Bab 2: Villains are made not born.
Villains are made not born— unknown.
In this world, the strong are respected and the weak perish. More especially in the demon realm. Halflings were considered an abomination in the demon world. They were usually fragile and delicate because they were part human. For this, they were despised and bullied in all demon realms.
It wasn't any better in the mortal realm either. They were considered monsters and devils, an abomination that shouldn't exist they were rejected and feared. So how did Xiang Yu, a halfling become the northern Demon King? To understand it one had to go back to the time of his birth.
While other mothers proudly carried their pregnant bellies his mother had been tying her belly to hide it from the proprietress of the Spring Lights brothel. If the proprietress were to find out about this she would have been enraged and punished her severely for costing them money.
Like most women in the brothel, she drank the decoction to prevent any accidents after having several trysts with her clients. This time, however, it didn't work.
To make matters worse the devilishly handsome man that had gotten her pregnant had even told her that he would return to pick up his offspring when the time came. Soon enough the big belly became quite noticeable, especially through the thin clothes she wore in the brothel. Sure enough, the proprietress was angered by this. But before she could use other means to get rid of it the client brought eight pieces of gold as compensation.
Her face crinkled as she greedily looked at the riches in her hand. Thus Li Hua was forced to carry her pregnancy to full term.
The man soon revealed his true form as the Demon King appearing out of thin air in the backroom where she was screaming in agony giving birth. This was when she realised that the man she had carried a child for was a monster. Fear struck her but the excruciating labour pains overwhelmed her. Her body was drenched in sweat as she clutched the sheets hanging on the wooden beams of the back room.
Surprisingly when she gave birth there wasn't just one child but two, a boy and a girl. In the moonlit backroom, the Demon King's crimson eyes fixed on the two tiny bundles and when he laid eyes on his daughter he picked her up and cradled her in his arms. He placed a pouch filled with silver on the side table before turning to leave.
Li Hua's sunken eyes widened as she pointed at the other newborn. The innocent baby gazed up with curious eyes. As if sensing the rejection in his eyes he instinctively reached out his tiny hand towards his father, his innocent and plump face contorted into a hopeful smile deliberately acting cute.
Disdain curled his lips as he replied coldly, "Do as you please with it."
After saying that he swung the backroom doors open and with an air of indifference about him he disappeared into the cold abyss of the snowy night, leaving the innocent child behind.
Li Hua knew she couldn't keep this baby. It was inconvenient for a courtesan to have a child hanging around. It interfered with business.
The snowy night wrapped the brothel in a hushed stillness, broken only by the muffled cries of a newborn in the backroom. Li Hua, her heart as cold as the snowflakes that clung to her hair, cradled the swaddled infant in her arms. The child's shaky wails pierced the frigid air, but Li Hua's resolve remained unyielding.
Telling herself that she was doing this for the child's sake she snuck out of the town and deep into the forest, the snow crunching under her delicate shoes.
She found a clearing, the moonlight casting an ethereal glow on the untouched snow and laid the newborn down, wrapping him tightly in a thin blanket. His cries echoed through the forest, pleading for warmth, for love. But she turned away, her footsteps leaving no trace as she retreated.
When she returned to the brothel her life carried on like nothing happened. The proprietress generously gave her two months to recuperate before going back in rotation. After all her beauty was a great asset and the compensation had been made. Four days passed, and she dared to believe that the newborn had frozen to death or had been devoured by wolves. Not even an adult could survive four days in the freezing cold with a thin blanket let alone a newborn baby.
That was until the yamen knocked at the brothel doors his heavy cloak dusted with snow. In his hands, he had a carefully wrapped-up bundle.
He had searched door to door with his enforcement officers looking for pregnant women or those who had given birth already. For those who had given birth already, he would check for their newborns. His investigation landed him at the Spring Lights brothel.
His gaze bore into her, piercing through her lies. She claimed that there was a robbery four days ago and the thief grabbed an entire bundle off her bed taking her baby with them.
The yamen scoffed. He didn't believe any of her lies. Li Hua knelt, her knees sinking into the brothel's floorboards. "My lord," she whispered, her voice trembling, "the thief took the bundle from my bed, unaware that a child lay within."
He studied her, suspicion etched across his face. This child had survived three nights buried underneath a blanket of snow. He was barely alive when they found him and the side of his neck was an obsidian mark etched into his skin. The baby's porcelain skin was now tinged with blue his movements sluggish. After treating him the yamen went on the hunt for his mother.
Li Hua dared not meet his eyes. "It's truly a miracle. Thank you my lord for returning him safely to me." Her words seemed sincere but her body language was not that of a mother who had lost her child.
"If anything happens to this child I will find you first," he said before handing the child over back to his mother.
Those words were what saved Xiang Yu's life but whether he had a good life was another question.
Seeing how obedient the child was and how he barely cried the proprietress agreed for him to stay in one of the back rooms in the brothel with his mother.
But not a day would go by without him being scolded by the one person who was supposed to love him. She would berate him calling him the child of a devil, a monster that shouldn't have lived. If she wasn't scolding him, she would beat him so badly that the other courtesans would intervene.
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