Chapter Text
Far at the edge of the land of golden sand, there lived a glorious kingdom full of riches and gold. This ChongQing Kingdom flourished, its citizens content and happy with their king’s rule. The buildings towered over its subjects, the roads were streaming with water brought by the cleverly built hydrosystem. From crops to jewelry, silk and craft, this kingdom was fortunate.
At least, that’s what they wanted you to think.
Unbeknownst to the subjects, the king was far from what they were told. He was a corrupt man that used his people for the purpose of his own gain, drank away with women, keeping a large collection of concubines, and carelessly used all the gold that the citizens gave through tax.
Everything that the citizens knew were all lies fed to them by the scriptures and posters manipulated by the king himself. What they thought was a ruler noble and true, was actually just a filthy man driven by lust and greed. Wen Mao… did not deserve to be king.
However, one good thing did come from this horrid royal, and that was the birth of what would be known as the most beautiful boy in the entirety of the land of golden sand.
XiaoZhan.
XiaoZhan was a beautiful child both inside and out. His smooth, unblemished skin was soft when it came to touch. His eyes sparkled with a shine of innocence, his lashes long enough to flutter, his full lips a constant pink, and his features, although sharp, had a sense of perfection. This young boy had a smile like no other, absolutely enchanting, and to top it off, an alluring beauty mark at the bottom right of his lip.
Although he was born sharing the blood of the disgusting king, he was by no means a prince. After all, the one who had birthed him was just a mere concubine.
XiaoZhan rested on the fountain in the middle of the palace, with his mother by his side. She hummed songs as she combed her fingers through her son’s dark, growing hair.
“Mother,” Said XiaoZhan, a young boy who was a mere ten years old. “Why can’t I play with ZanJin?”
The woman paused in her actions, as if to think, and then continued on. “ZanJin is different from us, XiaoZhan. He is of Royal blood.” she said in a soft whisper.
XiaoZhan tilted his head in confusion. “But mother… is he not my brother?”
“You do not share the same mother, XiaoZhan.” She smiled sadly, her hand coming to caress her son’s smooth cheek, “ZanJin was born from the queen herself, while you were cursed to have me as your mother.”
The little boy’s eyes widened at her words. “Mother! You are not a curse!” he cuddled closer to her and said, “You are a blessing! If given the choice, I wouldn’t have anyone else as my mother!”
She smiled, a sad smile, and petted XiaoZhan’s head. “Thank you, XiaoZhan.”
Suddenly, a soldier yelled from the hallway, firm and booming. “Li Mei!”
XiaoZhan jumped in surprise, turning his head wide eyes. Meanwhile, his mother’s smile was wiped away from her face. “What is it?” she said.
“The king calls for you.” the soldier replied.
Li Mei sighed and stood up from her sitting position gracefully. Her simple, red, robes flowed with her actions. “XiaoZhan, be good while I’m good.”
XiaoZhan nodded with a bright smile. “Yes, mother!”
XiaoZhan watched as his mother left the majestic fountain, and when she was completely out of sight, he returned to gaze at the running water. The little boy had nothing else to do, and to be good, he stayed in one spot.
The beautiful child, with his simple top and simple shorts the color of sand, hunched over the fountain. With his head hooded, his dark hair fell forward to the front of his face. He pouted at the block in his vision and tried to blow it away, but it was already a little too long. With a sigh, XiaoZhan tucked the hair behind his ear.
Then, XiaoZhan heard voices from the hallways. He looked up to see high court officials about to pass by. Men in their top hats, expensive jewelry, and their over-layered robes. XiaoZhan didn’t like them. They were always… looking at him strangely.
The officials paused at the sight of the young boy. “Look,” said one, “It’s the son of the king’s favorite concubine.”
“Indeed.” said the other.
They leered at XiaoZhan’s figure, noticing his pale skin, delectable cheeks, and slim figure. “He is as beautiful as his mother.”
XiaoZhan felt a shiver down his spine. He didn’t know why they looked at him that way, but what he did know was that it felt weird and he didn’t like it. He waited until the officials had finally left the fountain area before he could sigh and settled down beside the water.
It was then when he heard a meow.
The young boy’s ears perked with attention. Immediately, he turned to the direction of the noise. Big, bright eyes, searched for the sound, and after peering over the ledge of the large fountain, XiaoZhan found a small, yellow cat.
XiaoZhan’s eyes sparkled. He ran towards the cat, careful to keep a distance, and crouched in front of it. “Kitty!” he yelled with excitement. “Why are you here?” he asked.
The kitten stared at him blandly, and tilted its head unamused.
Despite its lack of show for affection, XiaoZhan could only giggle and reach out to pet for the cat. “You’re so cute!” luckily, the cat didn’t reject his offer for a petting, and instead, cuddled closer to the young boy’s hand. “Aww!”
It was strange. Animals weren’t allowed inside of the palace, and security was so tight that even a rat wouldn’t be able to slither their way in. So, how was a cat like this one able to do so? It wasn’t something that a little boy like XiaoZhan thought to inspect.
Without a care in the world, the young boy played with the cat, holding it, kissing it, and telling it stories of his life as he waited for his mother’s return. XiaoZhan played unworried, not knowing that something that would change his life was about to happen.
For that day, his mother would never return.
…
XiaoZhan was shoved outside of his mother’s quarters, the young boy stumbling back harshly. However, he stood right back up, eyes frantic and full of fear. “Where is my mother?” he asked, “I only wish to see her! I have not seen her in days!”
However, the soldier did not respond to him. Only gave him a glare and shut the doors to his mother’s room. With that, the armored man left with heavy stomps.
XiaoZhan was scared. He didn’t understand. Why was it that his mother had yet to return? She always had, even though it was with a bruise or with tear-stained cheeks. She always came back to pet his head and to sleep right next to him.
The young boy, not knowing what to do, began to weep. His sobs filled the dark and empty hallway. Too wide and filled with intricate statues, making him feel as if the world was closing in on him.
He heard a meow from beside him, and then the feel of a feline rubbing itself softly beside his knee. XiaoZhan sobbed and pulled the cat into his arms, his tears falling onto the feline’s fur. “Kitty! I don’t know where’s mother…” he hiccuped, unable to control his tears. “And I don’t know if she’ll ever come back!”
The cat said nothing, only licking away his tears with its sandpaper tongue. Although the feeling was rough, XiaoZhan appreciated the gesture, and only continued to cry harder.
Then, a small shadow loomed over at the end of the hallway, a shadow of a little boy. “XiaoZhan?” called a petite voice.
XiaoZhan looked up, eyes swollen with a pinking red, and saw a familiar figure come closer. “ZanJin?”
Another boy, pretty and fragile, fell on his knees before him, his face horrified. “XiaoZhan-- your mother…” he started, his voice shaking.
This was ZanJin, the Royal Prince and son of the horrendous king. Dressed in riches and surrounded by infinite wealth, there was no question that he was of royal blood. However, despite the fact that he was next in line to the throne, he held no resemblance to the corrupted king, nor did he inherit any of his petty mother’s nasty personality. Even though they were not allowed to be seen together due to the differences in social status, ZanJin had always been kind to XiaoZhan.
XiaoZhan gently dropped the cat, the feline falling out of his arms, and sat up properly with wide eyes. “What about my mother?”
ZanJin, a toddler who was only six years old, couldn’t hold back the next onslaught of tears. “Auntie Li Mei is dead!”
At that moment, XiaoZhan’s heart stopped.
However, what could a young boy at the age understand of death when he himself has never witnessed it? Death… dead… it was when a person stopped living. It was when a person would never return. When a person would either fly into the heavens as an angel, or fall into the depth of hell as a demon. Either way… someone who died would never come back to the land of the living.
His mother… was dead?
“Y-you’re lying…”
ZanJin shook his head and sobbed even harder, a helpless child that could only bawl his eyes out. “I-I saw her… sh-she… my mother she…”
What was it that ZanJin saw? What did the queen do? What had ZanJin’s mother done to Li Mei, the king’s favorite concubine?
XiaoZhan didn’t know. XiaoZhan was afraid to know.
The ten-year-old ran away from ZanJin, leaving the royal prince and the cat alone, and sprinted towards the room that held the royal throne. He panted, both his heart and his mind in disarray. He needed to know. He needed to find his mother, and only the king, his father, could help him.
The guards were shaken at the sudden sight of a young boy, and were unable to stop him before XiaoZhan burst through the large doors of the royal throne. With the boom of his arrival echoing the walls of the gigantic throne room, XiaoZhan yelled, “Father!”
Immediately, all eyes were on him. Including the eyes of the man he had never seen since his birth, but knew to be his own flesh and blood. With a swallow, XiaoZhan ran for the king, but was caught by the guards before he could take a step further.
“Father!” XiaoZhan yelled once again, begging the king for attention, “My mother! Where is she? Can you save my mother!?”
A king was supposed to help his subjects. A king was noble, kind, and merciful to all. Someone that can rule with a firm fist of justice and give love to all the people in his kingdom. That is the king that XiaoZhan’s mother had preached to him. His mother had also told him that the King of ChongQing was his father. That had to mean that his own father was just as the king that his mother had described. Right?
However, that was not what XiaoZhan had seen.
Instead of a worried gaze and the warmth of a father… XiaoZhan was greeted with a disgusted glare and scoff. “What is this urchin, and how did it make it inside of the palace?”
Right then, XiaoZhan felt his heart shatter into pieces. His eyes going blank, and his mouth slack.
From the side, an official spoke. “Sire, that is the son of Li Mei.”
At the sound of his concubine’s name, the king raised his brow. “Li Mei? The wench that my wife had killed for stealing jewelry? The concubine that had sullied her body by lying with another man?”
“Yes, sire!”
The king gave the child a look of disgust. “Be rid of it.”
XiaoZhan was frozen even when the guards began dragging him out, but it was stopped when the same official that identified him said, “Sire, may I ask a request!”
The king glanced at the official, and gestured for him to continue.
The official grinned widely, his eyes turning to XiaoZhan’s figure, and said, “May you give me ownership of this boy?”
The king scoffed and waved his hand. “Do as you please. That thing is by no means a concern of mine.”
The official made a disgusting giggle and bowed deeply in front of the king. “I give you my thanks, sire!” then, he turned to XiaoZhan, and yelled at the guards, “Bring him to my home!”
The soldiers did as the official wished, and dragged the thin boy out of the palace.
…
What did it mean to be owned by someone? XiaoZhan wasn’t sure. In fact, what happened still had not processed through his mind. His mother was dead? She was killed by the queen? His father had not even known of his existence and had looked at him as if he was the most disgusting thing in the world?
And now… he was being sent away to be owned by one of the officials that had always looked at him in a strange way?
No… no . XiaoZhan didn’t want that. He didn’t want any of it.
XiaoZhan had already been brought out of the palace, for the first time in all his ten years of life, and was being escorted to a place that he had never been to before. With two guards beside him, he arrived at the edge of the kingdom, close by to the infinite sands of gold that stretched on beyond the oasis that ChongQing resided in.
XiaoZhan didn’t want to be owned. XiaoZhan didn’t want it. All he wanted was to see his mother again. To be held in her arms and to receive her soft kiss on his forehead. He didn’t want to be owned by a scary stranger.
And so, he ran.
He took advantage of his escort’s momentary shock, and ran as fast as he could. Where to? He didn’t know. All XiaoZhan knew was that he wanted to get as far away as possible. Wherever he ended up, he was sure that it would be better than the home of a man that would own him.
The young boy, frail and afraid, ran and ran. Running as fast as his little legs could take him, until he exited the oasis and arrived at the beginning of the infinite sand of gold.
Anywhere. Anywhere but there.
…
Back at the palace, a yellow cat wandered the halls in search of a particular boy. Where had he gone? He was nowhere in sight. The cat meowed and meowed, hoping that the boy would answer to his cries, but still, nothing.
Then, he heard it.
Anywhere. Anywhere but here.
The cat’s ears perked, his head turning to look out of the palace windows, eyes turning into sharp slits.
Mother. I’m scared. I want you back.
The cat took a few steps forward and paused in front of the window. There. At the edge of the kingdom. He felt it. It was dark, and the moon was already high in the sky, lighting the kingdom with its beams. The cat jumped up to stand at the ledge of the window, the moon forming a small shadow behind it.
Then, the shadow morphed. It changed from the silhouette of a mere kitten… to the fearsome form of a lion.
…
XiaoZhan was still running, the sands were soft against his bare feet, but he could hear the men getting closer. His heart beated faster within his chest, fear and adrenaline being the only things fueling him into quickening his steps.
He didn’t want to get caught. He didn’t want it at all.
XiaoZhan tried, he tried his best, but no matter how hard or how fast his small feet patted across the golden sand, the tall men in armor caught up to him. A rough hand covered in a leather glove grabbed a hold his arm, squeezing it harshly.
The child yelped in pain. The soldier yelled, “Fucking brat!” he pulled at XiaoZhan’s arm, hurting him.
“Let go!” XiaoZhan yelled, struggling against the soldier’s hold. “Let me go!”
The soldier clicked his tongue and gave the little boy a hard slap, making XiaoZhan fall onto the ground. “Shut up!”
Afraid, and in pain, XiaoZhan began to cry once again. He closed his eyes and curled up in a pitiful attempt to protect himself. XiaoZhan had expected another hit, but instead, he heard the sound of a roar followed by the cries of grown men.
However, XiaoZhan could see nothing. The horrifying sounds only encouraging him to curl further, covering his ears and shutting his eyes. He was going to die. He was going to die like mother. Was he going he going to go to heaven? Was he going to see his mother once again? Or was he going to go to hell and burn in its fire? Was XiaoZhan… was XiaoZhan bad? Would he be separated from his mother even in death?
The sounds of a monster ripping limbs and chomping flesh mixed with the horrified screams of the soldiers that had tried to take him back, terrified XiaoZhan. He didn’t dare open his eyes. When a warm liquid splattered across his face, he began to shake.
Then, it became quiet, deafeningly so.
Was it safe? Was the monster gone? Were the men gone? But the little boy was still scared. He was shaking in fear, afraid to open his eyes and afraid to move. He was scared. Mother, he was scared.
Until, he felt a large muzzle brushing against his cheek. It was a familiar feeling.
XiaoZhan slowly opened his eyes, taking in the view of the sand of gold during the high night. The young boy turned his head, and came face to face with a most fearsome creature.
It was a magnificent lion with fur that flowed with the desert wind. It stared deep into XiaoZhan’s eyes with its own bright yellow, and stood on its four paws larger than two horses combined. The Lion’s claws were sharp, like blades, and stained red with blood.
At first, XiaoZhan was terrified, his tears came stronger than ever and he was about to cry out for his life, until something came to him. XiaoZhan paused, his breath catching in his lungs.
The lion leaned down and nuzzled his cheek once again. Softly, with a purr.
Hesitantly, XiaoZhan raised his small hands and touched the lion’s large head. It continued to purr, until it clicked in the young boy’s mind.
“Kitty?” he whispered.
At that word, the lion paused, took a step back and gave him an eye. Then it proceeded to do something that shocked XiaoZhan even further.
The lion transformed… into a human. A rather… bare human.
It was a handsome man with piercing eyes, features perfect as if he was a porcelain doll, and a figure tall and well-built. The man went on one knee in front of the boy, his short, choppy hair flowing slightly with the wind, and he said, “No…” with his deep, husky voice, “I am no kitty.”
“Then... “ XiaoZhan whispered, amazed, “What are you?”
The man who was a lion just a few moments ago, took one of XiaoZhan’s small hands into his own and said,. “I am Wang Yibo…” he looked up, his yellow cat-like eyes flashing with a burning flare, and gave XiaoZhan’s hand a kiss. “The Lion God...”
On this night, the moon in full glow as it bathed the kingdom of ChongQing in its moonlight, the golden sands at the edge of the oasis sparkling like rivers of riches, and the wind whispering softly into the dunes, a promise was made between a God and a human.
The Lion God’s gaze was intense, capturing hold of the beautiful boy’s heart.
“And I will make you… a King.”
...
It all started with this picture.