Work Text:
~ Chapter 1 ~
Once upon a time, existed a kingdom full of prosperity and wealth, with a solid economy and strong military power that pales in comparison to the happiness of their residents; not only it was a beautiful nation like no other but the royal family, full of grace, loved their people and acted with benevolence. A strong king and gentle queen had brought to the world a single son; a beloved child by heavens itself, his highness Xie Lian who pleased the gods. A beauty like no other with his hazel eyes that reflected the sun as if he were an angel,light brown hair that was long like no other, a small nose, plump lips and rosy cheeks that seemed to be carved by Aphrodite herself
Ever since youth the crown prince had demonstrated to be skillful and studious believing to be a prodigy seen one in one million, stern but gentle from a young age he had always believed in helping the common people, caring to protect their happiness instead of expanding his lands or winning wars.
That was, until a terrible war broke out against the empire of Yong’an resulting in a bloodshed that brought famine and misery to the civilians.
Xie Lian couldn’t stand in his throne protected by the palace’s walls meanwhile thousands of innocents suffered, he rebelled against the king and fought in the frontlines where his most trusted servants fought at his side. The entire battalion fell to Yong’an incredible military power and the strange disease that started appearing alongside the frontier. Rumors say that multiple weeping faces would show on your skin, a curse planted on the dying general and strongest soldier of Yong’An after losing both his wife and son. In a last attempt to avenge his people, general Lang Ying had set up a trap for Xie Lian after driving away the little soldiers left behind after a fierce attack that divided the tropes, and about to meet a bitter end the crown prince was suddenly saved by a masked soldier, one that bravely stood at his side and protected him until the massacre finished.
The war dragged on, Xianle was at the brink of collapsing and Yong’an was suffering from the mysterious pandemic, after the royal family got assassinated in an attack orchestrated by one of its enemies the only son, his highness Tai Hua had to take on the role of emperor at only 16 years old, tired of the endless war he signed a peace treaty with the kingdom in order to stop destroying each other. The next years were difficult, with Xianle barely surviving the consequences of the conflict, eventually thriving thanks to the help of the beloved crown prince who never gave up and fought for all of his subjects. It was no easy task to maintain a strong resolution even after the former rulers no longer held hope for their kingdom; even Xia Lian thought of turning to dishonest ways to survive and had planned to give up at some point… but the promise of encountering the mysterious man that had saved his life was enough to keep moving forward, as long as he lived they would meet each other again, and this time he was sure of thanking him properly.
The whole nation celebrated after escaping those dark times, a national day was created where many festivals took place day and night; The royal family held a banquet to commemorate all the brave soldiers that vowed to protect until their dying breath. After the crown prince gave his speech he stumbled upon a mysterious man: the devilish Archduke known as Hua Cheng who ruled the cold northlands, a man who climbed his way through the social ladder with violence, tainted by the bloods of his enemies that cling to him like a trophy. Many rumours surrounded him, some saying he was the incarnation of the devil himself who came down to bring disgrace over earth, or that he gave his eye in a ritual in exchange of wealth and power.
Of course, the kind hearted prince decided to overlook all those stories about him and see who that man really is. What a surprise it was when the deepest desire of such black hearted demon was nothing but finding his true love, the crown prince Xie Lian! It is said that he first fell in love on the day of the coming of age celebration of his highness, a sacred celebration that was interrupted by a younger kid almost meeting his end; in that moment both fates were sealed and thus their love persisted for many years.
Or so they thought.
Every virtuous figure in literature has its dark counterpart: for Dr. Jekyll it’s Mr. Hide, for Sherlock Holmes is William Moriarty, and for the crown prince beloved by all it was the hated second prince.
Every child knew of his title, mothers would say that if you disobeyed or ventured towards the deep forests the green goblin would kidnap you and eat your flesh, tricking lost travelers with his green fire and burning their bodies until ashes painted the paths. He was a foul man that hated his cousin, always seeking to take away everything he deemed precious just for himself trying to fulfill the void in his envious soul.
A heart full of jealousy never changes- prince Qi Rong pulled all the dirty tricks he knew to destroy any blooming romance, but his efforts were in vain as the adversaries only helped fuel the trust between them; soon his wicked acts would earn him the name of ‘Villain second prince’ and in the defamed engagement party, in which the crimson Archduke had proposed to his highness the crown prince his eternal faith, the emperor of a lost nation, Jun Wu crashed the sacred celebration with the help of the second prince in order to satisfy his wicked desires of suffering. The lovers with the help of other high ranking nobles were able to defeat the devil emperor. Causing him a bitter ending of rotting away in the deepest of the dungeons.
The crimson archduke took his words and drew it towards the throat of the green goblin, life only soared by the benevolence of his kind cousin who couldn’t condemn his own blood. Following the wishes of his beloved, the archduke banished him to where the wind couldn’t know his name until his sins were washed away; or he would suffer the consequences of his wrath. Defeated, the goblin was sent away to the lonely outskirts of Xiang’s just in the border of Yong’An as a way of paying for his crimes, the beloved prince lived happily ever after with the crimson archduke.
Now, both lovers are to celebrate a marriage bound by destiny, a fairy tale romance that has shaken the entire kingdom! this sacred union will be nationally celebrated throughout the days of-
“Pah, what a load of mushy bullshit, pretentious assholes and their stupid ass wedding”
Qi Rong crumpled the newspaper in his hands with furious annoyance, throwing it to the floor like useless trash as he grumbled to no-one but himself.
The only news that reached the shithole he was forced to live in were about his black lotus cousin and his lovey-dovey romance with that one-eyed dog fucker, he was starting to lose his mind living in this constant state of boredom that arson didn’t seem like such a bad idea after all.
What exactly had he done to deserve this? a lot of stuff yeah, but none of them were even that serious! It was the fault of that fucking old man and his delusional cranky ass who had beef with a bunch of two-sided bitches. Pathetic honestly! Sure his idea seemed funny at the time except he didn’t know the dementia was getting at him so soon.
…And there’s also that whore duke, except the shit he did to Pei Ming was deserved, no one liked him anyways!
Born from the second princess and a Yong’an general, Qi Rong was bound to a life of gossip the moment he was born; after all, you don’t normally see a royal family member running away to marry and form a family. And what may seem a fairy tail to some it was a hellish nightmare for both the little prince and his mother who suffered the abuse of that monster living with them, unable to take on it anymore, she ran away and came back to the queen who took care of her beloved sister and niece. Rumors overcame the capital and judgement became the norm for prince Xiao Jing, but it didn’t matter as long as he had his mother at his side far away from the bad man that only knew how to cuss and punch. After the second princess died protecting the queen from an assassination attempt his entire world turned upside down, now alone and without anyone protecting him from the voracious gazes of the nobility.
No matter how much he tried, how much of his weak soul he poured onto his studies or work to be just like his older cousin, no one would lovingly look at him, pay attention and congratulate his little achievements. He tried, he really did to become a reliable and disciplined prince that everyone would respect and eventually love. His quick temper and foul tongue got the best of him most of the time, making it impossible to change the public’s opinion on him.
The dear older cousin he isolated soon turned into a bitter resentment after realizing he was nothing but an annoying parasite feeding off the royal family, a loud and brash bothersome that only made people turn their heads to the other side to not deal with him. How dare they? How dare they ignore a member of the royal family? Venomous hatred bloomed into his heart and the bratty prince acted like a maniac, making sure no one would ever dare to ignore him again. Just like those sharp eyes, his entire soul became green from envy and earned him the nickname of ‘green goblin’ , a troublesome creature who once knew how to act mischievous and arrogantly.
He would curse, yell, offend and sometimes even commit heinous deeds to those unfortunate victims that crossed his paths; if they wanted to gossip so bad about him Qi Rong was ready to give a spectacle fit for a bastard prince like him! Even if the royal family tried sweeping all the incidents under the rug those nasty rumours would fly all over the capital and tarnish his image to the point no one was willing to marry their children to him.
‘Not like I wanted to give my sweet ass to any of these stuck up idiots, acting like they wouldn’t cheat on me with some boy-toy gardener that only plants red roses or something equally homosexual. I don’t need no one! All noble marriages are a scam either way! I’ll enjoy my life to the fullest and rot away until I die buried in gold and fine shit’
He wasn’t worried anyways, he was only 17! He had the whole world to fuck over!
That was until war exploded and all of his plans changed; the crown prince decided to die as a stupid saint in the battle field and now he had to articulate a plan to escape! Call him a rat, but he wasn’t gonna die like a dumbass martyr for humanity’s sins! Only to be kidnapped by that dog general from Yong’An and used as bait to trap his cousin. Thanks to his abilities of running away like a coward, the death flag was avoided once again and finally came back to the castle months later after that.
Remember the part about not worrying and living to be a degenerate rich man? Xianle ended up broke as hell to the brink of national bankruptcy! No more ostentatious parties, no more fine collections and no more exotic clothes or makeup! He was forced to live as a peasant from the dark ages like he owned karma in his past life from being a murderous demon. He spent the days stealing from the less fortunate and cooking a man alive, no big deal. Eventually, stuff came back to as normal as it could be without silk pants and his imported favorite shade of lavender lipstick, now he was stuck with the ugly shade that was periwinkle… ugh.
In the celebration of Xianle’s return from the death the second worst event of his life occurred that night- it was meeting that one eyed bastard that was heels over his cousin, to say it was disgusting it’s an understatement- day and night he had to see those two idiots being all lovely with each other while the public eye was on both of them. The shady bastard was also a dick to literally everyone except his so precious ‘Gege’ (who the fuck flirts like that) and how dare that lowly maniac look down on this ancestor!! And the worst is that his two-faced cousin never did anything every time Hua Cheng beat the fuck out of him! As expected from someone with such a black heart like him.
So what was the best way of getting back at an enemy who was WAY OUTTT of your league? You pair with any stupid bitch, leech off their power and backstab at the very end and free yourself of any fault. Easy as that, except whatever plan they had made (which wasn’t any) was thrown out of the goddammed window they stepped into that palace. Qi Rong was almost- key word ‘almost’- relieved Jun Wu didn’t win because he had a creepy ass obsession with his cousin that had no normal resentment behind it.
Little did they know that the so feared ‘green demon’ was dying of boredom in a shitty-ass village in the middle of a hill where nothing happened- not even scandalous homicide! It looked more like the ghost city those fairy tails mothers told to their children (that totally weren’t a metaphor for brothels to stop them from becoming manwhores growing up) except there was no flashy red avenues with demon owned stalls selling chopped human fingers in the never ending night, just that literally everyone here was a ghost! Always silent and dreary with the local tavern being as empty as his savings.
Not like he would go there anyways- drunken bastards that had nothing better to do instead of passing time with their kids. He decided to wander through the solitary streets void of any locals to entertain his mind, all he had on his wooden cabin were some boring political books only a sociopath would read for fun, and the newspaper that only talked about his cousin’s engagement.
Not paying attention to his surroundings since there wasn’t anything worth looking at, he stumbled onto something that made Qi Rong lose his footing and almost fall head first into the concrete.
“MOTHERFUC-! WHO LET TRASH IN THE MIDDLE OF THE W-“
He wiped around to angrily yell at the supposed inanimate object that obstructed the road, and surprisingly, it wasn’t something but a ‘someone’
A young child no older than 6 was curled in a ball like a little animal, its messy brown hair was all over his face and big round eyes looked meekly at him with an old shirt clinging loosely to his bony body, he seemed to have been rummaging through the trash as his forearms were full of dirt.
“Uhhh uh wh-“
“Sorry gege for making you trip over, I didn’t mean to.”
Before Qi Rong said anything the little kid shrunk himself and looked down, similar to a sad puppy.
“What the fuck are you doing in the trash.”
Unsurprisingly, his ill mannered mouth spoke before he finished thinking. Honestly, it shouldn’t interest him that much what a kid he never saw before did in his free time, he could be doing satanic rituals and not give a fuck- maybe tagging along because why not, but the sight made his stomach twist sickly with unwelcome memories.
“Oh, I’m looking to see if there’s something to eat… it’s been some days and my dad fell asleep and nothing I do wakes him up, I’m hungry and I don't know how to get food…”
Qi Rong couldn’t help but physically wince, if the kid looked that there was no way in hell the dumb fuck wasn’t decomposing amd used as manure right now.
“Shit kid, I don't think your old man is ever waking up.”
“Oh…”
The little boy looked at the ground with a saddened face with a bit of understanding, as if knowing deep down that was the truth.
A distant past that now felt so recent, crawling up at his skin as he remembered the face of his mother with a sorrowful expression, leading him away from the man who laid still on the floor surrounded by those bottles he liked to drink day and night. Little Qi Rong didn’t understand what it meant to die but he had the feeling he would never bother them again, wasn’t that a joyful feeling? He and mama didn’t have to suffer anymore from his harsh words or fists. Suddenly the little child in his memories didn’t have raven hair and green sharp eyes, but brown disheveled hair and teary dark eyes.
“Tsk, let’s get you some shit to eat so you stop rummaging through my trash and attract fucking rats.”
And so, a new chapter in his life begun.