Act 1
Siyue Town
A Long Time After the Prologue
"Aaah, there he goes again. Where'd you think he's off to this time, hm? Any bets?"
A man, bored, sat on a chair perched next to a stall. He had his elbow propped on the surface, and his palm squishing the saggy, grey skin in like a matted piece of fabric.
It was a busy day in Siyue Town—as were most days. The street was busy, with most villagers sitting along the market street. Some were manning their stalls, while others lazily sat around picking the gunk from under their nails.
"Where'd you think?" Another laughed mockingly. It was an older woman, and she stood holding an empty basket in her hands. "The kid never does anything meaningful. He's obviously off to waste more of his father's time! Pitiful—and you're also pitiful for even asking. Stupid…and wasteful!"
The man just rolled his eyes, scoffing at the woman's words. He turned to continue watching as the source of their entertainment swiftly strolled along the crowded path.
"Imagine. Being born a beauty only to waste it on…what was it he does? Being a man is already a bummer."
"Read. He reads."
"Ah yeah. Read…" said the man, puckering his lips and lazily watching as the subject stopped in front of a gossiping group of people. "Boring!"
"Maybe if he had been born a girl, he'd be more tolerable." A younger man joined in on the conversation, leaning against the stall's surface. "Good-looking women are far and few here, y'know. It's hard being a bachelor."
The young man slammed his head into the wood.
"Say that to your mother—no wonder she's hard on you." The woman glared at that young man, before shooting her nose away, and frowning at the man in the street. "Beauty is only half of the job—that's a terrible wife packaged in one skinny man."
The older man waved his hand in the air with a disgusted wrinkle to his nose.
"Hey kid!" he called out, trying to grab the attention of the man. "TAO HUA!"
Tao Hua stopped ahead of the group of babblers. Of course, he had already heard the conversation, but paid it no mind. With his name now being screamed…well, that made his urgency all the more obvious, and his situation harder to ignore.
From one side to the other, he tilted his head, with his long black hair lagging. Alas, even in this attempt, he couldn't quite find a way through the fucking mess of blockading people.
Even if he begged and pleaded desperately, they'd just ignore him. So, he had no other choice in this matter. Tao Hua just had to ignore the dawdlers and try to squeeze through the crowd, even if he had to squish himself thin; that was the goal!
Siyue Town had always been a miniature place filled with jaded people. In fact, it was practically the most insignificant town in all of Zhonglai, actually! It sat on the outskirts of a mystical and somewhat haunting forest, making it difficult for unequipped people to travel to and from.
The forest was named Buzhi Forest, and it was famous for its uninviting energy, looming large with ghost and demonic qi.
Therefore, in Tao Hua's humble opinion, this insufferable place of little value was no better than a cage.
A rusty, smelly cage.
In that small town, there really wasn't much else to do. Best put, Siyue Town was uneventful as fuck, so each citizen had to invent new hobbies just to pass the day.
Their favourite hobby? Targeting Tao Hua. Well, in their words, "Putting the Village Idiot in his place." Well, attempting was a better way of looking at it.
Which is what exactly happened next.
Loud snapping filled the air, bouncing off each dull, grey building. The more Tao Hua tried to act like he didn't hear it, the more the snapping would increase.
With each demanding click, Tao Hua hurriedly tried to get past, but there was just no budging this stubborn group of women! So, he huffed a sigh, glancing down at the bricks of the street.
"Here we go…" he quietly muttered, hugging a book close to his chest and protecting it with all his might.
Given his skinny arms, it wasn't much.
"Think he's gone deaf? Should I be louder?" said an old man. "Lemme try—KID!—VILLAGE LETDOWN? MAS—jeesh, how does Master Tao handle him?"
"Master Tao is just happy to have him distracted," said the younger man, now jingling a few coins in his hand. "Spoke to him the other day after his return from the Imperial Capital. Our Lordship said, and I quote, 'He'll be sent off soon.' Pretty sure he just turned of age."
"Huh…wonder what that means," the older man murmured, hovering his finger over his mouth. After a moment, he asked, "Are you sure he's of age?"
"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh." The younger one paused, simply staring a stupid stare at the older man.
"Useless child."
The older man waved his hand in the air once again, calling out to Tao Hua. "Get over here!"
Wrapping his arms tightly around the book, Tao Hua tipped his head back and took one last longing stare up at the sky.
The peach of his eyes reflected the blue, but his eyes cast a gleam that didn't quite appreciate it.
Sure, it was a beautiful day, but even beauty couldn't be adored with the threat of dark clouds. Tao Hua just watched those few drifting clouds as they lonesomely travelled through the sky.
At least they can leave this shitty place, thought Tao Hua, slowly lowering his head. Oh well.
"Come on, child, I know you can hear me!" said the man once more.
Side-glancing, Tao Hua hesitated before replacing that gloomy look with one of strained delight.
He twirled around and popped back into place, causing his robe to flutter outward and fall like a wandering jellyfish. During his performance, he made sure to focus on one key detail, an important one.
The book he once held to his chest was now hidden behind his back.
"Oh, don't involve him! Master Tao already has enough on his plate. Why add more?" said the woman, setting her basket on the surface of the stall. "He and Gui Chang are already drowning in preparations for the ceremony."
"That's where you have it wrong. I'm helping Master Tao by teaching him how to respect his elders." He reached up his hands, and with one final snap, the merchant yelled, "Get over here! Open your ears, kid!"
…I really don't want to beee hereeee.
Though the gritting of his teeth, Tao Hua faked a smile and asked, "Yes, Elder Sir? Is something wrong?"
"You'll find out as soon as you use those scrawny legs of yours. Can't you listen?" mocked the old man. He cupped his hands over his mouth and hollered, "Get over here!!"
Tao Hua rocked to and fro, trying to keep up the act of tolerance. "Oh no, I like it here, Elder Sir. It's nice and warm."
"Eh, whatever. Answer me this, kid—did you just turn twenty?" The old man momentarily turned to the younger one. "That's what you said, right? He just turned of age?"
Not wanting to get involved, the younger one looked away and shrugged his shoulders. Instead, he turned back to the woman, filling up her basket with…well, whatever the fuck that stuff was.
Gradually side-stepping, he answered, "Yup! Sure did! A few weeks ago!"
"Then it's time to start acting it. Do your father a favour and go make a name for yourself—instead of just sitting in his estate all day, reading those useless things. It's no wonder your father hates you."
His shoulders deflated at the state of his now weakened smile. Instead of facing the merchant, Tao Hua hesitated and filled the silence by tracing the grout of each brick, and only when he was ready, he'd quietly reply, "I…I guess he'll just have to deal with it."
Of course, this was enough to aggravate the older man and draw in more attention that Tao Hua wanted. So, to handle it, he just endured each berating insult and drifted off into another world.
This was a fortress Tao Hua had built around the scrutiny, even if it wasn't all that well-built and often fractured. But during his time hidden behind the cracking walls, he'd travel off to worlds imagined—worlds that were stuck in a town of clockwork personalities.
…that couldn't even fucking tell the time.
Tao Hua was snapped back to reality at the scream of the older man. The wrinkly hand flung into the air and declared, "Go on—you're already taking up too much room."
Ah! Now that was worth coming back to! Tao Hua took that opportunity with little grace.
"It was nice talking to you, Elder sir! Good luck with your rolls…? and stuff."
Another twirled, and Tao Hua was off once more! He didn't offer the merchant or gawkers a final reaction; he just bolted down that busy street.
In fact, he really didn't care!
Kind of.
Tao Hua long accepted that maybe these villagers had a point. In every situation, there was always a common denominator.
Which meant only one thing.
Tao Hua was the common denominator, and thus deserved every snarky insult or complaint thrown his way.
It wasn't always that way, though. As a teenager, the berating actually peeved him, and he'd typically respond with indignation—the type that had one shove their fists to their side and over-explain. The truth? No one wanted an explanation. Tao Hua quickly understood this as he matured, and stopped feeding into the insults, lest he wished to egg them on more.
In fact, he accepted that he was different. Stories often embraced different; celebrated, even. This was Tao Hua's saving grace and the first step in his survivalist's pamphlet on detachment.
To escape these harsh realities, he'd travel elsewhere in prose, and each night, he'd live out every story in his mind.
This acceptance was best expressed through Tao Hua's way of coping: If the people of this town didn't want him, then some book tossed aside did.
Books crafted worlds where people actually cared about him…even if it was imaginative. He could be the prince and run into a beautiful princess. One who'd love him unconditionally and not label love under transaction.
How nice it felt, creating characters in his mind who wanted to be around Tao Hua. It was a dreadfully comforting thought. But even that heartwarming thought would be cut short with the abrupt interruption of "not paying attention."
With a slam, his book bounced onto the ground.
"Oof!"
Chapter end.
Art Note
I've been trying to figure out how to put art in the chapters since I'm so new to Webnovel. It'll have to be in the comments, which I'm not a fan of doing but I'll concede.