Chapter 1 — The Fateful Oath

My husband lowered his head and looked at me with a face full of practiced guilt. "Darling, I am so sorry... I just cannot do it. I am useless." I stared at him, my suspicion sharpening into a blade. "Is that so? Or have you been keeping a mistress on the side?" A frantic light flickered in his eyes. "No! That is not it! Do not talk nonsense." I shook my head slowly, my voice cold. "I do not believe you." He raised three fingers toward the heavens, his voice thick with a desperate, false piety. "I swear to God, I really have lost my ability! There is nothing I can do!" At that precise moment, the jade pendant resting against my collarbone suddenly flared with an intense, searing heat. A dark, predatory smile tugged at the corners of my mouth as I whispered, "I permit your oath to be fulfilled."

When I was six years old, my mother lay on her deathbed, ravaged by a terminal illness. With the last of her strength, her trembling hand reached into her robes and pulled out a crescent-shaped jade piece. She pressed it into my small palm with a final, desperate urgency. "Azure... if anyone ever lies to you... and dares to swear an oath to the heavens... speak to this jade. Say, 'I permit your oath to be fulfilled.' Then, that oath will..." Before she could finish the sentence, her hand went limp, and she departed from this world.

My father worked as a laborer in a distant city and barely returned home once a year. My grandmother, left to care for me, was a woman of profound cruelty who favored my young uncle’s family above all else. Since my male cousin was born, her favoritism had curdled into a morbid obsession. she treated him like a precious treasure while raining blows and curses down upon me without mercy. Of the one thousand credits my father sent home for my living expenses, my grandmother would hide nine hundred and fifty to buy meat for my uncle’s house. I was forced to forage for wild weeds in the fields just to stave off the gnawing hunger. The rich, savory aroma of stir-fried pork would waft over the wall from my uncle’s kitchen, taunting my empty stomach until I could barely stand the salivation.

"Grandmother, I want to eat meat too," I once pleaded. She gave me a sideways, hateful glance. "If you want to eat, you must be a good girl." I nodded eagerly, my eyes wide. "I am good! I will listen to everything you say!" A sharp slap suddenly rang out across my face. "If you were truly good, you would know better than to ask for food!" Seeing the water vat was nearly empty, she kicked me onto the ground. "You cursed brat, just like your mother—a useless mouth to feed! Go and fill the vat until it overflows!"

My small frame stumbled under the weight of the water buckets. When I finally finished, I saw an empty bowl sitting on a rickety wooden table. Even though the grease had been wiped clean with a piece of bread, my nose, as sharp as a hunting dog's, knew immediately that it had held the feast from my uncle's house. "I am not hungry, cook something for yourself!" my grandmother shouted before collapsing onto the bed, her snores soon echoing like thunder.

After two years away, my father finally returned. Mrs. Lee, a neighbor who had long despised my grandmother’s cruelty, told him everything I had endured. Before my father could even speak, my grandmother began wailing and slapping her thighs. "Oh, Heavens be my witness! How could I ever treat my own flesh and blood that way? I love her more than life itself!" I felt the crescent jade on my chest begin to vibrate softly. "Stop your acting! Everyone knows what kind of person you are behind closed doors!" Mrs. Lee snapped. My grandmother, emboldened by her own lies, shouted back, "I swear to the sky, if I ever mistreated Azure, may I be turned into a stupid dog!"

She believed it was a safe, empty vow. Immediately, the jade vibrated so violently that my entire body shook. It grew hot as a burning coal. Remembering my mother’s dying words, I whispered into the stone, "I permit your oath to become reality." The moment the words left my lips, I collapsed into a dead faint.

The next morning, in a village known only for its common mutts, a purebred Husky suddenly appeared. "A wolf! A wolf has come!" the villagers screamed. "Kill it! Get the shovels!" The village had never seen such a dog before and, mistaking it for a predator, they chased it with clubs and hoes. The poor creature, battered and bleeding, managed to limp toward the main road. Suddenly, a tranquilizer dart shot out from a passing truck, pinning the animal's haunch. It slumped to the ground, unconscious. Two men jumped out of the vehicle, tossed the Husky into the back, and sped away in the blink of an eye.

When I opened my eyes again, a nurse at the local clinic was changing my glucose drip. I had been unconscious for a full day and night due to severe hypoglycemia. I realized then that using the jade came with a heavy physical price. I vowed to be cautious with its power. My father and uncle searched for my grandmother for three days to no avail. Eventually, my father took me to the city, where I finally entered the school I had always dreamed of.

"Azure, you are my absolute best friend," my classmate Cecilia whispered to me. The jade vibrated. "Azure, I definitely didn't take your rabbit eraser," she said later. It vibrated again. My homeroom teacher announced, "Your education is your own responsibility; it makes no difference to me if you study or not." The jade hummed. The literature teacher said, "The gym coach is sick, so I am taking over the period." Vibrate. The math teacher promised, "Once we finish this one problem, class is dismissed." It vibrated and vibrated without end.

I was constantly, agonizingly hungry. Ever since my grandmother disappeared and I was given proper rations, I should have been healthy, but the jade’s constant reactions to the lies of the world were draining me. It was too powerful for my young body to sustain. I eventually took the jade, wrapped it in several layers of plastic, and buried it deep in the southwest corner of our yard. Only then did the unnatural hunger fade.

"Your father is home!" a neighbor shouted one afternoon. The yard was packed with relatives flattering him. When my father finally saw me, he pulled me into a tight embrace. "My daughter, I missed you so much! I am taking you to live in the city with me!" I sobbed into his chest, relieved that I would no longer be the discarded child of the village. Before we left, I quietly dug up the jade. I figured that since my father was now wealthy, he could afford to keep me fed, no matter how much energy the jade consumed.

Back in the present, I shook off the haze of memory. "Darling, I am so sorry... I am useless!" My husband, Victor, who had just returned from a supposed business trip, was cowering like a kicked cur. I thought he was joking and reached out playfully. "Oh? Let me check your health then." He shoved my hand away, his face contorted with indignation. "Azure, can you show me some respect?" I was stunned. "What are you talking about? Are you serious?"

"I am going through a crisis and you are laughing at my pain? I am so disappointed in you!" Looking at the genuine disgust on Victor's face, I realized he wasn't joking. For the last eight months, he had been increasingly "busy." There were always urgent meetings, business trips, or nights spent at hotels due to being too drunk to drive. I had always told myself that a marriage needs space, that I shouldn't be a nagging wife. I had let him have his freedom. I never imagined that my leniency would end up turning my husband into a self-proclaimed eunuch.