“Boom!” The loud sound of an explosion could be heard. Damn, I’m strong! Quin started laughing. I’ve guessed that I’d punch through wood without much difficulty but through stone as well? The ground in front of him was filled with only rubble. It’s a bit hard with my right hand but for my left, it’s actually not that difficult. When I still had my Lightning Qi I was able to pierce through blocks of iron without breaking a sweat but this is with only my body’s strength! He was excited, surprised and happy at the same time. If I’m capable of breaking stone then that means that my strength is around someone who’s in the third level of Qi Foundation stage. I can’t believe this... I finally managed to take a step forward instead of backward!

Quin had been already quite happy about his miraculous regeneration but now, coupled with this he felt like he had never been so happy in his entire life. Although it could not be said that he previously lacked enthusiasm regarding his training, but now, he was even more motivated.

Days have passed and he completely submerged himself in his training. It was about ten days later when something unexpected happened: a man showed up claiming to be the little girl’s father.

“Hi, I’m Zhai,” introduced himself the man.

“Quin.” He nodded. “So you’re saying that you’re his father, right? Then care to explain why I had to find her stuck in a mud puddle in the middle of nowhere?” Quin asked and stared at the man with an icy look.

“I-- We were coming home from another town but we stopped at night to sleep and somehow she escaped,” he replied. “We had searched for days but could not find any track of her, so then we started to look for her in the surrounding settlements and had already visited a few of them...”

“When did this happen?” Quin questioned.

“About a month, I think.”

“Which day?” Quin asked as he wanted to know how many days did she have had to spend in the forest alone.

“What?”

“I asked what day was it when you lost her,” he repeated his question.

“I-- It was, um... Uhm, it was Tuesday, yes!” The man almost stammered his answer.

Tuesday? I’ve found her on a Monday, so that’s nearly a whole week, but that’s not possible. How could she have survived alone without food and water and especially with her enormous appetite?

“Are you sure about that?” Quin asked.

“Yeah, definitely,” said the man, who was a bit more confident now.

“Hm, alright, and which towns had you visited?” He did not know why he felt that way but he thought something was amiss.

“Huh? Which towns? Uhm, well, it was,” Zhai replied and he stopped for a few moments before he continued. “Woshan, yeah it was Woshan.”

“And?”

“I’ve already said it, it was Woshan?” the man answered with a confused look.

“You know that you’ve said that you’ve already visited a few of the surrounding towns?” There’s something really fishy here, he thought. It was not just because of what the man said but the way he acted and the manner in which he talked.

“Oh, that’s because...” he stopped again for a bit. “Because I’ve visited Woshan and now Hounxi,” he said and his previous nervousness disappeared.

“And what’s her name?”

“She’s called Lian,” Zhai said and it was the first thing he said entirely confident.

“So, how do you know for sure that she’s your daughter?” Quin asked.

“Well, I, uh, of course, I knew that she’s her when I saw her,” he replied.

“Hm, you’ve visited this place before? Or have we met before?”

“What? No, why?”

“Damn,” Quin said and could not help but facepalm himself. “If you want to steal someone’s kid at least don’t be such a fool,” he shook his head and did not know whether to laugh or cry.

“What are you talking about? She’s my daughter, what did I say wrong?” Zhai asked confused and a bit scared.

“You do realize that if you haven’t been to this inn and we haven’t ever met then you couldn’t have seen how she looks like? We’re just in the hall but she’s outside with her babysitter, there’s no way you could’ve seen her. You get it, huh?” he asked.

“I-- Uh, I just--”

“Now get out!” Quin shouted at him with a look so fierce that it actually scared the man. What’s with that look? As as an adult man, he should be stronger than me and yet there’s fear in his eyes. He snorted.

Zhai turned around and left but with a hint of sadness in his eyes.

Quin went back to to the lake where Xia and the girl was.

“So, how did it go?” Xia asked with a smile.

“Don’t even ask,” he said with a sigh.

“What happened?” Xia asked quite surprised.

“Well, I don’t know who he was but he definitely wasn’t his father and only wanted to steal her,” he replied with an angry look.

Xia stood there with her mouth wide-open for a couple of moments.

“Are you alright?” Quin asked.

“Um, yeah, sorry, I was just shocked about this,” she answered.

Quin frowned at that but decided to not deal with it and just went back to his training.

However, another unexpected thing happened at tomorrow morning. Zhai came back but this time, he was followed by Xia and so Quin looked at them quite confused.

“We are sorry about this,” Xia said and both of them bowed.

“Hm?” Quin had a few ideas but was not entirely sure what was happening.

“I--,” Zhai started but was interrupted by Xia.

“Let me speak,” she said and turned back to Quin. “We have talked a lot about this and we have thought that after what happened yesterday the best thing is to tell you the truth.” Both Xia and Zhai was clearly embarrassed and they also looked like they were a bit afraid. “Zhai is my husband and we did not want to steal her. Well,” she took a deep breath, “Maybe it does look like that, but it’s been already a month and no one came to look for her. Do you really think that parents who leave their children in a mud puddles would be looking for them?

“The truth is that we-- I can’t have children.” She stopped and Quin noticed that she was fighting with her tears. “I did give birth to a girl more than a decade ago, but... Sadly, there were some complications which resulted in me becoming infertile. We loved her, our daughter but,” teardrops started to fall down from her eyes, “She died when she was only one year old and we couldn’t do anything about it. We had no children and no way to have one in the future, that is the reason why I started to look after children; to be able to at least partially feel the happiness of motherhood. When I had first looked at her I was instantly reminded of our daughter and the time I spent with her was the happiest I’ve had since a long time. You have said that you did not want to have a child of your own for now as you are still young, so I thought this would be a win-win situation for both of us.”

Quin remained silent for some time, as he thought through what Xia had said.

“Do you want her just because she reminds you of your daughter?” Quin asked frowning. “I don’t think that having to live your life as someone’s substitute would be desirable.”

“No, you’ve-- What I said was probably unclear. I did not mean that I would be looking at her just as a replacement, only that she reminded me of my daughter at first. Just think back please to this one month, I really don’t think that I’ve treated her like that.”

According to what Quin had seen Xia said the truth. “Alright,” he said, “And why didn’t you say it honestly the very first time? I have to tell you that I’m not a big fan of dishonesty and conning other people. By the way, did you really think that I’d be so dumb and just give her to the first person claiming to be her father?”

“We thought that you were just a kid and so there wouldn’t be any problems,” Xia said and Quin had never seen so much embarrassment reflected on one’s face than on these two. “We thought that this would be the easiest way but we never meant to hurt you or her.”

“Alright, I get it, I’m still a kid, and honestly, while I do think that I’m smarter than average I seriously doubt that just a normal kid at my age would’ve believed you. Anyways, I know that you didn’t have any malicious intent toward me and I’m not stupid, so even though I’m still pissed off I do remember the way you’ve treated her. However, this doesn’t mean that I’d be giving her custody to you. If she’s really got her parents looking for her then I don’t think one month of wait is enough. We can talk about this matter after half a year has passed. While I’m not too sure about her parents and how they could’ve left her in the middle of nowhere, I can’t rule out that there’s an explanation for their action.

“During this time you’ll have to convince me that both of you’ll be good parents for her.” Quin looked at Zhai. “So that includes you as well. Saying that how much you’d like a daughter but then not caring about her, so that she’d have to grow up without essentially having a father is not something I’d like her to experience.”