Billion to One

Promises Made

That was the last summer Cóng Bō would spend at his uncle's stand.

His older brother, Cóng Jīnjiàng, landed a job with Dragon City Bank and determined to put their humble beginnings behind them, moved his siblings to a different part of the city and to a different way of life.

That same year, Cóng Bō's uncle left, placing the stand and storefront into the care of a distant cousin Niè Lǎng. The elder's goal was to retire to his ancestral home in Wújí, a quaint county with a long history of cultivation in the Hebei Province. Yet he managed to remain a part of Cóng Bo's life.

Sāng shū continued to be there for the important events; high school graduation, then college, and his first Golden Rooster nod for an expose on Sāng shū's hometown. Cong Bo got the idea for the piece from the stories his uncle told him as a child.

The piece shed light on the seemingly negative cultural changes that took the regions commerce as it evolved from meat and butchery to cultivation and military warfare, then blossomed on calligraphy and music. The catalyst was an abandoned child who rose to fame, becoming Chief Cultivator and ruling briefly during the Jin Dynasty.

Legend stated that he had deep dimples and an innocent smile that never faltered as he manipulated the courts, tortured then murdered an entire generation of heirs, including his own child, on his way to the top.

Known as the Cultured Pearl, the man was the bastard child of a rapist war lord and a self-educated woman trafficked into the region as a young girl and forced into prostitution. Determined to rise above his traumatic beginnings and make even the decedents of those who had wronged his mother pay, the Cultured Pearl ruled with dual iron fists.

And his dual fists, swayed from one extreme to another.

He expanded the reach of the cultivators in his region and beyond, increasing the safety of the citizens. Yet he smote those that fought his progressive vision and tortured those who stood against him because of his lineage.

He tortured many for their political ties, their opposition, or even just for a snide remark made in confidence to a loyalist. At night their screams could be heard for miles from the dungeons beneath his private chambers.

And finally, he used his silver tongue to negotiate impossible deals and treaties between clans warring for centuries. Although it was said, that like his mother, his tongue worked wonders with and without the use of the spoken word.

Several historical texts noted his alternative tastes but more obscurely, his leporiphobia. In fact, both were so well known that the bound mermaid became the symbol of deviant pleasure chambers that cropped up around the region and the bunny became the symbol of his enemies. Both were often placed outside the doors of safe havens for people fleeing from social constraint or the sect leader's wrath.

Some of this was part of the story that Cóng Bō did not find out until he was much older. While doing his own research, he came across some old Niè family journals written by his uncle's namesake, Niè Huáisāng. While his uncle was not a prude, he found it hard to imagine the man being able to read some of the things written by his predecessor without hiding behind his fan.

Cóng Bō stared at the family of bunnies on the lantern hanging outside the door of his uncle's shop. It was newer than the one he remembered from his last visit, but the scene was similar to those from his childhood. The differences were this new one was trimmed with gold foil and along with the bunny family, there was also a canary perched on a branch of Mulberry, in the scene. It was almost identical to the image on one of Sāng shū's metal fans.