Chapter 1 — Slave
"That day, the sun rose... but not for me. "
He didn't know how many days he had been walking. Bare feet, chains on the ankles, skin damaged by sand, salt and silence.
They had snatched him from his world of origin - the Earth - without warning. He had woken up in another world, without any explanation.
He, a simple boy among many others, with deep black eyes like the abyss.
Too deep.
His eyes were scary. Or fascinated.
Maybe that's why the bandits had captured him.
It had been sold on the black market as a rare good, wrapped in a rough fabric, head down, empty eye.
Her thin body, her pale and almost translucent skin, her hair of such pure black that they had never reflected the light...
It was as if he absorbed everything.
And then, one day, he arrived.
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- "I'll take it. "
His voice was calm. Of a calm that did not admit any refusal. The merchants bowed immediately, as if the ground belonged to him.
It was him: Xù Liyan.
Golden beauty, incandescent look, smooth and too perfect skin. A prince without a name.
A eunuch... but not really. He wore a mask of elegance, a scent of mystery.
When he entered the slave enclosure, even the air seemed to hesitate to move.
Xù Liyan laid his eyes on the child on his knees.
- "Your name? "
The boy didn't answer.
- "Tch. You don't even know how to talk anymore? "
He knelt, took his chin.
— "Your eyes... like a bottomless well. You are not made for this mud. You could have been me, in another life. "
He smiled, got up.
"I'm freeing you out of pity. You are me in a life without privileges, without light. So I offer you what I can: become my servant. That's all I can give you. "
He threy a gold purse.
The chains fell.
The boy was sold.
And at that precise moment, without him saying it, Ken no longer existed.
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- "From today on, your name is Xū Fang. "
An empty name. Invented. Beautiful. Like a flower without roots.
Ken - no, Xū Fang - was washed, perfumed, dressed, transformed.
He followed Liyan everywhere, like a silent animal. A servant. A piece of furniture. An ornament.
But in him, an intention burned.
I wasn't born to be a dog. I will learn. I will become more than you.
Xū Fang watched Liyan in silence. Every gesture. Every word. Every smile calculated.
He understood: Liyan didn't just shine with her beauty.
He had power. He knew how to manipulate. Dominate. Seduce.
Then Xū Fang decided:
He was going to copy everything.
Absorb everything.
One day, he would rise to his level.
Then he would overtake him.
It would be slow. Painful. Humiliating.
But it would be done.
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One night, while he was preparing tea, Liyan stared at him for a long time.
- "You know I chose you because you are what I would have been... if I hadn't been born into the right family? "
Xū Fang looked down.
- "I know. "
- "You will never have what I have. Do you know that too? "
A silence.
"Not yet," he whispered.
Liyan laughs softly. Then he left the room.
Xū Fang remained alone, facing his own shadow.
And in this shadow... a burst of hatred.
⸻
End of Chapter 1