his face because he was wracked with nightmares all throughout the night.
He dreamt of murder, decapitation, spilling blood, organs littering the ground; things that would haunt any adult or child to insanity.
He woke in the morning all sweaty, but he remembered nothing of it and merely filled a basin with water from the river and washed up before heading out to work in the fields as usual.
He planned to finish his work as quickly as he could so that he could have the time to find somewhere to get the item he found appraised. He managed to finish up by early evening, but as he went to leave, he noticed that a group of village kids were crowded around, blocking the path.
Mao Yin frowned slightly. He was well aware that he wasn't welcome in the village so he never initiated any contact with the villagers or their children before. The villagers didn't seem to like him much either, but they didn't openly create trouble for him. It was likely because not only was he alone with no family, but because he also refused to speak with them. They all thought he was mute and dumb. To save the trouble of speaking with them and explaining, he never corrected them.
However, these kids were completely blocking his way. They didn't even leave a small space to slip past. Should he wait until they moved? No, that could take a long time. Then what would the point of finishing up early be?
Then should he just go? They might end up making way to let him through. After some indecision, he decided to go through with the second option. But before he went too far, one of the kids nudged the others to get their attention. They quickly went silent and watched as Mao Yin approached.
A chubby-looking kid stepped forward and smiled invitingly at Mao Yin. He was missing several teeth so the effect was more fear inducing than anything else. Mao Yin eyed him warily.
"Mao Yin, we were here waiting here for so long! We were going to go play ball but we needed one more player. Since we knew you were near, we thought that we would invite you."
The chubby kid's expression and voice sounded welcoming, but the look in his eyes made Mao Yin think twice. And unlike the chubby kid, the rest of the surrounding kids held unfriendly looks. It was clear that they held bad intentions towards him.
What could he do about it though? If he ran, they'd catch him. The adults in the village were unreliable since they all disliked him, and he definitely couldn't take all the kids on in a fight. The best choice would be to follow and see what they were up to. He could probably find an opportunity to escape them too.
With that thought in mind, he merely nodded and followed the children towards the outskirts of the village.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone