Long long chapter (6,000 words) so this might take you a while XD

The Princes Of China And Canada

Taoris's Story
Area: China
Year: 3006 - 3013

Sheepishly standing before a substantial throne, a servant to the realm addressed his emperor. He bore news of both a positive and negative nature and was feeling all the more nervous about it.  “We did it.” he told, eyes shifting from side to side “We got her back you’re highness, yet it seems she has ‘baggage’”
The man sat on the throne scoffed as he looked upon his subject. “What do you mean, ‘baggage’? Just… just Send her in!” 

And just like that, the Chinese emperor summoned his, once, daughter in law into his throne room.  Little did he know, she had birthed a child by the man she ran away from his grandson with, and that Child would reap havoc in his life.  Indirectly lighting the natural order of the empire and its future inheritor up in flames.

“Ah~ sweet Daoming.” The man purred as he got onto his rickety old feet. “You didn’t think you could escape from us ever, did you?” he asked as he laid eyes on her, not yet seeing the child that held on at her side.
Daoming, however, was less than happy to see him and regretted the day she was stolen from her foreign paradise. “You evil, evil man, LET ME GO!” She protested avidly.
“Well seeing as you’re still married to my grandson I see it as my duty to have you finally returned, returned from that heathen who took you!”
The young girl couldn’t believe the leader’s stupidity and could only shake her head as she stood firmly in the vast room. “HE DIDN’T TAKE ME, I LOVED HIM, I LEFT ON MY OWN WILL!” She spat, tears falling from her dark eye, her child merely cowering in the protection of her shadow.
“Well, he’s been taken care of now.” The emperor mentioned matter-of-factly before finally spotting the boy. “And who is this!?” he questioned as he rose from his throne, finally seeing the boy accompanying her.

“This… This is my child.” Daoming answered proudly but still holding him close. “He belongs to the Canadian Prince and I, he is set to inherit the throne.” She then knew she had said too much and immediately regretted opening .
“Hummm~ I see.” The old man responded extremely calmly, much to Daoming’s surprise. “Show yourself, boy! What is your name?”
The child bowed respectively, as his mother had taught. “My name is Kris Wu.” He answered before his mother nudged him, reminding him of what she had said before, “Uh, I mean Wu Yifan, I’m 7 years old.”
The emperor nodded and smiled slightly, a smile that gave Kris chills. “You will make a fine leader one day, I can see it already.”
“Thank you, Duizhang.” The young boy answered warily, this was the same man that warranted his father’s death; he wasn’t to be trusted.

“Haifeng, would you please take Yifan to his quarters, he must be starving.” The old man ordered one of his men and Kris was taken by the arm.
“M-Mum, I don’t want to leave you…” He said with worry in his dark orbs.
“It’s okay sweetie, I will see you in a while.” She smiled kindly, but her words were lies, as that was the last time Kris ever saw his mother face to face.

***

It only became apparent to the immigrant that his mother was no longer with him when he spotted her being marched out, in front of a crowd, a few days later. The young boy was sat on his window sill seat, worn out from the fuss he had being kicking up upon wanting to see his mum.  She was stood up again a wall as the cheers from the crowd slowly silenced. Kris, being a naïve kid, opened his window and tried to shout her, but it was no use, his fragile, ignorant mind had no idea what would happen next.

A man read out a few words that were incoherent from the height Kris was watching at when he stopped another man with a gun took position. Those few seconds seemed to stretch out into painful minutes as the realisation hit at once, pure terror painted on the Canadian’s young features.
Soon enough a clean bullet was fired into Daoming’s skull.
Kris’s whole world broke down as he screamed in pain. His maid rushed into the room to see him sitting on the floor, screaming and blaspheming to his heart’s content.  She wasn’t aware that he could see the execution from his window, yet she knew it was going on, and was, quite frankly, relieved that she wouldn’t have to break the news to the young boy. She walked over to where he had collapsed on the ground and grabbed his arm harshly. She wasn’t a nice woman in the slightest and had no time for the child’s mourning.
“Stop that, or you’ll be next.” She threatened coldly leaving Kris gob-smacked.
“WHY AREN’T I NEXT ANYWAY?” He screamed at the witch, his eyes leaking endless amount of tears.
“Because.” She scowled, “The Emperor has much more extensive plans for you, my exotic prince.”

>>><><<<

Over the next few years, Kris was treated like royalty, well sort of, he still had to deal with his evil maid, Mailin her name was. But apart from that and his lack of parents, life was much the same as before. He wanted for nothing and was lusted upon by all of the emperor’s grandchildren.

Nothing really changed for Kris until he was invited to a certain 7th birthday party.  He assumed he would just sit in the corner and eat cake as being a grown up 9-year-old boy, he didn’t see what he would want with a bunch of kids. It was nice, though, sort of. It was obvious that a lot of money had been thrown at the event, and Kris knew that the birthday boy must have been ecstatic! That was until said boy decided to join him in his sulk.

“Huh~” the child gave out an exasperated sigh, looking at Kris inquisitively. It was obvious that the younger found the eldest child at the party the most interesting.
“… um… can I help you?” Kris asked as he chomped on a celery stick.
“No.” the boy replied confusingly as he folded his little arms across his chest. “Not unless you know how to break out of this stupid party.”
Kris didn’t know what a boy like this was doing complaining; he had everything! He had a family, a stable home and riches well conveyed by his yellow hair and golden earrings. Still, Kris would come to learn that this boy would never be happy with his lot.
“Ah, you want out too?” Kris asked smiling a bit because he had never had a friend before, maybe now would be the time.
“Yeah, it’s lame.”
“So lame.”
“Yeah… lame.”
“Well.” Kris started. “we could just, ya know, leg it?”

He clumsily got up from the floor waiting for the boy to follow before scaling the wall, like a spy. While the maid was busy with the other children, Kris made his way over to the grand door, discreetly, as the younger boy followed. Suddenly, they both dashed through the opening and continued running frantically until they were out of the building and in the courtyard, way out of sight.

They both panted as they took a seat on the plush grass.

“I’ve never seen you around here before,” Kris stated in an attempt to prompt some information from the boy.
“My father likes to keep me up in my quarters.” The younger admitted quite sadly, “He’s going to inherit the throne you know and after him so will I!” The child boasted forcing a role of Kris’s eyes.
“Ah, this explains it,” Kris said in a very grown-up tone, referencing Zitao’s earrings, much to the child’s distaste. “You must be the prince, Zitao isn’t it?” He asked smiling as to ease Zitao into liking him; it could be useful.
“Tao, Prince Huang Zitao of China,” Tao said very surly. “And who are you?”
“Prince Wu Yifan of Canada,” Kris said, imitating Tao’s former tone causing the latter to giggle.
“I like you Wu Yifan; you don’t -foot around me like all the other kids, you’re your own person, that’s good.” The younger smiled in a way that melted Kris’s heart, he was cute.
“Please, call me Kris.”

>>><<<<

Tao and Kris were great friends from there on in, they would eat together, play together even have sleepovers when Tao’s mum would allow it. By the time Kris was 11 and Tao had reached 9 they were so close that they were referred to as brothers as Kris had practically moved into Tao’s family quarters and ditched his lonely room. Tao’s mother treated him as her own and watched over the boys as they grew ever closer; Kris was a saint in her eyes, always looking after her darling Zitao and because of this tight friendship Tao’s mother never thought it possible for her baby to get in trouble.

Because Kris was almost 3 years older than Tao, the younger was given a lot of leeway for his age. He was allowed to swim in the deep part of the river- with Kris, stay out until 8 pm- with Kris and even allowed to leave the castle- with Kris. In short, this meant that Kris was 100% liable if anything happened to Tao. Thus, he protected the younger with his life and, in turn, Tao worshipped him.

When the two left the castle they always went to the same place, the docks, they liked to watch the large groups of people boarding the boats and sailing off to god knows where. For reasons that were unknown to Tao these people weren’t like him, they wore ripped brown clothes unlike to his golden or silver robes, their ears were plain not decorated with valuable metals like his and Kris’, and their skin was dirty and scarred. Prince Tao had never left Qingdao in his life; he had no idea of the horror these civilians were escaping.

“Kris gege, why are they all so sad?” Tao suddenly inquired one day, taking the, now, 12-year-old Kris by surprise. “Is it because they’re leaving… why are they leaving?”

Kris wanted to explain that China, much like Korea was in the middle of civil war, the poor were rebelling against the rich, and the monarchy was doing its best to ship out prisoners convicted of treason as to stop their ideologies spreading. Well, that’s what Kris had heard being discussed by the adults anyway, as well as something about Mongolia, but he hadn’t quite picked up on that scenario yet. 
“They’re bad people Taozi, they are sad because they’re bad people.” Kris hated himself for what he said, but it was better that admitting he also wanted to revolt and getting ripped away from the most precious thing in his life. 
Tao stayed quiet for a while before jumping down from the wall they sat on to watch. “Gege, I think we should go.”

Kris agreed, the two had been watching the people get banished for the whole summer, but suddenly it felt wrong, as he was about to join Tao on the ground a sign caught his eye.

‘Prisoners 5,400-5,899 to Canada.'

This made Kris aware of the other signs on the other boats.

‘prisoners 5,900-6,199 to Canada.'
‘prisoners 6,200-6,499 to Canada.'
‘prisoners 6,500-6,799 to Canada.'

His eyes grew big with anticipation, Canada? Home? Maybe he could get to his grandparents, his cousins, his only real family. Kris would be lying if he said he never thought about them, in fact, he even dreamt about being back in Canada with them, so it would be foolish just to pass this opportunity.

“Come on Gege.”

‘Ah, Taozi.’

Kris couldn’t stop thinking about all the boats leaving to his homeland from a dock not a mile away from his house. He wanted to go back ever so much but every time he thought he had made his mind up - made his mind up about running away- little Taozi would waddle into his room being extra cute as if on cue. This happened for many months, right up until Kris’s 13th birthday, in fact.

On the morning of Kris’s 13th, the emperor personally came to his room and woke him from his blissful sleep.
“Yifan Wake up, I have something to discuss with you.”  He said as the young boy stirred.

This was very strange for Kris as the emperor had never visited on his other birthdays, what was different about this one? Also… Kris slept so this was extremely awkward, and it was obvious the old man noticed because he literally couldn’t not have done but he continued none the less:
“Now that you’re 13 you need to find a partner, by your age I was married and had a baby on the way.”
Kris’s eyes shot open. He couldn’t possibly get married or have children… he wasn’t even really sure how one did ‘have children’. He knew it had something to do with the white stuff that came out of his when he touched it too much, and he knew that there had to be a girl involved, but that was about it. This would not end well.
“Lucky for you, you won’t have to sit through loads of meetings and attend tedious balls; I know that’s not your style,” The Emperor said as if he was doing Kris a favour.
“umm~… I guess.”  He answered shyly as he got out of bed to find some clothes.
“Well, I have you a wife right here, Taoyin, come on in.” He called towards the door, and a young girl entered. But Kris already knew this girl… she was Tao’s older sister, a year younger than Kris.

“Hello, Kris.” She said in her light, dainty voice also overlooking the fact that her future husband was sat 100% .
“what the hell! I'm freaking . Don’t look!” he squealed at the presence of a lady and jumped back under the covers.
The old man laughed. “she’ll be seeing you when you've married anyway,