Silver Appeared

"Uh, these are just a small fraction of the badly behaved kids."

Xiao Xiao tried to salvage the reputation of human children. "Most human kids are neat, clean, obedient, and adorable."

"Like Little Bell."

"She doesn't have a single one of the qualities you just mentioned."

Little White Fox turned its head, cracked open an eyelid, and gave Xiao Xiao an inscrutable look. Then it closed its eyes again, looking as if it couldn't be bothered to say more.

"Hiss~"

The white snake lightly tapped Xiao Xiao's wrist with its tail, making a sound like laughter as it flicked its tongue.

Xiao Xiao: ...

All right. He shrugged.

If they didn't like kids, they didn't like kids.

It wasn't a big deal.

He himself was pretty indifferent to children, too.

"Hey, listen."

The voices of two boys passing nearby drifted into his ears. "That guy who often sets up a stall outside the school selling wooden crafts—the one who runs the stall I visit all the time—"

"Oh~ That guy. I think I remember him."

"His whole family came down with some kind of strange illness."

"Strange illness?"

"Yeah. The hospital can't figure out what it is."

"The symptoms are really complicated."

"It hasn't gotten bad enough to be fatal yet, but if the hospital can't find the cause..." He trailed off. "Who knows what'll happen."

"Tsk, tsk. The youngest son in that guy's family is only five."

"He's lying in a hospital bed with his face bright red, like he can barely breathe."

"That's so sad."

"How do you know all that?"

"Don't I go to the guy's stall to look at his wood carvings all the time?"

"After a while, I got to know him pretty well."

"Unless the weather's awful—strong