1 Pendant

Han Jian was having none of it, his fucking pendant got taken from him. He wanted to show-off to his fellow students how deep his parent's pockets were using that pendant, but waving it around made the other kids jealous. Han Jian was a child aged eleven, a healthy-looking child with black hair, and black eyes. He looked completely normal, maybe a bit on the plump side but aside from that, he looked pretty much average.

One child, in particular, named Han Yun who was a peasant in comparison to Han Jian with his mother working tirelessly from day to night earning little to no money, was enraged at Jian's incessant bragging. In a rage, he snatched the pendant off of Jian's hands and ran off.

'He must've sold it by now, he must've sold it by now...' Jian constantly chattered behind his teeth in worry. That pendant wasn't anything important but it was very expensive. Maybe not to Jian's parents but certainly to Jian, himself. He truly didn't want to get scolded again, as he searched in a hurry for Yun. He searched all around the village for the whole day to no avail, he didn't think Yun the coward would have the audacity to actually steal from the great bully that is Han Jian!

Jian trotted back home in sadness, he opened the door to see his father talking with Yun's mother. Jian was frightened, he was scared that his father might find out he was boasting about his material goods to poor folk, his father was a righteous man. Completely unlike Jian, even his mother was not as mischievous as Jian, it was a mystery if he was even their child at all! But, this could just be attributed to Han Jian's age...

He tiptoed in hoping his father wouldn't notice, but how could Jian's father not be able to see him.

'Hey Jian, I was just talking to Yun's mother here and I'm afraid, he's disappeared!' Jian's father looked worried as he said 'I, your mother and the other villagers will go look out for him, you stay right here.'

Jian was relieved but also at the same time afraid, afraid that Yun might've run away due to the guilt in stealing Jian's pendant, and when Yun gets caught he'll probably tell the story that Jian incited this whole "argument" causing Jian to get into trouble. He had to find Yun before anyone else and ask him to keep quiet about the whole situation.

'Father, father, Yun is my friend too! I can't just sit at home in worry while my good friend Yun is out there. I have to go and search for him too...'

Jian's father, Han Tian, knew that whenever Jian got heated up about something, it was mostly for his own selfish needs. However, Tian had no time to teach him a lesson and just agreed and walked out to the search.

The villagers were in a group at the village square with a responsible-looking old man standing on a podium of sorts, he announced 'Fellow villagers of the Han Family, today Yun, the age of eleven has disappeared we shall embark on an expedition to find him!'

'We shall have a fruitful return!' chanted the Village Chief.

'We shall have a fruitful return!' followed the villagers.

'Ummm... father, will we be going outside the village to search for him?' questioned Jian.

'Of course not, why would Yun go outside the village, he is a coward after all' answered Jian.

Jian was afraid that they might go out the village, as he knew that Yun was definitely not inside the village. He decided to venture out the village, in search of Yun.

He couldn't go through the main entrance as people were searching there, so he decided to go through the side gates his small stature enabled him to slip past everyone and even if someone caught him jumping around he could just say he was searching for Yun. He reached the gates and stepped outside.

'Whew, my first time outside the village. Less scary than the rumours' thought Jian.

Every adult of the village always warned the children to never go out of the village, apparently, there were many beasts out there that could easily kill a child in a second. Scary as it might be, to a child such as Han Jian nothing could compare to his parent's wrath.

Outside the gates there was an eerie forest filled with fright, Jian took a step out and started walking down a road or path of sorts. Occasionally, he would shout out 'Yun!' in case he could hear him. Suddenly, after a couple of minutes a shout in reply 'J - Jian' could be heard. Jian decided that running to it would be the most foolish thing to do but he did it anyway, he was not going to get in trouble today.

He ran towards the sound with his tiny legs running as far. He managed to find Yun, crawled up in a ball leaning next to a tree.

'J- Jian, I- 'm so sorry. P- Please forgive me' stuttered Yun as he gave the pendant back to Jian.

'It's alright, as long as you tell nobody and never do this again, or I'll make you suffer a life not worth living' replied Jian.

Of course, Jian didn't have the power to do that to Yun, and probably wouldn't do that anyway. But he had to make some sort of threat or Yun might think he was easy pickings. However, what Jian was really wondering was why was Yun so scared, it could not have been the guilt as Yun seemed to be shuddering and might've burst out in tears any moment. Which Jian believed could be due to the creepiness of the forest.

'Oi, Yun why you so scared huh? Did something happen? Like a branch brush your back, and you thought it was a beast or something?'

'U- huh, no J- Jian it's just, j- just that I went to the outside of the village, I'll get in so much trouble...' stammered Yun.

'Ugh, you should've thought of that when you went out of the goddamn village...' replied a very annoyed Jian.